A lifestream is an aggregation of all your online activities that are spread over multiple sites into a single location. In other words it is a log of your internet exploits. There is no way that you can blog about everything that you find interesting on the internet. So, adding a lifestream to your blog can be a way to tell people more about your interests and what you are up to. This gives people a better idea of who you are. Adding a lifestream page to your blog using FriendFeed is pretty easy.

First, sign up for an account on FriendFeed and add all your favorite services to it. FriendFeed only asks for your usernames for these services; you don’t have have to provide your passwords. The whole process will take only a few minutes, even if you have a dozen services.

Next, add a template file called lifestream.php to your Wordpress theme folder. You can declare the template as follows.

<?php
/*
Template Name: Lifestream
*/
?>

If you dropped by on my blog sometime last week, you might have noticed some funny shit happening with the design and layout of the site. I was in the process of a major site redesign. All my earlier blogs were either on wordpress.com or blogspot. This is my first self hosted blog and I am really having a great time customizing every little square inch of it. I got so obsessed with getting everything to my liking, I almost forgot to write a new post. I now know more CSS and PHP than I want to and my wrists are stiff with carpal tunnel.

I am almost done with the site’s redesign, but there are a few more things I will be adding in the next few days:
1. A big-ass footer stuffed with handy navigation links.
2. A feedback form (in the footer maybe).
3. An about page that actually does what it says – tell everything about me and this blog.
4. A spiffy archives page.

Please let me know what you think about the new design.