Songs to Inspire - Song 23

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to inspire.

Mad World - Gary Jules

This song is so sad.  Sometimes, you need a sad song to feel good.  Weird, yeah, but that is just what I reckon.

I hope it inspires you to have a bit of a cry.  Otherwise, I hope it inspires you to let go for a short while of anything that worries you.

So, do you like the song? Love to hear from you!

- tork

Don't you love a Misdiagnosis?

If I didn't know anything about your boy, just looking at him right now, I wouldn't think that there is anything wrong with him!

This is what two of our doctors have told us.

Fantastic!!

All the noises that our boy makes now is completely normal since our baby stopped breathing.  So did he ever have have problems?

Does he have Tracheomalacia?  Yes. That is for certain.  He's had trouble breathing and is noisy at night.  But, he is 100% better and rarely makes his striding noise anymore.

Does he have Vocal Cord Palsy? Doubtful.

This is what we've learnt:

All the noises our young little squirt makes is completely normal.  A child with vocal cord palsy wouldn't cry a lot (ours does), they wouldn't ooh or ahh (ours does), they wouldn't sleep quietly (ours ...mostly... does).

We've also learnt that the diagnosis given could have been because he was severly inflamed after the camera went down his windpipe.  The doctor said this could have make the cords temporarily stop working.

Didn't the doctor tell you this? Is what one of our doctors said. 

Great... That would have been good to know.

So it seems, our boy's condition wasn't properly investigated.  He was quickly wheeled out of his "procedure" without lengthy investigation. He also didn't have a second scope to re-interrogate the issue.  These two things we've found were supposed to have been done prior to any diagnosis of vocal cord palsy.

But no.  We were told during the most toughest time of our life whilst our boy was struggling for air with severely constricted and inflamed airways, struggling to get better and crying for air, told that we have a child with vocal cord palsy.

Stressing about whether he will pull through after his scope.

Stressing out for months wondering will he ever talk? Will he ever eat or drink properly? Will he have breathing problems for life?

The MRI scan we had, totally unnecessary.  That week and day was terrible, concerned that there is something wrong with his brain, stressing all week and worse on the day of the scan.

All because the line up for procedures is so long, they wheel out my boy down the "factory lines" without the proper care and investigation.


Of course, they won't state that he definitely doesn't have vocal cord palsy, but if two different doctors say the same thing (especially one who current has a patient with vocal cord palsy and knows all the symptoms), I am estatic and angry at the same time. 

I'm not going to say that he definitely doesn't have the palsy though. We're kind of in limbo land about it, as aren't we supposed to trust whatever a doctor tells us?

Anyway, angry that we've been put through such stress by hosptial mistakes.

Ecstatic that our boy is likely to be as normal as the next one.

You reckon that I'm going to let this slide with the hospital though?

Pfft.  Pigs arse!  I am going to rip someone a new one.


In the mean time, I'm still ignoring these two doctors until we get another scope to check things out again.  But, how am I going to believe what they say?

One thing is for sure though, I am loving his little giggle noises that he's supposedly not supposed to make. :-)

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 22

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to inspire


Casey Donovan - Here's Where I Stand


I love this girl.  This song is killer!  Wish I could find a better quality version though than in a pub.

No matter.  This Aussie girl inspires you to stand up and say "This is me, like it or lump it".  I hope it inspires you as well.





So, what did you think about Casey? Not bad huh?

How I Increased Blog Traffic by 53000%

Here's a tweet I made via @Torkona3 a while back.  I've been meaning to explain how I did it.

First, here is the proof (click to enlarge):

This image is from June 20th with 83000+ visitors for this month to bLErg, my offside blog where I test best methods for traffic and adverts.  So, how did I do it?  It is simple and you can do it too.

Set up your blog for StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a fantastic tool for the bored.  I click it whenever I want to find something funny without knowing what I want to laugh at.  It's also used as a search tool for sites that you're interested in.

How it works is a user installs a toolbar on their browser.  This toolbar has a 'stumble' button, which when clicked takes you to a random page of any category you choose.

StumbleUpon is how the bLErg site landed its traffic.  I simply had a fantastically hilarious post (Queens Bohemian Rhapsody in Pictures) that I uploaded to be stumbled.  Whenever someone stumbled upon it, people would rate it.

The more good rates a post gets, the more traffic it can receive.   There are other elements as well, such as being a respectable member of StumbleUpon.  The more followers you have, the more street cred you get in the value of your posts that you upload.  Once you set up a StumbleUpon account, you can add me to your stumble following list and I will add you back to increase your street cred!

I got lucky, and the traffic has started to subside.  It also hasn't landed me a great number of extra followers, as stumbles from the 'Funny' search are fickle. But going from 3000 views an hour down to around 100 an hour for a site that is only my test site for traffic ideas and AdSense placement ain't too shabby, so I'm not too upset by it.

But you really want to use it for your site, even if you might not receive the same high amount of traffic, you'll still get a decent trickle of traffic over the years.  But see if you can get lucky like me!

Add a StumbleUpon button to your site and see how you go.

So, sorry for the delay @kirri_white @ReservoirDad @SameliasMum @Diaryofasahm.  I promised I will let you know how I did it.

