Tag: blogging

This blog is 10 years old

My first blog post was on June 8, 2004. This is my 1,059th post. I am amazed that this has been going for 10 years.

In the first few years, I wrote every second day or so. Last year, I posted only 15 times. I enjoy blogging as much as ever and am making the effort to write more often. I’ve learned that the more I write, the more ideas I have for posts. Blogging breeds blogging.

When I started my blog, I worried that I would stop writing my diary. Actually what happened was that the blog took the place of long emails to friends.

I am embarrassed by my posts from the first year or so. It took me that long to work out what I was doing with the blog. Like most public internet diarists of the time, I tried to be zany and spent too much time on things that mattered to me and not to my audience. At least I can accurately reflect on how I’ve matured over the last decade. If I ever become famous, though, I am doomed by this blog.

This blog has had five makeovers. In June 2004, I started using a service called mblog, which was shut down in October 2004. Vera rescued my writings from her Temporary Internet Files.

Joanium's Soapbox in 2004
Joanium’s Soapbox (2004). I used to like how clean this looked. How times have changed. There is so much STUFF on this page.

I looked into what other blogging services were around and moved to Blogger before Google bought it. Blogger looked after me from October 2004 to January 2009. This was when I introduced the coconut icon. Back then, my blog was anonymous (no surnames). The coconut was a hint at my surname (Ko Ko nut) and possibly my zaniness. Hilarious.

I might have been violating copyright on that coconut image for the past five years. Perhaps it’s time for me to pay up… if I can work out where the image comes from.

Coconut Joan on Blogger
Coconut Joan on Blogger. I kept the orange highlights from my mblog and introduced the coconut.

I think I was procrastinating in January 2009 when a web hosting deal sucked me into buying  my domain name and a two year hosting plan. This was the end of my anonymity and when I started using WordPress.

I have used three themes over this time. They’ve all been blue and white and have become increasingly minimal, following wider design trends on the web.

First WordPress site, January 2009 to January 2013
First WordPress design, January 2009 to January 2013
Second WordPress design, January 2013 to June 2014
Second WordPress design, January 2013 to June 2014. This refresh involved the radical elimination of sidebar cruft and the move to a serif body font. I like serifs, I’m old fashioned that way.
Third WordPress design, June 2014
Third WordPress design, June 2014. Now with no sidebars and friendly to tiny mobile phone screens. Totally on trend with a big fat serif body font.

Thank you Internet Wayback Machine. I did not have the foresight to save these screenshots.

Hyper-connected

I’m a pretty Web-2.0-savvy kind of person. I have a domain name, a blog, I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn… No one could say that I’m a Luddite.

However, I have to ask — what’s with this Twitter thing? So much press, ‘everyone’ is on it. A few weeks ago, the Guardian reported:

…it is huge step up to hold, as the Israeli consulate in New York did last week, a public, government-backed “citizens’ conference” on the social site Twitter – and then to keep replying to comments from all over the globe. It has proved massively popular: the consulate’s Twitter site (twitter.com/israelconsulate) yesterday afternoon had 3,739 followers, and at one point was posting a new comment, or answer to a comment, nearly every second.

On the Twitter website, it says, ‘With Twitter, you can stay hyper–connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing.’

  • Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
  • Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful.
  • Partying? Your friends may want to join you.

Why? Why would you want to be hyper-connected?

I usually can’t think of anything non-banal to pass onto my friends via my Facebook status. So I don’t update.

According to Twitter, though, my friends, family and co-workers want to know the banal details of my life. Eh? Really? Really really?

Moving to Blogger Beta

This blog may look as it always has but things have changed. Last night, after cringing and chuckling my way through Bridget Jones’s Diary (the movie), I shifted my blog over to Blogger Beta. It took me hours to reconstruct the look of this blog.

The only reason for me to shift is to make use of the ‘Labels’ functionality. I love putting things in categories. Last night, instead of sleeping or doing my homework, I labelled 100 of my most recent posts. Talk about a waste of time.

However, with the shift to Beta, I’ve now lost my ‘Recent comments’ list. The hack I was using no longer works. This updated template has a recent comments feed. Unfortunately, it only displays 25 of the oldests comments on this blog, comments that date back to mid-2004.

When they fix this bug, I’ll be able to display the RSS feed in my sidebar, hurrah.

I was thinking about how I would be if I were 30, single, and 10 kg overweight. Would I be as downtrodden and desperate as Bridget Jones? I think that at times I would be. If you’re over 30 and haven’t had a serious relationship for some years, then you can’t help but wonder if this is going to be the trajectory for the rest of your life.

I also believe I have a greater sense of self-worth than Bridget and would never index my value to the amount of attention I get from inconsiderate men. But who knows what I’ll be like after being starved of affirmation and recognition for a few years.

Updated 11:01 PM
I decided I liked the ‘recent comments’ functionality more than the labels so I’ve reverted back to my old template. I’ll jump on the Beta Bandwagon when they’ve sorted out the issues with the comments feed.

Vote Joanium for the Bloggies

Hello.

See my blog links on the right? All year, I’ve included a link there to the Bloggies. I’ve just realised that there are four days left before nominations for the 2006 Bloggies close.

If you are inclined, could you please vote for me? I could fit into:

  • Best Australian or New Zealand blog
  • Most humorous blog
  • Best-kept-secret blog

I believe you have to nominate two other blogs as well. I’m having difficulty understanding the voting instructions but that might be the five beers and half a glass of champagne I just had.

Under ‘Nominee’, you would use ‘Coconut Joan’, the title of my blog.

I don’t have as many readers as many blogs but I know you all love me and that’s enough.

Hugs all,
Joan

Joanium’s voting card

Best Australian or New Zealand blog

Best American blog

Best topical blog

Most humorous blog

Best writing of a blog

Best-kept-secret blog