All posts by Bryon Lape

Hit Capturing SEO

2013-09-02 Bryon Lape

Serinda Swan as Zatanna Zatara on Smallville. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Getting the right Search Engine Optimization is crucial to any website. Have the wrong key words and your site will generate the wrong traffic. Content is king and SEO is how the people find the king. It is not something to get wrong.

I have long wondered if it is possible to use SEO as a method of subterfuge. That is, choose words that are not actually correct for a website, but pull in interesting traffic anyway. What to do though is the question.

I wrote an article about a date with Nikki Dial. The story was based on a long reoccurring dream. Perhaps more correctly as a day dream. I’ve held Nikki in high esteem for years. Did having Nikki Dial in the site content bring in more visitors? Yes, it did. As my site is not geared to making conversions to sales, it didn’t mean more money. It did mean, however, more spammers found the site and have left crap comments that do to bogus selling sites. Not really what was meant.

What about using other names? Perhaps an article about Serinda Swan? Write about her loveliness being in TRON: Legacy. The wonderfully tight outfit that showed her curves to every 12 year old boy living in us all. The eyes. Oh my, there is much there.

Not into movies? Serinda Swan recently posed for Maxim. The pictures are hot, of course, and Serinda looks marvelous in everyone. Makes for wanting her to pose in other, more revealing magazines.

Serinda Swan isn’t the only lovely lady one could use for some SEO. The overly boobed German model Jordan Carver is another. She augmented her 5’6″ frame with implants that give her 32HH breasts. Even without her surgery, Jordan is still very lovely and could easily make a post about her. That is, if you want a great deal of traffic from people looking for pictures of Jordan Carver nude.

Don’t like any of these names? It is easy to choose more. Keegan Connor Tracy played in Jake 2.0, Battlestar Galactica and Once Upon A Time. The lovely and cruel character Regina Mills as played by Lana Parrilla would make a good article. Her ass is enough to write about for days. A Lost fan? Emilie de Ravin was a lovely blonde on Lost and is now a lovely brunette on Once Upon A Time. There’s an interesting twist.

Search Engine Optimization is a sticky wicket. Finding the right mix is key. Finding the right mix is the hardest portion. Play with them all.

Fitness

Stretching The Chest

2013-08-19 Bryon Lape

English: an exercise of chest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has been 2.5 months since June’s “Time To Move To Heavy” and the updated chest workout. The moving to heavier weights and 45 second rests lead to good gains in size and strength. Eight weeks is long enough for the same workout and it is time to confuse the body with an update.

This time around, it is time to raise the intensity and simplify the routine. This new routine will be a combination of TORQ and 4x, keeping in mind the principles of doing Mid-Range, Stretch and Contraction in a routine. The chest workout, therefore, become three sets of three exercises. No super-sets and no negative only.

Flat bench press

Start with a mid-range movement and do sets in a pyramiding 3×8 still. The first set should be a weight that can be done for twelve reps. The rep cadence is 1 second positive and 2 seconds on the negative. Stop at 8, rest for 40 seconds and add 5 pounds to each side before doing next set.

Declined Flyes

Next is stretch movement is next. Bring the dumbbells up and keep to the 1 second positive/2 seconds negative pass. As the weights finish straight above the chest in a nearly press position, there is very little contraction here. The set is 3×10 with the same weight each time. Finish all three sets? Add weight at the next training session.

Pec Deck

The last exercise brings TORQ into the picture. The 1 second/2 second cadence is still used, but the number of reps increases to 30 for the first set, 20 on the second and 15 on the final. As with the second set, if the number of reps is reached, add weight at the next workout. Be sure to compress at the top of the move and pause for nearly a second there. Getting over 100 seconds in the set time for the first set should easily be reached.

Push this routine for at least 4 weeks and look to change after 6. Here’s a recap:

Flat bench presses 3×8 – adding 5 pounds each set
Declined Flyes 3×10
Pec Deck 3×30,20,15

Random Musings

David Icke Is Full Of Crap

2013-08-16 Bryon Lape

David Icke. To many, he is a blabbering fool who talks nonsense about Satanic cults, a Saturn-Moon Matrix, alien reptilians from other dimensions and how pedophiles run the world. To others, he is a modern day prophet, showing the way to a new reality and starting a revolution against the world’s oppressors. Are both correct?

