Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Why Blogger Is...

frustrating and amazing.

Part one: Frustrating

Look above here. Do you see a header? NO! I spent an hour last night following Brenda's tutorial for adding a banner. I found the URL, I removed the HTML and replaced it with the URL, but when I previewed instead of seeing my beautiful image, I saw a box with the URL typed into it.

Now, I specifically bred my children to be smarter than I am so that I could become one of those adults who can't do 'stuff'. Then they could do 'stuff' for me. In this endeavour, however, they both proved to be useless! What good are complex maths equations and scientific knowledge when you can't help your mum to improve her blog!?

Please if any of you are cleverer than I am, offer me your wisdom.

Part two: Amazing - you may need a tissue now

I wrote recently about my sister's friend who lost her three year old daughter, Ava. My sister's friend Sheye is a blogger. Her blog and photography touched many people and linked her with like-minded people around the world.

As a tribute to Ava my sister released pink balloons in a local park with a group of friends and family.



On the same day pink balloons were released all over the world by people who had never met Ava, but were deeply touched by her story. You can see photos of this amazing event here. What a beautiful network blogging creates.

13 comments:

nutmeg said...

Heartbreaking. Simply, heartbraking. Sometimes, I lose faith with "the world" - it has been restored today with those balloons. May they soar with Ava's spirit.

Stomper Girl said...

Oh you were right I did need a tissue. Poor little Ava and her family. Will have to hug my boys tightly when they get home tonight.

I've emailed you my instructions I'm secretly hoping I prove smarter than your kids.

Brenda said...

Grr! Since I last updated my
Blogger banner tutorial , it appears that Blogger no longer allows images posted on Blogger to be used as banner images in the way set out in my tutorial. However, urls from images posted on photo storage services such as webshots.com seem to work fine...let me know if I can help.

Blue Moon Girl said...

I didn't see an email for you, so I will try to make this semi-simple in the comments.

I looked at Brenda's tutorial and she's right, Blogger went nuts and won't allow images posted on Blogger to be posted elsewhere. It's dorky.

I use www.flickr.com to put my images on for my blog. Then I can upload the picture and make it "private" so that no one else has to look at it. Then you click on the "All sizes" icon after you upload it and then copy and paste that url into the spot where you're supposed to. Hopefully that works! Good luck.

Aunty Evil said...

That's lovely, and it proves that there are many many good people left in the world, despite what it feels like sometimes.

Anonymous said...

I went to a funeral yesterday of an amazing 25 year old young man who died way too soon and we all released pink balloons as the herse did a lap of honour around his beloved footy field. So sad...and yet unfortunately his family was not the only one grieving.

My float said...

May they soar to meet her...

The blogging community is amazing. Just the concept of "meeting" people and exchanging thoughts and ideas, and hopes and dreams is something i'd never dreamt of. May your sister's friend find a little bit of comfort konwing that so many people are thinking of her, as well as Ava and her wider family.

molly said...

Blogging is truly amazing. No matter what kind of out-of-the-way backwater you're stuck in, you can still connect and make friends with a worldwide community. I used to be allergic to computers/ technology....this has made a convert of me. God bless little Ava and her family.

meggie said...

A truly sad event. I hope little Ava's family heal.
There really is so much support out in the community of Blog!

As to your dilemma with the header.. cant help. The most I think I learned off my kids was how to cuss!! (Not really, but it is useful at times)

Brenda said...

More Grr...I've been doing some more experimenting and it seems that the steps set out in my tutorial no longer work, regardless of where your image is stored. Super smart blogger decides to rejig the code I put in and blocks the image. Sometimes it will tantalisingly show up in the preview and after you do the first save, but then it reverts to blocking the image. I've very quickly perused the Blogger help pages but nothing jumps out at me. I will let you know if I find a workaround.

Sussanah said...

have you tried swearing, kicking and sulking (with a tiny bit of sook) - it is my preferred method of dealing with a technical problem

Blue Moon Girl said...

I have fiddled with blog headers and I think I have sort of found a work around to get your blog header to work. It's not perfect and I hope someone else out there has something better, but until then at least you can use your blog header!

Go to my blog and check out my post for today (February 21st) and the directions are there. let me know if you need any other help.

I hope it works! :)

LBA said...

eek !

I used ( thought I invented, actually ;) a method like Brenda's, and no it's no longer valid ?!?!?

No more banner updates for me :(

Those balloon look so beautiful and fill me with hope.