February 08, 2009
Happy 6th birthday
It’s been 6 years since I started grow-a-brain. It was one of the very first real estate blogs ever, and is probably the oldest one still alive. Of course, most of it has nothing to do with real estate.
Until recently, I posted here every day, usually with multiple posts & with many dozens of links. Blogging quickly became addictive to me, and I just couldn’t bring myself to stop, or even to slow down. But like other obsessions, you can only replace it when another substitution comes along. As expected, I’m doing other things now. So this blog may continue to slide down, until it fades away...
Six years of archive posts can be seen here
February 8, 2009 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack
September 28, 2008
Suspension of disbelief
I have decided to suspend any blogging activities on grow-a-brain until further notice so that I can adequately ponder the implications of the economic bailout program...
- - - - - - - -
October 9 Update: So did Marc Ambinder...
Meanwhile you can visit more than five years of archive posts here
September 28, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBack
May 21, 2008
No time to blog today
I’m too busy right now.
You can visit more than five years of archive posts here
May 21, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
April 27, 2008
The latest Blog of the Day
The Art of the Title Sequence is the latest Blog of the Day here. Gorgeous movie title sequences - Visit it & you'll understand why
Related Site News Here
April 27, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 01, 2008
No comments
Do not leave comments on this post. Thank you.
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April 1, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack
March 13, 2008
All the images on the blog!
How wonderful! Thanks to J-Walk, I finally learnt how to scroll thru all 10,400 some 915 of the many images I posted on grow-a-brain through the years, without having to go through the archives. Click on any to biggify
All Previous Site News Here
March 13, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
February 29, 2008
Worth spreading -
Every blog has some corners where independent lives develop. Sometimes readers take over posts, and build them into unusual, unpredictable creatures.
Grow-a-brain being simply a link blog generates only few comments & very seldom any heated debate. 3 years ago I posted a link to the Indian movie star Aishwarya Rai that called her “The world's most beautiful woman”, and that post (with over 150 comments) keeps bringing fans & foes to argue over this point.
Another post that mentioned Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest man brought dozens of indigent people in financial difficulties to request donations from “humble” Buffett to complete their MBA studies, for operations, or just to survive.
The most recent spat occurred in a post that mentioned a guy named Stevan Thomas Radakovich, who restores vintage stoves. Apparently, his restoration work used to be fabulous, when he was featured in this Los Angeles Times story, and his stoves were used & credited on The Food Channel’s Rachael Ray productions, etc.
But by the time I linked to his beautiful website here (The site had since been taken down), things were not going so well, and it seems that there were many customers of his, who ordered & paid for these expensive vintage stoves, and never received them.
So they formed a posse & started using that blog post as a chatroom, gathering information among themselves, forming a community to seek restitution & exposure to their losses.
It’s an interesting read. It involves the Kansas Attorney General, the Wichita BBB, the local paper, and more. I just read it like everybody else. Scroll down to read over 100 250 angry comments there.
Related Site News Here
February 29, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 12, 2008
From the Email File
"Mr. Brain;
I've not been able to send email since I saw your announcement about possibly shutting down the Grow site. I earnestly appeal to your deepest medical sensibilities not to shut down. I began growing a brain a couple of years ago after discovering your site, but my brain is not yet fully grown. It's still growing. Indeed, considerable bulk yet remains to grow before I have a complete and fully developed brain. To this end I make repeated visits to your site where I am able to add incremental amounts of tissue. I sincerely look forward to the day when I shall have a fully functioning brain like those people so often represented on your site.
Let's see, what can you do? Well I suppose you've investigated Google Ads, no? Some sites make serious money with that feature, especially ones with traffic in the numbers that you report. Serious money is eminently more useful than comedic money and would redound to your great benefit.
Regretfully, I am in the thrall of penury and would not be able to shoulder the burden of a monthly subscription. But then my brain has not completely grown in yet, now has it? Until that happens gainful employment presents an elusive goal for me and I'm often the recipient of vile maledictions from potential employers as a result. ("If you had half a fucking brain in your head . . ." That kind of thing.)
Anyway, just a note to let you know that your taste in Internet fare is widely savored and that I hope you will consider perpetuating the Grow site.
Regards,
HR"
Related Site News Here
January 12, 2008 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 09, 2008
More about the site
Hello again,
Just a short note regarding the hundreds of emails that I received from Grow-a-brain readers in the last few days, including from many web-friends that I’ve known for years. I am really grateful for all your writings & the sentiments expressed. I will respond to them soon (Maybe over the weekend when my girl is at work…) Thank you all again, it’s very touching to feel appreciated.
