Arunn asked if I would post which plugins I used for my category and archives dropdown boxes. I thought about it, and decided to post all of the plugins I’m currently using, and what I’m using them for. After experimenting with a host of different plugins, there are a few that I simply can’t do without.

A few of the “bells and whistles” that I’m using are not plugins, however.

The music player (the little blue arrow next to my music file titles) is a Del.icio.us script. It works really well, and is browser/OS non-specific. Clicking on the arrow (instead of the song title) immediately begins to play the song. No one needs to download or have any music players for it to work. All I needed to do to use it is put the following piece of code in the header.php file:

< script type="text/javascript" src="http://del.icio.us/js/playtagger">< /script>

It has to be placed just before the < /header> closing tag. You would need to remove the spaces to make the script work.

The Archives dropdown box feature is also not a plugin. Here’s how I did that:

< li>< h2>< ?php _e('Archives'); ?>< /h2>

< form id="archiveform" action="">
< select name="archive_chrono" onchange="window.location =
(document.forms.archiveform.archive_chrono
[document.forms.archiveform.archive_chrono.selectedIndex].value);">
< option value=''>Select Month
< ?php get_archives('monthly','','option'); ?>
< /select>
< /form>
< /li>

Please note that I’ve added a space in front of each command so that it would not be interpreted by the parser instead of printed to the screen, and I added a new line between “chrono” and “[document.forms.” in order to fit it all onto the screen. You would paste that bit into your sidebar, wherever you’d like the box to appear. For more information on how to further customize your Archives, see the following Word Press help files: get_archives and wp_get_archives.

And now, for my plugins:

Inserts a quicktag toolbar on the blog comment form. By Owen Winkler.

Active - The HTML buttons above the comment text entry field. Can’t do without them.

AJAX-ified tagboard. Derived from the “Jalenack’s Wordspew” plugin by Andrew Sutherland (http://blog.jalenack.com). This version has been modified to use the Wordpress comment systems to store the messages, in order to allow the normal spam prevention measures you use to automatically apply to your tagboard as well. By Jared Bangs.

Active - Nice shout box, but I need to get the Quick Tag Buttons off from it. Also available as a Widget.

This plugin will add a list of the most frequent comments posted to your blog. They are gathered in descending order (newest at the top), but then group them together by post title, so that comments from the same post are listed together. The list items will be links to the comments, and will contain the name of the commenter. Derived from the “Top/Recent Commenters” plugin by Scott Reilly (http://www.coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/) By Jared Bangs.

Active - most configurable of those I tried. Also available as a Widget.

Replacement function for getting fancy archives that use javascript for collapsable year links By Andrew Rader.

Not Active - I really liked this one, but some of the other plugins interfere with it, and I wasn’t able to make it work consistently.

View your website activity in real time. By Sean Hickey.

Active - This plugin rocks! ‘Nuf said!

Activate to supply users with a live comment preview. Use the function < ?php live_preview() ?> to display the live preview in a different location. By Jeff Minard & Iacovos Constantinou.

Active - This shows what your comment is going to look like in real time underneath the comment entry box. I always hate publishing a comment on someone else’s blog if I can’t see what it’s going to look like ahead of time - I make too darn many typos! ;o)

Adds A Poll Feature To WordPress By GaMerZ.

Active - Nice little poll program, simple to use … well integrated into Word Press. Also available as a Widget.

Simple script for choosing a random header image By Patrick David.

Not Active - This is not what I was using with my last theme. That one had a random header built into the theme itself, using a Kubrick Default Theme base. I may try this one out for changing my little moofs in the top right of the blog.

Ultimate Spam Killer for WordPress. Activate the plugin and go to Manage >> Spam Karma 2 to configure. See Spam Karma 2 >> About for details. By dr Dave.

Active - This is, hands down, the best comment spam plugin I’ve ever seen. If I could find something by this fellow for my emails, I’d get it in a heart beat. I haven’t had to think of my comment spam since I put this in. Somehow, it’s managed to sort the real comments from the spam consistently from day one. Once a day or so, it sends me an email with a link to the control page - letting me know how many spams it’s caught, and I log in and make sure they’re really spam before getting rid of them. Absolutely amazing.

Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites. By Peter Harkins.

Active - This is the one that puts those cute little buttons in between the post and comments. I first saw them used on Light Along the Journey … Dr. Hollandsworth was kind enough to tell me which plugin he was using. Personally, I use Shadows and Del.icio.us for my social bookmarking, and this makes it quite handy.

Adds A Useronline Feature To WordPress By GaMerZ.

Not Active - Haven’t tried this one out yet. Not sure I want to, since the same feature is available through some of the external tracking sites I link to. We’ll see. Also available as a Widget.

On-demand backup of your WordPress database. By Scott Merrill.

Active - Default Word Press Plugin. Much nicer than the usual way of backing up your SQL database!

This plugin allows you to embed random quotes into your pages. It also has a spiffy management tool in the administrative console. By Dustin Barnes.

Active - But not in use … yet. Haven’t decided quite what to do with it. I had humorous comments in the sidebar of my last public blog, and rather more serious comments in the header of my Emanon’s Journey blog. I may or may not use these again. They are very intuitive, easy to use, configurable, and well integrated into Word Press.

Displays a dropdown list of links for every link category. By Corrado “Zelig”.

Not Active - Worked exactly as described, but I decided that I prefer to have my links openly available for perusal. If you want your blogroll tucked away, this is a great plugin.

Displays the categories in the sidebar as a simple dropdown list (select box) with the option to exclude some categories from the list. By Corrado “Zelig”.

