Crocheting for Lefties
I love this woman’s youtube videos. This is an elastic stitch, great for hats!
Author Archive
Bringing Home the Blogging
First off, why do I want my favorite blogs to show up on my homepage? That answer is easy! So you don’t miss anything!
Remembering to check your favorite blogs every day is a pain and often gets forgotten. But wouldn’t a teeny-tiny bit of your life be easier if you could get links to the newest blog posts right in front of you the second your bring your computer to life? Then you can choose to click on the titles and read those yummy posts right then, or wait until later, like when you’re stuck on the phone with your mother or waiting for the pharmacist to answer.
You might want to print this out while you set up your computer. Don’t worry. You can’t mess it up! (And if you do, just drop me a comment and I’ll tell you how to fix it.)
As with life and art, there are several ways to get a blog feed on your computer. I’m only going to tell you about one. It’s the one I use, so of course, I’m biased, but I think it’s the most convenient.
First, we are going to rely on dear old Google to help us out. Google has lots of freebies. Today, we’ll use their personal Google page called iGoogle.
- Where you usually type in website addresses, type igoogle.com and enter
- Make this page your homepage.
- Look at the top of your page for Tools and click it
- Select Internet Options
- Click General
- in the big white box that has a picture of a house next to it type in http://www.google.com/ig
- at the bottom of the page, click the OK button
Hurrah! That’s the hard part. And it wasn’t even hard, was it?
You will see that Google already gave you some stuff on your page, weather, an offer to sign up for gmail, a clock , maybe a video and some blogs they like but I’m not too enthused about.
Techno Warning: Here’s a bell and whistle. Skip this if you want to.
Up in the far right corner, you’ll see a little underlined link Sign in . If you have gmail or a blogspot account or any number of other things, you may already have a google account, which is your gmail address and your password. If you want to sign in, you can. Advantages to signing in are that you are making your page in cyberspace and can access it from any computer, your desktop, your laptop, the hotel computer, your iphone, etc. Otherwise, if you don’t sign in, this iGoogle page will only be visible on this one computer that you are sitting in front of. And if someone erases your cookies, then your SOL.
Back to the essentials:
Get rid of any of the stuff that Google gave you and you don’t want. Here’s how:
- On the title bar of the box you don’t want, clock the tiny, faint box that is farthest on your right. ie on the CNN title bar, I click the tiny, faint box to the right of all the other tiny faint boxes. This takes you to a different page that shows more of the stuff you don’t want.
- Look at the title box again. This time it stretches all the way across the page. See the underlined link that says Delete? Click on it.
- Google will ask you if you’re sure you want to delete it. Click the OK button. (You can always get it back later if you change your mind.)
- Now you’re back where you started. Rinse and repeat until you have only the boxes you want to keep. Hint, that video box slows down my page a lot, so out it goes on my homepage.
When do we get to the blog part, you’re asking? The answer: Now!
- Type in the web address to the blog you want: www.conniecox.com
- See the little orange box with the white curved stripes on your toolbar? Click it!
- This takes you to a strange looking version of my website. Look in the vanilla-yellow box and see the green-plus-sign-and-gold-star symbol.
- Click on the sentence that says ‘Add this feed to iGoogle. (Sometimes it takes a few seconds for this link to appear. Just wait on it.)
- Google wants to make sure that you’re sure, so click the Add to iGoogle button
And voila’. You are now on your new homepage which will be the first page you see when you turn on your computer.
See the box that has my blog title in it-Connie Cox: Writer. That means everything you just did worked perfectly! You’ll see the titles of my last three blogs in your new little box.
Now you’ve got some choices on what to do next.
My preferred choice is to click on the title and it will take you to my blog. (While there, please leave a comment so I’ll know I’m not alone out here in cyberworld)
Or, you can click on the blue plus sign and see what my blog has to say right from your homepage. Only problem here is that you can’t leave a comment. But if you add a lot of blogs, this is a real time-saver.
Ready to add more blogs? Start over at 1. Type in the web address
Here are a few of my favorites:
* Everybody Needs a Little Romance
* Rachel Gardner, Literary Agent
* WOW-Women on Writing
Now, copy this web address
http://www.conniecox.com/techno-corner/bringing-home-the-blogging/
and send it to all your friends that might want to know about how to read their favorite blogs easily, too.
Whew! Enough for today. Good job!
Red Beans and Rice
In honor of the Saints going to the SuperBowl, I made a big pot of red beans and rice. Yum!Yum!
Usually, red beans and rice take a loooong time to make, but I came up with a quick way that tastes great(at least I think they were good.) Click Recipes (at the top of the page) for my recipe and feel free to share your own recipe.
The Secret of Everything by Barbara O’Neal
I just finished Barbara O’Neal’s newest book, The Secret of Everything
Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!
Ms. O’Neal’s writing is always so poetic and lyrical. Above and beyond her beautiful phrasing, was the wonderfully detailed cast of characters.
The setting is such a fabulously woven part of the story, not just a backdrop for a great plot, but part of both the plot and the character development. And what an unpredictable plot it was!
GREAT JOB, Ms. O’Neal. When’s your next one coming out?
Les Bon Temp Roulette
Float w/ Crawfish dancing in their pot
Friday night date night was the usual supper with friends. Then for a little lagniappe, we went to a float loading party for the Krewe of Justinian. One of my fav floats was this one. Louisiana Hot Tubbin, with crawfish dancing in their tub.
This pic was taken using a friend’s cell phone. Not bad for horrible lighting and a bit of Photoshopping, huh?
Rhythm and Writing
All my stories have soundtracks. Music to write by. Music that disappears into the background as I write. But the minute the music stops, so do my fingers. Some muses like silence, some like the hustle of a coffee shop. My muse likes music.
So I make a Pandora channel or two according to what my characters like–which is NOT necessarily the music I like.
For instance, with Taking Flight, I made a Shania Twain channel and a Garth Brooks channel. Shania even inspired a whole scene in that book. If I were picking for me, it’s not the music I would have picked.
Now I have nothing against Shania or Garth. I’m just not their biggest fan. My husband likes country music–a lot. Me, I choose the classic rock station, or the alternative rock station or the 80′s rock station or…you get the idea.
For my last book, set in contemporary New Orleans, I made a Harry Connick, Jr. channel. Great stuff! Harry, Michael Buble’, Ole’ Blue Eyes himself and an occasional Ella Fitzgerald kept my fingers in rhythm.
My current WIP, set in small town Louisiana, is being written to John Mayer, CCR and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It just so happens that for this book my story people like the same kind of music I do.
Write on!