Scarform’s Blog

Feb 23, 20070
New album in the works

Ending before it begins
I’m working on materials for a new album titled “Ending before it begins”. It will feature the piano you’ve been hearing on the new stuff, and it will come in 2 flavors: regular digital download and enhanced digital download (the enhanced version a couple of bucks extra and will feature artwork and extra tracks not available with the regular digital download.)

No release date
No release date yet as I’m only about halfway through with the music and not even a third of the way through with the artwork. However, I think saying that a release date in sometime of mid ‘07 is a fair guestimation.

Feb 23, 20072
The first two months of ‘07 (could’ve been worse)

Hey, at least I can say “it could’ve been worse”
The year of 2007 found it’s way into our lives by way of a few events.

  • We became unemployed.
  • We lost a temp job because they decided to go straight to trial.
  • We almost didn’t have money for rent.
  • The opportunity to move to California came into light.
  • I was told that I would more than likely qualify for disability.
  • Coupled with the opp. to go to California is the opp. to live in an income based apartment in Maumelle.
  • We’ll be moving into Erin’s mother’s house for a month to get our funds together and figure out what we’re going to do.

Yes, it happened in that order (except for the last one which hasn’t happened yet.)

Between a rock and a … rock.
We’re going to be figuring out what the next step is in March. By then, Erin will have figured out whether or not she can stand to stay at the job she has now for a long-term commitment, and we’ll be able to make up our minds on whether or not to stay in Arkansas or go to California.

Pros and cons
Both options have their pros and cons, so March will be spent weighing out each pro and con to come up with the best possible solution. Either way, we’ll need to figure something out.

It’s only March and I’m already wishing for 2008.

Feb 22, 20072
Feat. Music by Matthew Trevino


The above image may not not be work safe.

Who is Matthew Trevino?
Look, if you’ve been coming here on a regular basis and you still don’t know who I am, then there really is no help for you. As of late, I’ve taken quite a fondness to the synthesized piano (as reflected by “State of Mind” and the shorter-by-comparison piece “Somehow better”).

I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and have a little over 2-300 songs created with every effect I could possibly imagine (and some that I had to pre-record myself and chop and mix to a certain point). Out of all of the synthesizers I have used, FL-Keys has to be my favorite. I’ll be putting out a lot more of my music utilizing this instrument as it makes for the most beautiful and sometimes eerie music I’ve ever been able to create.

Not for sale?
Some of the songs I’ll have for sale (”State of Mind”, “The Children are Missing” and “Zenith” are all four for sale) but some I will keep up only for exclusivity, or rather, only available to listen to from the website.

Considering sales are pretty non-existent, I don’t know if it even matters whether I keep certain songs for site-listen-only or not.

Why sell them for so high?
Well, let’s see - I’m an unknown artist who doesn’t have a major record label backing up my bandwidth and handling my sales and marketing, so I have to make up for Paypal fees and any excess bandwidth that I use in order to stream you the full uncut version of the song so you can listen to it before you decide whether or not you want to buy it and burn it to a CD without DRM and any other type of .mp3 crippling anti-piracy techniques.

I figure 85 cents is pretty cheap for that - considering I really only get about 50 cents of that 85. (That might just be the arrogant and smart assed side of me speaking, but you do the math and you tell me what you think.)

