Cocktail Confessions

Couple of things to note here:

1. Became a member of Yelp in the OC sector.  I can write a few reviews on the fly when I’m out and about.  So look me up there under my name Jayson O.
2. Removed the Calendar (aka Club Nights) section in the upper left hand margin.  It seemed to stop working some time back, and didn’t really serve much of a purpose anyway and I’m to lazy to fix it right now.
3. Removed the old text box with my Twitter account: AloneDisciple.
4. Added new Tweet Speak box in the left hand margin, that not only has my account name (@AloneDisciple) but lists the last few ‘Tweets’ I made.  I’m doing this on a trial basis.  Not sure if it will stay like that or not.

Trying another experiment here.

Even though I really liked the WP to Twitter plugin, I’ve been experiencing some odd, unexplained, and indecipherable formatting issues when trying to post to Twitter.  The ‘shortcode’ was always getting fouled up to one degree or another here when using the #url# fast code when publishing a new post.

Even though I re-registered my application with Twitter (successfully per the app no less), refreshed the API key, seemed to have ‘passing’ tests behind the scenes, as soon as I published live, the shortcode errored out.  After spending a lot of time going line by line, and various combinations of URL’s, API keys, and format tweaks and saves, the results would always end the same: in error.

So I downloaded a new plugin called ‘Tweetable’ and followed their instructions very closely for activation. I also deactivated ‘WP to Twitter’, and everything seems good to go on the back end.  So this entry is more a test run and I’m crossing my fingers.

For those that are interested, it is version 1.1.8 and it seems pretty robust.  It actually adds a few pages to WordPress which seem pretty intuitive and you’re able to track those Tweets you follow within WordPress itself and also you can post your own Tweets directly within as well.  That’s a pretty neat feature that seems to take the next logical step that WP to Twitter didn’t.  So hopefully this will work out.

A few changes made today and I’m not sure of all the ramifications just yet.  I did notice that my WordPress to Twitter plugin stopped working a few days back, and it appears that is because the plugin now needs OAuth to authenticate communications between Twitter and WordPress.  Still would like to find a better plugin for this, but it works pretty well….when working.

I also noted a few other plugins also had updates available as did WordPress itself.  So….

• WordPress 2.9.2 to new version 3.0.1
• Askimet Antispam 2.1.0 to new version 2.4.0.  Hopefully this will cut down on the bogus crap I get all the time.
• WP to Twitter: upgraded to new version 2.2.1, BUT currently it is not working.  I need to go back and sign up with the new OAuth regsitratuion servers, get new API keys, blah, blah, blah.  Maybe sometime this weekend I’ll work on it.  I’m surprised there wasn’t more buzz or heads up on this.  It’s kinda a big deal.
• NextGEN Gallery to new version 1.6.1.  I have no idea what changes were made here.  Need to go and read changelog later.
• Bluebrry Powerpress to new version 1.0.9.  Would be something i suppose if I started podcasting again….but have been lazy to do such as of late.

As technology constantly evolves, as do widgets and plugins, so must this website if I want to maintain something relevant. 

Thus, as I do on occassion, came a time for a routine patching and maintenance to the site.

For those that are interested, you’re either as geeky if not more geeky than myself, or you are so utterly bored and pathetic at this very moment, you’re desperately still reading this as to fill some void in your life undoubtedly caused by unresolved mommy issues.  If it is indeed the latter, and you’re still reading this without being insulted, then my friend….stop what you are doing right this instant and grab yourself a strong drink.

Maintenance notes:

• Upgraded WordPress to current version 2.9.2 from the previous 2.7.1.  Kinda a big deal, but only to allow other plugins and widgets to operate normally.
• Blubrry Powerpress: Now v1.07.  Still need to incorporate more functionality into this site, but at least I have a place to possibly host future podcasts and video casts and register them properly with iTunes…if that day ever comes.
• NextGen Gallery: Now v1.5.3 that adds additional features and interface for picture galleries, slideshows and the like.
• Tweetable: Now v1.1.8.  This wouldn’t work previously with the 2.7.1 version of WordPress, but will now.  I haven’t activated yet as I need to register the application with Twitter, and place a widget in the margin to accept incoming Tweets.  Oh, and as of right now, you can still follow me on Twitter @alonedisciple.
• YouTube: Registered for a channel under the name ‘jaysonolson33′ that I have uploaded a few videos I plan to embed here if they are not a direct vodcast.
• GoWalla: A mobile social check-in application on my Droid phone that has the ability to also be tied into Twitter.  You can see where I am at if I happen to check in.  Also under ‘jaysonolson33′.
• Google Buzz: Once again, created under the moniker ‘jaysonolson33′, you can find and follow my Buzzes (many with pictures).  I hope the WP plugin ‘Socialable’ adds this soon enough.

