Virginia Breeze

Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy. ~Author Unknown

Prepare and prevent, don’t repair and repent. ~Author Unknown

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This is the next in my series of posts for folks who have never blogged before and have some basic questions and a need for explanations that hopefully leave out no pertinent details. Our ultimate goal is to install and make functional a very cool plugin called NextGen Gallery.

The steps we have been taking here are baby blogging steps but I wish I had found something like them last summer when all of my blogging efforts began. Maybe there are some others who are just beginning and missed learning about it all beforehand.

We have covered unzipping and uploading files. And now we are going to begin uploading plugins.

Before we upload NextGen Gallery we are going to add Plugin Central as I noted earlier. This will make all of our plugin chores much easier.

And prior to this we are going to upload one other little beauty. It is called Wordpress Database Manager (WP-DBManager) and I use it prior to uploading anything into my blog. Also it has a setting for automatic backup of the database and I receive a backup file in my email once per day.

Because of the complexities of plugin installation it is imperative to back things up before making changes. And getting in the habit of doing this early is the best way to avoid sad circumstances later on. I am assuming that this plugin plays well with your setup of course. It did with mine.

So here is the download location.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

Go here and download the file into your computer. Unzip it as we discussed in the earlier post. Put it in your plugin file. Open Total Commander and locate the file. Upload it to your blog. Go to Admin/plugins and activate it.

It’s a very easy process once you have done it a few times. Now click on Dashboard in the very top/left hand corner of your window right below the tool bar in your Wordpress blog. You should see the name of your blog just below it and a few other things just below the name of your blog starting with Write and Manage. To the right of them will be the terms Design and Comments. And then you should see some others based on your individual setup. Database is what we are looking for and click on it when you find it.

Now you will see just below Database a line of terms starting with Database and ending with Uninstall WP-DBManager. The second term is Backup DB. And we should do this as we prepare to install a second plugin called Plugin Central.

But we have run out of time and space once again. Next time we will install Plugin Central. Hopefully I have not left out anything so far.

Bye Bye for now.

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While you are destroying your mind watching the worthless, brain-rotting drivel on TV, we on the Internet are exchanging, freely and openly, the most uninhibited, intimate and, yes, shocking details about our config.sys settings. ~Dave Barry

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There are really not enough simple explanations happening in cyberspace for someone who wants to blog but has no background that would be helpful in this regard.

In other words “I’M AN IDIOT !!” (and this is why “Idiots guides” proliferate).

Perhaps it would be helpful if I broke down some of the knowledge I have gained in this area. Because it is easy for me to explain things in simple language and not leave out any important little details. I need those details too!

THIS is what sinks ships. Those tiny little bits of information that are just so OBVIOUS to the knowledgeable may sometimes be left out. And that can leave us floating on a raft. Lost, lost, lost and waving good-bye to our new love as he sinks out of sight. Sorry Leonardo but you should have climbed up there with your true love. Being a gentleman will only get you so far.

But perhaps you were too tired after your adventure in the car.

So here is how I installed NextGen Gallery into my Wordpress blog from the word GO!

First we are going to upload some files.

I have a couple of tools for doing this. And the first one will allow us to bring the second one on board. So let’s begin with the first one. It is called Total Commander 7.03

Here is a download location

http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/totalcmd.html

Follow the directions and open the software package.

This is shareware and in order to use it you have to play a little game. It will give you a number and you will have to click on the same number in order to get in. It’s very simple. It’s a confidence booster really.

Each time you want to use this program all you have to do is hit Control-F and it will spring into action.

A window opens. It says Connect to ftp server on top. And on the right is a button to click that says Connect. But before you can connect you have to set up a New Connection. New Connection is the second box.

So click on New connection. This brings up another window called FTP:connection details. We only need to worry about a few of the boxes here (repeat this exercise for each of your blogs).

The first box is entitled Session. Put the name of your blog in here.

The second box is entitled Host Name (Port). Put ftp.davidnotes.com in there. LOL. Actually you need to put the name of Your Domain in there. Sometimes it is written ftp.yourdomain.com but I used to find that to be slightly confusing. If you do too then we are maybe from the same planet.

The next box should have Anonymous login etc in it already.

