The Fearless Blogger

I’ll admit it – I’m in a crappy mood.

Maybe it’s my meds. Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe I’m just scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life, the way I feel when I’m with you - ooops! That’s Baby in Dirty Dancing, not me! Got a bit carried away there!

Whatever the reason  (I’m sure if I spent another couple of minutes, I could list at least five more), I’m cranky and I’m irritated and am not about to take it out on my cats – and certainly not on you. (I love you! You know that! Right? OK – we’ll talk more bout that later – remind me!)

I’d say it’s possible I got up on the wrong side of the bed – only I still don’t have a friggin  bed to sleep in, thanks to a combination of careless movers, poor timing, ADHD-procrastinated paperwork, and just overall shoddy customer service from Priority Moving.

So, I’m in the mood to vent. I’m wanting  to share some of the frustration that the random dingbats and doody-heads (you heard me right!) are bringing into my life.

Still, I don’t want to turn my blog into a ranting bitch-fest.

What’s a girl to do? read more

In case you haven’t heard, Google recently launched a new social media service called Buzz:

Buzz lets you share updates, photos, links, and pretty much anything else you’d like with your Gmail contacts; it’s an easy way to follow your friends, too.

If Orkut was Google’s version of MySpace, Buzz is Google’s version of Facebook.

Personally, I’ve been getting sick of Facebook’s shifty-ness -- seems like the site’s sporting a new homepage and/or privacy settings more often than Ryan Seacrest touches up his highlights -- so I’m hoping Buzz gets some momentum.

It’s certainly getting its share of attention. Just two days after the launch, Google implemented some “immediate improvements” based on user feedback (mostly around privacy control features).

One thing I haven’t seen addressed is Google’s approach for verified accounts.

When I visit my Google profile page, I’m greeted with a message advising me that the page “is eligible to be featured in Google search results”. This links to a help page on how to make your profile easier to find,  including this tip “to help you make your Google profile more useful”:

Verify your name, and get a “Verified” badge on your profile.

If you were me, this is the message you'd get.

Given I have a sink full of dishes waiting to be washed and laundry to do, my natural reaction is to immediately set about getting my name verified. (Seriously, you get a “Verified” badge! How could I resist?)

After clicking through a mere five pages, I arrive at the place where the magic happens. Intuitively (that’s sarcasm, by the way) nestled among the Knol (Remember Knol? Google-flavored wikis?) ”Preferences” resides my “Name Verification” page, where I am presented with two options to complete the verification process (the badge is so close!):

1. Credit Card
2. Social Security Number

Nope. Not a Rick Roll.

Really?!

Short of perhaps a picture of me naked and sitting on the toilet, I can’t think of anything I’d feel less inclined to post online than either of those items.

I begin to wonder if perhaps I’ve landed on an archived April Fool’s Day page. After all, it seems far more plausible that the links would lead me to a Rick Astley video, than that Google would actually be requesting that information.

I decide to explore further.  (Who says those dishes aren’t going to wash themselves?!)

Turns out it’s true -
The only way to get that Name Verification badge is to fork over details for either your credit card or social security number.

Of course Google assures us that your card is not charged, the information is used for verification purposes only (via a third party), blah blah blah.  Comfy? Well, before you pull your wallet out, read through the FAQs -- only certain credit cards will work and Name Verification is only available in the U.S.

Indeed, you don’t have to get your name verified. So unless you have a compelling reason to prove you are who you claim to be, this is far from the end of the world. (Even if you do have a compelling reason, I’m confident you’ll be able to work through this.)

Currently, the feature does not seem to be widely used. Google describes it as “experimental”, explaining they “now downplay the feature in the user-interface”.  For those wondering about page rank, the FAQ states:

At the moment, the feature exists solely as one means for you to communicate to your readers that you are who you say you are. At this present time, it does not have a significant effect on ranking.

Does this graph remind you of anything?

Still, I have to believe that this is something Google will need to address sooner or later.

Users are encouraged to update their profiles when getting started with Buzz. Potentially, many are likely seeing the message about having their profile featured in search results.  If so, Google may find their efforts to downplay the verification option to be less-than-successful.

Call me cynical, but given the alarmist reaction to Google potentially exposing who’s on your “most e-mailed” list, the current verification options are unlikely to sit well with the average user.

Would you be willing to share your credit card or social security number to get verified?

Does it even matter?  Will Buzz lead to an increased need (real or perceived) for Name Verification or will verification remain a “downplayed”, experimental feature?

Since I have dishes to do (so much for them doing themselves -- hmmph),  please talk amongst yourselves (i.e., leave a comment)!

image credit: Sarah Rydgren

While I don’t feel the need to hide my ADHD, I don’t feel the need to hide behind my ADHD either.

This blog is my outlet to share my interests with the hope that others might find them interesting.  It’s where I stash my collection of ideas, resources and experiences – an eclectic assortment of things humorous, helpful, and/or enlightening. If I’ve benefited from something, it belongs here to give others the chance to benefit from it too.

