Archive for April, 2008

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April 22nd, 2008

The Great Cat-astrophe: Ravi Receives an Email

Ravi received this email from my mother last week:

Ravi,

I’ve been thinking about you and all the Sarah and Chris have been putting you through. How are you REALLY doing? I know what they are saying, but they might be hiding how upset you really are. If you need someone to talk to, just let me know – I’m a good listener.

I can see some benefits for you with a new feline on the scene. No, I’m not just trying to fool you into liking him! How could you think such a think. If you’ll just listen I’ll tell you what I was thinking. You know how you have had sole responsibility to bother Sarah and Christ when they are trying to sleep – well now you don’t have to do that all by yourself. Neither are you alone in putting things out on the floor for them to step on – I know how you like to see them hop around on one foot when they step one a piece of cat food. Then there is the hair thing – just how much hair can one cat be expected to loose and decorate the house with when they keep cleaning it up. It is a wonder you have any hair left after 2 years of interior decorating. And thing of all the times you’ll be able to nap because they are occupied with you know who. Long, long naps I know that is what you like (and tuna treats).

Well I’ve got to go, you know feed Sarah’s previous cat, Sullivan. Oh, she didn’t tell you he was still here – you’ll have to ask her about that and check for his cat hair when she comes home April 25. I know they say they are going to a concert, but I think Sarah needs to come see Sullivan. Don’t worry about Sullivan too much, he is pretty po’d that she left and is gone so long between visits. He gives her the cold shoulder at times and he really doesn’t like being inside ALL the time.

Hope to see you this summer. Hang in there and I’m sure you can find some other things for Mowgli to do. You are my favorite black cat.

Vicky

I don’t know which is crazier: the fact that I have an email account for Ravi or the fact that my mother sent an email to it.

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Posted in cat-astrophe | 1 Comment »

April 21st, 2008

Blogger’s Guide to Feedburner, Part IV: Publicizing

The paint is dry, the rims are in place, and I’m not getting any better at this car analogy, so let’s get to work. To review, so far we’ve set up your feed in Feedburner, familiarized ourselves with the web site, learned how to analyze and troubleshootize your feed, and picked out some sweet options to really make it shine. Today, we’re going to publicize your feed. To get started, log in to Feedburner, select a feed, and click on the Publicize tab.

In the left column of the Publicize page is a list of services you can use to publicize your feed. Just like the Optimize services, some are practical, and I recommend them; some are fun, and are optional; and some aren’t necessary unless you have special circumstances. For each of the services listed below, I’ll provide a description, a recommendation, and directions (if necessary). If you make changes to any service, be sure to click Activate or Save before going to another page.

  • Headline Animator: Optional. Creates an animated headline that rotates through the titles of your recent posts. After you “design” the animation, Feedburner provides the snippet of code for you to add to any web site whose HTML you control.
  • BuzzBoost: Optional. Republishes your feed in HTML according to your specifications so you can republish your feed to any web site whose HTML you control.
  • SpringWidgets Skin: Optional. Merges your feed with a SpringWidgets widget, which you can then add to any web site whose HTML you control.
  • E-mail Subscriptions: Recommended. Offers an e-mail subscription for readers who don’t use a feed reader (i.e. my sisters-in-law Kimberly and Jennifer—they don’t know that I know they read my blog).
    • Subscription Management: You can offer e-mail subscriptions with a form, a link, or both. Follow the directions on the page, and insert the provided code into an e-mail or web site.
    • Communication Preferences: You decide what you want the confirmation e-mail, which is sent to subscribers to confirm their subscription, to say and from what e-mail address it comes.
    • E-mail Branding: You design the e-mail that goes to subscribers. No sweat. It’s just fonts and colors.
    • Delivery Options: You decide when e-mails leave the station and arrive in your subscribers’ inboxes.
  • Ping Shot: Recommended unless for some god-forsaken reason you don’t want people to read your blog. Notifies web services that you’ve updated your feed. Feedburner notifies some services automatically.
  • Feed Count: Not recommended if you have self-esteem issues. Creates an HTML graphic that announces to the world how many subscribers you do (or don’t) have.
  • Chicklet Chooser: Optional. Creates a chicklet (yeah, sorta like the gum) for any given RSS reader and provides the HTML code for you to add to your site.
  • Awareness API: Not recommended. Allows outside developers to display, promote, and analyze your feed traffic.
  • Creative Commons: Optional. Allows you to specify the Creative Commons license for your site and feed and provides the HTML code for you to add to your site.
  • Password Protected: Not recommended unless you’re a CIA agent. Requires readers to type in a user name and password before being allowed access to the feed.
  • NoIndex: Not recommended unless there’s a reason you’re blogging and don’t want anyone to read your profound thoughts. Requests that search engines do not index your feed.

