Photo LinkLove

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Well I have installed a StumbleUpon Button. Don’t be cautious about using it! And why not get one yourself? We don’t have to go through the SU toolbar to do these things.

Let me know if you write a post about Halloween. Then we can trade links via our Halloween posts.

If you post a photo about nature let me know. We can exchange links about things we photograph in nature.

And then we can Stumble some things too.

I hate to complain but I do not feel well this morning. And isn’t that the way it goes? We are having a great time and things just continue to get better and then we hit the crest of our particular experience and head down. We can’t go up forever.

It’s just the way it is and it pays to accept the fact and try to enjoy the ride. So I have this scratchy irritation in my throat and my body feels about fifty pounds heavier. My stomach is rumbling and the computer is not working well. The hard drive sounds very loud. And then the metal chain in the toilet broke and now I have this black stuff under my fingernails from trying to fix it. What is that stuff anyway? It accumulates on the rubber parts inside the tank. So the temperature outside has probably reached one hundred degrees already like it did yesterday. And I have to go to the hardware store for parts.

Also Big Brown did not win the Kentucky Derby because he apparently was feeling yesterday the way I feel today. What’s wrong with him? Nobody knows. Maybe his roller coaster ride hit the crest on Friday and was on the way down yesterday. Too bad he didn’t mention it to anybody. A lot of folks are on the way down today as they think about how much money they lost on Mr. Brown.

What do you do when you feel events turning in this direction? Please tell me. I would really like to know.  But until someone gives me another idea that sounds better here’s the one I use.

I try to find something to do that I always enjoy doing. But it has to be a simple task. And it cannot involve anyone else because they may not want to participate.

Well I am feeling better now and the fact that I am writing this post is evidence of that.

I had a discussion yesterday about blogging and fumbled around trying to come up with something worthwhile to say. But what I really wanted to say was this. Find something you truly enjoy about this activity. Something that doesn’t require a lot of skill or sometimes lead to frustration. Something that doesn’t depend on another living soul. And do it when you can’t figure out what to do! Or you are just feeling bad.

At times like this don’t try to plan too much. Try to enjoy the day. Enjoy the ride.

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More writing

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Today the weather turned hot and humid so I guess play time is over. We had a nice run but now it’s time for some real Virginia weather. I came home and made a drink. The flipped the switch on the AC unit recently installed and sat down to see what was happening here.

I have more time now to go out and read blogs and meet people. My blogs are running (more or less) and it really is fun and interesting to meet other bloggers. Robin Easton is a jewel. And Evita of Evolving Wellness is another very special person. I read her posts and the hair on my neck starts to tingle.

What?!!

Oh no. That’s a good thing actually. It’s not something that my wife minds because it’s a thought process more than anything else based on my fascination with the sincerity and single mindedness of her approach to health and our wellbeing.

So I was reading her post about alcohol and the fact that it is poison while I was enjoying my rum and coke. The big old rum bottle was sitting there. Empty. And I had planned to go out and get another one.

But then I decided not too. I need all my remaining brain cells.

Pretty desperately in fact at this point.

And then Robin and I were talking about fear and dying. I think we agreed that being dead is not really a problem. Because after all we can fly when we are in our spirit bodies. And we all want to do that.

I mean if we could buy tickets to do it there would be long lines out to the sidewalk every day.

Not to die but just to fly. And then we were talking about the hard part actually being PAIN. I fear pain. And I was watching Henry last night on Showtime (The Tudors) go ballistic and start torturing all these poor guys who had done nothing.

Because he thought they had slept with Ann. And by the time he got done with them they all said “Well yes. I did sleep with her” even though they hadn’t. Because you know you will say anything if someone tortures you.

They wouldn’t even have to torture me. I would be like “Please just let me know what you think I did. I’m pretty sure I did it. Just remind me if you would about the details. I’m a little forgetful”.

Torture is so stupid. You want the truth? Forget it. You want someone to agree with you. NO PROBLEM.

They put the poor fiddle player on the rack and pulled him apart. I was very upset even though I know he is an actor and can hit that high C note without being stretched if he wants to do it.

I couldn’t sleep. I’m still upset about it. How can one human being do these things to another human being?

“I was just doing my job mister. I work here in the Tower of London. I’ve got five kids at home to feed. And I just turn the wheel. Somebody else brings em in here. Maybe they should have not gotten themselves in trouble”.

