Interblogging

Virgin Galactic Video

2006-10-01T01:27:00.000-04:00

Virgin Galactic released a new short video that takes you through the experience from the first generation of their space flights. Total actual flight time is about 2 1/2 hours. Don't worry, the movie is not that long. :)

My Baby

2006-06-21T19:26:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pictures taken this month of baby girl.

Playing Poker Latley

2006-06-21T08:04:00.000-04:00

I have played in a few local poker tournaments lately and I have done okay. The first one started out around 72 players and I finished 12, the second one had 64 and I finished 6, and the third one started with 64 and I finished 15.

The last week I went I did not do as well (I believe) because I was wanting to qualify that tournament (be in the last 4 people left) because I was so close the week before (I finished 6). Trying to be competitive in poker is frustrating and difficult because you can be the best poker player and not win. You need to have a lot of luck on your side. Being good only gives you an edge so you do well consistently. Being good alone will never win you a tournament. That is why even the most famous poker players have only won one or two World Poker Tour tournaments. It is usually random people who make the final table. Only every now and then will you will see a "poker star" make it to the final table.

I am setting myself out until poker becomes fun again and not a competition. I did not have as much fun that last time I played.

My new baby girl

2006-04-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

I have not had much of a chance to blog lately. I did want to post a picture of my new baby girl borne on March 28. This was taken on day 9. Not much has changed except her cheeks have filled out a bit.

Hopefully she will get her looks and her brain from her mother and her great taste in movies from her father.

Stargate and poker chips

2006-03-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

I am seriously bummed out because I forgot to record the season finale of Stargate SG-1 last night and according to scifi.com the new episode is not going to rerun. At least not in the next few months. Thankfully I did remember to record Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.

Instead of watching SG-1 I was playing poker with some friends from work. Here is a picture I took of my new chips.

I bought 300 11.5g plastic chips. I decided to go plastic over clay mostly because of the price. This way I don't have to worry about them getting banged up or broken and can be easily cleaned.

Coast to Coast AM

2006-02-16T23:44:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of science (space, physics, technology, etc), the future, conspiracy theories (UFOs, aliens, political, etc), the paranormal, and things of that sort. There is a radio show that talks about all of these things and more called Coast to Coast AM, but it only comes on at 1:00 in the morning. I recently bought an online subscription that allows me to download previous shows in MPG format. If you have an interest in things like this I suggest you try it out. It will set you back about $7 a month ($4.50 if you buy a year at a time) which I think is high considering they are only past radio shows. It is still worth it if you find this type of thing interesting. Every day the have the previous night's show archived so there is no wait to hear new shows.

Not all shows are about crazy topics like UFOs or conspiracies, they often have (and my favorite shows) respected experts on things like space or theoretical physicists talking about their latest book and new innovations in science, space, and technology. They also have futurists, PhDs in metaphysics, and other people from various fields on talking about all kinds of different subjects.

Makings of a cheap poker table

2006-02-11T00:34:00.000-05:00

I decided to post a picture of my felt covered dinning room table and my cheap poker chips. This set up costs me a whopping $17. $10 for 200 7.5g plastic poker chips and $7 for a 72x48in sheet of felt fabric which is currently draped over the table like a tablecloth. When I am not playing, it gets folded up and put in the closet.

Sometime in the future I am going to buy a set of 500 11.5g clay poker chips. After that I hope to add a removable padded railing around the outside of the table that can also be put in the closet when I am not using it.

Poker and Poker Accessories

2006-02-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

I have been getting into poker lately so last night I bought a tabletop poker playing surface from Wal-Mart on sale for only $17. I got home and opened it up and it was pretty poor quality, so I quickly returned it. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting. I think I am just going to buy some cheap green felt and lay it over my dinning room table. I am not sure why I want a green felt surface to play on. I guess somehow it seems to make the game more fun when you build up the atmosphere and mood by using good chips and a good playing surface. Perhaps I can pull the felt tight and tape it to the bottom of the table. That might be better than the table cloth look of just draping the felt over the table. Then when I am finished I can simply roll up the felt up and store it.

Unfortunately I don’t know enough people who have an interest in poker to get games together myself. I usually have to wait until someone invites me.

*Update* 2/10/2006
I went to a fabric store today and bought a sheet of red felt (72x48in) for about $7. The shade of green they had looked kind of cheap so I went with red which I think looks really nice. Perhaps at some point I will look into a cheap method to make removable padded railing. This will also be used to tighten and hold down the felt.

