Blogging Issues

While I still have a humongous amount of alcohol running through my veins (I wish some it was THC but we can't have everything we want, now can we?), I want to be blunt on a few issues. Some of these things I would never mention in a sober state of mind.

I dislike having widgets on my blog. The unfortunate part of wanting to be social is actually showing that I want to be social. I wish there was another way to display commitment to the blogging communities without having to use the JavaScript code that calls the widgets into being. They hang during page loads way too much. I don't know if it's the fault of the JavaScript, the server the script is pulling from, or the person/people responsible for making it work.

Actually, I hate having any kind of third-party scripts running on my blog. They all hang at one time or another, for whatever reason. How can I keep the functionality of the analytics programs, for example, without using these third-party scripts? Am I doomed to forever make concessions because they're the only choices I have?

There's something else I dislike. It's the fact that I can't be creative enough. My most creative processes are triggered when I have visual stimuli or when people come right out and ask me what I think about something. No joke. If I have no interaction with anyone, I go into a major brain freeze and couldn't write a line to save my life. I guess it's just me. I don't think I have a creative bone in my body.

Am I the only one with these kinds of issues? Do I need a life?

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Matthew Jabs on 2007-05-19 at 4:53 am (Reply)

I hate the way scripts slow my page load as well. Because of the slow scripts, I lowered the number of posts on my front page from 10 down to 5.

Also, creativity is a gift, you probably have more of it than you realize. Just look at all the compliments you've received on your blog & your writing style. That's evidence of a good deal of creativity if you ask me.

I'm most creative when I'm sitting outside, in nice weather, with a beer & my guitar. It also helps if I have another buddy playing guitar with me…acoustic of course.

Also, my other main creative outlet is in the kitchen. I cook, & if I must say so myself, I do a pretty darn good job of it. Ask me to draw & you'll be lucky to get a stick man…but I can play music & cook.

As far as my blogging? I just try to blog about things on my mind. I'm not sure how creative they are…they're just things I think about, or am dealing with at that point in my life. Kind of like a journal I guess.

Anyway, here's a question. Besides blogging, what are you going to do with the majority of your time while your wife is gone?

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-05-19 at 10:14 am (Reply)

Heh, you probably didn't notice after I increased my front page posts to 10 that I went ahead and dropped it back down to 5. That was before I removed all the post badges and reordered the load sequence.

In answer to your question, I'll probably be writing even more when the wife is gone. I don't have any other hobbies and getting around here is really hard due to the small roads and heavy traffic. This city and suburbs were never designed to contain this many people. An area built up to support no more than 100,000 with more than 200,000 residents. It's crazy.

Peter on 2007-05-19 at 5:03 am (Reply)

RT your opinion, your voice and your viewpoint is your creativity not about original ideas but ideas with your unique flavor. You don't need us asking questions but answering questions you ask like today.
As for widgets take them down and put a link to each community profile under a communities category on sidebar.

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-05-19 at 10:59 am (Reply)

I thought about putting them within a link or a page, but I'm pretty sure a couple of them use the same script to measure stats. I know that MyBlogLog has a separate script in the footer, but it's on a fast server now and rarely hangs.

I'm thinking of a caching mechanism to speed the widgets up, but I'm not sure how to implement it. I guess it's time for me start looking at APIs.

Peter on 2007-05-19 at 5:10 am (Reply)

RT creativity is presenting old ideas in new ways. Your voice, your opinion, your perspective is your creativity.
You don't need our questions. We need your questions like today.

MacBros on 2007-05-19 at 7:16 am (Reply)

I know what you mean, but if you want to get better rankings, you need to be in the blog communities, and most of them require some sort of widget.

I have a major hung over right now.

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-05-19 at 10:15 am (Reply)

You're right of course. It's too bad. Hey, wait a minute. As much beer as you drink, and how often you drink it, you should never have a hangover.
2. MrCorey on 2007-05-19 at 9:22 pm (Reply)
  
  I've always wondered that myself. And its beer! I don't get it at all (of course, I've been known to drink like a fish and get up at 6am and go to work, so…)

Claire on 2007-05-19 at 8:55 am (Reply)

Naughty!
Don't drink and blog
I have found most of your posts to be enjoyable reading and creative.

Third party widget thingies are a necessary evil i think, especially if one wants to be a sociable blogger.

Major Hung over eh?lol!

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-05-19 at 10:17 am (Reply)

C'mon, Claire. I'm just emulating someone else's behavior (yes, you miss tipsy).

hari on 2007-05-19 at 10:09 am (Reply)

I too hate third party widgets. The difference with me is that I don't want to participate in the blogging "social communities" like mybloglog or similar so it's easier for me to avoid them.

I think most of these are coded in JavaScript because it's easier for people who use Blogger and other third party blogging tools without direct access to PHP. Otherwise it could just as easily be coded in PHP and reduce the loading time by transferring the job to your server.

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-05-19 at 10:20 am (Reply)

I've been lazy in that regard. I know how to get the JavaScript code from their servers and make it run locally as a PHP script, and still send and receive data from their servers but that kind of stuff gives me a headache.

Arnie McKinnis on 2007-05-19 at 11:07 pm (Reply)

RT —

Widgets - necessary evil, nuff said.

Creativity - how about several of us here take it upon ourselves to come up with a different "idea" on how to tackle that issue. You bring up a good point about being more sociable and interactive. There's a solution here - and one that could be both individually rewarding and potentially financially rewarding.

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