You Don't Need to be a Professional Geek or HTML Diva to use WordPress

You don't need any great knowledge of HTML or CSS to make and maintain a site on Blogger or WordPress.

I never learned more than a touch of code, or any more than I needed to actually use to understand the general language. It really is a language, just a bit more mathematical than you're used to with day to day English.

If I really need something I find it online and just copy and paste it in where it says to put it. There are loads of great guides on how to do more with WordPress. But, really, just find a plugin and forget it is simpler than dealing with the actual code. Why reinvent the wheel?

I've been using WordPress from the first year it existed. I don't claim to be an expert but I've got experience and common sense for whatever the experience doesn't cover. I run half a dozen sites on my own domains with WordPress. …more

My sister-in-law, Miss Karol, sent me the link to write for SheKnows. I think they are looking for the domestic Goddess, Mother blogger types. But, I sent in a note anyway. I'm working on the 'what can it hurt' theory.

This is what I sent:

Tonight I'm listening to Godzilla roar and knock over most of Tokyo (via Roku) while I change WordPress themes. I'm craving a really good, juicy steak or possibly a rich, gooey chocolate cake. I'm almost 50 (December) and I'm trying to lose weight. It's not easy. But, divorce wasn't easy. Not having children when I thought I'd have at least 5 of them at one point, was not easy. Looking forward to menopause is not easy - but sometimes I do look forward to it.

I'd like to write for SheKnows because I like to try new things. Also, I'd like to see more women my age, my weight and spinster-like, have a voice. I know I'm not the only woman my age online. Yet most of the blogs and sites I read seem to be written by women who are forever 20-something with high heels and small, adorable children.

That's 148 words so I will skip right to the links and writing background.

These are my own sites - in various stages of revamping and repair:\

• http://wordgrrls.com\
• http://thatgrrl.ca\
• http://asciiartist.com\
• http://onlineroadtrip.com\ There are more but these four are in better shape. Especially as I have just been ripping up my themes and sidebar clutter tonight.

I have written for other networks, most of which are gone now. I currently write for Squidoo and HubPages (off and on). You can find links to these accounts and my social media in the top navigation bar on my sites. Also, on Word Grrls the About page has details about sites I have written for in my earlier days online (1996 to now).

My name is Laura Brown and I Am Canadian! (I love that video on YouTube). My email is thatgrrl@gmail.com or Twitter me @thatgrrl. My phone is not mobile - but it is very obedient.

Thanks for reading!

Laura

I really was watching Godzilla tonight too. It gave me the idea for a post which I wrote on Word Grrls.

Where did the idea of a thinking cap first come from? Someone had to start that idea.

As it turns out the origin of thinking cap was actually considering cap and that has been lost.

Lost, because people don't use it and lost because it's own origins are too far back to be remembered. Considering cap does seem older, which I like. It also describes the idea better. Considering things, rather than just thinking in general.

A 'thinking cap' was previously known by the appealing name a 'considering cap'. That term has gone entirely out of use now but was known since at least the early 17th century, as in this example from Robert Armin in Foole upon foole, 1605:

"The Cobler puts off his considering cap, why sir, sayes he, I sent them home but now."

via - The Phrase Finder

So, what does a considering cap look like? Is it decorative or plain? What gadgets and gizmos are on it? Does smoke come out of it if/ when it gets going or has been used too long? Is it heavy, shiny, red...?

Thanks to the wonders of science we now have teleportation, much like the old Star Trek series. A beam of light moves people nearly instantly from one place to another. Halfway around the world and back again in less than a minute - if you want to accept the risk of scrambling your brains. There are warnings posted about over use and the effects on the human mind. But, everyone ignores the warnings and charges in to be the first to try something new.

When you get to the head of the line you are asked where you want to go. So, where do you want to go, first? You can't travel in time, yet, but anywhere on the planet (as long as you can breathe when you get there) is open to you. Stay as long or as little as you like, your return pass is not dated.

I'm reading Frankenstein.

I picked an edition which includes a lot of extras, mostly about Mary Shelley, the author and her life. Did you know her Mother wrote a classic book about women and women's rights long before it became a popular issue? Mary was a liberated woman herself. Yet, these ideals must have been given to her from her Father (William Godwin) because she never met her Mother. Mary Wollstonecraft died just after giving birth to her daughter. How did that form Mary and what did it add to her story about creating life, death and regret?

I picked Frankenstein as my classic fiction book to read this year because I do find the theory of reanimating life, animals able to grow back body parts and cloning interesting. Modern science is doing the same sort of research still. I don't think we really do hear about all that goes on in various laboratories around the world. Likely, there are still horror stories being written in the name of science (fame and fortune too).

Did you Know Frankenstein Will be 200 Years Old in 2018?

Frankenstein, the book, is almost 200 years old. The original story was published in 1818, a third edition came out in 1831. This was the final edition, with all her rewrites and additions to the story.

As I read Frankenstein, I am enjoying a glimpse of the past and the old style of writing. It really is more like prose, lines of poetry, than our style of plainer writing these days. I wonder if people also spoke that way or was the writing just that bit more formal.

My nephew, Zack, read Frankenstein for school and said he hated it. I think he just didn't like the style of writing, the prose which goes on and on about scenery and emotions rather than pressing on to move the story ahead or dwell on gruesome details. We are used to such a different way of telling a story these days - this does make it harder to read a book written 200 years ago.

Still I am enjoying the read, the adventure back in history and the idea of recreating life from something dead and how that could work out if I were to write my own story of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein: Read it or Watch it

In the later editions of Mary Shelley's book publishers had her revise the story, make it less shocking for people of the day. You can still find copies of the book, the original story from 1818. However, in the edition I'm reading the actual process of creating the monster is not written about in anything near to the detail which it has been given in the Frankenstein movies.

Also, it's interesting that the books consider the monster to be named Frankenstein. If people refer to Frankenstein they usually mean the monster created by Victor Frankenstein. Actually, in the mind of Victor Frankenstein himself he thinks he is the monster for creating this creature, or daemon has he refers to it more than once in the book.

Frankenstein in Film 1910 and Onwards.

From 1910 to the current I, Frankenstein movie trailer, you can find many versions of Frankenstein to watch. But, read the book at some point. It's the original and the inspiration for all the versions of Frankenstein which have come along since Mary Shelley published her story.

Life Without Soul was the second movie made from Frankenstein but there are no known copies of it surviving.

There had been a theatre production in 1826.