Template: Vette

2006-02-06T13:27:00.000-05:00

Name: Vette
Version: 1.0
Description: Red and black corvette theme.

Screenshot: (Click to view larger image)

Dawn of War

2006-02-01T08:25:00.000-05:00

After a long dry spell of playing PC games I finally found new one worthy of my time and my lowered ambitions to do much else. The last great RTS game in my mind was Starcraft. It had near perfect balance of power and a large range of diversity in its races. I waited for years for Blizzard to come out with Starcraft II, but they never did. After almost giving up hope a co-worker told me about a game called Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. It is very similar to Starcraft in many ways and adds its own uniqueness to the game such as commanding infantries (squad of units) instead of single units, a complete 3-D world where you can pan around for a 360 view, seamless zoom to watch the battles up close, customization of the army’s look (change the colors of the units and buildings), and more. If you can overlook the lame story about humans worshiping a dead Emperor the game is pretty fun.

The different races in Dawn of War are not as diverse or balanced as they are in Starcraft, there are a few units I believe are too powerful, I find the game a little too fast-paced, but in general it is an all around good RTS game. I recommend it to anyone who likes RTS games.

My cube

2005-12-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

Christian posted a picture of his cube the other day, so I thought I would show a picture of my cube.

Don't let the CRT monitor throw you off. I assure you this image was taken this a few days ago not a few years ago.

TV shows on DVD I recommend

2005-11-23T09:20:00.000-05:00

I have gotten into renting TV shows on DVD from Netflix lately. I like them because one season is usually 4 or 5 DVD’s long and I have seem just about all the movies I am interested in. If you are looking for good TV DVD recommendations I suggest:

Lost
Monk
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica (new)
Stargate Atlantis

BTW To say that I am disappointed in the Vols this year would be an understatement... oh well, at least Manning in Indianapolis is going well.

Long time...

2005-10-09T23:25:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long absence. It isn't like anyone reads anyway. :)

good news
Lost has finally started back...

Bad news
I signed up with blockbuster.com and realized there is either a "long wait" or "short wait" for every movie in my queue. I should have gone with Netflix.

I have been trying to learn Spanish latley, but so far unsucessfully.

Work has sucked lately and I don't see it getting better...

The Vols lost their second game of the year already. In their defense they had an insanly tough schedule, but it is clear they didn't deserve the number 3 spot they started the season with. I would love to see how USC would handle a schedule like TN's. Put USC in the SEC for one year and see how well they do. They are ranked number 1 only because of the inefficient rating system college has. This is why college football needs a playoff.

Vols start out at number 3

2005-08-28T00:29:00.000-04:00

"It's is football time in Tennessee!!" Well, almost. Next Saturday marks the Vol's first game. Coming back this year are all of the Vol's powerhouse defensive players who were out due to injuries last year. So many key players out last year devastated the Vols, but with all TN's talent back they are starting the season with an impressive ranking of third in the nation. This is the best starting position I can remember the Vols having. Lets just hope they can prove themselves worthy of it. TN being in the SEC, the toughest conference in college football, have a tough road ahead.

Survivor Guatemala & Science Channel

2005-08-26T09:04:00.000-04:00

Survivor Guatemala starts in about three weeks. I don’t know why I watch these shows. The "bad guys" usually end up winning. Big Brother 6 is a total disaster this year.

I have been watching enough of the Science Channel and National Geographic Channel lately to become an expert in evolution, dinosaurs, and our solar system. The only thing that bugs me about the Science Channel is they don’t tell you on their documentaries what is theory and what is fact. They seem to pass everything off as fact if the majority of the scientific community believes something may have happened. Well, it doesn’t work that way. There is a huge difference in what they know for sure and speculation.

Big Brother 6 is ruined

2005-08-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Jen was the first member of the jury in the Big Brother 6 house. It is official, there is no way anyone good can win Big Brother this year. The self proclaimed evil team "Friendship" aka Nerd Herd has the overwhelming majority in the jury. This means only Beau, Maggie, Ivette, or April has a chance to win the grand prize. The only way this outcome can be different is for all of them to be voted out before the final two, which seems highly unlikely since one of them will have to go every week except 1 for the rest of the show. Considering they are also the majority of the in the house right now winning HOH every week is also in their favor. The odds of a non-Nerd Herd winning BB6 are almost non-existent.