Part of me feels like I sold out to the Media Man.  I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve been fairly proud to have gone thus far so long without jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.  There’s a couple of reasons why I never felt the need to jump on this trend, and I suppose on the technological front it was because I never had a smart phone prior to my Droid and there was no way in hell I was going to use my regular phone (sans QWERTY keyboard) to attempt and fumble through pecking out a tweet.  It didn’t help either that Verizon charges like $.10 for every text message as well if you don’t have a data plan.

The second reason was more of a social ego thing for me which of course goes both ways.  On my side of the coin, I’m not sure what I would ‘tweet’ or why I would in the first place.  I’m not of the generation where this technology is second hand nature to kids have my age.  It seems that ‘tweeting’ was the next step in evolution for teens who were already maturing beyond Myspace, and now had a mobile way to keep friends updated.  I’m pretty sure that if I were 16 again, I’d really be into Twitter.  On the flip-side of things, it seemed Twitter became all that when celebrity douche’s like Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and John Mayer got on-board and felt the need to tweet about everything they came into contact with.  Soon, ‘entertainment’ news shows such as Access Hollywood and Extra started to report the often mundane and sometimes insane musings of so called celebrities and hung on every word as if the ability to tweet now turned them into wise old sages that we as a culture needed to hang onto every word.  It was no longer about what we could do or experience for ourselves, but we were more interested, (for whatever reason) in “What would Ashton do?” or “What does Brittany think?”, as if somehow we were actually no closer to them, understood them, and now could tell others we were friends.

So why did I succumb if I am so against it?  Well, like all things, even my opinions change over time.  I still think Ashton and John Mayer are douches, but I cam to realize that there are other people out there that actually do write about things that interest me.  There are people I am interested in following as it comes to discovering new technologies, new restaurants, new clubs and venues, and even news that affects my world.

So who the hell am I following then?    Funny you should ask.  For the first time, it seems I have the ability to ‘interview’ who I want to follow on a trial basis.  Some may come, some may go.  For example, I don’t think I could follow a John Mayer even if I like him because my phone would be chirping upwards of ten times a day on just him.  Now suppose I began to follow 10 people, or maybe 20, or even 30.  If they even just tweeted once a day, I’d be inundated with chirps that would drive me up the wall.

The current list I have is relatively small (10), and there wasn’t all that much thought put into it.  Some of them I added like Neil Patrick Harris, because he actually has something to say and it has content, not like Kim Kardashian who peppers here with just links and nonsensical crap like advertisements.  I looked at a few dozen random celebrities in different fields and here’s my list thus far:  Nikkie Jackson (fitness model), Catalina Cruz (Internet entrepreneur), Niel Patrick Harris (actor), Bobby Flay (celebrity chef), Denise Richards (actress, model, animal lover), Kevin Smith (director, comic buff, actor), Blair Herter (TV personality, comic geek, video games), Adam Sessler (TV personality, video gamer), Aziz Ansari (comedian, actor), Guy Fieri (celebrity chef, tv personality).

I also realize it’s a great self marketing tool.  I’d love to get more people to listen to my podcast and if I can even attract one person via Twitter over to CocktailConfessions, then by measurement, it worked.  I doubt I will be personally be ‘tweeting’ much, I mean what possibly do I have to say to the masses who don’t even know I exist?  If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll get a few followers, although I suspect they will be friends and I can share with them some new eats I’ve discovered, or inform them of a new podcast, or perhaps an occasional mobile picture….but isn’t that what we have Facebook for?

On my Droid phone I installed ‘Tweetcaster lite’, a freebie version of Tweetcaster Pro.  It seemed to get a lot of positive ratings 4.5/5 and seems failry intuitive to use.  Not sure if it is the best one out there as it seems a few people said it doesn’t have the ability to upload video’s to Twitter….but do I care about that?  Maybe it will come with an upcoming patch or release upgrade?

Anyway, now I’m looking for an appropriate and easy Twitter plug-in for WordPress.  I’ve already seen a few, but I need to decide which one will suit my needs here.  Don’t be surprised if you see one or two come and go over the weeks as I decide which one is for me.  However, in the meantime, if you so choose you can follow me on Twitter at ‘@alonedisciple’.

Finally, if you were to become a follower of me, what would you want me to tweet about?  Recipes?  Grilling?  Cocktails?  Funny crap?

