Category: blogs

Comments

So I’m considering disabling my janrain plugin and switching to Intense Debate. I’m taking feedback from anyone who has used Intense Debate as an end user and/or on your own site.

This really only affects folks that log in via universal log-ins like Google, OpenID, twitter, etc. Those of you who have your  own log-ins here, won’t be affected. [1]This means you still have access to all the “private” stuff I post from time to time. heehee  The janrain plugin is easy to install but the back end setup takes more programming knowledge than I have to keep it running correctly. Plus, every time one of the big players update their api’s I end up having to start over with fixing it on my end. I don’t really have the time to screw with it. I like janrain because everything remains in-house, meaning all my comments are stored in my blog, not on someone else’s servers. This removes any problems with people not being able to comment if afore mentioned other servers go down.

There are a variety of comment management systems out there. I don’t like Disqus as I always have problems trying to use their platform from mobile devices. For whatever reason, the log-in mechanism never seems to go thru. Even worse, the comment box doesn’t seem to come thru as an actual box so I can’t activate the keyboard to type. Since about 70% of how I access blogs these days is thru mobile devices, I sure as hell ain’t planning to shoot myself in the foot. lol

Intense Debate seems to be very tightly integrated with WordPress. Instead of trying to hold all my comments, they sync with my WordPress installation. In simple terms, they keep comments added thru their platform on their servers but they also sync with my WordPress installation. In a nutshell, this means I get to keep my old and new comments. And, if I ever decide to ditch the platform I still keep all my comments. But wait, there’s more! I also don’t have to worry about mobile comments as my mobile plugin uses the WordPress built in comment system, which gets synced! I remember way back when I migrated from Blogger to WordPress, I lost all my comments. They didn’t have an import-comment function then and to do it manually was more headache than I wanted to research. Intense Debate also offers a variety of log-in options built into their platform. That means I don’t have to manage it on my own. You could still leave comments via your favorite universal long-in.

The only problem I can foresee is a user conflict if/when I switch over. Even when using universal log-ins, WordPress creates an internal user account on my blog tied to your email. I don’t know if a different platform like Intense Debate would understand if it’s the same user account or try to create a new one, which would generate a conflict. I sent Intense Debate an email asking how it would work since I couldn’t find anything in their FAQ or support pages.

Wish me luck!

References

References
↑1 This means you still have access to all the “private” stuff I post from time to time. heehee

Banned

Someone got banned by my spam blocker today. lol Apparently, his IP address was being used to hammer my admin account in an attempt to crack my blog. tsk, tsk! heehee I’ve removed the ban as I know it wasn’t him but I’m tickled it was his IP address. [1]A prime example of why you should never use your default admin account in WordPress.

As a reminder, if you find you can’t access le blog, email me and I’ll look into it. A good first-step is to try to access it from a different location or internet connection. Spammers often hijack open wifi points and/or unsuspecting users and use their computers to do all their dirty work. I see it time and time again sadly. While few sites are truly hack-proof, a few precautions go along way to keep out the bad guys.

Don’t randomly open links/files in emails that you weren’t expecting, even if it is from someone you know. If you use Chrome, they do a good job of blocking malware sites but it’s never 100% foolproof.

Don’t fall for “your account as been locked or suspended, here click on this link and verify your info…” scams. You can do like I do and manually type the link into your location field of your browser of choice. That way you know you aren’t being spoofed.

On a follow up to that, most email clients allow hover functions. Meaning if you hover the mouse over a link it shows a tiny pop up window that displays the actual link. If it is different, in any way from the one displayed, don’t click it.

When you aren’t using your computer/laptop, shut it down . The old adage about ruining your pc by turning it off/on too much is really nonsense. You’d have to do this a 100 times more than the average user to really cause a problem.

At the end of the day, do like my Maw-maw always said, “believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see.”  In other words, if it sounds suspicious don’t just click it like an idiot.  lolol

Oh, and welcome back Brett.

References

References
↑1 A prime example of why you should never use your default admin account in WordPress.

Knock

So I’m checking my blog stats the other day and my log-in tracker was so long it almost crashed the browser. lol Apparently, a crack engine [1]code for a rogue server trying to crack user passwords w/repeated random attempts over and over and over… burned thru over 500 attempts to log into my blog via the default admin account. As mentioned in a several previous posts, one should always disable this default and create a separate more secure one. Anyway, the default account has been locked for some time so all the attempts failed. I’ve since banned the IP’s, not that it does any good as they just rotate thru those too.

