Wednesday, June 3, 2015

IWSG - June: Out to Lunch

The Insecure Writers Support Group meets online every first Wednesday of the month. Founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, IWSG was created to support and encourage all writers in every phase of their work, from writing to marketing. Click here to join, and for information, writing tips and more. 
 
The awesome co-hosts for the the June 3 posting of the IWSG will be M. Pax, Tracy Jo, Patricia Lynne, Rachna Chhabria, Feather Stone, and Randi Lee!



This has been an interesting month with family visiting and then my fiasco with Google+ when I attempted to remove all of my blog photos/images from my Android LG Smart phone. 

Please permit me to rant a bit....


First of all, I never asked Google to upload my blog photos/images to my phone to begin with, but they did, all 800 of them. This happened about the same time I signed up for Google+. When I tried to remove the images, they disappeared on my blog, so I did a redo and backed out. Meanwhile, they were starting to use up massive amounts of memory on my phone. I spent hours researching settings and fixes, and found nothing to help. (Unsynching, the logical fix for future storage, messed up Gmail and other Google services). 

I suspected Google+ was the problem. I had recently severed the computer link to my blog, because of the meandering trail it created for those trying to reach my blog (and got my Blogger profile back). But Google+ was still on my phone. I decided to uninstall it, which of course wasn't possible (Androids are a Google product). I disabled a Picasa uploader instead and tried unsynching everything again. All Picasa storage stopped (yay!), but there were consequences. My punishment (because it certainly felt like punishment) was to lose every photo and image on my blog! (Online, someone else said they lost 2000 blog photos, which ruined their blog).
 
Granted, I still had them in personal files and Picasa, but it meant having to fix blog posts that go back to 2011. This is a huge deal, because a lot of my posts are the equivalent of scrap-booking about my life. They mean a lot to me! Do I blame Google? Yes, for sending everything to my phone in the first place. Am I dumping Google? Of course not. I would not be blogging today or enjoying and benefiting from all the internet has to offer if it were not for them.....and admittedly, there is that thing called "learning curve" on my part. (see below on PDF)

I haven't fixed every post (there are over 300), but I've spent a few maniac nights redoing posts I felt were important, mainly the a-z and travel posts. So I'm fed up with it all right now......blogging, computers, writing, all of it. With more family coming in mass in a little over a week, I see no other recourse but to take a blog break for a month, probably less, once I get my barrings back. I think we need to be good to ourselves, don't you? And I've reached my limit on patience.

One bright note is I have started taking my blog more seriously. I have since learned how to convert an entire blog into a PDF document. Haven't done this yet but so far, BlogBooker looks pretty good; and there are other tools online too (some you purchase), all designed to preserve your long hard work for family and future readers. I do feel dumb I didn't pursue this sooner. I guess in some ways I was not taking my writing seriously enough, so this has been a hard learning curve. For those of you who have long since discovered this, bravo!  

I share this for those of you who are still learning :)

On another bright note.....I did take the time to organize all of my writing 'how-to' advice and instructions I've been collecting from online sites, printed material, and workshops. I had quite a stack, which is now neatly held in a binder (still doing the tabs). I know there are a lot of great books on writing out there, but this is my personal go-to manual with things I personally need to know. Books on writing often repeat what I already know and I find myself searching the index or going online in search of more specific (and current) information. 

The weather here in Desert Aire is also quite glorious and my garden has never looked better.....and with family on the way, life is precious and good, so out to lunch for awhile. Back soon! 




(I'll keep the Opening Lines series going :)

 

26 comments:

  1. Hi Sharon,
    Ohh yuk! and well done! I admit to being a seat of the pants blogger in that I use the software as and when I need it and don't research. That puts me way behind you in the knowledge stakes, but I know that if I start reading up on it I'll never actually get anything done. Anyhow, once again - well done and enjoy your lunch ;)
    Angie

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    1. Thanks. Blogging has become an important part of my life. Watching my phone like a hawk now and leery of anything Google offers me or their updates. I know they mean well (?), but let's be honest here. Google is all about Google.

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  2. How dreadful! I would be whimpering by now, glad to hear you got it sorted and are so good natured about it. I'm with Angela - I just write a post, insert a photo and off I go. And at that, it's better than when I started, when you HAD to join some photo service and use a link to get it up on the blog. I've never been back to the one I used.

