This Olde Blog II : Electric Bugaloo

A few posts ago (is it odd to measure time in "posts" instead of "days"?) I was trying to decide on a new look for the blog here. To my surprise, I not only got some comments (I'm still always surprised when someone stops by to comment), but I got some very good ones, at that. I really appreciate everyone's input and sharing their experiences in the sprucing up blogs.

A few folks suggested trying to migrate the whole shebang over to Wordpress as it seems to be a bit more flexible, style-wise. Having had a Wordpress blog for a while, I would tend to agree with them...my only issue being, I didn't want to lose the Blogger format of following people as well as it's integration with Google Plus.

Then Charmaine Clancy hit upon something simple that would, pretty much, solve most of the problems I was having with my "blah blog". She suggested keeping things simple and creating my own banner as well as utilizing more pages to organize a bit better.

So, that's what I did.

I wanted something clean, template wise, and simple....which is the majority of the Blogger templates, in my view. I chose "Picture Window" but didn't like the colors nor the background. So, I checked through the backgrounds, settling on something that I thought looked like rusty, old papyrus..."Mammuth". The slight transparency of the theme lets the background show without overpowering the text, which I liked.

Then, I started playing with the color scheme and went with the 'burnt orange' look while keeping the charcoal post background and white text...which seemed easy on the eyes. After that, I started searching for banner pictures.

I hit up Google Images and began looking for something centered around writing or left handedness, you know, trying to be clever and all......it didn't work. Most searches came up with pencils or goofy looking stock photos of a left handed figure drawing, Meh. I didn't like any of them. So, then I got the idea to try typewriters and, finally, settled on a typewriter key type theme.

A few of my early choices.....

All of these were way too big for a banner, so I took more of Charmaine's advice and checked out PicMonkey. I have to say, it was pretty easy to upload and use their picture editing software. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a free alternative to Photoshop.

Anyway, I measured my banner space and started playing a bit. I came up with dimensions that I thought looked good and tried them all out. I didn't bother with the "Corona" picture and had already eliminated it by the time I got to measuring and adjusting. The first pic was o.k, but the colors didn't blend well for me. The second and third were better, color-wise, but a bit too light for the blog title....which led to my next issue.

                                                   

                                                                                                 

After trying all three, I still had a problem....the blog title wasn't very visible over the picture. I tried a lot of colors, white looked the best, but it still didn't show up as clearly as I wanted and the description was in even worse shape. This template didn't allow for adjusting much on the description. I played around some more with the pic monkey site and darkened up the second picture until the title was more clear.

I liked this and thought it melded well with the rest of the "rusty look" theme. I still had a slight problem in that the light color of the keys was blurring out part of the blog title and all of the description. Then it hit me, I made the letters bigger to where the writing sat on the dark parts between the lighter areas. Woo hoo! It worked and both blog title and description (which I had toyed with the idea of just doing away with) showed up fine.

Satisfied with all of that, I decided to implement the 'more pages' piece of advice from Charmaine and use one to make a list of links for my other social media spots. It was pretty simple to download a 200x200 logo from each and use pic monkey to make a banner. I rounded off the corners, completely, to make them look like more typewriter keys and clearing the background to have it blend in with the blog color. Easy peasy.

To clean the front page up even more, I created another page for my "Accolades" and figured it would be better to highlight my blogroll higher up on the page.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results and, also, I can't recommend PicMonkey highly enough. If you need to edit a few pics, it's the place to go...seriously.

Again, thanks to all those who commented with tips on the previous post and, especially, to Charmaine for her simple, yet great, ideas. It was the right way for me to go.

So, what do you think?

IWSG for October 2012

Well, here we are again. The first Wednesday of the month and that means it's time for another installment of the Insecure Writers Support Group. Conceived by Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG is an exercise in expressing things about your writing that you're just not all that comfortable with. I've been participating since June and have found it to be pretty therapeutic. It's also nice to visit other writer's blogs and see that a lot of us aren't so different from one another.

This month I'd like to talk a little about social media and blogging.

These days, my main source of 'social media' is over at Google Plus. It used to be another outlet that starts with an 'F" and ends with a 'K'. No, it's not a four letter word....get your minds out of the gutter. The answer, as if you didn't know, is Facebook. I post a lot....some would say an obscene amount....to my Google Plus stream, as opposed to Facebook where I'm lucky if I log in once or twice a week.

