Okey dokey, here’s Tuesday’s video of all that I do on Tuesdays in the office at LifePoint. Enjoy!
Brilliantly creative? Gigantic idiot? You decide.
Elsewhere Online
Archive for December, 2008
December 16th, 2008
She Works Hard for the Money, Part II
December 15th, 2008
She Works Hard for the Money, Part I
This week, I have a series of vlog posts about my job at LifePoint Church, and I answer the question: What does Sarah do all day? Every post this week will answer that question for that day. Here’s Monday:
December 15th, 2008
Automatic Google Sitemaps for Blogger.com and Wordpress.com
When I wrote “Creating a Google Sitemap for Your Wordpress.org Blog” earlier this month, I said that if you were writing on a Blogger.com or Wordpress.com platform, you didn’t have a sitemap available to submit to Google Web Developer Tools.
I was wrong.
If you’re on Blogger.com, tack on rss.xml to your blog’s URL to access your sitemap. For those of you who are running your RSS feed through Feedburner, you’ll get redirected to another page, but the file is still there. Just use the file name when submitting it.
If you’re on Wordpress.com, tack on sitemap.xml to your blog’s URL to access your sitemap. Use that file name when submitting it to Google Web Developer Tools.
December 14th, 2008
Snow Days
An ice storm is moving through the Ozarks tonight, and I’m tempted to stay up and watch it come in. Chris noted that watching an ice storm roll in is not nearly as fun as watching tornadoes roll in. I agree. At least with tornadoes, the weathermen have something to tell us on a minute-by-minute basis.
Anyway, if the roads are really bad tomorrow, I might not have to go in to work, which will throw a wrench in tomorrow’s planned post. (It’s gonna be a fun one!) In a fleeting moment of wisdom tonight, I picked up a stack of paperwork I’ll need to go through tomorrow and brought it home just in case I get to work on the couch while watching Ellen. <fingers crossed />
Freezing rain and sleet are on their way. An Arctic front has moved in. I have mixed feelings about going to work tomorrow:
- It’s gonna be slick, which means people are going to be stupid on the roads. I’m confident that I will get around pretty well, but I’d rather not get out if I don’t have to. And then there’s the adventure of trying to get my rear-wheel-drive Blazer up a slick, icy driveway after I go out. (I have sandbags in the back, but I don’t want to test them out. And I’d like to keep what’s left of my mailbox, which I pretty much destroyed last winter with the Blazer, intact.)
- It’s gonna be cold. For days. And I’m afraid if I let myself stay in on Monday, I’ll want to stay in on Tuesday and Wednesday, too. Of course, the building at work will be cold, too, and there are no cats there to keep me warm. Or blankets. But there is leftover pizza from tonight’s Explore LifePoint…
- Vacation is so close. In 10 days, I’ll be on vacation. I’m not going anywhere, but I have 12 days off for Christmas and New Year’s. I have quite a bit to finish between now and then, and while I can more or less work on those from home, I don’t want to get in the vacation mindset until it’s official.
- What about Chris? Chris’s workplace has no policy on snow/ice days, so more than likely, he’ll have to make the trek into Springfield tomorrow. And snow days are no fun when you have no one to hang out with.
Thankfully, we have plenty of food and wood in case we get iced in, so I’m not concerned about that. And ultimately, the choice isn’t up to me. I’ll get up as usual tomorrow, and if the boss calls and tells me not to come in, I’m prepared to work at home–in my jammies.
December 13th, 2008
Why I Separated My Twitter Account: Three Reasons to Consider
I found myself and BloggersGuide.net at a crossroad this week: To tweet or not to tweet. That was the question. I’ve had a personal Twitter account for about a year, and I’ve kept it pretty well up to date with personal musings and activities and the feeds from my personal blog and BGnet. But I also use Twitter to keep my Facebook status up to date, so my personal Twitter audience is much larger than the 50 or so followers I have on Twitter; my tweets also go to my 300 or so friends on Facebook.
