Category Archives: check it out

testing testing 1 2 3

I just added some plug-ins ~~ do follow – link love, a flickr photo thingie, a WYSIWYG comment editor, my feedburner stat thingie and I updated my all-in-one-seo-pack. I’ve also updated my blogroll a little.  It’s a work in progress so don’t be alarmed if I haven’t yet linked to you.

But please, me know if things get wonky from any of these changes.

It Takes Just a Little Getting Used To

I’ve been a fan of Firefox for quite a few years now.  Since upgrading to Panther though, it keeps crashing out on me – regardless of how many tabs I have open or how many additional programs I have open.  So today, I complained, yet again, to the hubby and asked him how to delete it so I could re-install it.

Surprisingly, he had me delete Firefox and install Flock.  For the most part, it’s your basic tabbed browser so all is good.   The cool part, it’s not crashing on me and it runs tons faster than my Firefox was running.  It does take some getting used to though – especially the add a new tab button.  Dude, it’s on the far right!!  And of course, I keep looking for the button on the far left.  This is all so reminiscent of our new faucet that somehow change sides for the temps.

I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it though.  It’s new it’ll just take some playing around time to get used to things as well as to just learn how things work.  It’s multi-media intuitive, which I’m sure some may like.  Me, I’m going crazy with the stupid little banner opening up every.single.time I open anything with RSS feed capability – hello, that’s a LOT of blogs and sites.  I also miss my auto-fill button, but since that’s really a Google toolbar thing I’m sure I figure out how to install that again.

Now, if only I could figure out how to get my damn drop-down thingies working again.  It sure makes it challenging to edit the authorship on my group blog or write emails from anything other than my standard gmail addy.  But hey, I’ve got a couple more days to figure it out (before I force my hubby to do it for me out of frustration).

And can you believe it…it’s already Thanksgiving tomorrow!  Yikes!  Where has the year gone?

NaBloPoMo: Welcome to the Half Way Point

I’m sure by now a few of you (myself included) are wondering what in the world is left to write about. Well, as I’m always trying to improve my writing and my blogging (both here and for my site), I’ve found that there’s some great information out there.

* The folks over at Blogging Bits offer up A No-nonsense Guide To Clearer, Sharper, and Better Writing as well as suggestions for Overcoming Writer’s Block (check out there blog for other great writing & blogging topics – truly a great resource).

* SEO 2.0 also has a post chock full of good ideas – in fact they’ve got 101 ideas for things to blog about (many of them linking back to great posts with even more ideas).

* Problogger is a great resource with a wealth of information for the professional (and not quite so professional) blogger. Did you know that there are 20 Types of Blog Posts?

* There’s also plenty of info out there at NewBlogger (formerly Blogging Made Devilishly Simple) and my goto guy Andy Wibbels from Blog Wild (he is my blogging hero!).

* And let’s not forget Mighty Girl‘s book, No One Cares What you Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. There’s some great info there, especially if you need suggestions or prompts for something to write about. I speak from experience here and I mean no harm, but if you can, order it direction from Amazon or through your local bookstore – online processing is not their forte and it doesn’t seem that things have improved much since the book first came out.

When all is said and done, I do hope that the folks at Blog World put up some audio from last week’s conference in Vegas. It sounds like there was some really good information out there. Now if I can just stop traveling long enough to actually write about something already.

Can You NaBloPoMo?

nablo07_seal

That’s National Blog Posting Month to you and me. Not to be confused with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is also happening in November.

It’s a pretty simple process. You start up a blog (unless you already have one, that is) and then you head over to the NaBloPoMo folks and register your blog and commit to posting once a day, every day, for the entire month of November. You don’t have to blog on the Ning.com site, you can still use your own blog. But either way, it seems fun and easy. And better still, you can get some new online friends!!

Woot! I might actually start getting comments on some of my posts now…

Didja Know…

That you can put water-based lube in your nose when it’s so dry you’re nearly dying?  Honest.  Even the Mayo Clinic says it’s okay.  It’s been my savor today thanks to our extreme lack of humidity and the smog of the fires.  Mind you, now my husband is going to wonder what I’ve been doing all day when he sees the lube out.

That was Quick, too Quick


fire sunrise
Originally uploaded by hereinmalibu.


