Blogs

I just added another post to Hero Blog. I post there fairly often. My other projects are pretty quiet.

Featured Blogs And New Art

When I started featuring blogs at Big Blog Directory I tended to ignore the blogs I was a member of. I wanted to direct readers to the bloggers who had help make BBD happen.

Both 2 Lazy 2 Blog and 2 Lazy 4 Video are featured blogs this week and have been updated. I hope to post a mini reader survey or question at 2 Lazy 2 Blog sometime this week.

I have been feeling artistic lately and have posted at Fire Pix. I will post some more artwork later this week.

Site Feed Experiments

I have switched the site feed for Firemind to partial for a while. I am experimenting and learning more about feeds and feed readers. Do you like full or partial feeds?

I also added a copyright notice to the feed which will appear when/if I return to using a full feed. You can see how it works at the site feed from BBD.

Learning And Laughter

I posted another blog tutorial at BBD this morning and also listed another blog there. I have a few more ideas for tutorials to play with in the weeks ahead.

I had a fun 45 minutes watching the Worlds Funniest Videos 2006. Some of the ads are priceless.

Cheers.

I Am Alive

I was busy last week with my other blogs. I posted some lighthearted pop songs at 2 Lazy 4 Video and lots of stuff at Big Blog Directory. BBD has been busy all week and I have another submission to process.

I managed to see Pan's Labyrinth and really enjoyed it. It has great characters, an interesting story, and awesome special effects. I was going to review it but this review at the media nook mirrors many of my impressions.

By the end of the week I was feeling tired out and weak. I didn't go to my volunteer job and spent most of the last few days sleeping or reading. I finished the first two books of Jack L Chalkers "Well World" series. I had read them before - the first one several times. I'll add them to my Booklist 2007 when I set it up.

Well, I don't feel sick anymore but I am still tired. Thanks, Comyn, for checking up on me.

A Busy Day Made Me Tired

Today was a good day and a busy one. I was at my usual Friday volunteer job and the shift went well. Afterwards I had an early supper with a friend and we talked about computer stuff and other topics. One of the things we discussed was whether or not to create a mental health group blog.

I have another blog to list a BBD but I need to email the blogger for some info first. I wrote a post the other day saying 33 blogs were listed. Already that post is out of date. The directory continues to grow.

I added an "ad free blog" icon to the sidebar. I decided to express my opinion about ads on blogs. I am not totally against advertising but get tired of being bombarded by ads. Free services like Blogger are a nice change from commercial sites and it is a shame that adverts compete with content for space and our attention spans.

I would like to mention another addition to the sidebar. I added a mini survey about how you read Firemind. Please take some time to check it out.

Blog Feeds

Blogger has a cool widget for adding site feeds to your blog. I added the feeds for a number of my blogs to Braindance. The feed for Firemind is fixed.

New Art

I merged "Leon's Art" with Fire Pix. I moved all of my paintings over and added labels to the posts. I also created two 3D scenes in Bryce 5 which I got from a computer art magazine yesterday.

Check out the pictures and please give me some feedback.

My Search Engines

I am working on two search engines for blogs right now. Both will be used at BBD.

BBD BlogSearch (formerly Blogger LabelSearch) can be found in the sidebar at Braindance. It searches Google for Blogger labels.

BBD Swicki (Search Wiki) is an interesting project. I am customizing the basic search engine to find blogs and blogging related information. You can see it in action at Big Blog Directory. I may change the name at a later date.

I Was (NOT) A Teenage Spamblog

Yay!!, Firemind has been cleared. I think the problem arose because I posted several times in a row to BBD. There is another directory online with a similar name and it accepts anonymous automated listings. It may have been getting spammed a lot. In any case I don't have to use word verification EVERY time I save during editing.

Here is the email from Blogger:

Hello,

Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Busy With Blogging

I have been so busy working with my various blogs and other projects. I will write a short summary of each. Feel free to ask for more detailed information.

1. I haven't blogged at BBD directly but I have worked on several projects that may be used in that blog. The projects include sidebar search widgets and social bookmarking tools.

2. I have been working on a search engine to add to BBD. The project is fun but it can be tiring because I am learning as I work.

3. I am still cleaning out old blogs and may put some of the URLs up for "adoption".

4. I have been invited to Twitter but don't know how I am going to fit it in. I already joined 2 Lazy 2 Link and Topics from 192 countries.

5. Topics from 192 countries is an interesting project and I enjoy writing there. I have written three posts so far.

Hello From Canada
Victoria Weather
Virtual World Travel Via This Blog

Blog Cleaning

I have been doing a lot of work cleaning up Firemind and other blogs.

I removed the voice player from the Phone Me! post and the meebo me IM widget from the sidebar. Neither widget was being used and sometimes they caused the blog to load a bit slower. I may get rid of the Gcast podcast player too.

Some javascript or flash widgets are useful and I like to check them out. I do find that many of the 'cool things' you can add to blogs are either not needed, or problematic, or both.

Besides cleaning up this blog I have been deleting blogs again. One of the blogs was Fire Links and the other was a shared test blog. A few days ago I had 31 blogs and in this account and now I have 24.

Deleting Some Blogs And Reviving Others

I am cleaning out blogs tonight. I was admin in blogs owned by other people until I removed myself. I also deleted one of my test blogs.

