My father sent me this this morning and they are just too good not to share! Enjoy!

They’re Back! Those Wonderful Church Bulletins!

Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services.
(Summer, 2007 Release).

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The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
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The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on Water.’
The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’
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Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
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Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say ‘Hell’ to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
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Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang ‘I will not pass this way again,’ giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: ‘Break Forth Into Joy.’
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
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At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What Is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM – prayer and medication to follow.
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The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church’s new tithing campaign slogan: Last Sunday: ”I Upped My Pledge – Up Yours
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Telling you video is huge is a bit redundant at this stage, however… video is huge.

The question you need to be asking yourself isn’t “should I be using video,” but “how do I get the most out of putting my videos online.”

That’s where this great sticky tips on videos comes in handy, compliments of Webproworld.

Your videos are found via “clues on the page” where your video file is embedded. The discussion does cover both hosting videos on third party web sites like Viddler and the all-famous YouTube and the pros and cons of self-hosted videos.

Spreading your videos around is also a good thing. We’ve found that while you could host the video yourself, viewing times are greatly “speeded up” for your viewer when they are hosted on sites optimized for video viewing.

In addition, pick your third party hosting sites carefully. For example, should you choose Viddler, you are able to edit the title (use your keyword in the title), provide a (keyword rich) description, and tag it. YouTube is great, but at the moment spots like Viddler top our list. And, search engines pick up your video very quickly!

Here’s a bit more about optimizing your video online, condensed, of what you’ll find when you visit the Webproworld forum link above:

1. Sitemaps …video sitemaps are a recommended way to give Google information about the video content of your site…

2. RSS Feeds …Google loves to crawl RSS feeds of various types, and this includes RSS feeds that focus on video content…

3. Metadata …metadata is the best source for search engines to determine what your video is about…

4. Provide a transcript …embedding a transcript in the video viewing page will provide the search engines with a wealth of content to index…

5. Optimize the video page …where the video is embedded focusing on the key topics of the video. Context seems to be an important factor…

6. Use friendly URLs …provide the search engines with additional clues as to the relevant topics of the video.

7. Be consistent when distributing your video …this will give you more opportunities to show up for your target term…

8. Prepare for the future of video search …By taking these steps now, your videos can remain relevant as search engines improve their scanning and indexing capabilities.

Again, a trip to the forum is in order to fill in the gaps of what I did not include.

Also, the responses to this sticky post on video optimization are worth the read.

Not everyone is prepared to jump on the video bandwagon at the moment, but arming yourself to use this immensely popular form of internet and social media marketing in the future is a sure winner.

Related articles

• Netvibes: The new social media dashboard (vator.tv)
• YouTube Video Alerts For Your Inbox (performancing.com)
• Viewzi Launches Site Search (centernetworks.com)
• Sitemap Submission Made Simple (googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com)

Throughout the year, and typically always around holiday seasons, your inbox (like ours) fills up with true and utter junk. However, recently I had a conversation with a client who did not know it was possible to check the origins of any given email before opening it up.

So this post is intended to help anyone unfamiliar with safeguarding their privacy and their computer. I want to be sure that anyone receiving any email from any source (whether you think you know them or not) knows how to check that email before opening it.

We have a current situation that makes this post even more important… a few of our own emails from several of our own domains are currently circulating the net AS IF we were emailing people. We’re not of course. The only time you’d hear from us would be via either Getresponse or Aweber – both double opt in email programs.

However, of late, we’re getting the following notorious-type emails – each appearing as if we are stupid enough to mail something from us to ourselves. We then thought a, “Let’s cover some basics” post was in order.

Many times we get suspicious looking emails. If you’re running a great anti-virus detection program (our preference is Kaspersky), it catches a lot of spam and suspicious emails.

But what about those emails that don’t trigger alerts, the ones that look like they are coming from someone you know. Only when you open it up do you get a clue that hey this might not be from who you thought it was. It’s either crass material, a link to a questionable website, or is filled with gibberish.