    I have followed that link and might pursue it later, but be aware that all these blog booking services start off nice and free and then suddenly they want money. Even more annoying are the ones that let you go through the four easy steps or whatever and THEN demand money before they turn your blog posts into an ebook. I ended up choosing some selected posts and ebooking them with Creative Bookbuilder, an iPad app that I am quite happy with - you can add sound if you want. Then I stashed them on Dropbox and place a link on my blog for people to help themselves. It doesn't do mobi, but it does epub and I think PDF.

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    1. Wow. You have seen it all. Thanks for the tip on Creative Bookbuilder. I'll be checking options after my family leaves. There is a screen shot save to pdf that Firefox offers. Crude but easy to do in meantime.

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  3. There is also Blog2Print which prints your blog in a beautifully bound book. Yes, it costs something. I don't recall the cost-- it depends on the total size of your blog. But it's not all that expensive. Some people print a separate book for each year of blogging.

    Enjoy your blogging break, and when you return, I hope you'll be filled with enthusiasm for blogging and especially for selling your completed manuscript.

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    1. Thanks for the tip on Blog2print. I'll check it out. By the way.. (in email), I thought I had uninstalled googleplus on phone, but of course I hadn't. Androids are Google turf!

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  4. Allow me to say a huge "Uhg!" in your honor. I had similar experiences with Google+ and decided to drop using the site entirely. Good on you for so diligently trying to right everything--I'm impressed!

    Randi Lee, IWSG Co-Host
    http://emotionalnovel.blogspot.com
    http://www.randileewrites.com

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    1. Thanks. My reaction wasnt pretty at all..unprintable to say the least!! Now I see others have had trouble too. We just need to be more aware of the good and bad. My love-hate relationship with social media in general continues and I find my biggest struggle is for control....Mine, not theirs!

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  5. Ugh! That was a big mess! Google + does cause a lot of problem. I do like the Blogger Profiles much better. No hunting required.

    I never heard of BlogBooker, but I keep all of my posts in a Word document. :)

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    1. Thanks Chrys. It really was a mess! We need to keep ourselves informed, as it's an ever changing world out there. Good you are saving the text at least. I do the same.

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  6. When I got a new android phone, I noticed that it had access to certain photos all by itself. It was like they went into a gallery and they were all ones that were either on my blog or that I posted to Google Talk. I never even looked into why because everything is just so linked these days. I had no idea trying to remove them would cause issues, so thanks for that info.

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    1. At some point storage will become an issue and from what I read, those photos will transfer to. the next phone. Unsyching picasa (or whatever) stops storage of all future ones at least. My current challenge is how to delete the now blackened photos in my gallery. The mega byte storage is still high. Does anyone know how to remove? I'm afraid I'll lose everything again!!

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  7. Oh my goodness sounds like you have been very busy trying to sort things out. I'm not very technically minded myself so I understand how frustrating things like this can be. I do like the blogger profile to link to blogs.

    Enjoy your break, see you soon.

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    1. My husband was a huge help , but the cleanup was awwful...still have posts to fix. Thanks Suzanne.

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  8. Technology is both a blessing and curse. :) I'm going to check out that BlogBooker - thanks for sharing!

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    1. No kidding. It's why I'm on a mission to save everything before poof, it' gone. Thanks!

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  9. Yikes! What a headache. So sorry you've had to put up with all that...

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  10. Hi Sharon,

    Google has a mind of its own and I hate that they uploaded your photos without your permission.

    As for Google +, I do my best to stay well away from that application. A magical mystery tour and most frustrating. Google plus, more like, Google fuss!

    Gary

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    1. Ha-ha. Google fuss. I'm going to remember that. Thanks Gary.

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  11. Oh my that sounded like you had a terrible time. I have no patience and would have called my niece or my ex to fix it because I know so very little about computers. I am glad you got through it though and kudos to you. Have a wonderful time with your family

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    1. Thanks. I'm looking forward to it. Eight are coming, so lots of food, conversation and outdoor fun.

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  12. Holy crap! That's AWFUL! I'd be devastated if all my blog pics disappeared. (Yes I have them in my laptop, but who can remember what goes where?) Thanks very much for the BlogBooker link. I'll definitely do that 'coz who can trust Google?! I hope you enjoy your pretty days and your garden! :)

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    1. All on hold till after family leaves. Still bugged it happened. Thanks Lexa!

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  13. Now I know who to consult if I have trouble like that. Have fun with family, that's what I will be doing through June, starting Tuesday: and a lot (a lot) of driving.

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    1. Thanks Dennis. Have a wonderful and safe roadtrip!

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You could call me an eternal optimist, but I'm really just a dreamer. l believe in dream fulfillment, because 'sometimes' dreams come true. This is a blog about my journey as a writer and things that inspire and motivate me.