And that was the problem. By promoting BGnet with my Twitter account (and therefore Facebook), I was publicizing to a whole group of people who a) had no interest in Twitter and b) had no interest in blogging. And as a professional writer, I can tell you that the first thing we’re taught in our professional writing classes is to know and address your audience.
At the same time, I asked myself, Sarah, do you really want to separate your Twitter account? You know yourself. You’ll probably start separating all your other accounts, too. This could get really hairy very quickly.
These thoughts are valid. I’m an all-or-nothing kind of girl, and when I commit to something, I go all out. But there are three reasons I separated my personal Twitter account from my BGnet Twitter account, and they are reasons you should consider as well:
- Time. I spend a lot of time online, and it’s very easy to let the line between personal and work activity become gray and fuzzy. By separating my Twitter accounts, I’m ensuring that when I’m working on BGnet, I’m solely working on BGnet. And that makes tracking the time I work on BGnet so much easier.
- Audience. My BloggersGuide.net Twitter account is directed primarily to bloggers rather than my miscellany of friends. While I’m sure my friends don’t mind an occassional BGnet plug, they don’t want to be inundated with articles I’m reading or conversations I’m having with other bloggers. At the same time, the Twitter username @bloggers_guide communicates that the account is about blogging whereas @sarahjoaustin only communicates that the account is about me.
- Content. My personal Twitter account is filled with all things personal: what I’m doing at work, what I’ve just posted on my personal blog, what I’m doing on a Friday night, etc. I want to do the same thing with my BGnet Twitter account: share what I’m reading that pertains to bloggers, promote BGnet, and network with other bloggers.
So my question is: Did I make the right move? I can think of several bloggers/tweeters off the top of my head who keep their personal and blogging tweets together, but I think there’s validity to keeping them separate. What about you? How are you handling your Twitter account(s)?
December 12th, 2008
For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | December 12, 2008
My brain has officially detached from the rest of my body. I am sick and have been all week long. I finally took some DayQuil and now everything is really, really fuzzy. On the up side, I haven’t missed a NaBloPoMo day yet! Thankfully, I’ve had the foresight to plan my posts ahead of time, and I’ve had a little bit of energy to write. I’ve even had a bit of energy to read, and here’s what I recommend for you to read this weekend:
- 101 Most Essential iPhone Apps of 2008. I don’t have an iPhone yet, but Chris got one for Christmas and his birthday, which is in January. He lets me play with it, though, so I enjoyed looking through this article for new apps Chris should add to his phone. (And to mine, when <fingers crossed /> Walmart starts selling them for $99.)
- Frayed Laces BQs in Las Vegas. For you non-runners, BQ stands for Boston Qualifies (that is, qualifies for the Boston Marathon), and Frayed Laces gives her account of her race last weekend. I made me cry, I was so happy for her. Congrats, FL!
- Sexting Expert: Teens Should Not Have Cameras on Cell Phones. I think we knew this already, but this article explains the temptation/peer pressure teens face to take naked pictures of themselves and send them to their friends. That’s it, when I have children, I’m keeping them in a barrel, just like Mark Twain suggested: “When a child turns 12 you should put him in a barrel, nail the lid down and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug the hole!”
OK, that’s all the sharing I have the energy for today. Ravi is taking care of me here on the couch. Happy reading!
December 11th, 2008
Finding Your Voice: 8 Best Practices to Improving Your Writing Style
For those of you who know me, you know that I hate four-letter words like nice and good because their meanings are entirely subjective, and therefore, they mean nothing. You can imagine how annoyed I get when people say, “So-and-so is a ‘good’ writer,” but I get even more annoyed when people say, “I’m not a ‘good’ writer.”
I say, “Pish posh.”
