WordPress Reader: So This Is What It Has Come To?

July 21, 2015August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 25 Comments

Opus the Penguin reacts.

LIKE SO MANY OTHER WP BLOGGERS, for the last week or so I’ve fussed around with my Reader* account. WordPress changed the thing and now it’s pretty whacked.

I’ve blogged hither and yon forever, so while I understand why people are upset about the change to Reader, I’ve shrugged it off. There are other ways to follow blogs.

For instance, now I’m using feedly.com to keep track of everyone until WordPress gets this latest kerfuffle under control.

• • •

Bill the Cat opines.

BUT GETTING TO MY POINT HERE, as the above screen shot shows you, what I’ve found to be curious + hilarious about my current Reader account is that it tells me that I’m now following -11 blogs.

This, I’m sure, is a first for me.

Apparently Reader has taken it upon itself to carry out peremptory measures to make sure that I will not read the next 11 blogs that I think that I want to follow here in WordPress.

I’m becoming concerned about Reader. It’s getting uppity.

Truthfully, I have to wonder if when the computers rise up and take over the world, we’ll all look back on this moment and realize that Reader was a leader in the revolution against the human race.

Be forewarned, people. 😉

• • •

* For those of you outside of the WP system, Reader is a way to follow WP blogs. It’s a free feature that involves minimal effort on my part to have access to a current feed of all the WP blogs that I choose to follow. In theory, it’s useful. However, in practice…

• • •

{ It’s back! Images from Bloom County. More here. }

The Bean Abides

April 7, 2015May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 40 Comments

A Poem on the Occasion of the Beginning of my 12th Year in the Blogosphere

• • •

I started small because I didn’t know,

What to expect from this blogging show.

My friends in real life ignored my blog dream,

It made me so mad that I wanted to scream.

But continuing on I wrote each day,

Knowing that others would head this way.

• • •

My mantra simple, my goals were clear:

Give the readers a story to cheer.

“I will not whine, nor over-share,

I will show up and rarely swear.

I am authentic, I refuse to mock,

I enjoy learning, and taking stock.”

• • •

Perspicacious am I, willing to share,

Light of heart, but still I care.

Nuanced and nutty, in equal part,

I have been quirky, right from the start.

Stick-to-itiveness, I think you’ll agree,

Is the word that best describes me.

• • •

Free-spirited, niche-less, with content well-written,

Yet editors varied with me are not smitten.

No Freshly Pressed badge, will you see here,

It seems what I write, they just do not hear.

But now gentle readers, in you I confide,

No matter what happens, the Bean will abide.

• • •

A special thanks to la peregrina at Santiago Dreaming who’s been here with me from the beginning AND to Margaret at Stargazer who’s been around here for almost as long. You both paid attention to me when no one else did– and helped me, a reserved introvert, gain the confidence to keep on writing. Love you both.

[H/T to D. Parker at yadadarcyyada whose wonderful post “Why I Will Never Be Freshly Pressed” put me in a mind to write this poem.]

In Which We Learn Whether Or Not I Can Upload A Photo & Then Write About It

October 30, 2014August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 22 Comments

Let’s pretend that my last post didn’t happen. Okay?

Which is to say that if you’ve arrived here expecting to see a post about me having lunch, I deleted it. The post, not lunch.

I didn’t delete the post because I said anything bad, but because the photos, which made the post interesting, looked hazy. Not pretty.

In fact, when I uploaded them yesterday the WP system wouldn’t let me upload them in the normal way. I had to revert to an older way of uploading photos to get them here.

And once here, not so clear.

So now, today, this very morning, I decided to upload a test photo to see how the WP system is working today and to see how my photo looked.

And wouldn’t you know it, today’s photo, of two of my mother’s old recipe booklets that I keep in one of my desk drawers, is the epitome of clarity. And coconut.

Thus proving that I’m tenacious, I can upload photos, I can write a post of the fly, and that I’ve kept some rather unique items that belonged to my mother.

For no discernible reason. Which seems to be the theme of this post.

An Explanation Regarding The “Absurdities Of My Week” Post That Is No Longer Here– Absurdly

February 11, 2012May 15, 2019 / Ally Bean / 19 Comments

I went on a blogging binge this past week. On Monday I decided that throughout the week I’d comment more on other people’s blogs… that I’d write and publish more posts on my blog… that I’d tweet more on twitter… that I’d be a SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTERFLY.

I started out strong– connecting, linking, making myself visible to the world, but by Friday afternoon my blogging mojo was waning. Still I pressed on thinking that I’d write just one more post about some of the absurdity in my week.

*bad idea*

And that’s when the absurdity of all absurdities happened. For reasons I cannot explain, but suspect that I caused (somehow), WordPress published my post before I’d finished writing it. Then WP, for reasons unbeknownst to me, would not let me edit/finish writing my post.

So I deleted my post, thinking that I had a back-up copy in my files. But I didn’t have a copy… and it was late Friday afternoon… so I GAVE UP on writing anything and wandered away from the blogosphere.

*sigh*

Little did I know that my half-finished, now deleted, post was winging its way to all of you who receive this blog via email. And that part of the post was showing up on RSS feeds everywhere.

And that many of my gentle readers (new and old) would become concerned that something was wrong with my blog and would take it upon themselves to contact me to tell me that there was something wrong with my blog. That a post was missing. And to make it come back because THEY WANTED TO READ IT. Right now.

*oh dear*

Having said all the foregoing (in a rather wordy fashion), here is what I’ve concluded:

I was successful in generating some interest in this blog… and then managed to make a mess of things while everyone was looking. NATCH.
I have a new rule: NO BLOGGING ON FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.
I have the best readers in the world who care about what’s up with me… and this blog. THANK YOU.