All posts by The Artist

WordPress Issues

How To Widgetize A Theme?

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Well, I don’t know, what’s why I am asking! For the past three months, I have been trying to find just the “perfect” WordPress theme but is seems that every time I found one that I actually would like to use without heavy customization, it is not widget-ready!

Sure, there’s a little tutorial in the WordPress site but that might as well be Greek for all I understand it!

So I know of a guy who offered to help people with technical stuff in his blog. I wrote in and he told me to check the WordPress themes website. Duh… I already browsed through the site numerous times but could not find something that I like enough to use for the long term.

So it’s back to more searching!!! GGGrrrr

Computing & Internet

Get Your Pet Care Questions Answered

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In March, I wrote a post called “Blogging Vet” where I suggested to my Vet to set up a blog and website to answer whatever concerns pet owners have as a value added service to the owners of his patients. I made this suggestion during the two weeks I spent at his surgery when my dog was gravely ill. He cured my pet and I was very impressed. Unfortunately, he told me that he did not have the time and so my suggestion fell on the way side though he agreed that it is a good idea.

This afternoon, I was told of an online pet advisor site called Pet Advisor. The tagline of the site is “Happy Pets=Peace of Mind”. I have to agree with this completely because I have two senior dogs that fall ill rather regularly and I absolutely do not have any mood at all if they so much as feel a little unwell.

Televets is a great resource site where we get to read many articles on our pets but the core concern of this site to answer questions from pet owners. Each question is only $6 and I think it is absolutely worthy because it costs more taking our pet to our local vet. To read the questions and answers that have been archived only costs us $1.

If I were to pose a question on Televets, I would like to ask how to prevent reoccurrence of bladder stone in my dog.

Blogging

Do You Want To Appear In The Fuel My Blog Book?

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About a month ago, I received an email from the Fuel My Blog team about their idea of publishing a book of bloggers who are on Fuel My Blog. I thought that is a pretty neat idea but I am publicity shy and always prefer to keep a low profile.

Anyway, this book is taking shape right now so if you would love this chance to talk about your blog and show the real human side of yourself behind the blog, all you have to do is register with Fuel My Blog, if you aren’t already, and submit a photo of yourself and a short write up about your blog, why you blog, what inspires you, bla bla bla… you get the drift!

Here is a screenshot of how the book will look like.

From what I understand, the book is only about US$20 per copy inclusive of delivery and you can buy as many copies as you like. 15% of the proceeds from each sale will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

Now, if you would like to get into the book, act fast. The idea is to have the book published and shipped in time for Christmas so that you can show if off to your guests. The book makes a great gift as well, particularly if you are in it. Don’t you think so?

General

Winter Is The Best Time For Car Buying

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My sister and her fiancé are both in the market to buy a car. In my sister’s case, she knew there was something wrong not long after buying it. She bought it second hand and did not know that the car was used as a cab in New York City for a number of years and was already in its last leg of its life when my sister bought it unknowingly.

On the other hand, her fiancé’s car was damaged by Hurricane Katrina two years ago. Since then, he has been experiencing problem after problem until he gave up and says it is more economically viable to just replace the car.

This morning, I read a statement from Kimmel and Silverman, a law firm that specializes in Lemon Law, saying that the best time to buy a car is in winter. Are cars sold cheaper in winter compared to other seasons? I don’t know.

My sister told me that this time, they are both going to buy new cars. Is makes more sense since they are more financially stable now and new cars come with warranty. Although not all used cars will give problems, they are unwilling to take the risk as any down time to their vehicle will cost them time and money.

Also, when a car has manufacturer’s warranty and it has clocked significant time in the workshop, the owner will be entitled to a one-to-one. I think that the car owner will have to hire an attorney to fight for it but if there is a case, they could obtain cost-free legal help. There are many avenues for car owners to make their claims under the Lemon Law, it is just that car owners need to know their rights and seek legal help when necessary.

Computing & Internet

Traffic Exchangers

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A couple of days ago, I read a very good article on how to bring in traffic to our blogs. I know that I need such guidance and one of the tips given is to participate in traffic exchanging services.

Firstly, I am not sure if this will work and even if it does, will it be considered as traffic manipulation? My concern is getting sustainable traffic and not from participants in traffic exchanges whose only concern is to chalk up credit.

Talking about traffic, I remember once I had to fill out a form and answer a question like this:

Q: Which of your blog post received the highest traffic? What did you write about?

I did not know what to reply. I can’t tell them that my top posts were on fried sperm and c-string gua ….. lol

Building a blog is not difficult but building traffic and readership is!

General

It’s Gift-Giving Time

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What I love about Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year is the act of gift-giving. It’s not even the monetary value of the gifts but the thought that we put in getting just that perfect gift for our friends, family and colleagues. This could be time consuming if we do not know the recipient that well or what he or she really likes.

If you are in this situation, then may I suggest getting fruit baskets? I find that fruit baskets are always well received and one could never go wring with them. Seriously, there will be no chance for us to get something of the wrong size or color for fruit baskets, can we?

Moreover, fruit baskets are great in the sense that we could throw in whatever we like into the gift according to our budget. Some people would add in chocolate, cheese and other gourmet food and even wine. The possibilities are endless.

This Christmas, I will also be giving a couple of friends, gourmet gift baskets. I love seeing their look of surprise when they find something special in the fruit basket!

Computing & Internet

Akismet De-Spam Doesn’t Stick

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I am not sure if I am the only one with this problem. I believe you know that I have this major issue with being spammed to death and if I were to leave my Spam folder alone for one day, I would have more than a thousand spam comments waiting for me.

The problem is that real, legitimate comments are sometimes caught by Akismet too which is not so much as a problem except that I would have to go through the folder every single day to make sure that all comments in there are nothing that I would like to keep.

I have tried to De-Spam time and again but I do find these same people being caught again and again. This could get pretty annoying, don’t you think so? I wonder if this is a bug that only I am experiencing because I don’t see anyone complaining also….