Shut up and blog
Posted on July 3, 2009 at 9:32amSometimes I think my husband doesn’t quite understand why I squawk about wanting a calm, serene environment in which to relax and unwind while I work or blog. With working in particular (the extensive writing projects, anyway), the writing is typically rather monotonous, so he really doesn’t get why I can’t just “zone out” wherever I’m at, regardless of what is going on around me. But honestly, even for the mind-numbing work, having a peaceful work area can help me achieve so much more in so much less time.
Right now, for instance, it’s quiet. The kids are asleep, my husband is asleep. The washer is humming from the hallway, the air conditioner here in the living room runs every little bit. I’m playing some music at a low volume, and my desk lamp is casting a warm, soothing glow across me. This is the perfect setup for writing. Sometimes I’ll even light a candle (my current fav scent is Victoria’s Secret’s Pink, and I managed to find a clearanced candle in the same scent!), or crank up the “calming” scented air freshener that is plugged into a nearby outlet.
Scents are a big thing for me. The right scent can really help me focus and be more productive. Have you tried out reed diffusers? I’ve heard nothing but good things about them, and I’d love to try one out. Plus, they look so classy and elegant! What kind of computer desk couldn’t benefit from them?
How about you? What is your ideal work environment?
Category: General | Comments: 1 commentWindows 7 gets a major thumbs up!
Posted on July 2, 2009 at 9:27pmDuring the bit of downtime I’ve had over the past two weeks, I managed to download and install Windows 7 on a second hard drive that I have installed in my desktop computer. And so far? I. Am. Loving. It. Vista was oh-so-sexy when it first came out, but 7 tops Vista because of its ability to PERFORM. I am loving Windows 7 so much that I am doing a lot of my writing and blogging on it!
To give you a little background info, the computer I’m running Windows 7 on is approximately four and a half years old. Its processor is an Intel Pentium 4 3.4 (note: NOT a dual or quad processor!), and it has 2GB of DDR memory. So decent, but definitely not “new”. And let me tell you, Windows 7 is just whizzing through things. I’ve even done some multi-tasking: running Cute FTP while browsing the web for Clarks shoes and Polaris RZR Accessories while playing music in iTunes while processing photos in Photoshop while chatting to my friend on MSN, and there has barely been a single bit of lag.
I’m almost ashamed to admit that Windows 7 is doing better on my 4.5 year old computer than Windows Vista is doing on my two month old laptop… *blush*
Category: Etc. | Comments: 1 commentDo you remember Greymatter?
Posted on July 2, 2009 at 12:06pmGreymatter. It’s a name that makes many web hosts shudder, but for long-time bloggers like me, it brings back fond memories. When I purchased my very first domain in 2001, I immediately began blogging on it with the use of Greymatter. Back in those days, Greymatter wasn’t just a blogging script or CMS, it was THE blogging script, THE CMS to have.
And I had it. And loved it.
Of course, looking back on things, I don’t see how I loved a bajillion templates, the thousands of .html files that would be generated for my archives, and the constant rebuilding every time I created a new layout. But you know what? Greymatter served its purpose, and it did what I needed it to do. So I definitely give kudos to it!
And if you happen to be interested in trying out Greymatter now, despite the majority of bloggers using WordPress? You can do so — download it here.
Category: General | Comments: 3 commentsThe evolution of the internet
Posted on July 1, 2009 at 6:13pmThe internet as it is now is SO different from how it was when I first started using it. When I first began to explore the internet during the summer of 1996 and 1997, I didn’t do much besides find informative articles on hunting, animal rights, the dangers of box cutter, and so on and so forth for various school projects, and photos of my celebrity crushes at that time (I’ll spare myself the embarrassment by not naming them).
In the summer of 1998, when my mother bought our first computer, I was immediately hooked on the internet and all that it had to offer. I would download songs in .wav format, and since I was on a 26.4kbps dial-up connection, one song would take at least 45 minutes, but it was SO worth it. I was also a fan of chatrooms, and it wasn’t long after that when I discovered ICQ.
In 2000, when I had my own computer (thank you Dan!) and designing websites was as important as having oxygen to breathe, the online circles I hung out in were all about fanlistings, hatelistings (anyone remember thehatelistings.org? I owned and maintained that site with the help of a few friends!), link exchanges and affiliates, and eventually plugboards.
And let’s not forget the layouts… swirls, grunge patterns, paint splatters, and plenty of celebrity layouts!
Now? Everything is about social networking and integration. I feel so integrated with the internet, that it’s sometimes hard to separation what’s offline from what’s online. And in some ways, I think that’s rather scary. :/
What are your thoughts? How has the internet evolved for you?
Category: Etc. | Comments: 1 commentTake advantage of Twitter
Posted on July 1, 2009 at 5:39pmTwitter is a great social networking tool. You can use it to connect to online and offline friends and see what they’re up to, and to meet up with new individuals.
Because Twitter will evolve as its users do, it’s up to you to choose what to use the social networking platform for. In general, most users use it to:
- share updates of what they’re doing
- broadcast local and regional news
- share breaking news and celebrity gossip (that’s how I found out about the deaths of Michael Jackson and Billy Mays!)
