Friday Blogplugs - 2/15/08

Hey
folks,

A very gorgeous Friday here in Northern
California. In fact, we have had spring weather the last week or so and
I am enjoying it. Hope you all had a good Valentine's day. We have
quite a few blogplugs to get to. Let's go get 'em.

* Indigo
pooh-pooh's
the idea of putting aside one single day of the year to celebrate
love.

* Ken thinks
aloud about the consequences of taking shortcuts
in life.

* Marie
narrates an excellent story about hot
chocolate, a metaphor for
life.

* Indigo
talks about the art
of the written word and how she has evolved as a writer. I am
not doing justice to this entry, it's just a beautiful
read.

* Krissy is
disappointed that the party
that she was throwing for her husband John, had to be postponed,
because of a snowstorm. If only you had moved it to California
:)


* Donna gets very emotional about
the loss
of her sister. Our sympathies are with
you.

* Janna recounts
a hilarious tussle between man and
cat. 

*
Sugar shares some
observations about boys and girls (the furry kind!) and a
poem
for them.

* Paul posts the next
10 movies of his top 100 best movies
list.


* Tawnya does a weekly entry on her blog called Wednesday
Hero.

* gifdude is
excited
about his Apple TV
upgrade.


Contests R
Us

* Weekly
sentence with Val. This week, the letters are TCRABC
(The chef roasted a baby
carrot).


Lights, Camera and
Action!

* Krissy's
JLand Photo Shoot subject
for this week is "My
Pet".

* Marie's AOL
Community Photo Challenge, subject
for this week is "Winter
Blues".

*
Marie's AOL
Community Photo Challenge subject was "Love" and the winners for the
beginner's challenge are here.
The winners of the advanced challenge are here.

* Vicki's
photo
for the subject "red" - yet another photo
challenge.

* Marie has a
video showing how to do basic
corrections to your photograph using Photoshop and another
entry on Photoshop
& Elements
Tutorials.

*
Marie lists another great
site for photography tutorials.

From
our kitchen to yours...

*
Sugar, our resident Julia Child, cooks
up a romantic meal.

In
other JLand
news...

* The
Chat team is aware that the single sign-on does not work on
the "Journals Chat" page when you use a standalone browser (works from
within the AOL client). So, you have to sign-in again on the Journals
Chat page. Apologies for the inconvenience. They promise a fix by the
1st week of March (their next
release).

--

Thanks again for the blogplugs
this week. Don't forget to tag your best entries with
"blogplugs". If you want to be a Guest Editor or have some
interesting (or useful) blogplugs, send your submissions to
JournalsEditor@aol.com and we'll review
them.

~Vish

Tags: blogplugs, aol journals, features, top
picks

Guest Editor's Picks -- February 8, 2008

Hope you all
enjoyed the Super Bowl last weekend, that Big Easy readers had a fun
'08 Mardi Gras, & that ALL everywhere have a lovely upcoming
Valentines Day on the 14th!
Guess who's Guest Editor this week? It's me! WOO HOO! Doing a little happy dance! {{}}
Getting my 15 minutes of fame! LOL
So, TY Journal Editors. hehehe
I was totally surprised when Vish asked if I'd be willing to participate. ;)
I'm told I need to write a few lines about myself, then pick 5-7 fav journals. So, here goes:
My name is Sugar, from:   MY BELOVED FURR BABIES,  A LITTLE BIT OF SUGAR, PLEASE (private, email for admittance),  SUGAR SHACK KEEPSAKES,  From My Kitchen To Yours,  PRAISE & PRAYER (private, email for admittance),  J-LAND PET MEMORIAL,  African Memories,  &  Honduras & Philippines Remembered.  Many of you already know me, as I have several blogs in J-Land!  :) 
My main journal, & praise journal are private, but you can always email & ask for admittance... the others are open to all. I'm
an over 50, over weight, retired nurse, minister, former worker with
the homeless, & foster mother to abused children for many yrs. I'm
a grandmother, with multiple health conditions, living with my Son
& his family in MO now, altho I'm a TX gal orig. My 3 girls (dogs)
keep me company.
I have been in J-Land a little over 2 yrs, &
only started on a computer shortly before that. Must say that I have
found J-Landers to be such nice people, & have made many friends
here. Since I'm disabled & mostly housebound, J-Land means a lot to
me. {}
So, visit any of my journals, you're bound to find at least one that sparks your interest.
I
write about a little of everything, from my hum drum life & family
issues, to my fight with Cancer, TN, OA, Depression, & my battle
with weight... trying to keep an upbeat journal as I do so. My
other journals are about my pets, recipes, graphics I make, religion...
well, you get the ideal, I have a blog for it all. LOL
I'll wager when I was asked to write a "few lines" about myself, he never thought I'd write a chapter. hehehe :)

