I am just tickled pink right now. All 6 blogs that I needed to upgrade were successfully completed without a hitch. Well, there was a small problem, though it was easily fixed by deactivating one plugin and reactivating it. That’s it. I mean I have a lot of plugins and all of my themes and I thought perhaps they could possibly break. And…nothing!

Oh joy, oh bliss! WordPress 3, I already love you! Oh, and the dashboard is nice and slick. I like!
Can you tell I’m excited?

So, do you want to know the secret to a painless upgrade? It’s quite simple:

• Get rid of all the plugins you don’t use and upgrade the ones that need upgrading.
• Backup your WordPress database.
• Optional: deactivate all plugins. (I didn’t deactivate any plugins on 6 blogs and it pretty much worked.)
• Click the WordPress 3 upgrade link and wait until you see the message that it has been upgraded successfully.
• If you deactivated the plugins, now you can reactivate them.

That’s it. You’re done.

Now, if you run into any problems, and you didn’t deactivate any plugins and you are having problems, deactivate all plugins and reactivate them one by one until you find the one giving you problems. Sometimes it could be just one plugin that can cause a blog to fail and as much as it is annoying, if you follow the steps I’ve outlined, you can usually pinpoint the problem yourself as long as you don’t panic. Remember, if something does go wrong, all is not lost if you backed up your database!

If a plugin fails, you can always see if the plugin author is going to upgrade soon. If not, try to find a replacement plugin. Sometimes you can find a great plugin that does the same job or better than the one you had to discard. WordPress is so flexible and there are many WordPress developers out there coming out with new stuff all the time. If you are patient, you can find some real gems of plugins and themes that you”ll want to keep forever.

What if it’s not a plugin and it’s my theme that fails? Honestly, that is so rare to see. I mean, I’ve yet to see too many nasty things happen to the themes I’ve had to work with except once with Thesis and it was easily fixed by the client logging into their account at DIYthemes and grabbing the latest Thesis version and that was it.

From what I’m seeing so far, WordPress 3 rocks. It’s been worth the wait.

If you need my help with any upgrade issues, I would be pleased to offer my WordPress consulting services to you and you can request a quote here. I also welcome your comments about your experiences or concerns.

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Here is another free XHTML and CSS template for The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien fans, LOTRO kinships, etc., but it can easily be modified to suit any type of site or blog.

This template is a 3-column fixed width style with 3 images: the header, the post divider, plus one more for display purposes. It has been tested on the latest version of Firefox, IE and Opera. This template is released under the Public Domain and leaving the link to my site is optional but appreciated. I would love to hear from you if you do use this template.
View | Download

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Recently I wanted to do something big to help out someone and I was met with suspicion, and that really got me thinking. Are there times when it’s better to just be a listener and not offer any help even though you want to? Are people nowadays too suspicious of someone like me who loves doing random acts of kindness? Is it because people don’t trust someone who is “too nice”? Or perhaps people think the nice gesture will come with a price? Or perhaps they are too proud to accept help?

What ever happened to gracious acceptance of a gift? What ever happened to manners? I was always taught if someone wants to help or give you something, you are gracious even if you decline. As in saying something like “I really appreciate your offer, but no thank you, I’m okay” or “yes, please, and thank you for your kind offer”.

Maybe I expect too much from people. After all, I am a “boomer”. Most of us “boomers” were raised much stricter than later generations. Most of us were taught manners and if we were rude to anyone, and our parents heard about it, we were promptly put in our place.

Anyway, I doubt the experience will make me change the way I am. I am what I am and if some people don’t like me, that’s ok with me. So I will continue to do random acts of kindness now and forever, and not expect everyone to react the same. And I’m okay with that.

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Any day now you will log in your WordPress dashboards and you’ll be prompted to upgrade to WordPress 3. I can’t wait. There are some new features that WordPress 3 will have that I’m eagerly awaiting.

1. The Merge of WordPress MU and WordPress.org: Now you can have a normal WordPress installation and have multiple blogs! I like this a lot.
2. Custom Post types: you will be able to have a normal post, portfolio post, product post, etc…which will make WordPress an even better CMS solution.
3. Better navigation menus: the custom navigation system from Woo Themes will be included in the core WordPress installation which will enable users to re-order menus, hide items, etc. I personally will be able to eliminate 2 or 3 plugins with this new feature!
4. New Default theme 2010: No more Kubrick default theme. The new default theme is a nice clean design and has Custom header, Custom Background, Multiple Widget Areas, Cascading Menus and a lot more.
5. Choose your own username upon installation: An important security feature has been added so instead of being stuck with the standard “admin” username which made it easier for hackers to access your blogs, now you will be able to assign your own username during the installation process.
6. Upon installation of WordPress you will now get a Welcome guide which will help you to use WordPress. Nice!
7. Canonical Plugins: Many times plugin authors stop the development of their plugin, and sometimes it could be a plugin that’s really useful to you but when you upgrade to the current version of WordPress, that favorite plugin of yours no longer works!. With canonical plugins, the plugins will be developed by the community, instead of just one person. I think this is a great idea so I really hope this flies!

There you have it: some things to look forward to in the newest version of WordPress coming out really soon.

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Recently I have been paying close attention to gut feelings. When I do, I have found that the decisions I made by following my gut feelings have brought me more peace.

Whenever we have to make a decision about anything, I think it’s helpful to think about which choice is ultimately going to give you the most peace of mind. That’s the right choice.

Life shouldn’t be a struggle. I believe we need to listen to our gut feelings more often because usually they are the right choices for us. What do you think?

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