Active - Excellent little plugin! Works as promised. Fairly configurable. I’m quite happy with it. My only wish would be to limit the width of the box.

Spent most of the day bringing my blog up to speed.

I’ve added a shoutbox, although I’m not done working on it yet. It’s at the top of the right sidebar. You can use all sorts of HTML in it - including font formatting, like color, and so on. I’m trying to get rid of the quick tag buttons, they’re just too big. I spent the better part of the day trying to figure that one out … and I finally wrote to the fellow who made the plug in for help. Hopefully he’ll know what to do.

The music is all back in again, including the French music on the “Mots” page. I hope to be able to start posting new French songs again soon. I’ve also put the other songs back in - they’re in the left sidebar. I added a few new ones … “You Raise Me Up”, sung by Josh Groban, and “Going to Another Place”, currently my favorite instrumental by Mannheim Steamroller.

In the left sidebar, I’ve added a “Most Recent Posts” and a “Recent Comments” … and I’ve tidied up my Categories and Archives by putting them into a “drop down” box. Most of you have probably noticed that I added a poll to the left sidebar sometime last week.

Thought I’d never get the chance to get in here and straighten things out! Still a few things I want to fix up, but I’m pretty happy with it right now.

I’m almost ready to tackle one of my other blogs … I have four of my own to work on still. It may be a minute or two before I get to do that though …

I hate it when real life interferes with my blogging! >;o)

This one’s for Pk, TJ, Cathy and Lakshmi … who are “Stereogram challenged!” ;o)

Note that what you’re looking for is in 3-D, and is in the very center of the stereogram. Also, it takes up a full 1/3 of the stereogram in height and width. I promise that you’ll ♡ it when you see it!

You need to relax, and not try real hard … just look at the picture and let your eyes lose their focus. It took me a long time to be able to “see” these. I really did believe that my kids were pulling my leg, trying to make me think I was crazy. Once I “saw” the first one, I became an avid stereogram addict! I have MEGS of them on my computer.

And Scan Man, if your star in the last one had 8 sides instead of 7, it could be that your window size shrunk the stereogram. That can distort the picture. The last one had a width of 600. This one is too wide for my blog, so I’ve put it on a separate page: it’s 800 px wide.

Good luck!

Last week, I wrote a post asking my readers: “Alzheimer’s … How Soon Do You Really Want to Know?” My comment section quickly filled with a myriad of opinions, personal stories, and even a few questions and statements regarding the possibility of planning an “exit” … if, when, and how …

Dr. Schwab introduced the idea in his comment, and some of the commenters picked up on his question, pro and con …

The following comments will tell the story:

Sid Schwab Says:
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:45 pm

Timely. I just got a call from my brother, asking if there were such a test. He and I are watching our mom descend through the disease, and it seems he’s had the same thought as I: if you could tell it was coming, and if you could find the perfect time to intervene on your own behalf (putting it as delicately as possible), would you? That’s the impossible part: seeing your future and picking a time….

(Emphasis by Moof)

It’s me, T.J. Says:
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:54 pm

I am sorry for the pain and suffering.

Is there an easy answer?

No.

I believe that I would find myself praying to God, asking him to lead me and guide me through it all.

Because there is no way, in my simple wisdom, that I would know the right things to do, or not to do.

We aren’t strong enough, or wise enough, to hold the fate of a human life in the palm of our hands.

To ponder such things seems difficult enough.

later…

wolfbaby Says:
August 4th, 2006 at 12:20 am

I don’t believe I would want to know if my candle were flickering
Certainly not if it were going out
surprise me.
Take me in the middle of the night with no warning…

Julie Says:
August 5th, 2006 at 2:42 am

This disease is so difficult for everyone concerned. My mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s at the same time as lung cancer metastasized to the brain. She was in grief for her cancer over and over again because she forgot she had it. We were fortunate that her demise was swift.

My husband saw another person with the end stage disease and decided that if he ever learned he had the disease he would not want to go on living. I am not so certain as he is.

[…]

scan man Says:
August 6th, 2006 at 11:41 am

Moof, You have this great gift of coming up with posts with some moral / ethical dilemma at the core.
I sympathize with all of those above who have experienced first-hand what Alzheimer’s does to loved ones.
In spite of all the legal / moral / ethical / religious issues, I believe I would opt to go out on my terms while I was still being me.

‘Cogito ergo sum.’
‘Non-cogito ergo zero.’

In an email exchange with Dr. Schwab, I asked if he would be willing to answer his own question. He not only graciously did so, he also later gave me permission to use parts of our email exchanges. Here is Dr. Schwab’s answer to “If you could tell it was coming, and if you could find the perfect time to intervene on your own behalf (putting it as delicately as possible), would you?”

As to me, well, I think about it a lot. In theory, I’d want to be able to pick the right time and go for the exit. I’ve thought about how. I’ve thought about whether it’s possible to find the perfect window of opportunity: if you see it coming but don’t feel ready, you may lose you chance to be able to make such a decision: you have to jump off the down escalator at the perfect moment. Or error on the side of jumping too soon, because too late is too late.

I wasn’t expecting to see the issue come up in the Alzheimer’s comments, and I was surprised by how many people referenced it. So - let’s explore this a bit: if you could tell it was coming, and if you could find the perfect time to intervene on your own behalf, would you?

What are the moral, social and religious implications?

If you do think suicide would be acceptable, do you believe physicians should be allowed to “help?” Perhaps that would obviate the need for timing?

If you feel that it’s not acceptable, would you be willing to share why you feel that way?

I want to thank Dr. Schwab for all of his input.