Why do I watch this show? It never turns out well.

BTW Ivette could very well be the most annoying player in Big Brother history.

Overzealous Big Brother Fans

2005-08-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

A guy named Jay started a website called Team Kaysar to raise $2,000,000 for Kaysar, Howie, Rachel, and Janelle (that is $500,000 a piece) assuming neither of them win. If one of them happens to win, the money will be split three ways instead of four. The website is less than two days old and it has already made nearly $3,000 in donations. Of coarse at this rate he will not come close to the 2 million goal, but will manage to raise quite a bit of money. I think it is a great gesture but I will not be putting any of my money in the pot. Don't get me wrong, I hate team "Friendship" as much as every other Big Brother viewer, but keep in mind (assuming this is legit) half of everything you give is going to the government anyway. On top of that, I have a feeling I need the money more, or as much as they do. I think America should send me donations. I am sure I can loose at Big Brother just as well as they can. :)

More From Windows Vista Beta 1

2005-08-12T14:15:00.000-04:00

Below is another screenshot of Windows Vista Beta 1. This screenshot is not from my computer, but it was taken by a friend of mine. My graphics card is too weak right now to support Avalon which is what the new Windows uses for a lot of it’s graphic effects. You will see in this screenshot (unlike mine) the window backgrounds are transparent. Very cool.

Click on the image to see a larger size

Big Brother Poll fixed?

2005-08-10T10:53:00.000-04:00

Bad news for Kaysar

Big Brother has named their latest poll "America’s Choice", but is it? There is evidence that CBS has already made up it's mind who will come back into the house.

Quote from Reality TV Magazine

"The radio buttons for Ashlea, Kaysar, and Michael are blocked out so that fans cannot vote for them. What is unusual is that Eric’s radio button is not blocked out, even though he left the house before Kaysar."

My wife told me when she visited the site to vote Eric’s image was not even grayed out while the other three evicted houseguests where. It appears this has caused a lot of commotion and these "errors" have now been fixed.

However, there is a new "bug" that (at the time of this writing) is still there. If you vote for Kaysar then hit back on your browser to revote the option defaults to Eric. This only started happening a few days ago.

Despite the fact that another CBS Big Brother poll indicates Kasar is the most liked houseguest with 87% and Eric is the most disliked with 29% (Love'em or Leave'em results) Eric would still walk though that door.

Will it truly be America’s choice? I guess we will see depending on if America’s clear favorite really walks though the door.

Big Brother Poll

2005-08-08T20:04:00.000-04:00

I have seen several blogs wonder if the Big Brother Poll is tracking votes or does it count every single vote you cast over and over. There is only two ways CBS can track votes.

The first is to track voting using cookies. A Cookie is just a value in a text file a website puts on your computer. When you vote the CBS website will add a cookie file to your computer with a particular value. The next time you go to that poll the website will simply look to see if that cookie exists. If it does exist, it will not count any new votes. If Big Brother is secretly filtering online votes they could be using cookies to do it. However, it is easy to simply delete your cookies and vote again. You can do this though your browser options.

The second way to track people who have already voted is by IP address. This means they record your IP address in their server. When you vote it compares your IP to make sure it doesn't already exist in their database. If it does already exist it will ignore your vote. Unfortunately for broadband users (cable and DSL) there is no way to get a new IP address because you have a consistent IP provided for you by your ISP. However, if you have dial-up you will get a new IP address within a certain range every time you connect to the internet depending on what server you connect to. You only have to hope another user from the same ISP has not already voted with that IP address. If you have dial-up you can log on, vote, delete cookies, log-off, and do it all over again.

There is no indication that Big Brother is limiting votes at all. If they are not limiting votes, why would anyone pay 50 cents to text in a vote? I guess we will never know. Just to be sure, I will keep voting and deleting cookies.

Big Brother: Vote Kaysar

2005-08-05T00:22:00.000-04:00

Big Brother announced a twist in the game tonight. We get to vote an evicted houseguest back into the Big Brother house.

I am calling all bloggers to unite and encourage everyone to vote Kaysar back into the house.

click the image to go to the Big Brother poll

If you would like to add this 'Vote Kaysar' link and image to your weblog copy and paste the following code.

