Linda Roeder's Blog
Posted by Linda Roeder
I've been selling on eBay for years. I even tried selling books one summer. I'd go out to yard sales and buy up the types of books that sell well. Then I'd take them home and list them all on eBay. Made a few bucks doing it too. The trick was knowing which books would go for real money and which wouldn't.
I buy things from eBay all the time, all kinds of things. I've gotten pretty good at finding bargains on eBay. I've bought electronics, clothes, books, music and many other things from eBay. I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a bad experience with anything I've bought online.
Selling on eBay is a fun way to sell things. The downside is that you have to get to the post office and get the item shipped right away if you want to keep your user feedback up. This is important to me, my user feedback is 100% and I'd like to keep it that way.
There are some things you need to know before you start selling on eBay though. eBay has some rules and several different ways to sell items. You need to know what they are, what they mean, and how to use these rules to your advantage.
If you want to learn to sell on eBay, here's your chance. This short tutorial will teach you how you to can take all the items you want to get rid of and sell them on eBay. If you're a newbie to eBay you may want to start with my intro to eBay first.
Posted by Linda Roeder
I get tons of questions about how to add photos to MySpace, so I thought I would write up this short guide about how you can add your photos to your MySpace profile. Not only to your profile though, also to your MySpace blog and when you send comments to your friends.
Photos are a great thing. You've heard the saying, "One photo is worth a thousand words". It's true. Especially on the Net. People love to see photos. They want to know who they're reading about. They want to know all about that person's life. Some people won't even look at a blog, or other personal Web page, unless it has photos.
On MySpace photos are even more important. MySpace is for socializing and meeting people. Would you want to meet a person in real life, but not be able to see what they look like. You'd think there was something wrong with them. After all why would they hide their face if they're not on the most wanted list or something?
If you're serious about meeting people online then you need to add photos. Add photos to your MySpace profile, add photos to your blog entries and occasionally add photos to your MySpace comments. Adding MySpace photos will make you seem more like a real person and also make you seem friendly, like someone I want to get to know.
With this tutorial you can add MySpace photos to your MySpace profile, your MySpace blog and even when you send comments to your friends. It only takes a couple minutes to learn and to add.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Uploading this news screensaver to my computer, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked and how easy it is to use. The backgrounds are beautiful and the text is clear and easy to use. So I quickly added my own RSS feeds to see how it worked. Adding the feeds was surprisingly easy too.
Once I had some of my favorite news and blog feeds entered into the screensaver I set the screensaver to go off in one minute so I could read my feeds. Setting up the feeds was easy too. Just a matter of copy and paste. You can add any news feed or blog feed you want to this screensaver.
The screensaver has beautiful backgrounds with scenes from nature like waterfalls and sunsets. At the top right of the screen are the news feeds for you to read. There's a few lines from each feed. They change about every 30 seconds or so. The title is bigger so you can see what the feed is about before you read it. On the bottom left of the screen you'll see some other titles. These are the next few feeds that you'll read.
As I walk past my computer, doing daily tasks, I can look over and read something from one of my news or blog feeds. Each time I walk past something new is showing. If I just want to sit and relax I can grab a cup of tea and just sit reading the screensaver.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Internet Explorer calls them favorites. Netscape, Mozilla and Firefox call them bookmarks. Either way, they are the Web sites that you like and want to save for later. They are the things you like to do online. Make it easier for you to find them when you need them.
Save time by keeping your favorites and bookmarks neatly files away for use later. When you're folders are organized you're able to surf the Net more efficiently, saving time that you could use to engage in more rewarding pursuits. The days are way to short to be wasting time trying to find a Web site you've already found, and then didn't file away.
My life is way to hectic to be looking for Web pages I know I saved, somewhere. That's why I organize them right from the start. If I find a Web page that I'm going to want to look at again sometime, I file it away right away. I create folders and sub-folders and everything goes into something.
If you want to save time in your busy life, you should consider reading through these organizing tips so you can learn to file away all your favorite Web pages too. Both of these tutorials are very simple and only take a few minutes.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Internet slang has been around as long as there have been a way to chat, and that's a long time. I remember many years ago, when I first started on the Net, having to learn some of the most common Internet slang. I participated in message board and chat rooms a lot back then. I even hosted a few.
