Blog Design Updates
It was a veritable orgy of Wordpress plugin updates this week. I went hog wild! Hopefully, regular readers have found value in them already. The list below excludes the ones tied to behind-the-scenes performance.
- Added plugin to allow as-you-type previews of comments being left
- Added plugin to automatically end each post with a reminder to subscribe to the RSS feed
- Added In-Series plugin to allow for the flexibility to create a series of posts. It automatically ties them all together for readers. See Dental Dilemma as an example. This functionality will prove especially useful once I begin my series on saving for a ’round the world trip (or anything for that matter).
- Added Think Free document viewer which allows Microsoft Excel documents to be viewed as HTML files. Again, this will prove useful for readers when I post my rough budget, itinerary, and pre-departure task list as it’s all in one Excel file. My plan will be shared as part of the series on saving money (coming soon).
- Added Did You Pass Math spam plugin which asks the commenter to do simple addition before commenting to ensure a person is writing, rather than a spambot. I like the idea of quizzing people (we all use calculators too much!), however I’m still getting spam (that is ultimately filtered out by Askimet anyways, but stresses the database so I hear).
- Added Chaos Laboratory’s currency converter (left side). I actually had a legitimate reason to use it already, and it was nice to have such an easy-to-use feature so close to the hip. The conversions are done based on Yahoo Finance data.
Recommended Reading
Joe Blogs – I keep promoting Joe Lyon’s World Tour 2006/2007 because it’s the first blog I actually started reading (and reading regularly). He’s from England, and before he left on his trip last year, he posted a message on BootsnAll to follow along. I did, and am happy to have shared his experiences in Thailand, Bali, and now Australia for several months. He plans to tour New Zealand in May, followed by the South Pacific, and possibly the States, before heading back to England.
The Global Trip – I first became aware of Erik Trinidad’s blog as a result of a motivational video entitled “Would You” which he made for himself while preparing to take a second trip around the world. Check it out, bookmark it, live it! I’m going to stick to writing for now, though viral videos seem to be the way to go if you’re interested in publicity these days. Erik is a well published travel writer, and just finished a re-design of his website. The Navigation Map on the front page is pretty slick.
Where the Hell is Matt? – Speaking of viral videos, this guy Matt became one of VH1’s Top 40 Internet Stars by taking video clips of his dorky dance from a variety of locations around the world. It attracted so much attention, a gum company sponsored his next RTW trip. He’s currently set to embark on yet another RTW trip at the expense of this gum company. I haven’t decided whether I would want such sponsorship. I’ll write more about Matt and my thoughts another day.
My Week In Review
I scheduled this past Monday off from work to take care of some errands. I had planned to wait until later in the year to get a physical, however a cholesterol screening revealed I’d been eating a bit too much birthday cake at work lately, so I moved the visit up a few months. My doctor wants me back in late May too. After the physical, I headed to my parents for lunch, before going to my dentist to get the stitches out. The visit was short and sweet, and I then sped south to my friend Jason’s auto body shop for the final errand – replacing a cracked wheel on my ‘02 VW Jetta (1.8T). I learned about it 5 months ago, however I hadn’t been losing air pressure so I kept putting off paying for a replacement. Once the air started leaving it, Jason helped me find a refurbished wheel that cost about 1/2 the price of a new one. Including labor, it cost $240. At least I feel safer driving around now! The remainder of the week was work-oriented as usual, and tomorrow I have to write my 1,000 word piece on Old Town Alexandria.
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