Recently I had an issue where I could no longer update packages. The system was responding normally, but after digging around, I found that the /boot partition was 100% full.

After digging around on Google for a while, I found this little gem.

 dpkg --get-selections|grep 'linux-image*'|awk '{print $1}'|egrep -v "linux-image-$(uname -r)|linux-image-generic" |while read n;do apt-get -y remove $n;done

This finds all the linux-image that are in your /boot partition and one-by-one removes them.

Clearing out the /boot partition on Ubuntu Server is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

One reason WordPress is so successful as a blogging and CMS platform is due to the community of developers dedicated to making it great.

WordPress themes has a great infographic designed by “Charts” on 30 of the most successful plugins in the official database that exceeds 22,000 plugins.

Some of my favorites are listed below.

WordPress Most Popular Plugins (Infographic) is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

If you’ve ever needed or tried to move the C:\Users directory or other default Windows® directories to another place other than the default one, you know it can be quite difficult.

I’ve tried to Google this, and talk to others about doing it. What seemed to be such a simple request also seemed to be difficult to pull off. That’s when a brilliant (nearly the smartest man I know) told me about hard links & junction links in windows. Think of them like symbolic links in Mac or *nix systems.

• C:\dira linked to C:\dirb
• D:\dir1\ to C:\dir2\dir3

The great thing about using hard links in Windows is that it acts as if the data is still there. In the example above, when you’re browsing C:\dira the system will act as if you’re really in that directory when in all reality you’re browsing C:\dirb. Even the address bar will show that.

Thanks to an almost 3-year-old post on Lifehacker, I accomplished what I thought was only possible with tons of registry tweaking and tons of time spent in Safe Mode with a potentially unstable system afterward.

Real Reason Why

So the real reason I needed to so this is that I wanted to totally rebuild my system. New parts, new paint. Start from scratch and make this new Windows 7 installation as fast as it could be. Thanks to a good friend, I was given a small 30GB SSD. Now I could have run Windows on this just fine and had some programs installed there and others installed on another disk. Maybe even copied my music, downloaded programs, etc… to this other disk. But that requires that every time an installer runs I have to pay close attention to where it’s going. Every time a program wants to move data into the “My Documents” folder, I have to be mindful that I’m only dealing with about 18GB free after a clean install. That’s simply not enough. I’d run out in less than a few weeks and many times probably forget that these installers are putting all their files into the C:\Program Files directory.

Step-By-Step

So here’s the step-by-step instructions to moving just about any folder to another disk, especially those special Windows ones.

Install & Create Restore Point

1. Install a fresh copy of Windows 7 (or XP or 8, whatever you want)
2. Dont do anything else. Just leave it fresh and clean.
3. Create a Restore Point (just to play it safe)
   1. Right Click “My Computer” and choose Properties
   2. Choose “System Protection”
   3. Select the “System Protection” Tab
   4. Click Create
   5. Type a description for this Restore
   6. Click Create

System Recovery

1. Boot back up with the install DVD
2. Choose the appropriate language, currency & keyboard and click Next
3. At the screen where there is a large “Install Now” button, look just below it and click “Repair your computer”
4. You might be asked if you want to “Repair and Restart”, choose No.
5. Make sure that the OS that system recovery found is the one you just installed and that it’s selected. Click Next.
6. You’ll be presented with a few options…choose “Command Prompt”

Now here’s where we really get our hands dirty. Well, not really, but just a bit.

Find out which drives are what.

Install Drive: DVD
OS Drive: Source
Secondary Drive: Destination

On my computer, it was:

X: DVD Install Drive
E: Actual OS SSD Drive
D: Secondary Hard Drive

Copy Data & Create Hard Links

So at this point, you need to copy all the source data to the destination drive and create the hard links.

Using my drive letters above, here is how its done.

1. robocopy /copyall /mir /xj E:\Users D:\Users
2. robocopy /copyall /mir /xj “E:\Program Files” “D:\Program Files”
3. robocopy /copyall /mir /xj “E:\Program Files (x86)” “D:\Program Files (x86)”

Now as long as no files failed to copy, we can proceed.

In order to create junctions or hard links, the source folder must not exist. This means that we now have to delete those directories we just copied.

1. rmdir /S /Q E:\Users
2. rmdir /S /Q “E:\Program Files”
3. rmdir /S /Q “E:\Program Files (x86)”

Now we create the NTFS Junction/symlinks

1. mklink /J E:\Users D:\Users
2. mklink /J ”E:\Program Files” “D:\Program Files”
3. mklink /J ”E:\Program Files (x86)” “D:\Program Files (x86)”

Now you’ve just moved all three of these folders from the Windows system disk to another disk.

