Introduction -- Posting has become lax here. I have no excuse; I only have ambivalent thoughts and feelings regarding the business of blogging. They include: feeling lack of inspiration or anxious to set down a new idea; totally confused or "getting it" very clearly, feeling aimless or focused, frustrated or calm, or bored or fascinated. Whenever that happens, writing is my solution. It always clarifies my thoughts and gets me into a more productive mood. But first I have to clean up my laptop in order to work.
As is my practice in such times, I have been working on my hard drive to speed it up and get rid of glitches. I ran full virus and malware scans. I deleted out hundreds of unnecessary files and de-fragmented my disk. I got rid of a bunch of old Emails from three different mailboxes (at Gmail and Yahoo! mail: public and private). I used the bookmark manager to delete duplicate or outdated bookmarks and favorites. I changed from the most readable font to the most efficient/faster typeface. To put it mildly, I "cleaned house" as if company were coming. And here you are. Note: The title link above is to a post I did last year on the same subject, but with a tone that focused on inspiration.
The Internet is so much better than when I started blogging in March of 2005. I still have the same computer, but the available programs have improved markedly. And I improved as a blogger. I have always switched among browsers. Mozilla Firefox has many features and is very flexible. Internet Explorer has improved, but is still too "basic" for my tastes. Google's Chrome is a very streamlined and lightning fast browser if you are in a hurry.
Where I blog -- I use different blog hosting services, as well. I started at Blogger. The ubiquitous Blogger developed a beta version that is now rich with features and widgets. It is much more powerful than ever. My Blogger sites are: South by Southwest (politics), Behind the Links (links from regular contributors), and Making Good Mondays (personal and creative). My Wordpress blog is called Southwest Progressive (stories on Texas, the space program and science). Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites. I have a private membership at Facebook and I post on Twitter.
Group blogging -- Also I have become part of several vibrant community/group blogs, each very different. The Reaction is edited by a Canadian, Michael J.W. Stickings, whose focus is on U.S. progressive politics. The Sirens Chronicles is a neat and edgy bunch of bloggers, mostly women who tell it like it is. TPM Cafe is my longtime blog website with a bunch of regular blogger-friends at Talking Points Memo, edited by Josh Marshall.
Conclusion-- So, how is this blogger keeping on ? I am trying to work smarter, not harder. The work keeps me fresh, I hope. I try to stay in touch with the vastly improved tools that make this free universe exciting and interesting. Associations with other bloggers keep me inspired and informed. I try hard to honor my commitments to them. My varied interests are served by a number of posting places, which also serve different audiences. And social networking is surprisingly fun.
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