There are so many wonderful blogs that I read, it's hard to try & pick just 7...

So, I'll just pop down a few that you may not have read, (unless you're a regular reader of mine, then you probably know these) in no specific order:

 1. Millies Meanderings   (private
but you may email & ask for admittance) lovely lady in the UK who
has so much on her plate. just read her archives. now she's dealing
with her teen dtr fighting throat cancer. yet both stay cheerful most
of the time, they're warriors in a tough fight, but have the faith,
hope, & courage to win!

2. TNT  i've
known this lady from before she started a journal, we were in the
same online weight loss group. she tells about her family life, posts
jokes & poems, & her beliefs, you'll enjoy taking a peek.
 3. I Shall Overcome  writes about her everyday life, jokes, etc. she also came up with the journal to honor J-Landers who have passed away... J-LAND ANGELS

4. My Day, My Interests 
great photos, you'll love browsing through her journal, it's so
uplifting with the beautiful pics. plus some information on a few of
her posts.

5. My Brain Is In Pain  this
one is AC (adult content) for some of it, & at times controversial,
but he's so funny!!! You'd never know he lives in so much pain, seldom
mentions it. {{}} also, his aunt passed away this week, so leave
condolences please.

6. Me Thinks Too Much  funny
& entertaining as she talks about her day to day life. right now
she has a broken leg, but she doesn't let that get her down! she's like
the energizer bunny, she keeps going!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

And last, but FAR from least...

A fairly popular blog, so many already know of it, but I just had to add it...

7. My Simple Rhymes  like no other blog I read. i love her, she's a sweet online friend. this dear lady in the UK, journals about her life, all in rhyme. you'll love it & her. ;) She's been feeling "down" lately, so give her an uplift by saying HI.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

7 already?
GRRR I could've kept going! So many terrific blogs out there to be
read! Many with lots of followers, & some with only a few. But each with a story!
If
I didn't pick yours, know that I love each of those I read or I
wouldn't read them! But I was only allowed 7, so I chose a few of the
ones that the majority of J-Land might not know about.

Well, there you have it, the powers that be...say only 7, LOL.
What
are you still reading this for? Click on the links above & have fun
reading & making friends! Remember to leave comments & your
link so they can visit you. ;) And give them a "CONGRATS" for being an
Editors Pick!

Have a nice weekend.

Friday Blogplugs - 2/8/08

Hey
folks,

TGIF (Thank God It's Friday!) -- time for a
roundup of your blogplugs.
We have quite a few of them this week. Without further ado, let's
begin.

* Val has a new game
called the "Weekly
Sentence". Judging fom the number of responses, people seem
to like it!. Update: They have the winners
here.

* Krissy's JLand Photo
Shoot entries
for the subject
"Old".

* Marie's AOL
Community Photo Challenge subject was "Love" and the entries
are here.

*
Jim, hopefully enjoyed
his SuperBowl weekend. I didn't...my Patriots lost
:(

*
Ken writes to say that a rose
is not a rose...unless it is
certified.

* Paul
posts a list of 100 movies that he really likes. Go here
to join the discussion

*
Karen celebrates her daughter's birthday with a glowing
tribute.

*
Beth is back to her kindler,
gentler self. Thank goodness! (just
kidding)

* Sugar has
some furry
treats for ya!

* Betty shares her old family
pictures and encourages you to participate, by posting a link
to your family pictures.