Prove it to yourself

Now comes the proof. Change directories to E:\. Type dir and see what you see. You should see ” Users [D:\Users]”

Now restart your computer and you’re done.

Congratulations!

Update

A while after doing this Windows Update started failing on a few updates. I kept receiving the following error: Windows update error 80070011

I found that Microsoft® isn’t following those symlinks properly when it comes to certain security updates. I think had I only moved the “Users” directory all would be fine.

Google is my friend and I found out what needed to change in order for security updates to continue.
Basically, there are a few registry keys you’ll need to point to the “real” location of the Program Files directory because it wont follow the junction link.

Make these changes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

After these changes are made, Windows should be able to update successfully.

How To Move Critical Windows Folders to Other Local Disks is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

For a primer, you should check out my previous post on this topic. There will be some referencing it in this post.

It’s been a couple of years since that post and many things have changed.
The theme AutoFocus has gone through a number of changes. Alan has released a “Pro” (paid) version of the theme with tons of enhancements. He’s also stayed fairly current on releasing updates to the theme. Now both the lite and pro versions are at version 2.0.2 and come with some bells & whistles that just weren’t available when I started using Autofocus.

Even with all of those updates, enhancements, etc… I just didn’t like the direction AutoFocus was going. I was stuck in its 1.x days and loving the way it worked. I love the simplicity, lack of widgets, and overall minimalistic view of the theme. Needless to say, I never upgraded. I’ve made my own modifications to the theme throughout the time I’ve had it, and I like it just the way it is.

The New Issues

So as the title (and the previous post I wrote about it) would suggest, I thought that the single post pages needed the thumbnails of the previous and next posts. I just thought it looked funny without them. With this idea, I set off to make that happen.

Now while that was successful, many people in the comments of that post pointed out enhancements and fixes to my code. I welcomed that and modified it accordingly.

A couple of weeks ago while I was upgrading some other themes I was updating the very popular TimThumb script. It is used for dynamic re-sizing of images and has been very successful in doing so in many WordPress themes. I thought to myself, why not utilize this script in AutoFocus? Why didn’t I think of that before?

Now what I have is a post image thumbnail where I supply what I want TimThumb to resize the height to, and it adjusts the width proportionality. TimThumb also has a whole host of other settings it can do. I suggest you check it out and see for yourself.

The New Solution

So what I’ve done now is revamped the way the previous/next post thumbnail gets displayed as well as turning the code into a function so I can just plop it into my single.php file.

1. First things first, go grab TimThumb and copy it into your theme directory. Rename this file thumb.php (if you’re following my example exactly) or edit the call to it on line 18 and 36.
2. Paste the following function into your theme’s functions.php file.

   /*
     Previous / Next Post Image Thumbnails
   */
   
   function tq_prev_next_post() {
   
   		echo '<div id="nav-below" class="navigation">';
   
   		$previouspost = get_previous_post($in_same_cat, $excluded_categories);
    
   		if ($previouspost != null) {
   			echo '<div class="nav-previous">';
   			previous_post_link('%link &laquo; Previous');
   			echo '<div class="nav-excerpt"><p>';
    
   			/* Show previous Post's Thumbnail */
   			$tq_previouspost_img = get_post_meta($previouspost->ID, "image_url", $single = true);
   			$tq_previouspost_img = get_bloginfo('template_url') . "/thumb.php?src=" . $tq_previouspost_img . "&h=150&q=70&s=1";
   			$tq_previouspost_title = get_post($previouspost->ID);
   			$tq_previouspost_title = $tq_previouspost_title->post_title;
   			echo '<img class="post-thumb alignleft size-thumbnail" src="' . $tq_previouspost_img . '" alt="' . $tq_previouspost_title . '" />';
   			/* End previous thumbnail */			
    
   			previous_post_excerpt();
   			echo '</p></div></div>';
   		} 
   		$nextpost = get_next_post($in_same_cat, $excluded_categories);
    
   		if ($nextpost != null) {
   			echo '<div class="nav-next">';
   			next_post_link('<span style="text-align:right;">Next &raquo; %link </span>');
   			echo '<div class="nav-excerpt"><p>';
    
