If you were anxiously watching the BAFTA's this year, hoping for some awe-inspiring fashion sneak peeks, chances are you were disappointed. Instead, all you saw were nude celebrities at the BAFTA'S – and not even the interesting kind of nude. Many of the stars necks, ears and wrists were noticeably naked, and they were just playing it safe with simple fashions, a move that's become increasingly frustrating for fashion aficionados. In fact, without the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga fashion columns would be pretty demure.

 

Read more >

Collectors are reporting that their Pace Yourself models are arriving, and boy there's a lot of talk about this model!  People love to snark, but I think it's obvious that despite the usual complaints (Breyer puts out too many dapples; the dapples look weird; the model is tippy) this was a successful run of unusually expensive models at a very tight financial time.  What more could Breyer ask for?


Read more >

When I first heard of people writing online diaries and sharing them publicly I figured it was just another internet fad that wouldn't last.  To be honest, I found it a little creepy and sad that strangers would pour out their hearts to any voyeuristic stranger that surfed their way. However the trend grew and blogs soon evolved; writing styles refined, sites gained a focus and began to be designed better, and it wasn't long before the popularity of this new form of fast changing website became a valuable commercial tool.

Read more >

When submitting a story to a Drupal site, there are a few steps which make the process easier.

First, click on "Input format" and select Full HTML.

Click Input Format and Select Full HTML

All posts need to have an image, which can be inserted with the camera icon, located in the center of the menu bar.

Menu Bar

The next screen will prompt you to upload a picture and lead to a screen asking for a title and tags. The title is necessary to upload the picture. While the tags are optional, they are important as they can be used for key words in search engines.


Read more >

So shamelessly promote, I say!

If you want to be read, you definitely have to promote your blog somehow. Here are some ways you can do that.

Read more >

Blogging really is a conversation, and half the conversation is in the comments. You really do want comments, and you really do want to respond to them. It's not only rude to ignore a comment, it's downright foolish since good comments help create a community, and repeat readers. Plus of course, nobody likes a one-sided conversation.

Read more >

That quotation is from Patrick Nielsen Hayden, the Tor publishing editor responsible for editing some of my very favorite books, and a long term blogger at Making Light. The quotation is from this essay here at Tor.com about blogging. The entire piece is very much worth reading, but PNH's central point is in that pull-quote.

Read more >

If you’ve got a good grasp of grammar but could still use some skills to brush up every now and then, Grammar Girl may be just what you’re looking for. Described as a “Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,” this site, run by Mignon Fogarty, offers free daily tips to improve your grammar.

Mignon’s advice is short and sweet, never boring, and covers word choice, grammar rules, style, punctuation, and even business tips. She also offers helpful tips and tricks to remember them all. Though very simple and straightforward, her advice is both memorable and entertaining.

Read more >

You'll see lots of advice about "SEO" or Search Engine Optimizing, or "using keywords." Much of that advice can actually hurt your Google rankings, especially "keyword stuffing," or deliberately over-using the terms you think will bring your page to the top ranks in a search. Google and other search engines are constantly changing the way they calculate search rankings, and they're getting smarter about figuring out ways of rewarding quality sites. That means that the best way of making sure your pages and posts have top search engine rankings and appear in the first few results when someone does a search is to write well.

Really. Good writing trumps all the deliberate use of SEO keyword techniques.

But what, you ask, is good writing? I'm glad you asked, Grasshopper.

To begin with, good writing means being as clear as you can about what exactly you're writing about.

Read more >

Graphics provide eye-candy to Web pages and posts. They attract our attention, and often, the right graphic does more to pique our interest than the catchiest title ever. Moreover, quite often graphics provide information—they not only support the text, they augment it. There are things that can be said with a carefully chosen image or chart that can barely be conveyed with even a thousand words. What's more, on many blogging systems with sidebars for recent posts, only those posts with an embedded image will appear in the sidebar.

Read more >