Please. I need to stop watching television. Putting torture on tv is worse than letting naked men and women have at it. And what it says about the human race is much worse.

We have really taken a tour in this effort to install a super plugin for Wordpress. And there is only one thing left to do prior to reaching our goal.

It is time to install Plugin Central by Vladimir Prelovac. So go to this post and locate the plugin. And then use the tools we have discussed in Parts I through IV to install it.

As I have said many times this is a step by step process for seniors or whoever with no background in these things. So please go back and review if you need to be reminded of any steps.

Once Plugin Central and its companion Post-Plugin Library are safely installed and activated in your Plugin file go to the upper left corner of you browser just below the toolbar and click on Dashboard. Now look just below and Dashboard once again in red letters. Just to the right of it you should see Plugin Central. Click on this and the Plugin Central box will open giving you an option to click on and list all of your plugins or only your active plugins.

Now we are going to use this wonderful tool to install NextGen Gallery. Here is the location of the zip file.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/nextgen-gallery.zip

Right click on it and look for Copy Link Location. Left click on this and then go to the Plugin Central/ Easy Plugin Installation box we noted earlier in this post. Below the option to list plugins you will see the area we need. Right click and then paste your zip file in here. Click install plugin and watch as it does its work.

Total Commander is not needed here. In less than five seconds the plugin is installed and ready to use. Or if you are forgetful like me and already installed this plugin you will receive a message that goes something like this “Installation failed. Plugin already installed”.

Oftentimes you do not even need the zip file. Just type in NextGen Gallery and PC will locate it and install it anyway.

Another cool option is to click on the List all Plugins button and get your list of plugins. And then copy/paste any or all of them as you choose into your other Wordpress blogs. This tactic assumes you have installed PC in all your blogs. Just copy/paste into the PC box and click on Install. What could be simpler or easier than that?

It is such a wonderful time saving tool I know you will want to do this. But remember to always backup your database using the plugin we installed in a prior post or one of your own choice prior to any installation.

So you have now installed NextGen Gallery and our mission here is complete. Getting it up and running is a task beyond the scope of this set of posts. However instructions for doing this are in good supply.

Another David has gone into great detail about it. And here is the link.

http://dpotter.net/Technical/index.php/2008/03/04/nextgen-gallery-review-introduction/

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Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy. ~Author Unknown

Prepare and prevent, don’t repair and repent. ~Author Unknown

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This is the next in my series of posts for folks who have never blogged before and have some basic questions and a need for explanations that hopefully leave out no pertinent details. Our ultimate goal is to install and make functional a very cool plugin called NextGen Gallery.

The steps we have been taking here are baby blogging steps but I wish I had found something like them last summer when all of my blogging efforts began. Maybe there are some others who are just beginning and missed learning about it all beforehand.

We have covered unzipping and uploading files. And now we are going to begin uploading plugins.

Before we upload NextGen Gallery we are going to add Plugin Central as I noted earlier. This will make all of our plugin chores much easier.

And prior to this we are going to upload one other little beauty. It is called Wordpress Database Manager (WP-DBManager) and I use it prior to uploading anything into my blog. Also it has a setting for automatic backup of the database and I receive a backup file in my email once per day.

Because of the complexities of plugin installation it is imperative to back things up before making changes. And getting in the habit of doing this early is the best way to avoid sad circumstances later on. I am assuming that this plugin plays well with your setup of course. It did with mine.

So here is the download location.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

Go here and download the file into your computer. Unzip it as we discussed in the earlier post. Put it in your plugin file. Open Total Commander and locate the file. Upload it to your blog. Go to Admin/plugins and activate it.

It’s a very easy process once you have done it a few times. Now click on Dashboard in the very top/left hand corner of your window right below the tool bar in your Wordpress blog. You should see the name of your blog just below it and a few other things just below the name of your blog starting with Write and Manage. To the right of them will be the terms Design and Comments. And then you should see some others based on your individual setup. Database is what we are looking for and click on it when you find it.

Now you will see just below Database a line of terms starting with Database and ending with Uninstall WP-DBManager. The second term is Backup DB. And we should do this as we prepare to install a second plugin called Plugin Central.

But we have run out of time and space once again. Next time we will install Plugin Central. Hopefully I have not left out anything so far.

Bye Bye for now.

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