This week I have Facebook, WordPress themes, Star Wars, cargo ships and more.

• 5 Ways to Instantly Boost Your Facebook Page Traffic – A couple of ideas on how to get more visitors to your Facebook fan page. I would have to agree with adding the widget to your website. I only added it to write an article and got 20 new fans overnight!
• Did the Web Kill Gourmet Magazine? – An article about how the Internet may have contributed to the demise of this print magazine. Personally, I think Gourmet is responsible more than the web.
• Where Cargo Ships Die – Shipwrecks in deserts? Yep! I guess that ship in the middle of the Lost island isn’t so bizarre after all.
• What Star Wars Teaches Us About Career Management – I lived with someone obsessed with Star Wars for 7 years so I found this article really funny.
• 45 Great Looking WordPress Themes – A nice collection of WordPress themes.
• What Happens to Your Facebook Profile After You Die – Apparently if death is proved, the profile can be removed or memorialized. I know it’s a little morbid but I often wonder what happens to all of our online profiles after we die.
• Fake AP Stylebook – This is one of the funniest twitter profiles I’ve encountered in a while. An example tweet is “Avoid using question marks as they remind people of hook-handed serial killers.”
• @FakeAPStylebook Editors Explain Their Overnight Success on Twitter – An article on PBS MediaShift about the above Twitter account.
• Crazy Aztec Opera Singer – you can see anything in NYC
  
• My video from The Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan. Murry is a talking skull featured in the earlier Monkey Island games and he returns in Episode 3 of the new series. Guybrush Threepwood finds Murray when trapped inside of a giant manatee.
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 11/8/09

If you have a blog and you use Facebook, you should be using the NetworkedBlogs application. It’s a great way to promote your blog and to find other blogs on similar topics.

Until recently, Networked Blogs could only be integrated with Facebook profile pages. Now, however, the application can also be used with Facebook Fan or Business pages.

The most popular feature is to automatically post your blog posts to your profile.

Here’s how to add Networked Blogs to your Fan or Business Page. This is assuming you have already added your blog to the Networked Blogs Application on Facebook.

1. Locate your blog in Networked Blogs.
2. Click on Feed Settings on the right.
   
3. You will be given the option to post to your personal profile and to fan pages that you are an Admin of.
4. For the personal profile, you simply need to check the box and your blog posts will auto-post to your profile.
5. For a fan page click on the configure button.
   
6. You will then get a check box to auto publish your posts to the wall of your fan page.

Personally, I am not a fan of auto posting anything. I manually post to twitter, facebook and my fan page. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I like to control the what the message says – say something funny or unique to generate interest. And the second is that not all of my blog posts are appropriate for my fan page. I try the information on the fan page about WordPress, Facebook, blogging and othere related topics. It just doesn’t make sense to me to auto-post my recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Loaf ;-)

But I know that many people like to streamline their social media and that they would prefer to auto-post. Somehow it is supposed to save time. ;-)

photo credit: obLiterated

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Networked Blogs on Facebook Now Supports Fan Pages

Every year in my neighborhood we have a Halloween parade for small children that starts at 4pm. This is so the can safely trick or treat along a set route before it gets dark.

We’ve been doing this for 7 years and we keep saying it will be Alex’s last year because she is getting older but we just don’t want to miss it.

The parade is also a lot of fun. The kids are adorable and a lot of the parents dress up.

Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf (Marc and Alex)

E-bot

Group of girls

The beginning of the parade as it heads from the park to the neighborhood.

The parade ends on a block that has a party where everyone gathers and there are tables of goodies set up for the children and the adults.

After the parade is over we head out trick or treating. A block behind our house is a place that sets up a huge haunted house every year. So many people go to it that there is always a long line and the police block off two blocks of the street. This year was especially fun because two woman dressed up like zombies and danced with the kids to Thriller.

Zombies and Kids Dancing to Thriller in West Philly.

It was very warm on Halloween and it rained off and on but we had SO much fun. It was the most fun I had on Halloween in a long time.

How about you? How was your Halloween? Did you dress up?

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Halloween in West Philadelphia 2009

Today is the full moon for November.

In honor of this event I gathered 12 free WordPress themes that contain the moon.

It’s interesting that we name the moons for other planets but we just call ours ‘Moon’. Maybe we should come up with a name for it. ;-)

3 Column Moon

Earth and Moon

Cat and Moon

Moon Man

Blue Moon

Lonely Moon and Tree

Moon for WordPress

Moon and Valley

Two Planets and a Moon

Under the Moon

Gold Moon

Moon

photo credit: jah~ trying to catch up

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

12 Free WordPress Moon Themes

This week I have exporting google docs, Amelia Earhart, walkable cities and more.

