Virginia Breeze

Recently I had a little tutoring session with Vladimir Prelovac over in Europe somewhere. Maybe Serbia. I’m not sure but it was just like he was sitting next to me right here at the old computer desk. Because the first thing he did was introduce me to this Skype phone that you hook up to your computer. I went out and found one of these devices in a pile of stuff they were practically giving away for forty dollars. Then I uploaded the software and somehow connected with Vladimir.

So we went over a bunch of stuff together as he patiently helped me connect some of the dots that were missing in my knowledge of blog construction. Installing Similar Posts was one of things giving me a lot of trouble and as you can see it is now installed and working well.

As you click on each post there are now five In Series posts above the content of the post. And there are five Similar Posts listed below the content.

It should be possible to now get totally absorbed in this blog or the other two for that matter going from one post to another back and forth through the entire length of the blog. If that is what anyone wants to do. My opinion is that it is a worthwhile adventure. But who could be more biased than the author?

Possibly his mother? Well in this case she is in heaven. And “Happy Mother’s Day!” Mom wherever you are. Thanks for helping me out now and then. Enjoy your day and eternity too.

Don’t forget to read my Mother’s Day poem in the sidebar. And I have also listed our Travels Outside Virginia in the Start Here section below the header long after it should have been done.

In case you are interested here is Vladimir’s website. He seems like a pretty cool guy and he knows a lot of stuff. And he is available for consulting about your blog.

Welcome to the world of Skype and instant communication around the world.

http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/

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I have tried a lot of different themes on my three Wordpress.org blogs. And I always seem to return to Sadish and his fine themes. They don’t cause me problems and they do some pretty cool things. Virginia Breeze uses his Nigarila theme and as you can see it allows me to show a slideshow in the all important upper right area of the front page. I can also put 1-4 posts up there and give them great visibility. There is also a page of options with this theme and a great deal of versatility in the admin/design area.

I am not sure exactly what you would call the photo presentation. Maybe it is an overlay? I went looking for some clues about this and found this article. The title is The Lightbox Clones Matrix and as you can see there are a lot of different options and descriptions in this area.

http://planetozh.com/projects/lightbox-clones/

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I was very happy to see his Wordpress.com theme Misty Look come to the Wordpress.org side of the street. I am not sure when that happened but I can remember asking Sadish to do something like this when I purchased Nigarila. I was using Sky Blue at the time for my third theme on the news/politics/humor blog NewsLink Briefs. And really wanted the “light box” for PhotoLink Love. The photos there clearly benefit from this presentation.

And so now he has done it. And Misty Look is free! Sky Blue is also free although it was around twenty dollars when I bought it. Nigarila was also about that much. He is always giving great themes away or charging very nominal prices for his work.

And he has many more themes. But these stand out in my mind as the best of his work.

One more thing I should not forget to mention is the ability to import a photo into the header of all these blogs. When I get restless and start thinking about making a change I find this is a very good way to avoid making too much of a change and getting into trouble. My recent experience with the photoblog plugin is a good example of what can happen in that regard. I have many 404 messages now because of it and have learned a valuable lesson.

There is only one wish left on my list of things I would like to see Sadish create. And it is something that I have not ever seen out there in the land of themes. He does not like to repeat himself so maybe he will do it sometime.

Take something like the striking header and font from Sky Blue. Add the author’s box from Nigarila. Use something a little like the side bar in Misty Look. Allow photos up to 650 pixels wide like those in the Sky Blue theme. And add the photo treatment found in Misty Look and Nigarila.

I can imagine one of those large photos overlaying a beautiful page and it would be stunning. It would be unique! It would be so fabulous he might even want to charge twenty five dollars for it!

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http://wprocks.com/free-themes/

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http://wprocks.com/

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http://wpthemeshop.com/

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Update:  I am trying out a new theme by Sadish at NewsLink Briefs in case you go looking there for Sky Blue.

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We are planning to exit DC today and head up to Baltimore to visit the their aquarium and have dinner. So blogging will have to take a back seat for a few hours. My suggestion is to look below the header at the Most Popular Post section if you have not already done so and catch up on Virginia Breeze’s high notes for the past nine months. Or catch up on our vacation so far as we challenge our feet to take us various places.

Parking is at a premium this close to the US Capitol. I just know when we get back there is not going to be any space for my car here at the Hyatt Regency (even at forty dollars per night) and I am going to have to go looking for a garage and then walk back to the hotel. Visiting this place does come with a few challenges.

Oh well. Here are a couple of photos from the Native American Museum. As you first go in and look up you are greeted by this amazing view.

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More Travels Outside Virginia  (Washington DC)

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I couldn’t just let the weekend go by without trying to take some more baseball photos. There was a doubleheader today at the U of R so I wandered over there. And since they were watering the grass when I arrived I headed down to the lake and watched the seagulls practice their flight lessons. They were really flying around and it was good practice trying to shoot them as they bothered the ducks and generally acted like seagulls act when they are away from the beach.

Sort of like me when I go to Performancing.com or some other forum that is inhabited by Super Geeks and other folks who actually understand what is going on in the Wild World Web.

So here are some photos and a slide show. Once again I must remind my two paid readers that you click on the title to enlarge the photos and click on the slide show for a full screen event. I hope it is worth the effort.