Put Your Fav Blogs on Your Homepage

First off, why do I want to make my favorite blogs 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.
1)Where you usually type in website addresses, type igoogle.com and enter
2)Make this page your homepage.
a)Look at the top of your page for Tools and click it
b)Select Internet Options
c)Click General
d)in the big white box that has a picture of a house next to it type in http://www.google.com/ig
e)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:
1)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.
2)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.
3)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.)
4)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!
1)Type in the web address to the blog you want: www.conniecox.net
2)See the little orange box with the white curved stripes on your toolbar? Click it!
3)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.plus-star
4) 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.)
5)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 at Work. 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 prefered 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.net/get-favorite-blogs-on-homepage

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!

Tags: blogs, keep up-to-date, rss
Posted in Techno Corner | Comments Off

Starting Atkins today-sigh

It’s two days after Thanksgiving and I’m going on a diet.
Husband joined a health club. I’ve been there, done that. Not doing it again. Besides, I like my new Richard Simmons DVDs and the health club is conveniently on his way to and from work. Living out in the boonies like we do, nothing is conveniently in driving distance from my home-office (not that I’m complaining. I love where I live.)

So I’m fluffier than my hubby. I need to drop almost twice the weight he needs to lose. And everyone knows that guys lose faster, right? No, it’s not a competition. He doesn’t even know I’m going back on the Atkin’s diet (and probably won’t notice unless I tell him.) But he’s insufferable about weight and when he loses his desired poundage, he’ll be even worse. Plus, I really need to get rid of some serious dead weight. You know us writers. Are lifestyles can be pretty darned sedentary.

So, I signed up on a nice, long-established Atkins forum for some online support. My login name is ConnieC so you can’t miss me if you want to join me there. I’ve done the Atkins thing before–it’s the only plan that seems to work for me–but I’ve never done the support group thing. As a work from home writer, I’m really getting into online communication, though, so I’m thinking it can’t hurt.

Wish me luck!

Posted in Food and Diet, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Sweatin’ to the Not-So-Oldies

Hey all,
Some of you know that my exercise of choice is walking. Okay, make that sauntering. Letting an ADHD dachshund set the pace doesn’t do much for elevating your heartrate or kicking your metabolism into gear. So pre-holiday orgies, I’ve ordered the Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVDs.
Why them? Because everything else out today has supertoned bodies and needs special equipment. Besides, I’ve always liked Richard Simmons. He makes me smile.

So I ordered the DVDs. Through kismet, I ordered them just as a newly packaged Sweatin’ 1-4 set became available. It’s cheaper to order the whole 5 DVD package than it is to get two of the DVDs separately. (Sorry, don’t mean to sound like a commercial, but I thought it was a very good deal.)

I love, Love LOVE Sweatin’ 1. It’s fun and the music is really ’50s kewl. Sweatin’ 2 is not my favorite, but Sweatin’s 3 and 4 are right up there in smile factor as well as in heartrate speeder-upper. But somewhere around Sweatin’ 2, I noticed that I remember those songs from my childhood. Sweatin’ 3 is full of cuts that were top forty when I was in high school and I think a couple off the Sweatin’ 4 DVD were played at my wedding. So how old is old?

Anyway, I like the music. I know all the words and if I had enough breath, I could sing along. But I especially like the exercise/dance moves. Richard includes a lot of big shoulder movements and hand shaking that stretches out all my writer’s cramps.

So, if you’re looking for a gift for a work-from-homer who sits in front of a desk most of the day, give them the Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVDs. They may giggle and look a little sheepish when they open them, but you can bet, in the privacy of their home/office/living rooms, they’ll be moving and swaying, and appreciating your thoughtfulness. Go ahead, order them and give it a try.

And just for giggles, check out this video of Richard Simmons:
Richard Simmons accidently on WGNTV

So tell me, what do YOU think writers want for Christmas?

Tags: Exercise, gifts
Posted in Exercise, Gifts for Writers | Comments Off