A BLOG ABOUT BLOGGING

     When I decided to start blogging again, I considered things I wanted to stay the same and things I wanted to change.

STAYING THE SAME

     First and always this is a personal blog; an on-line journal.  It is about things going on in my life that interest me and I hope will engage my readers.

      The purpose of my blog is to share our doings with family and friends.  Mostly my doings, sometimes Ron's. We're all involved in busy lives, and it's a low-investment way to keep tabs.  I have no interest in gaining an on-line readership, though as a public blog anyone who happens upon it is free to read it. 

     The blog is a way to scratch my writing itch. I've long kept a personal journal and have enjoyed letter writing since Big Chief Tablets and  #2 pencils hit my radar.  I find blogging satisfactorily combines these writing expressions.

CHANGING 

     Tech:  "a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge"(www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary).

     I could never, ever be described as a techie.   I have progressed since my early days of complete resistance, and now enjoy the occasional tech challenge.  Because my knowledge base is piece-meal and on the minimal side, I've chosen to abandon a logical approach and subscribe to "jump in and see what happens".  Here are some ways I'm diving into the tech pool.

STRICTLY TECH

     One of the first things I wanted to change was to rein in my blatant use of copyrighted internet material without permission or acknowledging the source.  Yes, even the most modest of bloggers is required to respect copyright laws..  No more borrowing (okay, stealing).

Source:  Flickr

     The first way I've chosen to address this is only use content that is "free to use or share".  Lo and behold, I asked Google and (s)he helped me with that!  Google Images has a setting that searches by various criteria, one of which is the above "free to use or share."  Too easy!  The down side is the quantity and quality of material is greatly reduced.  All the really cute stuff is copyrighted.  Go figure.  Still, what's available is not nothing. There are also websites that offer free images.  I've used some of those and find them less than up front about exactly what's free.  At any rate, my plan is to use free content as much as possible, and always acknowledge the source.


     Although I have in mind to do weekly postings, that's not been happening and may end up to be unrealistic.   Because of that, I've been working with a way for readers to be notified when I post so they don't have to keep checking back and eventually giving up or forgetting altogether.  The first way I'm trying is from my end.  I can put people on an email list for notification. This is still a work in progress.  I'm currently testing whether I need to send the notification with each post.  It does require the receiving party to accept the invitation to be notified, so there's some action necessary on the reader's part.  I'm following up with a couple of readers, but I think I'll put my own email on the list and have some first hand knowledge of the process.  I like this method because it gives me the control of who gets notified.

     Another way to accomplish the same thing is to put the invitation to be notified directly on the blog post.  Once I do that, any reader that wants to be notified takes the necessary action to be notified.  I haven't fully researched this.  Part of the reason I'm not in a hurry is because since the blog is public, ANYBODY could ask to be notified.  Since I'm not trying to build an audience, do I want that?  If it sounds like I'm trying to pretend my blog isn't public, you're right.

FUN/STRICTLY TECH

    In the post I did with Dwane singing, it turned out the most effective way to get the video to play on blogger.com, the home of my blog, was...to...create...a...YouTube site....load the video to YouTube, then link YouTube through my blog. 

Source:  commons.wikimedia.org

  Did that make my head explode???? You betcha!

     I read several blogs and since I'm blogging again I've been paying more attention to how the blogs are put together.  I have been quite interested in a cartoon figure one blogger uses that looks amazingly like her.  Over the past week, I've been doing a little here-and-there research. Through some techie sleuthing, I was able to identify the source of the cartoon, and was introduced to the most tech fun I've ever had:

BITMOJI!

Source:  itunes.apple.com

     I'm using Bitmoji as a smart phone app.  "The basic premise of Bitmoji is that you create a cartoon version of yourself that you can insert across a variety of web-based services from Snapchat to Gmail and beyond. It's definitely about adding some fun to your communications. There are no real productivity-minded features here." (Source:  www.lifewire.com/bitmoji-explained).   My favorite personal source for all thing smart phone is the young woman who does my pedicures.   I conveniently saw her this week, so I asked her what she knew.  Oh, yeah, she knew plenty!  And showed me enough to allow me to download the Bitmoji app, where I created my Bitmoji (aka an avatar).  To create a Bitmoji, the app offers endless ways to customize the appearance of the avatar.  You start with "female" or "male" and go from there.  It's very easy to change the Bitmoji to meet a particular need.  There are then endless pre-set messages you can send with your Bitmoji through text, email and social media.  Meet my Bitmoji!

FUN/MOSTLY NOT TECH:  Accessing My Inner Elementary Creativity

     The other way I'm choosing to address the copyright issue is to create more original material.  I've dipped my toe in this a little, and boy is it fun!  As fun as Bitmoji, only not tech!  Truly, my creative skills are so elementary that it doesn't take much to make me feel accomplished.   Besides a title for the post, I like the header to include some visual interest.  It was in my mind to use some sort of lettering, but what?  With a background in elementary (!) education, I had a bulletin board style in mind.  A bit of looking on the WWW resulted in the discovery of whole sets of alphabet letters for purchase! They come in colors!  For a nominal price, I ordered this set from Amazon

and started makin' magic!  For the header in the previous post, I laid out the lettering on a finished board we had laying around, took a photo of it and edited it to the size I wanted in Windows Live Photo Gallery, which is the program I use for processing my pix.  For this post, I tried using a rubber mat for a black background.

     In both cases, I then accessed an already-familiar creative assistance partner, on-line photo editor PiZap (www.pizap.com).  So far you've seen it used for collages.  It has a limited free version and a for-pay version.  Natch, I'm using the free version.  I got to looking around more and found even the free version  has all kinds of options for enhancing photos, including backgrounds, frames, shapes, etc.  It fired me right up!  I chose a background, added my photo, and voila, the headers you see on this and the last post.  Oh, am I pleased with the result!

     Another blog I read recently had a picture of a small felt board lettered with an announcement relative to their topic.  Sure enough, Amazon has a plethora of felt boards for a reasonable price.  I like it as another option so much that I ordered one last night! 


     At this point, the ways I want to grow and change in my blogging has to do with expanding ways to create and integrate original material.  It's a grand experiment, with no promises!  I hope you enjoy the process.