Social networking sites, and blogs as we know them, weren't around yet. There were personal Web sites, but if you wanted to meet people, that's not where you did it. You want to the message boards and the chat rooms. First you chose a site about something you were interested and then you joined their chat rooms and chatted with other people with the same interests.
Even back then people were using Internet slang to save time while they were typing. Chat room windows were often small, so if you wanted to fit everything in, and not have the chat move so fast you can't read it all, then you used Internet slang to shorten the reading time.
Internet slang makes swearing at people fun. It's also very useful when trying to add a tone to your voice or an emotion to your sentences. There are a lot of Internet slang terms, more are created all the time. Some are specific only to chat, or forums, or email, or text messaging. Some can be used in any Internet medium. Learn your Internet slang so you'll look more intelligent next time you chat.
Posted by Linda Roeder
MapQuest was one of the very first sites I ever visited on the Internet. I'm one of those people who is always looking for a better route, a better way to get where I'm going. Now that my son rides his bike everywhere he goes I'm always looking for a better route, a safer route, for him to take.
Maps make our lives better in so many ways. I don't know about you, but I don't like getting lost. I also don't like asking for directions, and won't if I can help it. I like maps, always have.
When I was a child I was always in charge of the map whenever we went on a trip. I would plot our route constantly so we could see where we had been. I would help with directions when my parents needed help. I can even fold a map.
Now, whenever I go on a trip I go to Google Maps and print out directions and several maps to go with the directions. I like being prepared. Too many maps is better than not enough. I print maps of areas I don't know along the way or areas where there are a lot of turns.
Online maps are so easy to use that you can get a complete set of directions and a highlighted map in less than 5 minutes. Just fill in the to and from address and you're on your way. Find out how you can print out your own online maps and directions.
Posted by Linda Roeder
As far as wikis, I have personally been using Wikispaces for several years now. I started a site where people can come and add bike routes all around the U.S. Anyone with a good, tested bike route can come and post it there. Then other people can come find the bike routes and use them. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that people can add to and update at will.
Anyone can start a wiki and you can start yours about anything. Then you can invite your friends or group members to come help you update your wiki and add to it. Some wikis are fully customizable. That means you can change the colors, fonts and overall look of your wiki.
You can make your wiki fully public which means anyone that comes across your wiki can make changes to it and add to it. Or you can make it members only. This means that only people you add to the members list will be able to make changes to and add to your wiki. Some will also let you make them totally private so that only members can even see your wiki, but this is usually at an extra cost.
Try out your own wiki. Then come back here and tell me what you think about it. After you create your own wiki you can come back here and post a link to it in the Internet forum .
Posted by Linda Roeder
I downloaded Google Earth so I could tell you about it. Then I became entranced with it for a couple hours before I realized what I was doing. Google Earth had me hooked. I traveled all the way around the world without having to take a single plane, train, or ship. I saw things from a different perspective than I'd ever seen them before.
I love to watch shows about different places and different cultures around the world. I love to see exciting and far away places that I'll probably never get to see for real. Google Earth lets me open up to the world. I visited the Pyramids of Egypt, the Canals of Venice, China, Paris, Japan. With Google Earth you can fly over the oceans and visit the islands around the world if you want.
I tried to find places near me. Many were blurry though. I thing Google Earth uses more detail on more popular places and doesn't try as hard with smaller places. I especially wanted to see the velodrome where my son competes and the velodrome where he will be going in July for Nationals. But no luck.
Google Earth could also be used to help you find directions to somewhere if you were going to travel. It is a big map after all. Time for you to go on a trip around the world right from your house. Download Google Earth and start your adventure now.
Posted by Linda Roeder
I use RouteSlip.com all the time. With RouteSlip.com I can plan small, easy bike rides for me and I can also create longer, harder bike rides for my son, who is a bike racer by the way. He's is always going on bike rides either for training purposes or on recover rides after hard races. He gets bored easy so RouteSlip.com gives him the chance to find new routes to take.