Regardless, though, it's not the medium that, sometimes, causes the insecurity....it's the message. I always wonder if the things I'm posting are....

1. Interesting enough.
2. Relevant enough.
3. Getting the point I'm trying to make across.

Sometimes, on G+, I'll get a ton of comments on a post when I expected next to nothing and vice versa.

Now, how does this apply to my writing? I always wonder if what I'm posting makes sense. If it's structured correctly. If I'm even using proper grammar. Thankfully, the built in spell checker usually saves my bacon on spelling errors, so that's one less thing I have to worry about. Before I set out to get serious about writing, I wouldn't worry or care less about those sort of things. These days, besides content, it's always in the forefront of my mind.

The same holds true with blogging.

Basically....am I doing it right? It's rare that I get many comments on my blog posts....here or on my other, general purpose, blog. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Not that I'm expecting a lot of comments on my blogs. Those are for me and my writing.

For me, it's the writing equivalent of going to the gym.....I'm just working the writing muscle. I've even found that when I'm writing little notes, I try to make sure to capitalize and punctuate correctly. That sounds strange, I know, but it's exercise.

I think that, in this case, the insecurity can be a good thing. It keeps me 'on my toes' and forces me to, at least, try to keep things up to par, writing-wise.

The way I look at it these days, writing is writing so why not do it the best way I know how?

You like me! You really, really.....

O.k., well, maybe that's exaggerating just a tad, but someone out there likes me. 'Who is this insane person?', you may ask.

Why, my multi-talented, and very kind Google Plus pal, Shen Hart...that's who! Shen has nominated my little blog for the Liebster Award.

'What is this...Liebster Award?' you ask. (Amazing how I just seem to know what you're going to ask, isn't it?)

Well, it represents small blogs, with less than 200 followers, that contains awesome content. Now, the word 'awesome' is a bit subjective I guess but, hey, it's my blog...so it's my rules ;) The other thing that goes hand in hand with being nominated is that I'm to nominate five blogs that I enjoy and spread the love, as it were.

The following five blogs fit the 'awesome' bill, in my opinion:

1. Mark Craddock's CROSS PLANES (capital letters, just to emphasize the point). A real life friend for over 20 years, Mark has jumped back onto the blogging wagon, not only as a writing lesson for his home schooled kids, but to chronicle his many RPG ventures, as well.
2. Rob Hall: Another real life friend who's also become quite 'the posting fool' since the new year. He puts up a lot of stuff about his love of comic books, movies, books, you name it. A cornucopia of nerdyness minus the taped up glasses ;)
3. Terence Towles Canote's blog always...and let me say that again...always, has something of interest for me. He writes a lot about old television shows, old movies, and the actors that worked them. A lot of times his posts are on the more obscure pop culture icons of the past, which makes it all the more interesting. Check it out and be prepared to be schooled. Oh, and if you enjoy old television (and who doesn't?) Terence has also written a book of essays about the subject, which you can find here.
4. Lily Alice is a very....unique person...and I mean that in a good way. Like Terence, she's a Google Plus pal who always has something interesting to say. Her blog is focused on the past, mainly the 50s and 60s and always has interesting posts about music, movies, food, flowers and booze.....not in that order, either. If  you really want to get in her good graces, tell her you just adore Jim Garner and Bill Holden.
5. Jennie Vongvith is, yet another, Google Plus pal...one of my first, I do believe, who is not only extremely prolific, but also a sweetheart. Extremely supportive of other writers, she's a great NaNoWriMo  buddy. She posts about everything, it seems. Jennie loves to write and she does it well. I'm never quite sure what I'll seeing in my reader from her site, but I'm always pretty sure that I'll enjoy it.

I want to thank Shen Hart, again, for the nod and you can check her great stuff out at Ink Stained Pawprints.

This next part I'll lazily lift....er, I mean reproduce from Shen's site...

Now what those of you have been nominated need to do:

• Thank your presenter on your blog.
• Link to the blogger in your thank you message (see above for a possible method of doing so… Props for being original, if you feel so inclined)
• Copy and past the award (see below).
• Present the award to 5 other blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) if you think that they deserve it.
• Let your nominees know through some means of social media.

You can copy paste your award right here: