More Free Blog Designs

Finding that perfect design for your blog is important. After all, you want your blog to represent you, and you don't want it to look like anyone else's blog. That's why I'm always on the lookout for blog designs and layouts, and especially FREE designs.

Smitten Blog Designs has an entire gallery of free blog designs, easy to understand instructions for downloading and installing them, and a very helpful tutorial on saving your sidebar elements when changing your template. I really need that, because I just switched to the 'New' Blogger, and I thought the point was that you could easily switch things up without losing everything. Not true. I changed my template, and it wanted to delete my widgets. Huh? Then I had to rebuild them and add them back. If I don't have to do that next time, I'll be very happy.

Free Photo Browser

I was dropping Entrecards and reading blogs this morning when I noticed this great photo browser in a post. Instead of a bunch of pictures you have to scroll down the page to read, the pictures were all contained in one spot, and I could just click through them. Of course I had to figure out how to get one of my own, so I clicked and found PictoBrowser. It's a fast and easy way to display your Flickr photos on your site. Like this one using my Clouds set:



You can create your own from any PictoBrowser - just click the logo, enter your Flickr user name, select the photos you want to share by choosing Set, Keyword, or Group, and paste the html code into your blog or website. It couldn't be easier! Need specific photos for a post? Either create a new set, or if you're like me and can only have three sets, give them a unique tag just for that post.

There are also some options to customize the appearance of your PictoBrowser. You can customize height and width, image size to use, turn titles on or off, change background colors, and more. I'm loving this. Why haven't I seen it before?

DVD Backup

Image via WikipediaI have way too many photos on my computer, and I really need to delete some of them. I have most of them backed up on CDs and DVDs, but I still have trouble deleting them off the computer. My hard drive is getting full, so I really need to.

I opened my Corel Photo Album program this morning to see how long it had been since the last backup, and how much room the files take up. It says - 1759 MB, 8 months. So how much room will that take up on my DVD? I always forget so I looked it up:

How much information can I put on a DVD disc?
DVD-5 = 4.5 GB
DVD-9 = 8.5 GB

Also, I had to look it up to see how many MB in a GB:

1024 MB = 1 GB

If the program would back my photos up to the DVD without finalizing it so I could add more later, I wouldn't worry about it so much, but I hate to waste room on a DVD by burning one before I have enough to fill it. It looks like I'm not ready to back-up to DVD, so I'm going to have to figure out which photos are already on DVD and get some of those off this computer.

Cute Blog Backgrounds

I found this site today - The Cutest Blog on the Block. There are lots of really cute free blog backgrounds as well as some tutorials on creating your own backgrounds and headers.

I followed the instructions and installed one of the backgrounds on a blog I hope to get going soon. It's not really something new. I just want to update my recipe website and blog, and I think I can use this new blog for that. The background was easy to install following instructions on the site. I'm thinking I might look for something new for this blog - either use one already there or follow the instructions to make my own.

Either way, I want to be able to find this site again.

Counting Words

Since I write paid posts on a couple of my blogs, I like being able to count the number of words in my posts. If I have to write a minimum of 200 words, I need to know when I get to 200 words. I usually end up rambling on and writing more, but that's beside the point.

I did have a tool in Firefox that counted the words for me, but since I installed Firefox 3, I haven't been able to use it. Probably I should look for a new extension that will do it for me, but until then, this Word Count Tool works really well. Just paste the post into the box and hit 'Submit' to find out how many words you have. It also explains what is counted and what isn't, and it's free.

All These Airline Fees...

I don't do a whole lot of traveling. I'm perfectly content to stay home most of the time. With all the added security and now with the airlines tacking on extra fees for everything from checked baggage to bottled water, I'm really hoping that I don't have to fly anywhere anytime soon. One of the things that bothers me most is the fact that I cannot take my bottle of water through security. I drink a lot of water. I take my water everywhere. Someone telling me I can't have it just makes me want it more.

Now, with the airlines planning to charge for checked bags, they've kind of got people over a barrel. You can't take your toiletries in your carry-on, unless they're under a certain size and all fit in a ziploc bag. So you have to check a bag. Or buy toiletries when you get wherever you're going. Either way, someone is making some extra money.

Seriously, charging to check a bag? Who can actually go somewhere without needing luggage? Wouldn't it make more sense to charge whatever for the airline ticket and then offer a discount for those people who don't check a bag? It would be more like incentive not to check a bag, instead of punishment for doing so. Also, it would make it less confusing when you're trying to figure out how much the flight is actually going to cost. I want to book my tickets and see my total, and I want to know that that is what I am going to be paying - not have to do a whole lot of math to figure it out.

But, since they didn't ask me before instituting extras fees for this, that, and the other thing, this table of airlines fees will probably come in very, very handy. When planning a trip, it will be a matter of finding ticket costs, and then comparing to see how the additional fees, or the lack thereof affect the bottom line. That 'cheap' airfare you found may actually end up costing you more in the long run.

I do think I'll just stay home.

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Expand the Capabilities of Your Camera

Image via WikipediaI was writing something on my other blog about downloading pictures from my digital camera, and Zemanta suggested an article that sounded interesting. While I admit that mostly I put my camera in 'Auto' mode and point and shoot, I like the idea that it can do more. If only I can figure out how to use all those extra options... I really need to review the lessons from my online Sony class.

From this Zemanta-suggested article, I found out that there is a free, open source project called CHDK that can turn your point-and-shoot Canon camera into a super camera. From what I can tell, you copy some files to your camera's SD card, and CHDK expands the capabilities of your camera way beyond what it can do now. You can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. It's non-permanent, so you can try it out and easily remove it whenever you want.

I don't really have time to play with it now, but I wanted to save the article and the links so I can read more about it and try it later. Do let me know if you've tried this or if you think this is helpful.

Zemanta suggested some additional articles that may be helpful:

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