This past weekend, my girlfriend and I had an awesome time beach camping on Padre Island. It was a great experience and something we plan on doing often.

This was the first time I’ve ever camped right on the beach before. I’ve slept on the beach a few times in the past but never in a tent or on purpose. We literally setup camp right above the high tide line and slept under the stars.

It’s an amazing feeling waking up to the sound of the ocean. The only downside was the fact that the inside of our tent was like 100 degrees. But it was a small price to pay for hanging out on the beach.

Where Is Padre Island?

Padre island is located along the southern coast of Texas. It’s over 130 miles long and is the second largest island in terms of area in the US (Long Island is the largest). It’s also the largest barrier island in the world.

Click on the image to the right to see a map of island and a glimpse at how long it is. It runs down a good portion of the Texas coast.

I’ve heard of the island in the past, mostly South Padre which is the more developed section of the island located at the southern tip. It’s a popular place for spring breakers.

What I did not know is that the majority of the island is sparsely populated. However, I was a little surprised when we first got on the island and saw fast food restaurants, liquor stores, and gas stations.

How Do You Get There?

One of the things I was wondering was how to get to the island. I used to think a ferry or something went there but it turns out there are a few bridges that take visitors there. For the most part, it’s a regular looking highway you would expect to see anywhere else.

Here’s a quick clip of our drive over the bridge to the island:

It didn’t take very long to cross the bridge since the highway has a normal speed limit and a few lanes of traffic.

Beach Camping

The island has a ton of places to camp which is awesome. I’m always disappointed when no camping signs are posted on beaches because it’s the perfect place to camp.

There is a free section of camping on North Beach, which is where we went first. There are no facilities but you are free to pitch a tent anywhere between the dunes and the water.

We ended up passing on this section since the beach was full of day visitors and there weren’t many places to setup camp. We ended up entering the actual park, which costs $10 for each vehicle. I believe it is more if you have an RV or camper but you’ll have to double check.

There is a campground available in the park for an additional 8 bucks but we tend to avoid them. There’s something about dispersed camping that makes it more fun. The good news is there is plenty of space to setup camp.

Here’s what you can expect to see when you get to the beach:

Just be warned that there will be a lot more vehicles there during the day so you might want to get there early. A lot of people come to the beach for the day and then leave once the sun goes down. Also, keep in mind that there is NO shade on the beach. If you’re going right now, it’s going to be HOT. So plan on bringing a tent or some sore of umbrella to hide under during the day.

The other thing is to check with the park rangers to see if there are any burn limits. Texas is in a drought right now so we weren’t able to have any fires this time.

Go Check It Out

If you’re ever in Texas, I highly recommend checking this place out. For far less than the cost of a hotel you can go sleep right on the beach and relax. It’s a great change of pace from staying in the city.

We plan on going back in two weeks or so since it’s only a 3 and a half hour drive from Austin.

You can check out the rest of my photos in my Padre Island photo album.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been doing some cleaning up on my blog over the last week and a half. I’ve removed a few things from my single post pages, as well as made some changes to my sidebar. The main thing I did with the sidebar is integrated a lifestream showing all my updates from various websites and social networks. Here’s how I did it:

1. Decided Which Tool To Use For The Content

There are a few programs out there that will create a lifestream for your blog or website. However, none of them are as easy to use as a simple FriendFeed widget. I actually used the same widget I was using in the past, which looked exactly like this:

As you can see, it’s a bit ugly. The border didn’t match anything else in my sidebar and it looked a little out of place. The major drawback to using the FriendFeed widget it that it doesn’t give you many options for customizing it when you set it up. Luckily they do have some custom CSS settings you can use. Which leads us to the next step.

2. Styled The FriendFeed Widget

The next step was a little tricky since I couldn’t get it to work at first. FriendFeed gives you some CSS codes to use, which can be added to your active WordPress theme stylesheet. I messed around with it for awhile and ended up adding the follow code to my stylesheet:

#friendfeed { border: 0px !important }
.widget { border: 0px !important; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times;}
.feed { border: 0px !important; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times;}
.body { border: 0px !important }
.logo { border: 0px !important }

As you can see, I went a little overboard with the “border: 0px” but it managed to remove it. I also added the font-family my theme uses so it matches the rest of my site.

Here’s what the finished widget looks like:

It looks a lot better in my opinion. I’m a big fan of no borders because it makes it look a lot cleaner.