- tork

Do you currently use StumbleUpon?  How much traffic does it get you?

Free Website Directory Launch - Review'd

Today I bring exciting news.  A project that I have been working on and looking forward to.

I have been looking at blogs for many months now.  A lot of different types and really enjoying a majority of them.

 I have been reading blog tips and putting out a few of my own.

One of the major fall points I have come to see is that there is no place to go to find a great list of different types of blogs.  Yes, I do enjoy reading people's favourites listed on their blogs, but i'd love to see blogs listed in categories.

So, I made my own site to do this, and it is officially being launched tonight, right now.

Review'd is a free website directory where you can add a url of your own website or blog.  It is a place where you can increase your Google ranking, search for blogs from a list of blog topics to find sites of your favourite things.  Well, it will be, with your help.

It needs user submitted sites, so simply submit your site and see the traffic roll in!  Be listed in categories based on your niche!  I can't wait to get a great list of all your blogs, but you have to visit the site and submit your info.

But why is it called Review'd?  That is because you and other internet folks can review each site submitted!  You can add a comment or you can hit Like, Retweet or the new Google +1 to Rank a site.  The more people that vote with their clicks, the higher a site will rank.

The best sites are displayed on the site, based on all these clicks.  So you can see some great sites that everyone else thinks is great too!

Enough talk from me :-)  Please visit Review'd and tell me what you think.

(God I hope I can get this thing working right)

Here goes nothing!

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 21

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a songs to inspire.

The Whitlams - Buy Now Pay Later

Now, I love this song.  The Whitlams are a great Aussie treasure.

I love a good piano.  Add a few strings and it adds to a song's value.  This song is just fantastic.  If you like this song, you should check out their other songs for great inspirational tunes. Or.. you could suscribe to my blog and you're likely to find a few more in this series.

This song just makes you feel good, it makes me feel good.  I hope it makes you feel good too.

And I hope it inspires a few goosebumps :-)






What did you think of this song? Hope you liked it!

- tork

Oh boy, will you ever speak?

source: dreamstime.com

Imagine if your child will never be able to speak.  That is what my wife and I wonder every day.

This is the diagnosis given to us when our baby boy went to hospital with trouble breathing.  My boy has got vocal cord paralysis.


So, every noise my little lion cub makes is precious.  Every 'ooh'  every 'aah' and the laughs that he is slowly starting to work out are so fantastically awesome, that you can't imagine.  How does a baby make these noises without using his vocal cords?  That's the thing, they can't.

To make these sorts of noises, the vocal cords are in use.  Now, I am nowhere near a doctor, but with a bit of research, that is what I am lead to believe.  I am holding my breath until we speak to the specialists, but all signs point to 'an incorrect diagnosis'.

He makes so many noises, how can he NOT be using his vocal cords?  It's not just the crying, but the little giggles and that.. Man, I am hoping that it is a wrong diagnosis.

Bring on the specialists.  I'm still cautious, but I think you can see my confusion.

All I know is that this weekend, I am going to be making every stupid noise possible for as many giggles as possible.

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 20

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to inspire.

Adele - Someone Like You

Adele.  I love that someone like you exists.  I don't know if you have written this song, but I love it.  Not only for your fantastic singing, but also for bringing the balland back!  The 80's saw crap loads of ballands, the 90's had a few too, but since then its died off.

This song will hopefully bring others to copy the trend and bring them back, in this new format that you've sung. 

One Singer. One Piano. One well written and powerfuly poetic song.

Sometimes, you just got to love music.  It inspires me to be someone like you.

What do you think about this song?

- tork



It makes me sick

With my boy in and out of hospital with breathing problems, this article I read this morning made me sick.

$18,000 for sick toddler stolen @ninemsn.

Allegedy, $18,000 was stolen from a charity night dinner where the funds were going towards a sick Sydney toddler with leukemia.  The person who allegedly stole it seems to be one of the people organising the night.

Disgusting.

I look at the picture of the young girl and see my own boy in her eyes.  She looks so sad.

I look at the parents and feel for them.

How can anyone be so desperate for money to steal from a sick child with a devestating illness?  Are they souless or are they just so strapped for cash they exist outside of reality?

This article just saddened me.  When you relate your own stories to others, you just feel for them so much more.

Luckily, my boy is no where near as ill as this young girl, but I wish their family all the best in their trying time that has been made even worse.

My heart goes out to them.

- tork

Songs to Inspire - Song 19

Feeling unmotivated? Need inspiration? Need to be inspired?

Inspiration comes from within, you just sometimes need to be reminded - Torkona

Every Sunday I post a song to help you find your inspiration.

One of my most favourite songs from a movie is this:

Gene Wilder - Pure Imagination

Taken from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate factory with Gene Wilder playing Willy Wonka, this song is captivating and spine tingling.

Willy (aka Gene) sings this ditty with such clarity and meaning.  I love it.  Every time I hear it, it reminds me that the world is massive and fantastic.

Now, I found this great video that has the song, however it is played over images taken from the Hubble Telescope.

This brings whole new perspective to the song.  Amazing.

I hope it inspires your pure imagination.  Enjoy!

- tork