Speaking of, I did notice quite a few regular user log-ins. I was a little surprised at how many of you still use your old trusted log-ins here. Since I am single again, you can expect some use to come from having said log-ins. hehehe.  I’ll be posting in said areas again from time to time.

On a side note, my buddy Large Tony has a new blog link. He decided to retire his West of Mayberry for the newer Third Leg. hehehe  If you’re a fan, update your links accordingly. Large Tony has been my biggest referral generator for months and months now so it’s the least I can do to return the favor. Not to mention he is an all around good guy. Here’s to another year of funny, insightful, poetic, and often erotic posts from Big T.

References

References
↑1 code for a rogue server trying to crack user passwords w/repeated random attempts over and over and over…

Oopsie

While I don’t worry much about my blog comments, I have been a little surprised by the absolute lack of any comments at all lately. I discovered today that would be because the last 5 posts got sent to the draft folder on my server instead of being published! lolol I guess in the switchover back to a PC [1]more on that later my xmlrpc file on the server got confused. I reset the file and it seems to have corrected the problem. I’ll roll out the posts over the next week or so vs all at once.
In doggie news, Cooper [2]he now has his own Google+ and FB profiles, links to follow. is adjusting quite well. His behavioral problems have all but disappeared. Ironically, the one thing we thought would be an easy transition has been the hardest…his potty training. After the first week, he took to peeing (and sometimes poohing) on the carpets when we weren’t around. We tried a few techniques but have finally started to crate him when we aren’t home. The poohing has stopped but the pee episodes still occur. I hate doing it but he needs to learn the rules. This is the most effective method and given time will make him happier. He has clearly been in a crate before as he didn’t whine at all the first night he spent in the crate. December 22 will be his first full month with us and I couldn’t be happier. [3]I expect many of you to remember 11.22.11. Notice the cute pattern? He is a joy to have and be around and brings me lots of smiles. I look forward to him being there when I get home at night. No matter how awful my day has been, seeing him always makes me happy. I’m not sure who gets the most out of the time we spend together, him or me. hehehe
We’ve noticed Cooper definitely has some peculiar habits. One of the funniest is when he crawls off the sofa. He uses just his front feet and literally drags his back-end off onto the floor. Its hysterical to watch. Other times, when he lays down he will walk next to something, like the sofa, and literally just throw himself sideways onto the floor. His newest habit is crawling over me up onto the arm of the sofa to look out over the room. It took him a few tries to get his balance right so he wouldn’t fall. He only seems to do it when I’m actually on the sofa. I like the fact he has odd habits, it makes him more unique in my eyes.

References

References
↑1 more on that later
↑2 he now has his own Google+ and FB profiles, links to follow.
↑3 I expect many of you to remember 11.22.11. Notice the cute pattern?

Heavy Roller

Well, my listing today on Amazon and I have ten, yes count them, 10 whole subscribers! lolol I didn’t really expect anything major mind you. 🙂
I also discovered changing the RSS feed being pushed to Amazon is very VERY easy. I was a tad worried how I could mantain control over certain types of content that isn’t necessarily for public consumption. *snicker* You very long time readers know what I mean.
I also have a lot of random drivel that I don’t share. One of the ways I keep myself blogging is I try to log on at least once a day (or so) to post my meanderings, basically “dear diary” sort of stuff. While completely boring and mundane, it keeps me talking not only to myself but to you. I didn’t want all that cluttering up everyone’s stream.
Annnnyway…. I just tweak the feed link on my dashboard for Amazon and hit publish. I can custom string basically any category [1]or not that I want. *whew* So far it has handled pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it. I added categories, hid categories, etc and it worked. Most excellent.
I’m also trying to expand my list of blogs I read again. It’s been so long since I’ve followed anyone new, I really need to start blog hopping [2]jumping from blogroll to blogroll exploring friends of friends of friends, so to speak again. I really miss having personal blogs to follow and keep up with. I’m down to about 10 and that’s fewere than my first month all those years ago.
On a side note, I’ve been checking my site analytics and after filtering out FB, Google, and twitter, Large Tony is still the number one referal to my blog. And ironically enough, brettcajun was a distant second. I guess I should pop over and thank them for having such loyal blog jumpers. hehehe And speaking of Brett, he is ever the attention whore of the blog world. 🙂 It seems he and Jimbo are having a war to see who can flame the other the most.

