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Blogger Follow Page Generator Tutorial

Mar 272012

Cute-Ecakes has put her mastermind to work again. This time, she has created a Blogger Follow Page Generator Tutorial.

If you are a blogger who administers group giveaways, you’ll want to check out this tutorial. It doesn’t matter what blog platform you’re using, nor does it matter what application is being used to gather giveaway entries, for one to put this generator in motion. The Blogger Follow Page Generator is to simplify all the copy and pasting occurred when creating a page with multiple links for entrants to follow outside of the Rafflecopter form (or other app).

One of the many screen shots in the tutorial

Head on over to this page to read the tutorial. Be sure to bookmark the page to reference at a later time. If you’d be so kind, would you help spread the word? Simply share the post with others. Cute-Ecakes would certainly appreciate it, as will the administrators of group giveaways who learn of the generator. Thanks! 🙂

Medical Monday – Soda – Cancer Causing? Facts That Might Make You Cringe!

Medical Monday

Mar 262012

I’m an avid Coke drinker – have been since the switch from Diet Pepsi years ago – which I will share the reason for that (something you’ll want to read if you drink diet soda) with you next week. Needless to say, after reading a very disturbing article on Care2.com regarding soda, I feel compelled to share what I learned. The facts I share might just make you cringe and not ever want another soda again. My question is why is the FDA allowing these on the market if they are shown to be cancer causing?

Let’s start with the Caramel coloring:

In 2011, the nonprofit Center for Science petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban the artificial caramel coloring used to make Pepsi, Coke, and other colas brown – for the best interest of the public. Why? These colorings contain contaminants found to have caused cancer in animals. These colorings being: 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole. The only reason these colorings are added to the equation is to color the beverage brown. California is big on banning certain chemicals in their state – often making it so certain products can’t be shipped to CA. Proposition 65’s list of chemicals that are known to cause cancer states “16 micrograms per person per day of 4-methylimidazole is enough to pose a cancer threat, and most popular brown colas, both diet and regular, contain 200 micrograms per 20-ounce bottle.”

How’s that grab you? Doesn’t settle well with me. Let me have my soda but get rid of that coloring – I could care less what color the soda is!

Soda…causing water pollution?

Yes, those nasty artificial sweeteners that don’t break down in our bodies when ingested – are excreted in our waste. Our waste is then headed towards waste water- treatment plants, rivers, and lakes. Swiss scientists discovered in 2009, through water samples, that the water being sampled contained saccharin, sucralose (aka as Splenda is NOT an all natural sweetener), and acesulfame K – all which are used in diet sodas. In the US – 19 municipal water supplies found the presence of sucralose.

How about accelerating aging?

Both diet and regular sodas contain phosphates – or phosphoric acid. This is a weak acid that is found in many whole foods like meats, nuts and dairy products. Studies have shown though that this acid can lead to kidney and heart problems, osteoporosis, and muscle loss. To make matters worse, one study suggested it could accelerate aging – killing rats 5 weeks earlier who were given this acid compared to those rats that weren’t. Can it get worse? Yes, soda manufacturers have been increasing the amount of this acid in their products over the past few decades.

That Mountain Dew you love could = “Mountain Dew Mind.”

Mountain Dew contains a ton of sugar causing cavities which dentists have labeled children who drink a lot of Mountain Dew with having a “Mountain Dew Mouth.” What’s worse though, is that it also has medical providers concerned thinking there maybe a new medical condition on the rise called, “Mountain Dew Mind.” What the cause of this is the ingredient, brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which is added to Mountain Dew to prevent the flavoring from separating from the drink is the same ingredient is also an industrial chemical used as a flame retardant in plastics! This same ingredient found in other citrus based soft drinks and sport drinks. This chemical has been known to cause memory loss and nerve disorders when consumed in large quantities. BVO has lead researchers to suspect that flame retardants contained in furniture foam, can build up in body fat, infertility, possible cause of behavioral issues and lesions on the heart muscle.

Aluminum Cans are Lined with WHAT?

Not all, but nearly all, aluminum soda cans are lined with an epoxy resin called bisphenol A (BPA). This resin is used to keep the acids in the soda from reacting with the metal. What else is known about BPA? It interferes with hormones and has been linked from infertility to obesity, diabetes and some forms of reproductive cancers.

