Carl Thomas dot net

Blogging and Blog Reading Tips

November 29th, 2011 | 1 Comment | Posted in Tech

Blog Reading

This is going to be down and dirty. There are a TON of resources that say the same things.

The only logical way to read more than a blog or two is to use an RSS reader. This is a place where all the blogs you want to read will show up on one site.

It would take longer to explain how that works then it would for you to just follow these steps.

Go to Google Reader.

Copy the website address of the blog you like to read, click the big red SUBSCRIBE button on the top right of the google reader page. Paste it in there and hit add. Now whenever a new article is posted to that blog, it will show up on this page.

Really? Really.

This way you can follow way more blogs then you have time to read.

Blog Writing

I use Windows Live Writer for writing my blog posts. It’s free. I find it way better than using the web interface of my blogging software.

The other benefit is that it has spell check just like Word and you can set it up to do all kinds of other great things.

It will automatically upload pictures.

Do those two things and leave a comment if it works or doesn’t.

1 Comment
Tags: blogging

Shopping for a New WordPress Theme

September 25th, 2011 | 3 Comments | Posted in Tech

I am looking to use some of the new functionality found in WordPress 3.1+ and instead of recoding my current theme I am shopping for a framework for my design.

I have been heavily testing two themes Thesis and Standard Theme. For those who care I will list some of the pros and cons of each.

Thesis: Wow! This theme is super flexible. Things I have always hand coded are easily adjustable on the back end. My arch nemesis the column / container width is controlled with ease.

Every variation of color, font, and size is able to be controlled by selection without writing the css and for those things that cant be selected, there is a custom css and function editor.

On the negative it does not harness any of the dynamic functions of the latest COUPLE versions of WP. This was once one of the premium themes but the developers seem to have rested on the profits.

The Standard Theme: Do a Google search and folks rave about this theme. I will have to take their word because I don’t see anything all that special. It has a ton of backend functionality when it comes to ad placement but for those of us that don’t run a for-profit website that is useless.

The reports are that this theme loads quickly because the code has been optimized. That something I could use. My current theme probably has bloated code since I am no coder.

I suppose the primary reason I am considering it is because the use of new functionality such as custom post themes.

I am a little leery about the Standard theme because virtually every standard theme website I see is the same as the out of the box version and that is not encouraging to me.

The problem is that it is really hard to find themes that have custom post themes built into the functionality and I refuse to hand code custom loops.

I will keep you informed of my progress but if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments.

3 Comments
Tags: blogging

The Mission Delray Social Media Writers

September 20th, 2011 | 12 Comments | Posted in Tech

This Sunday after service we had a meeting of bloggers, vloggers, and general social media types.

We put together a list to share but if you want to make your site and / or youtube account known, add it in the comments. I will continue to update this list. I will start with mine.

	Site	YouTube
Carl Thomas	Carl Thomas	RevivalLifeTV
Maria Martinez	Out&About	ilgo05
Catherine Marciniak	CM Photography
Lidia Pereira	Lidia Pereira
Kevin Vargas		Revivalist116
Andres Perez		quepasa90
Joshua Copcutt	A Heart Set on Fire	AHeartSetOnFire



comment to add	Your Name and	website