3: Added Some Links Below The Widget

As you can see in the picture above, I also added some links below the widget. This was simple html code that I added directly below the widget. For the subscribe link, I simply pointed it to my FriendFeed page since I prefer people going there. You could also make the link go directly to the RSS feed of your FriendFeed.

I also decided to add a “view full lifestream” link, which I’ll talk about in the next step.

4: Created A Lifestream Page

After debating for awhile about whether or not I wanted to have a lifestream page, I decided to go with it. It allows me to list a lot more content for those who want to view it without forcing everyone to see my super long sidebar on every page.

To do this, I simply created a page titled Lifestream. I then embeded the same widget code I used for my sidebar into the page, which looks like this:

<script src="http://friendfeed.com/embed/widget/USERNAME?v=2&amp;num=300
&amp;hide_logo=1&amp;hide_comments_likes=1&amp;hide_subscribe=1" type=
"text/javascript"></script>

(If you want to use the code, make sure to remove the line breaks.)

If you look closely, you’ll notice I set the number (num) to 300. This will set the widget to list 300 of your latest items. However, I have noticed there seems to be a limit on how many items you can list. I’m not even sure if it’s listing all 300 of my latest items or not. Either way, it’s listing a lot more than I am on my sidebar.

Here’s what the finished product looks like:

Of course, the main page lists a lot more stuff. Overall, it looks pretty cool.

All Done!

So that’s everything I did to get my lifestream up and running. It’s fairly simple to implement and makes a good addition to your blog or website. As to how useful it is, we will see. I’m not real sure how many people really use lifestreams but I figured it was worth a shot.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. I’ll try and help you out.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

The other day, I spent some time wandering around taking pictures of the Austin skyline. I actually remembered to bring my remote and tripod this time so I took some photos and merged them into HDR (high dynamic range) shots.

Here’s how they came out.

Austin Skyline – Best Shot

This was my favorite one of the group. The colors came out perfectly and merged together really nicely. It looks a lot better in the larger picture so click on the picture to see the full size one.

Austin Skyline – Take Two

Here’s another one similiar to the first one. Only difference is the sky is a tad more blue and it was taken from a different location.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

This photo was taken from the park where you can see the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. I love the angle with the skyline in the background. I was having troubles getting the face of the statue to show up but it actually came out better than I anticipated.

Stevie Ray – Take Two

Of all the photos, this one turned out the worst. The blues pretty much overtook the photo but I really liked this angle. I wanted to get the face of the statue but the way the sun was shining made it pretty much impossible.

Overall, the photos turned out pretty cool. I plan on taking some more photos from downtown and seeing how they turn out in HDR. So expect to see another post sometime in the next week or so.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

Since last night was a rough night in the drinking department, my girlfriend and I decided to hit up an Austin brunch this morning. Luckily, we live right down the road from Threadgills, which happens to be one of the coolest restaurants/bars I’ve ever been to.

They have live music outside most weekends and serve delicious southern cooked food. Every Sunday, they have a brunch buffet from 10 am – 1pm and it’s delicious.

Here’s my review of the brunch and why I recommend giving it a shot:

The Music

The coolest part about the brunch is they always have live gospel music playing inside. Nothing beats overeating and listening to live music on a Sunday morning. This was my second time eating the brunch and I can honestly say the music has kicked ass both times.

Once you give this brunch a try, you’ll start wondering why every brunch doesn’t feature live music.

The Food

Now it’s time to talk about the food. The easiest way to summarize their food is by saying it’s delicious. Here’s a snapshot of my first plate full of food:

The french toast is amazing, as well as the bacon. Besides what you see on my plate, you can also expect to see:

• Pancakes
• Potatoes
• Fresh Fruit
• A Full Omelet Bar
• Much More!

Just when I thought the french toast was my favorite part of meal, I noticed they had sweet potato pancakes. I have never heard of these nor have I seem them before. I decided I had to give them a try and see what they are all about.

Well it turns out they are fantastic. They make them with some cinnamon which gives them a french toast meets pancake taste. Here’s what they look like:

I highly recommend giving the pancakes a try if you check out this brunch. You can blame it on me if you hate them.

Highly Recommend It

So if you’re in Austin and want to hit up a Sunday brunch, I highly recommend checking out Threadgills. It’s a great place to stuff yourself silly, listen to music, and have a great time.

