Ahh Tetris.  I have spent many hours of my life playing Tetris.  Especially on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).  That russian melody would get embedded in my head for days.  I'm sure many people out there like me would get stuck with this brilliant "strategy" of stacking and building this ridiculous wall of bricks... just waiting for that stupid long piece to show up.

You have your uber brick wall built.  It is perfect.  There are no holes in your brick wall of perfection.  It is solid.  You have purposely left a dangerous looking abyss, hungry for a 4-block long piece.  It would be nail-biting.  It would make you sweat.  It would make you get off the floor and actually stand up.  Remember, you are sitting on the floor because the NES controller cable is only so long.  You are tethered to this box of endless 8-bit gaming entertainment. 

Then the satisfaction of seeing that long piece finally display in your preview box.  You get so excited.  Your heart starts pounding.  One foot lifts off the ground and you bend your knee with anticipation.  You are now balancing on one tube sock like the Karate Kid Flamingo stance.  You get your right thumb ready on that A or B button.  Ready on the trigger.  You MUST flip that long piece into a vertical fashion immediately.  Then you have to jam on that directional pad to shift the long piece to that 50-foot well you left all the way on the right side.  The long piece displays on the top of your screen.  The russian music is jingling so fast it makes you more nervous.  Everything must be done with the utmost precision and speed.  Then...

You screw it up.  NO TETRIS FOR YOU!  YOU FAIL!  ARRRRGHH.  Now there is a huge cavity.  The blocks are now being thrown at you at lightning speed.  They are stacking so fast, that each plastic-sounding smack as they stack up to the ceiling make you cringe with anger and frustration.  Then... fart noise.  Game Over.

 -sad face

If you have a blog website or thinking about setting one up, there is one tool that can make writing and publishing your posts a lot easier.  It is called Windows Live Writer, also known as WLW.  This application allows you to create and publish right from your computer without having to log in to your blog website on the internet from a web browser.  It is a great application and makes adding new content a snap.  There are many great features.  I encourage anyone that has a blog and doesn’t use it, to at least read about it and see if it can help you simplify your blog posting process.

If you are interested in trying it out, download Windows Live Writer from here, it’s FREE!

The next section is a quick walk through of connecting WLW to your blog.

Note: You will need a blog website and a user account setup for that website to actually go through these steps successfully.

1.) Install WLW and choose your blog service

After you download and install Windows Live Writer (WLW), hooking it up to your blog site is a breeze.  Running WLW for the first time will allow you to configure the application so it can “talk” to your blog site.  Whether you have a blog on Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint, or any other popular blog service such as Blogger, WordPress, or TypePad, it will be smart enough to know how to interact with your service/website.  As a great example, my website is powered by the very popular open-source BlogEngine.NET and the Windows Live Writer application detected everything with no problems.  In my specific example, when I ran WLW for the first time I received the following dialog.  I chose the last option “Other blog service”, and clicked the “Next” button.

2.) Enter your blog information

At the next prompt, simply enter your blog website address, username and password.  Then click the “Next” button.

Windows Live Writer will do its song and dance, connect to your website, and download all the configuration and style theme information it needs.  This was really cool, I was amazed that it worked so well.  After this step, you will be ready to write your first blog post with Windows Live Writer!

3.) Write a blog post!

This blog post was composed in WLW.  The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface uses your current blog website’s style theme.  You can instantly see what your post is going to look like as you type.  Gone are the days of editing raw HTML and hoping your layout, style and colors come out as you intend.

Here is a screenshot of this actual blog post being composed in Windows Live Writer:

Windows Live Writer is an essential tool in the toolbox of any blogger who uses the Windows operating system.

I’m sure a lot of people out there have a “kitchen area” at their workplace.  One day, there was this very large cake that was left for everyone to eat.  It looked delicious.  It would taunt you as you walked by.  It was put out at 9:00am!  Don’t get me wrong, I love my fair share of cake, but cake for breakfast is a little too much for me.  Cake seems like an after lunch treat.  But that did not stop the pack of wolves from ripping it apart, leaving a sugary mess resembling a crime scene on the Food Network.  The only thing missing was the yellow Crime Scene tape.  After all the paper plates and plastic forks came out, Mr. Cake met his demise.  A grenade explodes.

Boom!

Well, I walk back out to get some coffee (remember it is still morning), and walk by the remains of Mr. Cake and his old friend Mrs. Pie.  I notice a magazine next to Mr. Cake and Mrs. Pie with a page open to an article titled “Why We Overeat”  HAAAAA!

So I took a picture: