Most of you know that I’m now a regular contributor on eMoms at Home.

Well, we’ve just published my first post, 12 Things My Three Year-Old Has Taught Me About Building Relationships.

In essence, I share how watching my three year-old daughter, A’esha, make and play with friends has given me insights to creating deeper, more rewarding and mutually beneficial relationships with both friends and clients.

Here’s four of the twelve…

1. Be nice: Mainly, there’s just few reasons not to be.
2. Be honest: You’ll both know something’s off if you’re not.
3. Be open: Sometimes people will surprise you with what they have to teach you.
4. Be creative: There really is more than one way.
5. ….(read on at eMoms at Home).

Enjoy.

Blogging is addicting, huh?

If it’s not the huge traffic increases or the comments, it’s the potential that your next post will create a huge buzz that will increase your business.

I’ll admit it, like Daniel Scocco, Maria Langer, Pieter Vangils, and Mi I’m addicted to blogging. I think of blogging all the time. I think of how I can write about events in my life or in my business on my blog. And I think about all the great relationships I’ve been fortunate to create with all of you (thanks, btw).

So when I started seeing this quiz, How Addicted To Blogging Are You, I had to take a look. The quiz is short (14 questions). The questions are easy. And the results are staggering…

71%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

It appears I’m a 71% blog addict. The question is…what does it mean? Perhaps that’s where I can use your help.

And I am thankful I never started the coffee habit.

No, really! I’m going to be writing for eMoms at Home. That’s right. Wendy has asked me if I’d share my insights and open coversations around being a work-at-home eDad. Of course I said, “yes!”

Most of you know already that I’m married and have two young kids – with a third on the way. And if you’ve been reading a while, you’ll may remember that my ultimate goal is:

To aid people, from every walk of life and every faith, to open the door to the truth of their existence. Not to my beliefs or existence, but to find it within themselves and authentically live their truth in their daily life. (read full post)

Sometimes I get into deeper issues here like the deeper wisdom behind things, our life’s perspective or your contribution to the world. But mainly we discuss social media, web-based business development, website design and marketing. And I definitely hope I’ve helped you.

Rarely, however, do I write about being a solopreneur eDad, who has to deal with all the ups and downs of working from a home office. There are times, like the story of my three-year-old daughter helping me with a coding bug. But those have been few and far between.

Now, with eMoms, I’m going to have the opportunity not only to share more of my business knowledge, but also write and discuss what it’s like to be a work-from-home dad parent. On eMoms, I hope to help eParents live a slightly better, richer and more rewarding life – in any way I can.

I’m quite excited about this opportunity. And I hope you join in the conversations over at eMoms. It ought to be fun and, hopefully, informative.

And no worries. I’ll still be writing here, at dmiracle.com, as often, or even more, then before. I love my blog. And I love all of you who read and join in the conversations here. Thanks.

We all know the expression, “the glass is half…”

But how would you finish it? What do you see when you look inside the glass?

Some see abundance which overflowth. While others see the glass as having room for more. And so began the Starbucker Meme, with Terry and his half-full, clear shot glass.

The Starbucker Meme brought out some creative answers like my dear friend Carolyn Manning who keeps two glasses – one full to the brim and the other symbolically empty. Tim Johnson, on the other hand goes back and forth between overflowing and 50% full.

The answer I was waiting most for was Liz Strauss and her hand-painted French champagne flute filled to the lip with sparkly French champagne. No surprise for me, and deeply fitting. Or Chris Cree who said his cup is bottomless – of course he said with coffee, but I know he meant a bit more.

My other two favorites were from Mike Sansone and Adam Kayce. Both, like me, took the idea of ‘what’s in the glass’ to a different level. Mike sees things from a different perspective through his glass bottom boat. While Adam sees his life overflowing through his looking glass.

So I know what you’re thinking…”what does Dawud see when he looks through his glass?” So let me get right into the Starbucker Meme:

1. How full is your glass?
   It’s ever expanding and only limited by my trust, belief and willingness to change.
2. What kind of glass is it?
   Blown glass
3. What’s in the glass?
   All the possibilities you can dream of.
4. Reasons for #1, #2, and #3
   Read on…

I’ve always loved blown glass. Not only is it stunningly beautiful. It also illustrates the great potential each of us have inside. Think about it. You take this hunk of glass and put it on a stick. Pretty uninspiring, huh?

Then, you place the hunk of glass into a raging fire to heat it up and burn off impurities. Once it’s purified enough, you remove it from the fire and begin forming it into miraculous, endless shapes. Look at the image to right…

Aren’t we just like that?