Plus it’s not to expensive considering you’re eating two meals at the same time.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

While living in Phoenix, I looked up our apartment complex here in Austin to get a good idea of where it was. To my surprise, I came across this in Google Maps:

Not sure what you are looking at? It’s a kickass pool shaped like the state of Texas. I was jacked to see this thing. So I spent some time on Google and came across this post titled State-shaped Swimming Pools. It turns out their are a total of 6 (soon to be 5) pools shaped like the state of Texas.

The Sad News

Unfortunately, we arrived here in Austin only to see the Texas shaped pool covered up with a trampoline style pool cover. I was heart broken. I could tell by the leaves and dirt accumulating on the cover that the pool has not been used in years.

My only guess at the time was that they only use it in the summer and that they hadn’t filled it yet. So I patiently waited in hopes that one day I would come outside to a Texas shaped pool full of water.

A month went by and still nothing happened. I stopped thinking about it and figured I would just give up on the idea of swimming in it.

And then something happened…

The Even Sadder News

A dump truck showed up full of broken of concrete. Next thing I knew, they were dumping it in the pool and smashing it down. It appears they are filling it completely and shattering my dream of swimming in it.

Here’s a few photos of what the pool currently looks like:

It’s sad to see something unique like this disappear but I guess that’s to be expected. My guess is that it was cheaper to fill it than repair it to the point that it could be used again.

Looks like I’ll have to go find one of the other 5 pools shaped like Texas…

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

One of the things I took away from WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth was a Woopra account. Prior to the event, I had never heard of the analytics service. However, I am now fascinated by it and can’t stop playing around with it.

What Makes Woopra Any Different Than Google Analytics?

The answer is real-time stats. I can literally see who is on my website anytime I feel like it. I can also see what page they are viewing, where they originally came from, and all the brower/operating system stats I could want.

If that isn’t enough, I can even send a chat request to anyone currently visiting my site and have a real IM style conversation. It’s amazing!

It sure beats looking at delayed stats…

The Interface

Another thing I really like about Woopra is the interface. They offer a desktop application for PC and Mac which allows you to monitor your stats right on your computer. I would consider it the TweetDeck of analytics software.

Check it out:

As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about calling it a TweetDeck version of stats. It actually looks similiar in a few ways. You can browse through all different stats, such as live visitors and referring URLs. You can also look at a map and see where your current visitors are from.

Overall, the interface is really cool and pretty simple to learn.

What About Regular Website Stats?

Just like Google Anaytics, Woopra will also show me regular stats like visitors, unique visitors, and where they are coming from on a map.  However, I do not like this part of Woopra and actually prefer Google Analytics.

It just seems easier to monitor long-term stats using Google Analytics, plus all my data is already in there. Plus Woopra is still in beta so I would not trust it as your only source of statistics. I currently have my sites setup with both and have not seen any downsides or slowdown from it.

Installation

Installing Woopra is a breeze. Just like Google Analytics, you simple paste a line of code right above your closing body tag. That’s it. You can then view your stats on Woopra’s website or download the desktop application (which I prefer).

The only downside is since they are in beta, they require that your site be approved before you can start using it. So hurry up and submit your sites so you can start using the software.

Use It For Real-Time Tracking

Overall, I would say this is a great complement to Google Analytics. The real-time stats are amazing, if not a tad geeky. I find myself stairing at them getting excited when I have a few people on my blog at one time. However, it isn’t a full on replacment for your other analytics programs so I would plan on using more than one.

I recommend testing this out and playing around with it. It’s a great way to see how many people are on your blog at any given time.

Get a free acount today at Woopra.com.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

I Made the drive back from Dallas last night and managed to make it in one piece. Overall, WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth (#wcdfw09) turned out to be an awesome event where I learned some awesome things about WordPress.

I met some awesome people (including @sivori, @claygriffiths, @grantgriffiths and @plagiarismtoday) and learned about the future of WordPress from @photomatt.

If anything, it gave me a big boost in motivation to keep on going and try as hard as I can at blogging. Plus I managed to hand out a huge stack of Zoopmedia business cards which is always a good thing.

The only downside to the whole trip was me not winning the MacBook Pro they gave away. I did get an iPhone case though so I’m not complaining.

Happening This Week

I thought I would also use this post to focus on some upcoming events here in Austin. I’ll be attending both events so come check them out and look for me.

