Posts filed under 'w00t'
I use RSS, and you should, too. That is the theme of today’s post, so I’ll be laying the peer pressure on pretty thick.
So what exactly is RSS? Well, it stands for really simple syndication. By using an application called a reader and adding subscriptions from your favorite news sites and blogs (hmm…A Fool of Myself comes to mind), the new content from those sites comes to you in your reader. You no longer have to remember all the sites you frequently read, go to them, and hope for new content; if a site has been updated, the new content will appear in your reader. (Come on. Everyone is doing it.)
Still confused? Watch this little video produced by CommonCraft.com to see how you can start using RSS within minutes. I would have made my own video, but I hate reinventing the wheel, and this one is super easy to understand:
To summarize the video, to get started with RSS, you need a reader (e.g. Google Reader, NewsGator, Bloglines, My Yahoo!, etc.). Once you have a reader, add subscriptions to your account by looking for and clicking on the orange RSS logo. That’s it! Just start reading! (I’m going to tell everyone how lame you are for not using RSS!)
If you have any questions about RSS or need help setting it up on your computer, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment. I’ll answer any and all RSS-related questions. (And remember, you’re not cool unless you’re using RSS.)
May 1st, 2008
Last week, I wrote about my obsessive book collecting and my compulsive reading habits, and wouldn’t you know a great little post from Daily Writing Tips came through with a post for book lovers!
That’s right, they define all our favorite words that find their roots in the Greek word biblion: bibliography, bibliographer, bibliographic, bibliographical, bibliotheca, bibliolatry, bibliomania, bibliotaphe, biblioklept, bibliopole, and bibliomancy. I checked my American Heritage Dictionary, and the only words they left out were bibliofilm, bibliotherapy, and bibliotics, but they don’t have much to do with book loving.
Hope you enjoy learning about bibliomania as much as I do! Maybe one day I’ll get a book review or two up here…
April 29th, 2008
The Barna Group released the results of its latest study on how churches use technology today. Even though Barna is on my bad list for not having an RSS feed, I still stay up to date on the studies they release. Today’s study was interesting to me because I work at a church and handle a lot of the technology.
Continue Reading April 28th, 2008
One of my entries in the Search Engine Journal guest post content was published today, and in order for me to win, I need lots of support and links and bookmarks and comments. My post “Four Surefire Ways to Write Magnetic Web Content” is about writing great web content even if you’re not a great writer, so every blogger and writer out there can benefit by reading it. I’m trying really hard not to beg, so please, love me and check out my post!
April 24th, 2008
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:
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.)
April 21st, 2008
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.
Let’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).
You 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 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:
- 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.
- Born to be My Baby
- 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!
- 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.
- Just Older
- 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.
- Blood Money
- 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).
- Whole Lot of Leaving
- 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.
- In These Arms
- Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
- We Got It Going On One of my favorite songs from the Lost Highway album. Rock on.
- It’s My Life A favorite from the Crush album.
- Bad Medicine (w/ Shout) The crowd went wild with this one. Who can blame them?
- 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!
- 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.)
- Bed of Roses
- Who Says You Can’t Go Home I sure didn’t want to go home after this one!
- Have a Nice Day And who doesn’t love the title track from their 2005 album?
- Keep the Faith
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
April 18th, 2008
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!
April 15th, 2008
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!
April 14th, 2008
This just in! A ridiculously small percentage of Internet users are using RSS, which is a bloomin’ shame! Do you all realize what you are missing? Do you realize how much simpler your life could be? Don’t you understand that your world could be flipped upside down by this reallyreally simple technology!
To raise RSS awareness, the folks over at Daily Blog Tips are getting the word out about RSS on May 1, and you can participate by blogging about RSS between now and the big day.
Can’t wait for the first? OK. I’ll spill the beans a little ahead of time. If you want to know about RSS right now, check out this video from the folks over at CommonCraft.com. They’ll give you the skinny.
April 9th, 2008
Well, Google has done it again, and yet again, I’m on board. Just today Virgin and Google announced their plan to put a permanent human colony on Mars: aka Project Virgle. Here’s the video about the project:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmSdy_9blB4]
Interested? You bet I am! Linden, will you join me?
At the Virgle site, you can learn how to become a Virgle Pioneer, test your Pioneering potential, or join the Mission Control community that will help develop the 100 Year Plan they’ve outlined.
I just took the initial Virgle personality test, and here were my results:
Well, you’re distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you’re currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life.
They certainly don’t look promising, but I think I can charm the Virgle folks with my great personality and good looks! Whaddya think?
April 1st, 2008
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