Screenshots: Windows Vista Beta 1

2005-08-04T07:35:00.000-04:00

The Beta 1 is very similar so far to Windows XP in appearance and usability. However I understand that the Beta will not be as visually impressive as the final release, or even Beta 2. Screenshots are taken using the standard Windows Vista Beta 1 theme Aero. I expect the look of Windows Vista will improve drastically as new versions are released and graphic card makes have a wider range of suitable video card drivers. It looks like Beta 1 has been stripped of its bells and whistles.

Click to enlarge

Standard Desktop after clicking on Start then All Programs

New Windows Explorer

The new version of Internet Explorer (IE7). Finally it has tabbed browsing, but I am still not sure if it is standard compliant.

Windows Vista Beta

2005-08-02T09:16:00.000-04:00

Unless you have been living under a rock you know that Microsoft has been making a new version of Windows. Previously it was known as code name ‘Longhorn’, but has recently been officially named Windows Vista.

Last night I downloaded the new Windows Vista Beta 1. It was 9 hour download. It should have been faster, but the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) server was only transferring at a rate of 70-80 kbs. I would have thought they would have faster servers.

When the massive 2.5G ISO file was completed I burn the image to DVD. Now all I have to do it install it, too bad I am at work right now. When I get it installed I will be sure to upload some screenshots.

Big Brother 6: Who has to go

2005-08-01T13:19:00.000-04:00

The Big Brother 6 house is divided (as it usually is this late in the game) into two groups. I don’t really care which group wins because there are people on both sides I want off. Here is the breakdown in the order I want them to go the most.

Ivette has the worse attitude in the Big Brother house hands down, far and away. If you disagree with her she will say any non-rational, idiotic thing she can think of. How dare you disagree with me. You must not have any respect for woman. She actually said something like this to Kaiser while he was only trying to keep peace between her and Michael.

Most of my animosity towards her is probably because of her affiliation with Eric. My animosity was amplified when she luckily won last weeks HOH. What drives me nuts about players like her are unfortunately weak players tend to do well in these types of games. I am expecting her to go far, but not on her own accord. She will be dragged along just as she has done this far.

Zombie Dream

2005-07-26T17:09:00.000-04:00

I had an odd dream last night. I was in a place where everyone had turned into zombies (likely everyone in the world, but the scope of the dream took place in a part of one city). There were only a few people left who had not yet been turned. I think what brought this on was the George A. Romero's Land of the Dead movie I was thinking about seeing in the cheap theater. I also stayed up late watching several shows I recorded called In Search Of which came on the Sci-fi channel.

Anyway, in my dream I was on a boat full of survivors trying to escape into the open water, which we were not yet to. The boat was pretty small and had a small cabin below the deck with electricity (dependent on the gas from the boat). The water must have been about waste deep because there were zombies in the water that were trying to get us. It was as if the streets in a city were flooded because there were things to either side of the boat. Somehow at one point I even ended up on a jet ski behind the boat driving though the flooded zombie filled city. I believe I made it to open water just before I woke up.

Even though it was a zombie dream, and they clearly wanted to eat me, it was not scary at all. Quite the opposite, it was more adventurous than anything. I had not had a dream scare me since I was very very young. I remember in that dream (the dream I had when I was little) there were spiders crawling over me until they completely covered my body and then going into my ears and mouth. It felt real to me, but then again I was just a small child. After that I prayed for quite a while every night before bed that I would not have any more bad dreams, and I have not had a nightmare since. I have had sad dreams where I think something bad has happened to me or someone I love, but I have not had a dream that is terrifying which I would classify as a nightmare.

Roswell Logic

2005-07-20T14:04:00.000-04:00

I have been watching a lot of the National Geographic channel lately. On this channel there has been quite a bit about aliens and UFOs on lately. I was telling one of my co-workers about some of the opinions I have formulated over the years about the topic. One thing we disagreed about was what happened in Roswell. I believe there was a government cover-up, however it was not covering up an alien crash landing.

When the Roswell incident (or crash) first happened it was public knowledge that (what seemed to be) an alien spacecraft had crash landed. There where even pictures of the metal from the spacecraft in the newspapers. The newspapers reported exactly what was found and what they thought it was. It wasn’t until the military stepped in that it was silenced. However, the military said what had crashed was nothing more than a weather balloon. It was obviously not a weather balloon so it was a pretty sad cover-up. Years and years later the military came out and admitted it was a cover-up, but it was not an alien cover-up. They said it was a secret government test project that had crashed. They then showed several images of this project that looked to me like a big metal kite. They did not say what the purpose of the project was. When they showed military photos of this secret project after the army finally released them and compared them to the photos from the Roswell crash from before the cover-up, it was indeed the same thing (size, shape, and material).

Did the government make fake photos to match the alien kite-like spacecraft in order to make a fake cover-up to cover-up the alien landing? Not likely, however it is a possibility. What my co-worker and I were actually debating is weather any alien bodies where found. I look at it like this, the first few days when everything was public knowledge why did the remains of the metal kite-looking object make headlines and not the bodies? If alien bodies were found they would have made the headlines instead of the scrap metal because again there is no cover-up yet. Meaning if there were bodies found they would have been in the newspapers before the military stepped in. However, there were reports of manikins which served as crash test dummies that were found at the site of the crash. These dummies for some reason happen to have been left out of the news even before the cover-up.

My co-worker basis his belief that alien bodies were found on the testimony of one (now old) lady who was alive at the time who now claims she saw alien bodies. I think I am going to have to have more evidence than that.

Personalize the 'comments' text

2005-07-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

All blogger blogs by default have comments hard coded into the HTML. It doesn't matter how many you have it will appear to be X comments. You can use the code below to change this depending on how many you have.

Example:
to
to

In your Template, Find:

<$BlogItemCommentCount$> comments

Replace with:

You can make the comments say whatever you want it to say for any number of comments. The text above is just a suggestion.

Haunted Hotels

2005-07-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

I was watching a show on Discovery’s Travel Channel (I think) called America's Haunted Hotels. It was a countdown of what are supposedly the most haunted places to stay in America. During the show they would interview several customers and some of the staff. I have to admit, these people seemed like they actually believed the place was haunted. Common since tells me they are just actors or actual employees ‘acting’ for the reputation of the hotel. After all the haunted claim to fame might be all that is keeping that hotel in business. Some of them were not exactly the Hilton downtown. After thinking about it, I have actually talked to several people who have claimed to have lived somewhere (or at least stayed somewhere) that was haunted.

It makes me wonder what kinds of things would make people think a place is haunted. I have heard people say things like a toilet flushes, the floors creeks, a light will be on, or maybe the TV turned to a static channel. If those things make a house haunted then I could only assume every house with indoor plumbing or electricity in the world is haunted. These things in conjunction with an over active imagination might make someone believe they really are being haunted.

A few days ago I was sitting at my computer desk when I suddenly heard the TV (which I thought was off) volume come on really loud. I got up and turned the TV off and called it a night and went to bed. I image the TV was already on, just on a program that was recorded at a much a lower volume (sometimes digital channels are funny like that) or perhaps the cat stepped on the remote. I can see where a customer in a hotel that had a reputation for being haunted might have assumed that was a ghost.

If I won the lottery...

2005-07-10T15:58:00.000-04:00

My freind showed me these images the other day. His dad helped make this room for a client. Life just isn't fair...

Click on the thumbnail to see the full size image:

I have always thought if I had the money (in a galaxy far far away) I would build a room very similar to this.

Template: Atmostpheric

2005-07-08T13:28:00.000-04:00

Does you blog need a new look? Click here for more information about custom made templates.

Name: Atmostpheric
Version: 1.0
Description: Space theme that boldly goes where no blog has gone before. Shows the atmosphere and the bottom of the earth. Dark, calm, surreal

Screenshot: (Click to view larger image)

Tracking your Blog's Statistics

2005-07-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

One fun part about blogging for me is seeing information about the visitors who go to my blog. It is fun to know how many visits per day I have, how visitors are finding my blog, and (sometimes the most interesting) what keywords are people searching for (Google, Yahoo, ect..) to find my blog.

If you want to keep track of you blog statistics I recommend BlogPatrol. You may have seen the image below on other blogs.

I don’t know if they are the best out there, but it meets my needs. Some other free statistic tracking sites you can try are StatCounter or SiteMeter. It only takes a minute to sign up. Once you sign up they give you a small piece of code to add to your site. This code (JavaScript) displays an image which allows them to track your site. Just click on that image to login when you want to see your site statistics. I have to warn you BlogPatrol’s JavaScript quality is very poor, but it works. If you know JavaScript you will want to rewrite it first thing. If not, don’t worry about it.

What are they looking at?

2005-07-06T09:22:00.000-04:00

I came across this photo of Sharapova on the lamest ever blog.

Guy 1: Is that a bee?
Guy 2: How embarrassing, she wore that skirt yesterday
Guy 3: Where is the wind when you need it
Guy 4: I love this game...