• Google Docs Batch Export – How to backup all of your google docs into one zip file that you can download. This is awesome – I’m obsessive about backups.
• Earhart’s Final Resting Spot Believed Found – Discovery believes that the location of Amelia Earhart’s crash has been located. How convenient that it is just in time for the film.
• Korny Zucchini Pizza – I’ve been into cooking lately and Patricia has posted this awesome Zucchini Pizza recipe. I’ve got to try making this.
• 30 Nature Inspired Website Designs for Your Inspiration – I love looking at these gorgeous designs. I also hate looking at them because it makes me feel like I could never create something so cool.
• 25 Best Walking Cities (in the USA) – The 25 most walkable cities in the US. I’m thrilled to see Philly listed as #4. And since our public transit system is threatening another strike, we are all going to be walking. ;-)
• Best of Best WordPress Custom Login Page Designs – Did you know you can customize your WordPress login page? Yep, you can. And here are some cool login designs.
• A Day at The Office
  
• An Elephant and a Dog who are best friends at The Elephant Sanctuary
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 11/1/09

At the beginning of 2008 my life was completely out of my control. I decided to deal with something I could control and started to lose weight.

Most of my life I was thin or underweight – it was never something I had to think about. After my daughter was born, however, I never lost all of the weight that I had gained. I wasn’t overweight but was the biggest I had ever been. As I got older and became more sedentary the weight slowly started to creep higher.

When I finally decided to take control of this, I was definitely overweight. I weighed 156 lbs. This might not sound so bad to you but I am 5′2″ – barely. I am so short that 5lbs in either direction shows up on me.

Personal

So, I decided to lose 40lbs and get down to my normal weight. And last year I was almost successful – I lost 30 of the 40 lbs and was happy with the way that I looked.

I then got distracted by life events and over time gained 10 lbs back.

A month ago I decided to finally finish what I started and lose the final 20lbs. Reducing what I eat isn’t really a problem because I don’t eat a lot but I do love junk food and I get lazy about exercising.

The Daily Plate

To lose weight I used The Daily Plate, which has since been integrated with Livestrong.com. I started by calculating my current weight and height, how much I wanted to lose overall, and how much to lose per week. The healthy way to lose weight is to only lose 1% of your body weight per week so you if you weigh 145 you want to lose 1.4 lbs per week. The site then calculates how many calories you can eat per day to lose the weight.

It also includes a huge database of food and the amount of calories that it has. You can select what you ate, add it to your plate, and calculate how much you can eat that day.

The database also includes exercise and you can select the exercise you did and how many calories it burned. Many people on the forums say the calories burned is high so I usually cut it in half. If I do aerobics for 45 minutes, I list it as 22 minutes. Whatever you burn through exercise can be added as calories to eat that day.

As you lose weight you can add your weight and a weight lose graph will be generated as well as your Body Mass Index. You can also do the same with your measurements.

The Daily Plate has free and paid features. Most needed features are free but a membership includes permanently storing your data and no ads. A chart comparing the free and paid memberships is available on the site.

The Daily Plate also has support features such as forums, friends, and groups to assist with weight loss.

More Personal

Calculating my daily calories and tracking what I eat and my exercise has worked for me. Last year when I lost 30 lbs. I wasn’t a struggle and now when I’ve started again I’ve lost 5 lbs in 4 weeks. I find that tracking the calories helps me make better choices. Do I want the iced mocha that has 200 calories or would I rather have half a vegan chicken salad sandwich for the same amount. I almost always go with the food.

I also tend to eat slightly less during the week so I have some extra for the weekend. On the weekends I tend to go out eat and that can really add on the calories. My brother has a system where every week or so he allows himself to have a free day where he can eat whatever he wants. That seems to work for him – I have never tried it though. Sometimes I think he can do that because he is male.

As I mentioned in my dating article, I’ve been drinking a little more alcohol than usual. Alcohol can have a lot of calories so you have to be really careful with it. It’s probably best to not drink it at all or very rarely when trying to lose weight. Of course, the amount of calories I can have per day is about the same as two bottles of red wine so I could choose to be hungry, thin and very tipsy ;-)

How do you lose weight? Have you ever tracked calories and what you are eating? Would that work for you? Do you want to lose weight and need a way to get started?

photo credit: jamesjustin

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Weight Loss: Using The Daily Plate on Livestrong

As we are in the middle of diet and exercise week here at (Anti) Social Development, I have located 6 WordPress plugins that are related to diet and exercise and could be used on weight loss or sports blogs.