Feb 21, 20070
Old files from my comp III

About
This is a short story that I wound up writing over the span of an hour or so. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Two Windows
I am not a remarkable person by any means. I have not led a remarkable life and I have not done any remarkable things. In fact, my life is the exact opposite of remarkable. As I look out of the window of my life, I see all of the clouds passing me by and I try to form pictures with them in my mind. A few moments ago a dog floated by, followed shortly by a rabbit. Soft and white, the different shapes take form in front of me and then float on to destinations unseen. The light shining through the window casts no shadows in this room of mine. And as I open the window, no sound comes in. It is all just a silent scene of what nature is, unfolding in front of me in the form of my cloud circus sideshow, and I have been watching it for far too long.
I close the window of my life and return to the window of reality. It shows nothing more than what my hopes and dreams used to be, set on fire and smoldering in the limelight that does not exist. The smoke somehow finds its way to the edge of the sky and dissipates, and I can pretend that my dreams never existed at all. Those around me help me to pretend, in their own little way. Every now and then I like to close both windows and bask in the non-existing parallel between what was and what could have been, as I sit and watch the cloud animals float by, and for a few short moments the farewell to dreaming doesn’t seem as bittersweet as it should be or could have been.
On this particular day, I found myself smoking a cigarette and watching the show, uncertain of whether or not I would allow it to end. I closed my eyes, and imagined myself somewhere else. Somewhere that didn’t quite resemble the hell I would have to go back to once I allowed this window to close. I knew I couldn’t stay here forever, but it didn’t matter. Pretending I could was always a luxury I allowed myself, if allowing myself that luxury wasn’t going to drive me insane at the moment.
Even now, I could feel the cold hard swift backhand of the other window as I was forced to realize that no matter how long I stayed here and no matter how much I enjoyed myself, the other was waiting for me. It wasn’t going to go away and unlike myself, it had all the time in the world to wait. I took one last drag on my cigarette and made it disappear. I got up from the chair I had been sitting in, and with a final longing glance up at the blue sky, I closed both my eyes and the window.
I re-opened my eyes to find myself back in my bedroom, where I had been sitting only four hours ago. The sun shining in through the three windows surrounding me suggested that it was some time during the afternoon. I got up and made my way to the bathroom. Opening the door, I discovered that I had competely forgotten to clean up the papers I had thrown on the floor. I bent down and began rummaging them into a pile. Typed phrases and sentences flashed by my vision in a blurred jumble of paper and shadow. After I finished, I took them into the bedroom. I looked down at what I was holding in my hands. At the top of the first page was a single line of text. In bold typeface was the date, three weeks passed. Ten lines down, a single word was prominent amid the rest of the symbols.

It read: still here.

I continued to stare at that sentence, trying to connect the dots in my mind as to why I had even bothered to type it. I decided not to worry about it too much, and let my hands go limp. The papers avalanched to the floor in a frenzy of black and white nonsense. I turned and continued down the hall, forgetting why it was that I had even bothered coming back at all. I passed the bathroom, closing the door as I did so, and found myself in the living room. The front door had been left open again. From outside, I could hear the sounds of the neighborhood in which I lived. Children yelling and dogs barking were the usuall noises that I heard from my living room as the life essence of the houses around me scurried to and fro in an effort to entertain themselves throughout the day.
I leaned out of the open doorway and grasped onto the doorknob. I glanced up and down the street searching for the usual movements of the day, but found none. All the houses were silent and the street itself was bare. The sun cast shadows over the backyards and areas that I could view from my porch, and yet somehow failed to shed light on the fact that they were empty. I shrugged, thinking nothing more of it, and closed the door.
Going into the kitchen, I found that I had left the knife drawer open. Upon closer inspection I found that my biggest knife, a meat cleaver, was missing. I closed the drawer and turned to the fridge, hoping to find something to drink. Inside, there was nothing but a bottle of Vodka and what appeared to be left of some type of juice in a translucent container. I opted for the stronger of the two, and poured a shot into one of the small shot-glasses on the counter beside the fridge. I took both the bottle and the smaller portion into the living room, found a comfortable seat on the couch, and turned on the television.
The television sprang to life with the irrelevant ramblings of a t.v. personality plugging some sort of product that didn’t really matter to me or anybody else. Hitting the Channel Up button produced only dead air. Hitting it again only seemed did the same. No matter how many times I hit that button, the process only seemed to repeat itself. I hit the power button and drank the small gulp of Vodka I had poured myself.
I glanced through the blinds of the window next to me. The sun hadn’t seemed to move since I got back, and there was still no signs of life coming from the houses. I turned my attention back to the living room. I hadn’t noticed that the television was on until the sound of dead air eased its way into the back of my mind. I hit the power button a second time and it was silenced. I noticed smoke rising from the table and found that a cigarette had been lit. I looked down to find that half of it had already been smoked, but not ashed. I picked it up out of the ashtray and flicked the dead end into the bowl. I raised the end of it to my mouth, inhaled, and then snuffed it out.
I picked up the notebook I had been writing in the night before, and turned to the last page which I had inked characters upon. I re-read the last couple of lines aloud to myself.

