the air

I can’t believe it, but we are past the halfway mark for 2007. It feels as if the year just started a couple days ago. I hope that this year is progressing well for everyone. I am actually very pleased as to how productive and beneficial this year is turning out for me. However, this post is about the month of June and not really the entire year thus far. June has been a pivotal month for me. It marks my return to blogging “normally” and securing an internship. For the most part, these two events put together have really transformed my life and are continuing to play positive roles.

Blogging On Up

Two key things have happened on my blog since my return to normal blogging at the start of the month. For starters, I have seen an increase in traffic to my blog, which is a very good sign. Secondly, my blog’s layout/theme has changed drastically. In my opinion, the new looks is far more aesthetically pleasing than my old MistyLook theme. Much of the new traffic can be credited to the fact that I am writing more and my participation in a few Blog Carnivals. Earlier this month, Jane May had written about blog carnivals and I decided to try it out. Lo and behold, my blog enjoyed great traffic for some of the posts I had submitted and evidence suggests that my reader base has increased.

Internship and Life

Since receiving an internship, my summer plans have changed quite a bit. Rather than taking summer school and spending some quality time reading, I am spending more time working and have little time for myself. I still plan on accomplishing my reading goals, but it appears that my GRE plans will have to be shelved for some time. This internship is definitely a major plus because I now have relevant work experience in my field of study which should help me land better jobs and internships in the future. Since I am making money, it is safe to say that I am going to have a far more comfortable summer now. At least I can now go out and buy the things I have been wanting for some time and follow Jennifer’s message of opening an online savings account.

Things to Do

I still have problems trying to encourage more people to write comments on my blog, but that is an area that I want to research and see if I can improve it. I think I’ll be spending a significant amount of time trying to improve my blog’s overall look as well. Although I have not monetized my blog, it is my personal goal to keep improving this blog in any way I can. That is one of the reasons why I am always evaluating my blog and entertaining suggestions from everyone. So go ahead and let your thoughts flow into my blog. Tell me what you like or don’t like. If you don’t want me to blog, go ahead and say that, but be sure to tell my why. Don’t be shy

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This is a series of posts designed to illustrate the different plugins that help power this blog. Part I can be found here.

Part II will discuss the following plugins:

• Buy me a beer
• Comment Timeout
• Executable PHP Widget
• Extended Lives Archives
• Feedburner Feed Replacement

Buy Me a Beer

This is basically a “donation” plugin that allows readers to donate any amount of money to you through PayPal. I added this plugin just for fun because I’m an avid drinker and I figured this was something I could enjoy seeing on my blog. The author of this plugin suggests that those who run this plugin instead of simply running a “tip-jar” will see more beneficial results. I can’t comment since I haven’t received any cash, but hey, I’m not complaining! Beer on my blog still looks cool

Comment Timeout

In my continuing efforts to combat spam, this plugin supplements Akismet by disabling comments on posts that are older than a certain date or have been posted for a certain amount of time. As of right now, my posts automatically disable comments once the post is about 90 days old. This way, bots cannot attempt to leave fake comments on posts that are old since many bots are designed to post those pesky “spamments” on older posts. This is definitely a good plugin to have if you quite a few older posts and want to reduce spam on your blog. However, this plugin is not essential.

Executable PHP Widget

This is an extremely useful plugin that allows me to execute PHP commands outside of a PHP file. Why would I use this? This way, I can harness the power of the built-in PHP functions of WordPress on my sidebars. The Port of Air section and the MyBlogLog widgets are all relying on this PHP widget. It is definitely a handy widget to have if you wish to run PHP functions outside of PHP files. Try it out, you may just realize you can never live without it.

Extended Lives Archives

Have you tried my new archives section? This is one of my most beloved additions to this blog since it now has an AJAX-powered archive. It truly is far more easier to find older posts on my blog than if you were to use the traditional archives found in WordPress. In my opinion, this plugin is a must-have for any blog, assuming it can fit into your overall layout and design. Try this plugin and let me know what you think.

Feedburner Feed Replacement

This plugin “hijacks” the RSS feed on my blog and goes through Feedburner, a popular RSS management site. It really is quite powerful and since it has been purchased by Google, we can all expect further enhancements. If you are a blogger, you should already be using this plugin and be a part of Feedburner.

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Yesterday, John Chow posted a ReviewMe review of Poker Sharks, an online multiplayer game that lasts for about 100 days. The objective is seemingly easy. You are in charge of a shark of your choice and you must train and raise it to become the best poker shark out there. Each day, your shark will age by one unit and you can feed it, train it, buy it stuff, and challenge other poker players. You can also take part in tournaments and win poker chips (the currency).