If you missed the earlier article, on Monday I features 12 WordPress Themes related to diet and exercise.

1. Weight Loss Calculator – A functional weight loss planning calculator
2. Body Mass Index Calulator Widget – Enter you weight and height and this sidebar widget will calculate your body mass index (BMI)
3. Overweight Calculator – This plugin can be used to check the Body Mass Index and will suggest a recommended weight range. Not the nicest name for a plugin ;-)
4. Fotherplot – A plugin that plots values stored in a custom field against the published date of the blog post. So, if you were writing a post about losing weight and had a custom field for your weight for that day, this plugin would make a chart for you of your weight over time. By default the data is only posted in the admin area. If you want to post it on your blog you need to read the instructions in the faq.
5. Dive Log – A plugin that will assist you in tracking the data related to your dives.
6. Cyclopress – This plugin assist in tracking the cycling data gathered by the cyclocomputer. Copy the data from the Cyclocomputer to the plugin and graphs will be created for data such as average speed and distance.

What do you think? Are any of these useful?

photo credit: mikebaird

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

6 WordPress Plugins for Diet and Exercise

I’ve been exercising and watching what I eat so I thought it was time to devote a week to diet and exercise as related to WordPress.

I’ve got 16 lbs to go to reach my goal and am doing it the healthy way – 1lb per week. I’m already feeling SO much better – mentally and physically.

Here are 12 Free WordPress Themes for Diet and Exercise.

WP Zone Diet

Diet Health

Diet 1

Healthy Living

Freshie

Healthy Lifestyle

Diet

WP Exercise Bike

Exercise on the Sunrise

Sport1

Breathe and Stretch

Health WP Pro

photo credit: gaelx

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

12 Free WordPress Diet and Exercise Themes

This week we have sci fi, productivity, scotch tape, WordPress and more.

• 9 Best Eco Apocalyptic Science Fiction Films of All Time – I haven’t seen all of the films on this list but I would have to say they are pretty good choices. Waterworld isn’t on the list but then, that wasn’t a very good film – unless you watched it as a comedy. ;-)
• 10 Productivity Tools for Computer Addicts – I don’t think you need to be an addict to appreciate these applications – just a computer user. I could go on and on about Notepad++ and Greasemonkey so I completely agree with those choices. After Firefox, Notepad++ is my most used application.
• A Reuse Program for Scotch Tape Dispensers and Cores – What do you do with the useless plastic parts that are leftover after all the tape has been used? Start a reuse/recycle brigade.
• 10 Useful WordPress Hacks for Advanced Themes – If you are comfortable working with your WordPress templates there are some great hacks listed here, such as how to style each post differently and adding multiple sidebars.
• Bits + Watts – This site is useful for fellow Philadelphians. It has the music from bands that are going to be playing in upcoming shows. So if you’ve never heard of the band, you can hear the music and decide if you want to go to the event.
• Exploit Scanner – This WordPress plugin searches your files, posts, comments, database, and plugins for unusual code to help you determine if you’ve been hacked or to find where the hack is located. I have not tested this plugin.
• 10 Hour Time Lapse of Two Cats
  
• Street Tap Dancing
  
  See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 10/25/09

Last week when I wrote about Broccoli Cheddar Soup, I threatened to make my Broccoli Cheddar Loaf even though I am the only one in my family who likes it.

I still had so much leftover broccoli leftover that I decided to make it. I figured since Alex was at her Dad’s I could eat half of it and then freeze the rest of it.

This recipe comes from Vegetarian Times, which I used to subscribe to.

This recipe is one that I don’t really change. I have learned after making it a couple of times that it can be too soft and mushy. I find it’s better to combine 1/2 cup of water with the onions and to use 2 eggs rather than 3. I also don’t use low fat cheese because I rarely have it on hand and, obviously, I used fresh rather than frozen broccoli. This recipe isn’t that high on calories anyway so I don’t think it’s a big deal and it’s not like I’m about to eat the entire loaf in one sitting.

The entire mixture ready to bake.

The baked loaf

This is a vegetarian version of meatloaf. It is, however, nothing like meatloaf, which, to me, is a good thing because even before I was a vegetarian I didn’t like it. You do need to actually like broccoli to like this recipe. And if you are fussy about consistency you might not like it.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Broccoli Cheddar Loaf: What to Do With a Lot of Leftover Broccoli