No self-respecting blogger or designer would be without a decent FTP program. FireFTP was easy to set up, it quickly transfers your programs, and runs right in a browser tab/window. I may never go to another program again. I like the interface. It’s simple to use and it gets the job done. And, it has a cool logo. That’s reason enough to download it.

HTML Validator

Forget online validators. They’re too much hassle. HTML Tidy lets you validate as soon as you change the code. Plus, you can see if any blog or site on the Internet is validated. This has been invaluable when theme designing. I no longer have to check my code through an online validator if something goes wrong.

StumbleUpon Toolbar

StumbleUpon has become one of the most popular social bookmarking sites. I get a large portion of my traffic through this service and believe that this can be used as effectively as Digg or Reddit as a great source of traffic. Easily add those great articles you write and let someone stumble upon it today and tomorrow and sometime next week.

Brief

There are a lot of different options when it comes to feed readers. It’s no different when it comes to Firefox add-on feed readers either. I’ve tried out a few, but have come to love Brief for its simplicity. There aren’t a lot of options. It’s a straightforward reader. Bloggers definitely need to keep up with what’s going on around the Web and the sites in their niche.

AdSense Notifier

Do you visit Google AdSense five minutes or so? Stop worrying about how much money you’re making. Now, you can take a quick glance down at your bottom toolbar and see that extra 2-cents you made in the last hour. Then, you can get back to working on the things that matter, like actual content for your blog.

del.icio.us Bookmarks

If you don’t have a del.icio.us account, then you need to stop reading this article and get one now. A great bookmarking system is essential for all bloggers and designers. This tool lets you quickly add bookmarks to your del.icio.us account. There is an integrated sidebar for your browser that lets you browse your bookmarks on the fly.

Download Statusbar

I seem to always be downloading something new. Whether it be a plugin or piece of javascript that seems cool. The Download Statusbar keeps those downloads in a convenient spot on the bottom of the browser window, showing the download progresss also. You don’t have to immediately deal with the file once it downloads, but you won’t forget about it because it’ll be in your statusbar.

There you have it. Seven invaluable Firefox add-ons for blogging and designing. What Firefox add-ons do you use to make your blogging and/or designing experience happier? I’m always looking for new tools to work with.

This thing has more options than anything I’ve ever seen. It even lets you add a logo over the video. I particularly like the floating controls it offers. Plus, everything can be overwritten for each video you post to your blog.

I was actually looking for a good video player for my site the other day when I posted crappy films to the flash format and use this player to show them from my site.

After that, I will add it to my next news/magazine WordPress theme.

The main reason I wanted to use a video plugin was because I want to host my own videos. Why would I want to do that when there are so many different ways to host videos off-site and embed them into my blog posts? Sure, it uses more bandwidth if someone plays it from my site, but that’s not my concern. I want full creative control over what is displayed and how it’s displayed. Plus, what if the site that hosts my video shuts down (that’s a big “what if” with YouTube), but if it does happen, I’ll have to find another place to host my video — that’s such a hassle.

Mostly, I want control. I’ll probably still upload any videos I happen to make to YouTube, but I want to have control over what’s on my site.

I like to have everything on my site. That’s why I took down my Flickr feed and am in the process of putting together a photoblog. There are always some limits when using a third-party to host videos, photos, or other files because you have to agree to their terms of service, are limited by how much you can upload, and what extra features you can add.

What do you think? Would you rather host your own videos or go through a third-party? Would you rather have more creative control or are you perfectly content without outside services?

If you follow WordPress theme designer blogs then there’s probably little chance that you’ve missed the big showdown happening between Small Potato (WP Designer) and Adii.

I’ve followed both of these young designers since they’ve been designing WordPress themes and consider both to be at the top of the WordPress designer list. My two favorites, actually. I’ve never compared them because their styles are so different. Both were even mentioned in my Weekly Roundup. I’m fairly certain they were the first two to get added to my new feed reader.

Now, there seems to be a war going on, and nobody’s the winner here.

Small Potato lit the fire and it turned out to be more than just a little flame. It became an all-out explosion. He was reviewing Unique Blog Designs, a website boasting designs of John Chow and Shoemoney, and didn’t have a lot of nice words to say. Adii releases some of his themes on that site, and what became of Small Potato’s review seemed an almost personal attack on Adii himself, a good friend and fellow designer.