“…He picked up the large knife and, using the sleeve of his coat, wiped off the blood which had begun to dry on its serrated edge. Her screams were a distant memory now as he layed the blade on the counter top and walked to the pantry where he had stored her body. There had been no witnesses to his horror in these, the last days of his life…”

I couldn’t remember writing these words. I tried to think back to what I had been doing the night before and found that I couldn’t remember what I had done. The memory of writing had faded, and was replaced by the circus I had watched only moments ago. I glanced at the clock and realized that it had not been moments ago, but in fact hours ago, since I had been watching the animals in the sky.
Another glance out of the window showed that the sun still hadn’t visibly changed and there were still no signs of life coming from the houses. Where was everybody? I found myself longing for the sounds that I used to loathe. I lay the notebook back in its place on the table, and turned the television back on. Still, there was only dead air. I spent the next ten minutes manually inputting the numbers of every channel, desperately searching for something to watch. But there was nothing on. I had even went back to the channel with the overly annoying infomercial, hoping for at least something to watch, but found nothing but the same dead air I had been clicking through this whole time. Frustrated, I hit the power button and got up.
I picked up the bottle of Vodka and poured myself a second shot. After a quick sweep of the hand and swallowing of the fiery bitter liquid, I made my way to the bathroom. Opening the door, I discovered the pile of papers had found its way back to the bathroom floor. I quickly bent down, rummaging them into a pile as quickly as I could and took them to the bedroom, where I threw them on the floor. They all landed face down, except for one. It was the one that I had read earlier.

“Still here.”

I turned, closed the door behind me, and went to the bathroom as quickly as I could. I thew my sight to the ground, half expecting the papers to be back, and to my relief, they weren’t. I walked in front of the mirror, turned, and inspected my face. I didn’t look very sickly. My pupils were the size they normally were, whether they were a healthy size or not. I stuck my tongue out and ran my hand through my short hair. I turned on the sink faucet and splashed a few handfuls of cold water over my face.

“Get a grip.”, I told myself. “Everything is ok. So get a grip.”

After splashing one final handful of water over my face, I turned off the bathroom light and closed the door. As I turned to make my way back to the living room, I stopped short as I noticed that the notebook was laying on the floor in front of me. It had been turned open to the page I had been reading in the living room, only now there was more writing. I stopped down to one knee, picked it up, and began to read.

“…He had tried to get some sleep that night, but found no comfort. He couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard he tried. One of the next door neighbors had come over that night, concerned by the sounds she had heard coming from his house. He had given her an explanation but found himself thinking of the knife the whole time he talked to her. ‘She knew too much’, he found himself thinking. ‘We’ll have to take precautions so that she won’t tell anyone else. Nobody can find out.’ But he didn’t. And the woman left, looking unsure of what she had just heard…”

I picked up the notebook and closed it. I walked into the living room and set back on the table. My breathing was faster now. I felt that in a way, I was losing my mind. I ran back to the bathroom, but stopped. I opened the bedroom door and saw that the papers were still strewn across the floor. I turned to the bathroom.

“There is no way that they can be in the bedroom and the bathroom at the same time.”, I assured myself. “You picked them up, and you thew them into the bedroom. You looked into the bedroom and they are still there, so there is no way that they can be in the bathroom as well.”