David Icke is most definitely anti-establishment. That should not be confused as a Communist or even Socialist. He does not believe Government is the answer for anything and large Governments are the worst. His political leanings seem more Libertarian than any other label. He doesn’t seem to have much faith in the American Constitution either. He sees the found of America as a scam pulled by the Free Masons of the Colonies. Never mind there was a very large and powerful anti-Masonic movement at the time of the founding. The National Bank was defeated twice in the early years and it did not successfully return until 1913.

David Icke is most definitely anti-religion, especially what he calls Christianity. Other than a supposed amalgamation of Isis, Ra and El to make the English word Israel, he seems to give the Hebrews a pass. He also finds no love for Islam, though he does seem to like Hinduism. His definition of Christianity is synonymous with the Catholic Church and the Church of England, both of which he labels as Satanic Saturn worship. A reading of the New Testament easily shows that neither the Catholic Church nor the Church of England bears any resemblance to Christianity, so perhaps he has these cults labeled correctly, but lumping in Christianity is far from fair.

His amalgamation of ancient languages translated into English to prove his beliefs is beyond the pale. Israel more modern. In Hebrew, name is מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל which is rendered as Medīnat Yisrā’el, not such an amalgamation anymore, is it David Icke?

His ultimate goal is Love for All. This heavily echoes the very nature of Christ’s ministry. It also echoes Mahatma Gandhi principles. Some may argue that this is a Universal message, but given David Icke’s “all religions are bullocks” stance, it is more than ironic. I do agree with Icke’s message of Love. After all, it is the message of my Lord.

Photography

The Road to Elle Macpherson

2013-08-12 Bryon Lape

I am quite proud of my daughter, Keleigh Lape. She has been accepted to attend the Dallas Expo (fully the Model & Talent Expo presented by Mike Beaty) as a representative for John Casablancas in Cincinnati, Ohio. There are some who claim this Expo is total crap and a scam. It does costs money to attend the Expo, but it is limited to no more than 500 talented people. This is very unlike other expos and gives the attendees far greater exposure to agencies.

So, what does this have to do with Elle Macpherson?

Elle is a woman I’ve wanted to meet and photograph for quite some time. I’d like to meet her as she seems quite the woman. She leveraged being a model to act in several movies, the most notable being her role in Sirens. How lovely were her assets?

As her modelling career wound to a close, she was able to use her image and fan to become a serious businesswoman. This too makes her quite desirable to meet and interview. No, not an interview like for Newsweek, more a like and afternoon chat among friends.

Who knows where my daughter’s modeling career will lead. It would be a good ending to be in New York someday with Keleigh and meet Elle. Perhaps Elle could give Keleigh pointers and advice on using her modeling for more after the path has been run.

And maybe, just maybe. Elle will let me take her picture.

Craft Beer Talk

Nut Brown Ale by Mount Carmel

2013-08-11 Bryon Lape

A new beer review. This time, the Nut Brown Ale from Mount Carmel Brewing in, well, where else??? Mount Carmel, Ohio. Let’s get going.

The Nut Brown Ale from Mount Carmel is the first of their beers I tried. At the same time, I met Mike Dewey at the Jungle Jim’s International Beer fest. He gave me a taste of the beer of which he was the most proud and believed to be his best.

When at proper temperature, the Nut Brown delivers a good balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness, with a hint of maple. The balance plays through to the end, living a slight lingering bitterness. The finish is very clean.

There are several ideas for food pairings, including a breakfast minded selection.

Banana and Walnut pancakes
Maple syrup (the real stuff)
Whipped Butter
Thick cut bacon

Cheddar Bacon Cheeseburger (Applewood smoked bacon and sharp cheddar)
Home fries (sea salt and spice medley)
Coleslaw (carrot over cabbage)

Replace grilled chicken with the cheeseburger

Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette
Fresh vegetable mixture with Spinach, carrots, onion and some radish

Have you tried this beer? Have other pairing ideas? Want to see a particular beer review? Subscribe and leave comments.

Mount Carmel Brewery Website

Video review by the Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner.

Craft Beer Talk, Fitness, Random Musings

Running Through July

2013-07-21 Bryon Lape

Zech on the beach (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

It can scarce be believed that July is nearly over. It seems it was starting a mere few days ago, but alas 20 of them are already gone. August will arrive within two blinks on an eye. Four blinks and it will be Christmas. Time doesn’t fly, we do.

Over the last several weeks there were many topics going through my head. I had thought to write what the race baiters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton had taught me, but decided against. Everyday there are tragedies. Why some are glamorized for political or personal gain is something I continue to fail to understand. It is also something I wish to never comprehend. Instead of bringing communities together to heal, they tear them apart for money and power. Trayvon Martin was a troubled soul who smoked pot and was dismissed from school twice. He cannot be replaced, but his passing could be used to provide love instead of hate.