Obviously, UBD’s main designer for the “exclusive themes” is subtlety-intolerant, contrast-intolerant, design-flow-intolerant, and focus-intolerant.

He earlier references the main designer as none other than Adriaan Pienaar (Adii). Excuse me if he was talking about someone other than Adii in this quote. I’m writing this post because of it.

I’ve had some time to give this a little thought and look at it from several different angles. While Small Potato has every right to say what he wants on his blog, he crossed a line that no one should cross with a friend. The line he stepped over was going from a brutally honest review to a personal attack. He reviewed the designer and not the design when he typed those words.

I don’t want to take sides, even though it looks as if I have by my previous words. What I want to do is call for some sort of a truce, a peaceful solution to all this because I don’t want to split any of the WordPress community.

That’s exactly what could happen in this case. If you’re a reader of their blogs, then you almost feel obligated to take a side. You want to reassure somebody that they’re “right.” The WordPress community is what gets hurt here.

I will continue reading each blog because I like both of their designs (and both people). I just hope that, once all this settles down, they can overcome their differences and become friends once again.

Let’s make WordPress peace, not WordPress war!

By the way, I really only wanted to write this post to show off my “peace” and “war” WordPress icons. I was going for the hippie/tie-dye feel with the peace icon. Obviously the camouflage represents war, or hunting, or nature in general—I say war.

The event, or series of the same event, that caused this sudden change has to do with Internet Explorer 7. First off, I would like to say that I was quite pleased with IE’s newest version, but there was one major problem—its feed reader. Sure, it’s a new addition, but don’t offer me something that’s broken. Every time I saved a new feed, my browser crashed. I know, not the best of reasons, but I was feeling particularly ticked off with it. Plus, there are thousands of readers out there to use.

For a long time and for many different reasons, I’ve wanted to switch to Firefox, but just hadn’t gotten around to fixing my scrolling device (I couldn’t scroll down the pages). This had a simple solution—download the most recent Synaptics driver. That cleared the problem right up.

Thus far, I’ve enjoyed Firefox more than I’ve enjoyed any other browsing experience yet. However, I was a little sad to be leaving IE behind, and I kind of like their new style a little better. Well, there was a solution for that too. I found a cool theme, Vista-aero. My browsing experience was almost complete.

Firefox has plenty of add-ons. I spent nearly three hours testing out different add-ons to make my browsing a little happier. These are my current add-ons:

• Brief
  A simple feed-reading extension. It was just what I was looking for. You save feeds in one of your bookmark folders, and it loads them up from there, right in your browser window.
• Nanowrimo Meter
  Yes, I’ve decided to do National Novel Writing Month once again. So, look for some crappy fiction from me in November. This basically keeps a meter running on the bottom of the browser with how many words you’ve written.
• FireFTP
  I haven’t played around with this much, but it seems to be an easy tool for transferring files to my website. I can’t comment on it much until I’ve used it a little more.
• Adsense Notifier
  One of my favorites. Instead of constantly checking how much money I’ve made from Google Adsense by going to their website, I now have a running meter showing how much money I’m making (I might remove it because the numbers are depressing).

I know there are tons more add-ons out there, and probably more useful than the ones I’m currently using, but I like these extensions on my browser. They’re easy to add on to Firefox. If you have any add-on suggestions, feel free to share them. I’ll definitely try them out.

For my IE readers, don’t fear. I will not stop catering to your needs. I will still design everything in IE first because it’s always a little harder to code for. That’s the way I’ve always done it, and it works for me.

I’m off to explore a little more with my browser, maybe see what other options I have available. Oh, and don’t tell my web design friends that I’m just now making the move to Firefox. I might be the laughing stock of the web design community.

Today, however, I’m going to honor my favorite spammers by giving them a front page post. They spend a lot of time around here constantly trying to break through Akismet’s powerful barrier. They deserve a little link love for their efforts. I’ve included their e-mail, URL, and IP addresses (although I’m not sure if they’re actually real). Feel free to spam these people.

Click links at your own risk!

