Simply A Musing Blog

I've been a Google fan since before my husband and I were married. In fact, I still like to tease him about the fact that if it weren't for me, he wouldn't have even known about Google - he was still using Yahoo's search engine when we met 8 years ago. But, I must say -- Google has come a long way in the last eight years. Shopping, books, blogs, youtube, readers...they have a little bit of something for everyone. My favorite application at the moment is iGoogle. If you've never heard of it - check out the screenshot below of my desktop: (click for a larger view) This is my favorite desktop application. I leave it running throughout the day and it has really helped me keep on top of my FaceBook account, client to-do's, Twitters, email, and my calendar. As the user, you have many options as to how you want to set it up. Not only are there tons of really cute themes (such as the one I am using), there are also a lot of plugins available - you can choose from your...

I am a die-hard Adobe Photoshop fan, and anyone that knows me knows that I love anything that makes my photoshopping experience more fun. In the upcoming months, I'll be sharing some of my favorite tools that I use when editing photos. I recently discovered a Photoshop plug in called " Topaz Adjust " - and I've downloaded the 30 day free trial to see how I like it. So far, so good. While I haven't done anything quite as spectacular as the examples on their site (you should check them out) I have had a lot of fun playing around with some of my photos. Remember Myron? Here he is SOOC: And here he is with one of Topaz's filters applied (pretty artsy, huh?): Here's a lone cow from our farm SOOC shot: Here he? she? is again, but with some major color boost and Pioneer Woman's Vignette Action: Just for fun, I thought I'd try it on some people I know. I started off with my friend's son, Mavrick. Her husband cut his hair in a mohawk (she said she'...

One of the things that I have always loved about blogging is the interaction between writer and reader. There's more than one way to communicate in this age of digital media - and blogging is by far one of the easiest to master. You can have your say every day, but we all know that the most immediate reward that comes from blogging is readership and comments - would you like to know how to get more? I thought so. I have teamed up with Melanie (Chilihead) from Don't Try This at Home , Blogging Basics 101 and Bloggy Giveaways to produce a weekly radio show called "Behind the Blog: You've got Questions, We've got Answers" that will take you, the listener, behind the scenes of some of your favorite bloggers who have seen some measure of success. We will be covering every aspect of blogging and featuring a variety of bloggers from every genre to teach you some of the secrets to having a successful blog, as well as giving access for you to call in or chat live with...

The bright side of insomnia is that while you're awake, you can plan your next three weeks blog posts. The dull side of insomnia is that once you go to sleep, you're likely to forget everything you were thinking about just before you drifted off to sleep. So this week I have some actual goals , y'all. I've actually started working on my editorial/design calendar as suggested by Melanie of Blogging Basics 101. I'm not one of those bloggers that can juggle five or six different blogs/online magazines and I'm constantly in awe of women that can do that and still find time to care for their children, cook and do things like...laundry. They're all that and a bag of chips. I started by writing down the due dates for each header/template design and then I promptly commenced to hyperventilating because I realized that this week alone I have four projects due. ( And yes, I know I haven't been posting my new work - some of it has personal information and a couple ...

Several people have asked me what program I use in my design business and I always answer with the same thing - Photoshop. Then they openly weep because Photoshop is so stinkin' expensive and very few people are willing to drop anywhere from $500-750 on an item they want for hobbies. If it makes you feel any better, I have the older version of 5.5 and I haven't made the plunge yet to CS3 because of the cost. UPDATED: I did it! I made the plunge and haven't looked back. I'm now the proud owner of CS3...just in time for the new, improved version to come out. Oh well... I made the mistake of downloading the trial and I used it for 30 days. Those were the best 30 days of my entire life. I didn't realize I was driving a Pinto station wagon with Adobe 5.5, when I could have been driving a Cadillac Escalade in CS3. Do you know how depressing it is to turn in the keys for the Escalade you've been borrowing and go back to your old, broken down Ford Pinto station wagon? G...

