SOMETIMES, IT JUST AIN’T EASY BEING A BLOGGER!

Lots of folks ask why I blog. The answer is simple! I enjoy sharing some of my experiences with family and friends, and apparently there are lots of other folks out there that enjoy my blogs as well. So, thank you one and all!

To formulate a decent blog, you must first have an idea you think is worth sharing (sometimes, that isn’t an easy task.) I often think about it for a few days and do my final planning over a nice cup of coffee or glass of iced tea. Then, you must gather your thoughts in some sort of a coherent manner (another “not-so-easy task”), and actually compose the blog. Here’s where a nice glass of Chardonnay comes in handy. Once written (that too can be difficult), be sure to double/triple check it for accuracy. And it’s always nice to have some fotos to accompany the experience you are trying to convey to your readers, so if you don’t have any on hand, better get out there and get some! (Arghh, more work!!) All that really sounds “do-able”, and not too very complicated. The wine helps in that department. If it were more complicated than that, I wouldn’t be a blogger and I certainly don’t want to sound like a “whiner”!

Next, you have to actually post your blog on “Blogger” following their specific guidelines, one step at a time. (Now here’s where it gets really touchy!) Better hit that wine one more time!

S p a c i n g is always a consideration, and when you post fotos, you are at risk of looking like a complete “Blogger Boob” who has no idea what they are doing! (Been there, done that!) Blogger is a great system and the web site is really somewhat easy to follow, honest. Anyone who blogs will agree, I’m sure. I'll drink to that! Cheers! However, Blogger has a mind of its own and can be dark and evil, malicious and cunning, and totally frustrating and uncooperative when it wants to be! If I were to pen a science fiction thriller I would call my villain “Blogger”! He’d give nightmares to kids and heart attacks to little old ladies.

First, you post the written portion of your blog being sure to check your spacing. Have a glass of wine, it helps. Now, you search for the foto you need. Ah! Found it! Celebrate that event with another glass of liquid grapes. Cheers! Next, choose the size you want it to post (small, medium, or large), and the position you want it on your blog (left, center, right). Geesh, decisions, decisions, decisions - getting a bit dizzy here. Now, upload the foto to Blogger and hope it works and doesn’t freeze up your computer! If it works, celebrate with another glass of wine. If it freezes up your computer, go right for the frozen margaritas. You deserve it. In fact, to hell with the wine and go directly to the margaritas. Relatively simple enough! All fotos initially post at the beginning of the blog, not where you think you might like them to be placed. How wonderful is that! Bummer. Better chill out with another one of those frozen concoctions.

You must then click on the actual posted foto that miraculously appears at the top of your blog, and drag it into the position you want. Again, sounds easy, but trust me, this can turn into a major task or disaster! Better be prepared for the disaster, so better have another frozen little helper. As your fotos post, the spacing on your written, already posted blog changes! Damn! Could be the wine, could be the margaritas, or it could be the villain, “Blogger”! Run for your life – quick, grab the dog and the pitcher of margaritas on the way out! Oh! And don't forget to hit the "save" button before you turn the computer off!

Paragraphs that were originally double spaced are now 6, 8, 10, 20, or more lines apart. I count the lines and feel I am entitled to an equal amount of margaritas. You must continually back space to bring things into alignment again! Damn, there goes my margarita entitlement! It’s at this point where I usually loose one or more posted fotos, so I have to start that process all over again; including the margarita thingy! Better pause here and make another batch of those babies. And yes, go through the back space scenario again, too. Wow! More frozen frolickers on the way down! Now you see why posting a blog could take several hours and drive bloggers to drink.

Blogger provides a special option prior to the final post, which is the much feared and often dreaded “Preview”. Now this has got to be someone’s idea of a sadistic joke. This calls for a fresh pitcher of margaritas. I have yet to have a blog post exactly as it previews! And I can’t for the life of me tell you why. It just isn’t so. So, after it posts, you have to go in and keep editing it until it looks like someone other than a Blogger Boob posted it. And there are times when, even after editing, it just will not change, no matter what! This is where that extra batch of margaritas comes in handy.

So, next time you are viewing a blog, anyone’s blog, and it looks a little off kilter or isn’t spaced just as it should be, you now know why. Could be that the blogger or the reader has been dipping into the spirits, or Blogger just isn’t cooperating. If you have ever read a blog and said “he must have been drunk to post that”! Well, what can I say!

Sometimes, it just ain’t easy being a blogger! But all the problems we bloggers encounter will not preclude our posting another blog or concocting another batch of margaritas!

So, stay tuned!!!!!!! Bloggers up!