I had this great blog post idea for Aloha Friday today.  You see, B mentioned about how she needs a superhero tutor.  So I thought I’d go over a few of the boys’ favorites, give some quick information and then ask what superheroes were everyone’s favorites.  That question sounded familiar, so I did a search.  Sure enough, I found Aloha Friday: Superheroes.  (I also found the post where NHL, JSL and I made our own superheroes.  I should really do that with them again.  It’d be interesting to see what superheroes they make now.)

This has happened to me before.  I begin writing a post only to realize that I’ve written about this before.  In fact, as I write this, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve written a post before about writing a post before.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever experienced Bloggus Repeatus?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #96

There should have been a nice, long post here about Niagara Falls.  One with lots of photos and stories and stuff.  So, what happened?  Monday night happened.  For some reason, I began experiencing pains in my elbow on Monday night.  At first, I thought nothing of it.  I figured it would go away on its own.

That night, I worked a bit on My Upcoming Twitter Application and a blog post.  Every press of the key brought pain and I found I needed to take frequent breaks.  I finally finished and got to bed at about 1:30am, hoping that some sleep would help my elbow feel better.

Sadly, the next day didn’t see any improvement.  And the 5-6 hour drive home (actually longer, but at least 5 hours of actual driving) didn’t help.  Even holding onto and moving the steering wheel hurt.  To make matters worse, the pain is in my left elbow and I’m a leftie.  Can you guess what arm I instinctively use for everything?  Yup, my left one.

Yesterday, I went back to work.  Now, I work as a web programmer.  So my entire job involves typing out code.  Hitting keys on a keyboard.  Exactly the kind of thing that elicits pain from my elbow.  The pain has continued into today.  Every time I think it is getting better, I move a finger or turn my arm and the pain returns.

I’ve had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome before so I know how that feels.  This feels just like that, only in my elbow instead of my wrist.  It turns out that there is a name for this: Cubital Tunnel Syndrome.  I’m going to try to cut down on using my arm as much as possible.  That means you get a short, all-text blog post instead of one chock-full of photos and detailed stories.  For now, you can read about some of our Niagara Falls trip over on B’s blog.  Here’s hoping my elbow gets better quickly.  I need it for my livelihood!

Three weeks ago, Twitter began to buzz about a change in TwitPic’s terms of service.  The change appeared to give TwitPic the right to sell posted photos to third parties without the approval of and without sharing the revenue with the person who posted the photo.  Needless to say, people didn’t like this and began moving to YFrog and other image hosting sites.  TwitPic attempted to explain the TOS change but this didn’t satisfy everyone.

I have to admit, I was one of those people who weren’t quite reassured.  I switched over to YFrog.  However, then I began to think.  YFrog said they would never do what TwitPic did, but how could I be sure.  Perhaps a year from now we’ll all be talking about some big scandal about new YFrog TOS changes.  Or maybe YFrog will go belly up.  What would happen to my photos then?

In addition, I began to think about traffic.  When B was at Disney Social Media Moms, she saw Chris Brogan speak.  She relayed some of what he said to me including that you should treat your blog like your home base and Twitter, Facebook, etc like outposts.  Perhaps it was time to move my “photos shared from my cell phone” operation back into my home base.  After all, wouldn’t it be ideal to drive traffic back to TechyDad.com rather than SomeRandomPhotoSharingService.com?

I already had a pretty decent idea of how it would work.  I would create a super-secret e-mail address used only for posting photos.  A script on TechyDad.com would check this inbox for photos I sent and would make them into blog posts, uploading the photos and any additional text I provided.  Finally, an auto-tweet script would alert my Twitter followers of my uploaded image the same way that TwitPic or YFrog would.

While I’d have loved to have written the script myself, I decided to see if anyone had done a WordPress plugin.  Sure enough, I found Postie right away.  I figured others might want to do something similar with their blogs, so I’ll detail my basic steps below.   (NOTE: WordPress has a “Post By E-mail” feature, but you’ll see soon enough why I didn’t use this.) 

Step 1: Be Using Self-Hosted WordPress and install the Postie Plugin

None of this will work if you’re using Blogger or are hosted on WordPress.com.  There might be some solution for you, but I’m not sure what that would be.  Sorry.  If you do have a self-hosted WordPress blog, add the Postie plugin from the Admin control panel.

Step 2: Create a Post From Cell Phone E-mail address

You don’t want to set Postie to use your publicly available e-mail address.  There are protections against just anyone posting to your blog (more on these later), but do you really want to chance it?  So have your web host set up (or set up via their control panel) some kind of super secret e-mail address.  Something like thisisonlyusedby5551212topostpics@mysite.com.  Add that e-mail address to your cell phone’s contacts under a name like “Post Photo.”

Step 3: Configure Postie

In your sidebar, under Settings, click on Postie.  You’ll get a list of options to set up.  First of all, you’ll need to tell Postie just how to get to the e-mail inbox.  So give Postie the mail server, userid and password information.

Next, under User, you want to make sure that you’re the only one who can post.  This is where WordPress’s basic Post-By-Email function fails.  If a spammer were to guess the e-mail address, you might find your blog relaying a Nigerian prince’s pleas for help.  Make sure “Allow Anyone To Post Via Email” is set to No and set up the authorized addresses to be the e-mail address of your phone.  If you’re not sure about this, you could always send a TXT and Picture message to your normal e-mail address and see what e-mail addresses they come from.  (TXT and picture messages often display as two different e-mail addresses.)

Under Message, select the category that the messages should take.  I created a new one called Mobile Photos.  Text/picture messages received as e-mails can often contain signatures added by the providers.  (For example, “This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!”)  Obviously, we don’t want that posting, so go under Advanced options and any signature as a new signature pattern.  You don’t need the whole thing, just enough to for Postie to recognize it and not confuse it with your own text.  (e.g. Don’t add in “This message” lest it cut you off when your post should say “This message comes overlooking a beautiful landscape.”)

You can customize the template under Image and fiddle with the other settings if you wish, but the basic functionality is there now.  Now, you should be able to take a photo, send it to your blog and have it posted.  The only thing you’re missing is tweeting it.

For this, I turned to the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress.  Sadly, this plugin required a prefix for tweets.  Something along the lines of “New Blog Post”.  Of course, I didn’t want my Mobile Photo posts to be called “New Blog Posts”, so I went into the code.  It turned out to be a simple fix to make it stop using prefixes.  (I actually set it so that a prefix of a blank space would result in no prefix used at all since the application errors if no prefix is used.)  Since I don’t want to assume that everyone out there is comfortable coding, I’d simply recommend finding a prefix you can live with or using another plugin such as Tweet This.

Once this is set up, you’ll be able to completely replace the functionality of those Twitter photo sharing services.  Your photos will remain under your control, you’ll drive more traffic to your site and you won’t need to worry about some random terms of service changes (at least not with this).

If given the opportunity*, would you set something like this up for your blog?  Do you see an upside to TwitPic/YFrog type services that my Post-To-My-Blog solution doesn’t have?

* If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, but aren’t techy enough to set this up,  I do freelance work on the side and might be able to help you out.  Send me an e-mail via the Contact Me form above.

Don’t forget to enter my Dinosaur Train giveaway.  You could win Dino Poop and Hatchers.

I’m sitting here trying to come up with a topic for my Aloha Friday post, but I’m drawing a blank.  So I’ll make that my topic!  It can be tricky to come up with post topics day after day.  Oftentimes, I’ll find myself not knowing what I’m going to post about right until the very end.  Other times, I’ll have so many post ideas that I don’t have enough days to post them all.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever had bloggy writer’s block?  If so, what did you do to get the creative juices flowing

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #77

You may have noticed something amiss with TechyDad.com this week.  I tend to post every weekday and yet there were no posts on Tuesday or Thursday.  What happened?  I tend to write posts, at most, the day before they go live.  Many times, I’ll finish up the post and hit Publish right then and there.