High Fructose Corn Syrup? An issue?

Very well could be. That ingredient in soda is derived from corn. In the US, 88 percent of what is grown is genetically modified to resist toxic pesticides or engineered to create pesticides within the plant itself. There are no human studies to prove whether or not these crops are safe. Studies done by independent scientists have found that in animals, crops that are genetically modified (GMO’s) are linked to accelerated aging, damage of the digestive tract, and infertility.

If you’d like to read the article in its entirety visit care2.com. They actually publish a newsletter and I happen to love it. It’s full of great insights on many topics.

Tipsy Tuesday – Bloggers – Are You in Violation of Google’s G+ Buttons Policy?

Blogging, Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

Mar 202012

Goodbye to GFC (Google Friend Connect) for many, and hello G+ – GFC’s replacement. Good enough except – are you in violation of Google’s G+ Button Policy in trying to get your site followed?

Google’s policy stipulates:

“Publishers may not direct users to click a Google+ Button for purposes of misleading users. Publishers may not promote prizes, monies, or monetary equivalents in exchange for Google+ Button clicks. For the avoidance of doubt, Publishers may direct users to a Google+ Button to enable content and functionality. When a Publisher directs users to a Google+ Button, the button action must be related to the Publisher or the Publisher’s content. For the +1 Button, the content or functionality that is enabled for the user must also be accessible to any of the user’s social connections who also enable it.”

I interpret this to mean – you better not host a giveaway asking entrants to follow your site via G+ or click the G+ button pertaining to that post. If you do, you risk suffering consequences by Google.

Quite frankly – it really bums me out that Google is being this way. I want Google to write to all companies that ask bloggers for their follower stats. I’m sure there are a lot of companies who have no clue what has transpired, although – they should have to deal with what we have to work with…it’s out of our hands. Ask our page ranks, FB followers, Twitter followers, and if they must – Alexa. They need to know it’s not fair game anymore. We can’t give stats for something we can’t work on actively. We’re just a handful of people trying to get our content read. We’re certainly not Google!

And this linky thing going around – I’m not impressed with that either. I see that as being similar to Picket Fences – doesn’t mean crap to companies. Alexa ratings – that’s not all it’s cracked up to be either. Aside from bloggers – who installs the Alexa tool bar? Heck, I never even heard of the site before I started blogging and I was always online doing something (no exaggeration) for several years before blogging came along.

Your thoughts?

Medical Monday – Photosensitive Epilepsy – Is Your Site Seizure-Free Friendly?

Medical Monday

Mar 192012

There are many types of seizure disorders but there is one that I feel is important to touch base on as a blogger – Photosensitive Epilepsy. Why do I feel this way? The reason is because often times we tend to manage our site including background images, site headers, banners, and buttons. For some bloggers they may be able to design their site from scratch. Our choices can ultimately effect who will be able to visit our sites or become long term readers. Personally, I don’t want to exclude any individual with a disability in being able to visit my site. If there is information out there to help me make my site a compatible site for those with disabilities – I will educate myself on how to make this happen.

What is photosensitive epilepsy? In a nutshell, these are seizures brought on by flashing lights, rapidly changing or alternating images, as well as static spatial patterns such as squares or stripes. Mouse-overs that cause large areas of a PC screen to flash rapidly on and off are contributors to bringing on this type of seizure in addition to going from dark to light. Many other factors contribute to this type of seizure disorder; however I won’t get into the nitty gritty of them, but you can read a good article {here}, if you’re interested in learning more. Children have had issues in years past with this type of seizure disorder from television broadcastings causing mass seizures in children. A good article to read mainly pertaining to these types of seizures in children can be found on the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance site. Please note – these seizures don’t just pertain to children – adults have this type of seizure too.

Let’s take this a step further. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – is the international standards organization for the WWW (W3 or World Wide Web). Their job is to address and develop Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. In 2008, Version 2.0 specifies content should not flash more than 3 times in any 1-second period. Flashing above this rate is allowed if the flashing is below the “general and red flashing thresholds”. That basically means it is okay to flash more than 3 times in a 1 second period if the flashing is low enough in contrast and small enough. A free tool is available to web developers to determine if a site meets W3C guidelines. The tool is Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT).

