Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Blogger? Are you there?

I'm having trouble uploading pictures today... This doesn't happen to me very often but it seems today my computer isn't responding or the Internet isn't recognizing it or something. Frustrated!

What are any of you doing about saving your blogs? I know I've asked this question before but I'm asking again. In this world of e-mail and chat it seems like our "history" is being lost. I know that before I ever had a computer I hand wrote or typed letters to my mother every week and she has boxes of those letters stored in the garage. Someday, hopefully, someone will find those letters and read them and think "How quaint. How interesting. Here's this lady who had to change the ink on her typewriter every few months." or "My goodness. Can you believe this person used to make quilting templates out of old post cards!"

My own children went off to the States after our house became computerized so I don't have a single letter from them, however I did try to save all the e-mails that they sent. At first I printed them all out but I got lazy and left them in the e-mail box. The computer has crashed since then and though I've recovered some and saved them on a disc, I still don't have tangible proof of my kids years in the States.

And now that we can do chat, I realize that Leiya and I have not once written e-mails to each other since we saw her this summer. Our history, our feelings, our concerns, our advice, our lives are dissipating in the airwaves of chat!

I do not keep a journal (well, I keep a prayer journal) because I find writing by hand too tedious nowadays. That alone sounds terrible to me! Anyway, Tetsu, my mother and a couple friends have expressed that it would be a shame to lose all my thoughts and pictures and daily happenings that I've recorded on my blog if something should happen to Blogger or the Internet in general. There is a lot of history here!

So, I'm experimenting with Blurb. I compiled a blog book of my first two months of blogging (November and December of 2006). This is going to be my trial book. I ordered it, but it hasn't come yet. I'll see what the result is and if it looks nice and outweighs the costs then I may go on to try 2007 and 2008. The trouble is that I write too much and just two months of blogging turned into 30 pages of Blurb. It's about $30 for that much so actually that isn't too bad for a way to keep some history but considering how much I've written, this could get to be very expensive. I'll let you know what I think of the finished product and whether my pocket book can continue along this vein.

Ahh, I see that even my "signature" has disappeared! Blogger, hope you're feeling better soon!

14 comments:

Quilt Pixie said...

Its intersting to see what different people want to keep -- I'm a "get rid of everything" sort of person... I understand the idea of going back through journals, but I've never done it. I get the idea of taking picutres, of catpuring memories, but seldom take pictures (I'd rather experience the event then rather then remeber it as the time I took this picture...) and those pictures I have I never look at.... I've never re-opened yearbooks after bringing them home;

Mary said...

I've tried a number of different ways to save my blog and none are quite what I want. I tried Blurb but the amount of editing I needed to do to get it to look right wasn't worth it so I never finished the book. I've saved it month by month as a PDF file but for some reason the bottom of the page is cut off - not much...just a line or two but still it bothers me.

Today I tried the export option on blogger but it only exports the text - better than nothing but still not good enough.

dot said...

After reading Mary's comment I wonder. Was it hard to set up? I have been pondering but don't really know.

AbbyKat said...

Hi Tanya
Blogger are working on an 'export' option, you can read about it at http://buzz.blogger.com/ 3rd paragraph on August 2nd post. Re your signature, I read a post recently that there was some conflict with MyLiveSignature. See http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2008/08/browser-freezes-sitemeter-ie-trojans.html There appears to be quite a few problems coming to the surface recently.
Cheers .... Anne

Valerie said...

If you find any secrets to this problem, I would love to know. I started out printing mine out but can't seem to keep up with it.

Katie said...

No pictures for me either! I guess we'll have to wait.

Lazy Gal Tonya said...

I've never found a good way to save my blog and am just relying on blogger to have a really good back up system. fingers crossed... will be interested in hearing how your Blurb turns out.

Amanda said...

I've been thinking a lot along the same lines. We know so much of past social history from ordinary people's letters and journals/diaries, that it seems a pity if ours get lost in the ether, especially since more people than ever are keeping diaries thanks to Blogger and the like. I'll be fascinated to see how Blurb turns out or if you hear from other people of good ways to do it. I've almost given up using Blogger for inserting pictures and use Picasa instead. It's an extra step or two but seems just as quick and I can get the pictures where I want them.

Diane said...

I couldn't agree with you more about the importance of keeping a "hard copy" of our lives for posterity. Your blog is not only a record of your personal and family life; it's also an informative account of Eastern and Western culture, both of which may change radically in the future. I am fascinated by your descriptions of customs and traditions in Japan. Your family will appreciate the efforts you took to document and interpret day to day life, especially if your children become more Americanized. Tanya, you're a great storyteller and teacher. Get your words on paper any way you can!

Suzanne Kistler said...

I love your blog! I totally understand your worries about losing the record.

I write a daily email letter to special friends, as well as bits and excerpts in my blog. My dad is computer-illiterate, so when I print out his snail mail copy, I print a copy for myself as well. I have binders of my "dailies" that date back to 1999.

I don't know if anyone will ever read them, but I've gone through them occasionally, and they bring back such memories!

I, too, look forward to your results from Blurb. Hope it is most satisfactory!

Margaret said...

I copy what I have written into word and save and then burn when I have enough. Margaret

Chocolate Cat said...

I would really like to keep it as I don't just write about my quilting (in fact sometimes I rarely write about that!!). I had printed out the first month and bought a notebook to paste it into but haven't got any further. I will be interested to see how your 'blurb' book comes out, I also am a bit worried I write too much so it may become expensive but then a record of the past to pass down to the family really is priceless. Mmmm....lots to ponder.

Patti said...

I've printed mine one month at a time. If you click on the month on your sidebar archives list you can bring an entire month's posts to the screen. I've printed them two sided, then punched them at put them into 3-ring binders. They are in my sewing room with binders holding other things. Primitive yes - but it works for me. Each binder holds a year of blogging - I put the blog name and the year on the cover and the spine.

Kathy Wagner said...

I was inspired to try Blurb by Annie on her blog here:
http://anniesquilting.blogspot.com/2008/01/step-5-my-book.html
I made a small paperback Blurb of a retreat blog that you can see here:
http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2008/02/retreat-report-1.html
It was labour intensive but I was very happy with the results.
I plan to make one of my first 2 years of blogging in the fall.