More on Stupid Blogger

This crash (I guess that word'll work) from Blogger was a bit of a royal pain in the ass. I'm sure I'm speaking for most – if not all – Blogger users when I say that.

Oddly, it didn't bother me all that much. You see, my main blog – Proud Book Nerd – was untouched. (By main, I mean the blog I post on several times throughout the week, sometimes even several times in a single day ...) 

Ironically, it was little over a year ago that I moved both blogs to their own sites, switching to Wordpress in the process. Obviously, I have since moved this one back to Blogger (different story I'll touch on in a bit). There are things I love about Blogger – aside from the fact that using it is free. There are things I like about composing messages on Blogger that I think work better than the WP platform. But, I stick with WP for my book blog because it's working. I have 100 percent control over it (well, unless you count that fact that I have a hosting company, but they're awesome), and have had little to no downtime.

Part of my reason for bringing this blog back to Blogger was related to the fact various aspects of composing posts is a lot easier. For one, it's easier to change text size WITHIN a paragraph. WP, not so much. (I still haven't figured out how to do it easily, and that's something I like to do.)

The other part of my reason for bringing this blog back to Blogger was the financial aspect. Simply: It costs money to use a self-hosted Wordpress blog. You gotta pay for hosting and the domain registration ...

I was not using this blog enough to justify those costs. My book blog, however, was generating enough in Amazon.com affiliate sales that it paid for itself. (No extra, unfortunately, though. And the Amazon program has since been canceled for those living in Illinois, so I no longer benefit from that ...)

Anyway, when this whole thing went down, I thought, "Thank God I moved my main blog off Blogger." I was calm, cool, and collected. I didn't once regret that this blog was still on Blogger, though.

Then Blogger came back. And, I had a missing post for most of the day. And, as of my writing this, over half of the entries in my giveaway post here are GONE.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid Blogger.

It's almost enough to make me want to say, "Screw it!" And go back to my domain name (which is mine for a few more weeks), reinstall WP, and go for it.

Almost.

For now, the convenience, lack of cost, and simplicity of Blogger won out. Plus, I'm really digging the new design editor. (If only design was that simple in WP ...)

I know that you get what you pay for – even in the Blogging world. But, aside from the occasional (but sometimes all-too-frequent) disruptions in service, I'm actually a happy Blogger user.

And, hey! Blogger's price just can't be beat! ;-)

More than Mildly Frustrated

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Huh?

So, I cannot use the Blogger design function in FireFox, but I cannot get the layout part to work right in Chrome. I really don't want to use Safari as my main browser. Earlier today, I couldn't even post using Chrome. Browser restart fixed that, thankfully. Saying I'm frustrated seems like a bit of an understatement ...

BUT, I am loving how this is turning out. I'm having fun tweaking and playing with the design. And, I am really loving how it is coming together. I'm using the same graphics I've been using for a year or so now (custom-made), but I've still found a way to make it feel fresh. That makes me happy.

So, while this has been a royal PITA, I know that it'll be worth it in the end. I think the issue is with one of my widgets, which was fine until I moved it to a specific spot. So, I'll be playing around with that shortly.

Anyway, thank you for waiting patiently while I got myself together back here on Blogger. It feels good to be here. I think I'll stay.

It's coming along

I am slowly getting things back together. Next up is adding the widgets I want to have back here. Thank you for your patience as I figure this out. I haven't been able to get the design function to work in FireFox at all, but it works in Safari. It also works (not surprisingly) quite well in Google Chrome. (I might have just found a new browser ...)

Anyway, thank you for your patience. I'll try not to keep changing things too much on you! ;-)

Did I say I'm Back?

What I meant was that I'm TRYING to come back. Stupid Blogger's stupid new designer stuff won't work in firefox on my computer. (A conflict with an add-on, perhaps?) So, I'm having to go back and forth with Safari and Firefox. AND I can't get my design to work right, so I'm gonna scrap it and start over. Except, I don't know how to start with a clean slate design-wise. Is that even possible?

Frustrated, to say the least ...

I'm back!