Some of the other cyclists that he rides with told me about RouteSlip.com and I have been using it ever since. They use it all the time too. While I was looking for rides to add to my RouteSlip.com favorites list I came across a few of their RouteSlip.com member pages and added them to my PaceLine. Now their routes will show up on my RouteSlip.com favorites page along with other routes that I found and some that I created myself.
RouteSlip.com can be used to create routes for more than just cyclists. If you like jogging, if you like to go on long walks or long hikes or if you would just like to plan a trip then you can use RouteSlip.com.
You need to sign up with RouteSlip.com to create you own routes or to add routes to your favorites page. Once you sign up with RouteSlip.com you can start searching for routes that others have created and adding them to your favorites list. You can also start creating your own RouteSlip.com routes and sharing them with other people.
Find our more about RouteSlip.com and how you can find and create your own route slips.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Out of the six social bookmarking sites I reviewed this week I'd have to say that my favorite is Stumble Upon. They are a little different than the others in that you don't have to go to their Web site to browse the sites they have linked on their network. Just add the toolbar and start stumbling. I added the toolbar to my Firefox browser and started stumbling. I stumbled across some really fun and fascinating Web sites.
All of the social bookmarking sites I reviewed are really good though. I use them mostly to promote my articles and Web sites. But there are so many other reasons to use them. You can use social bookmarking sites to just keep a list of all the Web sites you like. Another reason would be to find interesting Web sites or be part of an online group.
I like Furl because they offer a way for you to categorize all the Web site links you add. This makes it easier for you to find what you're looking for later when you need it. You get a link you can use to add your favorite sites with Furl too.
You also get a link to add your favorite sites with Reddit and Slashdot. Del.icio.us has you download either a toolbar or some buttons.
Digg only lets you add links to technology, news, gaming, entertainment sites and other sites like that. No family sites or fun sites here.
Find out why you should try social bookmarking.
Posted by Linda Roeder
With my son's birthday coming up and my own birthday in a couple weeks this seemed like the perfect Web site for me to write about. No, I'm not going to tell you how old I'll be. This Web site is brand new and they need you to sign up to keep them in business.
I just signed up today. I also signed up my son. I'm hoping to get some free gifts from merchants in the mail. The service also will let you send a birthday greeting and free gifts to someone else. Find out more about how you can receive free gifts from merchants for your birthday too.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Free to use and very useful, i-Lighter is a highlighting tool for the Internet. I like this tool because often times I bookmark a Web page that I want to write an article about. Then I come back to the page later and two things happen. Either I can't remember what was special about the page and what I wanted to write about or the page is gone altogether. Either way I've lost some valuable information.
I also think this tool is going to help me in my personal life. I'm thinking of starting a recipe section with it. I like to bookmark recipes from the Net. I don't want all the recipes on the page, just certain ones. With i-Lighter I can save just the ones I want and then categorize them for easy finding later.
My son is always writing term papers. I told him this would be a good tool for him to use to save information that he finds on the Net while he's researching. He can create his own files, one for each paper and save the information while he's browsing.
I can think of all sorts of uses for i-Lighter.
Posted by Linda Roeder
If you don't recognize it, don't open it. That's my motto. Just the other day one got me. I thought, "This email looks interesting." I opened it and all of a sudden my antivirus software started going crazy. I had clicked on it, that's all I did, opened an email.
I had to close my browser to get the pop ups to stop. My email program is online, I use Gmail. Shutting the browser stopped the script from trying to open. Then when I signed back in I could just delete the email. I also had my McAfee running. If I didn't who knows what would have happened to my computer.
Learn more about how virus', worms, adware and spyware can catch you offguard and how they affect your computer.
Posted by Linda Roeder
When my son goes to a race his coach tells him not to eat within 2 hours of the race, 3 is better. He's also told not to eat any protein before a race, only carbs. No eggs for breakfast, oatmeal instead. No hamburgers for lunch, instead, pasta. Pasta's also good for eating after the race. What you eat after the race is important too.
Nick has discovered both why you shouldn't eat protein before a race and why you shouldn't eat too soon before a race. He also learned why you shouldn't eat too much before a race and also why it's important to remember to eat something, anything at all.
