KirstenL4W

Sorry if I turned anyone off with yesterday’s post.  This is a blog about me, and I do try not to blog about my bodily functions, but I came up with the idea of blogging about it when I was IM’ing a friend.  I’ll get this blog back to normal now.

I want to blog about the Blogger service.  I know there are still a lot of people still on there.  I had my reasons for staying for  so very long.   First of all, having the access to the css and html code for free was great.  I learned so much having that access.  And lots of blogs are on Blogger, so if you’re looking for new stuff to read, it’s pretty easy.  But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Blogger has made some changes that are not friendly to the blogging community at large.  If you are on Blogger, it doesn’t really matter much.   But if you aren’t, then it sucks.

The single biggest change they have made is to the comments.  Without warning, Blogger started requiring an OpenID or a blogger account to comment on other blogs.  I saw my comments drop off to nearly nothing.  I didn’t have a lot of comments to begin with, so seeing them dry up like that wasn’t fun.  Blogger changed things back a bit, allowing a commenter to enter a URL along with their name, with the idea that it will leave a direct link.  Ok, fine.  Those using a Blogger ID still get directed to their blogger profiles - NOT their blogs - and some of those profiles are private so you never get to see the blogger who left the comment.  All in all, it’s a very Blogger-centric way of doing things.

Here on WordPress, if you leave a comment, you are required to leave your email address, though it’s not public.  I don’t collect them for any purpose, but if I want to reply to your comment privately, I can do that.  It also gives you the option to leave a link to your website, which is a direct link, no matter what blogging platform you use.  You can subscribe to comments using any email address.  When commenting on Blogger blogs, I only had the option to subscribe using Gmail.  I have a Gmail account as a backup, but I don’t really use it.  I’ve been using Yahoo for years, and I find the Gmail interface a bit clunky.  I know there are lots of tips out there to get the most out of Gmail, but I haven’t seen enough to make me inclined to want to use it more.

But enough about email.  I’ve ranted enough about Blogger, and if anyone is thinking about leaving, I have an option for you.  I use WordPress, and to elaborate I’ll tell you which one: WordPress.org.  I paid for my own domain name, took a blog friend up on the offer to host it, and making changes and customizations require knowledge of php, which I do not have at this point.  There is an easier way, and that way is WordPress.com.

Wordpress.com has a lot of the same features that Blogger has - it’s free, you can have your blog on line in minutes, and it’s free.  You WON’T have access to the code unless you pay up, but there’s more to a great blog than a great design.  For those who are iffy on switching, Wordpress has thought of that too.  They have an easy import tool that imports all your posts, pictures, comments, and categories with one easy click (just don’t do this more than once or you get double posts).   Then just put a link on your Blogger blog telling people where to find you.  That’s it.  Pretty neat, huh?

Now you will need to recreate your sidebar information, but that isn’t too difficult.  But wanna know what else?  You can have multiple pages, just like a real website.  That is probably my single favorite thing about Wordpress.  New pages are just as easy to set up as a new post is.  Even if you’re not ready to switch, go ahead and set up a Wordpress.com account and play around with it.  When you are ready, it’s super easy.

When you have a few minutes (or more), and/or if you have BBC America, then check out one of my favorite shows: Top Gear.   Even if you aren’t really into cars, it’s a great show.  It’s been described as Motor Trend meets Jackass.  Right now I’m watching them attempt to launch a rocketship made with a Fiat into space.

There’s lots of talk in the blog world about some of the changes that Blogger has made recently. Two of the latest firestorms concern photos and comments.

Blogger makes it easy to upload photos, and they give you a decent amount of storage space so that for those of us who don’t usually post pictures, but like to now and then, we don’t have to use a third party host for our photos. I thought it was some sort of fluke at first. When I went to take a closer look at a picture that Blog Bloke posted, I was prompted to download it. Huh? On their issues page, Blogger offers a workaround for this. Nice that they show you how to get around it, but what about all those people out there who aren’t so technically inclined? That was one of the appeals of Blogger. In fact, I believe their tagline is (or was) “Push-Button Publishing.” The ease of use and everything they offered is one of the main reasons I decided to set up shop here, and having access to the code to fine-tune my template for free kept me here. Still is, actually.