The recent Photobucket hack has left many of us feeling somewhat helpless while the problem was being resolved. While there is nothing that can be done if a remote site is hacked, there are plenty of precautions you can take to avoid both spam and hackers right here at home. I've compiled a short list of what I think are 13 of the most important things you should know. Most of these are common sense, but you'd be surprised at how many people I know that STILL open spam "just to see what it is". Avoiding Spam: 1. One of the easiest things you can do to avoid spam is to never give out your real email address. Your real email address should only be used with trusted friends and coworkers. For all other types of email, and for situations that require an email address from you, you should setup and use a junk email account. A junk email account is usually obtained from a free web based email provider like Hotmail or Google's free email. 2. Don't open junk email. T...

Apparently, my feeds got a little bit sideways and I somehow ended up with two for this blog a long time ago. I've never bothered to do anything about it, but finally decided it was time for a little bit of housekeeping. So. Please re-subscribe if you get a notice that my feed is no longer active. Just delete your old feed and re-sub by clicking on the orange button that says "add to your reader" over there in the right column. And...the blog may get a little wonky over the next couple of days - I'm cleaning up and clearing out - getting rid of the background image and making my header clickable so y'all can click it to go home. :) See you after Memorial Day! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

If you notice that your feed to my blog has been disrupted, it's because one of my brilliant readers discovered a problem with the html source code -- I had one too many http's in there. Maybe I thought it was good measure, I don't know. Anywhoo...Feedburner shows there are only 9 folks subscribed to that feed, so I wanted to let you know that you need to unsubscribe from that feed and subscribe to my new feed over there on the right. I'll be deleting that duplicate feed in the next couple of days and I really, really, really don't want to lose ya! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

I've had someone mention that they were having trouble seeing my site, is anyone else experiencing technical issues with my blog? Please let me know if you are! Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

So here's the deal, internets...I'm thinking of doing custom blog headers (and possibly design) as a way to supplement my income. I have done some research and read up on what some of the top blog designers charge and if you ask me - it's too much! (but, of course, that's why they are "TOP" blog designers ) Am I that cheap? Granted, it takes a lot of time to do a custom header - because I've done several, so I know. They range from $50 - $200, depending on what style of design and who is designing it. But $200 is a lot for a swanky design, don't ya think? I am a little bit overwhelmed right now at the thought of starting a business doing this, because then I'll have to post guidelines . Which means I'll have to actually have clarity of thought ...easier said that done, these days. But I think there is a place for the "little people" like me - more affordable headers that aren't so basic...that have personality. If you were consid...

I'd like you to meet Elaine from "Home, but Not Alone". She lives in Northern Ireland and she has become one of my favorite bloggers over the past year because she is so knowledgeable about the Bible. I was excited when she asked me about doing her blog header for WordPress because I had never worked with Wordpress before. I found it easier (once I figured out what I was doing) than Blogger. So thanks, Elaine, for the chance to get to work with you! You are truly a delight! Pop on over and visit her, won't you? Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS. Technorati Tags: Word Press Header , Custom Blog header Design , Texas

Sometimes I like to analyze my keyword stats so I know how people are finding my blog, sometimes I wish I hadn't looked. Tonight, I saw thirteen visits from someone today looking for a blog about the beauty of circumcisi*n. Thirteen. I don't think they found what they were looking for, since they kept coming back, obviously still, you know - searching...and I don't know that it was my witty reparte that was keeping them entertained. *Shudder* Is there anything beautiful about that particular procedure? Someone want to enlighten me here? Now I DO hope that the lady in New Mexico that was looking for a crock pot breakfast recipe will try this one . Because it's really good. And no, my stats didn't tell me it was a woman...common sense did. Do you know any men that use crockpots? Or search for breakfast recipes on the interweb? (and have you noticed that for someone who loves looking on the bright side of things how many of my recipes include the word "serious...

There are a lot of blogs out there nowadays - it seems the blogging community has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Which brings me right to the heart of the matter: I have way too many blogs in my Google Reader and I admit to you all right here and now - I am a lurker. Phew...I feel so much better getting that off my chest. Lurking. It sounds so dirty, doesn't it? Like an internet crime that should be punishable by hard labor and restriction from reading for 2-5 years? Thankfully, it's not. But there are just too many good blogs on the information superhighway and just not enough time in my day to leave a comment. It's sort of like a hit-and-run, only without the consequences. Oh, sure...they know I've been there (hello all you traffic cops out there), but they don't know who I am , because I didn't leave a note on their bloggy window. I'm trying to be better, I really am. I generally leave comments once a week or so, but I read daily. I do...

