I've learned a valuable blogging lesson already - don't post about future postings! It's now week 2, Thing 3 is out there, and I haven't finished Thing 2 yet, largely because I foolishly promised, in a previous post, to post about my "blogging neuroses"! So, I'd better get this out of the way before I look at RSS feeds...
I feel uncomfortable about blogging. I think I'm talking here about blogging/posting that goes beyond a professional remit. Blogs like those of the UL Tower, Incunabula and Sassoon projects, for example, seem to me to be an excellent idea; and blogging for/about 23 Things is equally worthwhile, as by participating in it I am developing, learning and pursuing an end. It's beyond this that I get a bit anxious. For example, I've published a couple of posts that are not about any of the 23 things, but about things that I, personally, am interested in. They are beyond what I need to do to complete the programme, they offer my own opinions and feelings about things - is there any place for these on a blog which has been set up as part of my professional life?
Why not refrain from publishing these personal posts in the first place? It is, after all, a little presumptuous to assume that anybody will read them, let alone be interested. Yet for some reason I want to, I suppose in the hope that they will connect with someone. Would I have been better to create a separate, anonymous blog for this kind of material? My instincts tell me not to publish anonymously - I want people to know who I am (not just in my blog, but generally in life!) and I feel that anonymity would undermine these connections I'm seeking. On the other hand, I'm imagining how I would feel knowing that, for example, a potential employer had read these posts. It's not that they have 'inappropriate' content in the general sense of that word, but that they give an insight into me beyond my persona as a librarian. In a professional context I want to be judged by my conduct as a professional, not my personality/personal interests.
Has anybody else had any thoughts on these issues?
Showing posts with label Thing 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thing 2. Show all posts
Monday, 27 June 2011
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Thing 2 - Blogging (the technical side)
Here I'm going to talk a little about my experience of setting up the blog. The technical stuff. In my next post I'll talk about the psychological/emotional (yes really!) stuff - which for me is a much bigger deal! I thought I'd break it into two posts so that anyone reading who doesn't want to be privy to my blog neuroses can avoid them by just reading this first post...
I have to admit I'm finding Blogger quite fiddly to work with. It was really easy to sign up, name, and choose a basic template, a definite point in Blogger's favour, but once I began to want to fine-tune things (font sizes, font colours, etc.) I started to feel a bit dazed and confused! I am at best a third-rate techie, and have to keep asking a longsuffering colleague for help (which he willingly gives). When I'm in the advanced tab of the template designer I'm not always sure which option corresponds to which element of the blog design. I'm sure once I've spent a bit more time fiddling around I'll get the hang of it, and in fact the kind of changes I want to make are probably barely perceptible to anyone else, just personal whims regarding the size of this text with relation to that, or the amount of space between things (if you read my first post, you'll know that space, be it white or, in the case of my blog, a pale custardy colour, is important to me!). I'm sure there are very good reasons for Blogger to work the way it does, so I don't really mean to suggest that my niggles should be catered for, but it's just a bit frustrating to have an idea in your head of how you want something to be, and for it not to be immediately obvious how to achieve this.
One final thing - I wanted to use one of my own photos for the background, but it has to be under "300K", and seeing as all my photos come from a fairly decent digital camera, the file sizes are much larger. Can anyone help me with this? Is there a simple but effective way for me to reduce the file size of my photos?
I have to admit I'm finding Blogger quite fiddly to work with. It was really easy to sign up, name, and choose a basic template, a definite point in Blogger's favour, but once I began to want to fine-tune things (font sizes, font colours, etc.) I started to feel a bit dazed and confused! I am at best a third-rate techie, and have to keep asking a longsuffering colleague for help (which he willingly gives). When I'm in the advanced tab of the template designer I'm not always sure which option corresponds to which element of the blog design. I'm sure once I've spent a bit more time fiddling around I'll get the hang of it, and in fact the kind of changes I want to make are probably barely perceptible to anyone else, just personal whims regarding the size of this text with relation to that, or the amount of space between things (if you read my first post, you'll know that space, be it white or, in the case of my blog, a pale custardy colour, is important to me!). I'm sure there are very good reasons for Blogger to work the way it does, so I don't really mean to suggest that my niggles should be catered for, but it's just a bit frustrating to have an idea in your head of how you want something to be, and for it not to be immediately obvious how to achieve this.
One final thing - I wanted to use one of my own photos for the background, but it has to be under "300K", and seeing as all my photos come from a fairly decent digital camera, the file sizes are much larger. Can anyone help me with this? Is there a simple but effective way for me to reduce the file size of my photos?
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