blogging, tweeting & facebooking. on the treadmill.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Since September of 2007, I’ve been working with a personal trainer, focusing on strength training. I had some physical challenges, but since my hysterectomy last year, I’ve been much more consistent and I’m up to three days per week. And I’ve finally gotten to a place where the arthritis in my neck hardly ever necessitates the use of my home traction device. I’m feeling stronger and healthier than I have in a very, very long time and I’m very determined to continue getting stronger as I get older, not weaker.

But I’ve always struggled with maintaining a consistent cardio workout. I like maximizing my time. I like to be pragmatic. So when it came to incorporating cardio into my daily life, I wanted . . .

to multitask:

No nagging – it’s safe – I promise. I only WALK on the treadmill. From 3.3 to 4 miles per hour. I do a little interval training, but no jogging. Doctor’s orders. Just walking. Resting the laptop on the treadmill console worked great – for certain things. Mostly passive, hands-off things. PERFECT for video training. PERFECT for reading onscreen. PERFECT for listening, learning and even rehearsing my praise team music for the week.

Not so perfect for typing. At 3.3 miles per hour, typing was possible, but annoying. And slow. And I was worried that I would knock the laptop off the treadmill because it was perched with the left side higher than the right.

Then I tried this:

Even more annoying. Too tiny. And the touch pad – with no independent buttons for clicking – ANNOYING. I was constantly clicking AWAY from things I wanted to click ON. arrg.

Then, Saturday morning, I asked my husband to think about what modifications could be made to provide a more stable surface for my laptop. I would also like room to put the house phone, my cell phone, the tv and cable remotes (in case I wanted to watch TV instead), a bottle of water and a small towel.

oh, don’t worry. He knew I was high maintenance when he married me.

Look what my man can do with $10, some power tools and a few hours!

I’m LOVING this! Stable, with plenty of room and it even has a cutout so I can see the console panel. I still need to paint it, but it’s been three days and I absolutely LOVE it! In addition to the hands free tasks, I can type!!! So easy! I can facebook, tweet and blog, all while walking. The time FLIES by!

The TV is mostly for FirstHusband and FavoriteSon (in case you’re new to Compendium, that would be my ONLY husband and my ONLY son). They use the small TV directly in front of the treadmill to play video games. It’s hooked up as a second monitor to the game system and larger TV on the other side of the room. It’s also hooked up to the cable box, so we can watch TV too.

Now THIS is a sustainable cardio workout. What kind of sustainable workout routine works for you?

BTW, I just counted almost FIFTY treadmills listed on the Central Florida Craigslist since MONDAY. Just in case you’re interested.

and just in case you missed this video earlier this week . . .

Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family. MY previous Works for Me Wednesday posts are HERE.

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer.

blog stats are meaningless.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Me: I’m looking at my blog differently these days. I’m looking at it like writing instead of blogging.

FirstHusband: I thought that’s why you started to blog in the first place.

Me: Maybe. But then I got caught up with stats and comments and wanting people to like me.

pause.

Me: You know, this whole Easter Bunny Cake thing is a lesson. Nearly 1600 views in the last 30 days, and almost 900 of them in the last seven days. And look at my comments this last week. I hear crickets. Blog stats are meaningless gauges of success. I do need to go back to writing for me. I need to write about what I want, instead of what I think other people might want. I don’t know what other people want.

So, starting yesterday, I’m going back to writing for me. And I’m going to try my hardest not to care whether you like it or not.

I’m gonna miss these inflated, ego building stats.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Me: “Over 1300 hits on my blog this month just for the Easter Bunny Cake post alone. I’m gonna miss these inflated, ego building stats, because the day after Easter, they are going to seriously tank.

FirstHusband: “Don’t worry honey, people will always want to know how to freeze onions.”

I couldn’t help but crack up. He knows my blog better than I do.

Me: “Or how to shred chicken”

sigh. (those are the posts that normally inflate my stats)

ch ch ch changes.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’ve decided to make some changes here at Pragmatic Compendium. I’m going to make it more of a compendium. Here are the changes:

1. I’m going to be republishing existing content from my other blogs into Compendium, so that this will be a one stop shop for all my posts. I’m doing this for a few reasons. First, I frequently can’t find my own posts because I can’t remember where I put them. Secondly, the stats from the other blogs don’t show much traffic from Compendium, so my readers are missing my posts. Compendium is only part of who I am. There’s more!

2. I’m going to keep the other blogs too and continue to publish in them. Every time I post in one of my other blogs, I will publish the exact same content in Compendium too.

