"Blogger will be changing in April."
Passive aggressive to the eleventh hour, I read and resisted those "try now" invitations.
As the songwriter Jimmy Webb wrote:
"Tomorrow comes, but it will keep"
As a callow teen, I found that lyric such a comfort, the night before a test at school!
Still pretty comforting at 50.
So I didn't rush into the irreversible tomorrow of the latest layout changes right away.
Until today.
After a week of hardly having strength or cognitive powers and concentration to read, let alone write, this week my body's generously letting me read more than a couple of sentences at a time and occasionally remember what I've read, as a bonus!
So I decided to take the plunge before I was pushed.
Did the same with Facebook.
Twitter changed without asking, which frightened the cr*p out of many. Both actually seem better in the end. I'm a laptop user rather that an iPhone juggler, which no doubt would bring a different perspective. People with iPhones seem to have a lot more trouble connecting and adapting to recent changes, though that may merely be because more people are using iPhones, of course. My old banger of a phone thinks predictive text is futuristic!
While some are still whining and lamenting over the new Facebook timeline, I actually find I quite like it, with the dramatic new "cover" photo.
The rest of Facebook is still just as irritating at times with its mindless "like and move on" mentality, depressingly focused ads ("Over 50? Try these frumpy fashions, dearie! Still got your own teeth? Try this stunning state-of-the-art teeth whitener, available near where we know you live! You clicked "like" for "dogs"? - here's pet insurance-r-us at competitive rates") and the photos of tortured cats and battered babies often photo-shopped to get the unwary
a) clicking on dodgy links
b) wasting energy on thinking they're making a difference to the tragedies and injustices of the world
c) both
But the timeline's okay by me.
Whether it is or not, it's not going away any time soon. I choose my battles, these days.
Better get used to it!
Put up or shut up.
So I took a deep breath and started to use the new Blogger interface and dashboard.
Guess what?
The world didn't stop turning.
Like moving house, once you learn where you've put things, you'll eventually stop opening the wrong cupboard and leave the coffee cups on a hook where you can easily find them!
The new Blogger looks cleaner, like anything does when it's pristine and new.
I can find my posts.
I can check my stats.
I know how to change my layout, as and when.
My reading list of other people's fabulous blogs is still there. Just as long and impossible to keep up with on a daily basis.
The labels feature is so much better. Before, blogger often switched to the (wrong) previously used label. The window showing the labels was so small, I often couldn't change or check labels till the post was published.
Now there's a way to drag the label window wide so you can get in there and rummage around to your heart's content. You can more easily choose from your saved labels. Scary to see them all there, actually. I'm a quirkier tagger than even I realised! Ball-pein hammer? Harlequin Rasbora? Pseudoacacia? Doubt half my tags EVER get searched for!
I'm glad my quirky, unfocused, but house-trained little blog is still here to pour my many interests into. If they connect with other people in random, happy ways, as they often seem to, all the better!
Yes, I know "Pinwheels & Rainbows" ("Pinny" to its friends!) defies all the rules! It doesn't deal with one narrow subject, as it was my firstborn blog. It's a crazy catch-all. Just as it says in the subtitle "Sense and Serendipity". More serendipity than sense, usually, and plenty of dippy but who's counting?
I'm just very grateful and glad for all of you who keep finding your way back here, one way or another!
Thank you, and watch this space!
Come on in, the water's lovely!
