Blogging Made Easy?
| blog [blawg] | |
| 1. an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called [Weblog], [Web log] ~noun 2. the act of reading, writing, or editing a blog ~verb Etymology: shortened form of Weblog | |
| Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6) © 2003-2006 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC |
Writing to a blog sounds easy enough.
I'm sure for some it is. I imagine some people simply fire up whatever blogging tool they use, tap out a few lines of wit and anecdotes, then publish it for the world to see. These are the folks who either happily use the base templates provided or are conversant enough with the esoterics or web publishing they can make the page sing through code tweaks and design flourishes.
I fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes at the moment. I have limited knowledge of blogging, slightly more of basic HTML, almost none of XHTML, XML, CSS, and other, newer web coding. Yet, the very first thing I did upon subscribing to Blogger is to begin tinkering with what I could do with it. A daunting task, at the least.
I knew I wanted a certain layout, but those provided by Blogger were not exactly what I wished. I tried many of them. Some were close, some were just not me. I ended up choosing the Rounders 4 design by Douglas Bowman. It seemed to offer the closest thing to what I envisioned ... not that my vision was any grand one, mind you.
After several hours of trial and error (mostly error), research on the web (Go Go Gadget Google), and several trips to the bathroom (brought on by three or four 32 oz. cups of water), I ended up with the scheme you see here. The graphic image background up top was the hardest. Not in creating it ... in figuring out how to put it up there without Mr. Bowman's other template effects showing up. It ended well.
Now that I had my template suitably ensconced, I began to work on my first entry. Again, I couldn't be satisfied with simply tapping out my thoughts and pressing 'Publish'. Oh, no. I had to try to add HTML tables in my post so I could showcase a definition. *smacks self*
Once again I forayed into the breach, battling the quirks of the blogging tool with limited knowledge and an Interent of resources. A few more hours saw me finally wrestle my table into the blog. I liked the end result. It seems to blend well with the rest of the color scheme.
Now, after that first day (and countless hours) of frustration, aggravation, confusion, and plain old stupidity, I have discovered how to make blogging easy ... er. >_>
While the above was mostly tongue-in-cheek, I do enjoy the challenge of learning new things. So if the relatively simple process of typing in words to a preset template turns into an epic batle of woman vs. technology, and forces me to stretch my brain in aquiring new knowledge, then I say Bring It On! ^.^
It is a good thing I didn't decide to do video blogging! (What are those called? Vblogs? Podcasts? That always make me think of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" ... the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland).
I did find a great How-To podcast by TekPhreak on how to make video blogging easy.
I'm sure for some it is. I imagine some people simply fire up whatever blogging tool they use, tap out a few lines of wit and anecdotes, then publish it for the world to see. These are the folks who either happily use the base templates provided or are conversant enough with the esoterics or web publishing they can make the page sing through code tweaks and design flourishes.
I fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes at the moment. I have limited knowledge of blogging, slightly more of basic HTML, almost none of XHTML, XML, CSS, and other, newer web coding. Yet, the very first thing I did upon subscribing to Blogger is to begin tinkering with what I could do with it. A daunting task, at the least.
I knew I wanted a certain layout, but those provided by Blogger were not exactly what I wished. I tried many of them. Some were close, some were just not me. I ended up choosing the Rounders 4 design by Douglas Bowman. It seemed to offer the closest thing to what I envisioned ... not that my vision was any grand one, mind you.
After several hours of trial and error (mostly error), research on the web (Go Go Gadget Google), and several trips to the bathroom (brought on by three or four 32 oz. cups of water), I ended up with the scheme you see here. The graphic image background up top was the hardest. Not in creating it ... in figuring out how to put it up there without Mr. Bowman's other template effects showing up. It ended well.
Now that I had my template suitably ensconced, I began to work on my first entry. Again, I couldn't be satisfied with simply tapping out my thoughts and pressing 'Publish'. Oh, no. I had to try to add HTML tables in my post so I could showcase a definition. *smacks self*
Once again I forayed into the breach, battling the quirks of the blogging tool with limited knowledge and an Interent of resources. A few more hours saw me finally wrestle my table into the blog. I liked the end result. It seems to blend well with the rest of the color scheme.
Now, after that first day (and countless hours) of frustration, aggravation, confusion, and plain old stupidity, I have discovered how to make blogging easy ... er. >_>
While the above was mostly tongue-in-cheek, I do enjoy the challenge of learning new things. So if the relatively simple process of typing in words to a preset template turns into an epic batle of woman vs. technology, and forces me to stretch my brain in aquiring new knowledge, then I say Bring It On! ^.^
It is a good thing I didn't decide to do video blogging! (What are those called? Vblogs? Podcasts? That always make me think of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" ... the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland).
I did find a great How-To podcast by TekPhreak on how to make video blogging easy.
As an aside ... Hi to all my friends who dropepd by for my first post, and especially to good, ol' Bruce who gave me love by leaving a comment! As always, feel free to post comments. I'd love to hear from you! ^.^
Labels:
General Musings,
Video
1 comment:
You put more work into it than I ever did. LOL I fall into another category altogether. I'm the type who gets a Blog, publishes some small bits each day for the first week, then just kinda' stops until someone says, "hey, you haven't blogged in a while". Then I'll get *cough cough* inspired and write something that will get ridiculed because the content isn't what was expected. LOL Well, that's just the way it is with me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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