Before I get to the site updates, here’s a but that’s going on:

The step-daughter has moved into our house.  At 17 years of age it has been somewhat of an adjustment to undertake and a lot of people are giving us advice.  However, all the advice in the world cannot change the attitude of someone who doesn’t care about school.  Overall, she’s a good kid: she’s polite to neighbors and friends, she doesn’t drink or smoke or do any drugs that we are aware of, no tattoo’s, no errant piercings, no foul mouth.  She just doesn’t do her school work and likes to ditch which has caused her to slip behind….far behind everyone else her age.  And in California where our state is ranked pretty low to begin with in education…..well, as the guidance counselor recently told us….she’s setting herself up for a long life of retail employment.  Sigh.

As far as my diet goes that I self imposed on myself last Sunday, it’s been going ‘okay’.  So far, I only broke down last night when I got home from work and had one Bud Light, otherwise I’ve been drinking water.  I’ve had a few cookies here and there, but overall, my portion sizes have been reduced (although I am a bit hungry and have a mild headache…more so due to my allergies I figure than not enough food), and I’ve been eating a bit healthier.  I could and should even alter my diet a bit more and eat healthier foods (salads, veggies, etc) and need to start some additional exercise.  I had planned on doing some exercise this past week when I get home, but I just haven’t.  No real excuse. I just haven’t.

Halloween is tomorrow, and quite honestly I just don’t care.  I have a costume…more so because my wife wants us to go to a party…but I have no real desire to dress up.  I’m sure I’ll have fun at the party, but I know the temptation of too much drinking may be a factor.  I went to the same party last year, drank a lot, and fell on my ass where I believe I fractures my tail bone.  No joke.  I also had a mild hangover as well…something I’d like to avoid this year.

I have a podcast with my grandfather that I need to complete editing so I can post, and I hope I can do a few recordings this next week as well and supply a bit more content here.

Feedburner: I noticed the other day my regular Feedburner was no longer updating itself correctly and I’m not 100% sure why.  I haven’t made any changes at all to the FeedBurner settings, and after spending quite sometime looking at the various settings pages, account, and some basic troubleshooting it appears it all boils down to possibly a missin “/meta” tag somwhere.  After pinging and validating my pages and getting the “congratulations” response, some further digging revealed that FeedBurner is conflicting with itself somewhere else.  A search of the FAQ stated that this can indeed happen when you copy and paste from MS Office applications like Word or Excel.  Well, I do know I had done some recent cut and paste work from Word and unless I scan line by line the HTML code for the last few posts for a possible errant tag (which I may or may not find), it may or may not fix the issue.  Bums me out since I think WordPress should be smart and compliant enough with Word to not insert additional XML tags, but apparantly not.  Hopefully this will eventually correct itself in the future when I post enough new content to bury the old stuff way down.  So let this be a little knoweldge to you: WordPress, FeedBurner, and MS Word don’t play well with each other.

Site notes:

• BluBerry Power Press updated to v1.0.3.  I think I may try the full service soon as my podcasts aren’t showing up yet on Zune Marketplace and I don’t know why.
• Sociable upgraded to v3.5.2.  No real change for me as I didn’t change my options.
• The Hacker’s Diet – installed v0.9.8b.  This is a plugin behind the scenes in which I should be updating my weight.  You won’t see anything unless I take a snapshot and post it as a picture in a regular post.
• Count Per Day – Updated to v2.4.2 and I use this again behind the scenes.  Traffic monitor.
• WordPress – Still using v2.7.1 although v2.8.5 is available.  I’m a little hesitant to upgrade.  I’m sure it’ll be fine for the most part, but there is always some hidden thing that gets screwed up.

First of all, I’d like to thank all of my friends who have so far visited my page and took the time to download or listen to my first trial episode and provide either words of encouragment and some helpful feedback.  Personally, I’ve been both excited and frustrated with this experience. 

The positive part is the feeling that I am indeed learning something new, and get to enjoy messing around with the technology and flexing a little bit more of my creativity.  For those that think I have ADHD, well maybe I do, and this is just another outlet for my sometimes idle mind.  I do have a lot of great friends and stories and I only get more excited when I think of future episodes when one of you is sitting across from me on the mic, sharing a beer, and just shooting the breeze.

The frustrating parts is the amount of work leading up to this and the continual tweak and modifications.  I really didn’t realize how much goes into a podcast, let alone oen that garners others people interest and word of mouth.  If you think about it, there are many components in the production of a blog: style, hosting services, various software applications, plug-ins, editing, feeds, post production, transfer and exportings of files, ID tagging, audio conversions, etc.  It can be really difficult when you discover than ‘current’ manuals are hard to find, and many things that appear to be compatible actually aren’t. 