References

References
↑1 or not
↑2 jumping from blogroll to blogroll exploring friends of friends of friends, so to speak

Theme

I loaded a new theme on the ole blog site this week. I like the fact that is has tons of custom options, many of which I haven’t even begun to tinker with yet. The theme itself is clean, easy to read, as well as being easy on the eyes. [1]Or at least I think so. 🙂

The design also suits my mobile theme plugin. They are completely separate items but I like the symmetry of the look. The header can be set to slide to different images or load a new header on each page load. I’ll probably swap out headers at some point. Right now the one provided is nice and clean. I was gonna use one based on the new Google+ layout but it was too simplistic. I didn’t like it.

Anyway, the right column looks soooo much nicer now. It’s very easy to browse, read, and find info. I’m planning on deleting some of the Dandy ID links. Many of them I don’t use that often, if at all. Having them clutter up my blog is pointless. Sometimes less is better. I’ve already removed the “recent comments” box. It really didn’t add much. I’ll probably add a different one at some point but for now its gone.

I’m thinking of adding a photo slide/viewer in the right column. Ideas? Feedback? Suggestions? Hate it/Love it?

References

References
↑1 Or at least I think so. 🙂

Feedback

Some random comments (and my replies) that I have received about my blog. . .

This blog is gay. Really?

How did you get the mobile widget to work? Its not a widget or a theme but a plugin that detects mobile browsers. You can find it here.

Like your blog, found you thru Scruff. Scruff? What’s that? 😀

I can’t find your blog. How did you get here then?

Do you have any pictures of you naked? Yes

When did you start blogging? I kept journals off/on as far back as my early 20’s. I started blogging in 2004.

What’s so special that you feel the need to blog? Uh, I ride the short bus?

Why

Well, after 30 some odd texts, emails, comments, etc from my last post, everyone seems to be curious as to why. Why I listed with Amazon. Lawd, you’d think I announced my blog was ending! lol There are several reasons actually. What? You think its an easy one-liner? Pssshaw! When am I ever that one-sided? lol

One, I feel a little bit guilty for dropping off for so long in my regular blogging. I know I probably shouldn’t but I do. In the last few months I’ve had quite a few folks [1]mostly unknown to me at that stop me in person or comment online to tell me how much they really missed my blogging. It was very flattering and humbling after all this time to still have complete strangers stop and share their love of my blog. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside. [2]No, not there, get your mind out of my gutter! 🙂 I had one guy stop me in Starbucks, he was visiting from out-of-state, and share how much he enjoyed my blog. Two different guys came up to me at Folsom (and I was only there about 2 hours) to tell me how happy they were I was blogging again. I even had a a couple guys on Scruff message me to introduce themselves and tell me they liked my blog. There have been others but the point is I started feeling guilty. Primarily because I know exactly how they feel. I’ve been very disappointed at times over the last 10 years when some of my favorite blogs ended. Whether I knew them in person or not didn’t matter, I had spent a chunk of my life getting to know them thru their blogs and it was disappointing to lose that contact. So to realize I’d sort of done the same thing made me feel a bit guilty.

The irony here is I don’t really follow that many personal blogs anymore. Primarily because so many of them have ended. I have a very small dedicated group that I still read. Most of the blogs I follow these days are news/tech sites. I still keep up with some folks via FB, twitter, Plus, etc but even that is losing it’s appeal for me.

I am truly flattered and humbled that people care and listen to what I have to say. It makes me feel honored and proud that you take the time to follow me when there is so much content (in so many places) out there these days. I’ll admit the desire had sort of left me for awhile but I’m finding that I really missed it. I get such a sense of well-being when I settle into blogging mode and being back in the saddle has really made me see how much I missed it.

My free-time is always a factor but I’m finding ways around that as well now. I can’t promise I won’t have lapses again but that’s life. Life first, blog second has always been and continues to be my approach.

Another reason is flat out geekiness. I love the idea of having my blog content being so readily available in such a cool format as the Kindle. For someone like me, its a bit awe-inspiring seeing my blog on an Amazon page. Never in a million years would I have ever dreamed I’d grow up to actually have people pay attention to what I say. For you long time readers, you get it I know.

