David's Blog http://blog.dabrown.org Musing in college. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:48:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How to do it Write. http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/how-to-do-it-write?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-do-it-write http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/how-to-do-it-write#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:45:43 +0000 David http://blog.dabrown.org/?p=1634 “Why do I write?” is a question everyone who finds themselves scribbling on a napkin or wakes up in a senior journalism or english course with ink smeared all over their face. The answer lies within each individual who should at least attempt to answer it once, before they fall asleep again.

I’ve been blogging for the past four years because I am naturally introverted, one of those people who doesn’t like talking to strangers, and is never comfortable at social events. My favored medium of communication is of course writing or more specifically blogging. If you’ve happened upon this, my personal blog, don’t stay too long. This blog is a prime example how blogging should not be done, and should be dismissed immediately as sheer idiosyncratic waste of time.

The good news is that I have spent the past four years doing everything the wrong way on purpose. I have certainly read many, many more blog posts than I have written and know how to do it right. For anyone else who may attempt to start a blog on this site let me outline the quintessential rules for blogging. I recommend following them if you value the time of your readers and honestly want to improve their lives rather than waste their time. So here they are the

SiX BEST PRACTICES FOR WRITING A BLOG!!:

1. Pick a Topic and Stick to it.
In the case of this blog I have chosen to go with a relatively general which can be found in the description: ‘best practices in academia’. If you go too specific you will run out of things to blog about. On the other hand if you go too general you will loose your focus and start ranting about wildly unrelated issues. As you get a feel for your audience and as you begin to compete with other writers it’s better to be specific than general, and I plan to narrow down the topic of this particular blog in the future. If your not sure where to start, go with a general topic and narrow it down to meet demand.

2. Post Methodically, Post Regularly
That might count as two points, but I’m trying to save time. So, you have a topic. Now write about it, but don’t blab. Plan it out and try creative ways to make your point (like using numbered lists :) . More importantly, most importantly is to post regularly, once a month is a relaxing hobby, once a week is a chore, once a day is a job. If you have a topic you really want to write about between your regularly scheduled posts, write them, then save them for the inevitable dry spells or crunch times.

3. Cite, Link, and Disclose!
I’m sure your professors in college love to give you the whole plagiarism fear factor speech every semester. We all know it, but citing and linking in your posts will actually help you develop a good reputation with your readers. Give them the source of your information so that they can find any holes in your arguments.

4. Never Follow Rules Unless Your Getting Paid,
The exception are rules that are part of a social contract, ie. Laws or Terms of Use for a particular site that allows you access to publish.

5. Always Leave the Reader Asking Questions.
And answer them as best as possible in the comments.

Extra Bonus!: MORE BEST PRACTICES FOR MONETIZING YOUR BLOG!

1.1 Always make lists of Five, Seven, or Ten!
Because that is the cool thing to do.

1.2 Add more links through your Gooogle Adverse account!
So people click on them, and then you make more money!

1.3 Use at least one picture for each post!
The more the better, cause people need to see pictures to follow what their reading, it keeps them focused, you know…

1.9 Don’t mention strange things if your not selling them
This also includes strange ideas.

That’s all I know.
-David

]]> http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/how-to-do-it-write/feed 0 Love and loss. http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/love-and-loss?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=love-and-loss http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/love-and-loss#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:22:50 +0000 David http://blog.dabrown.org/?p=1633 If you love someone, let them go. If they come back to you then they are yours forever. If they start acting like a completely different person, then you have lost nothing, because the person you loved was a figment of your imagination: and you still have that awesome imagination!

]]> http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/love-and-loss/feed 0 War Totem http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/war-totem?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=war-totem http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/war-totem#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:53:37 +0000 David http://blog.dabrown.org/?p=1628 You see it all of the time in Hollywood’s action flicks. An old vet pulls a box from under his bed and unveils a totem from a war he fought in. It might be a knife, or a headband, a gun even. The item itself and its retrieval is only a visualization of the metamorphosis of the individual. The transformation from man into soldier. It is always a last resort, and while many may recognize that it is the que in the plot for upcoming climax. I argue that for the character that moment is the climax of the story.
This metamorphosis is synonymous with the death of the character. Long before the bullets of the enemies render his flesh, the man has ceased to exist. There is a difference between the life of a man, and the existence of the soldier. The man lives, he loves, he creates, he nourishes. The seasoned soldier has no life, but continues to breath until his mission is accomplished, or his enemy overcomes him. This is why the man has hidden his totem away, why he strives to live until there is nothing left of his life. Only then does he unleash the soldier within.

