The WordPress to MySpace Auto Crossposter plug-in that I just recently authored got a nice little mention in this week’s WordPress Wednesday column over at The Blog Herald.

People have been downloading the plug-in from all over and I’ve made several improvements over the past week as a result of user feedback and requests. I’m glad to see that this has become such a popular plug-in, and as its popularity only continues to grow I’ll certainly be putting more energy into it - as time allows - to assure that it is as robust and solid as it can be.

Let’s not forget to thank Greg Sidberry for making available the MySpace Access Class and allowing me to use and modify it, along with all the other folks who have written in with their feedback and suggestions (Andrew, Adam, Jamie, et. al.)

The project page is here.

Interest in the Wordpress to MySpace Auto Crossposter continues to grow and others have now submitted their own mods to the code.

Since this seems to be a pretty hot item, I’ve just recently rewritten part of the code to be more organized and modular ( though it’s still not where I’d like it to be – see the code comments for notes ). Today I made available MySpace Crossposter v1.1a.

At the urging of Greg “Sid” Sidberry, I’ve submitted the code to WordPress as well as the WordPress Plugin Database – though it’s still not quite “plug-in worthy” in my opinion. However, it does indeed work great and gets the job done.

As it’s now been submitted, the original post is serving as the official plug-in page and the most current word on the project will always be available there. Today’s changes are also reflected there.

“If anyone thought Manson was down for the count, think again.”

The most surprising aspect of Marilyn Manson’s latest album, Eat Me, Drink Me - his sixth studio release – is that it’s decidedly human.

Gone are the fire and brimstone theatrics, heavy production and the Satan-spawn stereotype. Eat Me, Drink Me is an extremely personal, very mellow album and is close to, dare I say it, an album of love songs.

Granted, they are dark, morbid and creepy love songs filled with horror, death and blood stains - but they are love songs, or at least songs about love, nevertheless. Which has led some to call his latest work Emo, but I’ll have none of that label – it’s still Marilyn Manson, which means it’s probably too much for actual modern emo fans to take. In fact, one of the tracks on the album - Mutilation Is The Most Sincere Form Of Flattery - was written with My Chemical Romance in mind, of whom Manson had this to say:

NOTE: Newest Version is LOCATED HERE.

Everyone knows that MySpace has a terrible reputation for being a closed system and not allowing developers access to any API. As a result, those of us who run our blogs centrally on self-hosted WordPress installs, as well as many other I’m sure, face the tedious task of manually crossposting to MySpace if you maintain a presence there as well.

Some developers have tried to write plug-ins to do the job, but MySpace is constantly trying to thwart the attempts by relentlessly changing their system.

Fed up with it, I decided to write my own such system and base it on a pretty standard, straight-forward mechanism with the hopes that changes on the MySpace side of things wouldn’t have much effect on the functioning of my code.

My good friend Courtney over at Twisted Stitches just recently posted a great two part series on how to price your own artwork. She had the pleasure of speaking with Reed A. Prescott III, a Vermont-based artist who has succeeded in making his work very commercial, and she summarizes very well his words of wisdom.

While Mr. Prescott is a painter, his advice is equally applicable to many types of art and even “craft”. Cruise on over to twistedstitches.net to read the two part series.

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By complete coincidence, the Saturday, June 2nd edition of the New York Times featured right on their front page (web edition at least) two stories that are near and dear to my heart (being both a Vermonter and a sword swallower).

The first is a ridiculous (but I couldn’t help laughing in delight) amateur rap video produced by three Montpelier, Vermont high school students. In the video, two extremely white boys walk the streets of Montpelier “rapping” about all the stereotypes of Vermont and Vermont life.

My good friend Cliff first blogged about it last month, long before it ever hit the NYT. If you’re a Vermonter you’ll probably get a kick out of it. Why the New York Times would cover it I have no idea.

Back in the early 90’s I had a guilty pleasure - yes I was only a young kid - of drinking a Maxwell House product called Cappio. It was a ready-to-drink iced cappucino beverage sold in supermarkets which came in a curiously large, brown tinted glass bottle that looked oddly like a “40“. Purchasing this coffee beverage when I was a mere fifteen years old was always a hoot because the cashiers invariably wanted to card me. I had to politely explain to them that it was coffee, not alcohol.

In fact, so strikingly similar to a large bottle of beer was this beverage that one time, during my daily “supermarket-to-library-to-park to read” routine I was approached by one of the most polite and unusual gentleman I’ve encountered. “Excuse me,” he said. “I don’t mean to bother you, but I couldn’t help but notice that you’re drinking a beer. I’m an alcoholic and was wondering if you’d be so kind as to share.” After just as politely informing him that it was coffee I was drinking, not beer, he continued by saying “so sorry to bother you. Have a good day.” Whereupon he casually walked off. True story. That’s Massachusetts for you…