Pre Covid blog world

 

I hadn't published on this blog since 2016. I thought I was moving it. I was wrong. My life changed, the world changed, everything changed and then it changed again and here I am , back on my Blogger blog. I have been on Blogger since March 2004. This was my first blog so I have quite an attachment to it. Nothing rammed it home better, how much the world had changed, than when I came back and looked at the blogs I had linked here. Some had not been published to for years. I couldn't talk. I had had a gap of 6 years. My blog was still here. There was traffic but not like before. 

I went down my blog list and checked links. Some had been hijacked. Some had been removed, a few were still active, others had had a gap, like I had , but were still there. The world before Covid, where we blogged and shared so many ideas. We shared information, opinions, inspiration. It was a place to learn a lot and get thinking. It was also a place to laugh. 

It feels very quiet here. Before , there was always a buzz. You could feel it. The internet is strange like that. You can't see people but you can feel the activity of the net. 

There are so many other social media platforms now and I belong to some of them. Blogs are still important , though, for exploring ideas, sharing knowledge and offering opinions. 

I have culled the blogs and have revamped my site so it represents the renewal. I do have to upgrade and update this. I am looking forward to it. There is so much varied content on this blog and we need to get back to that : varied content. We must be worn out by now. We must be baffled by a world full of things which are hard to deal with. The only way out of it is to reframe it with our thoughts and ideas. I am grateful for the pre Covid bloggers and how they put such good thoughts my way. I shall be looking for new blogs to share and am looking forward to finding them. 

Blog is moving back!!

I shifted this blog over to WordPress because I thought it would be easier. Not so. I lost the traffic, didn’t make it up and then life took a massive turn and here I am. I have been brought back to Blogger by a series of interesting turns and am now speaking to an empty room. I plan to change that obviously . It will be a learning curve. Life has changed and even though some think we can be normal, as we were pre covid, we can’t be. We have had the coronavirus demands and challenges plus whatever else our life had brought us. Life has to be lived on life’s terms. I shan’t be who I was when I started this blog but am looking forward to developing it. First, I shall be shifting the posts I did put up on WordPress but, at the same time, there has to be current content because there is plenty to talk about right now  in Adelaide . 

Plugged in and fully networked.

I think I can safely say I have got myself up to scratch now and am fully plugged in and socially networked. I like my little Blogger Buddy on the Window's sidebar. It can be very handy and is simplicity itself. I have added a Twitter gadget in my sidebar because I was curious to see how Twitter worked and the night Obama Barack got elected it just went right off and the chattering was astounding to watch as it rolled through. I can see how it has its uses but when you see so many comments run through in so many different languages then you really get the idea of how connected we are and how much we talk! I have settled on Windows Live for my blogging because it is really rather nice and I am happy with what it does and how it supports my blogging. So all in all, after a long, tricky run, I am on my blogger feet again and a lot wiser for all my experiments and changes.

Baroness Beerli Blithely Battles the Blogosphere

It’s a jungle out there in the blogsphere . Hot, stormy and the terrain is treacherous! Oh yes, the thunder has been rolling, the rain pouring and the heat has been turned up to steaming. I have narrowly escaped falling headers, confronted corrupt code, hacked and chopped my way through the intricate creeping vines of  template technology and finally can see my way clear. My title has been restored albeit without the embellishment of  the photographic finery which was once on offer. I’ve sorted my divs, got my “ and ‘ in the right places and the resultant refurbishment is quite pleasing. But I tell you, it’s a jungle out there. Now that I have centred myself and recovered my title, I can now blog with dignity.

Naked Blogging Part 2

Well, this has been quite the little adventure and it's why I love blogging. It forces me to change, it forces me to think and it forces me to learn. It is also so reassuring to know there is a supportive network around which doesn't do the work for you, but they provide a lot of tips, hints and clues. I am not clueless, I can work things out for myself and I hate being patronised...so the dicovery learning with a little help from the blogosphere works well for me. The naked blogging (as per naked DSL - blogging unplugged) is going pretty well. It has given me a chance to discover the delights of the draft Blogger dashboard and now I know to push the compose button, everything I need is there and more! It was a sheer delight to find there is a justify button which actually works. There was one on ScribeFire which worked within the programme but not when the text was posted. I just love justification. Thanks to StatCounter which is just one of those really helpful sites, I have worked out I can put HTML and Java Script into a gadget box. I think I need to take the labels off, but I'll play with that later. This is a fantastic discovery because it means my blog is now completely portable to a new layout if I want one . I shan't have to fiddle with code. I am no tech head but the odd bit of code fiddling amuses me no end and I feel quite proud of myself when I have sorted it out. Blogger is really helpful with the hints so I have learned quite a bit....and I can post my pictures again! What a relief. I can say that naked blogging has brought back my variety and number of visitors. My top 5 countries are now Australia US,Malaysia and  Hong Kong . France normally features pretty well but that has dropped off again but I have picked up a lot more hits form Slovenia.This is what makes blogging so interesting. So I am off on today's adventures and expect to learn more. I have kept Zemanta on another blog I have and it is working well on that blog. The best thing is the refurbishment into the new blog layout has really freshened things up and brought different people onto my site. It has all been worth it.

Naked Blogging

Well, I figure if you can have naked DSL, which works pretty well if my sister's place is anything to go by, then I think you can have naked blogging. Blogging unplugged. I am currently running no plug ins as I continue to gather data about my blog since I lost the Blog It application when Firefox updated. Yes, I am going to go on about it. It was good with Blog It. I have given Scribe Fire a whirl and that's like blogging in a tuxedo with a butler to boot. Pretty up there. Then I have tried Zemanta which is layer upon layer upon layer...the layered look of the catwalk. So now I have unplugged everything and can no longer see a button to upload my own pictures...like there used to be. So now what? Image free zone as well? That'll be a trifle dull. So off I go continuing with my experiment and in search of picture uploading buttons. Maybe I have to take Zemanta off my system to get the picture button back. Who knows. I'll find out. This blog has always been about discovery learning. Keeps the blogging cogs going.

Yoda off the rails

I like Yoda. Bit of a character really who inspires me. So I was really stoked to find a Yoda app in the Blogger gadgets choices for the new improved layout. So trying to guess what the quotation is is really annoying me. Yoda is off centre, my sidebar is not wide enough and I am thinking this is so unfair because I just want my Yoda app to be in the right place at the right time quoting away. The sidebar on this template is too narrow for most apps because they end up with scroll bars which REALLY annoys me. Looks a trifle kitsch. Yoda's off the rails and I'm up the spout on this one.