Well, I have enjoyed my time with my own domain, but I think I jumped the gun. I can justify it for Proud Book Nerd, but not so much for this blog. I'm so busy with PBN that I hardly get on this one at all. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the hubby and I are not exactly rolling in money. So, I think the right thing to do is to bring my personal blog back here. Forget about the own domain name. Now, I won't have to feel guilty about not using this blog very often. I can just relax and post when the mood strikes. No forcing myself. No stress. No problem.

So, now I am going to attempt to move my posts from there over to here. Wish me luck on that, as there were things from my Vox days that I'm not sure what to do with!

Tiny Update

Here I go again, ignoring this blog. I'm sorry. I have really, really overdone it with Proud Book Nerd. Too much to read in too little time. Then I added Blogmania to the mix, which I stupidly forgot to mention here. Sorry, friends! :-( On top of all of that, I've had sick kids, who decided to share their germs with me. I was VERY ill for a couple of days this week. And, the icing on the cake, I somehow (don't ask how, as I don't know how) managed to injure my right wrist. (Thank God I'm a lefty!) I've seen my chiro, who has found one of the little bones out of place. It has been popped back into place, and is healing. It feels MUCH better, but is still sore. I wear a brace on my wrist most of the time. I'm doing much better, but this situation makes typing a bit tough.

That's my excuse ...

Anyway, I'm hoping to get this blog in on a holiday giveaway (similar to Blogmania) in December. Something fun. I haven't heard back yet, though, as to my status. If not this, then the book blog, but I'd rather here. Share the love! ;-)

Me, personally, I'm overall OK, despite what I mentioned above. While sick, I missed two days of the Zoloft, then briefly considered never looking back. But I'm not ready for that yet. I have decided that I need therapy. Now I am overwhelmed by the task of trying to find a therapist. It is IMPERATIVE that this person is also a Christian. I have to have someone with similar beliefs to my own. That's not negotiable. Otherwise, I dunno. I think I'd prefer a woman, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyone with advice on finding a good therapist? I think I'm gonna call or e-mail my church and ask for referrals or recommendations, and go from there. Anyone with a better idea?

Why do I want therapy? Well, there's a lot on my mind. A lot more stress than I think I even let myself realize on a conscious level, if that makes any sense. Add to that, I have past stuff that just needs to get worked through. I don't remember a vast majority of my childhood, and what little I do remember is fuzzy. There has to be a reason for it. Based on what I do remember, I think I spent a large part of my childhood depressed. There was a lot of loss, much more than most kids have to deal with, and I took it hard. Perhaps there's more to the memory loss than I know, but that's the reason for therapy. It's like an infection under the skin. It's going to fester and affect me, whether I can see it or not. While the process is painful, it's best I get to the source of the issues I have in my life. Once I get to the junk beneath the surface, then true healing can occur. How can I give it all to God if I don't even know what it is I'm carrying? How can I forgive others, if the need is there, if I don't know what needs to be forgiven? I think this might also help with the whole weight-loss issue. And my self-esteem – or lack thereof.

And now my injured wrist is starting to ache. Better stop typing. Love to you all! I have some plans for this blog – the direction I want it to take. I just have to heal (the aforementioned wrist) and make time (the aforementioned book blog). While I have little control over the former, I'll do what I can about the latter!

So much for getting caught up ...

Remember, I recently stated that I wanted to get caught up on my blog on Sunday? Well, I was doing pretty well when suddenly I couldn't access Blogger other than to read things. I couldn't post anything, I couldn't edit anything, I couldn't even leave comments on others' blogs! RIDICULOUS. We're talking roughly 18 hours down. I know it's a free service, but I expect more from GOOGLE, of all companies!

So, I am going to be moving this blog to its own domain, too. I just haven't decided what that domain should be. I had started a temporary blog on Wordpress.com, but if I'm going to switch platforms, then I'm going to go all the way – like I did with Proud Book Nerd. So, stay tuned, please. I will hopefully get this set up in the next couple of days. While focusing on that, I will most likely be silent here – and on PBN. I will make it known when it's ready!

Blessings,

How cool is this?