Wordpress Wednesday

When: July 1st at 9 AM
Where: Central Market Cafe (Second Floor)
RSVP: Go Here

The Social Media Rockstars meetup group will be meeting once again to talk about blogging and WordPress. It’s an awesome group and a great place to meet fellow bloggers and learn some new things about blogging.

Beer and Blog Austin

When: July 5th at 6 PM
Where: Opal Divine’s Freehouse
RSVP: Go Here or send a tweet to @beernblogaustin

The Beer and Blog Austin Chapter will be meeting again to drink some beer and chat about blogging, WordPress, and anything else on our mind. It’s only our second meetup so the more people the better. We still need help marketing as well so feel free to spread the word.

Recap Of WordCamp

Over the next week, I will be posting about the things I learned and summaries of presentations from the WordCamp event. The majority of them will be over at the ZoopMedia blog but I’ll probably squeeze a few in here as well.

The first post, Using WordPress As A CMS, is already live so go check it out. It’s got some great information about plugins.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

I’m hanging out at WordCamp Dallas (Live Stream) and it seems like everyone is using desktop applications for Twitter. However, when it comes to which one is the best it’s a mixed bag. People seem to all have different opinions based on how they use Twitter.

Some people prefer TweetDeck while others prefer Tweetie. Someone even told me about Nambu which is a brand new application that’s still in beta. I gave it a quick try but wasn’t feeling it so I uninstalled it right away.

I’ve been using TweetDeck since it first came out and have been really happy with it. I like the fact you can monitor everything using columns and it has a boatload of features.

However…

Since I arrived here in Dallas, I’ve been stuck using my 13″ screen (which is a pain in the ass). At home, I have a 24 inch monitor and have no problems with screen real estate. I can have TweetDeck up all day and it doesn’t bother me since I have a lot of desktop space.

As soon as I opened TweetDeck on my MacBook, it took up my entire screen. So I narrowed my columns and hid some of them. It fits fine on my screen now, but I miss seeing all the columns for my various Twitter accounts.

Tweetie Test Drive

So I installed Tweetie yesterday and decided I would give it a test drive. I previously used it when it first came out but I was so used to TweetDeck that I decided it wasn’t worth my time. I uninstalled it and went on my way.

But now that I’m using it again, I like it far more than TweetDeck. I can add all my accounts and monitor them in a super easy way. From an interface point of view, Tweetie is amazing. You simply click on your avatar for the various accounts and you get all the features you need.

What I really like about Tweetie is how they have managed to do everything in one column without making you feel limited. I feel like I can do everything I can in TweetDeck without the huge command center window. Plus it looks so much better and reads like an iChat conversation.

Which One’s Better?

It’s a tough call. After using it all day yesterday, I’ve decided to stick with Tweetie. It’s so painless to use and takes up as much space on my screen as iChat. But I think it really comes down to what you prefer and what features you use the most.

As far as the iPhone goes, I still plan on using TweetDeck since I really like the interface. For an in-depth review, check out TweetDeck for the iPhone.

I’m interested in hearing what applications everyone else is using.

Which Do You Use?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

It sure felt like it while driving across Texas…

Digital Nomad Radio is officially back on the air! Want even better news? It now has a kickass introduction.

In this week’s episode, I’m going to talk about my move from Arizona to Texas. Specifically, I’m going to talk about what it was like moving my job along with me. It was the first time in my life I moved to a new state not having to worry about finding a job.

And let me say, it’s a whole lot different this time around.

Length: 10 Minutes and 26 Seconds

Teaser:

Some of the things I discuss in this weeks episode include:

• Why being a digital nomad is the best way to live – even if you don’t like traveling around.
• Why moving your job with you is a hell of a lot easier than finding a new one.
• Social Media – how it can make moving easier.

Want to add anything to this week’s episode? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below. And don’t forget to check out next week’s episode!

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.

I never would of expected that Austin is the home of the largest urban bat colony in the United States. It turns out there are around 1.5 million bats that call the Congress Avenue bridge home from March until November. I just so happen to live right next to the bridge so they fly over our apartment complex every night.

Flight of the Bats

Here’s a video of the bats coming out at around 8:15 PM:

Near My Apartment

Here’s another video of the bats flying in streaks right near my apartment complex. It’s amazing how many of them there are:

Random Fact

The bats in Austin consume between 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects every night. Crazy!

© Justin Wright - please visit Life of Justin for more great content or subscribe to the feed. All content copyright of Justin Wright unless otherwise stated or implied.