Babbling on.....

BLOGLOVIN’

Okay, I’ve given Bloglovin’ a fair trial and will stick with it until such time as it lets me down in a major way. So far so good except for a few blogs that I cannot comment on through this medium. How frustrating is that? It means having to go back to the old blog roll to load the page and to leave a comment which means frequent switching from one tab to another. However, a system has been devised. All those lovely bloggers who I can’t reach through Blogger or Bloglovin' are now listed on a special bookmark bar, and tuff cookie to Bloglovin’!

JOE

... is doing well. Apart from feeling tired and a bit weak in the body, he hasn’t suffered any of the expected after-effects. He’s finished the first of four programmes so I expect the rest to be straightforward. Sue me if I’m wrong! However, he will be having a further operation (full anaesthetic) sometime in March to remove a stent and widen the neck of the bladder. I’m thinking this could be of great benefit and maybe a BIG improvement on the way the body functions.

WI 

Enjoying the presidency? Hard to say at this early stage but it’s not the same feeling as when I became County Chair. At that time I was in disbelieving mode for several weeks, a sort of ‘this -can’t-be-happening-to-me’ sort of thing. But that was a long time ago, I must move on. I acquired a mountain of paperwork that needed sorting so the ex-President and I got together to do just that. We had a morning session to ‘go through things’ and I have to say it was great. We reminisced and laughed a lot as different papers were unearthed that spoke of happy times long forgotten. Yes, it was good!

CURTAINS FOR ME!

NO, not that sort! I mean new drapes at my office window. Note the word ‘office’. It was an ordinary room until I commandeered it for craftwork and typing and other well known purposes like blogging. It’s a cosy room and when it feels inclined the sun shines brightly. This, of course, raises the desire for occupancy. The curtains play a big part, especially at night when privacy from the outside world is required. On the right is a picture of the old ones, I’ll take a pic of the replacements when they arrive. I absolutely love the oldies, they are so spring-like, but they have to go. Why? Because the curtain-hook style tracking is giving up the ghost and we can't adapt the curtains. We decided on poles and eyelets to make things easier for little ol’ me and that meant new drapes.  It will be marvellous not having to struggle with the opening and closing morning and night.

http://animated-gifs.org/

TWO GROUSES!

NO.1. Communication with Hoover:

Further to yesterday's post 

FROM THEM

Thank you for your email.

Our technical department have advised we send an engineer.

We are able to arrange this for Tuesday or Thursday next week if this is acceptable to you.

Best Regards

MY REPLY

Thank you. I will expect the engineer on Tuesday 10 December. Please notify whether it will be a morning or afternoon visit.

FROM THEM

Good Morning,

Engineer has been booked for a morning call on Thursday 12.12.13.

Best Regards

Customer Correspondence Team

MY THOUGHTS

Can’t they READ?

Hope the engineer has more intelligence than the Customer Correspondence Team!

NO.2. Blog Rolls!

I like to visit my blogging friends as and when they publish a new post on their blogs, but isn’t it frustrating to find you've missed one or two. I rigidly follow the blog roll so that this won’t happen... but it does. Even Feedly let me down this week as well as Bloglovin’ and my own blog roll which I still haven’t got rid of. Imagine my horror when I realised I hadn’t visited one of my favourite blogs in three days simply because the reminder had gone astray. Well, I’ve found a new use for Google’s bookmark bar.... maybe that’s the answer. 

TODAY'S TITBITS

Oh dear, it looks as if Google is less than efficient on the Blog Roll. Frequently now I notice that a particular blog is missing or that the post recorded is an old one, yet when I visit I find a brand new post waiting to be read. Sometimes it repeats posts which, to say the least, is even more of a nuisance. It rather looks as if the time is coming to remove the Roll and rely solely on BlogLovin’, even with its own hiccups such as the occasional inability to reply to comments when accessing blogs through the Bloglovin’ site. I can’t believe this is only happening to me so I would be grateful if Bloglovin’ users would give their opinions.

On the subject of computers, well, talking about Google is near enough.... grins... can someone explain why they 'go slow'. I hear noises as if things are going on in the background and even though I regularly empty the trash, defrag, remove files, and generally tidyup, I still get freeze-ups and tawdry operation. My gadget is still quite new (maybe a year old) so it's a surprise to me that it's started whining! I'm still looking at a way to stop all the updates, maybe that's the answer.