Previous Site News Here
January 9, 2008 in A new Direction, Website News | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 08, 2008
The future of ‘Grow
Hello everybody,
I am truly touched by the many emails I received & the wonderful comments left here in the last 24 hours. I know that many appreciate my “work”, but I just don’t get to hear it often enough. Anyway, this is not the main reason why I’ve been thinking about quitting.
I really enjoy the process of blogging (Which for me consists of spending hours every day on the intertubes & simply editing undiscovered gems into small combos). If I could live doing just that, I would be a perfectly happy guy. But things change & I’ve always embraced changes.
I don’t know yet what to do with this site; I hate to erase it "Just because" (Even though it will be the Nietschean thing to do), but I feel that it needs an upgrade, or a downgrade. Or maybe a sidegrade. I am open to any suggestions, radical or not, from anybody who wants to contribute anything.
One of the readers commented that I should “monetize” the site, and this may be an incentive to continue. But really, can blogs make (real) money? If you have a concept of how to do it, please email me to discuss.
I was toying with the idea of building an adult version of this site, for members only & supported by monthly subscriptions. I could provide the same type of amazing, unusual links to Triple-X, sexually-explicit wonders. Grow-a-brain has always been PG-14, but I know of extraordinary adult things. Would you buy into something like that? And how much will you be willing to pay for the privilege? Would you pay $5 a month for a similarly-interesting “grow-a-dick”? Would you pay $25/month? If I can get 2,000 readers (The average daily number on Grow-a-brain is 15,000-20,000) to pay $10/month, I will do it.
For some reason, I have not been posting much about my real estate business here. Why? I don’t know. If I am to continue blogging, I will use it much more to promote my business, expose my listings & look for business opportunities with other investors. I really have not used the popularity of this site at all to do that.
For now, here on the side, is the main reason why I want to spend less time on the internet -
Anyway, as of now I’m not sure what to do. As I wrote yesterday, I have about 20 days of pre-composed posts which will come online every midnight, and then we’ll see. Please let me know of any proposals that may work.
I leave you with -
Previous Site News Here
January 8, 2008 in A new Direction, Website News | Permalink | Comments (42) | TrackBack
No more ‘Grow?
This weekend, Grow-a-brain passed the 12 million hits mark, according to its stats counter. Since February of 2003 I’ve been consistently posting to it every single day, searching & sharing many thousands of links with a large, but mostly anonymous audience.
Unfortunately I've been thinking of shutting this blog down. I get the empty feeling that fewer visitors stop here, and that nobody cares about me & my “discoveries” any more.
I still have about 5 pages of links that will be published automatically in the next few weeks. Unless something changes, I’ll be going back soon into the great void where I came from.
You didn’t expect that, did you?
Here what people were saying about Grow-a-Brain through the years
January 8, 2008 in A new Direction, Website News | Permalink | Comments (153) | TrackBack
June 04, 2007
Still sick...
Thanks to all the well-wishers. I hope to be able to get back to normal soon.
June 4, 2007 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 03, 2007
I’m sick today
No blogging until I feel better. Sorry.
June 3, 2007 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBack
May 09, 2007
8,000,000 strong
Type your name to see it in lights
From “Grit in the Gears” – The Blog Archipelago Revisited
“… The real estate Blogfather…(?)”
…”Growabrain, Everyone's favorite random links blog”… From “Where”
Thanks for all readers! Here are tonight’s statistics:
Total number of hits: 8,014,835
Average per day: 6,740.28
Last seven days: 92,294
Today since midnight GMT: 18,287
/// Fark it /// Here what people were saying about Grow-a-Brain Since February 2003
May 9, 2007 in Website News | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 18, 2007
1492-2006
In the last 4 years I've come to collect many unique stories about this country in the Americana collection, and still I find myself getting more & more interested in the history of this place. Now I want to start a new hub of interesting links specifically about American History.
To make it different, I’d like to create this collection as a reader-submitted project. So, if you know of some special websites that cover any period or asset of the history of the Americans, please email them to me (realhanan at yahoo dot com). It may be only one site or many, with or without any comments. Let’s see what you can come up with.
Please let me know if & how you want to be credited. If you have a website or a blog, I’ll acknowledge you with a link-back.
/// Reddit it /// Add it to your del.icio.us /// Previous Site News Here
March 18, 2007 in American History, Website News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack