my second wordpress anniversary!

Gosh, seems like it was just a year ago that I was doing this.

In many ways this second year of casa az was even better than the first. I’ve met even more wonderful people, including two that are threatening planning to visit this summer - nursemyra and daisyfae (eep! Sevilla will never be the same!). I also had a recent visit from hmh and her husband, as well as from my dear friends Sara & Steve who were here last autumn (met on h2g2 but they also show up here from time to time).

So far I’ve been keeping up with the blog 365 challenge, though now that my real life is picking up I don’t know if I’ll manage the whole year. But I’ve actually been enjoying it because it makes me think about my day and then come up with something that happened, or something I came across, that I’d like to share or make a note of here.

Well, just to say that I’m very happy to still be here with you all.

Because it really is you guys that make this all worthwhile.

categories vs tags

What are these tags of which WordPress speaks?

Could someone please explain the difference between categories & tags?

And please don’t forget to type s-l-o-w-l-y and c-l-e-a-r-l-y.

I thank you.

miss bimbo

website promotes extreme diets and surgery to 9-year-olds

The internet game, aimed at girls aged 9 to 16, gives users ‘bimbo dollars’ to buy lingerie, diet pills and nightclub outfits. It has attracted 200,000 UK members

A website that encourages girls as young as 9 to embrace plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure was condemned as lethal by parents’ groups and healthcare experts yesterday.

The Miss Bimbo internet game has attracted prepubescent girls who are told to buy their virtual characters breast enlargement surgery and to keep them “waif thin” with diet pills.

Healthcare professionals, a parents’ group and an organisation representing people suffering anorexia and bulimia criticised the website for sending a dangerous message to impressionable children.

It looks like since I first came across this article a couple of days ago that the Miss Bimbo website has been blocked. What do you think? Too much ‘nannying’ or does a website like this pose a serious threat to the young girls who visit it?

on safari

Catching up over at Wandering Coyote’s yesterday morning I saw a post about Safari and realised that the update thingy I automatically downloaded from Apple the other day was actually Safari the internet browser - duh! I thought it was something to do with iTunes. I mean, I had heard of Safari before it just didn’t click at the time. So since I had this cute little Safari compass icon on my desktop I decided to check it out.

I switched over to Firefox from IE, oh, ages ago - can’t remember exactly when. And I love it. But I kept using IE for h2g2 because I prefer reading that site with a larger text size (and I didn’t want to keep switching text sizes on FF). But now I’ve got h2g2 set up on Safari and it’s fabulous. As a ‘back-up’ browser it’s much better and way cooler than IE.

So I was wondering how many of you out there are using Safari and if you can maybe give me some tips on some groovy-cool stuff it can do that I maybe haven’t come across yet. Or perhaps warn me about some of its glitches?

… in training

netvibes universe

Introducing netvibes universe…

Last July I came across netvibes and ended up starting a private page there with all my feeds, links and some other fun stuff, like the daily Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. At first I couldn’t see the point of it unless you travelled a lot, but in fact, having everything I need all organised on one page has turned out to be very comfortable.

Then the other day I got a notice that there was a new netvibes version called netvibes ginger which includes a public page - your netvibes universe - that other people can have a look at and subscribe to.

I like it.

~ my netvibes universe ~

how to behave on the internet

And just in case you feel like misbehavin’ . . .

How To Be Annoying Online

• Make up fake acronyms. Online veterans like to use abbreviations like IMHO (in my humble opinion) or RTFM (read the fucking manual) to show that they’re “hep” to the lingo. Make up your own that don’t stand for anything (SETO, BARL, CP30), use them liberally, and then refuse to explain what they stand for (”You don’t know that? RTFM”).
• WRITE YOUR MESSAGES IN ALL CAPS AND DON’T USE RETURNS SO THAT EVERYONE HAS TO SCROLL ACROSS THEIR SCREENS TO READ EVERY LINE. ALSO USE A LOT OF !!!!! TO SHOW THAT YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT BEING HERE!
• When replying to your mail, correct everyone’s grammar and spelling and point out their typos, but don’t otherwise respond to the content of their messages. when they respond testily to your “creative criticism,” do it again. Continue until they go away.
• Software and files offered online are often “compressed” so that they won’t take so long to travel over the phone lines. Buy a compression program and compress everything you send, including one-word e-mail responses like “Thanks.”
• Upload text files with Bible passages about sin or guilt and give them names like “SexyHousewivesI,” then see how many people download it. Challenge your friends to come up with the most popular come-ons.
• Join a discussion group and tie whatever’s being discussed back to an unrelated central theme. For instance, if you’re in a discussion of gun control, respond to every message with the observation that those genetically superior tomatoes seem to have played an important role. Within days, all discussion of gun control will have ceased as people write you threatening messages and instruct others to ignore you.

~ the last bit was stumbledupon over here ~