But then there’s the comments. Previously, anyone could comment with any email address. Now commenters MUST have a google/blogger account and related email address (read: gmail) to be able to comment. I have one, obviously, so I’ve not had an issue leaving anyone a comment, but my comments have been way down. I know with my measly little personal blog that comments can be rare at times, but even with my reduced posting schedule I’ve still been able to pull in at least 1-2 comments per post. Now they’ve nearly disappeared. Blogger does offer some psychobabble help about OpenID and something about Blogger Draft, but again, there’s the ease of use issue. Hello!!! A bit more research revealed this site, Blogger in Draft, which has a post about the new comment feature. Considering all the venom being spewed around the blogosphere regarding the new comment features, and the comments on the Draft blog, it seems the politicos are at it again.

There’s been a lot that has been going on at Blogger and Google lately, and a lot of people seem to be pissed off at it. For a while there it seemed like the changes were for the good - Blogger allowed custom domain names, they frustrated a lot of people but ultimately came up with a decent thing with Beta. They had something for nearly everyone - access to the html for geeks who wanted to customize, but super-easy for those who wouldn’t know code if it hit them in the head. Now they seem to be abandoning the blogging for everyone mantra and going for world domination.

I am, for the time being, staying here at Blogger. I have had it at the back of my mind to switch to WordPress, something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now. I do have a blog at wordpress.com, but I also realize that it’s the Little Tykes version of the full-blown wordpress.org. I’m getting an idea, though. I really like the ability to add extra pages to my blog, which would let me add an extra level of personalization. Right now, though, I just don’t have the time. Snoskred is offering hosting and help setting up a WP blog at bargain-basement prices, which could very well be someone’s Christmas miracle.

Blog Bloke and Devilish Southern Belle have both been detailing their Blogger frustrations and what they’re doing as a result. For me, the comment thing is getting to me because I like comments. I don’t get tons, like I said, but they’ve nearly dried up at this point. I like the blogging community, but Blogger is making difficult for those out in the wild blue internets to be a part of that. The new rules are almost like a secret handshake, and it’s leaving a lot of people out of the club.

I’m giving this some serious thought, and after I make a couple of Christmas crafts that I haven’t even started yet, mail my Christmas cards, send out some CDs for another mix exchange, and make Boyfriend a stocking, besides working full time, having a busy social life, and all the other mayhem that December brings, I just might do it. I’m this close. I’ll be looking at it more in depth after the holidays.

A couple posts back, I put forth the question Am I A Good Blogger? So many blogs about blogging make it sound like those of us who have personal blogs are doing everything wrong, according to the Bible of Blogging. We’re can’t possibly be serious about blogging if we don’t have a niche. We’re told that our blogs are boring, that no one wants to read about our personal lives. We’re told that blogging is a business, not a hobby for us little people.

My post brought lots of thought-provoking comments. Devilish Southern Belle referred to her site as a “vanity site.” I like that. After all, aren’t most blogs about vanity? I haven’t found too many altruistic blogs out there. It seems like everyone blogging is either talking about themselves, talking about how much money they make blogging, or talking about what an expert they are on being a way too cool super popular blogger.

Diesel has a rather funny personal blog, and had some interesting observations about StumbleUpon. He takes the best of the “good blogger” advice and makes it work for him.

