Sorry for the interruption but I was out of town for most of the holiday (we left the 26th for Chicago, but thats a whole post on its own!). I did however, want to brag about some of the Christmas Gifts that blessed our house this season though.

Amy’s big gift this year is to have the Master Bath and Bedroom repainted. When we bought the house from her parents, we inherited the DEEP red color of the bath and bed room. Its a dark red (think maroon) that is hard to match colors with. Now we’re going for a lighter, beachier look and are painting them Beachnut (its a lowes color). The master bath is done (Amy found some Votive candle holders at a store in Nashville), next on to the bedroom!

Grace had a very Hannah Montanna Christmas. She got a Hannah Montanna Guitar Game (like Guitar Hero) that plugs in to the tv, a Hannah Costume, and doll. Its pretty cool and she likes pretending to be a rockstar. Maybe someday. I like playing her game (since I haven’t bought Guitar HEro World Tour yet) and she’s getting better at it.

Mose got a Trampoline. One of her favorite things to do is jump. We’d wake on Saturday mornings to the heavy thud of emma jumping up and down in our door way. Now she can do it all she wants and it doesn’t make the house shake. Its pretty cool and Grace and Emma take turns on it. Amy wanted to try it out, but its for people under 80 pounds (and neither of us meet that requirement!

The girls also got some tinkertoys, and some other little odds and ends that they like to play with, but the coolest by far is my Ultimate Wall-E Robot.

We saw the movie in the theaters and we’re big fans (mose loves him). We had seen the Ultimate Wall-e at the Disney Store but we weren’t going to get him because of the price tag. Needless to say, Santa found him on Sale and he was wrapped and under the tree for me on Christmas morning. He has fun dancing, chasing the dogs around and just exploring on his own. If you haven’t seen one yet, I’ll work on some video and see if I can get anything posted. Its pretty cool though and the way he can respond to voice commands or find his own way around the room is fairly smooth.

Was there one gift that you prized more than the others??

Since the advent of paid posting (hell, for that matter since the advent of advertising) Selling Out has been a big issue. There’s a current post at Skelliewag about Hot not to sell out. Granted, my view of selling out isn’t the same as your view and your view isn’t the same as ShoeMoney’s. I’ve done all kinds of paid blogging and I’ve run all kinds of crazy ads on the site.

There was a point where I was blogging several times a day (about three or four) on whatever “topic” I was assigned, whether or not I had any experience with it or not and whether or not I thought it was a good product or not. Since then, I’ve matured a little, the ads are beginning to produce more revenue than the posting and I’ve begun to be more selective in my “paid” posts. Occasionally I will do a blatantly obvious paid post for a product or service I believe in and use.

Personally, it isn’t “selling out” if you write about things you use and know. I use and know Wordpress, it isn’t selling out when I tell people that its the best blogging platform available. Likewise, its hardly selling out for placing a “paid link” in a post I was going to make anyways, as long as the link fits.

The Skelliewag post does point to the need to continue posting for yourself and not your readers and the point that you should post for creative purposes and not to follow the traffic spikes. It would be pointless for a blog about cooking to post about the recent iPhone 3g release or about the traffic on the turn-pike. However, on a blog that runs the gamut, it might fit a little better. Post about what you know. Post about what you like. Don’t worry about your readers, eventually they’ll find it and who knows, they might like what you have to say.

One of my favorite things to do is to try out new plugins and I have to say, the new plugin interface in WP 2.7 is AWESOME. Absolutely Awesome. I can search and install without leaving my admin area. Something that other suites have been able to do for a while and its something that helps bring Wordpress to the forefront of Blogging platforms. That being said, if you’ve ever checked out my Plugins Used page, you’ll know, I like me some plugins (I have about 55 active plugins at the moment).

