Hello?!?

Hello?!? **cough** **cough** **knocks down cob webs and chokes on all of the dust**

Wow! It is  dusty in here. I’ve really been neglecting my poor little blog. The bright shininess that is  Facebook drew me in and I was distracted by the new. It’s not that I forgot about AofanEM. It was more I would think “Wow, that would make a good blog post”, and then it was just so much easier to throw up a line or two on Facebook… or even on Twitter… than to actually pull up Live Writer and go thru all the steps of posting. It just seemed like too much trouble. Oh, I could blame Facebook… or Twitter… or even the fact that it was a long, cold Winter, but the truth is I have just been being lazy. I think it is time for me to pull this blog back out, dust it off, maybe even do some remodeling.

I wonder if anyone even still has this in their RSS reader? Hello, Beuller… Beuller… How about a roll call? If you are out there and are actually seeing this…. make a comment! How’s that for begging for attention?

So, Why now? Why Today? Why? Why? Why? Hmmm.. Well, it’s my 50th birthday (and no, that is not a bid for birthday wishes, I’m actually thinking about not having anymore birthdays.. the whole getting older thing is NOT working for me!) and I was thinking about what I’ve done since this time last year and what I would like to accomplish this year. Kind of like New Year’s Resolutions! Oh wait… I already did that. If you look down one entry you will see that my last entry was about the things I should be doing. That  was ummmm…. 5 months ago? Yeah..So much for good intentions. Did I mention it was a cold, ugly Winter? Oh yeah… I used that excuse.

So, Here’s the question. Help me out! Should I just revamp this blog as is and go on from here, or should I scrap it, keep the Blog name and URL and start over as if it was a brand new blog. Delete all of the old entries (except this one), and start from scratch, or just start posting from here and try to just fix some of the things that were\are bugging me.

What exactly has been bugging me? Let’s see: I have some broken links to old pictures and things from the AOL debacle. I’m still pulling my blogroll from my –old- RSS reader and not the one I am currently using. My RSS feeds are a whole other issue, they really need to be cleaned out and streamlined. I’m bored with my blog design, but am not sure where I want to go with it, and my ‘labels’ and categories lists are a mess.

So… suggestions? Ideas? Complaints? Requests?

 

Procrastination… or Just Pure Laziness?

I have espoused the wonder that is LiveWriter before, and probably will do so again. Anyone who is blogging should at least give this FREE program a try. It not only gives you a WYSIWYG interface, it allows you to post to more than one blog with ease and the touch of the mouse, and it makes the handling of links, catagories, pictures, etc simple and requires absolutely zip knowledge of HTML, CSS, or any other acronym.

With the above paragraph fresh in your mind, you would think that I would be using the newest version of my favorite program, especially since (as before mentioned) it is free. You would be wrong.

I recently turned a returning Blogger on to my very favorite posting miracle and when she had questions, I promptly answered them…. only to have her e-mail back that her version didn’t have a button or some such in the spot I said it was. Turns out that I had an older version of the program on my machine and that the older versions do not check for updates on their own.

So…. the moral to this story? If you have (and love) LiveWriter, you might want to pop over and make sure you have the newest version. The version I have now has a ‘Check for updates’ option under the Help menu. Something that my previous version did not.

End of Public Service Announcement – Oh, and if any one from the government wanders across this endorsement, let it be perfectly clear that I receive nothing from Microsoft for endorsing their product… although I am open to any monetary recompense they would like to pass on to me at any time and for any reason……

Procrastination...

Today is the 4th of November. It has been 4 days since Halloween, and I still haven't managed to 'decorate' around here for the next holiday. I did, at least, manage to get the Halloween stuff gone and throw my everyday (i.e. boring) template back up here. Now, what does all of that have to do with the word Procrastination? Follow me here and you shall be enlightened.

• Because I always want something unique, I can't just go out and find a Template. Oh no! I have to create something.... And, since I am going to need something for Christmas also, let's make both templates at once. Since this seems like it will take some work, I manage to keep finding something else to do and put it off for another day.
• What better place to procrastinate than... The Internet! Why Yes, I do have a FaceBook account. And someone whom I care about sent me a 'gift'. To accept the gift I had to start a Farmville account. This has led me down the rabbit hole of planting/harvesting/gifting that is the Farmville addiction  experience.
• Which led to one of my Farmville neighbors sending me a Yoville invite. The rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper.
• And then there are the Blogs.... Oh the blogs. You people have so much to say and your lives are not boring like mine interesting and your views enlightening and must be read as soon as you post.
• Also, let's not forget about making Blog posts. Sitting and looking at a blank screen and trying to come up with an idea cause it is NaBloPoMo.
• And e-mail... and RSS news feeds... and...

Yep, I can find a hundred things to do that don't involve accomplishing anything at all. But, I did at least manage to get this post up before Midnight.

Oh, and if any of you are on FaceBook.... I could use 2 more neighbors in Farmville and a couple of people for my crew in YoVille........