Pages

I must have screwed up the last time I tried to update my etymology page. Or maybe Blogger screwed up. Let's go with Blogger. Anyway, it deleted the page I had linking to my Language of Confusion posts. The unsurprising result was this.

No idea when this happened (hey, I don’t visit my own blog that much), although I first noticed it last month. Then I screamed in frustration for about ten days straight.

I managed to fix it (for real this time) and I figured I might as well update it through the end of 2014. Also, you should go there just to check out how nice and even the columns are. I made it in Excel this time and for some reason, Blogger didn’t lose the formatting this time. Who knows, this might just shame me into updating the other two pages, too.

Upgrade

Oh, right. My cache of previously written posts is used up. I have to start actually writing them again.

First, the good news. Roland Yeomans has a new book coming out! The title is LUCIFER'S ORPHAN, and it’s quite good. I even reviewed it for him. I’m not going to rehash everything here (you can go read the review for that), but the short version is that it’s a Paranormal full of romance and magic, MG technically, but that didn’t stop me from loving it. Roland does a great job with crafting characters. I read it in two sittings because it was that hard to put down.

As for this blog’s news, you may or probably not have noticed that I added a new page to the top of my blog. Go scroll up and look. I’ll wait.

See? Etymology. It’s my birthday gift to the blog, which turned three yesterday. Can you believe it? It’s potty trained and completely off the bottle! I swear, I came this ][ close to just deleting it in frustration after I spent two hours trying to get the formatting right (the reason I was almost completely absent from the internet is because I was so annoyed with it). The reason the columns are so terribly uneven is because apparently, Blogger hates the column function. It won’t even keep the tabs I used in Word, which…well, let me show you.

I assume you notice how nice and even they are. BUT NOT HERE. That just drives my inner neurotic nuts, especially since for some reason the “Edit” function keeps selecting everything so I can’t add spaces. If any of you have any idea how to create even columns in blog pages (or anything else that might work for the word list; I’m open to suggestions), let me know. It will be your birthday present to the blog.

All right, I’m off to try and fix the blog page. Wish me luck. If you never hear from me again, assume I got lost in the html.

Updates

Summer is here, and with the changing of the season, perhaps it’s time to refresh things. Buy a new toothbrush. Give the house a good cleaning. And…update your blog?

Yes, definitely. Most of my interaction with my own blog is by hitting the post button or responding to comments. I don’t often check all the other pieces that make up my blog. So here’s my tips for seasonal “blog cleaning”:

1. Make sure your contact info is up to date. How will people contact you and tell you your email address isn’t working? You should update your profile, too.

2. If you link to other blogs on your site in any way, make sure they’re all still updating. So many people disappear from the internet that you can end up with a blog roll that stretches down forever, filled with sites that haven’t updated in over a year.

3. Make sure any links you have are working, as well as any gadgets you may use. Last year my Twitter gadget stopped updating with my tweets. I’m not even sure how long it had been broken for! It’s also no good if you have a link to your latest book and anyone who clicks on it gets a message saying 404: File Not Found.

4. Keep things interesting! Change your format, your picture, themes. Maybe add new pages. (I have to admit, this is the one I often skip…but “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” probably isn’t a good way to run a blog)

Okay, I suppose that’s it, unless one of you has something else to add—by all means, share. Don’t let your blog languish!

The New Look…Again

For the first time in at least a year, I’m updating my blog by typing into the text box and hitting publish instead of copying in a previously written post and scheduling it for later. Who knows what madness will be unleashed when I don’t have a few days of sobering up to realize the stupidity of the words vomited out of my fingers.

Yes, I wrote that. I’m also tired and I write/say weird things when I’m tired. It’s basically the reason why I try to schedule these things in advance.

Anyway, the reason for all this is because, as I assume you’ve noticed, I changed up the blog design again. The last time I switched it up, it was from that disastrous experiment with…what was it called? Dynamic views? Hated that, although it was interesting to do something completely different. It was new, it was unique, and I thought it had potential. Unfortunately, that potential turned out to be mostly pissing me off.

In that particular incident, the cons far outweighed the pros. Infinite scrolling! Yay! Oh wait. Almost none of the add-ons are compatible? And I’m supposed to like this? You’d think the company responsible for Chrome and gmail would never produce a lemon the size of a dwarf planet, but it does happen at times.

Again, tired. I’m probably going to blame a few more things on exhaustion, either here or on Twitter. So don’t be surprised.

Do you like it? If you don’t, it probably won’t change anything. I find the squares soothing. Even though I’m not the one usually visiting my blog. But whatevs.

Later! Off to check other people’s blogs and I assume say weird stuff there instead.