While some chalk up a “good” writing style to natural ability, I want you to know that even if you have the crappiest writing style in the world, you can get better. And if you do indeed have what is considered the crappiest writing style in the world (which I’d like to read, so send it to me), maybe your readers want to read your crappy writing style. Maybe it’s what they’re looking for. Regardless of what we’re considering “good” and “crappy” today, here is a list of best practices I follow when I write and practices that will help both “good” and “crappy” writers find their voices:
- Read. Read. Read. Don’t scan. Read. Your RSS feeds do not count. You need to be reading books or at the very least, lengthy magazine articles. I don’t care if you’re reading Foucoult or Dr. Suess or anything in between; the act of absorbing the written word will result in that same written word (and by same I don’t mean copied) dissipating in your own writing.
- Write. Write. Write. I will never be a world champion snow boarder unless I snowboard snowboard snowboard; likewise, you will never be a good writer unless you write write write. Practice!
- Practice perfectly. OK, I admit I have mixed feelings on this point because we all make mistakes, and I’m certainly from the school of Learning From Your Mistakes; however, I had a gymnastics coach when I was a kid who always said, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” Maybe he was just a jerk, but I think there’s some validity in his mantra. When you write, double- and triple-check your work. Are my proper nouns capitalized? Are the common nouns lower-cased? Do the ends of my sentences have punctuation? Are my commas joining complete thoughts? Did I use to, too, and two correctly? How about there, they’re and their? A little rusty on your grammar? Listen to Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing or pick up a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
- Write with an active voice. Avoid sentence structures that contain a to-be verb; you can most easily identify them by looking for sentences that start with there or by gleaning out was, is, were, and being. Get to the heart of your verbs and use them! Using verbs will make your writing come to life.
- Get straight to the point. When I was teaching, it drove me crazy when students started all of their sentences with I think or I believe. Because you’re the writer, your readers will automatically assume that what they’re reading is what the author (you) think or believe.
- Use all seven coordinating conjunctions. That’s right. There are seven. Most people use three, and only three: and, but, and or. Try using the other four to liven up your writing. For, nor, yet, and so are small but powerful words when you’re connecting two complete thoughts. (And let’s review the rule: When using coordinating conjunctions, you need two complete thoughts, a comma after the first thought, and your coordinating conjunction.)
- Punctuate! I love commas and periods as much as the next writer, but if you really want to get me riled up, throw in a semicolon–or even better, a dash! Use a semicolon when you want to join two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction; use a set of dashes when you want to make a parenthetical statement–like this one–without using parentheses.
- Toss out all these best practices. You know the saying, “Rules are meant to be broken”? It’s especially true in writing. But I caution you, don’t break the rules because you don’t know them; break the rules because you made a conscious decision to do so.
So that’s it. The eight best practices above are the ones I use every day to craft the voice and style in my writing. What about you? Do you use these best practices? Or do you have others that work for your style and your writing?
December 10th, 2008
Top 10 Unique Things About Sarah Jo
So the sermon at church on Sunday was about humility, but I missed it because I was home sick; therefore, I don’t feel guilty one iota writing a top-ten list of reasons I think I’m awesome, well, at least different from everyone else. Here we go:
- I have a birthmark in my left armpit. A quarter-sized brown dot.
- I have natural highlights. Lots of ‘em. Seriously, I found a picture that was taken of me when I was four, and I look like I have stripes running through my cute locks.
- I have extra-large pupils. Weird, I know, but my optometrist told me, and in fact, the optometrist doesn’t have to dilate my eyes when they do that one test…
- All of my fingers are crooked. Got them from my dad.
- My fingers are really skinny. Got them from my mom. My wedding ring size is 3 and 3/4.
That’s all the cool physical things you should know about me. Here are the rest:
- For a writer, I’m pretty good with numbers. I can calculate them and remember them. Dates, phone numbers, prices. If it’s a number, chances are I’ve committed it to memory.
- My favorite color is orange. Burnt, tangerine, pumpkin. I like them all!
- I don’t really like chicken. I really don’t like cooking it, and I rarely eat chicken unless it’s been fried.