Interblogging's Guide to Blogging

2005-07-05T02:02:00.000-04:00

Interblogging's Five Steps to Having Good Blog

1. Whenever you can add images that go along with your articles. This helps to pull the reader in and it gets them interested in the article. They will usually see the image first and then think, I want to know what this is all about. If a reader goes to your blog and sees oceans of nothing but text, they are likely to skip to the next blog.

*note* including links are also helpful. For example do not say, "Jim Shorts saw War of the Worlds yesterday." If Jim has a blog instead say, "Jim Shorts saw War of the Worlds yesterday" where Jim is a link to his blog and War of the Worlds is a link to information about that movie. Do not be afraid to italicize movies or book titles. Every now and then an italicized word can make your articles look more inviting to read. The text is less monotones.

2. Do not just post about what you did that day for every article. No one wants to read day after day, "First I did this... and then... next... after that...." If your blog is more like an online journal you will want some of that, but try to make entries about things you like or things that are personal to you. For example I like movies. If I see a movie I really like (or hate) I will write an article about that movie or even give a movie review.

*note* no one wants to see a blog that every entry is nothing but questions that they found on someone else's blog, or crazy quizzes/personality test results (odds are no one really cares which superhero's cooking style is closer to your own). It is okay to share your quiz results or answer questions that you found other people answer, but everything in moderation.

3. Give credit where credit it due. If you get an idea off another person's blog give them credit by linking to their article. This gives everyone more exposure in the end. If you do not want to send the reader away from your blog you can add to the link, target="_blank". This will make the link open in a new window so they can finish reading your article. However, if the user is using a real browser (anything but IE) then they will probably open any link from you article into a separate tab anyway. Surly no still uses IE right???? Download Firefox

4. Do not use a default template. Readers have seen them hundreds or thousands of times. This makes you blog just like everyone else's blog which makes it boring. If your template is unique people are going to be more likely to remember your site or be more interested in reading your blog. Especially if the template theme matches the content or type of blog you have. It also creates an atmosphere for your blog. Set the mood with your blog's design. Unfortunately this is too often ignored.

5. Do not make your posts too long. No one wants to read a 2,000 word essay about the last time you walked your dog. If you have to scroll down to finish reading an article it is probably too long. Please be courteous to your fellow bloggers.

*note* Try to keep your blog rolls (or other side links) from being too long also. They seem to disappear in a ocean of links if you have too many. Link to your favorite blogs and not the mediocre blogs you visit from time to time. No one wants to click though your watered down blogroll.

Cyberpet anyone?

2005-07-04T16:42:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone has a good 4th of July. Happy Birthday America!!

Some of you might be interested in a link I stumbled across today: Adopt a Cyberpet. If you do adopt a pet, let me know so I can visit them. I probably will not be adopting one myself although I might be willing to exchange a Cybercat for my real cat.

King Kong Trailer

2005-07-03T23:20:00.000-04:00

King Kong (Directed by Peter Jackson) Looks amazing. Click on the screenshot below to view the trailer.

Using 'My Yahoo' for blogging

2005-07-01T08:47:00.000-04:00

If you have read my article here I talked about using Live Bookmarks to syndicate blog feeds. I recently discovered a new way to utilize blog feeds (thanks to Tanya). If you have a Yahoo account (they are free) you can create a My Yahoo page, it only takes a second. My Yahoo is completely customizable. You can display blog feeds, your favorite comic strips, movie information, TV schedule, current events, news feeds, and on and on. You can even change the layout, colors, or pick from plenty of pre-made templates. I choose just the standard one. This page is like your personal dashboard to the web. Anything that has a feed, you can add it. It is set up in easily editable modules.

Click image to see full size photo:

You can add your favorite blog feeds. In the screenshot above you can see where I added Interblogging and the five most recent posts (at least at the time of the screen shot). This is what it looks like when you subscribe to a blog feed. Although I have mine set up to only show new post titles only, you can also show a description of each post under the titles.

If you want to add a blog that does not have an XML feed, you might want to e-mail them and let them know they need to make their feeds available. For sites that use Blogger, you can usually type in their address + "/atom.xml" and get their feed. Since my address is http://interblogging.blogspot.com, my XML file will be located at http://interblogging.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

New Template

2005-06-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

I hope you like the new look of this website. I think it is a bit more professional. I will try to update this blog's template ever so often. I will usually be giving away the old templates for free to people who want to use them. This last template Blue Skies will be available for download soon.