All four scenarios will make you sick. You don't want to feel sick during a race or you will either not have the energy to race or you will have to need to throw up during the race. I've seen this happen to some of the racers. They do it while they're still moving and just keep on racing.
What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat are all very important parts of bike racing.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Jon Sparks, writer for Bicycling at Suite101, has a fascinating article on the mountain bike championships that will be held in September of this year in Scotland. He describes the course in some detail and also goes into what spectators will get out of it. This years mountain bike championships promises to be full of excitement and beauty, and a lot of thrill.
Posted by Linda Roeder
My son can't wait for the day when he doesn't have to use junior gearing anymore. He wants to go faster and harder but feels like he's being held back by the junior gear restrictions. He has a long wait since his racing age is only 14 this year.
He's big for a 13 year old kid, most people think he's 17. Size doesn't matter though what matters is age. His muscles are still not fully developed. These gear restrictions are in place to save kids just like him from seriously injuring their legs. That's why they're there.
Read more about the new junior gear restrictions.
Posted by Linda Roeder
I bought my son a new pair of wheels. It was finally warm enough for him to go out on a bike ride with his group. They all met for the ride and he asked his coach to help him put the tube in the tire. The coach comes over and takes one look at the wheel and says, "You don't have any rim tape, you can't use this wheel."
My son's heart sank. He was really hoping to finally get out on the road after being couped up all winter training indoors. No one had an extra wheel he could use so he couldn't go on the ride.
We learned an important lesson. Just because you bought something for your bike it doesn't mean it's ready to use. We bought the wheels online so we didn't have a sales person to tell us about these things.
Going to a bike shop and buying your bike racing or riding supplies from an experienced rider is the best way to go.
Posted by Linda Roeder
Everytime Nick eats eggs for breakfast or has some milk to drink before a race he gets sick. He can't race if he eats too much and he can't race if he has eggs or milk.
Two laps into today's race he was already sick. He did terrible. He was half a lap behind where usually he's right up in front. He says he felt sick to his stomach. He had oatmeal, an egg, toast and milk 1 1/2 hours before the race.
I'm wondering what the rest of you eat before a race and how far before the race do you eat. Post comments telling how you eat for a race.
Posted by Linda Roeder
If you've ever been to a velodrome to watch a track race you may have noticed how different the keirin is.
The first thing you would have noticed is the motorcycle on the track. You might have wondered why a motorcycle is going to race those bikes. Then you started wondering why those bikes are following that motorcycle around the track. You were really glad when that motorcycle got off the track and let the bikes race.
Next you noticed one of the most exiting things you've ever seen as those bikes sprinted so fast for the finish line you could barely move your neck fast enough to watch them and you sure as heck couldn't tell who won.
That was a keirin race. One of the most popular forms of track racing in the world. Learn more about this exciting race, the keirin.
Posted by Linda Roeder
I received an email from our Junior cycling coordinator a couple weeks ago with an attachment from the founder of Athlete Focus. I was intrigued. A site where Nick could sign up online, post about his accomplishments, connect with other cyclists and maybe even find a sponsor or two.
I contacted Athlete Focus and told him I would help. After all I do have a cycling site here and cycling is one of the included sports on the site. I'm hoping that he can turn Athlete Focus into a really great place for athletes to go online.
Sign up. Support the site. Make suggestions. Together we can make a great place for us to network.
Posted by Linda Roeder
The Discovery Channel, who currently sponsors Team Discovery, is puling their sponsorship of their cycling team, formerly lead by Lance Armstrong. As of 2008 Team Discovery will be no more. Other sponsors may be pulling out too because of some of the doping issues cycling has been dealing with.
The Discovery Channel says they did not pull out because of doping issues. They are pulling out because of a change in management and a restructuring of the company.
This leaves the cyclists on the team looking for another sponsor. They are currently looking at other U.S. companies as potential sponsors.
Posted by Linda Roeder
All summer long I watched as my son raced at the local velodrome. Every month he got faster. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost, but he loved every minute of it.
Track racing is like no other sport. You are out there, just you and your bike, trying to out maneuvere your bike around all the other people on a slanted, oval track that's high on the edge with a bike with no brakes. Thrilling.
This year he'll be trying for junior national champion at the Junior National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Find out more about track racing and where your closest velodrome is.
