My husband and I have a special relationship, one in which he tags things for me in del.icio.us during the day, I check them out later and find great blogging material for a link fest *swoon*.

- 13 of the best WordPress plugins - I’m currently using several on the list and I have to say, cforms is probably another one of my favourites. There are so many customization options, a slick interface, dozens of style options and you can hack the CSS on the forms to tailor them even further.

Photo credit: Kris Krug on Flickr

- Tweeting for companies 101 - some tips and tricks for those using Twitter including shortcut prefixes like: @, d, on, off, follow, leave, help.

- Difference between pitching mainstream press and bloggers - Chris Brogan touches on a topic we’ll be covering on our panel at Convergence 2008. After my experience with Matchstick (and those pitching me multiple times a day via my lovely contact form) I’m feeling pretty well-equipped for our panel, but Chris also offers some great insights.

Duane teaches us all about QR codes - I remember a guy at DemoCamp5 having a product that worked with QR codes (ScannerFly). I don’t know, they look funny but apparently they’re huge in Japan.

- For the coolest collection of WordPress plugins, tricks, and news I recommend subscribing to Weblog Tools Collection.

Last but not least, we released episode #146 of the RadioZoom podcast last night. I played producer again, it was fun. Enjoy.

With fun and exciting things happening all around me it’s a wonder how I can get so down sometimes. There are people who struggle a lot more than I do in this life but everyone has their good days, their bad, and sometimes you just need to share some love and hope some of that comes right back at ‘ya. Even if it doesn’t, the warm fuzzy feelings accumulated from sending out the kindness should be enough to brighten your day, even if things simply aren’t going your way. Like Raul noted, “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

As a side note Google recently reevaluated their Page Rank system and many blogs received a boost in ratings. Mine on the other hand, stayed the same (however the site I built for my company got bumped up to PR6). This, combined with a waffling Technorati rating (which I think they calculate sometimes using a dartboard) are things that I rarely look at in terms of how successful my blog is, unless specifically asked by a potential sponsor.

One thing Duane told me is that if your links OUT to links IN ratio is off-kilter that can effect you meaning that my link fest posts could in fact be harming my rankings and ratings. I pondered several options to work around this then I realized, the reason folks must come to my site is for the content. If I didn’t continue to do what I love, spread the link love and be a part of a great social community on and offline, what’s the point. So essentially what I’m saying is despite the fact that geeky internet brownie points may be working against me, the link fests will never cease to be.

Welcome to a special “late” edition of my link fest, brought to you by a smooth glass of VQA following my guest speaking opportunity at SFU.

Thanks to the talented indie media master Lisa Mansfield of The Tyee, I spoke for her students about blogging, corporate communications and new media writing in the business world. I covered why companies should have blogs, the business of blogging, bloggers for hire, how to build an audience etc. I’ve only done a handful of speaker engagements but as I’m pretty confident in my ability to evangelize about blogging I figured I would be okay. Some people might not know my corporate history but I’ve been producing online content in the business world as a career for almost ten years, and corporate blogging is currently one of my number one tasks at my day job. I’m glad I can share my knowledge even though I get incredibly nervous and talk really fast as a result.

Photo credit: Carol Browne on Flickr in the Miss604.com Pool

Now, on to the super geeky link fest:

And for something completely different - have you seen this giant (inflatable) gorilla?

Yes, this is still totally a Link Fest I just felt like having some fun, in the sun, on a Friday afternoon because what could be better? Oh yes, it’s not quite the weekend but it’s so close I can taste the margaritas.

Who walks down the street randomly carrying a box of detergent and decides to discard it in a fountain? I know the other scenario is that this was planned mischief but… really…

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

Finally a shout out to Tequila Kitchen that will be entertaining and supplying nourishment to kick off my weekend. I’ll be live blogging from EPIC tomorrow with the happy frog crew so be sure to check for more green content over the weekend and if you come on down to the show be sure to swing by the happy frog booth and say hi!

The WTS and a link fest? Combining two of my patented blog features? Yes, daring I know.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

Photo credit: Stephen Rees on Flickr

To wrap up on a brighter note, despite the need for more buses at least those doing the daily grind aren’t discouraged. “Of workers commuting to Surrey, 12.2 per cent (up from 9.5 per cent) used a sustainable transit mode.” [Surrey Leader]

I have so many mini topics to cover that if I were to write a blog post for each people would get annoyed about how I’m too prolific and my feed would swamp their readers and it would just be a mess. On that note, if you’d like to simply get my feed (without Flickr photos too) you can grab it here, or stay with the main feed, cause it’s pretty fun.

Photo Credit: PatZ on Flickr

Photo: John Bollwitt

That’s it for now, happy (sunny) Thursday everyone!

A dozen blog posts in a week including a handful of my link fests is not too shabby considering I could simply blog about the crazy weather in Vancouver - cause people always like to talk about the weather.

I admit, this photo is mostly for Raul

Finally, tomorrow is Vancouver’s Bridging Media event - bringing together traditional broadcast and production professionals with those in digital media… and much more. Miss604.com is pleased to be a Media Sponsor, providing the some live blogging goodness so check back throughout the day tomorrow for the coverage.

I woke up this morning thinking this would be a pretty breezy week until I took a look at my calendar, and at the media passes for conferences this weekend and realize it’s back to business as usual for Miss604. Admittedly, my posts lately have been my staple Link Fest mixed with absent days but I’m back now, and I’m healthy - at least until this next round of craziness washes over.

Photo Credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

In non tech, digital media, or womanly conference matters -

We returned home yesterday on a 3 hour ferry ride that took us from Salt Spring to Pender Island, Mayne Island, Galiano and back home by way of Tsawwassen. I think we’re ready for the busy week ahead which luckily starts off pretty slow and gets split up by a concert on Saturday, you know, to keep us a little grounded.