The Everyday Citizen

First gas, now the cost of groceries. My Rosie and I have had this discussion, but it goes much deeper than even I am aware of. Gas has hit an all time high here in mid-Michigan at $3.50 a gallon. Many people are still driving, and cutting costs elsewhere. There has to be an end to this…

California is noted as the state where prices of just about everything are higher than the rest of the nation. Today in the LA Times, I read an article about the higher cost of groceries. It is frightening to me to think that now even food is becoming harder for people to obtain. It seems that the price of corn is going up due to the fact that farmers are getting a much better price for it to be used for the production of ethanol. Last year, a friend who uses a corn burner to heat his home told me the price of corn was about $1.65 a bushel, and now, it is reaching highs of $3.66 over the last 12 months and earlier this year topped $4, according to DTN, an Omaha-based agriculture information firm. What does this mean for us?

In the food chain, corn is fed to cattle, chickens and geese to bring them to market. It is used as a feed, is used in many consumable products, and is a major sweetner for sodas and other beverages. Realize that if this corn is instead sold for ethanol generation, that the price of meat, consumable products such as breakfast cereals and other goods, and even your next bottle of Coke is gonna hit you hard.

What are we as a nation to do? Do we sit calmly by and watch our quality of life deteriorate because of the bottom line of the big oil companies? Do we curtail any activity that might bring us pleasure, such as taking the wife to dinner in a distant town of a Saturday nite? How long does this continue, until something is done? How many more of our young men need to die in Iraq before the people of America realize that this war is fought over control of fossil fuels? I wonder. And am saddened…

Drive on,

Charlie~

Popularity: 4% [?]

I have long since given up on the socalled “goo-roos” and slicksters that abound in Internet marketing.  I have just dropped too much cash on things I not only didn’t need to further my internet biz, but which reside on my HD, taking up real estate and never getting opened.

Some time last year, I ran across Gobala Krishnan.  This gentleman from Malaysia proved to be the “real deal” to me in many of his offerings.  I use his Super Adsense WordPress Theme on several of my blogs, and like the clean interface and ability to customize.  He has a small offer on the theme linking to his WordPress Adsense System, that has put cash into my Clickbank account with no work on my part.  It doesn’t get any better than that…

I got an email from Gobala this morning, telling me about a link campaign he is setting up.  He is beginning a new campaign, targeted at internet home business.   His idea is refreshing -”review me, and get a link.”I find it a good thing that someone like Gobala takes the interest of fellow marketers to heart.  Reviewing his site has been a pleasure to me…

Drive on…

Peace,

Charlie~

Popularity: 6% [?]

I have never been overly interested in politics. I guess it is because of my infernal cynicism over all thing political. Lately, though, I have become more interested. Maybe I should say horrified? I read tonight in the Washington Post of Deputy AG Paul McNulty resigning from his position this summer. Although he states financial reasons, I cannot help but think he no longer wishes to be tied to the coattails of AG Alberto Gonzales.

Any concerned citizen who cannot see through this tissues of lies by Gonzales must be living in an ice cave somewhere near the Arctic Circle. Three of his top people have resigned, and yet he maintains “memory loss” over the eintire incident. How much longer will the American people put up with this?

Everywhere I read, I can hear the death knell of the Republican Party because of so much going on in Bush’s administration. This unpopular war, responses to disasters, and this Gonzales thing makes me want to puke. Will it ever end?

Drive on,

Charlie~

Popularity: 4% [?]

One of my biggest gripes has always been people attempting to drive and using cell phones, especially on the freeway. I don’t even wish to think of all the close calls I have had because of this distraction. I watched in horror last night as a woman in Washington State drove in crowded traffic and was text messaging on her Blackberry. Studies show that even a teenager, who has good reflexes and think quicker than us oldsters, have changed from being a 17 year old to a person with the capabilities of a 90 year old person when attempting to drive and use their cells for staying in touch. (Wish I had those results to post here!)

I guess I am old fashioned in the sense that if my life is so busy that I need to talk on the phone or text message while driving, then I am living way to supercharged of a life. Working the net full time keeps me on information overload as it is, and to have this distraction in my personal life is more than I wish to bear.

The state of Washington has finally realized the danger in this, and has passed a law making it tough on people using their handhelds and driving. New Jersey also has new laws on the books regarding cell phone usage while driving. I am thinking it is about time that the states took this to task, and try to assure the safety of their citizens.

