As If I’d Let You Get Away With That

Frigging updates.

Obviously that would not do.

Commentator

You know what I miss? Being emailed when I have comments on my blog, especially since as most of you know, that’s how I prefer to respond to them. Now I can’t even tell if I’ve gotten a new one unless I visit my blog to check. My life doesn’t revolve around my blog, you know! It revolves around email, obviously, but not my blog?

What is taking google so damn long to fix? This all started almost a month ago, when they starting “updating” the email system, so I’m assuming this has something to do with that. It feels like they don’t care about Blogger or the people who use it and so they’re not going to fix it, they’re just going to say they’re fixing it and wait for everyone to stop expecting it to be fixed. Then they’ll keep slowly breaking it until no one uses it anymore. You know, like Microsoft.

The last I checked, they had a possible fix posted that involved comment moderation… which I don’t have. And a bunch of other people still aren’t getting notifications either. But do you know what did work? That’s so freaking stupid I can’t stand it?

My comments were sent automatically to my email, by going to Blogger/Settings/Email. So I deleted that email and replaced it with another one (my old email address). Then it sent a “Subscribe to comments” message to that one and I hit yes. Then I went BACK to Email and put my normal account back in. And I got the “Subscribe to comments” email.

It works again. But how annoying. I may have to go punch something.

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!

Finally!

My internet is being soooo annoying. It completely cut out last weekend and then yesterday I fixed it, but I don't know how so if it happens again, I'm going to be stuck trying things until it works again. So if I disappear again, that's why.

Honestly, it's disconcerting to be away from the internet when you're so used to going on every day. No emails, no webcomics, no news, no Twitter! What will I do when there's no one forced to listen to my every petty complaint because they Follow me? I think up all these things to say and there's no one to enjoy my wit. I could call people up on the phone but I can never say the things I think, only type them. My speaker isn't well-connected to my thinker. It must have the same modem as my internet provider.

And while writing can be done as long as I have a keyboard and a computer, there's no easy way to do research. How am I supposed to know the effects of explosive decompression on the human body without Google, huh?

In summary, without the internet I goes the crazy. I hope to see all of you later. If I don't, well...I'm sure you'll read about what I did before they lock me up and throw away the key.

...Of Course

I shouldn't be surprised, really. I sit down to write a brand new book and everything in my life goes freaking insane. This happens more often than I'd like.

So unfortunately, I'm going to be preoccupied for a while. I'm hoping it won't interfere with my blog, but things are kind of touchy right now. If I miss an update, apologies in advance. I have this week's all set to go, so don't freak out if next week isn't on time or if I'm not commenting as I should be (I can be bad about that anyway).

Here's hoping things settle down sooner rather than later...