1. The Anti-Spammer

   The Anti-Spammer is always willing to help me get rid of spam by emailing my domain name to an email address that he leaves. Yeah, like I’m going to send out my domain name to several more spammers. Let me open Outlook Express right now [insert sarcastic smiley]. The Anti-Spammer goes under several aliases, such as Alexlol, Alexpms, Alexfu, and many more.

   Alexevi | alexvn@gmail.com | google.com | IP: 80.58.205.36

   If you want do delete your site from our spam bases – just email us with domain of your site:
   alexvn
   thank you!

2. The Dummy

   The Dummy is one of my regulars. Apparently, he can’t understand any of my articles though, but he’s always willing to do more research. Although he’s a spammer, I applaud his efforts to try and break through Akismet’s iron wall. I often look forward to seeing which articles he tried to understand each day and often feel the need to explain in more detail what I blogged about.

   Daniel | k.daniel@msn.com | blog.tipsdrill.com | IP: 75.126.132.23

   I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Blogging Simply: Wordpress Theme, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

3. The Researcher

   The Researcher is another regular that’s always ready for some research, but he’s always got to wait until some random day next week when he’s off. The thing I like most about the Researcher is he always thinks I have “an interesting read.” At least someone enjoys my blog posts. The Researcher goes under many aliases also—Peter, Johnny, Debbie, and more.

   Designer Dude | harry389k@yahoo.com | designsfromnature.com | IP: 72.52.145.58

   Hi! I came across your blog posting after searching for top website design and your post on Facebooked: Wordpress Theme makes an interesting read. Thanks for sharing. I will research more next Wednesday when I have the day off.

4. The Quickie

   At first, I thought Quickie was a great spammer. He always commended me on my great posts. Sadly though, he wasn’t offering much to the overall conversation. He just pops in and out a few times a day to give me the same thing he always gives me, leaving me far less than satisfied. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed in your efforts Quickie. If only you would try just a little harder, put a little more effort in.

   www.DO-IT-YOURSELF-TIPS.com | info@vastvision.com | do-it-yourself-tips.com | IP: 69.89.31.128

   Great post about The Unnamed Girl File!

5. The Drug Lord

   I won’t bother fixing Drug Lord’s links since he is too lazy to switch his spam posts between blogs and forums. I had to cut off a bit of his comment because I’m fairly certain he listed 100 links or so. I’m just trying to figure out why so many people would need this much tramadol. It’s beyond me. Drug Lord, could you please explain? (The Drug Lord also sells phentermine, xanax, and vicodin.)

   zaraswok | zaraswok@bonbon.net | IP: 81.95.151.133

   That’s great. Havent ever seen such offer before. Cann’t believe it’s true. Click through the links below to check if this it not a dream!
   [b][URL=http://whytramadol.biz/archive/buy-tramadol.html]buy tramadol[/url][/b]
   [b][URL=http://whytramadol.biz/archive/tramadol-online.html]tramadol online[/url][/b]
   [b][URL=http://whytramadol.biz/archive/cheap-tramadol.html]cheap tramadol[/url][/b]…

6. The Loan Officer

   If the Loan Officer gave away as much money as he’s giving away on my blog, his company would be bankrupt within the first week. Apparently, they have this stuff stockpiled somewhere. It wouldn’t hurt for them to throw a little money into our educational and health care systems, since we have none.

   Cash Advance | admin@superiorcashadvance.com | horizoncashadvance.com | IP: 66.7.206.79

   United States Review Cash Advance Loan Article – Notably financial specialists provides latest authority in Cash Loans who focuses on cash advances ! Understand More Cash Advances = www.horizoncashadvance.com

7. The Gambler

   I feel inclined to help the Gambler by putting his comment on the front page because I think he probably loses more money than he gains. He always says he’s had a “lucky day,” but I think he’s a little embarrased about his financial needs. I can get a pretty good read on people though. I do believe that if he did in fact have a “lucky day” that he wouldn’t feel the need to spam my site. So, please, click on his link.

   Blackjack Guru | infor32t@yahoo.com | royaleblackjack.com | IP: 72.52.145.58

   Hello from Vegas! Just had a very lucky day. I came across your blog posting after searching for blackjack and your post on Cell Phone Tracking makes an interesting read. Thanks for sharing. I will research more next Wednesday when I have the day off. Off to the tables now.