- promote websites, such as the Outer Banks
I tend to do a mixture, though most of my updates are about what I’m personally doing. However, I also use Twitter to broadcast updates of my blogs. Every single time I post a new blog entry, I use a WordPress plugin to tweet an update that feature’s the newly created blog entry’s title and permalink URL. I will also tweet about updated pages, new layouts, new features, and so on and so forth.
Have fun working Twitter to your advantage!
Category: General | Comments: 1 commentMore work means less blogging
Posted on June 20, 2009 at 3:56pmThe bad thing about writing for a living is that it completely saps my energy for any other type of writing. It used to be that I would work my 7-9 hour days, be tired, but still be able to come home and have plenty to write about. Now? On a good day, I’ll have my work done in 4-6 total hours, yet I’m just so typed out that I can’t stand to write anything else. And so my blogging suffers. Oh well. Bills come first, so my husband works and I work, to make sure that everything is paid and we still have enough money to put food on the table.
Speaking of money and how hard we’ve been working, we’re leaving for the beach in a week. Actually, less than a week… in six days! This time next week we’ll be laying out on the beach. I’m very excited. I’m also happy that we have everything we need, with the exception of a bit of food and a few dollar store toys that I’ll most likely pick up on Wednesday evening, or quite possibly Thursday evening. Have I mentioned how much I love dollar stores? I don’t shop in them for nice things, like greeting cards or potential contents for baby gift baskets, but I do pick up cheap little toys and stocking stuffers for my kids. They’re too young to be worried about quality. For them, it’s all about quantity. 
Google Reader
Posted on June 18, 2009 at 7:30pmI can’t sing enough praises about Google Reader, and feed readers in general. I used to have websites bookmarked and sorted into folders based on the first letter of their domain/subdomain names, but it was very time consuming to click through site after site. Then I discovered the beauty of RSS feeds. Once I set up my Google Reader account, the only thing left to do was open up all of those bookmarks one last time in order to subscribe to the feeds.
These days, I can quickly get through the 187+ feed subscriptions I have (including a few commercial sites, which discuss everything from the latest WordPress plugins to the best car insurance quotes), which is nice because it means being able to keep up with other bloggers on a more consistent basis! 
WordPress plugin: Advanced Category Excluder
Posted on June 11, 2009 at 2:52pmAdvanced Category Excluder is a pretty handy little WordPress plugin. It can be used to exclude the categories of your choosing from various aspects of your website. You can exclude categories from appearing in the Archives listing, from the Single posts listing, from the Search function, even from the home page of your blog and from your RSS feed. This is especially handy if you’re looking to keep private or password-protected posts from showing up in RSS feeds, or if you’d like to remove sponsored posts from an RSS feed. You can also use this plugin to disable robots from combing over posts that are under certain categories.
Personally, I use this plugin to prevent protected posts from showing up in my RSS feeds. I also use it to prevent sponsored posts from showing up in my RSS feeds and in search results. It’s quite handy in keeping posts about maternity clothing right where they belong — on my blog, but away from my otherwise uncluttered feeds.
Category: Blogging Tools | Comments: no commentsBlogging Girl needs a new layout
Posted on June 9, 2009 at 12:23pmIf there’s one thing that Blogging Girl desperately needs, it’s a new layout. This same layout has been up and in existence for the past year and a half, and I am getting very sick of looking at it! Unfortunately, I’m pretty busy nowadays, so I’m not sure if I would have the time to devote to creating a new layout from scratch. I may just adapt a pre-made theme to suit my needs. Or, I might use this existing theme but just redo colors, headers, etc.
Right now I’m not doing much, but I do have a lot of work to go. I keep getting distracted by Judge Cristina and some argument over a plasma stand, and by my mother, who likes to talk. A lot. I could be completely ignoring her and barely saying “uh huh” when she says something, yet she’ll keep blathering on. Ugh. It’s so annoying.
What is everyone up to today? Doing anything exciting?
Category: Etc. | Comments: no commentsWordPress plugin: Akismet
Posted on June 9, 2009 at 12:00pmSpam is evil. Evil, disgusting, dreadful. And so very annoying and irritating, especially when you get an email notification about a new comment and you get all excited, only to find that the comment is from a spammer. And not even one of those spammers who is nice enough to say, “Nice layout!” or, “Loved your work!” when they leave their link-laden comment.
Anyway, you can prevent spam, and you can treat it. Spam prevention options, which won’t even allow spam through, include such options as Math Comment Spam Protection. Spam treatment options include plugins that retain comments that are thought to be spammy. So while it may not be able to block comments that blather on about mesothelioma or genital extending products, it will hold them in a separate moderation queue for you to look over.
I really like Akismet. It works its magic wonderfully, and nine times out of ten it catches any spam comments that come through. However, it is a little over-zealous, so there are a few times each week when legitimate comments are also retained. Fortunately, Akismet “learns” as you process comments with it, so if you mark a comment as not being spam, it will remember and not catch a comment that matches its criteria (name, email, IP address, etc.) again.
Category: Blogging Tools | Comments: no comments
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