This is actually the book I wish I had been there when I first started out with blogs and especially WordPress. WordPress For Dummies For Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson was just published last month, but I sure wish it has been published early. Like most blogging books, a couple of chapters up front are spent addressing what blogs are and what they, and WordPress in particular, can do for you. After that the bulk of the book is center on going through how to set up a WordPress.com account or how to install the WordPress.org software (single or multi-user) on your own site. While most of this information can be found on the web, having this book beside you would make the task so much easier. So, if you don’t have everything set up yet, go out now and get this book. It will save you a ton of heartache.
If you already have your blog all set up and in use, most of the book is of far less use to you. I find myself in that category. The two parts then that I could really get my teeth into are the section on theme customization with an explanation of many of the variables, and the second detailing the author’s top ten plug-ins. I found some items there that I had somehow overlooked before and are coming in quite handy. Those two sections really were worth the price of the book for me.
So, why the 4 star rating? Well, if you are just starting out, you really need this book. Pick it up before you start. For you it will be a great companion and time saver and will deserve a 5 star rating. But, if you have been doing this for a while, there will only be a couple of chapters of real value to you. so it will most likely be a 3 star. Average them together and what do you have? 4 stars!
OK, I love books. Really! I have tons. Too many as my family might say. They give me comfort. They make me happy. I wallow in them. So, it is only natural that people like to give me books as presents. That should make me happy too, right? Wrong. Well, actually right most of the time and wrong some of the others. The reason is that people do some things with books that they wouldn’t think of doing to any other sort of present. So, here are some dos and don’ts of book gift giving.
Do not price clip the book! Price clipping is when you clip off the little inside corner of the dust jacket that has the price on it. First, you are fooling no one. Most people know what the book costs or can see it on the shelf or at Amazon. You are hiding nothing. But, you are making the book harder to return if I already have it. You are also devaluing the book if it ever becomes collectible. You have basically defaced and damaged it thereby lowering its value.
Do not take a pen and scratch out the price. See all the reasons above.
Do take off a sticky price tag stuck to the dust jacket. You know the ones that have a mark-down price or say “best seller.” Just remove them very carefully so as not to tear the dust jacket, and then make sure the sticky gunk is removed.
Do not write an inscription in the book. OK, I know this one is hard, but unless you are the author, don’t write in the book. First there are the reasons above about returns and devaluation. Also, even if I do return the book or maybe pass it on to someone else, maybe I would like to keep your note that says why you gave the book to me. I want to keep that memory of our time together, so it would be much easier if it was written on a nice sheet of your stationary and tucked inside the cover. Then, no matter what happens to the book I can keep the memory.
Do, and this is a biggie, let me know something about you in the book you give me. Sure, I like cars. But you like travel. So give me a travel book about great driving roads. Or maybe you know that I like trains and you like fine food, so you could give me a book about the dining experience on the Orient Express. I once got a book from my father about the trains that were used in the area where he grew up. That has got to be one of my most prized treasures. A gift given should be the intersection of the giver and the receiver.
Can you tell that I feel strongly about books? The written word is powerful, and a book given is a transfer of that power. Favorite books are treasured, displayed, and passed down for generations, so make the most of that opportunity and share some pages!
I was just reading William G. Sinkford’s 2007 Holiday Pastoral Letter. Reverend Sinkford is the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of America. This year’s holiday letter is a call to arms for peace. Yes, it is exactly that conflicting sentiment that he addresses in his letter. Here is part of one paragraph.
When I hear that nearly 4,000 US troops and as many as a half million Iraqis have been killed for a war that began with a lie, I get angry. I can’t believe the number of injured troops coming home, and I can’t even fathom the number of injured people trying to make it through another day in Iraq. And when I hear that the money spent on this violence in one month is enough to completely rebuild New Orleans, or that the money spent in one week could provide three meals a day for nearly an entire year for 6 million children—the same number who die each year from malnutrition—I am ready to fight. I can’t sit still when I hear these things, and I hope you can’t either, because that is a righteous anger.
I would ask you to consider these ideas and to read the rest of the letter. In this time of year, not only because of the Christmas holiday but also because it is the time of New Year’s resolutions, we need to take stock of what is going on and ask ourselves what we can do about it.
Yes it is expected. And yes, it happens. But I, and a lot of other people I think, really hate it when the political campaigns take a turn for the worse and start to get nasty with personal attacks. Maybe those type of ads and speeches sway you, but to me they just seem like acts of desperation. Pointing out key differences in thoughts and politics is one thing, but accusations and basically name-calling is something else.
If my two children are both trying to convince me of differing view points, I can tell which one of them is either wrong or confused by which one starts name calling and saying the others points are stupid first. If you have a firm footing on your postion and a clear understanding of the issues, then you have no need to belittle your opponent and doing so is actually just a distraction and waste of time.
How I wish our political runners would realize this and may one or two even rise above it. Mudsling is exactly that - dirty politics, and we don’t need it.
