So, in a moment of boredom, earlier today I thought of a great idea… look for a potential new theme for this site. During that process, I had another genius idea; upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1!! To be honest, I have no idea what version I was running, but whatever version it was was kind of old, because I haven’t upgraded in a long time; if ever.
So I upgraded. Then the hilarity ensued. I fucked up by not deactivating my plugins, and low and behold, a tag plugin ate the blog. I deleted it, and we are up and running again; but I need to find another plugin I can use for that function (fyi, it was called Ultimate tag warrior). Then, the sidebar was all fucked up. I remember when widgets came on the scene, and being the late adopter I am with some things, I opted to wait it out… that was, until today when it fucked up my shit.
Well, I seem to have fixed it, and I am actually happy that it let’s you do a drop down list of categories and archives… I always thought they made the page look too stuffy. Anyway, I still haven’t found a theme I like (well, other than this one, which is the most beautiful theme I have ever seen… which is rather fitting, I guess, since he invented wordpress), so I might get crazy and try and tweak this one again. Sometimes, I am just never satisfied.
It’s that time again! Not only is it great to be at the end of the week, but it’s also time for another great installment of Five Song Friday! Woo hoo! Now, I have been giving some thought to the whole process of how and why I pick the songs that I do each week, and I must say, being limited to only you tube videos is highly frustrating; especially considering that there are many tracks I want to feature that do not have videos! So, I thought of a solution: after today, the five song Fridays will no longer be limited to just you tube videos! I have found a great plug in that will allow me to embed the mp3s right into the post, and I am going to start using them as I see fit (I’ll post a bonus sixth song to show you what I am talking about at the end of this post). Who knows, we might move away from you tube all together!
Also, as a reminder, if you want access to the songs that I have posted up until now, including today’s featured tracks, you have to let me know by comment or email. I will be happy to provide access at that point, but until anyone expresses interest, I will just assume that no one is interested!
Now, let’s get to the music, shall we?
This week, I have been listening a lot to the CDs that I was obsessing over last week (particularly Feist and Annie Lennox), but since there aren’t any “new” videos, I am probably going to focus on posting just some older, or fun stuff that I want to share. Either way, it is going to be a good time, because it doesn’t matter when music is made, so long as it is good, right? Also, it does a good service to bring older stuff back to the surface every now and then; I know that I am bad about forgetting a certain CD, and then being super excited when it is brought back into the spotlight!
Will Young – All Time Love
First up today is a blast from the not-so-distant past: the video for All Time Love by Will Young. I remember the first time that I heard this song, it literally gave me chills it was so good. I still love this song so much every time I hear it, and I honestly think that it is one of my all time favorites. It also got me to give the whole album a second chance (an initial listen wasn’t good), which I was glad that I did, because I really love the whole album. Will Young is a great singer, and I can’t wait for some new stuff from him.
Westlife – Home
Next up is the new single from my favorite boy band, Westlife. I absolutely LOVE this song by Michael Buble, and I have to say, Westlife can definitely turn out a cover of a song; as they did again with this great song. I have been a fan of theirs for years, and can’t wait for their new album. Until then, I will have to gaze into Shane’s beautiful eyes, and just dream that he is coming “home” to me… *swoon*
Kleerup feat. Robyn – With Every Heartbeat
This is an updated video for the amazing single With Every Heartbeat, which should end up in my “singles of the year” list, simply because of how amazing it is. Since she made a splash back in the 90s, she disappeared almost completely in America, but luckily, I rediscovered Robyn earlier this year. I think that acts like her bring the best in pop music, and given songs like this one, as well as her newest release, she has definitely got my attention. I hope that she makes a second splash in the US, because Robyn is definitely amazing.
Alicia Keys – No One
Alicia is one of those artists that truly broke the record set by many artists in the past; which was, if you won the best new artist Grammy, you practically disappeared… but not Alicia. After seeing her perform this song on the VMAs this year, I was in love with the song. I have always been impressed with her amazing voice, and her crazy talent; and this song is no exception. I may have to pick up her new album… Alicia definitely has that same feeling and intensity artists like Mary J have, and I for one, love me a diva.
Annie Lennox – Cold
Last, but certainly not least, is an older track by Annie Lennox. As I said earlier, I am really enjoying her new album, which is fantastic. I have loved Annie Lennox for a long time, and love how unique she is as an artist. Her voice is sheer beauty, and I could just listen for hours to her sing. This song is honestly one of my favorites of all time. The song Cold is from her first solo album Diva, which is about as appropriately titled as it can get; Annie truly is a DIVA.
I hope everyone is having a great Friday, and I hope you enjoyed this week’s five song Friday, I know I did! Again, if you are interested in getting the music, let me know! Finally, here is what songs will look like if they are posted directly, without the video; which again, will be used in instances where I want to share a song and not have to worry about whether it has a video or not (which I am finding to be VERY limiting): Jennifer Hudson – And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going
[audio:http://www.duanemoody.com/audio/and_im_telling_you_im_not_going.mp3]
Let me know what you think of the “new” music format, and as always, it’s a pleasure exposing people to new (or old and fantastic) music! Have a great weekend!
Update: Good grief. More frustration just in: Here’s another way to get frustrated; you realize that these are the people that are leading the country, and that they probably think that this is true. Tony Snow says that the Congress doesn’t have oversight of what the White House does. Hmm… I’m pretty sure that is the point of having a Congress, but then again, I’m not the press secretary, so maybe I got it wrong. Frustrating indeed. I guess we could just get rid of Congress you know, and then Bush could be the dictator he always wanted to be. That way, no one would be able to weigh in on any decisions that he makes, and he could just do whatever he wanted! Geez… what tyrants these boys keep proving themselves to be!
Right now, the number one way I am making myself frustrated, is trying to figure out how to change some of the things on my blog template. I feel like the side bar is extremely cluttered, and I wanted to get a drop down menu thing going on for the categories and the archives. But it doesn’t seem to be a solution out there that doesn’t require me to be an expert at PHP. I have toyed around with all of the suggestions I could find, and ended up more frustrated than anything, because nothing worked. Also, I don’t know if you have seen the files for the wordpress theme K2 or not, but when I click on edit, and it displays the code, I start to have the shakes and go into a pre-convulsive state.
I managed to learn quite a lot when I first started blogging, mainly, updating my HTML skills to moderate from easy, and learning all I could about CSS. The result was that I was able to edit and develop the template that I liked the most, and I was even lucky enough to stumble onto helpful solutions (the same drop down menu problem as now, was solved before). But I just feel lost right now. I mean, PHP seems SOOO confusing to me, mainly because it is this completely foreign code. I totally get CSS, but PHP is miles above my head.
Is there anyone out there that feels my frustration and wants to lend a helpful hint as to how I can A) learn some PHP so that I can do this myself, and B) point me in a direction where I will be able to find the solution? I am tired of going around in circles on the forums trying to see if anyone else has the same issue, only to see that they too never got it resolved.
I am also interested in maybe designing my own template, not because I don’t like K2 (because I really do), but because I don’t want to be limited in the future because of this template.
And that’s where I am sitting at this Friday afternoon. I hope everyone else is have a good day. One final note, yesterday, James and I met some old friends for beers after work, and it was definitely a great time. All of us haven’t gotten together in quite a while, and it was really nice to reconnect, and it made me realize that it has been too long. I hope that this is a sign that we will all start doing more things together, because good friends are certainly hard to come by, and when you have them, life is good.