So, I've been around the blog-block a lot lately, and I noticed that people do many different things with the navbar here in Blogger-land. Some have found a way to move it to the bottom of the page (or replace it with something very similar that is anchored at the bottom), some have tweaked the colors, and others even have removed it altogether. Initially, I always chose the color that either best matched my blog's color scheme, or the one that clashed least. Then they had more colors, and it became somewhat simple to pick one that worked. Then it got better - transparent navbars! That made me happy. I'll admit, though, that I kinda liked the pages without the navbar, except that it was frustrating trying to find my way back to my Blogger dashboard! But, I liked how they looked. But, again, there was the no-quick-way-back-to-the-dash issue ...

Then I saw it. A blog with a navbar that disappears, but reappears when you hover at the top of the page! BRILLIANT! I wanted it. I contacted the first person I saw with it, but she had someone else design her blog, and that was part of it. Finally, I did a Google search for "blogger navbar hover" – or something like that. And viola! I FOUND IT! And it's so simple. So easy! As easy as adding an html widget to your blog. Check it out on Shabby Creations Freebies here:

Disappearing Navbar

I did have to tweak the margin at the top of my outer wrapper in the html part to get it spaced the way I like it. That was the easy part. I actually did it on Proud Book Nerd first, then realized I wanted it HERE, too!

How cool is this? Pretty cool, if you ask me! ;-)

Yes, I'll Take Cheese with this Whine

Yes, I need to whine – I mean vent – a bit. And I'm sorry to be such a PITA, but I gotta get it out. I'm feeling frustrated, discouraged, and mildly defeated. I am getting obsessive, I fear – and you'll likely agree when you see where I'm going with this.

It's about Proud Book Nerd. You know, my new – DOUBLY new – book blog. I was so excited – I had NINETEEN Google Friend Connect followers in less than a week! I was so proud of myself and so happy. People wanted to read me.

Then the corruption happened. And I lost the blog.

Unfortunately, the blog's followers didn't come over when I did the URL switcheroo. And now, three. (If you are one of those three - THANK YOU!) Yes, three is better than zero, but it's not as good as NINETEEN! :-(

Breathe. Count your blessings. Breathe some more. Ask God to ease the stupid anxiety over this. Remember you cannot change anything at this point. Just wait and see. God is in control. Hopefully the new friends will find their way back. In the end, this WILL be worth it. If nothing else, Ramblings is going to be much less cluttered – that's worth something, isn't it?

Proud Book Nerd

Most - if not all - of you know by now that I have decided to break my book blog off this one in order to de-clutter this blog. This time last week, I was happily making myself at home over at Proud Book Nerd, and it was going well. Until I tried to put my linkbar up at the top. It wasn't working properly. E-mails with the designer of that style (which I LOVE) made it clear that the problem was that the blog had inexplicably gone CORRUPT! :-( Apparently, that tends to happen randomly - often after a template change. So, I had to rebuild it. Long story short: I had to create a new blog, delete PBN, then change the url of the new one back to Proud Book Nerd! Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because it appears that I LOST MY FOLLOWERS in the process! :-( I know some of you kindly followed that blog when I announced it, so I was hoping I could convince you to PLEASE come back and click the button to follow again! PLEASE! I'm bummed about this, really bummed. Not only did I have those of you who kindly followed me there (in addition to here), but I had already made some new book-blogging friends who were following me. They, alas, are gone. I'm not sure if/when they'll find their way back. BUT, since each of you is still here (I think - I HOPE), I thought I could enlighten you to the situation. So ...

If you were following me over on Proud Book Nerd, PLEASE go back over there and set that up again! I apologize for the inconvenience involved, and I pray to never have to re-create a corrupt blog again!

To make this as easy as possible, here it is:

PROUD BOOK NERD

THANK YOU!

Testing

I have a beautiful new signature I wanted to test. Yes, it's one more thing done by The Cutest Blog on the Block! They do AWESOME work. I'm almost done with the design part of the blog redesign. After that, I'll be tweaking font colors and sizes - something I can do without help! ;-) Thanks for your patience - and feedback - as I slowly make this transition!