8. The Red-Carpet Maniac

   This week it’s Vanessa Hudgens. It was Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in previous weeks. I can’t wait to see who the Red-Carpet Maniac is rolling out next week. Maybe Arielle Kebbel or Morena Baccarin. I don’t get enough spam about them. Send me a couple of links, and maybe I’ll check those out.

   SmeaxiaNamb | dgens-vanessa@mail.ru | hudgens-vanessa-nude.blogspot.com | IP: 64.34.164.205

   This the nice video and pictures… the vanessa anne hudgens naked:
   vanessa hudgens pictures vanessa hudgens vanessa hudgens scandal vanessa anne hudgens naked…

9. The Pornstar

   The spammer of every 14-year-old bloggers wet dream and every parents nightmare—The Pornstar. His links could do some serious damage to your Internet Explorer. You may never get rid of the pop-ups. Before you decide to reboot your computer, you may have 11 new programs installed. He offers everything from trannies to foot fetish to cartoon love.

   Gissensesig | ideowleneidib@mail.saratov.com | IP: 212.72.30.140

   ginger anal free anal mpegs
   strange anal insertions jenna jameson anal
   kinky anal shemale anal
   and more…

There you have it. My favorite spammers. Do you have any spammers of your own that visit your site regularly? Please don’t include links. I have enough of those.

1. Imagine – John Lennon
   This song almost speaks for itself. Mostly, I like the message of peace it sends out.
2. Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
   Became one of my favorites when I heard it played at the end of Cruel Intentions.
3. Drift Away – Dobie Gray
   The music just makes me feel good.
4. Song of the South – Alabama
   Reminds me of the stories my grandfather used to tell me about growing up. “Well somebody told us Wall Street fell, but we were so poor that we couldnt tell.” Almost an exact quote of what he told me one day.
5. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
   I can’t call myself an Alabamian without putting this on my list.
6. Fishin’ in the Dark – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
   One of those songs I’ve liked since I was younger. More “feel good” music.
7. Tiny Dancer – Elton John
   I’ve liked this since I’ve watched Almost Famous. Elton John is one of the best pianists I’ve ever heard.

Anyone who knows me, will understand that this is a hard decision because I have 100+ TV series on DVD. However, they also know that there’s a few shows that will always be my favorites. So, here’s my list:

1. Firefly
   Joss Whedon’s short-lived space-western. I can watch those 13 episodes over and over. It’s one series that doesn’t have a single episode I dislike. I always say, “If you haven’t experienced Joss, you haven’t lived.” His cast and crew worked great on this show.
2. Seinfeld
   I grew up on this show. It could easily be at the top of this list. I can almost recite every episode. Now, that’s dedication to a TV series.
3. Angel
   Yes, another Joss Whedon show. This is the best spin-off I’ve seen yet. It tops Buffy because it was more serious. It asked life’s great questions. It helped teach me that everything in life isn’t black and white.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
   This is here mostly because it introduced me to Joss Whedon (that’s 3 if you’re counting). It was the first TV show where I felt like the writers and directors built more on character development than plot.
5. Battlestar Galactica
   This is my current favorite. I initially picked it up because I was in a sci-fi mood. I figured it would be some B-rated series, but it turned out to be much more than that. I have a feeling it might be in my top list of shows for some time to come.

It’s very hard to stop typing names of shows right now. I could probably break it down into a top five in drama and sitcom, then further into a few sub-categories of each one. This list could change in a few years’ time. Or, tomorrow. I’m always looking for the show that can top this list.

What are your top 5 shows? Join the Mundane Monday Meme to let us know.

You can join in the game at Mundane Monday, a new meme for bloggers to participate in.

I’ll be doing “5 Things I Hate About Monday” because it’s just easier. You can join in the game at Mundane Monday, a new meme for bloggers to participate in.

1. Waking up early. This week more so because I’ve been lazy for a week during my Spring Break.
2. Realizing that I should’ve washed clothes over the weekend.
3. Preparing my lunch since I was too lazy to do it the night before. (Actually, that’s every day of the week.)
4. Introduction to Ethics class. It could quite possibly be the most boring class I’ve ever been in. And, I’ve had some that have put me to sleep.
5. Knowing that I’ve got 4 more days of this before I can relax again.