Snoskred did an entire post based on mine. She brought up some good points. Getting my own domain has been at the back of my mind for a while, and eventually I would like to build a bigger website. I like what Jordon’s done with his site, so something along those lines would be good - not a hugely in depth site, but a few extra pages to show who he is and what his interests are is pretty much the kind of thing I was thinking about. Of course, I would need to learn a lot more about different platforms and how to actually run a whole website. That will come with time - having the time! But back to the issue at hand…

I read a couple of blog posts that made me feel better about my blog and where it’s at. The first one is from SuperBlogging and is titled, “Your Blog Can Be Whatever You Want It To Be“. All I have to say to that is Amen, brother. And this morning I read (thanks to Snoskred) this article entitled, “How Do You Measure Your Success As A Blogger?” Look at the very first bullet point. “…is it by personal satisfaction, knowing that your needs are met? That your sense of community has been satisfied?” It’s extremely rare that a blogger will write a post about blogging that actually considers the needs of the individual blogger. And yes, this is exactly why I blog.

I started this blog as a personal journal and quickly branched out into all things about me (hence the title of my blog). This blog is me, through and through. It’s not about lining my pockets, and it’s not about making the rest of you feel like you need to scramble to keep up with how great I am. It’s just me, and now that I’ve been at it awhile it’s about the friends I’ve made too. I’ve kept in touch with friends and family, gotten re-acquainted with old friends, and made new friends along the way. Knowing that there are real people on the other end of the internet makes it worthwhile, and even if no one is reading, just getting things out in the open is worth it, too.

Is there some sort of feed website where I can subscribe to all my favorite blogs and have all new posts on said blogs delivered to my email? I’d like to do this from one single source rather than a rag-tag collection of feeds, and I’d really like them delivered to the email address of my choosing, rather than having to visit yet another website (if I can do that, then I’d just read all the blogs). I’m trying to streamline things here so that I can easily keep up with everyone.

On a side note, does anyone know how I can smack the idiot know-nothings who don’t know what the hell song they’re sharing on L!meW1re? I get so annoyed when I see a song by an artist, thinking that particular artist covered a song I already like, only to find out that it’s not a cover, it’s the original version, and some idiot put the wrong artist to the song. Then again, I suppose the people who use L!mew1re are the same idiots who pimp out their MySpace pages so that they are rendered unreadable by the general population.

I was tagged by Macoosh to answer this, so here goes.

1. I love the chance to express myself. While I don’t necessarily like being the center of attention, this is a chance for me to be as expressive as I need to be, but in a stealth-like way.
2. I can get out all my thoughts the same way I do with my private, hand-written journal, but with an audience, I feel like writing here has a better chance for results.
3. It gives me the opportunity to expand my technical knowlege - pretty much everything I know about html and css is because I wanted to tweak my blog, so I made myself learn it.
4. It wasn’t a reason at first, but it’s a lot of what keeps me going: I’ve made a lot of friends blogging, and those friendships are what make blogging a much richer experience.
5. Because I can.

So there’s that. I’m not going to tag anyone specifically, so if you want to do this meme, go right ahead.

Well isn’t this an interesting turn of events. A short time ago, Bobby promised to make good and get his site back to being the link exchange heaven it used to be. But he slacked off once again, and it seems that someone, or someones, got upset and reported the blog to Blogger for TOS violations. I don’t know how it will turn out, but for now I’ll leave the link in my blogroll until there is resolution. What that resolution is will determine what my course of action is regarding Bobby’s link.

Ok, so the blog design person I contacted isn’t taking new jobs right now. I emailed my friend VegasRic since in addition to his mad Photoshop skills, he also has mad web design skills (though you’d never know it from his blog). I don’t need anything fancy, just his brain and his software to come up with something a bit more personalized. I’ll keep on working on things with my html cheat sheet, and the few books I bought, to see what I can come up with on my own. I have a few things done so far, and it’s kinda the direction I want to go in, but I’d also like it to look a bit more feminine, without being all over-scrolly and such.

I would love to have a bunch of designs at the ready to change them at whim, sorta like the way I change my desktop picture on my home computer. And yes, Blogger still needs to come up with way more designs. The ones they have are decent, at least in a design sense they are good, but they lack variety as far as different themes go.

At least I’m throwing myself into more web design, which came to a screeching halt when I switched over to beta.