- Bones gross me out. Especially human bone. Don’t talk to me about it because I will pass out. I can’t even think about bones breaking or getting crushed or shattering without getting the heebie jeebies.
- My preferred soft drink is caffeine-free diet Pepsi. I was raised on it, and it tastes best to me.
There you go! Now you know all the reasons I think I’m cool and why you should think I’m cool, too. I am so humble.
December 9th, 2008
You Don’t Have to be a Programmer to Hand-Code Your Blog
Last week, in a fit of motivation, I submitted five continuing education class proposals to the local community college; three of the five proposals were for blogging classes. I haven’t heard a yea or nay on my classes yet, but when I looked at my tentative class outlines once more, I realized that I better get my butt in gear and actually think through some of my micro units, which is the impetus of today’s post.
Today I want to talk about XHTML, also known as eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language. Long before I started seriously blogging, I learned XHTML and CSS (cascading style sheets) in a graduate technical writing/web development class. Now, when I say learned I mean that I learned how to hand-code an entire website without leaning on Dreamweaver or any other web development software. I’ve heard nightmares from web development teachers whose students say they want to learn how to code when they really want to learn how to use Dreamweaver. Not in the class I took. We hand-coded everything. And I loved it!
I can hear you asking, “Sarah, what does this have to do with blogging?” Well, let me ask you, Have you ever wanted to change something–anything–about your blog’s appearance or functionality but you were afraid you’d mess up your template? Here’s the thing: Knowing how to hand-code XHTML can give you greater control over your entire blog template and your individual blog posts, building your confidence as a blogger and as a web developer.
Let’s be clear: I’m not advocating building an entire blog template from scratch. I mean, you can if you want, but there are so many free templates to choose from, why not pick one that’s close and tweak it until it’s exactly what you want? Want that elusive third column? Need to increase the height of your header? Hoping your images will line up on the first try? Hand-code, people!
Hand-coding your XHTML has other benefits, too. When you use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor in Blogger, Dreamweaver, etc., you’re likely to get “extra” code that is automatically generated. This code can slow down your blog, hinder site performance, and invalidate your blog with the W3C. By hand-coding your blog, your blog will more than likely load fast, perform better, and be search engine friendlier. And who doesn’t want those things?
If you’re ready to learn how to hand-code XHTML, so you can have tighter control over your blog’s appearance and functionality, check out the list of resources below to get you started:
- Head First HTML with XHTML and CSS
- Basics of XHTML – Why, What, and How
- W3Schools XHTML Tutorial
- W3C Markup Validator
Even with these resources, you’re not going to be whipping out mind-blowing site designs immediately; however, learning XHTML, its tags, and its rules is pretty simple. Concentrate on it during a long Saturday or with a series of evenings at a coffee house, and you’ll be a hand-coding expert! Happy coding!
December 9th, 2008
Austins and Fros Follow Death and All of His Friends to Coldplay
Colby & Lyndsey at dinner
I’ve been working on this post all night, and considering that my mind is quite fuzzy from this swell head cold I’ve acquired, it’s a wonder I’ve made the progress that I have. Sans this first sentence, I have a sampling of pictures, a set list, a YouTube video, a link to a fellow blogger, and an embedded photo album all from the Coldplay concert the Fros, Chris, and I went to in November. Yes, I realize this “review” is long overdue, and since a lot of the newness has worn off (and because I feel like crap), this won’t be a traditional review.
This was my and Chris’s third event at the Sprint Center in KC this year. Folks, contrary to popular belief/rumor, we are not loaded, nor are we obsessed with attending concerts; 2008 was just a good year for us.
Lyndsey and me checking out our programs.
We ate dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill in the KC Power & Light District, which was a nice change from the usual restaurant I insist on eating at when we venture to KC. I usually insist at eating at one of four Fiorella’s Jack Stacks because it has been my family’s favorite restaurant since before I was born. I cut my teeth on their gigantic onion rings. No wonder I’m a carnivore.
