YKYW - Nursing Student Blog

I finally signed up at MyBlogLog and set up my sites. Now I just need to decide if I want to put the “Recent Readers” bar on my site. Since a lot of people who read my blog are real life friends, I’m not sure that adding the “Recent Readers” bar would add any value to my site. (Do any of you have a MyBlogLog account?) But, I like gadgets, so I’ll probably install it, at least for a bit, the next time I’m messing around with my blog template.

While I was reading about MyBlogLog, I came across a tutorial from Stark over at FuzzyFuture about adding MyBlogLog images to comments for Wordpress blogs.

I briefly toyed with the idea, but decided against it in the end. Gravatar offers more flexibility and are easy to implement. They also offer the commenter a greater incentive to leave a comment on my site. If the reader has to use the URL field to specify their MyBlogLog account, then they don’t have the opportunity to gain a link to their blog. While some may feel that the link to MyBlogLog can lead people to their blog, I’ve discovered that a shorter path is a better path. Our attention span is just too short to force people through a maze to finally find our home page.

Also, as someone who writes on multiple blogs, it is important to have flexibility. When I am surfing poker blogs, and want to comment, I want to have the ability to send people to my poker blog. If the blog falls under any other category, then I point to this, my personal blog.

In the end, it’s about preference. As a Gemini, I like having choices! But, for me, the choice remains Gravatar for individual images associated with comments.

**Update** Doh. I didn’t realize how it really worked. I thought I had to enter the url to my member profile (like this: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/Jaxia) instead of just putting the URL that I registered on the site. Hmm. It’s more compelling now, but I’m still interested to see how many people have Gravatar accounts compared to MyBlogLog accounts.

It seems this has morphed into a nursing student blog instead of a blog about my life. But, my life centers on becoming a nurse right now and so it makes sense that my blog revolves around life as a nursing student.

With that in mind, my blog has gone through a makeover. If you read through a blog subscription service, stop by and check out the new blog design. Thanks to David for the nifty looking sexy nurse icon!

Cherokee Medical Nursing Uniforms Available In Tons Of Colors, Styles, And Prints!

I was piddling around on the Internet and decided to set up an Internet link directory. Silly, I know. It’s not like I need something else to do. I’m still working on the layout, but I thought I’d let ya’ll know about it in case you were interested in being listed in a link directory. I have several special categories (Gambling Directory, Texas Directory, Gay & Lesbian Directory, MySpace Directory, Nursing Directory, MMA & UFC Directory and Games Directory), and most of the general ones. If you don’t feel there’s a good home for one of your sites, just suggest a new category and I’ll take care of it.

Come one, Come all! Feel free to spread the word about my new web directory.

SK and I went to Houston this weekend and spent some time with my nephews. They are getting so big! The youngest one will be 4 in a few days, and the oldest will be 5 in December. The birthday boy loves to go to the bowling alley, so that was our first stop. It was only the third time I’d ever been bowling, and SK’s only been a handful of times. I had a lot more fun that I thought I would! With a few strikes and spares each, we managed to get a few decent scores (although I’m sure they would have been lower if we bowled without the bumpers!). It was a quick trip, but it was nice to see them.

Thanks for all the well-wishes about my anatomy and physiology midterm. I’m pretty happy with how well I scored. I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped on my second test in statistics, but I still have a high B in there. There’s still hope! I can earn extra credit in government if I spend eight hours helping a political campaign. I need to make some phone calls to see what options are available.

As for nursing school, still no letter. I did confirm that they have the right address on file, so who knows where it went. There is probably a warm bird’s nest with lovely new wallpaper that reads ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected.’ The admissions office said that there are several people who did not get their letter yet, and now I have to wait until Nov 4th. If I still don’t have my letter by Nov 4th, they will tell me my status if I go into the office.

On the geeky side of things, Firefox has made their latest release public (Firefox 2 Release Candidate 3). I still need to install IE7. I updated my forums again. Several of you mentioned problems with the other ones — These should work much better. Check em out!