Here’s a list of my favorites…

• All in One SEO Pack - Anyone who isn’t using this plugin is shooting themselves in the foot. This plugin helps make it easy to add keywords, titles and other much needed objects to your pages and posts. Plus, its kinda cool… now you can say, “Yea, I’m doing the SEO thing. Are you?”
• Comment Email Responder - I think I’ve talked about this one before. Its a godsend! Now, you can notify your commenter via email when you reply to their comment. This does two things, one, it lets them know you’ve commented and two, it pulls them back to the site. Often times to comment again. Its been a big help in retaining readers here.
• CommentLuv - It started as a simple plugin to pull your commenter’s last post and has evolved in to a movement. Even cooler is the fact that they run contests that your commenters are automagically entered in. Its a good way to add links to your site as well and to help out your friends by Deep linking to their posts.
• Comment Timeout - Yes, I run akismet, but with the Comment Timeout plugin, I have to clear a lot less spam. You can specify a time period for your comments to close (after the last comment was made). On here, its set for a month. A month after the last comment or the post, the comments close on that post. Helps keep a lot of spam out. A lot.
• Google Sitemaps - The last one I want to talk about today is the google sitemap plugin. It simply generates a sitemap of all your pages (or just the ones you specify) and puts it in a location. You can then alert google, yahoo, ask, etc. that you have a sitemap and it will help the bots crawl. Its good for increasing your ranking and it does something that WP should do anyways.

Thats just a short list of some of the plugins I like and use, I’ll cover more next week, don’t you worry. Is there a plugin you use that you think I’d benefit from??

So last year I posted a thursday thirteen of the 13 coolest Christmas Gift Ideas I could find. I thought that was a good idea, so I’m going to do it again this year, however, its only going to be a top ten. Don’t you fret, and don’t you frown though, it won’t have diet pills or a flowbee on the list.

• The first one is for the kids. I know some parents are going to have a fit, but my little ones love wearing their Crocs during the spring and summer (emma would sleep in them if we’d let her) and with the multitude of colors and styles they go with almost everything. They are comfy and as long as you watch your little ones feet on the escalators, they’re safe too!
• Anything from ThinkGeek.com. Personally I like the Dr. Who Sonic Screwdriver (however they never seem to have any in stock!), but their array of Digital frames and other oddities are pretty hard to beat. Who knew you needed a giant plush microbe?
• The entire first two seasons of the new Dr. Who. Anyone who’s seen the new Dr. Who knows this is a must have. Anyone who hasn’t needs this so they know what they’ve been missing. I highly suggest picking it up!
• TiVo 80-hour Dual Tuner DVR - Seriously. Who needs VCR’s any more when you can have a DUAL DVR? Record two stations at once AND watch your favorite show at the same time. What could be better? This is something I’ve been meaning to get for the longest time, it would sure make life so much easier!
• Jelly Belly Jelly beans. I could eat these all day long. Jelly Bellies are by far the best and now you can order to your hearts content. I’d take a pound or two myself for christmas. A couple of Christmases ago, I received the dispenser and it is awesome. I can set it to require change or not (that helps off set the cost of refilling!). Plus, they make great stocking stuffers!!
• Satellite prints of your favorite places! Nothing is cooler than having a satellite image of your favorite city, beach, mountain top. Terra Prints does it for you. They can even frame if it you want. The quality is good too. For those of us who are bent on keeping an eye on the weather, they even have a series of Hurrican maps. Pretty cool for the dork in your life
• For the person who is always getting lost… GPS Devices are a hot thing for Christmas this year (and the past couple of years). I’ve looked at getting Amy a GPS unit for her car, but both of our phones are equipped with GPS receivers and can use Google Maps or the Blackberry Maps so it makes it a little useless. But a handheld, no data plan needed receiver could be helpful on the trail
• A Personalized Book This one’s pretty cool and I’ve received a couple of them already from Amy. Its a little late this year to start a project for Christmas, but a personalized photo journal (think scrapbook but much cooler) is a pretty cool gift. Heritage Makers offers a ton of templates, an easy to use interface and it was listed as one of Oprah’s favorite things this Christmas season. How cool is that?
• What do you get a t-shirt junkie for Christmas? How about another shirt? Busted Tees has some of the hands down funniest shirts available that you would still wear in public. Personally I like the “That’s what she said” shirt, though the Binford Tools is a cool shirt as well for any Tool Man fans out there. If you’re shopping for someone thats hard to shop for, you can’t go wrong with a funny T!
• For a person who enjoys to try the local brews when ever they travel (and to be honest, who doesn’t like to drink a fat tire in Colorado, an Abita in New Orleans or a SweetWater 420 in Atlanta) how about bringing the brewing a little closer to home with a Home Brew Kit from Mr. Beer? I’ve thought it would be fun to get in to the business myself. After all, what a better way to find out what makes a good beer then trying it first hand?

These are just some ideas, if you have others, leave a comment, I’d love to know what you want for Christmas!