Drive on…

Peace,

Charlie~

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve redone the left sidebar, and have added the widgets plugin.  I added Ultimate Tag Warrior and Pingfix, both of which I feel essential for a blog of any type.  Although UTW is a bit of work to get working correctly, I feel it is worth the effort.

Giving serious consideration to the colors, which I feel are a bit too dark and moody.  As this blog is somewhat experimental, using only what is available online, it is no problem to tweak the CSS stylesheet.

More to come.

Drive on…

Peace,Charlie~

Popularity: 9% [?]

I read with much concern today about the poor folk in Greensburg, Kansas who had their little farming community wiped out.  It seems that they have lost over 95% of the town, and hopes for rebuilding are not very high.

My real concern, though, came when I saw on the evening news that Bush had visited the town to give his condolences.  Although his act is noble, I cannot help but witness the fact that he snubbed questions as to why the National Guard are not there in more force, and are not doing more.  It seems that it has taken a great deal of time for this small town to get assistance from the National Guard.  The town mayor cites lack of equipment and vehicles for the local unit that has caused these delays.  Why is that?  Are we so busy feeding Bush’s war machine that we cannot take care of our own?  Are we reduced to going without for the sake of a failing war that is so unpopular in this country?

A sad state of affairs, indeed…

Peace,

Charlie~

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you are going to run WordPress, you need plugins. It is what makes this platform so special from a marketing point of view. Read on…

Peace,

Charlie~

Sanjib Ahmad

‘WordPress Plugins allow you to extend the features of a standard WordPress installation’

Maybe you always wanted a feature that hasn’t been available in the latest release of WordPress. What you can do is either install a 3rd party plugin or write your own custom code to extend the features of WordPress.

WordPress plugins are programming code that enhance the features of a standard installation of WordPress. A well written plugin will be basically ‘drag and drop’ without modifying the core code of WordPress. As WordPress has been designed in a modular way, plugins allow you to customize your site to your specific needs without modifying the core of WordPress.Ever since Wordress version 1.2 plugins have been available. WordPress plugins can be categorized according to the feature it provides. Here a list of various features that you can implement for your web site through WordPress plugins.

* Administration: Install WordPress plugins to customize features like Admin Tools, Anti-spam, Comments, Meta, Restriction, Statistics, Syntax Highlighting, Syndication, Tweaking, etc.
* Design, Layout and Styles: Change the look and feel of your blog by implementing plugins that modify Archive, Calendar – Event, Navigation, Randomness, Styles.
* Graphics, Video, and Sound: Add plugins that create Audio – Mood and Images for your blog.
* Posts: Implement plugins for Editing Posts, Formatting Posts, and other Miscellaneous Post related issues.
* Links: Setup WordPress plugins that change the default behavior of linking.
* Miscellaneous: You can install miscellaneous plugins that shows weather information or other outside information from external websites.

Installing a plugin for WordPress is not difficult. Here are the list of steps that you need to take to install most plugins. Some plugins may require additional steps.

1. Upload your plugin to the wp-content/plugins folder
2. Go to your WordPress site using a browser and login
3. Click on the Plugins link from the main menu at top
4. Scroll down the list of available plugins to find the plugin you just uploaded
5. Click ‘Activate’ to make your plugin active WordPress Plugin Sites

We found the following sites with a comprehensive list of WordPress Plugins:

* WordPress Wiki – Plugins: http://wiki.wordpress.org/?pagename=Plugin
* WordPress Plugin Repository: http://dev.wp-plugins.org/
* WP-Plugins Download Interface: http://redalt.com/external/plugins.php
* WordPress Plugin Database: http://www.wp-plugins.net/

About the Author
Sanjib Ahmad, Freelance Writer and Product Consultant for <a title=http://Business.Marc8.com href=’http://business.marc8.com/’ target=_top>Business.Marc8.com</a> (<a title=http://business.marc8.com/ href=’http://business.marc8.com/’ target=_top>business.marc8.com/</a>). You are free to use this article in its entirety as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content, and include the resource box listed above.

Popularity: 9% [?]

This is an experimental blog. Not ever happy with WP themes, I am working on developing a theme I am happy with. This is the results so far…

Drive on…

Peace,

Charlie~

Popularity: 9% [?]