Anyway, we didn’t eat there. We ate at Ted’s Montana Grill, which was just a block from our parking garage and a block from the Sprint Center. Lyndsey and I really hoped The Band would be eating dinner there, too, but alas, they did not. Gotta say, the restaurant was very good. I had a bison burger, Lyndsey had a veggie burger, Chris had the salmon, and Colby had a steak, and I believe we were all quite satisfied with our choices. I loved that this restaurant is all about sustainability and being responsible consumers; for that reason, our plates were filled with the perfect amount of food so nothing would go to waste. We even drank our beverages with paper straws! And we had room for dessert, which was something with chocolate that I picked out before we even got to the restaurant.
The Fros and the Austins at dinner.
Once at the Sprint Center, we found our seats and purchased our cursory merchandise and waited. Thankfully, we had some pre-concert entertainment from the four drunkards who sat in the row in front of us. The opening acts Sleeper Car and DJ Jon Hopkins were the usual opening acts: Good, perhaps, but paling in comparison to what we were waiting for. And once they were over, we waited some more for the stage to be reset. Once again, there was more entertainment from the fools in front of us, and they were certainly “entertaining” the people around them. By “entertaining,” I mean, they were starting to get on everyone’s nerves, but everyone around them kept there mouths shut because the four were drunk.
The Austin
Concert began. Set list below. I gotta say that before the concert, I thought Chris Martin’s dance moves looked a little weird when I saw the band on shows like SNL. On stage, in a huge arena, though, Chris’s frenetic dancing looks kinda normal. Or less crazy. Something.
Do I have a favorite from the concert? It’s hard to say. I mean, it was all great. I especially liked “Green Eyes” and “Lost” and the segment in the crowd. I included someone’s video of “Green Eyes” from the concert in the media below. It cracks me up because Chris Martin’s voice cracks at the beginning, and he laughs at himself; that and his other running commentary during the concert made me wish I was friends with the band. They just seem like a bunch of cool, laid back guys who play music for a living. Totally unpretentious. Lorraine (a blogging friend of a friend) was closer to the crowd segment than we were and also has a great review of the concert, plus some great pictures of the band that are much better than ours.
What’s curious, and sort of what I hate about attending great concerts, is that afterward I have this great admiration–that occasionally turns into obsession–for the band. Yes, I familiarized myself with Coldplay’s songs before the concert, and I liked the new album just fine, but honestly, I consented to go because Chris really wanted to. After the concert, Lyndsey gave me the idea of making a playlist in iTunes of the concert set list, and I listened to it over and over. I finally committed the titles of all those songs to my memory, and I read everything I could find about the band. In sum, I need to go to another Coldplay concert because now I truly appreciate them. Argh!
The view of Coldplay on stage from our seats
Set List
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Glass Of Water
- Speed Of Sound
- Cemeteries Of London
- Chinese Sleep Chant
- 42
- Fix You
- Strawberry Swing
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (techno version)
- Talk (techno remix)
- Green Eyes
- Postcards From Far Away (piano instrumental)
- Viva La Vida
- Lost!
- The Scientist (acoustic)
- Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic – Will singing)
- Viva La Vida (remix interlude)
First Encore - Politik
- Lovers In Japan
- Death And All His Friends
Second Encore - Yellow
- The Escapist (outro)
Here’s a link to my Picasa album of all our “good” pictures (with some contributions from the Fros). Photographing a concert is hard with all the fluctuating light levels, so here is the best of what we took.
 |
| Coldplay |
Coincidentally, I went to high school with a Chris Martin. Not the Chris Martin, but I think it’s funny.
OK. So maybe this did turn out like a normal review. Guess I got caught up with writing about it long enough to forget that my nose won’t stop running. Anyway, the moral of this story is: if you have a chance to see Coldplay, TAKE IT!
