- Busy as a bee

- Life gets in the way

- Twitter’s taken over

- Computer problems

- sore neck and shoulders

- dead tired

This isn’t an “excuse” post, just a touch-down to say I haven’t gone away.

And I haven’t lost interest, although the old drive-2-post ain’t what it used to be.

In the old days, I used to post every day, sometimes twice in one day, including weekends. And I used to check my stats three or four times a day.

Now I hardly ever look.

Maybe this is what happens after more than three years on the blog.

Maybe it’s the blogger’s seven-year-itch or mid-life crisis.

What do other bloggers think? Are you experiencing a decline of enthusiasm or a cut-back on posting?

Is there VIAGRA for blogging?

It started last year when Chelene the investment banker from New York City signed off Bliss and Bile. That sent shock waves through our little blogging community.

Her blog was funny, smart and consistent in tone and output. I used to visit her just about every day and often left comments.

And then one day, it was over. She said goodbye. It felt like I lost a friend.

More recently  Tanya Espanya announced that she’s on sabbatical. Again. I followed Espanya through her pregnancy and shared her joy when Alexander was born. He’s two now. Maybe that explains it.

And Dale. Sweet, funny, observant, David Sedaris-like Dale. His posts were appearing fewer and further between. And recently, he posted a sign off.

Sniff! How dare they? How can the blogosphere continue without these people? What’s happened to the blog?

I wonder if blogs aren’t getting too slow and plodding as attention spans shorten, and social media gets faster and sexier. Facebook is the new blog and Twitter is the new Facebook.

Maybe life is the new blog. Dunno.

GT is coming up on its third anniversary and it’s not going anywhere. I used to post daily, now it’s three or four times a week.

Still, it makes me wonder. What’s up with blogs?

Has anyone else noticed this? Does anyone have any theories on this drop off in blogging?

It’s true. I’ve been living a dual on-line life: One here on GT and the another on Twitter.

For the longest time I tried to keep the two worlds separate, like Jon tried to do on Jon and Kate plus Eight.

GT is still my first love, and Twitter is the mistress.

But as time’s gone on, Twitter has become a bigger part of my on-line life. Twitter’s fast and sexy.  It breaks the news to me. It’s there – always faithful and loyal – when I want it, a steady stream of contact. But when I don’t want it, I turn it off and it goes away.

I’ve met many of the local Twitterati at the Third Wednesday Meet-ups, Tuesday Twushi (Twitter + Sushi), at #halifaxchicks and Podcamp. We share much in common and without Twitter, they would have remained strangers.

I’m not leaving you, dear bloggies. You’re my first love. But I can no longer pretend that Twitter isn’t a part of my on-line life.

This is why I’m adding the Twitter widget in the sidebar.

I hope this doesn’t cause friction. I’ve felt the anti-Twitter vibe in the blog world. But it’s OK, the two can co-exist in peace and harmony if they try.

So let’s not have a big public bust-up like Jon and Kate. Let’s all try to get along, shall we?

Such is the joy of having a blog of one’s own.

But since WordPress 2.7, our world has become easier.

Now it’s just one press of a button on the dashboard and presto. She’s updated.

I don’t really notice anything on the front end, or the backend.

But security’s always a concern so hooray for WP 2.8.

They’re actually more like hit-n-runs, hundreds of them. The other day I had almost 1000 hits. They’re coming from people googling a lyric mentioned. I dare not repeat it here, ‘lest google indexes them and I get more hits.

This is not good. I own this blog (ie, it is n not a Blogspot which is owned by Google). This means I have to pay for my bandwidth. Because of the purdy image-based designs, each hit eats up bandwidth.

I’ve removed the posts with the lyric involving the woman with the hearing, seeing and speaking challenges. And I’ve applied to Google for de-indexing. I should hear back from them in a few days.

Hopefully that will reduce my traffic.

In the meantime, I’m in the market for a new host who will give me more bandwidth for less cost.

It’s funny how words rile. I had a lot of feedback on my “words that make me gag” column last week.

People wrote in with way more than I had room to mention.

And they weren’t all just words. Excessive use of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Admittedly, it bugs me too. IT’S LIKE PEOPLE WHO FEEL THE NEED TO SCREAM WITH ALL-CAPS. Once exclamation mark is fine as is one or event two all-cap words for emphasis.

But !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THIS are over the top. If you feel that strongly, why not express it in real words. They tend to work better.

Some people don’t like IMglish like Cya l8R. Personally I like this. It’s witty, funny and convenient when txtng. But I am told by young hip things, that LOL!! is now considered old-fashioned and over used.

And what about verbal redundancies like Hospital for Sick Children, paying customers or free gifts. This raises the spectre of hospitals for well children? Non-paying customers and gifts you have to pay for.

There’s lots more too. Go here to read the rest.

At the end of the day, I installed a theme-switcher to allow you to choose which look you like. The themes appear at the top of the page in the sidebar, either on the left or right, depending on theme.

There are bits and pieces of each theme that I liked so I tend to move around, choosing a theme to suit my mood. I think my fave is summer theme with the orange flowers on the top.

But I have no way of knowing which theme you are using or liking and I’m curious to know what you see when you hit this blog.

Maybe you’re like Write Procrastinator who said no, no, no to all the new-and-improved themes, and went back to the original theme of K2.

So drop a comment and let me know. Thanks.

It could also be called Working Typist.

I have to admit that it does represent a certain typist of your acquaintance crunched over sitting up straight at a keyboard all day long. (Only my desk is not so neat).

A certain 11-year old daughter has been over my shoulder this week offering unvarnished opinions of my WordPress theme choices.

She thought this rocked. So this one’s for her.

It fits with the typist in me and it’s sort of fun for a Friday.

Don’t cha think?

Update: Yup, you’re right about the comments. I’ve darkened them and made them larger. Check it out. I’ve also increased the size of the font in the posts. This theme isn’t widgetized, meaning I have to go into the code to make changes in the sidebars.

This “What Not To Wear” blog styling exercise will not go on forever, so stay with me a few more days. I have a few more outfits I’d like to try on.

This one is called Zen and is yet another Milo design. I think I have a WordPress Theme Crush on Milo.

It’s foodie, Asian and orange.

My typist’s garret is orange.

My leather jacket is orange.

My purse is orange.

My wallet is orange.

So why not an orange blog?

You tell me.

The messiness could be distracting, but I must say, it does represent the state of my desk on most days. You find the strangest things on my desk, and my office is littered with malfunctioning keyboards and mice.

I’m still liking yesterdays “summer” theme. It took a bit of messing around with the widgets and some fiddling with the CSS. (there were a few snafus today as I attempted some high-diving acts. Sorry.)

I still have a few other themes to try.

I really appreciate the feedback. So please feel free.