Blogging…

Today I was talking with some friends, @Mrs_Banjer and @mobbsey on Twitter about blogs, and what is / isn’t blocked by their schools, or Ed Qld.I was trying to find a solution for them, so that they could blog at school, without any trouble.

I would love for them to use wordpress.org, but I realise that not everyone has their own hosting, and then you have to buy a domain name etc, and if you’re not really into serious blogging (or don’t have the luxury of a husband who’s in web design, like me), then you’re probably quite put off by all that initial cost. So this wasn’t an option.

My second choice- wordpress.com, a lot of educators use edublogs for the blogging needs, and it is wordpress rebadged, so it would be an easy transition (edublogs is unfortunately blocked by EQ). But apparently wordpress.com is blocked, so I was onto my third choice.

The third choice- blogger. I’m not a fan. I want to be, I really do, but all that orange, and the limitations on the blog itself just put me off. However, I do know this, blogger will let you submit blog posts via email. The subject becomes the title, and then email becomes the content. You get a special email to send it to, and it posts straight away. Handy if blogger is blocked in your school, because obviously, your email address isn’t.

In the end Fiona found a different site to use, but it really annoyed me that my favourite free, easy to use blogging system didn’t have what I wanted, and that the one I really want to use- blogger (because of it’s kick arse google-ness, and the fact that so many people use it), doesn’t have the things that wordpress does…

Why oh why can they not just copy each others ideas!

On another note, I logged into my wordpress.com today (after a long time not logging in), to view the 15 blogs I have there (which are all now extinct), and I thought to myself how nice it was to be part of that wordpress community. When you have your own blog, you’re just on your own, there are no popular blogs of the week, or things like that popping up. No easy way to browse other people’s blogs… I do miss that.

I think 2009 will be my ‘community online’ year- where I’ll try to put myself ‘out there’ more online, and connect and be part of the team.

Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!

Tags: blogger, blogging, edublogs, EQ, fiona, mobbsey, mrs_banjer, School, wordpress

Cooking without Gas.

Being sick is a little like cooking without gas- you’re going nowhere. Fast.

Unfortunately for me today, I am ‘cooking without gas’ in more then one sense of the word. I am sick, yes. I have the day off school to re-coop, and hopefully feel better tomorrow so that I can continue with my internship.

Luke and I have also, run out of gas, and so my atempt at cooking bacon this morning was thwarted, as was my attempt at making custard for lunch. Fortunately I found alternate cooking methods- yay for sandwich presses that run on electricity and microwaves!

I have had a somewhat beneficial day though- I got lots sorted as far as design goes, on Sarah’s Pantry Tea invitation (they are going to be SUPER cute!), watched some of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, and intend to work on the 1000 word essay I have to do by tomorrow, and also read my bible. If I get time, washing up and eLA stuff is on the agenda as well.

Tags: bacon, cooking, custard, gas, Internship, School, sick

The grey in the morning…

This morning, as I looked out my window in a daze, I saw grey… something, pushing up into the air. Smoke! I thought. Oh man, there’s a bushfire on the other side of the gully!! I look closer, and try to wake up. I tilt my head and reslise it doesn’t actually look like smoke, it looks like water. LOTS of water, gushing up into the air.

I roll over to Luke and wake him (he doesn’t like it). “Can you see that?” I ask, and point out the window. The grey there behind the two trees, on the other side of the gully. He sees it, and thinks that it’s water.

I get my phone and call Dad, and then while I’m getting ready for school, Luke and Pepper investigate. They discover a BIG hole in a BIG pipe, and heaps of water IS spurting out everywhere.

Anyway. Dad gets the water turned off, and fixes it at lunch time. So by the time I’m home from school it’s all fixed!!

Oh, btw, my first ‘proper’ day of school today- teaching the whole thing. It went pretty well! I’m blogging my reflections using pretend names etc. over here. Check it out. I’ll probably just blog the exciting and fun things here! Like the HUGE big ‘tv’ I made them today out of a fridge box. Will post photos tomorrow when they’re in it!!

Tags: blog, dad, fixed, leak, pepper, pipe, Prac, reflections, School, water