Tuesday 4 December 2012

Experimental


Thank you all for the supportive/informative/encouraging comments. So nice of you, and I'm truly grateful, but why aren't you sitting here at my desk with me, telling me to press this, scroll down to that, select this, click that, until I can smile smugly and be proud of understanding just how my mega-brained computer works? That's the element in all this lovely blog-fellowship that's missing - the Home Visits to the Inept and Confused......

Blogger persists in telling me I have reached my quota of uploaded photographs, even though I have deleted everything in Picasaweb that isn't in the blog itself (although I may have done some inadvertent deleting of blog pics, but daren't go looking). Making space hasn't helped - a bit like taking a heap of stuff out of that over-full drawer, it doesn't seem to have made any difference; the socks and scarves still bulge out at the edges.

True, the now-monthly fee (be warned, you annual payment people!) to increase my storage space by Google, which has integrated Blogger and Picasaweb for photo storage, isn't very costly, but the system itself is impenetrably complex, and my capacity to understand it is impenetrably limited. I know this is an impenetrable sentence, too.....

Anyhoo.... in the next few days, I will be spending some time in my secret underground laboratory, wearing a white coat, white wellies and thick goggles, experimenting like some demented fictional scientist, to create a new blog. A Wordpress blog. There will be naked flames, billowing vapours, green glowing lights in flasks and test tubes, maniacal laughter, thunder and lightning, and hopefully a new creation.

I've started already, actually. Massive delays occurred at first because I couldn't think of a blog title, a username, a design with a font I liked. (This early-days paralysis is one of the (many) reasons why I haven't written a bestselling novel - my inability to find names that don't sound implausible or downright ludicrous.) 

Early attempts produced monsters, to be quickly, ruthlessly, euthanised and forgotten. The mad scientist moves on, eyes glittering feverishly. Once I have an acceptable template, the advice from other Wordpressers may start to make sense. 

Almost as good as having you sitting beside me here, but not quite. I try not to sound blaming, you understand; I know some of you live a long way off and can't make the time and the fare to sit in damp windy Somerset in your dressing gown with a cup of tea to hand and a cat trying to walk over the keyboard, Home Visiting the Inept and Confused.

Neighbours are due to visit in half an hour; they don't even own a computer, so I shall take a break from the mad scientisting and eat mince pies with them. Now, if Bloggerasaoogle allowed, I could show you a picture of those very same home made mince pies.... sigh....

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, poor you; I wish I could help but I am totally without knowledge as far as blogging is concerned. Is there not a Blogger Forum that you could consult? Anyway, don't forget to let us all know where and when you move will you?

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

I'll sit in my dressing gown drinking cups of tea anywhere but fear I'd be of little help .
I do understand the blog name thing , though . Such a pity you can't take this one with you . But try asking Flossie .... she'll think of something catchy .
( WV is madinv . Spooky ! )

Anonymous said...

Rachel, your writing is visually stimulating enough without photos, although I miss them and look forward to YOUR own new, clean and uncluttered "handbag"!
Xo Shelley
And, o. I wish I could come eat mince pies with you by the fire!

annie hoff said...

Oh Rachel, it sounds dreadful! I can sympathize with your confusion - I'm confused! I hadn't realised we would soon have to switch to a monthly payment plan with blogger. Why can't it just stay as it was? Please don't stop blogging, simply conquer wordpress, that's the answer! You said you were short of blogging material, now just think what an opportunity this is. Something you can really get your teeth into! And I think a photo of you in a white coat and thick goggles would make a very fetching header. I shall be interested to hear how you get on with wordpress - once you've got on with it that is! Good luck and please don't give up - your blog is always worth coming to.

Linda Metcalf said...

I'm a few thousand miles away and I am also not computer savvy...I call on the gifted grandkids or give in and get a tekkie person to the house...good luck with the new blog as I thouroughly enjoy your posts!

Jen said...

Big step! I know people who use wordpress and love it. And I would like to get away from google. They just make it so easy...

Good luck--can't wait to see what you come up with.

The Weaver of Grass said...

In such circumstances I call on my son who lives near and failing that I call on a young man who knows about computers and charges a very reasonable fee. Otherwise my nerves end up in shred.

Marcheline said...

I probably shouldn't say this, as the universe is listening and never has much pity for me, but...

I've been blogging and posting pictures for aeons and have never had this problem. You don't post any more pictures than I do, just one or two per post usually, sometimes more...

Sorry you're having difficulties.

If you do decide to move shop and blog someplace else, make sure and tell us where to find you!

I suggest trying any way you can to get in contact with someone from Blogger. There must be someone there that knows what to do.

Anonymous said...

Goodness, although I have occasionally had problems with Typepad, they have all been resolved fairly efficiently. I pay a small monthly fee, which I once had to increase because of the amount of photos that I use,but it's worh every penny for the pleasure I get from blogging. I tried Picasa, but found it a pain in the proverbial!
Looking forward to continued tales of you, the Gardener and the menagerie!!

Alicia said...

I will follow you wherever you go! (Just leave me some bread crumbs, or maybe pie crumbs. Some sort of crumbs!)

Val said...

Well we appreciate you battling away and are keeping our fingers crossed for you.
The Mince pies sound rather yummy btw :0)

Noelle the dreamer said...

Oh Rachel, you are priceless! Any help from me would be like 'the blind leading the blind.' Computer savvy I am not!
Keep us appraised though...Would hate to miss news from your little family!
Hugs to Flossie,

mountainear said...

Do you need to change your blog title? I have a wordpress blog which, so far I do not use, but it has the same name and strap line as my Blogger one. But maybe you want a change of name - that is a different matter.

I also noticed when delving into the engine room of Wordpress today that one could import one's old blog.

Wish I were nearer because I'm sure we could have a lot of fun muddling through!

Arthur Ransome said...

A dim question from Scotland - will this, your old blog, disappear? I do hope not. I hope it will be there, even though it will be a bit of a Marie Celeste.

BumbleVee said...

we want pie! we want ;pie@! ... oh, sorry.... got carried away wishing for sight of pie.... okay then, I'm off to make an apple cake...

Frances said...

How will I find your new blog?

Rose H (UK) said...

Keep plugging away - it'll all come 'right' in the end!
Rose H

Anne said...

I might be a bit late with this suggestion but I'll say it anyway. I don't load my photos on to my blog via the blogger upload thing. I load them into a Photobucket account (it's free to open a PB account - photobucket.com) and then use the HTML code from there in my blogger posts. That way I *can't* run out of photo space because I'm not using their photo space.

Feel free to contact me if you want to know more about how that's done. I'll be happy to help.

flwrjane said...

Wow I feel like I have just landed on another planet.

Wonder if this has happened to Marie@66sq.feet?

She posts the most pics of all of us and seems to be the most computer savvy.

Why oh why does she have to be out of the country...

best of luck. I blame it all on cats walking across the keyboard...

xo Jane

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

I mused about setting up a new blog for a while and still haven't decided what to do. I am interested in the idea of self hosting but I am worried I will lose those people who do read me so I just keep on doing nothing. Will be very interested to know what you do and how it goes and whether it is worth the candle!

judy in ky said...

Blogger wouldn't let me comment earlier... trying again.

togel hari ini said...

I'll sit in my dressing gown drinking cups of tea anywhere but fear I'd be of little help .
I do understand the blog name thing , though . Such a pity you can't take this one with you . But try asking Flossie .... she'll think of something catchy .
( WV is madinv . Spooky ! )

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