* Guido has created a shared
journal, "call for
support", to help JLanders who are going thru a tough time.
If you know of any JLanders who are in need of some moral support and
encouragement, please post an entry there. The community has been
wonderful in rallying around folks in need.

*
Guido has some great shared journals listed here,
that he would like you to visit. Also, if you have a shared journal
open to everybody please list it
there.

* Speaking of shared
journals, Make 'em
Laugh is one that will have you ROTFL (rolling on the floor
laughing). You can contribute too, but make sure you abide by Jeanne's
guidelines (listed in the About Me section of the journal).

In the, other JLand
news,
department..

* Joe
Manna's last day at AOL was yesterday, as some of you have
read on his blog post here.
Joe will be greatly missed. His new home is here. Not sure if we want another Joe to replace
him! However, the show must go on, and we are still here for you.

* The
Chat team has added "user generated chat rooms" to their Chat
product. You can create your own chat room and invite your friends and
family to it. Just go to http://chat.aim.com and look
for the "Create Chats" tab at the
top.

--

Thanks again for the blogplugs
this week. Don't forget to tag your best entries with
"blogplugs". If you want to be a Guest Editor or have some
interesting (or useful) blogplugs, send your submissions to
JournalsEditor@aol.com and we'll review
them.

And finally, a very happy
Valentine's day to you all! You are the
best!

~Vish

Tags: blogplugs, aol journals, features, top
picks

How to add a yourminis widget to Journals

As previously announced, you can
add mini-applications (aka widgets) to your AOL Journal very
easily.

This update shows you how to take a widget
from yourmini's and add it to your
Journal.

1.   First, pick a
widget.   Yourmini's has thousands of widgets to use
from - from photo's,  search, to do lists, video's
etc.  You can choose a widget from the Yourmini's gallery
which is here.


For this example, I'll assume you chose the "Flickr"
widget.

2. On the widget page, you can do a few
things:
 - Customize your widget
 -
Re-size it
 - Copy the widget to another
site.

3. Customizing. 
All
Yourmini widgets have a menu that allows you to customize the
widget.  This menu is shown in the top right hand corner of
the widget.     See
below.



The
first menu is the color menu - you can change the color of the widget
using this option.

The second is the detailed
options.  Click on the down arrow, and you get the options -
e.g. in this example you can show photos from a user (enter the user
name)  or a tag describing the photos (e.g. cats). Selecting
one of the options allows you to customize the widget. If you have
photos on flickr, enter your username and you will see
them.





4. 
Re-sizing.  You can re-size the widget by grabbing the bottom
right corner and dragging with the mouse to
re-size.

5. Put the widget on your
Journal.

- To do this, you must "grab the
code".   So go to the menu again and click on "Copy
Me".  You will get these options. 


-
Click on the first option, to grab the code.  Then hit "Copy"
which copies the code to the clipboard.

- Now go
back to your journal entry and put it in HTML mode.



-
Finally paste in the code you copied.   Hit CTRL+V to
do this.


That's it.   It
may seem very long to do this, but it is actually not once you get the
hang of it.  

Tags: aol
journals, yourminis,
widgets, willspeaking

New widgets for your AOL Journal

AOL yesterday announced that they
purchased another company called "Goowy".  What does this mean to AOL Journals
users?   Well, with this announcement, AOL has got
some great new widgets that can be used in your
Journal.   They come to you from a website named "yourminis.com". 


What's a widget?  Hmm... that's a
technology term we use, and it is essentially allows you to have a mini
version of an application on other pages, like your blog.  For example,
Youtube has a widget
that allows you to view a Youtube video on your
page.   

Yourminis has many of these
widgets that you can now use on your AOL Journal. 


First, let's show you some
examples:

The "Flickr" widget
allows you to show any photos on Flickr. These can be from your account, 
or from a tag (e.g. if you want to show cat
photos).  





The "AOL
Pictures" widget shows photos from the
public galleries on AOL Pictures.



The "Countdown"
widget allows you to countdown towards an event. E.g. a wedding, a
birthday, anniversary.  It's very
nice.



