• WordPress Audio Player: Provides a sleek flash player for all my mp3 links. (example)
• Fallen Media Filter: Lets me embed pretty much any type of video or audio I would like with shortcodes. Old, but effective. (example)
• Google Analytics for WordPress: Posts my Analytics code properly so I don't have to edit every time I change themes.
• Header and Footer: Allows me to place custom code in my header and footer so I don't have to edit every time I change themes. Right now I use it to link my Pavatar on the off chance I visit a site that actually incorporates it.
• OpenID: Incorporates an OpenID provider and consumer into my blog. I can sign in/comment on other websites using my blog as an OpenID, and you can leave comments with yours. This requires XRDS-Simple, so I have that installed too. I used phpMyID at one time, but it did not allow my blog to be a consumer.
• Simple Facebook Connect: Allows you to leave comments via your Facebook profile. This plugin contains many modules for additional functionality.
• Simple Twitter Connect: Allows you to leave comments via your Twitter account. This plugin also contains modules for additional functionality.
• Spam Karma 2: This plugin hasn't been in development for over two years, yet it still dominates at separating the wheat from the chaff.
• Subscribe to Comments: Allows users to receive e-mail updates to comment replies.
• WP Social Blogroll: This is a great feed-reading blogroll for WordPress. It duplicates the functionality found in Blogger's sidebar.

Most of my readers come from Facebook, though, and leave comments on the imported notes there. Now, they can leave comments straight on the blog via Facebook Connect (thanks to Otto's amazing Simple Facebook Connect plugins). Just by using the "connect with Facebook" button, you can log in via facebook to leave comments. This will also allow you to publish your comments to your feed, if you choose.

If anyone is willing to test this comment system for me, feel free to give it a go on this post.

Thanks!

-Lloyd

Nonetheless, Google's Blogger offers a lot of nifty features, and sometimes I get jealous when WordPress can't match up. One such feature is the blog list. Essentially, it is a feed aggregator that takes the form of a dynamic link list. My suspicion is that Google runs a specialized version of Reader to accomplish this. At the time of this writing, WordPress does not have this functionality included in the core version.

After much searching, I found Jan Weinschenker's Feed Reading Blogroll plugin. It does require some setup, but if you are savvy enough to host your own blog, you can probably handle it. (I am not sure if you can do this with a wordpress.com blog, as you need to be able to install the plugin.)

First, it requires that you obtain a key for Google's AJAX Feed API. This is easily done and only requires a Google account.

There is an option to enable feed discovery through the Google API, and that works very well. It appears that the favicon image can be automatically discovered too, but for some reason the widget would not display it. I had to define each link's favicon url in the link editor to get it to work; that can be tedious. My only other complaint is that some of the plugin's setup options are redundant, and it's hard to tell at first which takes precedent.

Overall, I'm very pleased that a plugin exists to match Blogger's blog list. Hopefully this will keep someone else from having to search as long as I did.

This morning Chris' lesson was a comparison of the first chapter of Joshua and Matthew 28. Namely, the need for Christians to have a little testicular fortitude when it comes to doing the work that God sets out for us. Since Christ went back to the Father, that work has been to spread the good news about Him, and teach what He taught.

I appreciated especially that Chris was not ambiguous. He wasn't talking about the vague, all encompassing Church that we can criticize without feeling too bad, because deep down we know it is really all the other Christians out there with the problem, and not us. No, he was talking to the congregation that meets at Gulf Breeze.

Maybe it struck me personally because for the last couple of months, courage (or more accurately, fear) has been on my heart when I talk to God. How can I claim to trust God if my heart is plagued with fear, uncertainty, and doubt?. Sometimes, I wonder, "do I have what it takes to be a minister of the gospel?" ('minister' does not necessarily mean 'pulpit preacher'). The fact is, it has nothing to do with what I have or don't have. It has to do with whether God has called me. That's always the real issue. If God has made the call, He will certainly provide the means to answer it. If you haven't heard any calls, you may need to check your voicemail.

Enough sermonizing. After services tonight, in my weekly ping pong match with Chris, I finally won a set. That brings my record to 1 and some very large number. I'm fairly sure he was doped up on pain killers for his back, but I'll take what I can get.

Today was Mom's birthday and tomorrow is Dad's. May is definately the month for being born if you are in my family. Unless you are me. Then it's August.

My goals for this week are:

• Set aside some time each day to pray instead of doing it randomly.
• Buy a digital camcorder to get ready for Focus.
• Mail out some things that have been in my room for a month now, such as Harkabus' photo CDs.
• Work some miracles with CSS so my Free Travel page won't look so bad.

I'll leave you with 2 Kings 7:9. The Samaritan lepers had it right: "Then they said to one another, 'What we are doing is wrong. This is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the morning light, we will be found guilty; therefore let us go and tell the king's household.'" Ever since Christ was raised from the dead, every day is a day of good news.