I opened the bathroom door, and laying there before me was the pile of papers. I darted my gaze back to the bedroom floor and found that they weren’t there anymore. As I turned my attention back to the bathroom floor, I saw no papers. When I turned back to the bedroom, there they were. I repeated this for thirty minutes, my head turning faster each minute, until I found myself getting dizzy. In the bathroom, not in the bedroom, not in the bathroom, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, not in the bedroom, and so on. I slammed both doors shut and came back into the living room. Glancing out through the window, I found that the sun had still not changed positions nor had any life found its way to the streets yet.
I poured myself another shot of Vodka, and downed it immediately. I hit the power button on the remote and was greeted, once again, by dead air. I hit the power button and got up, remote in hand, and walked to the television. I saw myself taking the remote and slamming it, over and over, into the television until I broke through the screen. Instead, I layed the remote on the top of the set and walked back to the couch. As I sat down, my foot hit something. Leaning over, I reached down and gasped as my hand met the unmistakable shape of the remote control I had just laid on the top of the t.v. I looked up and was still able to see it. I curled my fingers around the object and pulled it quickly into view while holding my gaze on the remote. It was nothing more than my digital camera.
I had been meaning to replace the batteries in it for months. I opened the battery casing and found that I still hadn’t done it. I placed the camera on the table and turned my gaze to the window. As I gazed out of the window, I found myself growing tired and soon fell asleep.

I awoke some time later on my side on the floor in front of the couch. As I leveraged my hand on to the table to lift myself up, my vision passed the camera. It’s power was on and the view screen was in front of me. I leaned onto my knees and began navigating through the photos that were stored in its memory.
The first photo was of a blue sky. The second was of a sunset. The third was of the moon, glowing brilliantly pale in the midnight sky. I continued looking through the photos until one in particular caught my attention. It was my living room in the exact view as I saw right now. Everything was where it was. As I continued to look at the image, pools of what appeared to be blood began to form in the corners of the room, and then began to pour from the walls. I then realized that I hadn’t been looking at a picture from the memory, but was in fact looking at a live view of the living room. I looked up and found that everything was still the same. Looking into the camera told a different story. I turned off the camera and placed it back on the table.
I walked to the front door, opened it, and then walked out onto the front porch. Resting on the table was a shot of Vodka. I sat down, picked it up, and drank it. I pulled the pack of cigarettes out of my pocket and took one out. After looking over it for a few moments, I decided not to light it and threw it out into the yard. I got up and looked out across the neighborhood. Still, there were no signs of life. I decided to go next door and see if my neighbor could give me a good explanation as to where everybody was. But my stomach was rumbling, and I found myself more hungry than I had ever been before.
After walking back inside, I went to the kitchen and tried to find something to eat. I decided upon a sandwich. After fixing it, I sat in the living room and ate. Time seemed to be going much slower than it usually did. After downing the last bite, I made my back to the porch and then across the yard to my neighbor’s house. A few loud knocks on the door produced no answer. I walked to the road, and made my way to the house next to his only to come to the same result. Five houses later, I still had no answer. As I was turning to come back to my house, I noticed that the door to this house was open. I slowly pushed it the rest of the way, peered inside, and asked the empty house a simple question.

“Anybody home?”

I walked into what appeared to be the living room and stood still, listening for any signs of life. No sounds. A quick look around the living room slowly sank the fact that I was in fact in my own living room into the back of my brain. I ran back to the door and looked outside. When I did, I found myself looking back into the living room at the back of myself looking out. I slammed the door shut and ran to my bedroom. I pushed the door open and ran to my bed, throwing myself onto it. I closed my eyes and opened my other window. Almost instantly, my circus sideshow began as one by one the cloud animals floated by.
I am not a remarkable person by any means. I have not led a remarkable life and I have not done any remarkable things. In fact, my life is the exact opposite of remarkable. I sit in front of the window of my life and watch all of the clouds pass by, counting them one by one and watching as they all transform into the animals that they once were, perhaps in another life. Every now and then one floats by that I don’t have an animal for, so I forget about it. But every once in a while, I close this window and open the window of reality. But what I find beyond that window is nothing more than broken dreams and forgotten memories - nothing more than a lonely world.
Even now, as I sit in front of my animal window, I can only regret that I’ll have to sit in front of the other window soon again. So I take a deep breath and bask in the moment at hand as the clouds pass by, putting on a show that only I can see, as I dream of days gone by and all of the people that used to be here. Everything used to be beautiful but nothing is beautiful anymore. But then again, I guess it never really was.