Blogging is never simple for me. I wanted to keep a record of the blogs I had worked on so I wrote several posts at Roar. I will continue to document "my old blogs" and delete some of them before I transfer my account to the new version of Blogger. I don't see any point in transferring dead blogs that are not useful. Some of my old blogs may be saved.

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I am adding labels (blogger's version of tags) to my new posts. When I switch to beta-blogger I will copy them to the proper spot and delete the text versions.

What? Me? Too Many Blogs?

I left a comment at a blog one day and then found this comment at Braindance:

Sheesh Leon! You have so many blogs..which is your "main" one?

I chuckled to myself because my beta-blogger profile only shows three blogs. That didn't seem like too many. Then I thought of my old account - the one with Firemind and the others. I laughed out loud then, because I DO have a lot of blogs listed there, and I couldn't remember the exact number of blogs I have.

I checked out both of my accounts and wrote down what I found.

Beta-blogger Account

• Blogs showing on profile: 3
• Total Blogs: 5
• Active Blogs: 3
• Test Blogs: 1
• Dormant/Unused 1
  

Main Account

• Blogs showing on profile: 9
• Total Blogs: 31
• Active: 3 (Firemind, 2 Lazy 2 Blog, 2 Lazy 4 Video)
• Dormant: 6 - Blogs that I like but have no time for right now.
• Dead: 8 - I don't delete these because they are useful as examples or for the information they hold.
• Not started: 2 - I have two great ideas I just haven't had time to do anything with.
• Group Blogs: 17
• Test Blogs: 7 (5 are 'group blogs')

Note that half of my blogs are group blogs and shared test blogs. Shared test blogs make it easier to teach/help other bloggers. When I set up The Demo Blog I had everyone set up test blogs and invite other members.

I will delete or withdraw from several blogs when I switch my old account over to the new version of blogger. I may also ask people to 'adopt' some of the dead blogs with interesting URLs. Geek 2 Geek, for example, could be turned into tech blog with a cheeky but appropriate name.

Blogs are like books. Once they are started they take on some of the writer's character. That makes them special and makes it hard for both the blogger and the blog reader to let them go. I may have trouble getting rid of some of my blogs for sentimental reasons.

Blogs are a part of cyberspace history. They are evidence of our existence at a particular time and place. They say: we were here!

I have many blogs because I want people to know I was here... and there, and there, and...

Cheers. ^__^

Busy Blogger

I have been a busy blogger!

I added three posts to 2 Lazy 2 Blog. There is also a post by Sudman from Oct. 28.

I also did some work at Big Blog Directory. People are starting to submit blogs to be listed!

Introducing: Big Blog Directory

Big Blog Directory is a blog that uses Blogger Labels (tags) to help readers find interesting blogs to read. Readers can search for blogs using labels based on content and/or location. Only those blogs that are being updated will be listed. Dead blogs will be deleted.

The service is free although I would appreciate a reciprocal link.

Bloggers are welcome to submit blogs from any blog service (Blogger, Diaryland, Xanga, etc). I will check out submissions and approve or deny them as soon as possible after receiving them.

Some blogs may not be accepted. If the blog is password protected, or locks up my browser repeatedly, or is a spam blog, it won't get listed.

List your blog today and get noticed.

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This is the promotional "news release" I am posting in the Flickr Bloggers group and other locations.

New Project: Big Blog Directory

I revived one of my earlier projects and created Big Blog Directory. It is a "work-in-progress" but is complete enough to list your blogs. Check it out!

For The Record

I am not going to stop blogging. I like it too much.

I have been struggling with Firemind and what I want to write here. This blog started out as a place to play with ideas. I gave the blog my personal touch without sharing too much of my personal life.

Over the last year I adapted to my readers and opened up a lot. As you responded to my posts and asked questions I got ideas for more posts. Other bloggers, Shogun for example, had a big effect on my writing. By reading their blogs and chatting with some of them I was inspired to write. I also began to share more of my life. Unfortunately my blog became more reactive than proactive.

I never worried about writing too much about my life. I am a good editor. My trouble is that I like to tell a good story and this takes time and energy. In the last few months things have been hectic and painful. I would like to blog about it so that I can 'finish the story' and move on but digging up the past hurts and it keeps me from playing with new ideas.

My problem is with how I write at Firemind. It's a bit like taking on a persona and knowing what is appropriate and what isn't. The blog has mirrored my mood a lot this year and also added to my moodiness. When I couldn't come up with fresh ideas I could blog here and tap into my angst. For every wound this blog healed I'm sure it opened another. This can be a very emo blog.

What I need is change. I will blog at Braindance for a while and I may move there for good. I will also blog here. Posts at Braindance may be edgier and more adult. Posts here will be 'the usual' (whatever that is. ^__^).

I would love some feedback. Tell me what you like about this blog and what you don't. Email me if you want.

Music And Monkeys

I haven't had much time for my group blogs lately. I added a monkey to 2 Lazy 2 Blog yesterday and a song to 2 Lazy 4 Radio this morning. If one doesn't make you cheery the other will.

Risen From The Grave...

I have resurrected my old Wordpress blog in a new location. Braindance is just a place to try out stuff. I needed to have an account if I am to guest host a certain blog when the blogger is on holidays.