There you have it: all the services Feedburner offers for you to publicize your feed. You’ve probably noticed that many of them involve adding snippets of code to sites you’re responsible for. Let me advise you in this: Be selective about the widgets, badges, chicklets and other flare you add to your blog and feed. Just like all the flare (pins and buttons for those of you who haven’t seen Office Space) on the servers at Outback Steakhouse can cheapen their uniforms, HTML flare can cheapen your blog.

For tomorrow, go forth and publicize! That is your homework. Tomorrow we’ll networkize and monetize your feed.

Other Blogger’s Guide to Feedburner Posts

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Posted in bloggersguide.net | 1 Comment »

April 21st, 2008

Guest Post: How Twitter Made Me a Better Social Networker

Today’s post is by Linden, one of my best friends. She and I share the same love for the Internet, Google, and Web 2.0, so when she jumped on the Twitter train, I asked her to convince me to make the jump, too. Here’s what she had to say:

What are you doing right now?Almost every single blog post I’ve read about Twitter highlights the fact that it is made for “micro-blogging” by allowing users to use only 140 characters in which to write their answer to the question “What are you doing now?”

When Twitter was new, many people asked right back, “Why should I care about this, another new fad site? The frenzy will die out in a few months.” It was even called “the Seinfeld of the internet … a website about nothing.” Some have touted it as a marketing tool: Sign up, get people to “follow” you, they will see your “tweets,” and boom! Free advertising for your site or product. And with the ability to send (by texting to 40404) and receive tweets via SMS, it’s highly mobile: A connection to the Internet for those of us too cheap to pay for Internet on our non-iPhone, non-Blackberry, plain old cell phones.

But I don’t use Twitter in any of those ways. Well, I do use it for a little blog marketing, but mostly I use it for its seamless integration with Facebook, my preferred social networking site.

Free Blog Advertisement

I’ve got a blog. And I want readers. I can’t really explain why because I am not Penelope Trunk, who is an expert in her field and probably makes tons of money with her posts, and I’m not Half-Fast, who writes a funny blog dedicated to the topic of running and has even posted on the main Complete Running Network site. My blog is about my life in Germany, with some running, travel, and cool technology posts in the mix.

But I want readers because I like writing posts more when I know people are reading them. So every time I publish a new blog post, I tweet it. This sends it automatically to any followers I have, publishes it in the Twitter public timeline, and sends it off to my Facebook status.

Twitter–Facebook Integration

Once you’ve added the Twitter application and given it permission to update your Facebook status, you can update without logging into the Facebook website.

I love this. I have added twitter@twitter.com to my Gmail chat contacts, so right from inside Gmail I can simultaneously advertise my newest blog post on Twitter and Facebook. Oh, and I can update my Facebook status much more often than I ever did before. (FYI: I am currently using Digsby for all my IMing needs, so look forward to a corresponding Cool Technology post soon!)

“So what?” you ask. I personally like the Facebook status idea: a mini-snapshot of what my friends are thinking and doing. A great way to ask questions, interact with other people’s statuses, and have fun conversations between a group of friends. Hmmm. Sounds a lot like Twitter.

