When I launched Between the Covers, I didn’t like Blogger’s default post-writing options. Something to do with the formatting that doesn’t jive well with me. So I used WLW and it fixed what I wanted to fix without so much as a fuss. Working on the WP Dashboard is so easy that I never really though about blogging through WLW for my other sites, but that has recently changed as well.

The client downloads your theme settings and works for both Blogger and WordPress. There may be more platforms that are compatible with WLW, but those are the two that I use for my blogs. I found that some WordPress themes may not work well with the client, but the ones I am currently using are working just fine (FireBug and LightBright by Elegant Themes). As you compose your updates, you have an instant preview of how it looks on your published blog.

WLW also makes it so easy to add links, photos, and videos.

Photo sharing on your blog is also made easy by Windows Live Writer. You can edit from within the client, and add watermark too! The recent photos I uploaded here were watermarked using WLW. So you don’t have to save watermarked copies on your hard drive anymore (unless you’re sharing them elsewhere too).

There are also gadgets that can be installed onto WLW. I haven’t explored those much but I have so far downloaded one that Tweets a link to your post as soon as you publish it. I can’t find the link just now but I’m pretty sure I’ll be writing about this blogger’s tool again, I’ll be sharing more links then.

Learn more about Windows Live Writer. And no, this isn’t a sponsored post.

Tonight it just occurred to me to check Feedburner. I clicked on the Troubleshootize button and there they suggested checking the feed through Feed Validator. That’s where I got the direction to solve the problem. It specified where the blank was and which files could be containing them. I then accessed the files via FTP and found the culprit. So now my feeds are back to normal. I don’t have subscribers though But what the heck, at least I know it’s working for anyone who might want to subscribe eh?

So anyway, I hope this helps anyone out there who may be encountering the same issue I had.

(Okay, I just realized that images in my posts are not showing properly through the feeds… another problem to find a solution for… any suggestions?)

I just went in there to check, and yeah, the directory looks incorrect. So here’s testing if it works properly now..

Okay, the first attempt was unsuccessful. The directory I specified was wrong… Let’s change it again and see what happens…

Okay, that took about three or four tries but I finally figured it out! It was a problem with the path. 

I took this photo using Frankie. This was where my mom’s family lived for years. I’m not sure how many years exactly but when I was born until I was around 7 years old, this to me was my grandparent’s home. This was the house we first referred to as sa baba or roughly translated – downstairs, down south, or just down. We called it that way because the house we lived in was located in the same community, but geographically ‘higher.’ The St. Andrew’s Seminary Compound has a geography that I’d call rolling hills, so you’d literally go up and down. Hehe. So Papa and Lola’s place was somewhere lower than ours.

Anyway, the house still stands and a priest who teaches at the Seminary and his family lives there now. The front door was moved to the side, and the pig pens are no longer out back. Aha, I just remembered, I should have shot the avocado tree too, if it’s still there…                                              

I am not losing sleep on this. I still blog mainly for personal reasons, earning from my blogs are only secondary. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have bragging rights for high PR right?

So I cleaned it up. 

I’d also like to take this opportunity to credit Caneelia for the moon shot/image used for it.

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You know how they keep on repeating the headlines at CNN until you just about memorized them? Well, this morning, another form of China Melamine Scare was up – this time, on eggs!

How on earth could eggs get tainted with Melamine? 

It couldn’t be industrial transfer, that’s for sure. And it’s not middlemen adding melamine to up protein content (just how would they do that?). So how does it happen?!

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My mom bought the Bathroom Special of this magazine called Condo Living so we can find inspirations for our units that have been waiting for us for months.

Instead of being inspired though, I think it got me depressed! The featured spaces were just so lavishly furnished, and the surroundings so much more beautiful than what we’ve got. The faucet line alone – true steel works of art – made me cringe. They looked so modern and elegant – but most come with a heavy price tag. Oh, I’m sure there’s something there for the budget conscious too. I just can’t wait for the time when I can have the home I would grow old in, with resources enough to not worry about costs.

• 1- The main theme/template. From bright to dark.
• 2- Changed the default logo that came with the theme. I might be changing that one again this weekend though.
• 3- Removed the About the Author and Ads sections of the Sidebar
• 4- Added ads under the Header and under the Footer, but only for the Main Index page.
• 5- Changed the way Archived posts are displayed. The default display only listed the contents but I wanted the actuall posts shown too when you clicked on a Category, for example.
• 6- Edited the appearance of the Threaded Comments Plugin to match the template.
• 7- Removed the “author” property (e.g. posted by verabear) for each post. I don’t feel that I need it because I’m the only one who posts here anyway.
• 8- Added a gallery plugin – NextGen – which I may not be able to use after all because I’d have to pay per additional 8M of PHP memory.
• 9- Changed the color scheme for my Bidvertiser and Google Ads.
• 10- The Subscribe area. I never had one although the previous template also had an RSS link by default.
  Still looking forward to changing/adding the rest…
• 11- A photo gallery that’s hopefully integrated with WP
• 12- Top Commentors plugin
• 13- I might add an Instant Messaging Control box so we can chat real time when I’m online    I had one back when I was still blogging at my Blogger address but the only one that ever chatted with me was Tracy and we chat on Messenger all the time anyways. Haha. Maybe I’ll get to know more blog readers next time I set it up, or at least I am hoping too.

Feedback has been generally positive about the new look. More importantly, I am quite happy with the changes.

**Checkout my previous TT’s here and here.

**I have just added Mister Linky, please add your links so Thirteeners can easily find you