United States federal agencies are governed by section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. This particular act states that pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and less than 55 Hz. When the 508 regulations are updated it is expected that they will use the same criteria as WCAG 2.0.

How can you as a site owner make your site seizure-free friendly?

Don’t put rapidly flashing banners on your site.
Don’t put rapid flashing banners that go from light to dark or vice-versa.
Don’t have your background look like one of those illusion posters – they are too visually busy for those with this type of seizure disorder.
Don’t have rapidly moving scrolling or rotating widgets on your site.
Don’t have large areas of darkness lead into large areas of lightness and vice-versa. FYI – Many individuals have these seizures simply from getting out of a vehicle into daylight or going from inside a home to the daylight outside and vice-versa.
Take a break from looking at your site – when you come back does anything stick out to you that is hard on the eyes at a first glance? Even certain types of fonts have been noted to effect people with these types of seizures.

Here’s a cool tool for you provided by W3C – free service for validating Web pages against standard formats. Note – validation is not mandatory on the Web – however, it is useful for improving the quality of the pages on your site. That being said – the only thing that passed their standards for my site was the Feed Validator – guess I better get busy on learning more about Word Press.

Did you know? Certain types of music can bring on seizures.

Another Post you may be interested in – Tipsy Tuesday – I Can’t Read the Text

Tipsy Tuesday – I Can’t Read the Text

Tipsy Tuesday

Mar 132012

*Please don’t think that I am scolding anyone as this post is being read – I’m not. I just saying that if you want people to visit your site, read your posts, join in on a hop, be a sponsor of a giveaway being hosted, become an affiliate, – then your site has to be friendly enough for people to stick around. And in my opinion – next to site visitors, the text piece is the most important piece of a site…wouldn’t you agree?

Paws of Fame – Paw Prints Keepsake Frame Review

Furry Friday, Pets, Reviews

Jan 232012

Savor your fur baby’s paw print forever and ever with this quality product sold by Uncommongoods.com. The Paws of Fame – Paw Prints Keepsake Frame is a great product for the animal lover. Yes, I can honestly say, this is a quality product. I was given the opportunity to experience this product first hand – thanks Uncommon Goods!

Uncommon Goods is a place where you’ll find products like this, as well as, Cat Lover Gifts, Gift Ideas in general for both men and women, and some of the Best Gift Ideas for Women you’ll find.

Onto the Paws of Fame…what exactly is it? It’s a 4-step kit that has everything you need to capture your fur baby’s paw print to display on the wall. The frame itself is 12″ x 15″ that shows off the impression you capture using the imprint material. You’ll also be able to display a 4″ x 6″ or 5″ x 7″ photo next to the impression.

What you’ll find in the package:

A beautiful wooden burnt red frame – resembling the color of cherry stain – It’s very rich looking
Glass for the frame – not a thin piece of glass either
A white mat for the photo and paw print to be displayed through – there is substance to the mat
A cardboard spacer – one of substance and is not flimsy
A golden brown colored mat (this is used to adhere the paw print to) – Again, a quality mat
The frame backing – this piece is a sturdy backing – not a flimsy piece of cardboard
A sticky to attach the molding material to the colored mat
An impression medium to capture the animals paw print – this is MESS FREE and NO baking, mixing – plenty of it too!
A ruler
A wooden dowel – personally, I used my rolling pin covered with wax paper – this worked much better than the dowel. The dowel is a bit short in length, in my opinion. They also suggest one can use an aluminum can such a Pam can – I tried this, but found the rolling pin still did a better job
Instructions

What you’ll need –

The fur baby
A picture of your fur baby
Aluminum foil or wax paper – I used wax paper – for covering the book & rolling pin – I found not covering the rolling pin – the impression material stuck to the rolling pin as it did the wooden dowel
A sharp craft knife or something of the like
A cutting mat
A hard cover book – a larger book works better than a smaller book – trust me

Once you’ve captured the paw print on the molding material, you need to let it dry for a couple days. You will find the corners of the molding material will curl up a tad bit, but don’t worry about it because you’ll be cutting that portion off anyway.

When all is said and done – your Paws of Fame will come out just as beautiful as mine did (I took the picture below at an angle to eliminate the glare I was getting from the flash).