   			/* Show Next Post's Thumbnail */
   			$tq_nextpost_img = get_post_meta($nextpost->ID, "image_url", $single = true);
   			$tq_nextpost_img = get_bloginfo('template_url') . "/thumb.php?src=" . $tq_nextpost_img . "&h=150&q=70&s=1";
   			$tq_nextpost_title = get_post($nextpost->ID);
   			$tq_nextpost_title = $tq_nextpost_title->post_title;
   			echo '<img class="post-thumb alignright size-thumbnail" src="' . $tq_nextpost_img . '" alt="' . $tq_nextpost_title . '" />';
   			/* End Next thumbnail */			
    
   			next_post_excerpt();
   			echo '</p></div></div>';
   		}
   		echo '</div><!-- #nav-below -->';
   }

3. Edit your single.php file. You’re going to replace the

   <div id="nav-below"> ... </div>

   section with the function we just created. Replace it with

   <?php tq_prev_next_post(); ?>

That’s it. Again it would be best if you have any questions to first look at my original post as to where these chunks of code go and how the overall code block should look.

Here’s what it looks like now.

You can also see it in action by visiting my Photoblog.

AutoFocus Previous Post / Next Post Image Thumbnails is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

A friend started out today asking me if I had time for some WordPress input…specifically regarding backups and related plugins. I though to myself, maybe I should write up a small email to my buddy and mention all the plugins I think are essential. I did and that led to me thinking…”I should put this out for others.” He thought the same thing and suggested I turn it into something on my site.

So, I put some time into this list. I only suggest the plugins I think are the best in their respective categories, so with that, let the list begin.

SEO

WordPress SEO – All of Joost’s (@yoast) plugins are awesome. Follow his site, the guy is crazy smart.

The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.

Affiliate and Link Building

SEO Smart Links

SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.

Redirection

Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errors.
This is where you can build “301″ redirects for your blog. (i.e. http://www.tquizzle.com/go/ramped/ -> https://www.myaffiliate.com/something.php?r=xxxxx – My link actually refers you to Robb Sutton’s Ramped Blogging eBook.)

Performance / Backup

W3 Total Cache

The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.

WP-DBManager – All of Lester Chan’s (@gamerz) stuff is good. He’s been in the WP game a long time.

WP-DBManager Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.

Random Useful Stuff

cforms

cformsII offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager support, Database tracking and many more.

Jetpack by WordPress.com

Bring the power of the WordPress.com cloud to your self-hosted WordPress. Jetpack enables you to connect your blog to a WordPress.com account to use the powerful features normally only available to WordPress.com users.

Jetpack includes all of the following:

• WordPress.com Stats – Simple, concise site stats w/ no load on your server.
• Twitter Widget – Display the latest updates from a Twitter user inside your theme’s widgets.
• Gravatar Hovercards – Show a pop-up business card of your users’ Gravatar profiles.
• WP.me Shortlinks – Enable WP.me- powered shortlinks for your posts and pages.
• Sharedaddy – Super-Duper sharing tool. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, etc…
• LaTeX – Mark up your posts w/ the LaTeX markup language – mathematical equations for the geeks.
• After the Deadline – Helps you write better by adding spell, style and grammar checking.
• Shortcode Embeds – Easier embedding of things you’d embed. YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, etc.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu – Ozh (@ozh)  is another guy who’s been in the game a long time. Quality stuff, always.

All admin links available in a neat horizontal drop down menu. Saves lots of screen real estate!

Dean’s Permalinks Migration

With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website,and even doesn’t hurt your google pagerank. (Useful if you ever need to change your permalink structure, like I did.)

Photo Dropper

Lets you add Creative commons licensed Photos to Your Posts from Flickr. By activating this plugin you agree to be fully responsbile for adhering to Creative Commons licenses for all photos you post to your blog.

eCommerce

WP e-Commerce Plugin

WP e-Commerce is a free WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin that lets customers buy your products, services and digital downloads online. We make setting up a shop easy, and with over 1.3 Million downloads, we have unparalleled experience.

 Mobile

WP-Touch

WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch mobile devices.

That’s it for right now. Again, I think each one of these plugins is the best in its respective category and definitely worthy of a download to try it out.

Did I miss some great ones? Let me know in the comments what you think are some essential WordPress plugins.

11 Essential WordPress Plugins for September 2011 is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

I recently came across these and I’m not entirely sure where it was. I’m sure it was when I was geeking out over some fantastic photography equipment that I want.

Nonetheless, these little rules where worth copy/pasting for future reference. So just uncovering them again, I figured I’d just post them out to the blog where a good maybe 3 to 4 people might read them.