You have a vision of how things are supposed to look and work on paper or in your head, but in actuality it doesn’t always pan out.  I’ve run across obsolete plug-ins, technical hurdles, vague or non-exsitant instructions, false data capturing and statistics, and more passwords and logins than I can shake a stick at.  To illustrate, despite how ‘easy’ various white papers say how easy it is to podcast, here are the various components I work with just to get this far:  GoDaddy as my hosting site, WordPress as my main blogging software, Audacity as my audio capture and editing device, FeedBurner along with Google accounts to provide an enhanced RSS feed, BluBrry as an embedded flash player and download tool.  That doesn’t even incorporate the various plug-ins: wordpress statististics for data capture, Social to share posts on social networking sites, and a few others.  Each time you install one, you need to make sure that it not only looks right on teh main page, but that it is compatible and actually works as described.  Easier said than done.  There were plenty of installs, just to rip it back out and look for a comparable alternative and I’m sure there will be more of that in the future as well. 

But for now, it looks as if I have the main gist of everything working properly.  The last two major hurdles, which so far appear to be the most daunting to date is the ability to learn MP3 ID tagging, not just for Windows (that’s easy), but the scripting/coding for iTunes.  Once that is done, then it will be submitting the appropriate feed to both Microsoft Zune and iTunes to have them be approved and available for everyone to subscribe from there.  The good news is I did a prelim test last night with iTunes, and it did indeed detect my feed and registered my episode (sans artwork and proper tags, but it is there in its raw format).

So on to the other stuff:  I added the first episode to the ‘Podcast‘ page.  This is where all epsiodes will reside via a download link without all the show notes, links, pictures, etc.  Think of it as the one-stop-shop for past episodes.  I also added another page, ‘Patrons‘  in which over time will be populated with a few lines of guest biographies and headshot pictures….just so you can put a face/name to the voices you may hear.

Whew, that was a mouthful.  Now hopefully from here on out, I’ll get to the fun stuff and leave the majority of this techo crap and geek speak behind. 

Now, let’s look forward to the next episode, so stock the fridge with some cold ones.

I have just spent the last hour or so signing up and tinkering with Feedburner.  You should see the appropriate RSS chicklet banner now at the top of the sidebar to the right.  It should rotate the latest 5 posts for those that are just taking a gander.

Feedburner itself just relocated over to Google, and thus you need a Google account to activate Feedburner and everything that goes with it.  While it is currently active now on this site, I still need to make some additional configuration changes, such as adding personal artwork so when my podcasts eventually show up on iTunes, or other pod catching services that support pictures, my podcasts will have a little flair.  I already know the picture I’m gonna use, but it’s stowed on another PC right now, and I’ll have to upload it to my WP server anyway for it to show up.

Since I just activated it less than an hour ago, so it may take a few extra hours before I start catching statistics and data collection for analyzing.  This may sound a little boring to you, and in all honesty, it may end up being a bit boring for me in the long run as well, so I’ll definitely have a drink when I occasionally glance how many of you aren’t that interested in anything I have to say or write about.

So far, everything I have done on this site I have taught myself from reading various forums, wiki’s, and other Internet articles, solely by trial and error.  I feel like I’m pretty close to actually starting the real podcasting I had previously intended to do from the get go.  It’s been a bit slow on the creativity end as I am using more of my techie side (not the happy fun, go-lucky side) to get this up and running.

I also added some option to help share posts to Digg, Facebook, Vinenews, Technorati, Stumble It, and a few others too.  So we’ll see if those kick in or not.

I may even do a dry run ‘break the ice’ podcast tonight.  You know, get the opening down, introduce a drink, tell a story or two and discuss the future format of the show.  I’d like to shoot for about 20-30 minutes for my initial cast, and of course there is the editing again back in Audacity.  So while I may indeed record tonight, it may be a day or two before I actually post.

I want to post a picture of my ad-hoc studio as well (i.e. my spare bedroom where my PC and podcasting kit is located), and also do a quick write up on my Behringer mixing board, microphone, and packaged software as well.

I bought this book early this weekend to see if I could learn some more behind the scenes ‘techie’ stuff.  I was primarily looking for detailed information on API keys, RSS feeds (how to create, modify, etc), any tricks in regards to podcasting audio files as opposed to just uploading standard MP3 files, and maybe some advanced insight on plug-ins.