I’m surprised about the opinions regarding a relatively new service called PayPerPost. Dan over at Florida Venture Blog has a great write-up on the service that is getting a lot of attention on Digg. Personally, I’ve written a few posts but I haven’t been paid yet. They have a fairly eclectic customer base so far, and many advertisers even leave the tone of the post up to the blogger. I think this is a great marketing tactic, because it allows people to offer their real opinions about your product/site/service. Even negative feedback can benefit a company if they take it to heart. For bloggers, it is a great chance to make money blogging. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.

I’ve been messing around with redesigning my sites so that I can use widgets. While looking around at the widgets out there, I couldn’t find one that would let me put buttons (or chicklets) in the sidebar. So, I decided to write my own — Jax Buttons! (Creative title, isn’t it?) You can see a working example of it over at my sandbox.

Instructions
———-

- Unzip the file.
- Upload images to a folder on your server, such as /wp-images or /images.
- If you are not from Texas and would like to include your state,
upload a file named state.gif to your images directory.
- Open jaxbuttons.php and change $icons_baseurl=”http://www.yourwebiste.net/images”
to the website URL where your images are stored. Do NOT include trailing slash (/).
- Save changes.
- Upload jaxbuttons.php to your /wp-content/plugins directory.
- Activate plugin.
- Add the widget to an active sidebar and configure the options.
- Be sure NOT to include the http:// in the URLs.
- Save changes and you’re done!

I’m sure there are more buttons out there that should be included. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, or issues.
http://www.youknowyouwanna.net;/downloads/jaxbuttons.zip;Jax Buttons v0.5;

Were you beginning to wonder if I was stuck under a pile of textbooks?  Have no fear; SK dug me out after I finished my final on Thursday.

Our trip to Atlanta was wonderful and relaxing.  I really enjoyed being able to share some of my childhood memories from Helen, Georgia with SK.  We even made the trek up to Anna Ruby Falls.  Ah, I love waterfalls!  We also spent a day out at Stone Mountain.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I enjoyed it.  Personally, I like to read historical markers, and Stone Mountain was chock full of them!  We took the Sky Cab up to the top of the mountain and found a spot to sit down.  The hawks were circling nearby, and we had to look down through the clouds to see the tree tops.  There aren’t many experiences that can compare to that.

I haven’t been feeling so hot for the last week and a half or so.  I think I caught the creepy crud.  Coughing, sneezing, stuffy nose and all that fun stuff.  I swallow pills every few minutes and drink enough Airborne to keep a whole union employed.  I’m ready to feel better.  Now.  kplzthx.

If things look a little wonky around here, I’m moving all my sites to a new server again.  I think there were a couple of new comments posted on the old site after I copied the database, so if you noticed your comment missing, I apologize. But, if you are reading this, then you’ve found me!  Things should be back to normal soon.

I finally found a forum that I like and want to use for my blog.  I wanted a solution that would integrate with WordPress.  I tried bbPress for awhile, but it is still too new.  This is a great, simple solution!

In order to comment, all you need to do is register an account.  It also has the added bonus of saving time when posting comments on entries, because once you log in, you won’t have to enter your user name and password every time.

So, stop by and say hello!  Let me know what you think!

PS - If you don’t see the email within a few minutes, then check your spam folder.  It’s probably there

Just a shout-out to these people for sending the most traffic my way in January:

• Incite
• Up For Anything
• Pauly
• Average Jane
• The Fat Guy

Thanks for the clicks!

I upgraded my software to Wordpress 2.0 last night, so if anything is wompyjawed, let me know.  I’m also working to install a photo gallery, but I didn’t get it finished.  Right now, I’m installing Gallery2 but we’ll see how it goes.  My quote plugin still appears to be working, too!  It had been awhile since I’d messed with my site, so it was actually a lot of fun.

It makes me wonder if I will miss being a geek.

Wait, there’s no way I could ever stop being a geek.  It doesn’t matter what I’m getting paid to do.

Whew.  I feel better now.