Melissa's Idea Garden

Well, the changes continue. I hate coding! I was so tickled when I first switched style sheets that my blog still had all of the links I had put in and everything. I had saved the information off to the side in notepad just in case. But when it was all still there, I said 'great' and deleted it. But I couldn't get my picture out of my header. I worked at it and worked at it and I found two symbols that shouldn't be in the header code "> so I deleted them and then the picture was gone, but dang it so was everything else!!!!!!

GRRR! Plus my header isn't as large as it should be for some reason as you can tell by the cropped city photo and I still don't have captcha set up (which was one of my main reasons for doing the upgrade because I am sick and tired of the pornographic spam that I have to peruse looking for good comments). So, it is still a work in progress. If I was linked to your blog before, send me an email (melissa markham at take the mat period com) for your button and I will try to get those back on my blog once I get the rest of this nonsense sorted out.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Actually, I am not complaining, but I want to share an observation. It is not uncommon for me to receive 30 or 40 spam comments a day. Because I never could get recaptcha to work with Movable Type 4.0, I just have to go in and delete all of them. And many of them are embarrassing to even have to glance at!

But something has changed. I had appealed to Google to review my page ranking (they had slapped me down to 0 from a 3 because of the fact that I was writing for money on my blog). They reviewed and gave me a page ranking of 2, but now, for some unknown reason, I am back to a 0 even though my traffic remains the same. Maybe they see the word review on my blog (book reviews, movie reviews, product reviews) and just think I am getting paid...but I am not. Sometimes authors send me books for free in exchange for a review, but no money is exchanging hands.

Anyway, about 10 days ago, my page rank dropped to 0.

Continue reading "Where Did All the Spammers Go?" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As I told you this morning, we headed north to visit two bloggers that I have known for a couple of years....but only via reading their blog posts, their comments on my posts and a few emails sent back and forth. We had a lovely visit with Momanna98 and Abiga.

It was like meeting old friends and getting to know new ones all at the same time. One of the things that was really neat is the fact that we read some of the same blogs! We enjoyed several hours of conversation, a yummy lunch, and watching the children play before we headed back down the road. But don't take my word for it, check out these pictures!

Continue reading "Meeting Old Friends...Face to Face" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have made a lot of friends over the Internet over the years. I have four very good friends that I met when we created an online writing critique group back in 1999. All of us haver become published authors. And I have met one of these lovely ladies in person. One of us, who lives in England, has met the one who lives in Australia and the gal who lives in Texas. The live meetings are very special.

Well, today, I get to meet not one, but two ladies whose blogs I have been reading for a couple of years now and they (for some strange reason) have been reading mine. I am going to meet Momanna98 from Homeschooling In Illinois and her mom Abiga, from Blessings from Abiga.

I am really looking forward to meeting them face to face!

Expect pictures and details later:)

Posted by Melissa Markham at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wow, sometime in the night I passed 20,000 visitors. I have received 2,235 comments on my 1096 posts...

Thanks to all of you who come and visit. A special thanks to those of you who comment. As a homeschooler living out in the woods, my bloggy friends are very, very important!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

What a day....actually, what a couple of days. I have been hard at work at my blog. On Thursday, I upgraded to the newest version of Moveable Type. At one point I was in tears because I thought when it upgraded, I would see everything and then have a reference point to work from as far as where to put things. But it didn't work that way. However, once Daniel reassured me my stuff was all safe and sound (remember the copies I was busy making?), then I just bit the bullet and got to work. By the end of the first day, I had worked out several things on my own, but my sidebars weren't showing up, my captcha wasn't working and my picture wasn't showing up in my header of my individual posts.

Yesterday we sat around and just enjoyed having Daniel home. He did help me figure out the fifty million steps I needed to go through in order to get my captcha working. You should have heard me whooping and hollering when it was working! But then I found out it was so hard to read, that regular commenters were running into problems. I ran tests and I could get the comments to go through, but that was no good if others couldn't. I wanted to stop spammers, but didn't want to stop my friends!

Continue reading "Moveable Type, Plugins, Sidbars, reCaptcha, and Burning Popcorn" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Melissa....what are you doing?"

That is the question that the H.A.L. 9000 is asking me as I start copying my templates and indexes to notepad documents (heck, I am asking myself the same question!) Fortunately, there is no airlock here for HAL to throw me out of!

The Robot is gearing up and shouting...."Danger Melissa Markham! Danger!"

"What on earth are you doing?" you, my faithful reader, are wondering out loud.

Well, it's like this. I use Movable Type for the basis of my blog. And several months ago, Movable Type upgraded. The new Movable Type is lovely...it will allow me to have two sidebars....count them, people! TWO!!! And it will allow me to use CAPTCHA...which is particularly inviting to me as I got hit with 80 comments last night from the same source...spamming comments. (You don't even want to know what words I was thinking). And it will mean that when you go to an article, my sidebars will still be there (right now, my article sits all alone on its page.

It also means that my blog will look completely different..which bums me a bit because I really like my fonts and pictures, but with some work I can recapture some of that. So, I have copied all of my templates into notebook, and saved them to my desk top. I have said prayers and crossed my fingers.

