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Blog Adjustments and New Plugins

Blog Adjustments and New Plugins

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VirusHead Blog changes and updates:

  • WP-EMail – You can email any post now. There’s a link at the bottom of each post that will open a pop-up window, and there’s a tally on the sidebar of the most emailed posts. At the moment, there is only one. I sent myself the Green Day post to test the system. It’s like butter.
  • Simple Tagging: I decided to go with the Simple Tagging Plugin rather than continue to use Ultimate Tag Warrior – Simple Tagging is easier for me to use, and it has a lot of features that I really like. The Technorati tags link directly to the tag page at the – guess what – Technorati site, and the others link internally to a page of all the posts with the chosen tag. The extra features I like (and I’m not using all of them) are the ability to list a specified number of related posts, the little menu of suggested tags, and the auto-complete type-ahead dropdown menu to add tags. I never used the heavy Yahoo tag suggestions in UTW. I prefer to do my own indexing regardless of the popularity of key phrases.
  • Bad Behavior – I’ve installed this plugin as a first line of defense against spambots. Akismet is already installed to pick up most of the rest. Some people were having trouble every once in a while with seeing the verification image used by Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam. I love Peter’s plug-in, especially since you can add your own words as verifiers; I made up words for fun every once in a while. Still, it’s not worth it if anyone has trouble. I’ll see how well the Bad Behavior/Akismet combination works out. At the moment, Bad Behavior has blocked 3659 access attempts in the last 7 days. The total can be, and is, displayed in the footer.
  • Recent Comments List – updated to version 1.9.

You can see all the plugins that I’m using at any given time (care of WP-Plugin List) here.

To Do:

  • Create a separate page with Simple Tagging tag cloud. I don’t really want it on the sidebar. I’ve read the documentation, but the page template they refer to simply doesn’t appear and I’m a little stymied. I’ll do a little more research on that. Done 5/27 – but I still need to play with the format.
  • Consolidate some of the tags – there are far too many and there is a lot of topic overlap. I still have some hundred or posts that don’t have tags at all.
  • Now that this design is well and truly complete, I’m getting tired of it. It would be a real pain to change it now. I’m not using the WP widgets yet – everything has been hand-inserted except for the features that originally came with the SeaBeast theme. I would like it very much if I could figure out how to put the two sidebars on the left while keeping them SEO-friendly. I just prefer to read text that is on the right-hand side of the page.
  • Experiment a little bit with web-friendly fonts. Is there a better one than I’m using?
  • Figure out how to make the font a little smaller in the footer display of Bad Behavior. Never mind. I just adjusted the code in the plugin.
More Blogthings Quiz Meme Fun

More Blogthings Quiz Meme Fun

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You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

You Are a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

You life your life in a free form, artistic style. You are incredibly creative and at times, quite messy. Deep down, you are a kid at heart. And you aren’t afraid to express it.

Your best friend: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Your mortal enemy: The Club Sandwich


You Are 50% Extrovert, 50% Introvert

You’re a bit outgoing, a bit reserved. Like most people, you enjoy being social. But you also value the time you have alone. You have struck a good balance!

Your 1996 Theme Song Is: Ironic by Alanis Morisette

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought … it figures

Your Sensitivity Score: 50%

As far as sensitivity goes, you’re a lot more in tune than most people. You can’t help but be touched by what’s around you – good and bad. But when things do get really bad around you, you are strong enough not to break down.

Your Japanese Name Is…

Ayame Kimura

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Kaili Kai

You Should Travel to India

You’re a passionate, gusty traveler – and India’s gritty urban centers won’t scare you away. Maybe you’ll take in the Taj Mahal, eat the best curry of your life, or attend a huge street festival.

You Are A Maple Tree

There’s not anyone in this world quite like you. You are full of imagination, ambition, and originality. Shy but confident, you hunger for new experiences. You have a good memory and learn easily. You are sometimes nervous and always complex (especially in love).

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!
Aeschlyus VirusHead

Aeschlyus VirusHead

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Evidently there is a new movie on the horizon called “The Golden Compass.” At the movie site, they are offering to ask you a few questions to establish your Daemon personality match.

My daemonic match is “Aeschylus” the butterfly: Modest, a leader, sociable, shy and fickle. Since my daemon is for some reason supposed to be the opposite gender, it is male (do they have it confused with anima/us? or perhaps a familiar? a totem?) I don’t think of Aeschylus and butterflies in the same visionary set myself.

He who learns must suffer, and, even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. – Aeschylus

In war, truth is the first casualty. – Aeschylus

Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny. – Aeschylus, Agamemnon

For somehow this is tyranny’s disease, to trust no friends. – Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. – Aeschylus

Hmmm. Well. If you like, you can affect the final result. My friends can decide if this is a representation of the “real me.” Changes will be allowed for 12 days. This display will update in response to differing assessments.

