Went Aussie Style for the first time and got it on tape!
Archive for July, 2009
Rappelling in Tucson
July 28th, 20097 Plugins That Helped Create This Blog
July 21st, 2009Every blog needs it’s share of great plugins, right? Well, mine is no different. These are the 7 plugins that I’ve chosen (so far) to get my blog functioning how I wanted it.
First, on my list of many plugins that I use to create extremely compelling blog posts 
is the wordtracker SEO blogger plugin for firefox. I know, I know, it’s not a wordpress plugin, but it’s a damn good plugin for firefox and hit really helps to create good keyword headlines that people are searching for, and also helps to generate keywords for your article body.
If you’re really creative, you can even get content ideas from it. What are people asking? What can you answer?
Gotta keep the posts at least somewhat SEO friendly and this plugin makes it VERY easy to manage the SEO goals for each post/page individually. Combine it with the above to get a quick list of keywords and you’re set. Makes blogging for search engines very easy.
See that little “Featured Content” rolling photo dealy bopper on the front and about page? That’s the Dynamic Content Gallery plugin.
It’s been a little sticky for me to get running with this theme, but it’s exactly what I want. It offers the ability to tag certain posts as “featured” and ad an image to the post that rotates on the front. This will come in handy for anyone that wants to monetize their blog, because you can also create sponsor posts and sell rotating banner placements.
It’s flexible and can be modified to about any size/css layout you want and it works once you figure it out.
You guys don’t get to see this part of the site, but i’m already way in favor of this tracking system over the typical google analytics software. This is all taken care of “in house” if you will and you can even watch people go through your site. I plan on using this plugin quite often
You can use this plug-in for a whole lot of good… or a whole lot of bad. It’s VERY versatile. In order to make it work you need to install the Simple Pie core but once it’s up and going you can pull content from RSS feeds.
What I use it for:
Linking up my Youtube account to my blog. I simply pull an RSS of my channel on YouTube, that way every time I post a new video to my channel, it automatically posts to my blog as well without me having to do anything. I AM still working out a couple of bugs with it not doing exactly what I want, but those should be easy tweaks.
Did you get here through Twitter? You just watched that plugin work beautifully. Desigend to parse your blog post titles into your twitter tweets and shorten the URL down using a Cli.gs and help people find your blog. Wonderful.
See those social networking icons on the bottom of this post? You know you want to use them….. *hint* *hint*
If this post helped you out at all, leave me a comment and let me know what you think please.
How to Photograph Lightning
July 20th, 2009The past couple of days have been nothing short on electric activity here in the AZ desert. z
The monsoons are rolling through and thunder storms are abundant. So, I took it upon myself to go shoot some lightning. After a few people saw my images, a common question became: “How did you take that?!”
So, I thought I’d slap a little know-how down for anyone that happens to have the same question.
Step 1. Get the right tools – Have a camera capable of manual controls. Have a tripod. And have an area that isn’t riddled with light pollution. . . Don’t be like my dad and crawl up on top of your roof during a lightning storm with your electronic devices, metal tripod, and body that is 80% water… It tends to lead to bad things.
Step 2. Set your camera accordingly – Depending on your » Read more: How to Photograph Lightning