Feb 20, 20070
Youtube overdose: Dose 1 (MacvsPC)

Precursor (Mac vs PC)
Surfing the net today, I had a hankering to see the “Pc vs Mac” ads that have been running for the past year or so. Loading up Youtube, I managed to hunt down a few of them. I can’t really think of too many people who haven’t seen these yet - but if you’re one of them, enjoy.

The Videos (plus a few extras for good measure)

Feb 19, 20070
Installing Wordpress

Contents
Introduction
Installation
Setting it up, part 1.0 | Your Profile
Setting it up, part 1.1 | Your Options (General options)
Setting it up, part 1.2 | Your Options (Writing options)
Setting it up, part 1.3 | Your Options (Reading options)
Setting it up, part 1.4 | Your Options (Discussion options)
Setting it up, part 1.5 | Your Options (Privacy options)
Setting it up, part 1.6 | Your Options (Permalinks options)
Setting it up, part 1.7 | Your Options (Miscellaneous options)
Themes and Plugins
Wp-Admin, a brief overview
Mainting your blog
Recommended plugins
Anything else?


Introduction | Skip this
If you’re here, then chances are, you’ve downloaded Wordpress 2.1 and have scoured the internet for a guide on how to set it up. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of guides out there that deal with this subject specifically - but none of them are as in-depth as I’d like them to be.

The overall goal of this guide is to:

  • 01. Get your Wordpress installed.
  • 02. Get your Wordpress configured.
  • 03. Discuss themes and plugins.
  • 04. Discuss the aspects of the Admin screen.
  • 05. Impart a basic understanding of managing, maintaining and editing your blog.
  • 06. Recommend plugins that will help you out.

You can skip to any one of these items via the contents menu or you can read them in order. You can also press the Skip this link to go onto the next portion of the page.

I will try to be as short and to the point as possible, but not so short as to leave you without a basic understanding of what is going on.

All set? Let’s continue.


Installation | Skip this

You’ve downloaded Wordpress, and create a mysql database for it. (Most webhosts have a function where you can easily create a mysql database. You’ll need the database name, username and password to install Wordpress.)

First, create a folder for the installation in your webspace. Call it whatever you want.
Next, open up the file named “wp-config-sample.php” in a text editor. Inside of this file, you’ll see a bunch of lines of code, but the only ones you’ll be interested in are:

  • define(’DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’); // The name of the database
  • define(’DB_USER’, ‘username’); // Your MySQL username
  • define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password’); // …and password
  • define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value

This is where you will put the database name, username and password as well as the url to your msql server (usually localhost works, but for accounts on Dreamhost, this has to be changed to mysql.yourserver.com. (You may want to check your web hosts support wiki or forum or ask if you aren’t sure about this one.)

A correct alteration to the above lines would look something like this:

  • define(’DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’); // The name of the database
  • define(’DB_USER’, ’somename’); // Your MySQL username
  • define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ’somepassword’); // …and password
  • define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value

Now, save the file as wp-config.php and upload it to the root directory of your wordpress installation. (If you installed it in yourdomain.com/wordpress, then /wordpress would be the root directory.)

Next, navigate to yourdomain.com/wordpress/ and it will tell you that there is an error and you need to install it. Click install, next step, and then fill in your blog’s title and your e-mail address. Once it has finished installing, it will give your username (admin) and your password (a random string of characters). Copy this, and log in by typing in admin and pasting the copied password into the password field.

Congratulations! You are now looking at the Wordpress Admin Screen. Let’s continue.


Setting it up, Part 1 | Your Profile | Skip this
Now that you’ve set up Wordpress, you’re going to want to change your password. Click on users, and then edit by your name in the list. Here, you can fill in all of the information that will make up your profile. If you don’t plan on making this profile public, or using any of the information anywhere on your blog, then the only information you should really worry about is First Name, Last Name, and Password.

After filling this information out, click Save Changes. On the same screen there is a drop down box that lets you pick what name you would like displayed as the author of the posts on the blog. If you’re fine with Admin, then leave it. Otherwise, you can select from Username (if you chose to fill this out), First name, Last name then first name, or First name then last name. After making your decision, click save changes once again and you’re done with this screen.