Disappointed

I finally have my BEAUTIFUL banner up! :-) The wonderful ladies (at least I spoke with a lady) at The Cutest Blog on the Block made it - and my background - just for me! I absolutely LOVE both and am so happy with how they turned out! :-)

I still have to tweak my colors and stuff. Just haven't had a moment to do it yet. But, that will be soon. I've moved my items in the sidebar around, and removed a few things. Overall, I'm satisfied. I was hoping to add a really neat animated label cloud, but I cannot get it to work! :-( I'm so sad. I know I've added the coding where it needs to be, but apparently I'm missing something. It comes up blank. (And, yes, if yours works and you think you can help me, PLEASE DO! I have no pride! ;-) ) I am trying to let it go. I'm generally happy with my blog - I think it is absolutely GORGEOUS now - and I'm trying not to let one defeat get to me. Still, it'd be nice if I could figure out how to make it work!

Google Sucks

I never thought I'd see the day when I say that, but I'm ticked. Ever since they acquired FeedBurner, I've had nothing but problems. My feed doesn't display correctly, and I have no idea how to fix it. Their troubleshooting comes up with issues, but I haven't the slightest idea how to go about fixing these issues. Check out my blog's feed, and you'll see what I'm talking about. I've been trying unsuccessfully for quite some time now to figure this out. And, there appears to be NO WAY to contact support about this! I am ticked - and considering ditching the product altogether. The reason I have it, though, is primarily so people can subscribe by e-mail. That works - I know it does. I've tested it. And twitterfeed works, too. But, if I try to view my site's actual FeedBurner feed, I get nothing.

While I use lots of Google products - AdSense, Blogger (obviously), their search engine, Gmail, etc. - I am just fed up. Unfortunately, when everything's working properly, I'm a Google fan. And, really, I don't see that changing. BUT, I don't particularly appreciate the lack of support. If they're going to kill FeedBurner, then do it already. I just wish they'd allow for e-mail subscriptions built into Blogger.

I'm getting there

I have my blog in a condition I can live with - overnight. I'll be back to fix things like colors and photo borders/margins sometime tomorrow. My husband is working a super-long day tomorrow, though, so it might not be until after the kiddos get to bed. Anyway, thank you for your patience as I - once again - strive to make my blog as much ME as it can be! :-)

Under construction - again

In case you haven't noticed, the site is currently under construction. I have long found designs by The Cutest Blog on the Block to be absolutely GORGEOUS. I recently decided that I wanted something by them that matched my current color scheme. So, I decided to pay for a custom background. They gave me three to choose from, and that was a TOUGH call. Their designer is AMAZING. I chose my favorite, which you now see here.

As you can see, I feel the need to tweak other things to make this background show as beautifully as possible. So, I'm tweaking margins, widths, etc. Of course, I completely forgot about using my test blog for this - which is why I'm making this post. I apologize profusely for the current discombobulated state of things around here. I have decided to finish my tweaking over on my test blog, and will fix this ASAP. Please bear with me!

As an aside, I'm considering purchasing a header/banner to match the background. They do an excellent job, don't they?

I'm famous!

Well, sorta! Click on the image below to check it out:



Yeah, I know, it's not a huge thing. Yeah, I know, I submitted my own blog. Yeah, I know, it doesn't really mean much. But, still, I think this is one of the first non-occupational interviews I've ever had! :-) So, I'm gonna bask for a bit. Enjoy and have fun with it.

I just have one question: Does this count as my 15 minutes?

Scrollin' Scrollin' Scrollin'

Keep those badges scrollin'
Scroll on!

OK, enough silliness! LOL Thanks to Heidi from Sacred and Profane, I found a way to keep my badges from making my page longer than the Mississippi River. Over on the right, I have a new little widget that scrolls my badges in a smaller area than displaying them all statically. Heidi kindly pointed me to Dinkypops, where Brooke was kind enough to post the code for anyone who is interested in saving some space on their page. So, if you fit into that category, just check out the post on how to scroll your buttons!

Pardon My Dust

This blog is currently under construction.

The kids and I haven't been feeling well, so I went to bed early last night. I didn't get my blog updated as I'd hoped before going to bed. I am now working on it. But, of course, this means regular interruptions. So, I'll consider it a victory if I get it done today! I will, of course, post an update when it's finished. Thanks for understanding!

Last time, I promise!

I promise this is the last time I need help with the new header. I made one more post and posted one more poll. Please be so kind as to take this new poll to help me decide!

Go here!

Let's try this again!

Here's another look at my new blog style, with a fourth contender for the header!

Click here!