So, if you have a sense of me, go ahead and affect the results.

It should be interesting to hear more about the movie. Marketing by quiz results.

(thanks to Laureth and Prism)

Thinking Blogger Award for VirusHead

Thinking Blogger Award for VirusHead

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I’ve been selected for the Thinking Blogger Award! Jolly Roger at Reconstitution was kind enough to name me as a Thinking Blogger.

Virushead Thinking Blogger Award

VirusHead – Heidi is a recovered Jehova’s Witness and first rate progressive thinker. She covers everything from warm and personal to wretched and Presidential.

Thank you, JR! You’d have been on my picks, too, but I suppose that tagging you right back wouldn’t be in the spirit of the thing.

The Thinking Blogger award is actually a meme, but it’s a clever one because it challenges you to name – and describe – five more blogs that make you think. Surfing around in the list is very fun.

I’ve been swamped under a couple of freelance projects, but I’ve finally got a few minutes to participate. So….

5 Blogs That Make Me Think

  1. Bitch Ph.D. – A kind of sister in spirit. Love the header image – cheers me up every time I see it. Edgy, witty, personal, professional, entertaining – it’s like reading my dream best friend’s diary. I was very upset to have missed her recent visit to Emory. John met her, but I would have appreciated it more. Bah!
  2. Hail Dubyas (An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum) – A cunning combination of satirical cartoons and well-written commentary. About once a week, this makes me break from my zombie-like computer stare into a grin and giggle.
  3. Pandagon – I know, but I was reading Pandagon and Shakespeare’s Sister++ before everybody else knew them because of the whole Edwards thing. Amanda’s Pandagon blog is a treasure to me. That’s all. Reading it is never a waste of my time. I love her thoughtful flippancy.
  4. Theospora (Oh, God, Grow Up) – Stimulates chains of fractal reflections. We have some common ground, and the differences are always instructive and helpful.
  5. Prose and Thorn (The Place for Pointed Prose) – Sometimes acerbic, always progressive essays. Beyond the content, I enjoy PB’s creative turns of phrase.

Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award!

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

  1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
  2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme
  3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

++I’d name Shakespeare’s Sister too, but it’s now a big ole’ group blog at Shakesville. Check it out anyway.

I’m no Martha, but that’s all right

I’m no Martha, but that’s all right

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Friday night we had some very special dinner guests, including my beloved friend “death of God” theologian Thomas J. J. Altizer. The other guests were Tom’s son John and his wife Sandy, and Professor Mikhail Epstein, a wonderfully interesting guy in his own right.

I don’t often entertain guests. This was a big occasion for me, and preparation was intense. Like the post title says, I’m no Martha Stewart. I could really use a wife – that housecleaning gardener nanny planner decorator hostess person that I hear so much about…

We didn’t have more than four of anything, and dinner was for six. So I went out and got settings for eight. On my limited budget, this basically limited me to Target, but I found a Zazen Lime glazed set that I really liked in their global collection. Then John went out and got some wine glasses.

Tom gave me a couple of DVDs – one on his whole Emory history and the “death of God” controversy, and another on depictions of Jesus in art. I’m looking forward to watching them.

Benevolent Deities Inc. answered my prayers, and provided warmth and sunshine enough to eat outdoors. The circling bats arrived at twilight and made everything magical.

I served mixed olives, chips and salsa and guacamole, and fresh papaya with lime for appetizers. The wine was Seven Deadly Sins Red Zinfandel throughout (how could I resist such a name, and it’s good), although we also had a white and some import beer on hand. The main course was ginger jerk salmon, sweet potato souffle, and asparagus with Parmesan, with a salad (spinach and tomatoes and feta and some of that broccoslaw stuff) and a couple of baguettes. For dessert, a choice of creme brulee or raspberry chocolate mouse from Alon’s. Note to self: I need a tray to carry things!

We talked politics and apocalypse and resurrection and the white whale and the coincidence of opposites, and the growing divide between dominionism and credible theology, and the growing
gap between rich and poor, and Jesus art, and all manner of other things.

It was a lovely night.

Then, last night, we were supposed to go to a party in Tom’s honor, but our babysitting arrangements fell through so I went alone. Synchronity! The party was at the home of the brother of one of my favorite undergraduate professors at UMass. A good time was had by all, and Tom told us a very amusing story about Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Mircea Eliade.

So today – well, I’m enjoying the clean house…and the feeling of having nothing to do that I don’t want to do. It’s cold and windy, and it’s my birthday, and I’m snuggled in.