Why not just put everything in Compendium and do away with the other blogs?
– The other blogs do get traffic, just not much from Compendium. Most traffic comes from subscription services/readers and search strings.
– Pragmatic Communion is JUST for devotions. By still publishing in Communion, readers who only want to read the devotions don’t have to wade through everything else to find them.
– Pragmatic Commotion is JUST for family stuff. Kid stories and quotes, photos, stuff like that. By still publishing in Commotion, friends and family who want to keep up with my family life don’t have to wade through everything else to find things only related to my family. I might not publish all the kid/family photos on Compendium. I’m not sure yet.
– Pragmatic Communication is JUST about communication: talking, writing, reading, and listening. I’m revamping my business website and will be linking to communication “articles” in Pragmatic Communication. My communication clients want to read about communication tips without wading through recipes, my favorite youtube clips and everything else unrelated to communication.
– Pragmatic Computing (my first blog, by the way) is JUST for computer tips and troubleshooting. It is also linked from my business website and my computer clients like to find computer tips without (again) wading through everything else.

3. I’ll be changing the sidebar widgets to remove the links to the last three posts on each of my other blogs. Since the content will already be within Compendium, readers don’t need to see the last three entries on those blogs. I will instead have a single link to each of the other blogs in the sidebar, in case readers want to JUST see devotions, or family stuff, or communication articles, or computer tips.

4. I think I will be removing links TO Compendium which currently appear in my other blogs. That means there will be no clear path BACK to Compendium when someone clicks over to one of the other blogs from here. However, ALL links from Compendium to the other blogs will open in a new window or tab, leaving the Compendium page open. My reasoning for this one?
– Communication and Computing? Clients don’t need to read such personal stuff about me. It makes things awkward for them. When I get to know a client better, I tell them about Compendium. I got a new client last week. A 64 year old man. He really doesn’t want to stumble upon my hysterectomy woes. Neither do I want him to. Talk about awkward.
– Communion – I haven’t decided whether to link back to Compendium yet. I think I’ll leave that two way clicking path available.
– Commotion? I will set all comments on Commotion to be approved before they appear.

5. I’m beefing up the categories and tags on all the blogs to, hopefully, make it easier for me readers to find posts about certain topics.

6. I haven’t decided how my menu bar at the top will change, but it will. (I’m open to suggestions.)

I LOVE my template, so it will NOT change.

So here’s a call for feedback! What else should I consider? What other changes should I make? What changes should I NOT make?

pretty links

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’m fine with readers leaving links in their comments on any of my blogs. WordPress catches most spam and I delete the spam that sneaks through. However, some links are prettier than others.

Some links look like code threw up on the screen and don’t even work, like this:

<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFLs9RI8mSA”>Small is Tall</a>

and some links are, like I said, prettier, like this:

Small is Tall

Ugly links are always welcome, but if you want to know how to enter pretty links, click on over to Pragmatic Computing and check it out. It’s easy!

Find more tips and ideas at Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

responding to a comment within a comment

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I frequently respond to a commentor within their comment. In WordPress, it’s super easy. There are other ways, but my favorite is the laziest way:

I view the comments on a post while logged into WordPress. In many templates, the word “edit” will appear next to each comment, along with the commentor’s name and the date of the comment. (click on the image below to see it more clearly)

I just click edit.

How do you edit comments on Blogger? It doesn’t look like you can. After a search, I found a Q&A that read like this:

Question: “Someone left a comment on my blog and they made a spelling mistake. I could care less. But they do I guess and want me to edit their comment to fix their spelling mistake is there any way I can do that?

Answer: Not native Blogger comments – with Blogger, you take them or leave them.

So in Blogger, it appears you have to just make your own comment on your post if you want to reply to a comment there. That’s also what I’ve seen Shannon do on Rocks in My Dryer and she’s on Typepad.

My “best practices” for responding to a comment within a comment? I italicize and indent my response, I place it in parenthesis and I add “by JSM” to differentiate the comment from the response. Save. Done.

This post was inspired by Elle at A Complete Thought. Thanks for the idea!

i can see clearly now

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

When you read text on your computer monitor, do the fonts seem . . . grainy? Do the edges of the letters appear ragged? Especially italicized text?

On my Pragmatic Computing blog, I posted a “Pragmatic Tip” explaining how to make fonts appear clear and sharp. I LOVE the way text looks on my computer monitor now!

In honor of Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer, I thought I’d invite you over to the Pragmatic Computing post to check it out!

Changing this one little Windows setting can make a big difference. It works for me!

Vista users:  Clear Type is the default setting for Vista, but I’ve updated the Pragmatic Computing post to include instructions to change it, just in case someone is interested.

need a comment do-over?

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Ever leave a comment on a blog and REALLY want to remove it later? Maybe you have an embarrassing typo, maybe you shared just a little too much and have “commenter’s remorse” or maybe you accidentally posted a comment on the wrong blog post. I’m sure there are other reasons.

The good news? You may have some options!

If:
You have a blogger account* AND
You are logged in AND
You leave a comment on another blogger blog

Then:
Go to the blog where you left the (unwanted) comment.
Find the page where your comment appears.
Next to the comment, you should see a trash can icon. Click it.
On the confirmation page, click “Delete Comment” and you’re done!

See an example here.

*Did you catch what I wrote? A blogger ACCOUNT. I didn’t say a blogger BLOG. At least, not an active, public one. You don’t have to switch your blog platform. You don’t even have to create a “real” blog. You can create a blogger account, create a “bare bones” blog, make it private and ba da bing. You have a blogger account. Then, when you comment, use OpenID to link to your active blog, whatever its platform – BUT make sure you are logged into blogger when you comment.

Because, if you aren’t logged in to blogger when you comment, you won’t see a trash can next to your post later.  Here’s the thing. If you have a blogger account, but use OpenID to sign your comment, you won’t be able to delete your comment UNLESS you were logged into blogger when you posted the comment.

ohhhhh. (in the link above, blogger explains a few other reasons you may not see a trash can next to your comment)

I did that this morning. And then I had to email the blog owner to beg her to delete my comment for me! (no. I’m not telling who it was. you’ll go read my comment before she deletes it. I’ll give her public credit for inspiring this post AFTER she gets a chance to remove it.) UPDATE: Thanks, Amy for deleting my stupid comment.

You can also manually add a “delete” button on your blogger blog by inserting some code into your template. I found these instructions which provides the code allowing the comment author to delete it. I get the impression this would be for commenters who don’t have a blogger account. I haven’t tried it yet, but I probably will (Pragmatic Communion and Pragmatic Computing are hosted by blogger).

Unfortunately, if you have a WordPress blog, you don’t have that option. Here’s a WordPress FAQ (frequently asked question) and their answer:

Can I edit comments I wrote on another blog?

It is unfortunately not possible to edit or delete any comments you have left on another WordPress.com blog.

The best thing to do would be to attempt to contact the blog owner.

bummer.

Anyone know how is this handled by Typepad? What about other blogging software platforms?

Ever leave a comment on a blog and REALLY want to remove it later? Maybe you have an embarrassing typo, maybe you shared just a little too much and have “commenter’s remorse” or maybe you accidentally posted a comment on the wrong blog post. I’m sure there are other reasons.

The good news? You may have some options!

If:
You have a blogger account* AND
You are logged in AND
You leave a comment on another blogger blog

Then:
Go to the blog where you left the (unwanted) comment.
Find the page where your comment appears.
Next to the comment, you should see a trash can icon. Click it.
On the confirmation page, click “Delete Comment” and you’re done!

See an example here.

*Did you catch what I wrote? A blogger ACCOUNT. I didn’t say a blogger BLOG. At least, not an active, public one. You don’t have to switch your blog platform. You don’t even have to create a “real” blog. You can create a blogger account, create a “bare bones” blog, make it private and ba da bing. You have a blogger account. Then, when you comment, use OpenID to link to your active blog, whatever its platform – BUT make sure you are logged into blogger when you comment.

Because, if you aren’t logged in to blogger when you comment, you won’t see a trash can next to your post later. Here’s the thing. If you have a blogger account, but use OpenID to sign your comment, you won’t be able to delete your comment UNLESS you were logged into blogger when you posted the comment.

ohhhhh. (in the link above, blogger explains a few other reasons you may not see a trash can next to your comment)

I did that this morning. And then I had to email the blog owner to beg her to delete my comment for me! (no. I’m not telling who it was. you’ll go read my comment before she deletes it. I’ll give her public credit for inspiring this post AFTER she gets a chance to remove it.) UPDATE: Thanks, Amy for deleting my stupid comment.

You can also manually add a “delete” button on your blogger blog by inserting some code into your template. I found these instructions which provides the code allowing the comment author to delete it. I get the impression this would be for commenters who don’t have a blogger account. I haven’t tried it yet, but I probably will (Pragmatic Communion and Pragmatic Computing are hosted by blogger).

Unfortunately, if you have a WordPress blog, you don’t have that option. Here’s a WordPress FAQ (frequently asked question) and their answer:

Can I edit comments I wrote on another blog?

It is unfortunately not possible to edit or delete any comments you have left on another WordPress.com blog.

The best thing to do would be to attempt to contact the blog owner.

bummer.

Anyone know how is this handled by Typepad? What about other blogging software platforms?

Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Mary at Giving Up on Perfect.

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to January 2015 are archived at We Are THAT Family

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer