Rehash of the Past

I started this blog last Tuesday!  Crazy! But thinks got hectic and I got busy so it didn't get finished. Fortunately, the opening of the post is so appropriate. I began with -Sometimes titling a blog is such a chore! It's Tuesday morning and the sky is at least 10  shades of gray. No rain as yet but that's nothing new. This year it often clouds up and doesn't rain all over.

I didn't talk about my writer's meeting but someone did post a comment asking about it. Writer's meeting last week was a lot of fun. Those gals are just a hoot. I always have a good time. And anyone who says divorce lawyers are not amusing hasn't met Laurie. 

I formed the group because my local group was breaking up. I don't think it was intentional. They all were so busy with home, work, school, family and friends and people couldn't come to the meeting, no one was writing, and discussions had become about everything but writing.  I know when I disbanded it they were all hurt by it but it simply wasn't a writing group anymore and there were too many meetings where just one person showed up. That's not a group. We could meet and shoot the breeze any time but I needed to be involved with a group of people who wanted to write, wanted to talk about writing, and who needed an outlet to do that. I miss the old group a lot but no one has since suggested we meet to just shoot the breeze and that leads me to think my gut was correct. We were all burned out with the group. I still see a few of them on Facebook but haven't had any invitations to lunch or just to visit. But that's o.k. things change. People do, too.

The biggest difference in the current group is it meets only online. We're strung out across the US and it'd be really impossible to meet any other way without Google hangouts. Laurie is on the East coast, Samantha on the West, Cathy is in the NW, Kat, Chris and I are in the mid-west and Phyllis is in Texas. Fortunately we were able to settle on a time that seems to work pretty good for most of us and while not everyone makes every meeting,  because ultimately life is happening all the time, most of us do. And we have a good time of it. If we find less than three are going to attend, we reschedule the meeting but those who want still may "hangout" just to chat. And that's  really nice.

And now we get to today's post. It is really a gray day. And it is much cooler - 71 degrees. Nice if the sun was shinning but it isn't and so it is a bit cool. I am hoping the cold weather will hold off until October but I'm betting not. I'd like to see my moon flowers bloom if possible and they need at least a month more of warmth I think. I was a bit late getting flowers in this year because of the heat and how I felt. But the sidewalk looks great.

I've got my blogger blog tweaked a bit. Helping some of my friends get started has actually helped me learn some new things. Multiply really did have a great format and it is unfortunate that they are ending it. However, I think life will be better for me if I'm not managing so many blogs in different places. If you look at the new tabs at the top of my blog you will see I'm a bit over extended. I'm going to update at Multiply via Blogger until I get all my stuff downloaded. That's why the titles look different. Blogger emails a copy of the blog to Multiply where it is posted. I can do the same from Multiply and used to do that. The weekend was busy so I didn't do any downloading but I'm hoping to finish up the videos this week.  Once I'm done with that, I'll start deleting albums. I still would like to see an import feature for the blogs. So far they appear to have made no efforts in this direction. I hate the copy paste feature! We'll see what happens.

Oh, one other thing. My friend, Kris, had a great idea - a Photo tab a the top as well! I think it is awesome. I'm going to put one for my Youtube Channel, too. So cool!

A Great Idea

I stole a great idea from Jilly, one of my friends on Blogger. Blogger has a feature where you can have more than one page on your site. The page can be a "Post" page showing where you can post a variety of links or something special you want to be readily available but no a link on your home page. Or you can make the tab a link to another site. 

On Jilly's blog she created "Quick Notes" where you can leave comments. She can see these comments and respond. It makes it possible to have threaded comments, sort of like the guest book feature on Multiply. Really wonderful idea really. And I've copied it a and expanded on it. You have to turn on threaded comments in Blogger, by the way.

As I've said before I have about six Blogger blogs that are active. Some are closed to everyone but invited readers. A few are open to all. I've used Blogger's "pages" feature to add these as tabs at the top of my page. I'm thrilled! It is easily visible and so handy. Clicking on a tab from my home page takes you right to my other blog. I occasionally let people in to read some of these and this makes it easier than sending a bunch of links.

Thank you, Jilly!

More Assorted Questions

The Reader questions are now coming in. Don't worry! This one is easy. Just so you know, my reader says I have 1000+ items. Yeah, daunting. But really, it is simply not a problem.  I usually just go in and mark them as unread if it is something I'm not going to have time for. If I want to come back later, I leave it "unread". They're still on my list, I just don't have to bother with them.

The reader doesn't "get rid" of things. It marks them as read if you ask it. Or, when you click on one, it will be grayed out from that point on unless go back and mark it as unread. You can tell the reader to mark ALL as read. New items show up with a darker title. You will be able to easily tell when you have not read something in the reader. 

You can sort your list several way. Look at the buttons with drop down menus. Virtually every item has one. You can sort the list of subscribed items by "drag and drop". I put all the blogs I'm subscribing to in together. I did this by dragging them to where I wanted them. I also subscribe to some news sites. I don't read those all the time so they're at the bottom of my list. I've just deleted the subscriptions to Blogster I had because they don't work. I can't read them in the reader. I have to go to the actual site and I can't go from the reader title, which I should be able to do. So for me, that's it for Blogster. Too many things I can't do.

Multiply inbox uses this same principle that the reader does. Yes, items disappear when you read a blog but if you select "Posted by me" or on the name of a person in your list, you will get all the post they ever made... both read and unread. The read ones are grayed out. The difference in the reader and the Multiply inbox is that, in your inbox they vanish but in the reader they don't. New items are just put at the top. 

Another thing you can do, if you don't like the Google Feed Reader is find another reader. Do a search for Feed Reader and you'll be able to look at some others. Try them. Your email program probably has a way to read feeds. Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Firefox, Netscape, etc. all have a way to do feeds. 

So no, you can't "delete" things from a reader. It updates the feed. Feeds are live updates that belong to the person and you're being allowed to read them, typically offsite. As I commented on Wendy's Waffle, think of the reader as the daily mail. Sometimes you get junk. Sometimes you get good stuff. In the reader, as you scroll over the items, they are marked as read IF you tell the reader to do that in your settings. Once marked, it is still on the list but grayed out. You can ignore it in the future. You will only scroll down as far as you haven't read anyway.

Ideas for Photo Storage

I'm looking for places to store my photos. I use photobucket now for various items but it is limited unless you pay. Since I won't be paying for Multiply anymore, and blogger is free, I may actually save money. Paid service is $1.67 a month. In all honesty, I doubt I'll do this anymore. It was one of Multiply's best features. You could share dozens of photos in albums for friends and family to see.

Picasa has software you download free to edit photos. Integrates with Google.

Photobucket is good.

Here is a list of 20 low cost/free photo/video storage sites.

http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/media-roundups/top-20-photo-storage-and-sharing-sites/

A Busy Day Ahead

It is a gorgeous day here. Beautiful sunny skies, 75 degrees! I had coffee on my front porch and read my devotional there. Then read a bit. I am getting ready now to do the bills before heading out to lunch with my children.

For my multiply friends, go to Cheryl's g+ page and you will see how the comment interaction really works. I got a notice on my G+ button that comments were posted. I went to read them and saw Cheryl's post and the comments listed. I'm going to post this blog and you should be able to go to my G+ page FROM Cheryl's and read the post I link. You can comment on the G+ page to that blog because the Blog if you have your browser set for tab uses, the blog should open in a separate tab.

If you don't want a lot of strangers on your page, just don't add people you don't know and don't follow people you have no interest in. Can other see your page? If you have everything posted to public. But you can block comments from anyone but your circles. If you post only to your circles, the Public can see. So you can shut G+ down very tightly by posting only to circles. I suggest staying public until everyone decided where they want to go so you won't miss a friend looking for you.

Don't forget to add people you want in circles. We can't get to your page if you lock up tight and don't have circles that include us. I'm public virtually always. But over time, I know my  G+ is going to be locked down a bit. This is a much larger exposure than Multiply.

Once added, I can see all your posts on G+ and blogger if you link the two through the notification process.

Ok. I'm off. If I forgot something I'll post it later.