And Kammie, there’s the answer to your question about high vibe practices. I spend each day trying to stretch myself, my heart and my consciousness just a little bit. Stretching a taking the time to look at where I could be living who I am and what I believe a little bit more. Those are my high vibe practices.

So I’m wondering what you see when you look inside your glass? I’m going to tag David, David, Gayla, Edward, Chris, Mark, Dave, Katie, Rory, Randa, Mike, Kammie, one more Dave and Lisa. AND, I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually said this to a few clients – that conversational blogging is like a conga line. I know it’s sounds funny, but it’s true.

Think about it.

• When do we conga? Usually at a party. Well, isn’t conversational blogging is like a party?
• Someone has to start the conga, of course. Who’s that? It’s me! (or you, if it’s your blog)
• Da-da-da-da-daaa…DA! – enough said!
• You know you want to join in, but you’re afraid of looking like a fool. Sounds like commenting.
• Some conga lines just go on forever.

You thought I was kidding, didn’t you? But I wasn’t. Conversational blogging is really like the conga. And to participate, you’ve gotta join in.

Of course, I wouldn’t have thought to share my blogging metaphor if it wasn’t for Char’s How Do You Explain Blogging to Your Mom? You’ve gotta take a read – she does a great job comparing blogging to a farmer’s market. Lara even picked up on the theme.

Liz also inspired me by beginning her Group Writing Project: What’s Your Blog’s Metaphor. Mine, is the conga. There are others. But this is the one I want to share right now. Perhaps more will come out later.

Other’s have picked up the writing project with some great entries. Karin thinks of blogging as Business Network International while Des sees blogging as a cocktail party. Kathy makes a nice relationship between blogging and exercise.

Off of Ian’s Messy Desk comes the idea of blogging being like Forrest Gump’s “life is like a box of chocolates”. Just so happens that I’m a big Gump fan myself. Forrest would have been a great blogger…“stupid is as stupid does”. Or…“from that day forward, if I was goin’ somewhere, I was runnin’!”

Lots of people see blogging related to food. Juggling Frogs compares blogging to a smorgasbord yet Word Sell sees it as The Salad Bar. The most interesting food comparison, though, comes from Mike – who sees blogging as Feeding on Plankton.

So how do you see blogging? What’s your blogging metaphor?

You know I have to tag a few people. So I’d love to hear from Adam Kayce, David Airey, Chris Cree, Kammie Kobyleski, Kent Blumberg, Barry Zweibel, Sean Rox, thepaperbull, Mark Goodyear, Randa Clay and the Purple Wren.

That’s a lot of folks, huh? And I still want to ask you…what’s your blogging metaphor? And, tell me how you see blogging to be like a conga line.

Koala photo from FunnyZoo.

UPDATE: Be sure to let Liz know about your blogging metaphor post so that she can give you all a little link love.Â

with my blog.

I spent a bit of time over the night upgrading to WordPress 2.2 (from 2.0.3). I’m already loving the upgrade. Why?

• The speed optimizations. This version is really quite faster than the previous one I was using – both on the browser side and admin.
• I love being able to scan back through all my comments (previous version only allowed me to see last 20 comments)
• I like the admin tab enhancements. It’s great that Comments now has its own tab.
• It’s great to be able to deactivate all plugins at once.
• Did I mention it’s faster?

I’m quite happy with the upgrade. I have a couple of small hiccups and found a plugin that I couldn’t get to work. Luckily it was a minor plugin. Otherwise, no problems with the upgrade.

And I know that with all computer upgrades there could be some hiccups. So, please, if you find anything that’s not functioning correctly on my site, would you let me know in the comment box?

Thanks, in advance.

And if you’re the do-it-yourselfer, there’s a number of tutorials on how to make the jump to 2.2, including in the WordPress Codex. And if you’re using version 2.1.x, this is considered a mandatory upgrade.

It looks like I’m having some hosting problems with my current web host. And not only are there problems, but they seem unwilling to help me solve them – even though the great majority of the problems point to their servers.

I’m not going to name their name them just yet – just in case they change their tune. I feel I owe them that after three and half years of petty good service.

But, if they can’t resolve the problems I’m having in a satisfactorily way, I will look for hosting elsewhere.

So, I need some web hosting recommendations. I can tell you that iPowerWeb and WestHost are out. Here are the few I’ve looked at. If you host with any of them, I’d love to know your thoughts. And if you’ve had a bad experience, I’d like to know that as well.

• MidPhase
• BlueHost
• HostGator
• LunarPages
• Host Nine
• Third Sphere

In case you’re wondering, I’m looking for shared hosting for unlimited domains and subdomains with lots of disk space and huge bandwidth. Phone support would be a bonus. Certainly Linux – no Windows. And all the other open source goodies.
So let’s talk about hosting…