It's anyone's guess what will happen with this post. I'm winging it, just like Blogger and Feedburner seem to be with my subscribers and commenters lately. More on that later. How is everyone? Feeling Blue in The Good Way? Do grab a nice beverage and/or a snack and settle in. Let's begin.
T is for Transitions: And Ticked Off. I'm angry that Blogger is denying any and all Commenters without a Google account. I could allow for Anonymous commenters, but then you'd have to pass the dreaded Captcha, which has gotten nearly impossible. Additionally, I get overrun with spammers. I've started to work with WordPress, but unless I want to pay for their service (which I don't), it's very limiting, clunky, and not very customizable. I am also aware that my email subscribers are suddenly not getting my posts via Feedburner, also owned by Google (who owns Blogger). It's apparent that I need to make some changes, but...I really don't have the energy.
G is for Giggles: Saw this decal on the back of an SUV the other day. Luckily, it was in a parking lot, so it wasn't a danger to photograph it. I found it very refreshing and self-actualized.
I is for Involved: It's so satisfying and encouraging to hear from so many people that they became much more involved in this midterm election process. I had family members who canvassed, phone-banked, put up signs, and wrote letters. I heard from friends who had never before done any campaign work, but this year they went door-to-door or stuffed envelopes. AND! You'll be glad to know that I flipped two red voters to blue. It's astonishing what some Actual Facts and Turning People Away From Facebook And To Credible Information Sources can do. (And some Disgust Of 45*.) Sadly, due to gerrymandering in Ohio, it is not a lot of help, but...baby steps. I continue my activism, now writing to voters in Mississippi for their special election, and awaiting any opportunities for Georgia's governor's race.
F is for Fall? What Fall?: I know many of you are reading this in the Icy Tundra that is your neighborhood or workplace. Did any of you ever get to open your windows to the Autumnal Zephyrs of October? Or even September? Or, like me, did you have your windows closed, airconditioning blasting because throughout September it was in the upper 80s and 90+ with matching humidity which continued through the first week of October, followed immediately by rain and temperatures in the 40s and 50s, at which point you turned on your furnace? I swear, I opened all of my windows to "Fall" one time--on a 50-degree day--solely to air out because I could not take feeling like I had been on a Perpetual Airplane anymore. And now, sn*w. Just. Stop.
Okay! Let's see what happens once I put this Out On The Interwebs. As always, I'm everso glad to hear from All Of You.
Just to be clear, wordpress.com is free. I paid a nominal fee to get ads off the mobile version, it's not necessary. It's also not quite as flexible in customizing (for free) as Blogger is, but since I'm PO'd at Google's political donations lately, it was worth it to me to change. Now, I actually like the look of wordpress.com a lot more. wordpress.org scares me, and that's with past experience from it. I'm not out to monetize my blog or use it for a career, so I don't think I need to hassle with wordpress.org. :)
ReplyDeleteSilver Willow--I've done more research on wordpress now than I ever wanted to do. I won't bore anyone with it here.
DeleteI'm not interested in monetizing, personal branding, SEO, or any of that other crap, either. Those days of that sort of blogging are done. Now all that is done by Social Media Influencers--and that's really a job, holy crap!--on YouTube and Instagram. We are now in a Real Live Time when anyone can make money and Be Almost-Famous for demonstrating eyeliner and playing with toys.
Anyway. I had a live chat with a WP expert, and I'll see what happens. But I have to be happy and my blog cannot be part of my stress. Those are Non-Negotiables.
We didn't get any fall here at all, at even an Indian summer. I keep hoping it will still come in December but I'm not holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteI must have my head in the sand because I don't seem to have the kind of problems you and Silver have with Bloggers. I do allow anonymous comments but moderated. Maybe the lack of comments in relationship to the n umber of views is explained by some of the things you two complain about but I'm just obvious to what is going on behind my back? I've never depended on email notifications from anyone. I check my blog daily and one of my friends has a new post, it shows up in my side bar.
Jean--I like the way you think! Indian Summer in December! Let's make that happen!
DeleteI doubt you have your head in the sand about anything. You're pretty darn sharp about stuff. I don't moderate comments; I let them go live on the site immediately. Probably I will have to start moderating all comments as a workaround and see if that helps.