Setting it up, part 1.1 | Your Options (General Options) | Skip this
The Options Tab is where you will set up the way your blog acts. Everything from how many posts are displayed to whether or not you want to block search engines from indexing it are all here. Let’s start with General Options and work our way up.

General options
General options - Weblog title
This is the title of your blog. It is what shows in the top of the browser window and the browser tab (if your browser supports tabbed browsing). Change this to whatever you like, but it is advisable to keep it short.

General options - Tagline
This is a short one liner that is usually meant to be humorous. Some themes will put a piece of code to call what is written here to be viewed somewhere on your blog. You can leave this blank if you so desire, or you can put something here. Again, the shorter, the better.

General options - Wordpress Address (URL)
General options - Blog Address (URL)
You will not need to change these unless you want to store your Wordpress files in a different directory than the index page. (But for the most part, you will never need to change these values.)

General options - E-mail address
This is the e-mail address you used when you set up your Wordpress installation, and unless you want to change e-mail addresses, this will not need to be changed either.

General options - Membership
Here, you have two choices.

  • Anyone can register.
  • Users must be registered and logged in to comment.

Checking the box next to the first option will allow anybody to register an account on your blog. (The register file is located at yourdomain.com/wordpress/wp-register.php).
Checking the box next to the second option will make it so that anybody who isn’t registered can not comment on the site.

It’s usually a good practice to make it so that anybody can register, but also so they don’t have to be registered to leave a comment.

General options - New user default role
If you have it so that anybody can register, leaving this drop-down menu set to “Subscriber” is your best bet. The options are as follows:

  • Subscriber - can post comments and maintain a profile.
  • Contributor - can submit posts for approval to appear on the blog + subscriber permissions.
  • Author - can post to the blog + subscriber permissions.
  • Editor - can edit posts that have been submitted, and has some administrative powers + subscriber.
  • Administrator - full control over everything.

General options - Times in the weblog should differ by
This sets up the blog to display the time stamps relevant to where you are in the world (according to your time zone.) If you’re not sure, then find your location on this list.

General options - Default date format
General options - Default time format
These can usually be left alone. If you really want to mess with it, then consult this guide as to what each character represents.

General options - Weeks in the calendar should start on
Usually either Monday or Sunday - but you can set it to whatever you want.

All done with General options, now let’s move on to Writing Options.


Setting it up, part 1.2 | Your Options (Writing options) | Skip this
Writing options
Writing options - size of the post box
The default amount of 10 is fairly big enough. This can be left alone. (This number corresponds with how big your entry box will be in the write post/page screen).

Writing options - Formatting
There are two options:

  • Convert emoticons like :-) and :-P to graphics on display
  • WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically

Checking the first box will force emoticons in your posts. If you don’t want to use emoticons, uncheck this box.
Checking the second box correct any mistakes in the XHTML next in your posts. Depending on what you are going to be writing, checking this may or not help you. If you aren’t sure, leave it unchecked.

Writing options - default post category
This is the category to which all of the posts you forget to assign a category to when finished writing them will be filed. This can be left alone.

Writing options - default bookmark category
This is the category where any new links added to your blogroll will go if you forget to assign a category to them. This can also be left alone.

Writing options - Post via e-mail
It is usually unwise (and un-necessary) to set this up. Leave it exactly as it is.

Writing options - Update services
Currently, there is only one address in this box. The addresses you put here should be to services that accept pings (places like Technorati) whenever you post a new entry. Delete the entry in that box and copy and paste the following list:

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Click update options.

We’re done with the Writing options - let’s head over to Reading options.


Setting it up, part 1.3 | Your Options (Reading options) | Skip this
Reading options
Reading options - front page
You can set up whether or not you want a static page as the front page, or if you want your blog entries to be the front page. Since you are just setting up Wordpress, leaving this alone is best for now. However, whenever you have a few posts and pages under your belt, and you decide that a static front page is better, then you will need to do the follow:

  • Create a blank page and disallow comments. (Best to name it something like “Posts”)
  • Create the page you want for your static page. (If you already have one in mind, skip this step.)
  • Select “A static page (select below)”
  • Select the page you want for your front page in the first box.
  • Select the page titled “Posts” (or whatever you named it) and then click “Update options”.