Twitter posts = highly mobile Facebook status updates

I have come to this conclusion about Twitter, even though I have not been using to to keep up with my friends (the only person I’m following that I know in person, Sarah, just joined Twitter about a week before I wrote this post): Twitter is the Facebook status, without the rest of Facebook. It is a great way to ask and answer questions posed by other Twits, interact with other tweets, and have a great conversation between a group of friends. Except that I don’t have a group of friends on the site. Yet. So head on over to Twitter.com, sign up, and add me at http://twitter.com/xgravity23!

(If you arrived at this post hoping for an explanation of Twitter, hopefully you understand it a little better now. If not, check out Common Craft’s video “Twitter in Plain English,” which explains Twitter better than I ever could.)

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Posted in tweeples guide | 11 Comments »

April 20th, 2008

Marathon Training | Week 9

  • Monday: 3 easy miles
  • Tuesday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
  • Wednesday: 5 easy miles
  • Thursday: Tone to the Max (60 min.) + Yoga for Athletes (40 min.)
  • Friday: Cycling (45–60 min.)
  • Saturday: 10 easy miles
  • Sunday: Rest

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Posted in fitness/health | 2 Comments »

April 19th, 2008

Yet Again More Reasons Why I Started a Blog (Yes, That’s Right, More Interesting Subject Lines)

  1. I wanted to welcome someone home.
  2. I realized I was in love.
  3. I wanted to be nice.
  4. I was feeling lonely.
  5. I wanted to feel attractive.
  6. I wanted to say “goodbye.”
  7. It was a special occasion.
  8. I wanted to welcome someone home.
  9. It was a romantic setting.
  10. I hate you.

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Posted in brilliantly creative | 4 Comments »

April 18th, 2008

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | 18 April 2008

Another week has flown by, and I have a whole other set of links for you to check out this weekend, two of which are related to RSS and blogs.

For a complete list of everything I loved this week, check out my Delicious page or my Google Reader Shared Items.

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Posted in link-lovin | 2 Comments »

April 18th, 2008

Daughtry, Bon Jovi Concert Shoots Sarah Through the Heart

I am still in utter disbelief that I was at the Daughtry/Bon Jovi concert in Kansas City, MO, last night. Thanks to my Aunt Lisa, who introduced Bon Jovi to me when I was a youngster, I have been a life-long fan of “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Bad Medicine,” and a whole host of other Bon Jovi hits, so when Chris and I found out that Bon Jovi was going to be in KCMO, we didn’t think twice about getting tickets. To top it off, Daughtry, whose frontman Chris Daughtry is our favorite American Idol contestant of all time, opened for the headlining act, and it made for an evening of ear-splitting fun.

A rack of onion rings from Fiorella\'s Jack StackLet’s get some of the premilinary discussion out of the way. Chris and I left Nixa around two o’clock and arrived at Fiorella’s Jack Stack in downtown KC about five. My parents raised me on Jack Stack barbeque, and no trip to KC is complete without a rack of onion rings and some world-famous BBQ sauce. After dinner, we made our way to the Kansas City Power & Light district to park and make our way to the Sprint Center. Once we got past security and found our seats, we purchased some souvenirs (I got a Bon Jovi tank top, and Chris got a program).

Chris and Sarah at the Sprint CenterYou should know that the Sprint Center is huge, and because we got “cheap” tickets, we were concerned that we wouldn’t have good seats, but we were completely wrong. We were in the upper deck, second row, just off-center at the back of the arena, and small world that it is, we sat next to a couple who were from Fair Grove! So the seats were good.

Daughtry on stage.Daughtry opened, and I was almost blown away: first, because they were awesome, and second, because they were too loud. Chris Daughtry involved the crowd, mentioned Kansas City about thirteen times, and thanked the crowd after every song; he obviously knows that much of his success comes from his fans. Because the sound system was EQed for Bon Jovi, Daughtry didn’t sound great, but that’s to be expected for an opening act. Overall, Daughtry was a perfect opening act for Bon Jovi; they got the crowd excited, played their hits, and made us ready for more.

