Using A Blog Editor

Using a Blog Editor

This week I've been participating in a KnowWeeks course called 'Browserless Blogging ' with Grant Potter.  One of our tasks has been to try out a desk top blog editor.  I think that this just means using something other than your blog's own editor that can post directly to your blog.  So writing your post in Word and cutting and pasting it to your blog's editor doesn't count.  And if you've read Sue Waters' post on this you'll know that that is a bad idea anyway.

As I was going through the list of options there was one that I had tried; Flock's blog editor.  I wasn't crazy about it as it lost all of the formatting when it uploaded to edublogs; though maybe I needed to tweek some settings.

Anyway, as I was going through the list and trying to decide which other blog editor I'd like to try, it occured to me that Google Docs has a 'post to blog' feature.  I like writing my posts in Google Docs, because that it where I do most of my writing.  When I went to check out the 'post to blog' feature today I realized that when I tried in the past, I hadn't been able to get the setting right.  When I looked at it today I realized that the blog URL I had put in was in the wrong format.  Another post by Sue Waters helped me to figure it out.  To post from Google Docs to Edublogs you use the following URL: http://YOURBLOGUSERNAME.edublogs.org/path/to/xmlrpc.php

So this is my test of posting from Google Docs.  I know it won't add tags or categories, but I'm gonna give it a whirl.  Where do you post your blogs from?

Blog (detall) [sic] by Lady Madonna Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Sharing a Little Cheer

Right now I have over 200 unread posts in my blog reader; I definitely have to do some pruning.  There are some writers who's posts I read as soon as I can; I've blogged about them here.  Lately there are two other bloggers who have percolated to the top of my faves list.  They often bring a smile to my face, which is a nice relief in February (*note: February is probably a Northern Hemisphere affliction).

The Principal's Page.com Blog

This blogger cracks me up.  As the cop on the Simpson's says, what he writes "is funny, because it's true".  His posts can also be poignant (see this post for example: read to the end where the Principal's Page's wife leaves a note).  Up until recently all of The Principal's Page post titles were in caps.  Many of his paragraphs are one sentence long.  He refers to his posts as blogs, which I find endearing.  I don't know who he is, but his "blogs" have cheered up some bleak days.

Not Too Late To Change The Name

This is the other 'must read' blog in my reader right now and is  by Jen.  Jen teaches at a ghetto middle school (her words, not mine) in LA.  This is her second year of teaching, but I think this is her second career.  Her job sounds really challenging and I frankly don't know how she does it.  Her language is colourful at times, but she writes with humour and compassion.  She sometimes writes short bittersweet posts like this one, and then ones like this one that make me realize that my troubles are pretty small in the big scheme of things.  She also writes hopeful posts like this one.  One quirk about Jen's posts are that they never have titles.

Freedom in Anonymity?

Both Principal's Page and Jen write anonomously, which may be why their posts are so enjoyable; they can say what they want to without professional repercussions.  That is not to say that they slag people, because they don't.  They can just be a little more candid than some of us are willing to be when our names are attached to our blogs.

Who Makes You Smile?

I've shared a couple of my favourite, put a smile on your face, bloggers.  Do you have a few gems to share?  What do you think about blogs published anonymously; are you pro, con, "it depends", or other?  I'd love to hear what you think :-)