So now I present to you, the USA’s Photographer’s Rights:

1. You can make a photograph of anything and anyone on any public property, except where a specific law prohibits it.
   • i.e. streets, sidewalks, town squares, parks, government buildings open to the public, and public libraries.
2. You may shoot on private property if it is open to the public, but you are obligated to stop if the owner requests it.
   • i.e. malls, retail stores, restaurants, banks, and office building lobbies.
3. Private property owners can prevent photography ON their property, but not photography OF their property from a public location.
4. Anyone can be photographed without consent when they are in a public place unless there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
   • i.e. private homes, restrooms, dressing rooms, medical facilities, and phone booths.
5. Despite common misconceptions, the following subjects are almost always permissible:
   • accidents, fire scenes, criminal activities
   • children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
   • bridges, infrastructure, transportation facilities
   • residential, commercial, and industrial buildings
6. Security is rarely an acceptable reason for restricting photography. Photographing from a public place cannot infringe on trade secrets, nor is it terrorist activity.
7. Private parties cannot detain you against your will unless a serious crime was committed in their presence. Those that do so may be subject to criminal and civil charges.
8. It is a crime for someone to threaten injury, detention, confiscation, or arrest because you are making photographs.
9. You are not obligated to provide your identity or reason for photographing unless questioned by a law enforcement officer and state law requires it.
10. Private parties have no right to confiscate your equipment without a court order. Even law enforcement officers must obtain one unless making an arrest. No one can force you to delete photos you have made.

These are general guidelines regarding the right to make photos and should not be interpreted as legal advice. If you require legal help, please contact a lawyer.

Photographer’s Rights is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

For this to occur, I used the plugin Dean’s Permalinks Migration. You’ll find this plugin, once enabled, under your “Settings” area. Ensure that your old Permalink structure is there and then easily change to your newly desired permalink structure.

With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website,and even doesn’t hurt your google pagerank.

It really is as simple as that, now all my new posts have a shorter, more easy to follow URL permalink structure.

Permalink Change – Moving Forward is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Now it’s raining pornography
Lovers take shelter
Post-production debutantes pursue you in Nascar chariots
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into holy water supplies

There’s a war going on for your mind…

Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads
They flash logos and blast ghettos
Their embroidered neckties say “stop snitchin’”
Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings

There is a war going on for your mind…

Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
The desert sky is their blue screen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
“pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses

There’s a war going on for your mind

-Flobots

Today on the way to work this PSA from the Flobots 2007 Fight With Tools album came on and I just had to find the lyrics this morning and read them sitting down. That’s some powerful stuff right there.

There is a War Going on for Your Mind is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

I actually read about this little feature a while back…like almost a year or so ago. I thought it was a neat feature, I just really had no use for it.

Recently though, I wanted to embed a PDF into a webpage and remembered seeing this article from last year. I immediately went out to create a simple, useful function to be able to use this in WordPress.

After jacking with the code for a bit, I ran it by Shat who always helps fix up my code. He tweaked it, and stripped out extraneous code that I had to make it easier to use. Thus, Shat and I present the Google Document Viewer functions hack.

Add this to your functions.php file and you’re in business to use the Google Document Viewer shortcode to display a PDF, PPT, or a TIFF file inline.

Functions Code

/*
Title: Google Document Viewer in WordPress
Author: Travis Quinnelly & Justin Shattuck
AuthorURI: http://www.tquizzle.com

Usage: You can use this by adding this to your functions.php file in your WordPress theme directory and passing it variables.
	1. path to document (.ppt, .pdf, .tiff) * Mandatory
	2. iframe width in pixels
	3. iframe height in pixels
	4. any inline CSS styling elements you wish
*/
function google_doc_viewer($atts, $content = null) {
   extract(shortcode_atts(array(
      "width" => '600',
      "height" => '800',
      "path" => '',
      "style" => ''
   ), $atts));
   return '
<iframe style="'.$style.'" src="http://docs.google.com/viewer?url='.$path.'&embedded=true" frameborder="0" width="'.$width.'" height="'.$height.'"></iframe>';
}
add_shortcode("docview", "google_doc_viewer");

Usage

We’ve made it simple to use, just like all other shortcodes. And by simple, I mean simple! As you see above, the width, height, path, and style are all things to pass to the shortcode. The only one that’s obviously mandatory is the path. The function already sets some height/width settings and those are easily changed in your function. I like 600X800 so that’s what the default here is.