The entire game is a breeze and signing up is also a painless task. The site has about 8 different sharks to choose from; each shark having distinct strengths and weaknesses. I found the site navigation to be pretty easy, but not intuitively explained. However, I have to admit that I did not bother reading any of the instructions or anything. My current rank is 230/282, which is slightly below than John, who was at 221/262 when he wrote his review. Head over to John’s review of the site and don’t forget to signup!

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I’ve gotten a few requests to talk about the current plugins I use for my blog since its redesign. I guess some people were correct in assuing that I have been busy adding and removing plugins to better suit my blog. I am currently running about 25 different plugins to help provide a better experience for all you readers. Since I have so many plugins, I am going to split up this post across multiple posts.

Part I will talk about the following plugins:

• Advanced Search Lite
• Akismet
• All In One SEO Pack
• Blogstats PCC

Advanced Search Lite

You see that search box at the top of the right column? That’s the plugin in action. By default, most WordPress themes can harness the power of the search functions built into WordPress. However, by many means, that search function is ok and nothing exceptional. This little plugin is able to improve on that search function by finding posts that contain the actual word(s) you are searching for and highlighting those terms throughout the posts. This is one of those plugins I wanted to implement to improve my blog with its new look. I’m not sure how many people use the search function on my blog, but I can bet that this small improvement definitely helps.

Akismet

Ok, if you’re blog is NOT running this plugin then you really need to reconsider your decision. This is basically a spam filter for all the comments on any blog. The plugin is actually very good at what it does and I consider it a de-facto standard for any blog. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of those “default” plugins included with every WordPress installation. If your blog does not have this plugin, make sure you have another solution handy or go for this plugin and get things in order and stop comment spam NOW!

All In One SEO Pack

I learned about this plugin from John Chow. In all honesty, this is definitely a must-have plugin if you have monetized your blog or are trying to improve your ranking on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. It also helps keep your posts relevant to a variety of search terms and could potentially help others find your content through search engines more reliably. Since my blog is not part of a niche topic, I don’t see myself using this plugin quite often, but I do think that it is a good plugin to have. You can easily manipulate the meta tags and title of your post (the title that appears at the top of the browser) for each post and your blog as a whole. Give it a shot if you are serious about blogging and making money.

Blogstats PCC

This plugin is actually more for authors who would like to display certain statistics about their blog to visitors. It has the ability to display:

• total number of posts
• total number of comments
• and much more

I typically use this plugin just to display the total number of posts on my blog in the left column under Port of Air. I think it’s pretty sad that I use a plugin to do just that, but once I decide to remove the total number of posts, I may go ahead and delete that plugin. In my opinion, this plugin is not really necessary.

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It’s that time of year now where I have to decide whether to stick to my current wireless carrier or migrate to another carrier. Currently, I am with Cingular, now known as AT&T, and I am pleased with the service so far. However, I am not thrilled with the amount of money I am spending with them every month. Here’s a breakdown of my current plan:

• Family Plan 700 for $69.99 with two phone lines
• Plan includes 700 minutes with Rollover
• $9.99 for an additional line
• $9.99 for 400 text/video/picture messaging with 1 MB internet
• $14.99 for 1000 text/video/picture messaging with 5 MB internet and unlimited messaging to any Cingular customer

If you add up the costs, I am paying about $105 before taxes and close to $130 after all applicable taxes and fees. So what exactly do I use my phone for? Let’s break it down:

• Calls!
• Browsing web
• Texting
• Photos & Video

As you can see, I use my phone for very popular reasons. I don’t text as much, roughly 100 per month. Alternatively, I tend to use the internet quite a bit on my cell phone to check email, weather, traffic reports, news, and killing time. Not surprisingly, Cingular’s measly 1 MB internet plan is not enough and I can easily see the 5 MB option being too small and pricey at the same time. To balance out the high prices, Cingular does offer exceptional coverage in numerous places. So my next question would be who offers the best coverage?

Both Verizon and Cingular boast large coverage areas and either one works for me since I tend to stick to mostly metropolitan areas. However, I am not really interested in CDMA/TDMA technologies since I already have an unlocked GSM phone. In fact, my mom and brother also have unlocked GSM phones so we have no need to purchase new phones when selecting a new carrier. Hence, it is our desire to stick with a carrier that relies on GSM technology. Since my brother and I are the only ones who use the internet on our phones, we don’t really need high speed internet since the current EDGE speeds are quire reliable and satisfactory. Knowing all that, we can eliminate Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, and any other CDMA/TDMA carrier.

My only choices now are to either migrate to T-Mobile or remain with Cingular. I have had experience with both carriers now, but it has been two years since being with T-Mobile. I am not willing to sign a two-year contract. So who do I go with? I live in the Chicago-land area, so those of you who have experience with T-mobile in the area, can you tell me your thoughs? And what about all of you in general, what are your opinions about Cingular and T-mobile? In fact, do you think I should skip both and go to Verizon or Sprint and why? Help a college student out and help me save tons of money on my wireless service.

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