A Little Blog Maintenance

I have been doing a little fiddling with the blog, mostly in the far right column.

• I have added a bunch of new blogs I have been meaning to add, including Camera Trap Codger, Prairie Ice, Dog-li-ness, Game Camera Photo Log, Shot-on-Site, EveryDogsBlog, A D.C. Birding Blog, Itchmo, Othmar Vohringer, Natural Patriot, Rigor Vitae, High Country News, 2Blowhards, Working Dogs for Conservation, Art of the Greyhound, James Swann's columns, Red State Update, the new link to Ted William's blog, and a link to a web site listing genetic diseases by dog breed. Check 'em out!



• I have broken the blogroll into sections, a bit like a restaurant menu, so folks can more easily find the types of topics they are interested in. That said, I encourage people to leave their orbits and wander; that's what life, the web, and a good forest are all about.



• I have added a blog search box on the right side. Actually I have added it twice to encourage folks to drill a bit. With 1,400 posts now on this blog, there is quite a bit unseen.



• I have added a widget that shows 80 random covers of good books. I will be adding more books, so there should be a permanently swapping cascade of covers for anyone looking for something decent to read.
  
  
• I have added a widget that shows that names the cities the last 10 blog visitors came from.



• I have made it easier to find a permanent link to each individual post -- see bottom of post, click on "permanent link," and then copy the URL at top into whatever. I have also added a "social book mark" link (whatever that is).
  
  
• Terrierman's Daily Dose is now available by email. Just type your email address into the little box below the header, "Subscribe to this Blog," in the sidebar at right, and you will receive each new post by email, complete with photos and hyperlinks.



• The Google folks reconfigured their algorithms about six weeks ago, and in that chaos the www.Terrierman.com web site (and quite a lot of others) got deleted from their index. We are now back on top as the number one listing under "working terriers," with a little over 1,000 visitors a day.



• I am still depressed that since April I have only had one reader from the countries of Tonga, Surinam, Libya, Vanuatu, Yemen, Samoa, Nepal, Lesotho, Laos, Somalia, Madagascar, Benin, and Paraguay. Where's the love? A hat tip to the freedom-loving people of New Caldedonia and the Faroe Islands, who managed to stop by 3 times and 2 times, respectively. I have mailed you your chickens, as promised, and I have put in a good word for you at USAID. And yes, I will post more dog recipies.

Some Cool Sites Worth Checking Out

This post should probably be called "Blogs That Are Way Better Than Mine," but not all of these links are blogs, and there are so many blogs that are better than mine that I could be here typing all day. So instead of the better title, I am calling this post "Some Very Cool Sites Worth Checking Out." I promise to do this kind of thing more often. For even more blogs better than mine, check out the blogroll in the right column on this blog.

• Bioephemera is a mash-up of biology and art. If you go straight to the Museum of Natural History, or could easily spend a morning looking at old biology prints, this is your kind of site. Very good, very cool, very eclectic. Gotta check it out.
• Prairie Ice is a site written by someone who lives in Montana, lives for the Antarctic, and has a fetish for birds. Oh, and did I mention he is an astounding photographer? Good stuff. Gotta check it out.
• Camera Trap Codger is a site done by a guy who hunts with camera traps and adds to it bits of interesting information on the critters he is photographing. A man after my own heart and a nice idea. Gotta check it out.
• Art of the Greyhound is exactly what it sounds like -- but better. This one is from a master sculptor who lives in North Dakota. Check out the pictures of the greyhound looking at the sculpture of a greyhound with the top of its cranium cut out. And then what happens? Gotta check it out.
• Laelaps is a site about dinosaurs and evolution and ecology and conservation and what's for dinner on the Serengeti. It's from a fellow at Rutgers and it's very well done. Gotta check it out.
• Bearskinrug is a site by a very good artist-illustrator in the U.K who also has a nice sense of humor perfect for children's books and The New Yorker magazine. Since I have no abilities in this arena, I am always a bit awed by anyone who can take a picture with a camera, much less draw one with colored pencils. Gotta check it out.
• uncylopedia is one of those wiki-things taken to its logical conclusion: a compendium of nonsense lies and distortions. How is this different from wikipedia? Not much, but check out the "dog" entry anyway. Very funny.
• Hybrid and Mutant Animals. It is what is says, and that should be enough to garner a "look see" from anyone.

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