Do you blog on the Blogger platform? Did you know that your commenters don't get "credit" from Technorati or any of the other major ranking sites because Blogger has a "do not follow" policy they build right into their templates? What that basically means is that your commenters don't get credit for linking their name to your blog. For shame! There is a movement going on in the blogging community you may not be aware of. It's called the "U comment, I Follow". Randa Clay sums it up best: Almost all blog platforms by default are set up so that a “dead end” piece of code is inserted wherever there is a link in a comment, so that search engines will not “count” the link as they are crawling the internet. This was originally designed to help stop comment spam, but it doesn’t work. What it does is remove some of the incentive for your readers contribute to your site by commenting on your posts. What can you do about it? Turn off “nofollow”. Show you...

I have always been fairly selective about what movies my kids are allowed to watch, whether it be in our home or at a friend's. If there was ever a question about a movie, the answer would always be "no" until my husband and I had rented it and watched it, which in turn, left our kids understandingly frustrated. But no more. We discovered that Focus on the Family has a website called " Plugged In Online " that does movies, dvds, television and music reviews from a Christian standpoint. They are honest assessments highlighting positive elements, spiritual content, sexual content, violent content, crude or profane language, drug or alcohol content, and other negative elements. Each review is concluded with the reviewers final thoughts kind of summarizing what has been said and giving you points to ponder before making your decision. Here's an excerpt from the review for the new Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: So, setting aside any e...

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in the spin cycle - just turning round and round and never really accomplishing very much but getting the ever-living daylights drained out of you? That pretty much sums up my week. Except I actually enjoyed it...so does that make me insane? AJ had a Dr's appt this past week and we learned he is mildly asthmatic, in addition to having ezcema (which we discovered at last week's appt). So we left the Dr's office armed with 3 new prescriptions. He received an inhaler, which has been an interesting experience. Have you ever tried getting a 5 year old to do anything slowly? Especially inhale? It is about as easy as trying to herd a bunch of cats into a bathtub full of water. K is playing basketball in the Upward program this year and may I just say her participation in the program should be called " Oh MyWord." Now, don't misunderstand me - she has athletic ability. She is, after all, my child. But she has never, ever played ...

I've been on a cleaning and purging binge the last few days. A new year will do that to you, you know. No, I'm not talking about my colon, although I did order some Colonix from Dr. Natura yesterday. I've been feeling rather sluggish and decided what better way to jump start my new year than a total cleansing...have you seen the stuff that comes out? Be forewarned -- it's pretty gross, but what's even grosser is the realization that that stuff might be in me, which is why I'm doing the cleanse. That, and to jump start my weight loss regime. (Since I now weigh more than I did at delivery with ANY of my children...sigh. I'll keep you posted with how it's going...although I'm not sure I'll be showing you any photos of what's happening on my, er...end. ahem. But I digress...I was actually speaking of our home office (which, coincidentally, is also in our bedroom...gack) which is also quite the veritable mountain of paperwork. I'm terrific at ...

While searching for inspiration for my new blog header, I found this fun website, Polyvore , where you can create loads of useless fun things like this: Technorati Tags: vector images , polyvore.com , Texas

can you tell something has changed? Technorati Tags: Christmas , Texas

If you are anything like me, you check your blog stats once or twenty times a day...it's a sickness, I know. Even if you don't, this tip is probably something you could use, because if you blog, you do want people to be able to find you, right? (Maybe I'm a mutant, I don't know...) I recently discovered a website grader (don't worry - it works on blogs too) where you simply enter in your blog URL and after a minute of calculating, it will spit out your score, along with a detailed explanation of why you scored the way you did. I had a score of a measly "3" when I first ran the test, and now I have a whopping "65", which simply means that my blog scores higher than 65% of other websites in terms of "marketing effectiveness. Just for fun, I ran a comparison (you can do that too) with Rocks In My Dryer to see...well, how I compared . Not pretty, y'all. But I don't have nearly as many links or visits, either. (click on example below to...