Jumpstarting my career, but the engine is stalling…
My soon to be self hosted Wordpress blog is coming along very well. I’m taking my time with this, so that I understand fully what is involved and how to manage my blog site going forward. As I stated in Spouting 13, I will be using this blog to detail my progress of my self hosting Wordpress install and set up. Afterwards, I will transfer everything over to my self-hosted blog and continue blogging from there.
I decided to use a subdomain of my site to do all of my testing, as I learned that it would be very easy to transfer my completed test blog to my main domain when the time is right. As such, I’ve completed the phase 2 of my sight: installing and playing around with plugins. I haven’t installed every plugin that I will need, but the two that I did install contributed to the learning process for me to know how to actually do the installation. The two plugins that I chose to start with is the All in One SEO Pack and Tweetmeme. Both of these plugins installed quite nicely. Wordpress offers a great internal installer. And the beauty of all of this is that you do not need to install directly from Wordpress if you choose not to. If you’re interested in doing it manually, you simply need to upload your plugins to the plugins folder on your server via FTP. Not that I’m afraid to do it manually, after all, I’m quite proud of having installed Wordpress manually. As noted in my first phase, Spouting 13: Wordpress Update, the installation was a piece of cake. I really only had to change 8 lines in one file called: wp-config.php and then upload that file with the rest of the Wordpress application files to my root server via an FTP client. Now that I understand the manual process, I don’t have a problem with letting Wordpress automate it for me. Another nice feature is that Wordpress will decompress the .zip file the plugins come in as part of the auto installation process. I simply can not believe how easy this has been. I also installed a different theme. It’s not the one that I will be using, but I also wanted to understand how theme installations were handled. The fact that Wordpress is setup to allow the user to search for and install plugins within its own dashboard is wonderful. This prevents the user from having to go to another site. Yet, if the plugin you want to use isn’t available within the dashboard’s plugins page, then you can still simply upload the .zip file and have Wordpress take care of the rest!
As of now, Tweetmeme,was the easiest of the two plugins to understand. Although I have the All in One SEO Pack installed, I’m not sure if it’s really working or how to determine if it is or isn’t. I did a test post, but I didn’t see anything beyond the general stuff that appears with a post. This means that I will simply play around with the plugin a bit more, visit the forums and see what I can discern. For those of you reading this and considering the same, some resources that I found to help me out with this part of my installation were:
My Google seach string for the “must have” plugins for a Wordpress blog
How To Make My Blog’s 18 Most Downloaded Plugins Ever
Thesis Theme Plugins Customization
Quick Online Tips’ Must Have Wordpress Plugins
Business 2 Press’ 30 Must Have Wordpress Plugins
Most of the information is repeated in the above links, but I put them in the order that I found them to be most useful. With regards to the Thesis theme, I’m not sure if I will be going this route. It’s a highly customizable theme for Wordpress with a very clean structure. If you like to control everything and have the time to invest, then this is the theme for you! My personal opinion, and I could be wrong, but it’s really for those that are more high end users. I’m keeping my eye out on it, maybe one day, but I really like more visually laid out themes, like Elegant Themes, and while I’m still on the fence about which direction I’ll take my blog, I am leaning more towards Elegant Themes. That being said, I will be saving my theme of choice to the very end. As far as plugins are concerned, I would enjoy reading anyone’s suggestions on any other plugins that I should consider using, whether they are on the lists noted by the url’s above or not. I make no promises, but to check them out!
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This is going to be quick. I haven’t posted for a while, because I’ve been working since Saturday, September 19, 2009 with setting up my own hosting service for my already purchased domain: runningwithoutcondition.com. I purchased the domain back in May and now am actively working to become acquainted with my own hosting service (which is setup) and the self-hosted version of Wordpress (I’m currently testing it out). I want to say that I not only successfully installed it without a problem, but I did it entirely manually. I was only able to do it this way, because I installed it on a subdomain of my main site, while the main domain is still forwarding to this site: laid0ff.wordpress.com. All in all, I’m quite proud to have done it manually, and after it’s been all said and done; it was not difficult at all. I may even do it again, just to make sure I understand the process (OK, maybe not, ;p)
That’s it for now. I’m going to hold of any of my new posts for my new site when it becomes ready. I’ll post status updates here about my progress or any difficulty I may be happening and maybe anyone that has experience could lend some assistance!
I want to thank Adria Richards and Kikolani for all the advice and answers they’ve provided on Twitter/Facebook. You can find these awesome Geek Girls at: (Adria) askadria.com or butyoureagirl.com, and Kikolani at kikolani.com
I also want to thank the following website: howtomakemyblog.com for providing a kickass step by step process, in a non-cluttered way.
Also, Wordpress.org for making such a powerful program for free and so extensible!!!
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While doing my daily perusing of a few internet sites, I came across a post on Digg.com about a guy who saw an image of a flock of birds sitting on electrical wires. Now, there really isn’t anything truly unique about this picture on its surface as I’m sure we’ve all seen similar scenes in our lives. Yet, it was his interpretation of that image that really piqued my curiosity. Whereas many people see that and just think of a bunch of birds dropping bombs; Jarbas Agnelli, from São Paulo, Brazil, viewed the image as musical notes.