And I'm not talking about email notifications. I'm talking about actual subscriptions to my blogposts via email. I have people who get my entire blogpost by email. It's a nice convenience for them; they would rather read it via email than on site or in a feed reader. But that service is no longer viable, apparently, and Google did not let any of its users know that they simply let it die.
You simply blog, and that's the end of it. You let people find you and don't worry about any bells and whistles for outreach. I wish I had never worried about it now, too.
I get that way too. I HAVE To open the windows. I get so closed in. At this point it is so gray that I wish it would snow, just to brighten things up a bit
ReplyDeletekathy b--Oh, please. Wish for sunshine. No one ever had to shovel the sunshine. Or plow it. Or salt the roads because of it. Wish for sunshine if you're doing some wishing!
DeleteHere in San Francisco we get to enjoy a lovely autumn wearing face masks as we go out in air that is far beyond unhealthy. It actually got bad enough today that we had a bad air day and classes were canceled (but in true Just My Luck fashion, we were literally the last district open, surrounded by other districts that closed a day before we did).
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that you're pissed off at Google. I've actually been quite happy with them lately. I've been able to use my education account to make several Google Sites: one for the math contest with all sorts of practice problems, one for math videos for my algebra students, and one to explain the new placement rules and to help students choose a math class to take. It's been very easy to build and edit the sites, and I don't think I would have been able to accomplish any of this without Google.
Mikey--You wouldn't be happy with Google's politics (hosting CPAC, donating to several far-right, overtly racist candidates like Steve King, etc.), but their technological tentacles are so deep and vast that it's difficult to disengage from them. Jared is a fan of Google, too, but their recent blatant sexism leading to the company walkout is making hard for him as well.
DeleteMy issues are that they have simply taken their platform ball and gone home, without any notice, leaving an entire customer base to flounder and scramble. Which is, of course, their right. But it's ugly.
On another note, I'm so sorry for the residents of California. The fires are so shocking and so devastating. As you mentioned, the effects of these fires are far-reaching; air quality is being compromised for everyone, and I'm sure it's unknown what the result will be, even years later. Stay safe.
Oops! Typo. That last sentence should read "Jared is a fan of Google, too, but their recent blatant sexism leading to the company walkout is making it hard for him as well."
DeleteWow. I didn't even know that there was a walkout at Google until you mentioned it here, and I live thirty miles from their headquarters. That's kinda crazy. And sadly, not very surprising.
DeleteDee--Oh, I would never wonder why anyone would move away from Florida. The state has its charms, to be sure, (I had a dear friend who lived in Orlando and loved it) but I can understand leaving it behind.
ReplyDeleteI will say, however, that many of those reasons (but swap a different kind of lousy weather) would be why anyone would leave their state. I often say how I detest living in Ohio--lots of rednecks/hillbillies (and we don't even have to import them); a great deal of rednecks coming up from a neighboring state; hideous winter weather and lousy heat and humidity in summer; and instead of a republican nearby, the whole damn state is red. There you go!
T is for THANKSGIVING. You remember? The real holiday we used to celebrate? It has become little more than a day before a big sale falling before the Halloween candy is gone and after the Christmas decorations are up.
ReplyDeleteG is for ghastly - A word I never before thought I might use to describe the actions of the President of the United States.
I is for incorrect information. So much of what we hear and read is incorrect and far too few people are clever enough to recognize the errors. Oh, how often we see the same woefully incorrect information "shared" on FB.
F is for fundamentalism, especially Christian fundamentalism - Our Nation seems overrun with people who are intolerant of others and believe in the literal truth of the Bible (King James version, of course). This truth is, of course, in their own interpretation and all others are wrong and doomed to Hell.
NCmountainwoman--Thanksgiving is a mere inconvenience to retailers now. I share your outrage.
DeleteAs far as facebook, it's overrun by people between the ages of 40-70, apparently, and many of them seem stuck between the ages of 12-15. It is, as you said, a vast colony of misinformation and overshare. So many people say they are "only on facebook to see pictures of grandkids and stay connected with friends." If only they could step back and see/hear exactly how sad that truly is. How tenuous is a bond that it relies on a social medium?
As a still-recovering former Catholic, I have made my feelings about any and all organized religion well known here in the past. People have only to look at the megachurches which close when Christmas falls on a Sunday as the tiniest example of their hypocrisy. The larger examples are everywhere and far more obvious (hello, vice president).