Now that I’ve recovered from my minor heart attack over my lack of control with the mouse, which resulted in my messing up my layout big time, I’m ready to post.

So, the big weekend. A big, beer-drinking weekend. Um, I don’t drink. And I don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s day just because I have red hair. I like going against the grain, doing the unexpected, being rebellious. It bothers people to see that I don’t display any holiday spirit, especially on a holiday that’s supposed to be for people like me (meaning pasty white skinned redheads). Whatever.

I did have a nice day though, which could have been any weekend day out of the year. I gathered with some friends and had dinner. The group I spent the weekend with was a bunch of transplanted New Yorkers, and we had ravioli and Italian meatballs along with conversation in the way that only a New Yorker can give. No green beer on the table for me! I prefer pasta to corned beef any day, so this was great. I like small, simple gatherings like that with just a few friends. I did end up crashing there, which was fine because it’s such a comfortable place to be. Slept in, eggs and bagels for breakfast, some more conversation, a catnap, and finally time to go home. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

Last night I took some time to chat with friends online and catch up with reading my blogs and a few other message boards. I’ve been starting to consider paying for a blog template, but there was just the whole paying part of it standing in my way. I couldn’t bring myself to want to pay for it when there are so many free templates available. But, after my little snafu this morning, I looked into it again. The site I contacted doesn’t require payment until installation, so it should be risk-free. Of course, if I knew more about web design and had a decent program to do it on, I’d be doing it myself. That’s probably the one thing I hate most about this new Blogger crap. I don’t get a chance to go into the code anymore and do it myself. They make it too easy to not learn any html/css/xml. So any learning I’ve been doing in that regard has come to a screeching halt, and as they say, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Now it’s all I can do to remember how to do an href tag to make a live link. Ah well.

I did it - I made the switch to Beta. There will be some changes coming. I’m not clever enough with code to make my new template Beta compliant (as in, take the old template and be able to use widgets with it) so I will be making changes. I will no longer have the beautiful template you all have come to know and love, but it will be saved for future reference. I will be changing to a new template that will allow me to use the wonderful widgets, which will allow me to be better organized. I’ll also be going thru the 150 or so posts I have and tagging them all so I can dump Technorati. No offense for those that love it, but I only got it for the labeling abilities, and now that I can do that directly in Blogger, the other one goes.

In any case, be on the lookout for changes within the next few days. I made the switch, but to finish things up to get them the way I want will take time. But first, I have some errands to run, sleep to get since I didn’t really get any last night, and plans tonite. Gah, being unemployed sure keeps me busy!

No, no, no. All you religious D-day freaks can go back to from wherever you came from. I am talking about the end of my employment with Mad Scientist and the gang. They have decided on a replacement for me (a fine choice, I might add) and she will be starting on Monday. I’ll help train her, or rather show her the ropes and just be there for questions, and my last day will be on Tuesday the 17th. As far as a new job, it’s looking like I’ll be working at my friend’s place. Mad Sci was chatting with her for quite a long time the other day, and said he was gonna talk with her some more this evening after the church council meeting. He thinks she’s pretty close to presenting an offer, which would be great. There’s way more room for growth at her company, and I can go so much further. Hopefully I’ll know more tomorrow, and believe me, as soon as I know, you will all know (well, after I call my mom, dad, sister and a few close friends).

