My Blogger customization quest.

Sorry Blogger. Your templates are a bit boring. I understand why, but more choices would be wonderful.

I have no problem admitting that I can be dense at times. Ask my friends, family, etc. They can rattle off great stories.

So, why did it took so long for me to pick up on the fact Blogger is now full XML / CSS? Dense. Told ya!

So, I went out looking for a new Blogger look.

I have a theory that the cheaper the product, usually the tougher it is to find online. Blogger templates were no exception. Click after click led me to a site with only a few templates.

So, if you ever want to dip your toe into the customization land of Blogger, here are some sites that helped me.

The Template

Changing the template is quite easy. From your Blogger dashboard, click on Layout > Edit HTML. You will then see a pile of code.

Finding the code to paste in there? A bit more frustrating. I found one great site for templates. If you know of more, please share em!

50 Most downloaded Blogger templates

This guy was buried down in the list, but, IMHO has some of the more classy templates available. Once you get there you can look at live demos of most of the templates.

If you like the template you download it. This will usually give you a single page of code. Replace this code with the existing Blogger code that I talked about earlier and woo hoo! New look.

The template I went with was Minyx by B-Themes. They also have their own Blogger site with even more templates which can be found here.

The template creator (nice work by the way) was nice enough to include all the images to download. This is an important FYI to educators. Most of these templates have images that point to PhotoBucket which is usually blocked on campus. You will have to add these images to another location and change the code to bypass this problem. If one of my friends / customers needs to learn how to do this, let me know. I will make a movie and post it.

I should point out most of the images were not included in the image folder that you can download from the B-Themes website. I ended up downloading the rest of the images by hand. If you need them, let me know. I will mail you the folder or post a link here.

Adding Widgets

This was fun to tinker with. Within Blogger there is an Edit Layout option which gives you a listing off all the things you can add to your Blogger. However, I found half some of them did not work! Googling found many people with the same frustrations. I ended up finding a website that also did a lot of the Google widgets but easier. Check out Beautiful Beta for a listing of widgets that they have. They are very easy to add. Log onto Blogger, select your widgets and customize the data options. Beautiful Beta will do the rest. My comment area as well as my top Blogs are from the Beautiful Beta site.

And for you Twitter heads. Adding the Twitter feed is easy. Simply look at the bottom of your Twitter page for add a badge. Twitter will do the rest.

Not an in depth look, but, I hope this information allows you to surf much less than I did in my pursuit of template customization!

My next AUS trip, my side wine mission

Less than a week. I have been too busy to really catch on to the fact that I am heading back to NZ and AUS. I am sure it will hit me in a few days.

I was a bad blogger my last time near the end of my trip and stopped blogging. Partly because I had a cold another part because I literally got engulfed in the city.

Another reason was because I golfed a lot in Sydney. I met a kick ass couple while I was in New Zealand who happened to belong to the top two courses I was trying to play in Sydney but could not get tee times due to days being held for tournament practice.

I ended up spending two days in Sydney playing New South Wales and The Australian. Not only that, they treated me like family and invited me to dinner in the clubhouse on each course.

Ok, I digressed. Back to me being a bad blogger.

I have had a web awakening with Web 2.0 Yeah, I am a little late for the dance (I am a horrid dancer btw, I know you wanted to know that) and more than ever realize the fun and effectiveness of posting about unique informative information and fun experiences.

A wine friend, Mark Hubbard tried to get me on the courses as well. He contacted a local friend, Richard, and together the three of us got nowhere. Either way, the effort was very sweet.

While talking to Richard, I come to discover that Mark has a lot of wine still in AUS that he never brought home. I asked Richard if he would mind sending some to my hotel in Sydney so I can bring some home for him.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I waited and waited for the wine to show. At first it was lost, then it was delayed. It got down to the day I was leaving. No wine. I boarded the plane and the last I heard it was lost again.

Typing the email telling him his wine was MIA stank. However, Mark being a nice guy was very well, nice about it.

Marks wine was found and it has been sleeping at the Sydney Sir Stamford since early October.

I plan to change that.

When I realized I was connecting in Sydney, I decided to spend the night there. Well, I also want to get some scorching goo goodness (look a few posts below) and see the city again.

However, my core goal is to get that wine! I am even daring the forces of wine nature by having Richard ship even more wine to the hotel.

Wish me luck!

This is never easy

I know many times when I see someone talk about a friend who passed away I feel a bit uneasy, especially if I do not know the person. I am also not the sort that wants others to feel that way, but, this is Doug and the last thing Doug ever wanted was pity or for someone to feel bad for him during his fight.

So, read on with a smile because you are about to meet Doug Prouty.

I had the pleasure to know Doug for many years. He was a teacher and together we were fellow technology conference presenters traveling the nation. He was a character, a nice guy and had a desire to help out any K-12 educator he ran into. I have great memories of late night dinners and laugh fests that brought management to the lobby to tell us to keep it down.

Then, Doug got sick.

His blog turned into his fight and is worth reading to see how his spirit never faltered. http://www.thesnorkel.org/blog/

Last week, he decided to head to a conference he used to chair. Flying from Northern California to Southern. Packed with piles of Oxygen and his friend Mike Butler by his side he returned to his old stomping grounds much to the delight of his friends.

After seeing him in a wheelchair with Oxygen and a smile on his face I commented that he never does anything half ass. Even the process of his early departure from us was done with style humor and respect. We can all learn a lot from Doug, his outlook and his respect for life, himself and others.

Who knows why the events unfolded so quickly once the conference was close to ending or why a loving wife and family no longer have him as close as they want, but, it is what it is. Doug was told he was being left at heavens doorstep a few days ago. I bet in Doug's entertaining fashion, he ding dong ditched the butler a few times before finally giving in.

Doh! Because you asked....

I thought a few people would want my wallaper but this many?! Never.

So, here is the link. Thank you Dan for allowing me to share this with everyone.

Dan recreated this image from the keynote at MacWorld.

http://dandiemer.com/wallpaper/homer_ipod_final.jpg