Click to enlarge

Meet Gracie – she’s our canine fur baby who thinks she’s a cat. Maybe that is because she’s grown up with cats, and currently lives with 17 – thus claiming the laundry basket before a kitty does :).

I will have this keepsake frame forever – I won’t ever be saying I wish I had done this come the time she is no longer with us. I intend on buying another frame, which I will capture the paw prints of the two cats that I am extremely attached to. I then will display both frames together on a wall.

Safelink Wireless – A Lifeline Service for Those in Need

Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday

Aug 312011

Today’s economy is killing us Americans. That being said, there are some programs out there to help those out who need it; however, sometimes one really has to ‘dig’ to find these programs. The program I want to share with you is Safelink Wireless.

Safelink Wireless is available to those who participate in certain government assistance programs. For instance, in NH if you participate in one of the following programs, you qualify for Safelink.

Federal Public Housing Assistance / Section 8
Food Stamps
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Medicaid
National School Lunch Program (NSL)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

Safelink is a Lifeline Service. They provide you with a free cell phone and so many free minutes a month. One can add minutes to the plan they’ve signed up for, via prepaid cards in stores or on the Internet. Safelink offers 3 different plans to chose from. Take the time to compare the plans that are offered to you.

I mentioned above that it’s a Lifeline Service. What this means, is phone companies offer a lifeline service to their customers which reduces the customer’s phone bill. This service can only be utilized by the needy (low income, health issues etc.). The service has been in place for at least 20 years as I’ve had this on my home phone due to my son’s disabilities. Then a few years back, Safelink was born. The catch to the program is that you can’t be receiving a lifeline discount on your home phone and utilize the Safelink program…it’s one or the other. Sign-up for Safelink Wireless is simple and can be completed online.

Now you may not need this service, but you may know someone who could benefit from it. For instance, my mother receives fuel assistance and that qualified her for the program. This puts her mind at ease where she is in her mid seventies and lives alone. She has the phone on her at all times in the event that she needs to call for help. And I will tell you, she has had to call for help twice! She fell once on ice in her yard and another time she was seated in her car and couldn’t get out – her hips froze up.

You can read all about the program {here}. The site is an encrypted site, so you needn’t worry about personal information being entered. It took me all of fifteen minutes to sign my mom up; and then another two hours before I received the email that her information was verified, and that her phone was on the way.

Our Orphaned Kittens – Suggestions for Names?

Furry Friday, Pets

Aug 082011

Their Story:
Two weeks ago this Tuesday our mother cat, Blossom Possum disappeared. Where to? We have no idea, as it’s not like a Queen to go far from her nest. Beside the fact – this particular cat didn’t go far away from our home before becoming a queen. We feel she was either stolen, a hawk came down and swept her away, or possibly even a coy dog came up to the house. However, since it was during the daytime that she disappeared, we do not think it was the latter. Needless to say, I have been in mourning as I was quite attached to Blossom. She was my alarm clock. She slept with me at night. She had a great personality. She loved to be loved and loved to give love. I was the one she chose to have her kittens with when she went into labor – waking me so I could help her. Simply put – I was devastated she was missing. My heart was broken for her babies.

Blossom and her kids – just beautiful!

So here we were with three crying kittens, no mother to be found, and they were hungry. We had to act fast as kittens this small will dehydrate very fast – not something I wanted to see happen. I knew we had a small animal baby bottle on hand, as I had nursed a baby squirrel my other half brought home years ago, that needed rehabilitating. Therefore, I gave the kittens some milk to tide them over until I could get to the pet store to get kitten formula. That worked. Although the kittens had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the nipple at first, they actually caught on very fast once they figured out their food was coming out of that nipple.

Feeding time @ 3 weeks

Being a mere three weeks old, my daughter and I continued to feed them, burp them, and stimulate their hind end to urinate and defecate…just as their mother would do. We did all this every 2 – 2 1/2 hours around the clock for the first week. Today, the kittens will go roughly 3 – 3 1/2 hours before eating and a good 5-6 hour stretch through the night without being fed, and will potty and burp on their own. In addition, in the beginning we needed to keep them very warm, as when kittens are first born they cannot see, cannot hear, cannot potty on their own, and do not hold body heat. For about a week they slept with me…snuggling right into my body. I tried using a heating pad in the bottom of a box covered with a towel but the kittens kept crying – therefore in bed with me they came so I could catch a few winks until the next feeding. Talk about feeling like I had a newborn baby on my hands!