This weekend finally saw a return to brewing, albeit with extract. As a learning to move into the pro brewing arena, this recipe will be converted to all grain for a scheduled brewing in two weeks. The idea is to compare the original extract recipe with the all grain. The recipe itself will be provided in another article. Over the next several weeks, a road map will be laid out that will lead to a brewery. It will be a long and frightful journey, but the rewards will be equally as great. My passion for brewing can no longer be contained and it must be pursued.

These electronic pages have also seen mention of workouts. June and July saw big movements in the weights and an increase in eating. Through it all, I’ve been able to get to 210 and maintain it. For a brief time, the scales tipped at 212, but the retreat from there was quite quick. August will see a change toward more core focus to increase the squat. The weight of 105 pounds is a sticking point due to poor lower back and stomach muscles. The legs are willing, but the support structure is not. Research is being conducted to find the best exercises. There is no shortage of opinion on what to do.

Shoulders, on the other hand, are responding well to the 9 week course laid out in Iron Man Magazine. The front is responding best of all, though the back section is lagging a bit. The good news hear is that the shoulder supports the arms on the bench press. August will see a few attempts at maxing the bench press during workout days. The use of declined flyes and dumbbell presses is increasing the pecs quite nicely. It is time to test the waters again.

Craft Beer Talk

Wit Ale By Rivertown, A Beer Review

2013-07-09 Bryon Lape

One of the many hats I wear is the one of Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner. It is a heavy hat and one that falls off from time to time. As more and more breweries open in Cincinnati, and perhaps someday one run by yours truly, there is much beer to review and it is well passed due.

The full review is available on the Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner blog: Beer Review: Wit Ale by Rivertown Brewery. So, why mention it here just to post a link back? Because, duh!

There is also a video review of the beer.

To be more informative, because being the Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner is a part of who I am and this blog is about all the wonderful things I do and wish to share. This blog is about my opinions and observations. This blog is about coming together to walk the road to the future together. So, it’s about more than me. It’s about us.

Through the pages of the Cincinnati Craft Beer Examiner blog, one is taken on a journey through craft beer, history of Cincinnati, beer and food pairings, menu ideas, local Cincinnati beer related events and festivals. Yeah, it has all that.

Again, why all the repeat?

Because, it is necessary. Read all the stuff. Share all the stuff. And the pages will get better.

Random Musings

Danica Patrick – The Winless Formula

2013-06-30 Bryon Lape

Recently, Kyle Petty has been telling anyone that would listen that Danica Patrick is not a race car driver. As she is a media darling and is used by NASCAR to bring in more fans, when one does not speak the orthodoxy, one must explain themselves. Kyle has explained it several times. She can go fast, she just can’t race. Give Patrick’s middle-of-the-pack average start and finishing positions, the fast portion may be in question.

Many fans wonder from where Kyle feels he can make such statements. After all, he has no championships and nowhere near the 200 wins of his father. Many state that he road the coattails of his father Richard into NASCAR. Who is he to be so critical? Who is he to question whether Danica Patrick is a racer or not?

Win one for the “takes one to know one” point of view.

Kyle Petty is qualified to speak of Danica Patrick in such ways precisely due to his lackluster record. Sure, he may never have had the best equipment like Danica does, but that is more a lame excuse. In nearly every racing serious, drivers who do well and show promise in inferior equipment will get the attention of better teams. Kyle rarely did.

Same for Danica.

She entered the IRL in 2005 racing for Rahal Letterman Racing. While not one of the top teams, they were no slouch. The team coached her into racing with the “big boys” when open wheel racing in America was still split due to Tony George’s ego. This left a wide talent gap in the IRL and Danica was promoted into it. During her first two seasons, she showed much promise. She lead the Indy 500. She was a buzz. This lady may finally break through the barrier that others like Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher could not. The world may finally have a good female racer in open wheel. But she never won and the questions started.

Finally, on April 30, 2008, Danica finally did it. On a rain shortened and fuel starved race, Danica passed Helio Castroneves when his car sputtered for fuel with two laps to go. She went on to win over him by nearly 6 seconds. The monkey was finally off her back.

She would never win again.

Despite being with a good team and have good equipment, Danica never again stood on the top podium. Her popularity, however, increased and eventually GoDaddy came a knocking. The media machine has been in overdrive ever since.