The "Weather"
widget allows you to put your city and show the weather. Or maybe a
city where you want to go on vacation
:-)




The "eBay" widget will
let you search for items on
ebay.




And lots, lots more. You can search for widgets
on Yourmini's gallery
page.

In the next blog post, I will show you how to add a widget
from yourminis to
your blog.

More
Details:
Read
more about yourmini
widgets here.

Search for yourmins
here.

Tags: aol
journals, willspeaking,
yourminis,
widgets

Guest Editor's Picks -- February 1, 2008

WELCOME

 

I'm Missy (from MISSYZ
STUFF), your Guest Editor for this week. I have been a member
of the J-land family for about 14
months now and must say that it has been an experience like
none other. The people here are absolutely amazing. I will tell you, I
have never been part of a blog community like
this one and I have never met such a large amount of
people that are so willing to support, befriend, and
offer encouragement as much as you all
do.

 

ABOUT
ME

 

I am 23 years old, live in Vinton, Va and am a proud mother of my five
year old son, Antonio. My employer is BB&T bank, another
amazing experience with all the people that work with me. I hope to one
day pursue a career
in training of some sort, preferably for the bank. I have
finally found my passion, and that happens to be teaching and helping
others. As far as my history, I was adopted at a young age and raised by my
grandparents. I had a troubled childhood and have fought with anxiety
and depression for a very long time. I feel as if I am getting a grasp
on these and hope to one day be cured! Enough about me, Now for my
picks...

 

PICKS

 

Janie from There Is Only 1
Today enjoys writing about
her everyday life and
adjusting to her husband's retirement. She told me that she started her
journal with the hopes to share her faith and try to add some positive
thoughts into our day.

 

 

Paula from Paulines Country
Tales And Other Thangs writes about her adventures as a country girl in Texas and
her life on the ranch.

 

 

Andy from Andy The Bastard: With his very controversial sense of humor,
he will have you falling out of your desk chair
laughing!

 

 

Melissa from My Story Book
currently posts chapters of "The Book of Mona", a story she is writing
and keeps us updated with her daily happenings. She seems to be
struggling right now so, stop by and offer her some encouraging
words.

 

 

Linda from Lost In My Own Thoughts Shares with us her pictures and graphics. She writes about
her life and keeps her journal fun!

 

 

That's it! Please stop by and
visit these wonderful journals and don't forget to come by next week
for the new Guest Editor picks.

Friday Blogplugs - 2/1/08

Hey
folks,

It's Friday -- Blogplugs time for Journals!
Here we go:

* Indigo writes
about her trust
being betrayed and how she is handling
it.

* Ken wants
you to be aware of how our national
budget is allocated and keep the promises of our candidates
for the Presidency in
perspective.

*
John is celebrating the second anniversary of his bone
marrow
transplant.

*
Indigo takes a stand on dog
fighting.

* Jo,
an Animal Hubbub alumni, let us know that she has has started
a new animal-related blog titled, Frequently
Feline.

*
A US military wife did not realize what she was getting into,
when she signed up for exercise
classes at the Y. She misses her husband, who is currently
deployed in Iraq.

* Ken
writes about a glorious
day he had, and looks back at the time he spent with his best
friend, his dad.

*
Marie revisits
the guidelines for the aol community photo challenge and provides some
banners
that people can use on their entries. And here are some entries
from that challenge.

* Krissy's JLand Photo Shoot Challenge
for this week.

I just
noticed that there are 2 photo shoot challenges one hosted by
Krissy and another one by Marie. Pick one or both to post your photos
to.

In other JLand
news..

*
Nice Matters awards are being handed out to the most well
behaved JLanders (just kidding). Congratulations to the recipients. You
can read more about it here
and here.

*
Another JLander has passed away. Walt used to write on his
journal, The Diatom
Project. Our deepest sympathies go out to his
family.

--

Thanks again for the blogplugs
this week. Don't forget to tag your best entries with
"blogplugs". If you want to be a Guest Editor or have some
interesting (or useful) blogplugs, send your submissions to
JournalsEditor@aol.com and we'll review
them.

Have a safe
weekend!

~Vish

Tags: blogplugs, aol journals, features, top picks