I got a chance to talk to The Man tonight. First of all, he shall herein be known as VegasRic. Yes, he is still a man, and a mighty fine one at that. But we shall be just friends, which is a big relief. I’m still wildly attracted to him, but now there’s no pressure, no wondering about the status of things, none of the other pressure that comes with a more romantic relationship. It was a good talk. As for romance, I’d really prefer that it happen spontaneously rather than the whole formal dating process. I mean, you have less time to think about it that way, but it’s so much more fun. And as for The Man VegasRic, we have plans to do cannonballs in his hot tub tomorrow after I get out of work. I think we’ll get about 1 each before we empty the spa.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my blog and the upcoming, inevitable change to Beta. I love my template, but I want to be able to use the widgets and all the other cool features, especially now that more and more bugs are being worked out. But, if you have a non-Blogger issued template and want to keep it, you cannot use widgets without rewriting the code. I bought books and have been studying the help section here, but I’m not so sure. I know eventually there will be non-Blogger issued templates that will work with the widgets. At the moment, as much as I love it, I am actually getting bored with my template. Gasp! I like what Gouda has done with her place, and since she was so kind as to post the code for the changes she made, I just might be a cheesy copycat. I need to put together some sort of header pic first, because Gouda paid money for hers and Macoosh has skills, and I have neither money nor skills, I might have to hit up friends to help me come up with something awesome. (I’m talking to you, Ric!) In the meantime, I’ll continue playing around on my test blog, which contains nothing of interest or substance to you, which is why you haven’t seen it.

Anyhoo, time for dinner. I’ve been saying that for over an hour now. Time for dinner. Yeah.

Well tapering down the Paxil on my own isn’t the way to go. I started getting the zaps and could not concentrate at all, so I’m back to my regular prescribed dosage. But I did make a doctors appt for next week to try and get off this stuff. I just don’t want to be on it anymore, and I really think it’s dulling things down for me. I mean, really, who on earth could be content to just work 2 jobs and go home alone every single night, perfectly content to have absolutely no social life? I was for a long time on it. I don’t want to do that. I want to feel things and seek out new things and experience them. Grrrr. I didn’t even want Paxil in the first place. I wanted something else because I new getting off it would be a bitch. Now I know I should never have gone on it. Sure, I was having a hard time with stuff last year, and could barely think about facing my day or even going to the damn store without breaking out in tears. I’ve gone through it before, and I always got through it on my own before. I don’t know why I thought this was any different. Now I feel stuck on it, and we all know how I feel about being stuck.

The Man’s friend passed my resume on today, and is picking up the head of HR from the airport tomorrow. She said she’s gonna put a bug in my ear about hiring me, and she is personally recommening me, which goes a long way where she works. It goes a long way in this town in general. Back home my family knows a lot of people, and even in the hardest of times I have never had to use that to get a job - I always managed just fine on my own. Here, though, it’s a totally different ballgame. It’s all about who you know, and if you don’t know anyone, the job hunt in Vegas will be 10x tougher, no matter what industry you’re in. I’m still working all my contacts and trying not to leave any stone unturned.

I’ve been thinking of switching over to Beta. The only thing is that I would love to edit the code on my beautiful template to make it Beta compliant, so that I can take advantage of some of the upgrades, like labels and easy editing with widgets. I’ve also been thinking of simplifying some of the content on my sidebar. I’m no longer thrilled to have tons of toys on it for the sake of having them. So, as my motivation comes and goes, look for some changes. I don’t know when D-Day is as far as Blogger making everyone change to Beta, but hopefully I’ll have it all figured out by then. Just gotta find the motivation and time to work on it - I haven’t really felt like playing too much with code lately.

I found a template I like. Actually, I found it some time ago but didn’t want to put forth the effort to get my sidebar the way I want it and edit the other stuff. Now I’m just working on it in Notepad bit by bit and pasting it in my template without saving, just to make sure it all works. Once it’s done I’ll post it. It’s much nicer than the one I have now. Not that I have anything against the Blogger templates, but like I said in the previous post, I want endless choices. Hopefully when the new Beta version is put into full effect, there will be many many more choices, along with the ability to edit the template without losing all the sidebar customizations. That’s the most frustrating part of changing templates. But for now, enjoy some new sidebar content all the way down at the bottom.

First of all, something weird is happening. I signed up for a WordPress account, and they have this neat feature that allows you to import another blog, so I decided to try it. Now I see that all my previous posts have absolutely no paragraph separation. The only way to fix it that I know of is to go in and edit the html of each and every post. This is my 102nd post, and I really don’t need yet another project. If anyone has any other ideas, let me know. (ETA: I figured it out. My publishing settings got changed, I had to change it back to convert the line breaks. Phew!)