Simply type: [docview width=”yourvalue” height=”yourvalue” path=”pathtofile” style=”extrainlinestyle“]

Usage variables

• width = enter specific width you’d like if it differs from the default values
• height = enter specific height you’d like if it differs from the default values
• path = enter full url path to document to render *mandatory
• style = enter any extra inline styling you’d like added to the iframe html element

Example

Here’s an example of my code in use with “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” by the now infamous Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page.

Google Document Viewer for WordPress is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

Chris Pearson is a stud when it comes to all things web, not to mention the guy’s relentless pursuit of wordpress goodness keeps me coming back to his blog again and again.
Yesterday morning, a post from him via DIYThemes.com grabbed my attention. It was all about how to use the Robots Meta Tags option in the very popular theme Thesis. While I dont use Thesis, I still found it extremely interesting and started to investigate its declaration:

One of the biggest problems with WordPress is that it automatically generates different kinds of archive pages that can be indexed by search engines. From date-based archives (daily, monthly, yearly) to tags to categories, these auto-generated pages all contain duplicate content that doesn’t belong in search engines.

Like many times before, he’s exactly right.

Maybe you don’t think its a big deal. Okay, I get that…but think of this:

The job of search engines is to index your site’s pages and determine what your site is about. If you have 100 unique article pages, then ideally, search engines should only have to crawl 100 pages to index your site fully.

However, if you’re using categories, tags, and date-based archives (and depending on how overboard you tend to go with categorization and tagging), then you’re going to have at least one additional page per category, per tag, per month, etc.

Now, instead of having 100 pages to index, you may have 600 pages. Considering you only have 100 pages of unique content, forcing a search engine to index 600 pages to determine what your site is about just doesn’t make any sense.

Think of it this way: Would you rather read a 100-page book or a 600-page book that tells the same story? Further, which one do you think you’ll understand better? Which will hold your focus better?

Wow, now that’s heavy.

Functions Hack

So since its implemented with Thesis so beautifully, and since I love to hack my functions.php file…I figured, I’d do just that. I’d put together a super-tiny function that fixes this, albeit small, issue for my specific customization.

// META ROBOTS functions.php hack for proper indexing by Search Engines

function tq_meta_robots() {
// If you would like to disable the ODP or Yahoo! Directory
// keep the next two lines.
if( is_home() )
echo '<meta name="robots" content="index,follow,archive,noodp,noydir" />';
if( is_archive() || is_tax() ) 
echo '<meta name="robots" content="index,nofollow,noarchive" />';
}
add_action('wp_head','tq_meta_robots');

There…that’ll do it.

The first part checks to see if its the home page (since “noodp” and “noydir” are domain specific settings), then sets the proper search engine robot setting to allow indexing, link following, archiving and prevents search engines from pulling extra information regarding your site from the ODP or DMOZ and the Yahoo! Directory.
The second part checks to see if the page is any archive type page (Category, Tag, Author and Date based pages are all types of Archives), or any taxonomy related pages; and sets the information for those types of pages. This sets the search engine robot setting to allow indexing, tells it that links are to NOT be followed, and to not archive the page.

Done and Done.

Using the Robots Meta Tag to Reduce Duplicate Search Engine Data is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

Greenaid apparently got the simplest of things figured out…”Seed Bombs”

This is the kind of thinking and marketing that can change our world, if we let it.

Guerrilla Gardening is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

My wife “Stumbled Upon” this little gem this morning and it reminded her of me…when I saw it, I had to post it.

My Sleep Schedule is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

So the Mac.AppStorm.Net team decided to run down a few twitter clients for the Mac. Well, 50 to be more precise. This probably isn’t all of them by far, but as a guy who already has 5 twitter clients installed on my mac; I don’t really need yet another.

Although, if you’re looking for some (or a bunch in this case)…here’s a pretty good comprehensive list including Native OSX apps, Adobe AIR apps, Menubar apps, Dashboard Widgets, and more!

Mac Twitter Clients – Way More Than You Need is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

I’ve had a ton of articles I’ve been meaning to write ranging in topics of WordPress development help to SEO and other topics, but I’ve just lacked the time to sit down a crank them out. I really need to do that soon.

So much to write about is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

The net has spawned two new ways to create and consume culture.

The first is the wide-open door for amateurs to create. This is blogging and online art, wikipedia and the maker movement. These guys get a lot of press, and deservedly so, because they’re changing everything.

The second, though, is distracting and ultimately a waste. We’re creating a culture of clickers, stumblers and jaded spectators who decide in the space of a moment whether to watch and participate (or not).