Feeding time at 4 weeks – look at her hold the bottle!

They’ve now learned how to hold the bottle, come crying at my feet when they are hungry or want someone to hold them. They were sleeping in their litter box…which I don’t get why…but have since moved themselves out and on the shelf under my desk where they lie on the router. They are being somewhat mothered by a 4 mo. old kitten we have. He cleans them up as if their mother would and has begun to play with them. They haven’t started to eat solid or wet food yet – they are very disinterested in both. I am hoping their new friend will show them the ropes so that they can move onto self-feeding.

For now though, they are thriving and I don’t see why they wouldn’t continue to thrive, given the care and love they are receiving. We’ve had several people wanting the kittens when the time comes – but these kittens are already spoken for by – ME!

Suggestions for names, anyone? There are two females and one male. The black kitten is the male. I like different names – we have a Mr. Mu, BBG, Studley Dudley, Miss Fabuleau, Dr. Who, Mr. Snapples, Snickers, Ollie Ollie, Nuzzles, Ella, Butter Butt, TuTu, and Dark Vader.

Prednisone – The Good – Bad Drug

Medical Monday

Jul 012011

Prednisone is a steroid as many of you may know. It’s a great drug for those who have breathing issues…the drug calms the airways. However, this Good – Bad drug has side effects that often times aren’t spoken of. I’d like to share our encounter with this med…maybe it could save you or someone you know from becoming panic stricken like I was.

Many years ago after my son had his inter-cranial shunt lengthened (tube used to drain fluid for hydrocephalus), he was sent home. Shortly after he started to cough and vomit all night long. He was given anti-biotics and Prednisone. To make a long story short, this was in November and come January the doctors still had no answers as to why he was having these symptoms, and referred us to a much bigger facility in NH to be seen by a pediatric pulmunologist.

While waiting to go to this appointment, Ryan was weaned off the prednisone – which one has to be weaned of. Good enough, except…I thought Ryan was dying. He stopped talking, stopped laughing, – stopped everything! He was not my Ryan. After spending an afternoon calling every doctor I knew, all the while crying my eyes out, I told them I thought he was dying. I finally got this one nurse on the phone who asked what meds he’d been on recently…I told her. She immediately said, “Sue…he’s having withdrawal from the Prednisone. He was on it so long his body is having withdrawals even though he was weaned from it. Give him a week or so, and he should be just fine.” I did…and he was. If I had only known…I wouldn’t have thought he was dying, I wouldn’t have spent an afternoon calling all the healthcare providers he was hooked up with and I certainly wouldn’t have been in a state of panic for days thinking he was dying.

That was our first negative experience with prednisone. Recently we had another. After being hospitalized for post-viral pneumonia where he was intubated and on the IV form of prednisone for 12 days, he was sent home with it for me to wean him off. Good enough. Ryan seemed good until he started having issues again and was put back on it for a week. No more than did he come off it and Ryan was back to doing a lot of coughing. Back to the doctors we go. This time I was told his 02’s were fine (oxygen levels) and the anti-biotic he was put on is still working…but she felt the prednisone was the culprit of what was going on. She told me when one is put on prednisone, it shuts down the body from fighting whatever infection is going on. Then when one comes off it, the body picks up where it left off, thus seeing the symptoms of regression. Well…had I only known, I wouldn’t have freaked at the whole deal thinking he’d have to be intubated once again. I wouldn’t have had him back in for another visit quite so soon. Within a few days – he was fine.

I also learned many years ago from when my son’s great-grandfather was on it during his cancer treatments , the drug causes the skin to thin and bruise easily. For grandpa…he also had all these sores on his body the size of a dime to a quarter in diameter. After Ryan came home from the hospital stay, when shaving him he would get a terrible rash and bleed. I knew right away the cause and didn’t panic. Three months later…the skin is getting better but it’s still not where it was before all the prednisone was given.

I hope I’ve learned all there is to know about this drug and it’s horrible side effects that aren’t spoken about. If you know something I don’t (other than the real common side effects such as bloating) please tell me. I don’t want any more surprises!

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