Posted by Linda Roeder
If you are a bike racer you will need to get your cycling license renewed. If you are in Canada you will have to get your bike racing license in the province that you live in. It doesn't matter where you are from or where you race the most or even what nationality you are, all that matters is where you live.
Each Canadian province has their own licensing procedures and their own cycling association. Where you live determines where you are going to go to sign up for your bike racing license. Make sure you renew your license soon. Racing season is starting soon.
Posted by Linda Roeder
There are different kinds of tires for your bike. Fat with groves and thin without. How is a person supposed to know which kind of tires they need for their bike? It's all so confusing and no one ever told you about bike tires. Your parents bought you a bike and assumed that the tires on them were the right kind of tires for you. Why wouldn't they think this? The bike store or bike manufacturer should have known. So you why should you have to give it a second thought? Right?
Well, unless you told the bike shop owner what you are going to do with the bike how is he supposed to know which tires are right for you. If you bought your bike somewhere other than a bike store than you are stuck with whatever tires the bike comes with.
I found out the hard way that a mountain bike is not good for on the road. When I went on my first road ride with my cycling club I took my mountain bike. My idea was that with the extra gears I would be able to do the hills easier. Boy was I wrong. I found out after the ride that mountain bikes make it harder to get up the hills on a road because of the tires and because the weight of the bike is so much higher than the weight of a road bike.
I struggled for the whole ride. Then I got a different bike. My next ride was much easier and all because I changed to a road bike. Tires do make a big difference to make sure you find out what kind of tires you need and get them.
Posted by Linda Roeder
The Los Angeles World Cup has just ended. This is a big cycling event with dozens of countries participating and this year it was in Los Angeles, California, USA.
One of the big stars of the World Cup this year was Sarah Hammer, coincidentally from California, who took three gold medals during this event. Sarah is the World Champion sprint title holder. During the qualifying rounds of this event she managed to make a new record. Also, François Pervis of France won the kilometer and beat his own personal time at the same time.
Nineteen year old Cameron Meyer takes the gold medal in the men's 30 kilometer points race. This was Cameron's first World Cup race. Last year he won the individual pursuit, Madison, and teams pursuit crowns at the Junior World Champions.
François Pervis of France came through to win the kilometer and beat his own personal time at the same time.
More on the World Cup:
Posted by Linda Roeder
I signed my son up for his bike racing license today. He will race for the Lehigh Wheelmen this year because that is our cycling club. Also, he will only be racing age 14 and is not old enough to race for an official team.
If you're wondering what a racing age is, that's how old he will be at the end of the year. He's 13, won't be 14 until April but as far as cycling is concerned he is 14. One's racing age is how old you will be at the end of the calendar year, December 31, 2007. If you are not going to turn 16 until December 31, 2007 then your racing age for all of 2007 would be 16, not 15.
My son is lucky in that his birthday is pretty early in the year. That puts him in the top of his age group this year. He will be racing in the 13-14 year old group most of the time. Occasionally he will race with the 15-16 year old group for a challenge.
Sometimes he will race in the cat4 category because on his racing license he is a cat4 racer. This means that regardless of age he can still race with the other cat4 racers even if they are adults.
Don't forget to get your bike racing license renewed if you are going to race this year. You can't race without it.
Posted by Linda Roeder
This past year my son came in 9th in track nationals. That's after only training for about 2 months and being in the lower end of his age group, plus this was his first year bike racing. This year he is hoping to come in first place. That's why he's doing winter training.
His new coach is working on his balance, speed and leg strength.Three days a week his workout includes warm up, stretching, a series of strength training exercises and cool down. He doesn't use weights much, most of the exercises are based on his own body weight.
The other three days a week he does spinning with the group or they go for a bike ride, depending on the weather. They average about 20+ miles per hour on these bike rides and are gone for hours at a time. The spinning classes are about one to one and a half hours long.
He's really learning a lot and getting stronger all the time. When the weather gets warmer they will work on racing techniques more both on the road and on the track.
Junior Track Nationals is far away from us this year. We are in Pennsylvania and Nationals will be in Colorado. Getting him there will be hard but once he's there I'm confident that he'll succeed.