Imagine if people went to the theatre or the movies and stood up and walked out after the first six seconds. Imagine if people went to the senior prom and bailed on their date three seconds after the car pulled away from the curb.

The majority of people who sign up for a new online service rarely or never use it. The majority of YouTube videos are watched for just a few seconds. Chatroulette institutionalizes the glance and click mentality. I’m guessing that more than half the people who started reading this post never finished it.

Driveby Culture & the Endless Search for Wow is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

Ben tells his testimony including his struggle with worldly things & ending up in military school; drugs, pain, addiction, and ultimately his release & hope with Christ and new-found love in youth ministry. Ben is a great example of living what you believe…

I am The Gathering – Ben Hamilton is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

I snapped a few iPhone photos tonight on the way home.

It’s a lot nicer on my photoblog, this link takes you there.

Beautiful Sunset is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

New Look is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.

In ancient times, the people of the world didn’t have a lot of the things that we have today and ultimately take for granted. Even though the Bible and our history books have taught us that these ancient people weren’t always happy, they seem to have gotten by just fine. So apparently, the things that the human race has created over time haven’t made us any happier. Sure, these things were made for our conveniences, and some really do help us out, but they haven’t succeeded in elevating our level of true happiness or created any more time for us. And certainly our happiness hasn’t decreased due to lack of things, or even lack of money.

Cause of Unhappiness

Have you ever stopped and wondered what some of the overall causes of our unhappiness are? I think at the root of our overall unhappiness is that we are just not satisfied with what we’ve accomplished. It’s the “Tomorrow Syndrome” of always wanting more or always wanting to achieve that next level has made us unable to enjoy the things that we have now. Not that achieving big things in your life is wrong, it just seems as if we’re never satisfied with it. This leaves us thinking that maybe we are not where we would like to be, spiritually, professionally or in life, or maybe we just don’t have what we thought we would have.

We are also victimized by the “Yesterday Syndrome.” This is evident in those who are always wishing they could change the past; always wishing they could redo something. Like they could somehow live the Butterfly Effect, or have a time machine and change everything bad to good. Those who are trapped by this, I feel, are often those caught up in a midlife or identity crisis trying to relive some of the days of old or to regain their childhood that maybe they didn’t get to live out. You simply cannot live – truly live, like this.

Stepping Up | Changing

Changing the way we think and live is the only way to find happiness in our lives. The only way to do that is to savor all of your todays. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:34 Don’t try to predict what tomorrow might bring…no one on this earth knows what tomorrow has in store. “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 There is absolutely no guarantee of tomorrow so enjoy the things today with all that God has allowed you to have. It’s a gift.

We’ve all heard this cliché, but you have to enjoy the trip as well as look forward to the destination or you’ll end up missing out on what could be a tremendous experience. Take the time to look around, notice the flowers, and take in the aroma of a fresh rain. You may find it newly exhilarating to pause, reflect, marvel at God’s creation and take a deep breath all-the-while reminding yourself that breath itself is spiritual. “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Genesis 2:7 On the contrary, you’ll find it quite depressing if you wait until tomorrow to realize you had or could have had a good time today.

The world can give you nothing, God gives everything

You also can’t count on the things that are outside your means to try to attain happiness. Many of the things of this world cannot truly make you happy; the kind of real happiness that we all seek. This includes money, clothes, cars, etc… Don’t be afraid to once and for all lay down the proper priorities for your life and for your family, but most importantly, put God at number one and live by them.

Everyone has possibilities, opportunities and talents…that’s part of what being human is about. Therefore do what you can do when you can with what God has given you. This involves being productive at the talents that God gave you, finding your spiritual gifts, accepting them, and helping others with that gift humbly.

Go Get It!

For happiness to affect your life, it’s impossible to run from those problems you’re facing. You have to confront them head on. You have to introduce the elephant in the room. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 the apostle Paul said, “Now is the accepted time”, so if you want happiness, do what’s necessary now to get it. You can’t sit on the sidelines of life in a constant pattern of sitting on the bench waiting to be called to join the team; you must be responsible for your own spiritual & physical well-being right now.

True happiness also comes with companionship. Most people aren’t truly happy without some sort of companionship in their lives; we need others in and around our life to make it fulfilling…family, friends, church, etc… But, that kind of real, fulfilling, enjoyable happiness comes when you find one thing. That one thing is Jesus Christ. He is the key to the Pursuit of Happiness. Once you’ve found this, everything else seems to find new meaning.

Pursuit of Happiness is a post from TQuizzle.com.
TQuizzle.com - ramblings, utterances, nonsense...my life.