Has your friend or business associate suddenly gone mad?

The answer most likely is no. And there is a way to tell:

1. First, highlight (one click) but do NOT open the email

2. If you are using Outlook Express choose Properties, then Details and look in the box labeled Internet headers for the underlying code of the message that isp servers read.

a. The ReturnPath may give you a clue as to who really sent this

b. If X-Original-To and Delivered-To are the same, the chances are very good that this is not from the person you thought was emailing you. The odds of it being legitimate would be minuscule.

3. If you use Outlook, choose Options – look in the box labeled Internet Headers

a. Deeper into the code, [SPF failed… is a sure sign someone has hijacked the email address and is using it without permission and/or the owner’s knowledge.

b. Here’s a little something I found upon close investigation down near the bottom of this Internet Header: “Delivered to trusted network by a host with no rDNS” – another tip off. The domain (in this case one of ours) is legitimate, but the mailing itself originated from a “no rDNS.” A sure indication it’s not from who you think it’s from…

Both #2 and #3 will show you much more information, much of it meaningless to the average internet user, but close observation should be enough to decide whether #6 (below) is in order without opening and reading it.

4. Any email you receive that is using YOUR own domain name, where the From and To are the same address, means that your email account has been hijacked by some idiot. They collect these email addresses from forms on your site or exposed email addresses you kindly provide as clickable links to your visitors. (We get some really weird ones… Sigh).

Chances are you’ll never be able to trace them, but you should report these to your domain hosting support team since they involve your own website domain. Let them know someone is using your email address for spam purposes. Better safe than sorry. When you report it, make it clear this is not you doing it but someone else using your domain. Don’t overlook this step, it could mean the difference between them allowing you to continue hosting or them closing your access (sometimes without notice).

5. Along with a bit of private eye work of your own, we also feel the need to state the obvious; never click on a link in a suspect email. We even go so far as to highly advocate that if you really want to know what the url is (if you’ve chosen to open the email), then copy and paste said url into our browser versus clicking out from the email itself.

6. When in doubt, it’s just better and safer to delete the suspect email regardless.

If you’re thinking of protecting your website’s precious email information, numerous scripts have been invented to try to thwart these criminals, however, very little time passes before these same criminals find a way around them. A good suggestion would be to eliminate the email altogether. Create an image with your email address embedded as a picture and do not make it click-able.

For those using forms, etc., unfortunately you might have to just bite the bullet and keep a close eye on your accounts. The only way to know is when you receive one of this infamous emails from yourself to yourself.

For those just receiving email, do use the steps above if anything looks suspect.

For those with the same troubles above AND you are the domain owner being abused, be sure to follow all the steps, too, and report the issue immediately.

We cannot stress the importance of not believing or opening every piece of mail that comes your way. This past year alone, we know of at least four individuals whose identity was stolen because they really believed the email they received was legitimate.

Here’s to a safe and Happy Holiday season, and awareness as we start a brand New Year.

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Comments, Questions, Feedback? We love comments!

Quite a while back, when Qassia first announced itself to the social media community and internet world at large, we did a post about it.

There’s a lot more substance to this post, I swear, so click to (more…)

One of our “tenets” in our tag line for this blog includes “hot topic news” and this most certainly fits the bill. Please read on!

I must be having withdrawal symptoms since my favorite MSNBC news shows air only Monday through Friday. So it’s digging deep into our local, “switch sides every other day” (sound familiar?) local newspaper, The Las Vegas Review Journal that grabbed my attention this morning.

Actually much of the following – other than my own two cents – comes from a section of the paper, the Las Vegas Sun (don’t ask me what their relationship is – but the one does stick in parts of the other). And, just so you know up front, the Las Vegas Sun endorses Obama.

The first tidbit I’d like to share is along the lines of “is wealth distributed properly in this country.”

Here’s a shocker for all us working “Joes and Janes” (thanks Palin) – from Sunday’s Parade Magazine:

(more…)