Once more with feeling

I spent time this evening again re-arranging blog elements, tweaking colors and sidebar placement, even adjusting the size of videos within the last few posts. Pleased with with the overall look of things, especially since the text blog is a bit larger over all, the sidebar oddity still confounds me and I spent a bit of time trouble-shooting posts currently displayed on my main blog page.

When looking at the blog in its entirety, the sidebar remains at the bottom of the page. When looking at individual entries, the sidebar displays normally on all with one glaring exception, the Super Bowl ad post. It contains a bit of blathering and two embedded videos. The only thing different about the videos in that particular post is they originated on Yahoo as opposed to YouTube.

I'm tempted to switch out the existing videos with the same content found on YouTube instead.

Trying Something New

Forty five minutes later I have a new blog layout, courtesy of new templates in Blogger Draft. Oddly enough, the sidebar works fine in Mozilla Firefox, but still displays in an annoying manner in Internet Explorer 8.

For now I will just be annoyed.

So, why?

For the last few days, my blog sidebar has been displaying below the posts instead of in it's usual position on the side regardless of the computer or browser used for viewing. Why?

If I choose individual posts for viewing, the sidebar is in it's correct place. When I click on the header to return home, the sidebar moves again. Why?

I've also noticed the template arrows next to the date at the top of each post are displaying mashed together. Why? It's certainly not attractive.

Since changing templates no longer strips all sidebar information, it might be time to log into blogger beta and take a look at newly available templates and make a few changes.

Anyone but me?

A quick break from collection shifting, complete with dirty shelves, missing items, and opportunity to condense and weed, led me to my Bloglines account for a blog update.

Well, I tried to read updated blogs.

Is there anyone else a bit disenchanted with Bloglines? In the last several weeks it has been down at least three times, I have been unable to connect to my account a half dozen times, and I begin to wonder if developing "Bloglines Beta," something that has a more graphical interface but that I was unable to navigate with ease, is taking time away from the usefulness of the current product. For the last five minutes my browser has been trying to connect. Not happening. I would not be worried if the connection issues happened when I was using my dinosaur at home, but this is a university network connection - usually immediate.

Bloglines was the first feed-reader I found that (a) was easy to use, and (b) I actually liked. Though generally pretty brand/technology loyal, if the technology is not working to my specifications and expectations, is it time to look at other options?

Later that afternoon ... continuous frustration had me checking other computers and browsers. I was finally able to access Bloglines with Mozilla (not IE 7).

Tags: Bloglines, Feed readers

It's Blog Day 2007

Thanks to Library Garden wishing everyone a Happy Blog Day this afternoon, I did not miss Blog Day 2007 (checking through old posts I did lament missing the 2006 exercise by two days last year). The Blog Day 2007 web site defines their endeavor as the following:

"BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest."

"On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs. " (What is Blog Day, 8/31/07)

I have to admit my Bloglines account has not been updated in more days than I care to consider; yes, I am a bit complacent concerning the number of current feeds (64). And while in theory I like the Blog Day activity of pointing out my favorites to anyone reading this blog, in practice I do not have an interest in "tagging" my favorites and attempting to piggy back on their readership. So I will do half of what is asked - I will recommend five of my current favorites, but will not actually visit the blog in question telling them I recommended them.

Reading over the previous paragraph, it makes sense to me. Of course, I may be the only person to whom it does make sense. It's a chance I am willing to take this first day of the last vacation period during the academic year until Thanksgiving (but I'm not bitter).

Here are five from my current list. Just remember, I am incredibly blog fickle:

• Unshelved: "A comic strip about a library."
  Technically, this is part blog and part daily comic. Either way, it is good for a chuckle.
  
• Running With Quills: A collaborative author blog featuring Susan Anderson, Stella Cameron, Lori Foster, Jayne Ann Krentz, Elizabeth Lowell, Elizabeth Guest, and often a Myster Blogger.
  "We know blogs are hot. We love the whole idea of doing blogs. We view blogs as a Great Leap Forward in the world of author-reader communication. But we won't kid you, the sad truth is that none of us has the time and energy to keep our own individual blogs going. However, in a burst of absolute desperation, we have banded together in the hope that we can inspire (read: nag and harass) each other into maintaining a group blog. We shall see how it goes. Meanwhile, offered below are some glimpses into the writing life."
  
• Argh Ink: Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer: Bob Mayer
  "More than you ever wanted to hear from Jenny Crusie" and "Just another WordPress weblog."
  
• Blogthings
  "The Newest Quizzes From Blogthings, The Place For Cool Things to Put In Your Blog"
  
• Library of Congress Blog
  "Light and liberty go together."
  

It's a mish-mash collection/listing of blogs, not particularly cohesive, or posted in any particular order. I should move out of my blog comfort zone and research new and exciting blogs to read. But, it's Friday and I am whiny. I survived the exhausting first full week of classes. I am packing for a trip to PA over Labor Day.

Maybe later. Happy Blogging!

Tags: Blog Day 2007, Blogging, Bloggers

More feedburner

From the files labeled "I knew it was too good to be true," comes a post from the Known Issues for the New Blogger blog:

"The new “Post Feed Redirect” will occasionally stop redirecting clients when it is set to a FeedBurner feed. The workaround for now is to add an “?alt=atom” parameter to the feed URL in your FeedBurner settings." (Known Issues, 7/31/07)

I went back through all of my blogs, added this fix to each site feed, and now will wonder about another shift in the subscriber statistics displayed.

Updated: 12:45 pm

Taking a short break from shelf-shifting I worked a bit with the feedburner headline animator. The case of the magical missing post clip art, it's here - it's gone, is because I wanted to try my own background on the headliner; it didn't like the photo I loaded. I deleted the clip art and decided the headline animator was not necessary here. Play to work.

Tags: Known Issues for the New Blogger, Feedburner