If you would like a new custom template made for your blog click here for details.

Does Tom Cruise look like Gollum?

2005-06-28T15:25:00.000-04:00

Did anyone else notice how much Tom Cruise looked like Gollum on the Matt Lauer interview?

"Matt, you stupid Hobbit, you ruins it."

Batman Begins

2005-06-25T11:56:00.000-04:00

Website: click here
Trailer: click here

I saw Batman Begins yesterday (also my Birthday) and it was really good. I give it a 8 out of 10. Although, I wish they had cast a different actress as Rachel Dawes. Not that Katie Holmes did a bad job, I just didn't feel like she fit the part.

Lucky for me, Holmes is not going to be in the next Batman (more info).

"WARNER BROS is angry her engagement to TOM CRUISE has stolen media attention away from the movie."

Tough break Katie. If anyone is interested there are rumors that the Joker will be played by Sean Penn (more info).

Template: Miles Away

2005-06-24T00:43:00.000-04:00

Does you blog need a new look? Click here for more info about custom made templates.

Name: Miles Away
Version: 1.0
Description: Based on the Corona ads "Miles away from Ordinary". Peaceful beach theme designed to take the viewer miles away.

Screenshot: (Click to view larger image)

Template: Interplanetary

2005-06-21T00:35:00.000-04:00

Does you blog need a new look? Click here for more info about custom made templates.

Name: Interplanetary
Version: 1.0
Description: A simple blue, Sci-fi template that is out of this world.

Demo: Click here
Get Code: Click here Free
Get Code (No Navbar): Click here Free

Screenshot: (Click to view larger image)

Using Blogger's Feeds

2005-06-18T15:25:00.000-04:00

If you are a blogging fanatic (you know who you are) I suggest instead of making a blogroll (list of blogs you read) 5 miles long that you only add your favorite blogs. For all the other blogs you want to keep up with I suggest you subscribe to their XML feeds such as RSS or Atom. I use Live Bookmarks which is a feature Firefox browser offers. All modern browser will have something that will syndicate blog feeds (IE is not a modern browser). This way you can easily check a multitude of blogs quickly so you will not miss any new posts. The best part is, you only have to visit a site when they update. No more visiting the sites to see if they have an update.

I would also suggest you make your RSS or Atom feed available to others so they can subscribe to your feeds. Anyone who uses blogger has an Atom feed available.

Template: Blue Skies

2005-06-17T23:03:00.000-04:00

Does you blog need a new look? Click here for more info about custom made templates.

Name: Blue Skies
Version: 1.0
Description: Very simplistic soothing template. Floating in the midst of peceful clouds with a modern edge.

Demo: Click here
Get Code: Click here Free

Screenshot: (Click to view larger image)

Download: Coming Soon

Template: Sugar and Ice

2005-06-16T23:15:00.000-04:00

Name: Sugar and Ice
Version: 1.0
Description: A very clean pink and red template with crisp corners and solid colors. Very feminine template. Click on the thumbnail below to see a larger image.

Demo: Coming Soon
Screenshot: (Click image to view larger image)

Welcome to Interblogging

2005-06-16T00:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Interblogging. I am not sure what the significance of the name is, but it was available. As time permits I will be redesigning this website so things might get a little messy once I get going.

Design Info

2005-05-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

For inquires (including price quotes) on custom non-Blogger templates please e-mail me at the address below.

All pre-made templates for Blogger sites are only $25 unless otherwise noted, and all custom templates are only ~~$50~~ $35 (for a limited time). When you purchase a template from Interblogging a low-resolution screenshot of the template will be kept for our portfolio page.

When you purchase a Blogger template, unless other arrangements have been made, I will upload all files to a free webserver (such as yahoo) and give you just the code you need to paste into your blogger control panel. For more advanced users I will provide all images, CSS stylesheet, and HTML in a .zip package.

If you need any help updating your template please see Blogger Help: Updating Your Template. I will also give limited support. I do not (unless previous arrangements have been made) update blogrolls, other links, or extras you have added to your site.

To contact me please e-mail:
interblogging at yahoo dot com

Portfolio

2005-05-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

Vette

Atmospheric

Miles Away

Ask me about custom made templates.
Click here for more information.

Blogs I Read

2005-05-17T16:50:00.000-04:00