I’m not “ADHD GIRL” and this is not “AN ADHD BlOG”, so I’ve never felt compelled to include anything ADHD-related in the collection. At least not until recently.

These days, understanding and managing my ADHD is pretty much a full time job for me. My current priorities revolve around finding the right tools and learning the right skill sets to help me structure my life to allow for my brain’s “quirks”, instead of constantly fighting against them.

As a result, I find myself holding back from adding the majority of my recent ideas, resources and experiences to the others in my collection; since more often than not, they are in some way, shape, or form, related to ADHD. MY ADHD to be specific.

image credit: Lauren Murphy

I’m growing less comfortable with this approach, however.

If The Fearless Blogger is intended to be a reflection of my interests, omitting the chunks related to ADHD twists that reflection into something you’d get from a fun house mirror.

Furthermore, I’m holding back information and experiences that someone else might benefit from – or perhaps even find comfort with.

I’m choosing to change that.

As of today, I’m adding a new flavor to the blog.

My hope is that while it may not be the flavor you were craving when you initially stopped by, you’ll be able to appreciate (or even enjoy) it nonetheless.

image credit: Sarah Macmillan

A Very Alive Zach Braff (from his Facebook page)

In the past few months, rumors of various celebrity deaths have been popping up on the internet.  With sites like Facebook and Twitter, these rumors travel far and fast.

The most recent, occurring yesterday, involved two stories about ‘Scrubs’ star Zach Braff.

The first, seemingly posted by a New Zealand news site,  stated that

reports from New Zealand Police officials indicate that the actor fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set

In reality, the page was generated by some anti-Zach using FakeAWish.com. (Based on the site’s “In the News’ section, this site has likely been the culprit of several other celebrity death rumors)

The second was a fake CNN page (since removed)  which reported the actor’s suicide.  Chris Laganella, the site‘s owner posted the following explanation

Wayyy back in 2007, I copied CNN’s webpage and changed some text and some pictures to reflect an apparent Zach Braff suicide. This wasn’t a publicity stunt, it wasn’t a plea for hits, or to promote anything else. It was just to fool some of my friends. We’re really big Scrubs fans and really big Zach Braff fans. I made this page to fool them, called them to my computer, and showed them to get their reaction. I obviously told them it was a joke afterwards, but I neglected to take the page down.

Apparently, something clicked with someone on the internet today. I saw my bandwidth for chrisbox.com ran out earlier, so I increased it and looked at my traffic. I saw all the hits to braff.html, and started researching. This was the second largest trending topic on Twitter along with tons of links on Facebook. I had people like Perez Hilton and even an ABC spokesperson commenting on this.

Laganella continues, apologizing

So let’s just clear some stuff up. I did not make this page to intentionally fool everyone on the internet. I didn’t expect it to even be made public. Ever. I’m sorry if I scared everyone out there.

Zach, sorry if you got offended by me posting a fake suicide about you on the internet. Your 32,000 square foot house would be pretty empty without you. Thanks for (apparently) taking it lightly, since I haven’t gotten a letter about a lawsuit yet. Just so you know, I’m a huge fan; that’s the only reason I made this page, believe it or not. Also, sorry for upsetting your mother :(

Unfortunately for Chris, his apology did not get to Zach Braff before the actor posted a YouTube video.

In the video, Zach assures the world he is, indeed, alive and seems pretty good-natured about the event. However he does make a point to call out Chris for the prank, telling him he’s won Braff’s first “Douche of the Day” award for making Braff’s mom upset.

from Crestock.com

As a blogger, I’m always happy to find new resources for free/royalty free images. I thought I’d pass this info along to those of you who feel the same:

Crestock.com has released a new WordPress plugin called Freebie Images:

Spice up your blog with professional, high quality, free stock photos & images! With an amazingly simple Drag and Drop interface, blogging has never been this easy!

(The following information is from the Crestock.com blog)

What is it and what does it do?
The Freebie Images Plugin gives you a micro format search interface inside your WordPress Admin where you can search for and add images to your blog post – free of charge. The images are perfectly sized for blogs – between 300px and 400px width.

How does it work?
The plugin uses Crestocks existing search algorithm, so the search results – and images – are the same as on Crestock.com.After doing an image search, youre presented with the search results.

Adding the images to your post couldnt become much easier – when youve found the image you want, simply drag & drop it into your blog post, in the position where you want the image, and thats it.

You also get access to most of the advanced filtering options on Crestock.com with a single click, for example:

• Number of images per page
• Image Orientation
• File type
• Pagination

Where can I get it?
The plugin can be downloaded from Freebie Images.com – the Plugin home page.

Please Note
I should caution you that Crestock.com is describing this as a “public beta”. In other words, don’t expect perfection (or in other other words – use at your own risk!). From a quick glance at Crestock.com’s blog post, it looks like people have reported some bugs  (it wasn’t clear if they were issues with the plugin or from lack of documentation for proper installation).

I’ve not yet had a chance to give the plugin a try, but will report back once I do.  In the meantime, feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

For More Details
Launching Freebie Images WordPress Plugin | Crestock.com Blog.