If you've been around much, you may have noticed that I've been fiddling with my blog. I can't do much of what I want within the confines of blogger templates -- not enough color and font and sizing and layout choices. I think I've conceded defeat and concluded that the best I can do is change the colors to reflect the reality of winter.I finally got with the rest of the world and signed up for bloglines, which so far has only worked about 30% of the time. There are a lot more blogs on my account than on the spiffy list here, the one that offers hints of what folks are writing about, but there isn't room to list them all on the blog. Since bloglines is down more than up, I am still making frequent rounds. And I haven't gotten everything onto one list or the other yet, which means I am still missing some blogs I love. All in due time.
And no, I never did figure out Big Pictures. Apparently the key is a flickr account, but the last thing I need is something new to keep track of. There are some Big Pictures showing up here when I link from other sites, but I have no idea how that is happening.
Blogging has turned out to be something of a long term activity for me. I like the variety of stuff out there. I like making friends whom I would be unlikely to encounter in real life, if for no other reason than that they live in Tennessee and Oregon and Texas. I like being able to process my own life stuff with a little feedback, and I'm amazed by the commonalities some of us uncover despite different experiences, politics, theologies, and values. I'm often sorry when I read and comment on a blog for awhile with no return visits, but then it's kind of interesting to speculate (for a minute anyway) why someone whose writing and/or life I find intriguing finds mine to be of no interest whatever. On the other hand, the support extended to me in the past months, some from bloggers I've known for years and some who have just shown up, has been moving and much appreciated. I have felt surrounded here in the virtual world as well as out there in the concrete world.
I've been self-censoring a lot during this time period. There are a couple of posts coming up that veer close to reality, which tends to lurch back and forth between despair and hope. But much of what I have to say these days would melt my laptop into a little heap of smoldering metal. When I think of the word housekeeping, it seldom refers to cute little redheads wielding umbrellas against the rain. Marilynne Robinson's novel of family disintegration and survival skills is more like it - once the train plunges into the depths of that icy lake, all bets are off, and chaos and tenacity vie for supremacy in the life of the human family. Yes, that's closer.
But for today, changing the colors is the best that I can do. And the redhead is sweet. I might have been a little like that at six.
16 comments:
I have been reasonably happy with Google reader after unsuccessful trials of AOL's reader and Bloglines. Now I follow too many blogs.
I was flabbergasted by the title of your post. Our views on housekeeping are similar so I wondered why you would blog about it. Your view that blogging is a long term activity is good news for all of us.
I just mean that I was redecorating the blog. But I had also been talking to someone about Marilynne Robinson's books, all of which are about home wreckage and repair, so that seemed like a fitting title.
I think that the reason you get big pictures when you pick them up from other sites is because they ARE big. I believe that when you upload, blogger sizes them to what they consider big...which to you and me is not big enough. In flickr, I designate the image as LARGE and then copy the code. The code is different depending on what size you select. I had really been trying to avoid getting involved in flickr too, but a I think a photo hosting site like that is necessary to get the big picture thing to work. It's a far from elegant solution to the problem.
(ok...enought nerd stuff)
Blogging has turned out to be much more of part of my life than I ever anticipated. I wish I could keep up with everyone better than I do because I very much appreciate the friends I've found out in blogland. It is amazing to think of the people we've come to love and love us...and if not for the internet, those relationships never would have been.
There's an easy way to reduce big pictures on your blog. When posting, go from compose editor to html editor. Wherever your pictue is located, you'll see soemthing like 425 pix width , 525 pix height. Just change the numbers to fit your post, always remembering that it needs to be in ratio ( I usually divide by three and multiply by two to keep it simple). If its a square picture, all you need to do is put in the same numbers - usually 200 x 200 on my blog posts.
The new background is neat and brings out the colors in your photos.
LOL Stushie, the big discussion among former aol bloggers is how to ENLARGE the photos. We are all dissatisfied with blogger on that account.
Nothing wrong with a little "housekeeping" however it works for you.
GG, I'm so glad you keep blogging. The picture reminds me of the ads of old-fashioned Morton Salt girls. Cute. Keep tinkering with your blog. I would start again, but then it rolls into too too much time. I'm glad you're sticking with blogging. I hope I'm one of the ones in TX you're glad to know!
Were you talking about Marilynne Robinson's newest book? I've wondered about it.
I was talking about all of them, but Housekeeping in particular. It's linked.
Blogging is an amazing thing, isn't it? I was just explainng to someone how I "know" many of my friends on Facebook...many of whom of course I have never really met in the conventional sense, but with whom I have deep and profound friendship and connection. The really incredible thing is the difference blogging has made in my prayer life. As I have found myself supported by so much love and prayer, I have felt the need in turn to be more intentional about praying for those who are praying for me and it has resulted in a more disciplined approach and a closer God-walk.
I've been using bloglines for awhile. Works pretty well.
I'm in a major funk lately over the issue of form over substance. Wondering where blogging fits in. As a surface distraction? Or is there any true depth that would move real life forward as Jesus would have had it.
*sigh*
if you have a mac, newsfire is a GREAT blog feed service. i used to use bloglines and this is MUCH better. don't know if there's a p.c. version. don't know if it costs money. but because i use a feed service i don't always actually come see the lovely housekeeping my blog friends are doing (or always leave comments even when i'm musing, praying, what-have-you, over what i've read. thanks for nudging me to come see (again) what is always a beautiful blog.
oops...I guess you can reverse what I said...you can also enlarge the blog margins via the html code, but it ends slowing down your blog being seen by others...:)
It's interesting that you brought up the novel Housekeeping. That's a book that's haunted me ever since I read it, and much closer to home to me than Good Housekeeping. It's been on my mind lately.
I'm surprised you're having so much trouble with bloglines. I have used it for years and have always been happy with it. It was a helluva lot more reliable than AOL alerts (which is why I went there to begin with...)
I've been having fun with tweaking my blogger templates (all five of them...!) I think I am getting my blogs more to where I want them to be. But then, I'm not interested in too many gadgets and doo-dads and "widgets..."
There are those golden friendships I have formed and kept in my five years in the Land of Blog that have made it well worth putting up with the idiosyncracies of the environment. If anyone had ever told me I would have friends in Tennessee, Indiana by way of Kentucky, Ohio, California, New York, Massachusetts,I would never have believed it.
That M Robinson book is genius.
thanks for this.
But look around--leaves are brown
And the blog...is a hazy shade of winter
Post a Comment