As soon as I finish typing this post, I will go and apply my new settings. From what Daniel tells me, all of my posts will still be intact. The work will come as I try to sort out my sidebars. It took my computer literate husband days (which is why I have put this off so long).

So cross your fingers and wish me luck...as I push the button while ignoring Hal and The Robot in their pleas for me to stop what I am doing!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May I have a drum roll please.....

So now that we know how much my blog is worth, who wants to loan me some money? I'll put my blog up as collateral!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Are you ready for the upcoming Ultimate Blog Party? It will take place from March 7th - March 14th. There will be the opportunity to win prizes, meet new friends and just have fun! I will be participating by giving away a free copy of my three ebooks which you can see on my side bar.

So click on the cool button and find out the instructions now for joining. Mark your calendars and get ready for a week of fun!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 1:33 PM | Permalink

Well, I only made it for one day...boo hoo hoo! But at least I made a good showing in my 30 hours on TopMomma. I confess to not having a clue asto how it is decided who gets bumped and who doesn't. My blog and two other blogs were introduced yesterday. I emailed friends, a yahoo list I am on, posted about it on my blog and some of my friends sent on the information to their friends. I had about 130 clicks and 140 referrals, the most of the three that were introduced yesterday. The gal with the least of each of these is the only one who is still on their today. Go figure!

But it was fun while it lasted and I appreciate the support of all of you!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Many of the blogs that I visit are doing a review of their blogs previous year. Either by linking to a favorite or most commented on post for each month, or sharing a few posts that summed up that month or sharing the first line of the first post of each month.

So many choices, which to pick, which to pick...Well, since I didn't begin blogging here until the middle of February 2007 (previously I was blogging at HomeschoolBlogger). And since for the first 6 months that I blogged, I only had about 500 visitors total and hardly any comments (however, 9000 visitors have come by since the middle of August which amazes me), I decided to share the first sentence of the first post of each month and the first sentence of the last post of each month...just to be different:)

January...not here at Melissa's Idea Garden

Februrary...Introduction I have been blogging for a couple of years now. Miracle Baby Now 14 Months Old 13 1/2 months ago, Woody Lander stopped breathing for 30 minutes after suffering a massive heart attack at the tender age of 2 weeks.

March...Wii Mania If you don't own a Wii, you should definitely put it on your list! Review: Valentine by Tom Savage I haven't read any of Tom Savage's books before.

April... Review: Crash Last weekend my husband and I watched the movie "Crash" which received 3 Academy Awards in 2005, including Best Picture. Review: The Pursuit of Happyness The Pursuit of Happyness stars Will Smith and is inspired by a true story.

May...Mother's Day Project: Monet's Garden A couple of months ago, I borrowed a book from the library on Art. Fresh Air Child Update We are in touch with the local Fresh Air representative and she has put an application in the mail to us.

June... Our Next Year Curriculum I have been pretty much patchwork on curriculum over the past years. Stuffed Green Peppers I continue to make recipes from the file my mom gave me 20 years ago.

July ... Seafood Salad for 4th of July Below you will find the recipe for tonight's dinner. Homeschool Open House 2007: My Entry Tiany at Less of Me, More of Him is hosting an awesome open homeschool open house!

August...Summer of the Monkeys This evening the children and I watched Summer of the Monkeys. August Give-Away Please note that this is a sticky post and will be at the top of my page until September 1st.

September...Book Contest: The Meeting of Ani Adams Karen over at Mommy of Three is having a book giveaway for what looks to be a very interesting book: The Meeting of Ani Adams.Haiku Carnival with PrizesPlease note this is a sticky post and will be at the top of my blog until September 30th.

October... 6 Die From Brain-Eating Amoeba in Lakes I prefer to pass on happy news, but when I read this article I was shocked and felt like it was something I wanted to make more people aware of. Halloween PicturesTonight was the night...you won't believe who we saw wandering about on our deck...

November...Laura tagged me for the 10-20-30 Year Meme Laura wants to know what I was doing 10, 20 and 30 years ago. Another Question - No Follow! Would someone please explain what 'no follow' means?

December...December 1 - A History of Art - The Lindisfarne Gospels Today's art work is an example of early medieval art.2 Book Reviews: Chocolate Beach, A Dropped Stitches Christmas and a GIVEAWAY!!!! Okay, let's get the New Year started off right!

In 2007, I wrote 760 blog posts and received 868 comments! Thanks to all of you for making this fun (and for reading!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:26 PM | Permalink

Would someone please explain what 'no follow' means? And how do I find out if I am no follow or not?

Posted by Melissa Markham at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today, I was made aware of some technical difficulties on my blog. Because I had not closed a command on my blog, people who were using Fire Fox were having trouble commenting on my posts. Now, as bloggers, you know that comments are what makes a bloggers day go around!

So I am sending out a big hunk of linky love to Scribbit and Amber for taking the time to make me aware of the problem. And an extra thank you to Amber for helping me solve the issue!

Posted by Melissa Markham at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)