Testing a cross-posting plug-in

Apologies for this relatively content-less post, but I'm testing LJ-XP, a Livejournal CrossPoster plug-in. There doesn't seem to be much documentation on the website, so I had to go hunting for more info and found some here. Now let's try using the "more" tag, which should hopefully translate into a link back in LJ-land...


In theory, this paragraph should appear on a different page in Wordpress (I've used this before in my Babylon Five Virgin blog), but also NOT appear in the cross-posted LJ entry. Let's see what happens. For those wanting to see what happens on my Livejournal page themselves, follow this link.

The photo above, by the way, is of one of my new Blush card designs. More about these in an upcoming post.

Update #1: Hmmm...the "more" tag doesn't seem to translate properly. Must investigate...

Update #2: Aha! I had copied the "more" tag given on the LJ-XP site, which was incorrect (it had a capital 'M'). Changing it to lowercase fixed the problem.

The Squirrels Are Taking Over

A power transformer blew in our neighbourhood yesterday (a squirrel was responsible, I know it) and we lost power for much of the day. I ended up having to research, write and upload my daily Writersmarket.com column on my iPhone, which wasn't fun. But still...better than not being able to do the column at all.

The squirrels are taking over.

I've added a Google Custom Search Engine to Electricpenguin.com which searches all our online projects. In theory, therefore, you should be able to enter one search term and get results from Inkygirl, Blatherings, etc. Feel free to try it out!

Archive page revamped, LJ feed, renovations

I've installed the Clean Archives Reloaded Wordpress plug-in to revamp the default (and somewhat dull and unhelpful) Wordpress Archives page into something that is more search-friendly. Check out my new Archives page, which you can access from the navigation bar at the top of the page. I notice it's a bit slow-loading, so I may keep looking for other plug-ins; there are so many to wade through.

And this is one of the reasons I decided to switch to Wordpress rather than design something from scratch or even upgrade my installation of MovableType. I hadn't upgraded MT for several years because the last time I tried, something went horribly wrong and I ended up having to pay MT to help me. Wordpress upgrades are much easier (one click), plus there are tons of useful plug-ins. Upgrading MT now would involve a major learning curve for me since the user interface has changed so much and I just don't have the time.

By the way, I won't be updating my LJ quite as often but Brooke has kindly created a Blatherings Livejournal feed for those who want to be kept updated on every Blathering.

The feed makes much more sense than my having to create the HTML link every time I update Blatherings.



Renovations continue. The little room you see to the right will turn into my walk-in closet (woohoo! the packrat in me rejoices!). The door on the left leads to our current bedroom, which is going to become Jeff's office. Jeff's office, meanwhile, will turn into our bedroom.



We're adding a window, taking out some wall and adding others. As you can imagine, it's a bit noisy and chaotic here in Ridpath-Ohi land, but it'll all be worth it in end.

Still revamping...

The move/revamp seems to be going well. I've also decided to change the format somewhat from now on. I'm going to be sticking to shorter posts than longer ones from now on, for one. Easier for me to write, easier for people to read. I still reserve the right to post the occasional mega-long essay, of course.

I'm also going to enable Wordpress comments. I'll still provide a link to my Livejournal update post, but enabling the regular comment feature will make it easier for non-LJ types to post feedback.

I'll also still be posting some updates in Livejournal and Facebook, but only for some entries. If you'd like to keep updated, please do subscribe to my feed (see top right corner).

My Life In A Nutshell, songwriting and iPhone Pocket Guitar

My Life In A Nutshell has been updated.

I'm writing a song for Urban Tapestry to perform in a couple of weeks at our CIBC Run For The Cure gig. I didn't intend to; the whole chorus just popped into my head without warning. I used my iPhone guitar apps to figure out a chord structure.

Speaking of iPhone guitar apps (and in keeping with the theme of the above cartoon), I recently downloaded another guitar app. This one's called Pocket Guitar, and it cost 99 cents:



The basic idea is to press the frets in various chord positions, and then strum or pick the bottom row. You can also adjust the settings so that you can pick the fretboard and automatically have the right note sound (as in the video below, though I'm not sure if the app is exactly the same or an earlier version). You can also choose from different instrument sounds, from electric guitars to acoustic to ukulele. Different effects can be achieved by tilting the Iphone.



From some of the YouTube videos I've found where people are using the iPhone guitar apps, it certain seems as if there's some potential, if you know what you're doing.



Next I may try out MooCowMusic's Guitarist.

Hm...it would be fun to get together with other iPhone musicians and have an iPhone jam session with all our digital instruments sometime. :-D



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