I do have a few blogs, 2 are inactive, 1 is kind of active (I go on mostly to check out what my friends are doing), the WordPress one is too new to know how active it will be, and of course this one. My Blogger blog is my baby. It was the first one I had, and I have the most control over the page design and content. The others you have to pay for to get that kind of control, and I’m all set with that. I don’t pay for anything online, except to actually have access at home. I see that Blogger is upgrading things, which they currently have in beta at the moment. Personally, I like things the way they are, but I’d just like to see a few things added. More templates would be awesome, along with the ability to change your template without having to go back and edit every darned thing in your sidebar (WP has this ability). I’d also like to see tags directly on this site, simply to keep my own stuff organized without having to go through a 3rd party (no offense, Technorati). And photo albums - it would be great if every picture was placed in an album on our blogs, with a link to it in the sidebar, and when someone is browsing through the album, if they click on the picture it will bring you to the post it’s in. Just a thought.

I’m hesitant to try beta because it’s just that - beta. A lot of people consider me to be web-savvy, but I don’t always think so. And I never want to be among the first people to use a new release of something. I’d much rather wait until the bugs get worked out by the brave people. And Blogger Beta doesn’t allow html formatting in the template. I like the idea of making it user friendly for the uninitiated, but let those of us who do know a thing or 2 about html mess around with our code. I’ll most likely wait until the final release, when I’m required to change over.

I also signed up at Technorati today, because I have discovered the joy and genius of tags. So that’s another project, to tag all my posts. Like I don’t spend enough time online as it is. And you can all see the results of me going nuts over buttons, as of this writing I have 9 in my sidebar. Trust me, more will be going up as time goes on.

In other news, I went out and ran some errands, but I don’t know where my mind was. My main goal today was to get my car smogged and get an oil change. Didn’t happen, so now I need to try and find time this week to get it done. I did get some grocery shopping done, and did laundry (which I just finished moments ago). I also managed to clean my kitchen, with the exception of the floor. That will be done at a later date - a much later date if I can ever pull myself away from the computer.

And it looks like the apartment complex is painting the buildings. They are currently a dingy beige with dark brown accents, and terra cotta tile roofs. The new colors have terra cotta colored accents. I hope they change the dingy beige to a brighter cream color, that would really brighten things up around here. No idea when my building will get done.

Time to go now. It’s after 10 and I still need to eat dinner, which I haven’t done yet because I’ve been spending so much damn time on these internets!!!!!

Ok, so I don’t post here every day, it’s more like 1-2 times per week. Boy do I ever enjoy it though. But today, I couldn’t resist. I had to sign up for LiveJournal, just to see what it was all about. Don’t worry, I won’t be abandoning you, my faithful reader. Right now I’m still at the playing around stage on LJ, just to see what it can do. I’m pretty used to Blogger and what it can do, and I’ve got things the way I like them. Blogs aren’t created overnight, unless you have a serious caffeine addiction, whichI do not. So who knows. I still plan on keeping this one. To me changing blogs is like changing email addresses - people get so used to using one that it confuses them and annoys them when you change. I’ll still play on LJ, and we’ll see what happens with that one, but Blogger will still be my home blog.

When I used the spell check to check the post just below this one, a few things were a bit off. Not my spelling - I know how to spell. The spell check has some weird ideas. “Job” replace with _____. No suggestions. “Shoestore” replace with “Chester” or “scooter”, and my favorite - “Blogger” with “Blocker”. I don’t think so!

And by the way, one of the intellectually challenged project people here in the office now is on a break, halfway through his appointment, and JUST NOW read the signs on the door. He’s one that came in the wrong door and did not read the signs regarding opening times. Because he’s just reading and paying attention to the signs now, he’s about 10 seconds away from going over his allotted break time, which would require me to file a report. I don’t find out what happens to people after I see them for the appointment, but I’m willing to bet this will be the last part of the project process for him.