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Out of context, out of line?

This afternoon, Jim (unintentionally) gave me quite a scare. When last I saw him this morning, he was going to head by the house then on to work. I remember pulling onto the highway and watching him roll onto the lane going in the opposite direction. Fast forward to this afternoon, John called me at work asking me if I knew where Jim was. “What? He’s not there?” My mind raced. John had spoken to him not long after I last saw him and hadn’t seen nor heard from him since.

Long story short: Jim had sat down “for a few moments” at his desk and apparently had fallen asleep — he had been at home the whole time.

I was able to get a hold of him after calling the house a few times and he explained what happened. I fussed a small bit (not wanting to yell at work) and got my things together to leave for the day. A few co-workers had overheard and came by to make sure everything was ok. I was still pumped up on adrenaline and my blood-pressure I’m sure was through the roof. I jokingly replied, “Yeah. I’m going to beat him upside the head when I get home!”

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I say that in jest. In fact, I say that I’ll “beat his head in” all the time. I don’t beat my husband. I don’t beat my child. I laugh and carry-on, but it is entirely in jest. I do as my mother did — joke about it to keep from pulling my hair out and going crazy.

But what if someone had heard what I said, took it out of context, and called the police?

I ran across a Google Reader item shared by Ike Pigott linking to a post by someone who had something along those lines happen to her. Thordora had (in jest) commented on Twitter about bringing harm to her child, who wouldn’t go to sleep.

What NORMAL parent hasn’t uttered a snarky or humorously ludicrous remark out of frustration, annoyance, and dare I said it … love?

Someone following her tweets had local police notified of the “threat”. Officers arrived at her home and demanded to see her children (who obviously had not been harmed). Understandably, Thordora is upset with this person. (As I would be too!)

To me though, this reinforces something that I had come to realize through my experiences on other social networking services (mainly MySpace and Facebook) — careful who you “friend”.

WordCamp Birmingham Notes

Note: I had intended to post this Monday night, but work has been crazy-busy this week and Jim’s having a bit of a site snafu, so spare time has been pretty much nonexistent. LOL!

We had a wonderful time at WordCamp Birmingham this past weekend. A big thanks to Andre Natta and the B’ham team for all of their hard work. I’m most definitely looking forward to next year’s. The date is already set (September 26-27, 2009), so be sure to mark your calendar! Matt Mullenweg is slated to be a keynote speaker, so it should be awesome!!

The Future of WordPress

The first speaker we saw Saturday morning was Dougal Campbell with “The Future of WordPress.” He briefly covered WordPress’ version history and various milestones over the last few years. Thinking back, I think I started off with either version 1.0 or 1.1. I remember the upgrade to 1.2 being pretty hard, but that was nothing like having to re-do my theme for 1.5, LOL!

Ahh, those were the days … :lol:

He then moved on to the upcoming and much anticipated version 2.7. It’s due sometime next month. According to Dougal, there will be:

• more backend UI re-design;
• upgraded API, so you can upgrade themes, browse and install plugins and themes, etc.;
• comment improvements (many of these are covered in great detail on Otto’s blog) such as:
  • threaded comments
  • paged comments
  • auto-close comments
  • replying to comments from the Admin menu (a HUGE plus!!!)
• sticky posts;
• “Quick Edit” inline editing via Ajax for posts;
• HTTP-only cookies, a security feature;
• a new HTTP request API for plugin developers, replacing the current request API (Snoopy, I think?);
• and many others …

He also went over some possible features for future versions of WordPress:

• APP Importer: for Movable Type, Type Pad, Blogger, …
• A new “default” theme, possibly based on Sandbox or something similar to it. This will be replacing the current Kubrick theme.

Some features that he thinks are likely for version 2.8 (taken from the Trac Tickets) include:

• better page managment: select page order, hide pages
• expanded template functions: users, comments, attachments

We can look forward to seeing more CMS features, more social networking features, better widget management. Perhaps even OpenID (that would be sweet).

Documentation was brought up and he stated that there has been a big push (internally) to get the functions (I’m assuming he means the Codex?) better documented, updated, etc.

SEO For WordPress

The next speaker was Donna Fontenot, who had some really good insight on SEO for beginners. You can view her slides here. It is also available on her website in HTML format.