I’m still feeding the robins. There are two babies now and they’re not a bit shy. Each time I go out to top up the feeders the babies fly in and wait while I drop morsels of suet for them to pick up. Mom or Dad sometimes come to watch but usually keep his or her distance. The young birds’ appearances are changing from speckled breasts to red so they won’t be babies for much longer.

FINALLY: A BIT ABOUT STORE ASSISTANTS

Store assistants have gained a reputation for being three things, vague, unhelpful and impolite so when one comes along that lacks all three a mention is warranted, both at the store and on the blog.

On a recent visit my trolley was overloaded and I silently dreaded getting to the cash-out. I wouldn’t admit that to anybody, though. Not me, who mostly faces situations with a smile ... no kidding! It was a bank holiday so not overly busy and there was a noticeable reduction in staff. I couldn’t even see an opening whereby I could unload. However, I caught the eye of a supervisor who hastily summoned the attention of an assistant, a pleasant young Asian lady, who promptly opened up a new till section.

I started to unload the trolley. Imagine my surprise when the young lady offered to help. Without waiting for a reply she came round to my side of the counter and started removing everything from the trolley ... and stacked it neatly on the conveyor belt. Back she went to her side of the counter to start the check-out. I was fully prepared to fill my own bags but she insisted on doing it for me. Was I grateful? You can bet I was ... and pleasantly surprised, although a trifle shocked. It has never been known for an assistant to do all that. She even offered to escort me to the car and help load the goods into the boot. Apparently she was finishing her shift and about to knock off work. She even offered to escort me to the car and help load the goods into the boot. Apparently she was finishing her shift and about to knock off work. Since my car was parked right by the door I declined the offer. It was time, I thought, to do something for myself!

The supervisor walked towards me so I stopped in order to praise the attitude of the assistant. In reply to my suggestion that the young lady should be promoted, she quipped about getting her a box to stand on... but I knew she would take it further.  Quite right, too. The final shot from the supervisor was: ‘If all assistants were like that it would be a pleasure to work there.’

The girl’s name badge revealed that the girls name was Amina. I can’t forget it since the word ‘amenable’ so suited her.

That was a week ago. A week later I had similar treatment from a different young lady. Again I made sure I passed on my opinion to the right people.

The Demise of Google Reader

Ron posted recently about the imminent demise of Google Reader, which takes place on lst July. It was something I had been thinking about so his blog post was timely.

I rarely used Google Reader, preferring a personal blog roll (see side bar, headed My Blog List) which is a lot more efficient than Reader ever was simply because it kept up with things a lot better.

In case you don't know, although I am sure you do, the blog roll can be found in blog settings/layout/add a gadget, providing (I think) a Blogger template is in place. The beauty of My Blog List is that I don't necessarily have to 'follow' people to know when they post their latest although there is an automatic facility if I do follow them.

I commented at the time that I heard Bloglovin' was a better alternative but whilst on Ron’s blog I read the views of his pals and that’s how I heard about Feedly. Naturally I went to have a look and have now installed it. It sits there on my bookmark bar just waiting for me to read a few blogs.

After that, knowing people were using more than one blog feed, I decided to take a look at Bloglovin'. Of the two, Feedly and Bloglovin', I preferred the layout of the latter. Feedly arrived showing just a list of blog names (you do, of course, click on the name to read the blog) although, like Bloglovin' it shows pictures and all by a simple adjustment in their settings. At first the latter seemed more user friendly but really there's not much to choose between them. 

The downside with Bloglovin' was that notifications came by email ... on the PC, on the iPhone, and the iPad. Help! I felt so bombarded I couldn't wait to change the settings. 

However, for your information, both the aforementioned feeders update from Google Reader for you so there’s absolutely no hassle. The uploading needs to be arranged quickly though, otherwise time will run out. All in all it took just a minute to transfer from Reader - in both cases. 

However, as I said to Ron, unless Google decides to withdraw the blog roll facility, I shall stick with it.

I hope this gives some insight to solving the problem of losing Reader.