New Stuff!

Ok Blogger pals... I have been all ready to move my blog to Wordpress today but HOLY COW did you see the new Blogger template designer? You have to use draft.blogger.com in order to take advantage. 'Draft' is where Blogger tries out its almost ready for prime time features (like tabs at the top of the page and such) so there are lots of goodies that are available sooner than on regular blogger. All of your info, settings, etc will be the same though it is just the interface and features that are different so don't worry that you will lose anything and you can switch back to regular by just going back to blogger.com. In fact you can use draft to make some changes and then go back to the regular blogger interface to do the routine stuff like posting.
Here is what you will see to make quick template changes:

And once you click the template designer it is this (I picked a kinda boring one but there must be almost 100 to pick from!):

You used to need to know HTML or get a prefab template to do these kinds of things.
My current header does not exactly work out but I will tinker with that later. I wish blogger offered some of the cool stuff that Wordpress offers (like comment responding, better image management and such) or Wordpress let you monkey with your template the way blogger does but alas neither offers everything. I will probably still switch to Wordpress soon but had to play with this for awhile!

Also if you use Google reader have you seen Google Reader Play?  If you open Google reader and click the little down arrow next to one of your subscription folders (like the 'blogs I am following' folder if you have not made your own folders) and select 'view in Reader Play' it will switch to that viewing mode and you can browse that way. It is kinda interesting but not sure I prefer it to the normal view but if you are like me and like to know all of your options check that out!

Here is what Moose thinks about all of this:
He does want you to become a Facebook fan of his though! 

322 & Blogger retrospective

Hey pals! A few days ago Twinkie posted about her 100th post and it made me want to look back at my blogging past.
First of all... this is post #322! I am not sure how I passed the 300 mark without noticing but I did! I started blogging for Moose the very first day he came to live with me which was June 9th 2007.
At first I visited other bloggers some but not a whole lot and never commented on their blogs. I figured that these bloggers did not even know me, why on earth would they want to hear her comments?! Crazy huh? Since I started blogging with the idea that people I already knew would be reading it I had no idea that other people would read it :-)

So I just looked back into the archives and it was about my 50th post (3mos after I started blogging) when I got my first comments and they were from Opy and Turbo with DWB since I had just signed up there, but guess who else commented on that post? Randi!!! She is still one of favorites. She, Wally and Mango were the bloggers I most remember visiting when I first started which is why I think I was soooo especially sad when Wally left us last week :-(.

The goofy thing is that even though I started getting an occasional comment in September 2007, I did not even realize it for 6 months because I was clueless about blogger and did not have it set to tell me I had comments!

Still I only got them every now and then and also only posted every now and then until Moose's knee surgery. I was stuck at home with a Moose in a pen and so I got to know lots of bloggers and started commenting and getting comments more often. I started doing things like True Colors Thursday then too.

At first I used to write all of the posts but in the past few months Moose has been doing most of the posting himself (not sure where he learned to type!). I have always enjoyed reading blogs from the dog's perspective but am creatively challenged so I was not sure I could do it but now it seems natural to let him do the talking! If you have not tried letting your doggies dictate, give it a try!

Ok, so this post is really pretty boring but Twinkie's post made me think so I thought I would take a moment to look back!
So my tips for new bloggers: 1. Check out Dogs With Blogs, 2. visit other bloggers and introduce yourself, 3. try letting your dogs do the talking some of the time, 4. Be patient! Don't get discouraged if it takes awhile to get a good following.  5. Have fun! It should not feel like a chore and if it gets to that point try doing shorter posts. Some of my favorite blogs have short frequent posts.
We have met lots of great bloggers out there and have learned lots of important lessons from all of them!
Also Today would have been Wally's 7th Anniversary with his Ma ape so stop by and enjoy the adorable videos she posted of him! Also check out Randi's beautiful tribute to Wally!