On Monday, JSL got sick.  He had been coughing for awhile, but the cough was getting worse.   B took him to the doctor, afraid he had caught my strep throat.  They put him on an antibiotic, but that didn’t seem to help.  That night, he developed a fever and threw up.  The night was very rough with him waking up multiple times coughing so much that he could hardly breathe.  Eventually, he came into our bed.  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep and writing a blog post was not a high priority.  Tuesday was busy at work.  By that night, I figured I would just work on my Wednesday blog post and skip Tuesday.

Wednesday night, I should have worked on a blog post, but was too tired.  Thursday saw some heater issues.  (Heat went out. Pilot light wouldn’t stay lit and a professional eventually had to be called when it proved too much for me.)  So, by Thursday night, I decided to write this Friday post instead.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How far in advance do you write posts for your blog?

Also, make sure you add some spice to your marriage by entering my Eden Fantasys $50 gift card giveaway.  Less than a week to go!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #70

Two Thousand and Ten or Twenty Ten, whichever way you pronounced it, it was a big year.

I began the year on a quest to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks.  I’m proud to report that I was successful.  I’m not so proud to report that, in the remaining 32 weeks, I’ve gained those 20 pounds back.  I’m even less proud to report that those returning 20 pounds brought some buddies along.  Looks like I’ll be beginning 2011 with the goal of losing 25 – 30 pounds.

2010 marked the first time we attended blogging/social media conferences.  The first conference was Disney Social Media Moms 2010.  Actually, B attended this one.  I hung out with the kids and rode on rides.  To be completely honest, I think I got the better deal.  No offense to those of you who were chatting with B and enjoying the conference, but NHL, JSL and I got to go on Disney World’s rides!  It’s really hard to beat that.  Despite some injuries, problems and some face-remembering fears, we all had a great time.  Even better, we’ll be attending DisneySMMoms 2011.  And by “we”, I mean B again while the boys and I ride more rides.  Small World, here we come!  (By the way, if I don’t remember meeting you from last year, please don’t be offended.)

The Disney trip forced me to reexamine some of my long-held religious practices.  I think I’m much happier with my modified practices than I was previously.  I know that B’s much happier, though she likely misses getting total remote control custody from sundown Friday to an hour past sundown Saturday.

The high of the Disney World trip was followed with a low of constant nosebleeds.  First, I got them once a week.  Then, they got more and more frequent until I had to have my nose electrically cauterized.  That’s as fun as it sounds (unless you think it sounds like a blast in which case you have issues).  Sadly this only worked for awhile and then I had to get my nose chemically cauterized.  This procedure hurt less and wasn’t as intense afterwards, but still is something I’d rather not go through again.

Towards the end of March, it became apparent that my grandmother wasn’t going to be alive much longer.  She passed away in mid-April.  I had previously taken custody of her photo collection with the goal of scanning them all and distributing DVDs of the photos to everyone.  This scanning project uncovered some incredible photos.  I only wish my grandmother was alive to tell me the stories behind them.  The scanning project also turned into a genealogy project using various tools.

April also saw the launch of Dad Revolution: a joint blog hosted by about 10 dads.  (The actual number fluctuates.)  It’s been a bit of a rocky go at times, but I’m proud to have my posts alongside the rest of these dads!

Towards the end of May, I realized my blogging limitations.  Determined to break them, I did an Eden Fantasy review, attended an Eden Fantasy party at BlogHer 2010 (NSFW) and even had a “Frisky Vacuuming” guest post on Blogging Dangerously.

In May, I began a project near and dear to me: My Bullied History.  Here, I detailed how I had been bullied from elementary school through high school.  I even showcased a piece of writing I had unearthed from my freshman year of college when the bullying was fresh in my mind.

In August, just before BlogHer 2010, we got a diagnosis for some of the behaviors we were seeing in NHL.  The doctor said that, since I shared some of these same behaviors, I likely had this condition as well.  This led me to question how much of me was from my experiences as a child versus the “condition.”  In the end, it was a moot point as further testing showed he didn’t have this condition at all.  A rollercoaster of emotion, to be sure.

Speaking of BlogHer 2010, we attended that conference in New York City and had a blast.  I’m intentionally not going to say much about it because I know that if I try I’ll go on for about a dozen paragraphs.  Suffice it to say that we highly enjoyed the panels, meeting with fellow bloggers and meeting with company representatives.

BlogHer 2010 was also where I cheated on my long-term relationship.  And by that, I mean I used someone’s DSLR camera instead of my trusty point and shoot camera.  We tried to repair relations, but after its flash broke, I got my own DSLR.  My point and shoot will be given to NHL to use in photographic excursions with me.

Of course, 2010 also saw a lot of cooking (including duplicating a chickpea recipe I’ve been wanting to make for years), video game playing, math learning with NHL, milestones with JSL and more.

What will 2011 bring?  I’m not sure, but if 2010 is any indication, it’s sure to be a wild ride.

Things used to be so simple.  If I got a comment that was in Russian, I would mark it as spam.  If I got a comment promising me “extra inches” or “wealth”, I would mark it as spam.  If I got a nonsensical comment, I would look at the URL and, sure enough, spammy link goes in the spam bin.  Truthfully, I’d rarely mark these as spam myself.  Akismet takes care of this for me most of the time.  You get the picture, though.

Recently, though, the line between spam and normal comment has blurred.  At first, it was valid comments that appeared to somehow hijack CommentLuv.  Upon further investigation, this turned out to be spammers copying previous comments and using them for their own comments.  (Replacing the links, of course, to be their own spammy links.)  That was annoying, but once I was on to their trick they couldn’t get by me.

Now, though, the spammers have me in a quandary.  And I’m not even sure it’s spammers I’m dealing with.  You see, I’ve recently had a few comments on my blog posts that are completely on topic (referencing specific themes of my post or my kids’ pseudonyms), use proper grammar and spelling, and are (as far as I can tell) 100% original.  No copying bits and pieces to form a Franken-comment here.  This wouldn’t be a problem except that the links given trigger my internal spam-alert sirens.

Is that comment really a valid one about my blog post even if the site linked to reeks of spam?  Should I allow it to remain on my blog?  Should I take it down?  Should I remove the URL so that the comment remains but the link doesn’t?  So far, I’ve been removing them entirely, but I’m afraid of removing a valid comment from someone whose URL just looks “different.”

Have you encountered comments like this?  If so, what did you do with them?

This post celebrates a few things. First of all, it is Rosh Hashana. This means that I’m offline for a few days (this post was scheduled in advance) and will be spending the time in temple, with my family and eating apples and honey.

Secondly, it is my second blogoversary. It’s hard to believe that I started this blog a mere two years ago. There were times that I felt like just stopping because I had no comments and other times when I felt like I had too much to say for a mere 5 posts a week. Speaking of 5 posts a week, I think this was the year that I hit my stride. I posted more regularly. I blogged as I lost 20 pounds. I was able to do more reviews and giveaways. I blogged about my history with bullying (including a story I wrote soon after the incident). I blogged about our trip to Disney World for Disney Social Media Moms and about our trip to New York City for BlogHer 2010. (On that last one, I got to meet a lot of wonderful fellow bloggers.)

I have some big plans for the next year. More reviews and giveaways, of course. Also, a redesign of my site and a “How Does That Work?” series.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: If you blog, how do you celebrate your blogoversary? If you don’t blog, what do you like to do to celebrate special occassions?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #54

In just 20 days, B and I will be headed into New York City for BlogHer 2010. Now, B’s been to a blogging conference before, Disney Social Media Moms, but I’ve never been. I did go to PC Expo years ago but I’m guessing that a mid-90′s computer show will be very different than a 2010 blogging conference.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Will you be at BlogHer? Have you ever gone to a blogging conference before?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #47

I had a great Aloha Friday question all lined up, but it’s going to have to wait. As I was headed home, I got a call from B. She searched Twitter for #DisneySMMoms and found a tweet from a user named EsterlDode titled "#DisneySMMoms 2010 – A Not-So-Impossible" followed by a URL. Now, she recognized this as the beginning of my latest DisneySMMoms post so she clicked the link wondering what she would get. She was greeted by my webpage. Except it wasn’t my webpage.

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