Three follows closely behind reason two. Its not so much adulation as appreciation. One person asked if I wanted fame. I’m sure there is a small facet of that mixed in but honestly, I don’t feel its a driving force. It isn’t so much that I want people talking about me as much as I like knowing that people care enough to follow me. I guess that’s sort of the definition of fame but in a different context. I’ve never been a popularity blog. [3]Unlike another blog I shan’t mention. heehee And frankly, I prefer my attention up close and personal. lol Aaaaanyway…I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Of course, I write knowing people are reading but my content is usually for me and I’m simply sharing with you. I don’t think I’ve ever sat around and just tried to think up ideas to blog about. Often times, I forget many of my ideas because I don’t take the time to jot them down when they pop up. Lawd knows I’m rarely w/o something to say.

On a funny note, one lurker called me a sell-out. I’m a bit surprised by that because my blog is still completely free on the web. And $0.99 a month is hardly big business for the convenience of getting my madness on your Kindle device. lol Hell, who knows if it will even go anywhere.

Lastly, since my blog readership has dropped off somewhat, I’m hoping to revive it with a new avenue of distribution. Hopefully, over time people who have drifted away will realize I’m back at it and tune in for their weekly dose of my nonsense. Looking forward, you can definitely expect some discussions about Spike, work, my life in general, and probably some stuff dealing with my most recent break-up. No, not dirty details but definitely about things I learned and am still learning from it. Of course, my random and unexpected nonsense will be ever present.

Thanks again for those loyal folks who have stuck with me. I hope to not let you down.

Moby

 

References

References
↑1 mostly unknown to me at that
↑2 No, not there, get your mind out of my gutter! 🙂
↑3 Unlike another blog I shan’t mention. heehee

Amazon

Well, I’ve gone and done it! My blog is now officially available thru Amazon.com for download to your Kindle device of choice. For the amazingly bargain basement price of $0.99 per month you can now get my madness automatically downloaded every time I post an update. Yes you read it right, per month. [1]It is only available on actual Kindle devices vs. the Kindle reader app than can be installed on many mobile OS’s.

First, I didn’t choose the price, Amazon did. While you can still (and will always) get my blog perfectly free on the web, you can now fork over a measly dollar a month for the convenience of having it updated automatically for you if you wish.

Second, this was not about money but exposure. For such a small fee I’m clearly not looking for profit. It is my hope to increase my user base. I’ve only been back at it steadily a short time now, yet I’ve already had several people reach out to me and tell me how much my blog has meant to them. It’s been a humbling experience to say the least.

Depending on how well it goes, I may at some point decide to disable my internal subscription service. It’s become very laborious to manage and keep up with. For now, nothing has changed. My RSS feed is still available directly from my blog for free. The Kindle route is about convenience and hopefully, more exposure.

Last but not least, my content will still be my normal ramblings, opinions, ideas, pet-peeves, etc. From what I’ve seen, nothing I post or write about comes anywhere close to violating any of Amazon’s TOS. I don’t foresee any need to censor myself. If it does, it is easy to manipulate what enters my RSS feed. [2]Amazon loads my blog via the RSS feed.  I am not sure how pictures translate to Kindle devices so I will still need to work that out.

As for content, from what I’ve seen on some of the listings so far, most of my content is perfectly acceptable. The only real difference you might notice is reposting content from my old blog. Since my old blog isn’t tied to the new one, I may from time to time repost some of my older more significant posts.

That’s it. A big welcome to any new readers and a big thank you to anyone else subscribing thru!

References

References
↑1 It is only available on actual Kindle devices vs. the Kindle reader app than can be installed on many mobile OS’s.
↑2 Amazon loads my blog via the RSS feed.

Casualty

Apparently, my last blog post was a casualty of my learning curve on the mac. I’ve been experimenting with different blogging software on the mac as there doesn’t seem to be a really stand out winner. I’m kinda surprised because I thought for sure there would be a good one.

I use Windows Live Writer on the PC and it turns out, its one of the best out there. And its free. None of the free mac software even comes close. I’m tinkering w/one now called Ecto and it seem something happened between my saving it to the laptop and it getting posted online.

Anyway, I re-write the last post when I get time. It was a child hood memory that sort of hit me out the blue the other day and I thought I’d share. lol