Like Mikey G, we had a lovely autumn, and then the fires started, and the high pressure and low winds is holding the pollution right over us, so we have to wear n95 masks when we go outside, and honestly you can still smell smoke while inside. And of course, you can't complain much (one can ALWAYS complain a bit) because for god's sake, we have a house, and it's warm and safe. And while I know a couple of people who have lost their houses in the fire, they are not family or close friends, and they got out safely. But God, all of those people still missing. All of those people dead. All of those people who lost their homes, or family, or pets, or all of the above. It's horrific. So I wear my mask and make what donations I can afford and think thankful thoughts and wish things were different. At least Trump came and gave great comfort to those he had earlier disparaged. *SARCASM, as you know*
ReplyDeleteI sent postcards to MS as well. Fingers crossed that the democrats turn out and the republicans stay home.
Praying for rain. It is forecasted for Wednesday. Fingers crossed for that as well.
J@jj--I'm hoping so fervently that the rain is gentle and helpful, not a torrent that results in mudslides and more losses. It's staggering to me what the collateral damages are in these fires. And I'm only seeing/hearing it on news reports in NEO, feeling very far away.
DeleteIf only the people of California had someone--anyone--else to come and comfort them. His presence felt like yet another burden, I'm sure.
The weather has pretty much sucked for a year now...or more. And yes, the s word happened last Thursday - what a mess!
ReplyDeleteLove that bumper sticker you saw.
Vera--I loved that sticker, too! I thought we were getting an El Nino winter--warmer and less precipitation or something. Can't we get a break on SOMETHING!?
DeleteI had some family members who were set up to receive emails of my posts (I did this myself, manually). That feature stopped working - without notice - but I was able to set it back up again. However, the person getting the email then had to confirm their email address & only a couple of the folks did that. These are mostly older relatives. So every time I post, I copy & paste my blog post & send them all a personal email. It's a pain! Although now that I think about it, I can post things that they'll never see if I don't send the email. Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteBug--Your comment got caught in Spam for some reason. It often does, and I have no idea why. It did before I started moderating comments. (I saw both of them. Thanks for being so persistent!)
DeleteI have quite a few subscribers through Feedburner--way way more than I could possibly copy and paste to. I don't want to lose them although I suppose if they really cared, they certainly could bother to come to the site itself or use a reader service. But I do want to be thoughtful and retain my readership. I'm currently navigating Mailchimp to transfer my mail list to that service, but it's not half as easy as Feedburner, and it's taking me some time. It's more techy and business-oriented.
I'm still building an alternate blog over at Wordpress, too, just in case. I don't trust Google/Blogger to keep this platform up and running and supported. It may be that I move everything over by the new year. That, too, is not nearly as easy as Blogger, but may serve me better in the long run.
Oh, you didn’t get any fall after all? What about your previous post describing the red maple leaves that enchanted me? Guess it was just that one morning. Maybe next year!
ReplyDeleteWatched the last half of that exciting OSU vs Maryland game last Sat. My husband overdosed our family on tv sports, but been gradually emerging from the daze these subsequent years. . May catch the upcoming Michigan game but starts early (now that I’m retired) in the morning out here.
I’m thinking about recruiting you to help me form a rake brigade, so we can rake up all those leaves in our national forests — especially now that I know what those of us in California need to do to prevent our forest fires. Our Pres. really knows everything, doesn’t he!
Joared--Yes, we did the the colours of fall, but as I said, never did get that lovely transition of temps in the 60s and 70s wherein we can open our windows and air out or enjoy going about in light sweaters or jackets. Or sleep with windows open at night and a light coverlet. Here in the Midwest we normally get more of a transition. All of our pretty leaves are gone now, rained and blown down; those still clinging are today dusted with a mantle of sn*w. Ugh.
DeleteI can't imagine why 45* hasn't hit on handing each unemployed person a rake and sent him/her into a national forest. Immediate Zero Unemployment Rate! Best Economy Ever.
But it's ghoulish to even make light of any aspect of either disaster: the fires or his administration.
Ok, I am trying to sign in with my defunct blog URL. Let's see if it works!
ReplyDeleteIt did!
Delete