After Daughtry, we had a twenty-minute intermission while the Bon Jovi crew reset the stage. (And can I say this? I was impressed with this quick turnover. When we saw U2 in 2005, it took the crew over an hour to reset the stage after Kanye West.)

And finally, Bon Jovi came on stage, and I’ll let the set list take us from there:

    Bon Jovi opens concert with \"Lost Highway\"
  1. Lost Highway Of course, Bon Jovi was promoting their latest album Lost Highway on this tour, so many of their songs were from that album. Note that Jon still has on his jacket.
  2. Born to be My Baby
  3. You Give Love a Bad Name Jacket gone. First classic song of the night, and the crowd of 17,000 goes wild. I turned to Chris and said, “I can’t believe I’m at a Bon Jovi concert!
  4. Raise Your Hands An oldie from the Slippery When Wet album. I wasn’t familiar with the song until last night, but I’ve been singing it all day.
  5. Just Older
  6. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (w/ Gimme Some Lovin’ & Land Of 1000 Dances) Another song that I wasn’t familiar with, but it was worth Jon’s impish facial expressions and outdated dance moves. Honestly, the whole band gave the crowd a run for their money because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep up with them all night. And if the band thing doesn’t work out, Jon could totally be an aerobics instructor.
  7. Blood Money

    8. Chris Daughtry sings \"Blaze of Glory\" with Bon Jovi

  8. Blaze of Glory (w/ Daughtry) Chris and I were hoping Chris Daughtry would come out on stage for one song, and this is the song he sang on American Idol. I love the song anyway, but this is the best version I’ve ever heard. The duet was fantastic, and you could tell the guys enjoyed singing together (which is probably why they’re on tour together).
  9. Whole Lot of Leaving
  10. Til We Ain’t Strangers Anymore This song won the CMT Music Awards 2008 Collaborative Video of the Year on Monday, April 14. The song/video featured LeAnn Rimes, but Lorenza Ponce sounded awesome singing it last night.
  11. In These Arms
  12. Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
  13. We Got It Going On One of my favorite songs from the Lost Highway album. Rock on.
  14. It’s My Life A favorite from the Crush album.

    15. Bon Jovi stage and production during \"Bad Medicine\"

  15. Bad Medicine (w/ Shout) The crowd went wild with this one. Who can blame them?
  16. I’ll Be There For You (Richie Sambora solo) Jon took time off stage for this song, and let Richie take the lead. This has got to be the best power ballad of all time!
  17. Make a Memory Jon reappeared after a wardrobe change, but he didn’t come on stage—he had a little platform on one side of the arena from which he sang this and the next song. OK. It was probably the cheesiest part of the concert, but the fans around him ate it up. (And I think I saw some ladies slip Jon some panties.)
  18. Bed of Roses
  19. Who Says You Can’t Go Home I sure didn’t want to go home after this one!
  20. Have a Nice Day And who doesn’t love the title track from their 2005 album?
  21. Keep the Faith
  22. Living On a Prayer I knew the concert was coming to an end, but they hadn’t played this song or “Wanted Dead or Alive” yet, so I knew it wasn’t over. You should have heard the crowd on this song; I swear they were louder than the band, and they kept cheering until the band came back for an encore. Seriously, my ears were ringing from the two girls screaming behind me.
  23. Encore Song #1 I Love This Town The production for this song featured video from the Kansas City area, including logos from the KC Chiefs and Royals, but the KU Jayhawks logo got the biggest response from the crowd. Someone threw a KU national champions ballcap on stage, and Jon wore it a few measures, and you know that was well received.
  24. Encore Song #2 Wanted Dead or Alive And I so wanted to hear this song! Jon asked us to stand for the singing of the national anthem, and then Richie broke out the beginning riff, and the crowd went crazy! It was totally worth the wait!