Reading options - blog pages
This number will determine how many posts are viewed on the page at one time. Setting this to anything higher than 25 will only ask for trouble in regards to load times. Best to keep it below that.

Reading options - syndication feeds
This number will determine how many of your latest posts are shown in your RSS feed. Keeping this at 10 is almost always best, unless you plan on posting massive amounts of posts per day. Either way, 10 is probably your best bet.

Reading options - syndication feeds - for each article, show
There are two options.

  • Full text
  • Summary

Checking the first box (Full text) will send the full post to your RSS.
Checking the second box (summary) will only send a short summary of the post.

This is entirely up to you, but summaries are usually better.

Reading options - encoding for pages and feeds
Leave this one alone (unless you know exactly what you are doing). And even then, why would you change this?

Reading options - WordPress should compress articles (gzip) if browsers ask for them
I’ve never checked this box and I’ve never had any problems from not doing so. Best to leave it unchecked.

Click update options, and you are all done with the Reading options - now it’s time Discussion!


Setting it up, part 1.4 | Your Options (Discussion options)
Discussion options
Discussion options - Usual settings for an article
There are three options here.

  • Attempt to notify any Weblogs linked to from the article (slows down posting.)
  • Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)
  • Allow people to post comments on the article

Checking the first box will attempt to notify any blogs you have linked to from the article about the post.
Checking the second box will allows pingbacks and trackbacks (links from other blogs) to come through to your comments.
Checking the third box will allow people to post comments on the article in question.

Whether or not you check the last two boxes is irrelevant, since you can specify whether or not this happens when you first write the post or article in question. However, keeping these checked is a good practice so that you only have to worry about changing something like this when you don’t want comments (instead of having to specify each time you write something.)

Discussion options - E-mail me whenever
There are two options here.

  • Anyone posts a comment
  • A comment is held for moderation

Checking the first box will notify you by e-mail when somebody posts a comment.
Checking the second box will notify you by e-mail when somebody posts a comment, but it has been flagged for moderation.

It’s up to you whether you want this or not. It’s usually a good idea to have both of these boxes checked.

Discussion options - Before a comment appears
There are three options.

  • An administrator must always approve the comment
  • Comment author must fill out name and e-mail
  • Comment author must have a previously approved comment

Checking the first box will make it so that you have to approve every comment. If you expect a lot of comments, don’t check this box.
Checking the second box will make it so that the commenter has to fill out his name and e-mail before the comment can be accepted. Usually a good practice to check this box.
Checking the third box makes it so that a commenter has to have a previous comment that has been approved to make a comment in the first place. If you aren’t going to use the first checkbox, then don’t use this one.

Discussion options - Comment Moderation
There are 2 options you can fill out.

  • How many links a comment has to have in order to be flagged for moderation
  • Certain words that will flag it for moderation

You can leave these alone unless you have certain words you want to keep an eye on and a certain number of links you want to allow.

Discussion options - Comment Blacklist
It’s best to leave this one blank as it will mark all comments with whatever you put in this box as spam. It is a CATCH ALL and will likely mark more relevant comments as spam than spam comments. Use at your own risk!

All done here. Click update options and continue on your way!


Setting it up, part 1.5 | Your Options (Privacy options) | Skip this
Privacy options
Privacy options - Blog visibility
There are two options.

  • I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers
  • I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors

Checking the first option will allow everyone and all search engines to index it (recommended).
Checking the second option will allow everyone, but keep search engines from indexing it (not recommended).

Click the update options button and we’ll continue on our way.


Setting it up, part 1.6 | Your Options (Permalinks options) | Skip this
Customize Permalink Structure
Customize Permalink Structure - Common options
There are four options.