On his vimeo page, he posted a video called Birds on the Wires. This video details the arrangement of the notes and shows how he interlaid the notes over the birds positions on the five electrical wires. You also are shown, while the music is playing, the original image that he saw when he was reading his newspaper that prompted this musical interpretation. Personally, the music is beautiful. It’s not very long, just under 2-minutes. It seems to start off with a very young and curious ambiance. My thoughts were “childish” in nature, but in a positive sense. As the music starts to grow, it blossoms into this very open, yet uplifting arrangement that teeters on the edge of wonder. It is as if the listener is being playfully teased with something that is as close as a whisper, but is never revealed. I find myself in awe each time I have listened to it. What a wonderful piece of music that makes me feel a bit better then I was before, for having listened to it.
Thank you, Jarbas Agnelli, for sharing this with everyone. His local newspaper, (the entire site is in Portugese, so unless you speak the language, which I do not, you’ll have to have it translated) Estadao, has a write up on their site, under their Cidades (Translation: City) tab entitled, “Foto de pássaros no fio publicada no ‘Estado’ vira música” (Rough translation: Stock photo of birds on the wire published in ‘State’ newspaper turns into music). It seems that Jarbas is very talented and creative, as he has other videos on vimeo that displays his other creations. I hope that more sites, readers and people pick this up and pass it along for others to experience.
It’s an oddity how nature continues to find ways to position itself in such manners that leave it open for interpretation and yet, translates so well.
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The title says it all. I have a small notebook and in it contains a few of my ideas. Most of the time, I tend to intimately consider things I’d like to create or endeavors I’d like to make, but I hardly ever write them down. Rather, I store them in my mind and recall them as needed. However, I have kept coming back to an idea that I’ve had for a while. I contacted the owner of Please Feed The Animals, Erik Proulx, and asked him for his advice on how best to present one’s idea on the web to share with the larger community, but to also protect it from those who may have better resources to implement a potentially good endeavor. His reply, and this is paraphrasing at best, was that far too often many people keep great ideas locked away in notebooks that never see the light of day. This one statement was the one thing I needed to hear. Since then, I’ve added a few more thoughts to the idea; talked to a few more people about it and have committed to writing it out and posting it on my blog site.
I can’t quite state when the post will happen, but it will. I may very well wait until I can transition this blog off of Wordpress’ hosting site and onto my own self-hosting service, and let that be the first new post of my new, self-owned/contained, blog site. Either way, the time is ticking and one of the crucial elements will be to find a few people that have the resources needed to accomplish the goal of this idea. This is just one post to get the ball rolling…
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It has been about 3 weeks since my last post, but I am happy to report that I am working again, at least on a temporary assignment. I’ve been re-employed at my former company that I was initially laid off from. I am back in my previous department, but in a new role. As I’ve told those close to me, I’m very happy for the reprieve, even if there is an end date. This all came about on the 3rd of August. That day I had to fill out all the paper work and fax/email it back to the company. By Wednesday, I had to accept and sign the offer letter and take the mandatory drug test. And all of this was being rushed so I could start on the following Monday, August 10, which I did. It has also been an odd transition of getting back into the mindset of having a schedule to adhere to in order to get some sleep, wake up at a proper hour and get to work on time. After almost 10-months of sleeping whenever, waking up whenever and doing whatever-whenever; I am slowly coming around to this familiar, but re-enacted routine.
This past Friday, I received my first pay check, but only for the first week, because I had not completed a full two weeks yet. A former colleague of the company (and now friend), who worked out of another state and was also laid off (he has recently relocated to Orlando, FL working for another new, but soon to be great, company) told me about a month ago, about how good it felt to receive his first paycheck in such a long time. I have to echo those sentiments: it does feel really good. But, I have not let this positive turn deter me from my current goals and path. I still have every intention of paying off my car. This should happen, if everything goes as planned, in October. After this time, I should be saving more and planning what I will do once the job is set to end by December, 31st 2009. With everything that has happened since October 2008, I’m not ready to bank on anything beyond this being a temporary position for me. I’ll always keep an open mind as to the possibilities and make some, not so formal, plans should those possibilities become realized, but my consistent plan will always be on the reality of what currently “is”.
So, as of now, what becomes of my website: www.runningwithoutcondition.com? I will continue to post. The metaphor still applies in all aspects of my life, not just my goal (which is still not completed) of being permanently employed as full-time somewhere. I still have plans of transitioning this site off of Wordpress’ servers and set up my own hosting site. I still have a number of drafts waiting to be completed. I think that I will probably start publishing my “spouting” posts anytime, but any of my longer posts will most likely be done during the weekend.
It’s strange how you take for granted receiving a paycheck every two weeks when you are working.
I also want to thank JRM. You know who you are and I appreciate what you did.
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To "run without condition" is a metaphor for doing all that I can, with all that I have; to be boundless. It's my acceptance of an unconditional spirit and thriving to move beyond the constraints of myself.
Visit my About Me page to learn more. I'll be updating it with more information in the near future!