She started with a very simple recommendation as a first step for blogging: think first, write later. This can apply to so many aspects, and I admit it’s one that I don’t practice enough. You should actually USE the phrases you want to rank well for in blog posts. For best results, use them in prominent places:

• Document Title
• Body Headings
• In posts

Another stickler subject: Blog Visibility. In covering the WordPress Settings, she states that you should always make sure to have the privacy option set so that your blog is visible to everyone, including search engines.

Moving on to Permalink structure, the optimal setting is /%category%/%postname%/. For most blogs it’s ok to be different though. Dates, which are useless for SEO, are useful for users and are most generally preferred. It’s best to make sure that %postname% in there somewhere.

She talked a bit about URL canonicalization. Blog owners must make a choice: www or no www. Whichever you choose, you must consistently use it everywhere:

• Linking to your site
• correspondence
• email and IM signatures

Donna then moved on to categories. This is another thing I am doing wrong, LOL! She says it’s best to keep them as top-level important concepts, as opposed to tagging. Me, I tag and categorize all willy-nilly. Guess I’ll have to work on that. :mrgreen:

One of the plugins she highly recommended was All-In-One SEO Pack. I’ve heard about this plugin from several different people and from what I understand, it takes all the guesswork out of SEO for your blog. Donna says that the default settings work well.

Another plugin mentioned is: Excerpt Editor. This one gives extra control over excerpts, autogenerates excerpts (but allows overriding), prevents duplicate content between excerpts and full post, replaces the_content() with the_excerpt(), and more…

She spent a bit of time on two other post elements:

• Post titles:
  • use H1 or H2
  • Ok to use other tags, but H1 or H2 are best (use whatever suits your theme)
• Post slugs:
  • these should contain only most important words
  • and you should strip out “stop” words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, etc. These dilute the value of other keywords in the slug (permalink)

Other topics covered were:

• Post Image Optimization
• Interlinking
• Encouraging Sharing/Linking
• Participating and Reciprocation

Donna’s presentation not only had a lot of good information, she also made recommendations as to customizations to themes and various plugins that could help improve the “SEO-ness” of your site. I highly recommend checking out her site. You’ll find a LOT of useful information there that she covered at WordCamp, and a lot more!

Merging your work life with your blog life

The next speaker was David Griner. His presentation was pretty comical, poking fun at himself (he’s not even a WordPress user *gasp* hehe) and his profession. While this wasn’t really one of the topics that first piqued my interest, it did have a lot of useful information for anyone whose ever wondered what it could take to make blogging a full-time job.

It’s not something I could do, but I admire anyone who does it!

Topics included:

• Pros of Freelancing
  • schedule your own time
  • stockpile blog posts in advance
  • decent extra pay
  • very minor level of celebrity
  • opportunities for guest editing/posting
  • work in your underwear
• Cons
  • most people suck at time management
  • you’ll starve
  • no benefits or security
  • can mess with your taxes
  • easy to lose steam
  • neighbors get tired of seeing you in your underwear
• Finding the right blog
  • you’re probably already reading it
  • who owns it?
  • how many writers?
  • Whats the output?
• Getting the gig
  • get to know the writers or editors
  • comment often under the same name
  • write response posts on your blog
  • if you like the site, help drive traffic there
• Asking for the job
  • no harm asking about openings
  • always write at least three sample posts that they could run that day
  • make sure your e-mail is colon-rupturing in its awesomeness
  • get across your enthusiasm for the blog
  • talk about how it has evolved
  • say why they need you
  • what is the blog missing?

You can see these and more in his slides here.

Break!

At this point, we broke for lunch. Jim and I didn’t go back for the late afternoon sessions. I was nursing a migraine and football would be on soon. (Hey, I’m a ‘Bama fan first and WP geek second! )

I went back Sunday for a couple of the sessions: Brett Bumeter’s “Windows Live Writer — Blogging with any Blogging Software Has Never Been Easier” and Mitch Canter’s “Making WordPress Dance.”

Brett’s presentation covered the Windows Live Writer application. It’s not really my cuppa, but would be a great interface for anyone intimidated by the web UI for most popular blogging software/services.

