Amidst the whir of industrial dryers, an urban symphony in the background, I sat down at the local Laundr-O-Mat/Gas-N-Go—across the street from the local bakery which supplies semi-free wifi—and began to fiddle around. No stranger to the blogosphere (MySpace, Livejournal, InsaneJournal, etc), confidence levels ran high going in to this particular project. Blog layouts vary minimally from host site to host site, with levels of professionalism and customizability (it’s a word…maybe) the only somewhat-large difference. And how did Blogspot compare? Favorably.
The user-interface is incredibly simple. There isn’t even a need for basic HTML skills (which I do posses). The entire system is designed to be visually manipulated. Prospective changes are seen instantaneously, and any would-be confusion can quickly be cleared up with a brief trip to your local FAQ. So I continued to fiddle about, HTML or not, first choosing an appropriate, attractive layout, then adding gadgets, moving gadgets, considering adding a revenue stream (google ads), changing fonts, colors and size of headers, body text, titles, and time stamps, deciding against adding a revenue stream, background colors, images, and so forth. Finally, it was all coming together. It was basic. Pretty, but basic. Dragging the cursor over to “Apply to Blog” I clicked down. Again. A double click. Triple click. And finally, defeat. Sadly, the local bakery across the street sets a 20 minute limit on free internet access per day. I had timed out.
Still, the point of the exercise was accomplished. I learned how to edit the layout and design template of the blog. I had educated myself! Emboldened by this new knowledge, empowered by my humble-yet-growing band of ‘followers,’ and invigorated by my nigh godlike control over my own blog, and thus their own experience of it I vowed to continue these modifications.
Though Blogspot doesn’t require an understanding of HTML, it does allow for HTML modifications. I look forward to altering and modifying the layouts I have with perhaps my own background images, custom polls, video and who knows what else. This exercise has made me fairly confident this blog will be an ever growing, expanding, shifting creation. Not only in the addition of new weekly assignments and writings, but in the layout and style. It will evolve with me, not force me to conform to its rigid or limited forms of expression. I hope you all reading this look forward to seeing what may come as much as I.
Will you keep blogging after the year is up?
ReplyDeleteI dunno. Not on this particular project, no. But we'll see what else I might come up with to blog about.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you decide *against* a revenue stream? Especially, when there's minimal effort required on your part?
ReplyDeleteI don't really care to cheapen this with money. I'm not doing this for the money, I'm doing it for the experience. If it were some other kind of blog, maybe. But this one is pretty personal, and a payoff in-and-of itself.
ReplyDeleteI reserve the right to change my mind later, however.