Next is User name. Do you know your user name? Do you have as many of these per chance as I do? Well this one is the one you use to get into your Cpanel. It’s the one that came with your domain. If you didn’t write it down I can’t help you. Try looking in your admin panel/settings/writing. Look down there under Post via e-mail. There is a Login Name. That could be it! Or you may need to email your hosting company and have them help you.

And then we have the inevitable Password. You have many of these floating around too no doubt. This one is also associated with your cpanel. Same deal as the username. It could be down there with the Login Name.

In any case it pays to write things down.

But even more important than this it pays to write them all down in the same small notebook and then.. . . . .

DON’T LOSE THE NOTEBOOK! Always know where it is so you can find it at a moment’s notice.

And that concludes our first lesson boys and girls. We will move on in a day or two. But we don’t want to overtax ourselves with this stuff. It’s “Keep It Simple Sweetheart” all the way! And for now. . .

As Paul Harvey used to say

Bye Bye!

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I really do love taking photos. And I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much if I had an ordinary camera. But this Nikon does most of the work and it takes photos unlike any I have ever taken.

And then sometimes I will take a photo and think it is alright but nothing special. It will go on Flickr and someone will come along and really like it. They will for whatever reason just find a lot of pleasure in it and make it a Favorite.

So then this action comes back to my Gmail account and provides me with a moment of surprise and happiness!

This photo made someone happy. Great. And what a surprise!

We are all so different. How can we ever have an objective standard when it comes to photos or paintings? Or writing too for that matter. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. So if you want to have some great moments with your email you know what you need to do!

Photography is the answer.

Here is the photo.

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I have been feeling strangely detached from Virginia Breeze for the past day or so. Hopefully that doesn’t mean the affair is over. It would be such a bother starting over again. Especially in this weather. My fingers are having a difficult time typing because they just walked in from the cold weather outside. It was 28 degrees this morning.

And last evening it snizzled. Isn’t that the term for snow and drizzle? It was a big disappointment because it definitely stopped the lunar eclipse party. Tonight we may try to go out and capture the full moon. It is so very bright in the cold, clear air.

But VB deserved a break from my ministrations and so it got one. Also I am trying to figure out how to use this theme I bought a few days ago. It is a news theme produced by Mr. Adii. And it is a pretty nice theme but very different from anything I have encountered to date. More on it later. I may have made a mistake. Perhaps I should have gone with Mr. Gardner who makes similar themes but appears to have a better support system. Sometimes I act impulsively and live to regret it.

Hopefully this is not one of those times. But we will see. Here is the link in case either of my paid readers would like to look at a theme with large holes in it during their breaks.

http://newslinkbriefs.com/

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I was thinking about starting a blog that would discuss the news in a fantasy driven way. And maybe just write posts two or three times per week instead of six times per day. For awhile I was not going to link it to VB. I was going to adopt a new identity that would be completely free of the past.

But that seemed stupid after awhile. Why go over the edge and become a raving schizophrenic at this late date? Beth wouldn’t know who had just come in the door. And I would be talking to myself more often and probably becoming more confused in the process. So I confess that this all has happened and there is a theme out there that is full of holes because nobody told me you had to deal with code to get it to work!

You have to go into the theme editor to change the freaking title! Am I the only person who didn’t know this? Or is it supposed to remain the PNT The Gazette Edition in homage to its creator? Why not just make things easy so when you drop in the name of your blog it appears where it is supposed to go?

So many questions. I should have remained in my comfort zone with Sparky and the three televisions and four computers. We could all watch American Idol tonight and be amazed by the new 17 year old singing sensation whose name is David! Jordin and David! That has a nice ring to it. Actually my enthusiasm proves that this is not a fascination on my part for young women!

No. Because I can be fascinated with young men too!

Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right. But Beth understands in any case. Maybe she will go with me tonight after they are done with their cruel elimination process on AI. We can go take photos of the moon as it reflects in the cold waters of the lake at the U.

We will see.

UPdate:  This theme is gone.  What a waste of money.  Very little support and things you have to do that require much more skill than 99 percent of WP themes.

Overpriced and not great.  The print or font color  is not dark enough and difficult to read.  

 Save yourself some aggravation.  Go to Sadish and get an elegant them for much less money.