Mitch’s presentation covered several topics I had previously researched and I was impressed with the amount of helpful information he covered. He also had a great list of plugins that he recommended. I would like to see more of him next year, if he attends. You can find his slides here.

The Media

From watching the WordCamp Bham twitters, I can see that a photo pool is available on Flickr, as well as a handful of the presentation slides gathered on SlideShare. I also see that WordCamp Birmingham also made the local news. You deserve it guys, great work!

Good stuff. Can’t wait until next year.

(Updated to include slides links, thanks Don @ authorize.net!)

Sewing, Angeling, and a car update

Things have been pretty quiet … or mostly quiet. Jessie’s mother is on vacation, so she’s spending the week with her. I miss her terribly, but I’ve had time to devote to a couple projects that I’ve been wanting to give attention to, so it works out for that.

Sew, sew, sew…

When I was younger, I loved to sew. I used to cross-stitch, make stuffed animals and various clothing items for myself and friends. I haven’t stitched anything in years, with the exception of a couple of costumes that Jessie needed for school about 3-4 years back. I had been wanting to start it up again, but wasn’t sure how or if I would have enough time.

A post on the Soldiers’ Angels blog yesterday has really kicked this need into high-gear. There are several sewing projects on the Soldiers’ Angels site, and several of them are various Blanket teams/projects — the newest being Blankets of Belief.

Now, I know I don’t have the time to commit to quilting or sewing blankets and such by hand, but there was a link on the Blankets of Belief page on how to make a “no-sew” blanket. These are basically fleece blankets that are constructed in such a way that no sewing is involved — if you can tie a knot, you can make one of these!

Sounds perfect!

As soon as I’m able, I’ll be stocking up on materials to make one of these. If it turns out well (read: pretty!), I’ll post pics on here. :mrgreen:

Bama Angeling

I’ve been doing a lot of work on the Bama Angels site and have started expanding my “pimpage” to a few social networking sites. So far, it’s up on MySpace, Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, and FriendFeed. I’ve had a LOT of positive response from area Angels and now I need to work on finding information to post to Bama Angels.

I usually get announcements via word of mouth or The Birmingham News, but it would be nice to get all that other Alabama and military related news that gets missed!

If you know of anything, please feel free to send it my way!

Car Update

It’s in the body shop and I was told yesterday that they’ve ordered parts and will begin taking it apart and working on it hopefully today or tomorrow. Realistically speaking, I’ll be lucky if I get it back before the end of this month.

Not thrilled with that, but what can I do? ;P Have otherwise been going back and forth with the insurance company regarding other stuff that’s still unsettled and may need legal handling, but can’t really post about that yet. (will update when able)

I know I’m lucky that we don’t have to pay for all this stuff out of our own pockets (or rather, out of our savings accounts), but honestly, this whole process is enough to drive anyone bonkers!

Hello, Text!

I’ve been playing on and off with a neat little web site/app called HelloTxt. I had stumbled across it a month or so back while looking for Twitter apps. (TwitBin is acting up again, so this comes in handy!) It’s pretty nifty. It allows you to update your Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, Tumblr blog, and a handful of other social networks. Signup isn’t mandatory, but it does allow you to keep your login info’s saved. It’s pretty cool so far, and I’ll bet it can only get better.

That said … does anyone out there happen to have a coupon code for HelloTxt? *bats eyelashes*

Calling out to local social media junkies (or those with a mild interest)

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with the newly formed Birmingham chapter of the Social Media Club. It’s basically a group of like-minded individuals (and those we drag into it unwillingly) meeting together in the interest of sharing social media related ideas, opinions, and overall promoting media literacy. Hopefully we can get a large enough group together and come together to connect, share and learn from each other.

Today’s agenda included:

• Birmingham’s place in the SMC Wiki
• Join SMC mailing lists — local and national
• Recruiting/organizing committee members
• Secure a venue and sponsors
• Suggestions for discussion topics
• Picking future meeting day/time
• Group promotion

Those of you who could not make it today (or were unaware of this group), please feel free to check out the B’ham wiki page and get in contact with our group leader, Scott Schablow, if you are interested in participating or have helpful suggestions.