SISYPHUS VS. MY BLOGS
Today I fussed over my BOOK OF DAYS and NATURALIST’S ALMANAC blogs, trying to get my protocols systematized. Everything keeps getting more complicated. I’ve decided to offer two hot links for every Web site: the name of the page AND the real Web address so someone who prints a page from either blog will have the real address for reference. I’m exhausted. I’m beginning to feel like Sisyphus, only I’m pushing the weight of my own frustrated self through cyberspace instead of pushing a plain old boulder up a steep hill. Right this minute I’m thinking Sisyphus had it easy….
28 BLOGS
As of January 20, 2007 I have 28 blogs. Things are getting worse, not better, but I want to keep exploring the possibilities until I exhaust them or myself….
CHANGE OR MORE OF THE SAME?
Today I figured out how to reclaim the old Blogger templates if I want them. It’s an option at the bottom of the TEMPLATES > HTML page. I’m still nervous, though. The new Google versions of the templates are what newcomers to Blogger get automatically, so I’m convinced Blogger is eventually going to phase out the old templates. It’s safest to get the texts saved to Appleworks just in case. More work. Nothing is easy. Am I getting signals that I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing? At least I learned that I can use a trick I invented myself to rearrange the order of the entries on Word Press, so I’ll be able to start with January 1st.
BLOGGER MELTDOWN
The new Google version of Blogger has redone itself in ways that make me nervous. I tried an update template so I could add some elements to the sidebar, and I don’t like the way the entries print now. A short one takes three pages! So now I’m not comfortable using Blogger for my Naturalist’s Almanac, but I’m not completely happy with WordPress either. At this point I guess I’ll keep posting to Blogger, but I’ll save all the posts, including the full Web addresses of the links, to Appleworks documents and keep them on file in case I need to do the whole thing over again on WordPress. I’m exhausted and exasperated.
A WILDERNESS OF BLOGS
Between Blogger and WordPress, I now have a total of 26 blogs. Part of me wants one continuous journal of everything all in one place — like my old handwritten journals, which I shredded in 2001. But another part of me wants separate repositories for separate mindsets or different functions. Several of my blogs are functional, historic, fixed, or orderly rather than bloggish (by which I mean free-form and in present time): NATURALIST’S JOURNAL, GALE LAWRENCE, BIRDATHONS, BIRD TREKS, BIRDS AFIELD, TOM’S BIRDS, FACTOIDS, PROGRESS REPORTS, NEXTBOOK, BOOKALIKE, NATURALIST’S ARCHIVE, NATURALIST’S CALENDAR— plus my old Blogger blogs: NATURALIST’S ALMANAC, ABOUT NATURALIST’S ALMANAC, ABOUT LIBBY’S ILLUSTRATIONS, NATURALIST’S BOOK OF DAYS, HUB’S BOOK, COMMONPLACE, BIRD NOTES, PLANT NOTES, and WEBLIOGRAPHY.
Others of my blogs are more exploratory: my old Blogger HOMEWORK FOR A VISION, and my WordPress MY PROGRESS, MY QUESTIONS, CHI AND ME, and CYBER DUMP. I really don’t know which ones to keep and which ones to retire. Maybe I should start a WordPress version of HOMEWORK FOR A VISION and consolidate all my exploratory writings there? But I think I still need a DUMP — an instant repository for all the stuff I just want to get out of my system at any given moment: no rules, no constraints, a huge and nonjudgmental place to fume and vent and exorcise.
THIRTEEN BLOGS
So now I have 13 Word Press blogs. Not all of them are active, but they have titles, URLs, templates, etc. I’ve spent the past few days converting a Blogger blog of Birdathons to a Word Press blog. I’m hoping it’s an improvement, but I’ll have to live with it a while. I’m exhausted.