]]> http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/war-totem/feed 0 A Year for a Snippet http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/a-year-for-a-snippet?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-year-for-a-snippet http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/a-year-for-a-snippet#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:38:08 +0000 David http://blog.dabrown.org/?p=1624 A year ago when I was attempting to set up a classified adds site with a bit too much ambition I ran into a small problem with a minor security addition I wanted to implement in wordpress. In an attempt to get some expert advice I posted a ticket on the wordpress.org forums:

I would like to remove my users ability to change their email, and/or allow them to select a second email to receive notifications without it replacing the first email. Any thoughts on this? I don’t know where to start.

The post collected dust and the issue was never solved. To this day I am not exactly sure why my cry for help was ignored but it may have been that the answer was so pathetically simple no one wanted to bother with an answer. It also may have been a lack of communication and the term “I don’t know where to start” scared everyone away.

Here, a year later I find myself trying to do exactly the same thing. Of course the first thing I did was type a few key words into google to see if anyone had taken the time to document their own experiences. At first I was excited to see the first result from my query was a link to a wordpress.org forum post, that hope turned into dismay when I found that my search on google had just reminded me that I was in the exact same place I had been in last year and there was still no help.

I’m used to hacking through things on my own so I went into the themes user_id edit page and first tried deleting the prompt for an email all together. That did not work because the page called on the wordpress core (update_user_meta) code instead of changing each user profile field. The result was when the error check ran after the form submission the ‘email’ field was left invalid (because it did not exist in the form) and the form was unable to go through. This effectively dissabled the use of the form all together and that is unacceptable. It’s like using a shotgun to kill a fly.

The actual fix (or patch) came with a simple HTML tweek. Editing the themes form, and not the wordpress code, I simply changed the class attribute of the email input from class="regular-text" to class="hidden". When the form called the user_id information it auto fills the table elements that have previously been completed, so if the user does not change the element of the form the old input will be recycled when the form is submitted. With the class change the field for the form is not visible, and therefore cannot be edited by the user. Best of all its default properties are still available for the form submission and I didn’t have to muck around in the WordPress core installation.

]]> http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/a-year-for-a-snippet/feed 0 NGCSU[dot]net http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/ngcsudotnet?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ngcsudotnet http://blog.dabrown.org/2012/ngcsudotnet#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:17:45 +0000 David http://blog.dabrown.org/?p=1623 I spent a good portion of the past two weeks, aside from regular work, putting together a classifieds add site for my fellow students at North Georgia. Its simple, its secure, and it’s free to use.

The Why:
The idea for this site came a year ago as one of my teachers ineffectively fended off the complaints of his students. The textbook for the class cost over $100 and those students were obviously miffed, and tired of paying exuberant amounts of money for books. I get it. The publishers need to make money, and books are not cheep, but the system is fundamentally flawed. Editions are printed too often at too high a price, and yet not printed often enough to retain up to date information. Students get caught up in the crossfire between academia and the publishers. While electronic copies of books are quickly becoming the norm, this new classifieds web-app is geared towards alleviating some of the costs for those students who need it. Bottom line: I don’t like paying so much for books

The Who:
I designed the website with a mandatory locked user login with a very specific, but somewhat general key hole. The key is the schools domain name, a user must sign into the website with their school issued email address or be refused access. The idea behind this simple identity check is to keep spammers and worse from the students. It basically creates an open market within the confines of the schools community. So, only people who have been given an email address by the school can create an account and post, or respond to, ads.

The How:
Some wordpress, a handy theme and a lot of dreamhosting.

The Where: NGCSU.net

Now I’m tapping my head as how best to advertise the service without spending all of my money printing fliers and paying for adds, or wasting my time online pushing it to anyone who will listen…

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