It cannot be overlooked though, that no matter which series. No matter IRL. No matter NASCAR Nationwide. No matter NASCAR Spring Cup. Danica Patrick has never shown the killer instinct that makes for a good race car driver. She has lots of talent, but none for getting the feel of the car. She will gripe and complain that the car is too loose or pushes too much. The team will adjust it. Then she will complain it is too slow. On the radio, she is 100% in complaint mode. She does not seem to have the desire to learn. Nor does she have the time with the commercials and personal appearances her sponsor requires.

Danica Patrick may get lucky one year and win another economy race, but in NASCAR those kind of races are extremely rare. She’s a middle-of-the-packer, just like Kyle Petty. He can speak to this, since he is one of them. He can speak about Danica not being a racer, as he is the same.

Photography

Film, HDRI And The Crop Factor Controversy

2013-06-24 Bryon Lape

It is time to shoot again. This time, HDRI and film are on the agenda. The sun is out today and the day lilies glow in the light. The ideas for today are to take some closeup and macro pictures of the flowers. The Pentax Spotmatic and Nikon N8008s will also be used to capture some pictures on Fujicolor 200 ASA (ISO) film. If the wind is down enough, some HDR images will also be made.

Oh wait, what controversy?

The crop factor in Nikon’s DX cameras is 1.5x. Their line of Nikkor DX lenses are made to only cover the space of the sensor. Place one of these lenses on a full-frame camera and it will not cover the whole sensor. I’ve contented that this means the measurements of the millimeter size of the DX lenses has already been adjusted to the crop factor. So, taking a 70mm full-frame lens and placing it on a full-frame body should have the same view as a 70mm DX lens placed on a DX camera. Some say this is not correct. Experiment time.

Today, this hypothesis will be put to the test by switching lenses on the Nikon D7000. Those lenses are the Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm 3.5-4.5G ED DX, Tamron AF 70-300mm 4-5.6 Tele-macro DI and the Nikkor AF 35-80mm 4-5.6D. The latter two lenses are full-frame and all three intersect at 70mm. The full-frame lenses should look zoomed a bit more on the D7000. We shall see. Watch the resulting video on Bryon Lape YouTube channel. A similar experiment was also performed on the N8008s and will be reported once the film has been processed and the results scanned. Oh, the blending of new and old technologies.

It was a good, though hot, day shooting. Video and stills taken. Yep, so HDR too. It is time to process the images and get busy posting. Ask me your questions, I’ll tell you no lies.

Happy shooting.

Commentary, Marketing

Content Is King

2013-06-19 Bryon Lape

Lifesize Religious King Statue with Spear (Photo credit: epSos.de)

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are two main ways to go: do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. The techniques used by either path are the same, though the professional may have access to more tools and options. Create content all over the Internet that points back to your site. Use the proper keywords the right number of times and SEO will be yours. Spam them too much and Google will ignore you.

Many people go at the keywords with reckless abandon. They use Google’s Adword Keyword tool and make list and after list of good keywords. They do all the can to work these keys words into articles to make them look like Search Engine Optimization wizards. They create content that seems odd and fantastic. They forget a key element.

Content is King.

In the early days of Internet marketing, it was easy. Find several blog sites and copy the same article to them all. Perhaps change a few words here or there, but that was about it. Post the article and let the search engines find them. Leads poured into business opportunities and people made money. People also complained and Google struck back: the infamous Google slap! Leads dried up overnight. Adword accounts were closed. The money makers had to find a new way.

The content makers realized they needed to create a few different versions of the same article. Someone figured out to use a formula to the paragraphs of the article and them made a routine to randomly swap them out. Those posted all over the Internet lead to hit rates climbing again. Come across one of the pages though and they were not humanly readable.

Google got smarter. Along came Panda.

More and more, the search engines look at context, as well as, the content. Does the content flow? Is it human readable? Is it duplicated? Is it just greeking? With each update, both Google and Bing learn the context. Along cam mobile and raised the bar again. Google search on an iPhone is not only optimized for text, it is also optimized for time and place. Google knows where you are and what the time is. In the same spot it may return different first pages depending on if it is 10am or 6pm. Your content needs to reflect such changes.

Content, after all, is King.

The Blog of Bryon Lape

All posts by Bryon Lape

Hit Capturing SEO

Stretching The Chest

David Icke Is Full Of Crap

The Road to Elle Macpherson

Nut Brown Ale by Mount Carmel

Running Through July

Wit Ale By Rivertown, A Beer Review

Danica Patrick – The Winless Formula

Film, HDRI And The Crop Factor Controversy

Content Is King

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Excursions and Experiences Through Life