I’m going to be taking this book back very shortly for a full refund. 

That’s not to say this book is ‘bad’, but is is indeed very elementary in terms of any subject matter depth.  On things that are important to podcasters to know and grasp the background on, this book really doesn’t cut it.  In scanning many of the chapters, I had come to my own personal conclusion that most of the material inside was pretty self-intuitive if anyone took a few extra minutes with WordPress itself.  Many of the definitions and copy within the book come directly from the WordPress Dashboard and settings tabs themselves so nothing here was earth shattering or require this book if you just take a few moments and look yourself.

I suppose if you took on the task of downloading and installing WordPress for your own personal gloating (I’d rather stick a needle in my eye btw), then this book may indeed be helpful.  However, since GoDaddy does it for you (at no additional cost), you can kinda skip a few chapters within.  Also there were a few fluff chapters that had nothing to do with WordPress itself, but on how to write a blog, conduct an interview or create an interesting entry.  That’s not why I bought this book…for writing tips, it was how to use WordPress andto digest the components in the background.  If I wanted a creative writing lesson, all I have to do is close my eyes and pretend I’m in Jr. High all over again in Mrs. Fessedens class, the old coot.

Another reason I am returning this, is that even though this is a 2nd ed. installment (pub 02/09), it’s already obsolete.  Since this book was published, v2.7 & v2.8 have been released, and just today, v2.8.1 beta is available for download to fix a myriad of bugs in v2.8 when it dropped last week.

Some of the links the author publishes throughout the book are no longer valid either, though it’s not her fault.  She can’t control when other sites go away, change, or redirect.

There were a few good tricks in here, and some handy plug-ins the author points you to, but overall, for anyone who has worked with WordPress even a little bit before, you’ll find that much of the content is ‘meh‘ at best.  This truly is for someone who has never used WordPress one iota, or really is too lazy to make modifications on their own.  And if you”re that lazy, chances are you’re probably too lazy to pick up this book and read it as well, and enjoy pork rinds and Nascar, as that takes more effort than some simple tab configurations and trial and error.

All in all I give this book 3/5 stars, and while intermediate tech heads may pick up one or two tricks, overall you’re gonna be somewhat disappointed.  I’m still looking for the perfect podcasting and WordPress book.

Audtest01.mp3

Today I’ve been playing a bit with built in players. Why? Well, because in all honesty they look pretty darn cool. But there’s where the coolness factor ends.

Like quite a few things I’ve been discovering the last week or so, many supposedly‘seamless’ plug-ins for WordPress were all designed for earlier incarnations of the main software.  Most plug-ins were built for or prior to WP v2.5 and many haven’t been updated since.  You’d think that many of these things would be backward compatible, or the original authors/coders would hop right in there when a new WP release goes from beta to alpha and then gold stage, but apparently not.  Ah, the woes of freeware.

Again, I am currently running WP v2.7.6 and everyday I login to tweak this or that, I see a glaring banner beckoning me to upgrade to the newest v2.8.  Uh-uh…not gonna happen anytime soon.  There’s too many issues on the forum sites with v2.8 since it’s release about a week ago.  Heck, I can’t even get stuff working with v2.7, and as I said, so many plug-ins for earlier versions have yet to be updated.

Long story short, I was able to install Audio-player 2.06b that gives this cool little flash player for MP3 files embedded in posts, but not all the coding is working correctly.  I can’t add a download link for those that want to save my audio files to a storage device without it automatically installing the flash player and the

enclosures are not working correctly.  I should be able to add a the following code:

and the player image should show up like the one above…but it’s not, and I don’t know why….yet.  And believe me I spent about an hour trying various syntax configurations to no avail.

So, I’m not sure if I’ll keep this player or not.  If I can’t find solution, I may try another popular ‘free’ plug-in player.  There are a few others ones that cost a little cabbage, (i.e. $$), but not sure if I’m going to go that route.

The visitor counter, while working, is not capturing accurate data either.  Every time I edited this post to work on the streaming audio player and re-publish, it counts my visit to test as a ‘new’ visit, so I am accidentally yet artificially inflating my own visitor count.  I need to find one that track ‘unique’ visits on a daily basis that doesn’t count me.

Also added a new category: ‘Techno babble’ which more or less will be the geek posts like this one…which has nothing to do with cocktails, confessions, or anything fun.  Oh, and a new ‘WTF’ category as well….well, you can decipher what that means and what it is for.

Finally added a few links as well, one to Adam Corolla and one called ‘An Inconvenient Tumor’.  Enjoy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (477.2KB)