Technical Problems?

I’ve heard from a couple of people about technical problems with the site. One reader said he was unable to submit a comment. Another said the poll wouldn’t let him vote.

If you ever encounter a technical problem when using AndyBox.com, please email me through my contact page. My site uses several “plugins” that other people have developed. Most of the advanced features such as the poll, comment system, and Facebook Like box, use those plugins, and sometimes they don’t work correctly. I might or might not be able to fix your problem, but I definitely can’t if I don’t know about it. If you find a problem using the contact page, then I’m hosed.

Facebook Integration

As some of you know already, I have connected my site to Facebook. I hope this move will drive up traffic. More importantly, it will make life easier for my readers who also use Facebook. By clicking the “Like” button at the right of this page, you can add all my new posts to your Facebook News Feed. That way you’ll be notified of new posts without having to visit my site every day. Eventually, all your blog comments will cross-post between here and Facebook as well.

I hope you enjoy this new feature. Please spread the word!

Haiku Tuesday 1 – Intro

Today, and on every Tuesday while I feel like continuing the tradition, I shall write a haiku. I call this feature Haiku Tuesday, for it is Tuesday, and I am writing a haiku.

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that English speakers have modified slightly. English haiku generally have three lines. Lines one and three have five syllables each. Line two has seven syllables. The plural of haiku is haiku. Just go with it.

Today’s haiku theme is introduction:

Writing in the night
Before I send the flight plans
Crews go where I say

Now it’s your turn. Please write your own haiku about yourself and post it here.

Props to my friend Christine Milliner for reminding me of the joys of haiku.

Adding Comments

A couple of my loyal readers have reported some trouble with the new comment system. Here are the basics:

1) To read posted comments or add your own, click the Comments link at the end of the post.
2) To post a new comment, type your comment, name, and email address. It’s the same info you entered before, just arranged differently. (Don’t worry about the IntenseDebate and WordPress.com login buttons. You don’t need them, but I can’t figure out how to hide them.)
3) Click Submit Comment.

I love getting comments from you and hope these instructions make your commenting easier. If you want to climb my Top Commentators ladder in the sidebar, enter the same name each time.

Write me if you run into any further trouble.

Another New Look

UPDATE: I just pulled up my site in IE 6, an ancient, substandard browser with security problems that for some reason is still the standard browser at work, and discovered that my site looks terrible. Apparently IE 6 can’t handle cascading style sheets correctly. This is yet another reason for you NOT to use it. If you haven’t switched yet, try Firefox, Safari, or Chrome instead.

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You know how some people have this strange urge to rearrange the furniture, paint a room, or in some other way modify their homes every so often? It took me a long time to understand those people. Then I realized I’m the same way with my blog. It’s not so much that the old way is bad; it’s that the process of changing is fun, and the results make us happy, too.

I changed the “theme” a couple of days ago partly for technical reasons, partly aesthetic, and partly my own amusement. WordPress makes it really easy, just a few mouse clicks, to completely change the look of a blog. However, each theme doesn’t necessarily make everything look exactly how I want, so I always have to make a few tweaks. In the process I might find that some of my bells and whistles don’t play nicely with the new theme. Then I shop around and find new bells and whistles that do. In the process, my brain gets a bit of exercise, and you get a fresh look to enjoy (I hope!).

You might not have noticed yet that the photo at the top changes each time you load a page. I think there are 5-10 different pictures. A certain family member has complained about a picture that looks like the Japanese flag. I assure you that I am not turning Japanese or packing up for a move. I don’t fully understand how the picture rotator works yet. When I have time, I hope to learn and replace the pictures with some of my own.

Please share your thoughts on the new look. I even gave you a new comments plugin to make comments a bit easier to post and read.

Top Commentators

I love getting getting comments on my posts and thank all of you who participate in the conversation. I found a new tool to recognize (and encourage?) the most active commentators. In the right sidebar under the most recent comments, you should see the five most frequent commentators over the last 60 days. You guys rock!

I also tweaked the Recent Comments area by adding an excerpt from each comment and the Other Sites area to make the list collapsable.