I have this test blog set up  and I’m trying to decide if I want to switch over here or contact a guy to make my Blogger blog pretty and workable on all desktops.

The WordPress folks are nice.. they actually answer comments to them… their help forums are surprising helpful.

But… I feel like I’m being treated like such a child because they control so much about the look of the blog. The font and font size is out of my control unless I want to figure out how to write an entire post in HTML. Nope, don’t want that. Just want a WYSIWYG editor that lets me say “make the font larger”.

I guess what I really want is the good part of the Blogger experience without the downtime and with a functioning 3 column template.

Why is that beginning to sound like an impossible dream?

When I’m not whiling away hours on this “very serious question” I’m going to be trying to set up TIVO today (including a wireless connection). It reads like it should be easy. I know I’m going to find complications that make it less so.  yep.  I can’t get the wireless network to setup.  And I DETEST that stupid TV guide box when I switch channels.

So I’m kind of tense and grumpy and not worth reading.  Go do something worthwhile.

Techie Day

Today I’m splitting my time between figuring out this WordPress blog and getting set up to install TiVo. (I know… finally!!). I’m getting more comfortable with how things work here, though I still haven’t gotten my blogroll to publish. (I did find a help place to ask about how…). Will probably “go public” with site next week.
I did spend a bit of time this morning drawing on some acrylic felt with oil pastels, then ironed the oils in. I will be layering threads and snippets and stuff over the felt, layer it with some polyester organza, stitch it and turn it into postcards. Look for postcards next week.

I love Canadian Pharmacy Trust.

I love CANADIAN PHARMACY TRUST!! My dog Katy needs thyroid replacement meds; the generic brand they make for pets doesn’t work for her (it doesn’t for about 10% of pets), so she is on the non-generic Synthroid. And she takes 5 pills a day. In the US it cost me over $125 for one bottle of 100 pills. Yeah. That would be over $150/month.

Canadian Pharmacy ships her drugs down to me. I am getting 5 bottles of pills (a 90 day supply) plus international shipping for less than one bottle costs in the US. And.. I faxed them her prescription last night. They called me this morning to check on quantities and shipping address and will send it to me today. It will be in my mailbox within a week.

My personal drugs are covered under our health insurance plan at the moment. With the changes in benefits (and retirement in a few years), I don’t know how long this will continue. But if I’m ever at the point that I need to pay for my own drugs, I’m going outta the country. (watch our government screw this up for me).

Interesting..

I’ve spent a little time today looking at other blog hosts (word press and typepad). Neither of these services let the individual get at their actual template to alter it, change it and make it their own. I couldn’t even get figure out how to get my bloglines feed to work on either service.
Which means, I’d never figure out how to add buttons, etc.

Nice services. But instead of switching, I think I’ll have to find someone to help me with my template here instead of switching to a different service.

Changing Perspectives catalog online!

The Changing Perspectives Exhibit is up online! You can go to this page then download the PDF catalog to view all the pieces.

This is the exhibit that I made Spheres of Influence for. Scroll down the page, to see the link for downloading the PDF File. You cannot view this online. Off to see all the work.

Technorati Tags: fiberarts, quiltart, quilts, art

My Blog is Cursed!!

Blogger has been breaking down for over a week.. this weekend and Monday, it his the file server that stores my blog. Broken blog off and on all morning.

Now HaloScan is offline.. and they handle my comments.

Off to find a virgin to sacrifice to the blogger gohds…

Update: Well HaloScan is back. That was fast. All I had to do was sleep on it.

Deb L. asked if the problems might be caused by going “off the reservation” for services like Flickr or HaloScan.

I think the problem with downtime at both places (Blogger and Haloscan) is the rapid growth of blogging. With a reported 25000(?) new blogs every day (a number I find suspect), the people providing the services don’t have time or necessarily money to maintain/upgrade the equipment they use.

I doubt my recent cursed situation was complicated much by going “off res” for my comments (I don’t use Flickr to upload photos, don’t even normally use Hello.. just the basic Blogger upload option), except that it means there is one more place for equipment breakdowns.

Then Deb wondered why I chose to use HaloScan instead of stay with Blogger’s comment system. I use HaloScan for several reasons:

1. I have friends who read my blog but do not have blogs themselves; they could not comment with blogger without setting up a “profile”, so they wouldn’t comment. With Haloscan, they don’t need to register with anyone. Just comment. This was the most important reason. (yes, Del, Deb and Jennifer, this means I did this for you! Do you comment? No.)

2. Blogger still doesn’t allow for trackbacks. I don’t get them often, but I would use them more with other people’s blogs if I could. Still it’s not an option that Blogger offers.

3. With HaloScan I can block trolls and sploggers without requiring legitimate commentors to do that whole word verification thing every time they comment. Can’t tell you how I dislike having to do that all the time. Since switching to HaloScan I’ve had to remove/block 2 comments total without word verification.

4. That pretty looking comment box that matches my blog.

I waited for Blogger to make these kinds of changes on their own, they didn’t. I’m seriously thinking about jumping ship on Blogger; when I switch will I stay with HaloScan? I don’t know. It depends upon the comment service offered wherever I go.