AtypicaLife dot net

Pop on through if you’re reading this in a feed somewhere, as I’ve tweaked the header again. This time? It’s ever-changing. It shows the latest twelve photos from our flickr stream in those cool square thumbnails.

Thanks to this flickRSS plugin, and Dale and Matt at Brave New Code for their minimalia theme that I snagged it from.

(Psst… Matt, if you ever see this, I’m the one who talked about being a Wordpress guru. And yes, I *am* slightly embarrassed about it now…)

NOTE: I managed to see what you guys are talking about when Ron looked at it in his profile. A HARD refresh fixed it. Your browser isn’t catching the stylesheets changes. If you still see the trees, that’s a tip. I remvoed the tree pic from the header, it’s not there anymore, so if you see it and the sqaure pics down the side, that’s why.  Press F5.

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Yesterday the blogosphere was abuzz with yet *another* blog-traffic-link-exchange-widget-heavy-javascript-pile-of-crap for everyone to jump on the bandwagon. While the jury is still out on whether it is actually useful in directing traffic (many people report dismally low CTR), the site owner is probably laughing all the way to the bank, considering he’s about to release a book/new site on increasing your blog traffic.

That’s when I’d had it. I already knew I wasn’t going to add yet another similar ooo-shiney “thing” in hopes that I would somehow become the new Dooce magically overnight. Already I’ve lost two regular commentors (that I know of) due to the site not loading properly because of things on the sidebar.

I’ve decided to do the ultimate traffic experiment. Today I’ve taken out all the cruft. The ads are staying as they either pay the bills or they’ve proven to bring real traffic, like the Blogher ad links on the side there. And those ones I *do* have some control what is linked. On the rest, I don’t. I figure that each time I add a new one and tinker with it, and check my stats and obsess over it, I’d have time to write a whole new blog entry.

And that’s what blogging is ultimately about - the writing. The content, remember? Is this blog here for visits or to establish a relationship? Do I want a thousand clicks over here by people who don’t give a crap and will never return, or a hundred readers who get warm fuzzies after they read about our latest adventures? People I can establish a relationship with and share the inside jokes.

Sure, there are some days when nothing funny or amusing - or even exploding - happens here, but some days I get caught up so much in the backend of the blog that there isn’t even time to write a quick cute story. And stuff is piling up from yesterday, even.

Another thing I’ve noticed in reading a pile of blogging-related blogs lately is - they are (for the most part) the same. Most places give the same advice, over and over, reworded and reworked slightly. I wound up skimming quite a bit through the repeated (and bolded and italicized) information hunting for good stuff. And there wasn’t.

Take back your blog. Clean up your sidebar. Free up time to write. Your readers will thank you.

Hopefully, my readers will thank me for it too.

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If you’ve noticed since yesterday, there’s a new plaything on the blog. Under every post, right before the comment line, there is now a series of icons from ClickComment. It’s great for those who are shy or in a hurry, as you can just click an icon to leave your opinion.

Cool huh? I’m just trying it out for now, so click away.

For the couple of users who had trouble with the site crashing, is it still doing it? I took out something I thought might be it.

EDIT: Removed because, yes this too slows down the page far too much. Argh.  I swear, one of these days I’m going minimalism.

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EDIT: I fixed it. I forgot to upload the htaccess file. I feel like such a n00b.
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You’ll have to read new entries form the main blog page until the permalinks finish resolving. you’ll get a “not found” error if you click to comment or come through a feed reader (because it links to an individual entry).

Meanwhile, there’s always email, even if I do have to read it on the server.

I also changed the theme, so freaky things happen with the layout sometimes. It’ll iron itself out in the next 24 hours.

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Just changing the default theme and installing widgets and setting them up. Handy things, those.

If you use Wordpress as a blogging platform, and change themes on a regular basis, having widgets installed and set up (then switching between widget-enabled themes) means never having to touch your sidebar more than once. And if you want to add soemthign new, it’s drag n’ drop.

Because really, most of the time I want to change my theme default, and I’m too lazy to transfer all the sidebar code bits.

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Yesterday, the alarm went off at 5:30 and eventually I got Ron out of bed. I remember thinking to myself it was weird hearing the snow plow go by. Gee, turned out it snowed a whole bunch. I always lay there almost asleep listening for the sound of Ron’s car to head down the road, then I go lights out again.

I was just settling in when the phone rang. I figured it was Ron and he’d forgotten something, and sure enough, when I got downstairs I could see him at the back door, cell phone in hand. But I was so tired I still went in the dining room to answer the phone instead of to the door to let him IN!

Turns out he forgot his glasses and for some reason his house key was missing from his key ring.

He made it okay driving through the snow, which lessened as he went, getting there only 45 minutes later than normal. Now we have all this snow here, which sure is pretty but there’s no big strong man here to shovel it for me. I did some yesterday, but had to stop and wheeze for my inhaler. I hate that. Time to enlist the teenage girls in the house.

Like I said, it’s pretty but I don’t have the camera. Ron does. Maybe he’ll post some pictures.

Also, I changed the Flickr plugin I was using, and I now have a handy photo album right here on the site, but with the ease of Flickr for me. A good fairy bought me a pro account, so I’ve got all kinds of picture goodness. Yes, if you looked at my Flick account recently you’ve seen all the same photos. Here’s the link to the plugin if you’re using a stand-alone version of Wordpress.

(Mom, you probably still won’t be able to see them from work.)

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