I still can’t believe I saw Bon Jovi in concert last night. Arena concerts are a whole other experience, that’s for sure! It’s no wonder that this band has been performing 20 years, they have a way with the crowd, and their music is always spot on. Who can turn down songs about love, heartbreak, living the life you want to live, and generally being a bad @$$? Wanna see more pictures? Check out my Picasa web album.

What Other Bloggers Had To Say

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Posted in gigantic idiot | 10 Comments »

April 16th, 2008

The Great Cat-astrophe: Week 3

Well, Mowgli has been in our family for three weeks now, and I think it’s time to show you some pictures!

Figure 1. Mowgli is smart.
Mowgli is smart.In this first picture, you can see evidence of Mowgli’s intelligence. Note the glowing eyes that seem to thirst for knowledge. Mowgli will be going to University in the fall, where he will study the art of seduction begging for attention. He will also join the Mouse Chasers club and train for the 2012 Feline Olympic Trials. We hope to display a medal in the family trophy case.

Figure 2. Mowgli is enthusiastic.

Mowgli is enthusiastic.In this second picture, note Mowgli’s perked ears. As you can see, he loves having his picture taken, and he loves his new owners. In his spare time, Mowgli likes to knead Sarah and Chris’s bellies, pounce on Ravi, and beg for attention (and tuna treats). He also likes to rub noses with his new friends and likes to generally be underfoot whenever Sarah or Chris are in the kitchen.

Figure 3. Mowgli is untameable.
Mowgli is untameable.In this third picture, see the raw power that emanates from Mowgli’s fur and paws. He is strong as a lion and swift as a leopard. He can jump over tall couches and chase plastic toys with the agility of a panther. After University, Mowgli hopes to get a job with the circus. He also hopes to meet a real lion.

Figure 4. Ravi likes pencils.
Ravi likes pencils.So that’s your introduction to Mowgli, the newest member of the Austin clan. For those of you who know our “first-born,” you can see the brotherly resemblance, but when you see them together, it’s easier to tell them apart. Mowgli is fluffier than Ravi, Mowgli is smaller than Ravi (except in the tummy), and Mowgli purrs louder than Ravi. In Figure 4, you can see that Ravi, on the other hand, is sleek, can jump higher, and likes snuggling quietly.

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Posted in cat-astrophe | 3 Comments »

April 15th, 2008

FreeRice.com Feeds the World While You Improve Your Vocabulary

I spend a lot of time online, and believe it or not, sometimes I run out of things to do. In these rare moments, I usually turn to online Set, a mind-bending card game. (Want more info, check out Linden’s post.) But thanks to the NBC Nightly News, I found something new to do: feed the world and improve my vocabulary. FreeRice.com donates 20 grains of rice for every vocabulary word you get correct. So far, they’ve donated over 26 billion grains of rice, and they donated over 178,000,000 grains yesterday.

How can FreeRice.com help you? Well, as a former English teacher, I can tell you that it’s important to have a useful vocabulary when writing in college and when writing on the job. If you’re a student, you’ll do better on your ACT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT, and you’ll probably get better grades. And let’s face it, next to listening to NPR and playing Set, I can think of no better way to feel and look smart (and to make others think you’re smart).

This was my last word: lupine, which means wolfish. Harry Potter fans out there should see the connection and smile. And I didn’t know that five minutes ago! I’m smarter already!

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Posted in gigantic idiot | No Comments »

April 14th, 2008

Treehuggers Blame Runners for Fossil Fuel Shortage

Could this be the cause of our fossil fuel shortage?

I don’t consider myself much of a treehugger, but I do read what’s going on at Treehugger.com, and in light of this weekend’s London Marathon, they’re somewhat blaming runners for the shortage of fossil fuels in the world.

In a Telegraph article about the marathon, Bob Fenton reported that

Organisers provided 88lb of petroleum jelly for medical use including avoidance of “runners’ nipple”.

Next thing you know, the treehuggers will be blaming us for contributing too much carbon dioxide to the environment!

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Posted in gigantic idiot | 2 Comments »

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