I just wrote yesterday how the Santa Ana’s have started blowing. Well, by about 4:15 or so this morning the fires started in Malibu. Now, a few hours later, buildings have caught fire and homes have been evacuated. I wonder how long this one will last. Here’s hoping no one is injured.Every year it seems to be something in Malibu, be it mudslides or fire. This year I guess it will be more of the same since after the fires, there’s usually the rains and of course, the rains bring on the mudslides. I think it takes a certain kind of person to live in part of California.Turns out we’ve got some large fires going on in Casaic and Porter Ranch as well. And due to the heavy winds, events all over the area are being canceled.  And you know you’re in LA when the LA Fire Department has a Twitter feed going on.

Let’s Go Meet Crazy Aunt Purl

If anyone would like to join me at the Grove to see/hear Crazy Aunt Purl later today, you’re more than welcome.  We can do dinner or drinks or coffee too!  And if it helps to motivate and excite you, she’ll also be doing a raffle for a divorce gift basket (as seen here).

Come on, what could more fun, inspirational and social to do on a Thursday night?  You’ve got better plans?  Did I mention she’s crafty?!?

Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Los Angeles: Barnes & Noble at The Grove [Google Map]
Reading, Q&A session and book signing

I’ve Gone Blog Wild!

What’s not to love right?  You get to babble on about whatever topic happens to be on your mind, or you get to profess to being an expert at something, anything and people read it.  On a good day, people even comment on what you’ve written.  Sadly, those days seem to be too far and few for my tastes, but hopefully moving to this new URL will help give me a jump.  I promise, I don’t bite and I won’t invalidate your thoughts – I’m good like that.  Honest.

Thanks to Andy Wibbles and his book, Blog Wild, I’m learning so much more about the blogosphere.  More importantly, I’m learning how to use a blog to enhance your business (more on that another day).  But better still, I’m learning that you can use a blog as your business site instead of designing a full on website.  This has me very intrigued, let me tell you.  This is definitely something I’ll be exploring in more detail over the next couple of weeks.

Not only do I enjoy writing blogs, but I also enjoy reading blogs.  I love poking around from blog to blog and having that voyeuristic peek into someone else’s life.  I haven’t gotten around to updating my blog links yet (though it’s on my list of things to do and will hopefully be done before this goes live), so until then, I thought you might like to check out a couple of my favorite blogs to frequent.

CityView – a friend of mine writes this blog.  She’s super busy starting up her own photography business and might not update as much as some folks prefer, but who cares.  She’s a talented photographer and she has a lot of whimsy in her photos.  She also shares some fun sites from around the web.

How About Orange – speaking of sites that CityView likes to share…she led me to this crafty gal.  Check out the post around her condo, she’s got some style.  She tends to kill her plants, but that doesn’t stop her from trying again with a new batch.  For that inner CraftyGrrl you’re hoping to embrace, she’s got quite a few fun tutorials on her site as well (just in time for the holiday season *hinthint*)

Mighty Gal –  I’ve been a fan of her Mighty Goods site with all the fun gadgets and what not.  But I have to say, I like reading about the day to day stuff.  And for those of you that seem to hit the occasional brain-fart when trying to come up with a blog topic or something fun to write about, check out her No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for your Blog.  It’s just got enough to spark those writing cells up again.

ljcblog –  yet another crafty gal.  Though this one loves food – especially fun foods – and travels a lot.  She’s always got a fun story, a new product or some great photos to share.

Mom-101 – I found this blog just a month or so ago when researching the recent Blogher conference.  While mommy blogs typical aren’t my thing (child-free here), she’s got a wealth of knowledge on a variety of topics.  She’s really knows a lot about the blogging world.  And you know what?  She makes being a mom sound fun (sometimes exhausting, but rewarding and fun).

Snarkspot – What’s not to love, it’s Jennifer Weiner?!?  She sounds like everyone’s best friend and her day to day stories just crack me up.  Even if I didn’t love her books, I’d have to love her blog.

Crazy Aunt Purl – I’ve been linking my site’s blog to her for quite some time now, but only recently have I started to read it myself.  I don’t know what I like more, that she can make sitting in traffic on the 101 funny or that she’s crafty?  I’m bound and determined to learn how to knit, so you never know, I just might see her at the next Stitch & Bitch (she’s a local, Valley girl).  Speaking of being local, she’s got a new book out and will be at the Grove Thursday, Oct 11th.  I’m hoping to stop buy and get a couple books signed (hoping to do a giveaway on our site).

This is by no means my definitive list – I keep changing things up – but it’s a good list to get you started.  Hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do.