Just a quick note, "From Ye Old Blogge" is going on a winter recess while I thrash out a few knotty software template issues. I'm also trying out a few other things that may or may not become useful.
Here are the key bits:
Why The Recess?
Because - I'm trying to create code and templates for my articles that should lift them out of the plainness that most blog templates have, which will hopefully put in header image content *only* when other image content doesn't exist further down, that can work out which publication it's on and put in only the relevant links, etc. It's probably easy-peasy for a webdev - but for me it's been a headache and I need to sort it out because currently adding my code to each article manually takes valuable time, time I really don't have.
Yeah there are already templates that change layout and colours and fonts but they're specific to blogspot/blogger and WP and so forth - and also, I'd have to write (at this stage) more than ten different templates and keep each one updated individually - I can't just change just the link to some common resource that I share on all articles (like (say) a bookstore link or whatever) without having to find and manually change each template on each publication that it might be relevant on.
It's nothing revolutionary or cutting-edge but it's difficult for me to do with everything else going on. My brain hurts.
Also A Reason
I also have a lot of catching up to do in the real world. Our kitchen got an upgrade from the landlord which means 1/4 of a remodel and a really new but very basic electric stove, and a loss of storage spaces that I've been painstakingly building for things and the spaces where those storage cabinets were, are now occupied by blank tile splashback that I can't attach the storage to or that gets in the way of the cabinets. And a whole list of other stuff I now have to deal with if I want my kitchen back to something I can enjoy working in again.
A bloke can only enjoy cooking on the electrically-powered equivalent of a campfire for so many days before "pretend we're camping" ceases to be fun.
The handyman also broke the mixer tap I'd bought specifically to fit the 13.5cm water pipe spacing in the kitchen (everything else in the civilised world uses 15cm spacing, it took me ages to find a suitable tap) and so for the moment our washing facilities have also gone back to "Click Go The Shears" days as well.
And I know - it was my tap, the landlord gave tacit permission for it by letting his plumber install it for us - but now his carpenter/handyman has rendered it unusable, and I - I'm just too soft on people. I can't make the issue a problem for Bob the Builder (as I'll call him) so I even gave him $50 to go buy two standard taps as a temporary fix because I didn't want this coming out of his wage. I can't make it the landlord's problem because he's on a few weeks' leave and besides he's done the right thing for us all the way and even let me fit a tap that suits me but might not suit the next tenant.
So I've bought a new mixer tap but - aw hell just read on, it's near the bottom of the post and more info on a linked post. Suffice to say I'm still in Click Go The Shears timewarpsville...
Disclaimer: The landlord has done the right things all the way along, we no longer have ANY polluting gas appliances - and is to be commended on their efforts to make the house a home - but it's just thrown a spanner in our works at an already fraught time.
My shed needs to be finished and space made for the new parking spot, the heater I bought needs to be installed in a way that won't need me to punch holes in the walls, there's still shelving and storage work uncompleted, and due to our medical crisis - which has ended better than we at first expected - is still going to take most of our efforts to manage the recuperation of for a year at least.
And I'm as always trying to find a way to turn this hobby of mine into something that I can use to offset the costs of operating the websites and domain names and project building. And then that can perhaps put even a little bit of the thousands I've poured into the things, back into our petty cash tin so we can afford to do more at this time.
Future Directions
First and foremost, I want to spend time with my Other Half because I/we've realised that we want as much time together as we can fit in. I'll still be posting (no moaning from the back row there) as regularly as I can, but I'm putting my "recap of old posts" time into making the publication process and articles a bit better.
I can also see that there's a crop ofAI apps that'll soon make it relatively easy even for an old dog like myself to stitch together audio and video content with MY text, video, and voice - and produce something that'll not be too embarrassing to post online.
Automation
I'm also at my wits' end with the automated scheduling / posting solutions I've been using, as they keep b0rking. I can only afford to use a cobbled-together solution using chains of "free" sites, the most affordable option would be close to $30-$40 a month - and I just can't afford it. This is why I really need a few people with means to make monthly donations. Many small donations will take a considerable load off my pension
Why scheduling and automation are important is that I can see a definite correlation between when a post schedules and when views of that and other pages goes up for a few days. More eyes on the pages means more chance that someone will share the page or even donate, and when that happens I'll finally be able afford to use an auto-schedule service.
As things stand I'm spending a fair bit of time finding scheduled posts, extracting the permalink and title, writing a slug for it, and then manually posting that to the three main places I release, FB, Mastodon, and BlueSky. If I was using automation I could cover around a dozen release sites with only the time cost of writing a slug - but right now, those three are all I can manage.
Alternatively
Go to Teds News Stand and bookmark that, then you can go there anytime and check out my last twenty articles across all my publications updated almost in real time. If you take a look you'll see a link to subscribe to my weekly newsletter but I can't recommend doing it right now because - well, this:
I'm also working on getting a "new" newsletter software up and running that doesn't want my money every month or that offers a "free up to 500 subscribers" service - and then wants me to manually transfer the newsletter among their pool of servers every few months and having to transfer every aspect of the newsletter manually. At that rate I'm better off with a list of email addresses and a copy to Outlook running on my laptop, extra work that I really don't have enough time as a sole person to manage.
Anyone with solutions to these things - sites that have truly free newsletter and/or scheduling sw, or tools for automating video and podcast production - please please please drop me a note in comments or using my Mastodon account.
All Right - The Last Li'L Bit:
That Damn Tap
I'm using (or rather - sad smiley - was using) a bathtub mixer tap with integrated hand shower diverter. Because it saves water AND saves my hands. They look like this:
 |
| This is the "replacement" tap, and it's almost 2cm too wide... |
The rest of the story's here. For now - long story short, it took me almost five years to get permission to install this tap and we've had it for less than a year before the handyman fwrecked it, and now ..... timewarp forward a week or so ..... UPDATE: Got a handyman and between us we took off the new tiles the landlord's handyman had put up and finally spaced the plumbing out to fit standard spacing. Photos will be back on the PTEC3D Blog link.
The Rest Of The CTA
As always, please share this page and my others like it, use the links and buttons below. Wider circulation means perhaps a few donations that can take the load off our limited pensions.
Use the Ko-Fi cup or Paypal icons to make a donation if you can, it really would help,
Go forth and be Earthlings!
Unrelated, but sorta linked, but humorous anyway:
While writing this I was also listening to a podcast about female orgasm, the discovery of the G spot, and then the eventual discovery that this spot seems connected to the clitoris. The presenters were pretty out there and open about it all. (But wait, there's more.)
Decided to go to ABC podcasts page to find the episode there, accidentally tapped an adjacent food blog page tab by mistake - and it had a picture of a slider sized bun split in half with a cocktail frank laid in it like a mini-hotdog. Or just like an illustration out of a biology textbook...
That's partly the reason this article and the PTEC3D article I linked have taken so long... It's hard to type when your eyes are streaming with tears from laughing.
Hominids out there - REAL Earthling hominids - be kind to your mate and your family, be kind to the other Earthlings from the most advanced (cats, of course) to the lowliest plankton, and look after our spaceship, because one day it'll be a really good ship if we start cleaning now and fixing the clagged-up life support system.
😹😹😹😹😹
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