  • Default
  • Date and name based
  • Numeric
  • Custom

Default will set up your permalinks as http://domain.com/wordpress/?p=123
Name and date will set up your permalinks as http://domain.com/wordpress//2007/02/18/sample-post/
Numeric will set up your permalinks as http://domain.com/wordpress//archives/123
Custom is something you set up yourself. (Not recommended for beginners).
I recommend going with Name and date based.

Customize Permalink Structure - Optional
This will setup how your category pages are displayed. It’s best to leave this blank, but if you want to put something here, go ahead.

If you put “words” here, then your category pages urls would be yourdomain.com/wordpress/words/category/ instead of the default.

Click update options and you are almost done with the options - let’s head over to miscellaneous for one final stop.


Setting it up, part 1.7 | Your Options (Miscellaneous options) | Skip this
Miscellaneous options
Miscellaneous options - uploading
Best to leave this at its default. This is where to files you upload during your posts will go. (same with the checbox (Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders)).

Whew! All done with the options! Now you’re ready learn about themes and plugins, the side items that make your blog look and act the way you want it to (on a separate level from the options we just went through.)


Themes and Plugins | Skip this
These two elements are the basic back bone of your blog. While one adds the code necessary for the blog to be seen, the other adds functionality to the blog itself that wasn’t originally written into Wordpress.

Themes (or resources for themes) can be found at Wordpress.org/extend/themes, Themes.wordpress.net, or simply by Googling the phrase “Wordpress theme” (or using Stumbleupon to search for “Wordpress theme”. We have a few available for download as well.

Plugins can be found at any of the following sites:


Wp-Admin, a brief overview | Skip this
Your admin screen has a list of options from which you can control your blog. This is but a brief overview of what each option is.

Dashboard
From here, you can view the latest comments, posts, trackbacks and news.

Write
From here, you can write a page or a post.

Manage
From here, you can moderate (edit) previously published posts, pages, uploads, categories, and files.
You can also import posts from another source or export them to a single downloadable file.

Comments
Here, you can moderate comments that were approved, held for moderation or caught by Akismet.

Blogroll
This is where you add the links to your blogroll. This is basically a collection of sites you enjoy.

Presentation
You can edit the current theme or switch to a new one that you have uploaded to your wp-content/themes folder.

Plugins
You can activate or deactivate plugins that you have uploaded to your wp-content/plugins folder.

Users
Here, you can manage user accounts and create new ones.

Options
You should already know what this does. ^^


Maintaining your blog
In order to keep yourself from having to re-edit posts further down the line, it is best that you have a basic model for what your posts are going to look like. The best way to do this is to take a look at what other blogs are doing and see what works for them. Take that model and then change it so that it works for you.

The way I like to write posts is very simple. I group parts of the post together, separating each group with a bold small title.

Try to set up appropriate categories for your posts and write in a clean and clear language that can be understood. Try to speak in a way that invites discussion.

Later on, if you want to edit anything, you can manage your posts by clicking on the Manage tab and then selecting the post you would like to edit.


Recommended plugins | Skip this
Akismet for spam.
Ultimate Tag Warrior allows you to specify tags, which is great for sites like Technorati!
Wordpress Database Backup allows you to backup everything on your blog.
Another Title for single page/post view optimization (removes redundant things like “blog archive” from the title.)
Filosofo Good Adsense Targeting if you use Adsense. It helps the contextual advertising by targeting the keypoints of your content.
Footnotes allows you to create… footnotes in your posts.
Google Sitemaps creates a Google compliant sitemap of your blog.
Paged Comments breaks up comments into pages.


Anything else?
Feel free to leave a comment below to add to the knowledge base. I do not claim this to be the ultimate on how-to’s and I’m sure, in my tiredness and fatigue over the last four hours or so of writing this epic I may have likely missed something.

Feb 18, 20070
Harry Potter is Nude and the Pop Singer’s Bald

02|18|2007
Brittney Spears shaved her head and Daniel Radcliffe appeared nude in a movie. In other news, I had tuna for supper.

Feb 18, 20070
Tammy NYP

02|18|2007
There really isn’t much to why Tammy NYP has reappeared in the top searches, but there’s a good article at Outside the Beltway and of course, the video in question (the starlette’s website).

< >