Some Blogging Tips

It appears that spring might have actually arrived to Seattle. Our mischievous friend La Nina has restricted our temperatures to about 50 degrees every day this year so far.(OK, there were two days of warmth before now) But yesterday it hit the 70s finally and today will probably be in the 80s. Its a shame it took till the ides of May to produce some blue sky this season.

I hadn't mowed the lawn in 3 weeks and the grass was about a foot high. Bella had been giving me concerned glances when she was attempting to perform her duties in the sea of verdant blades. So yesterday evening was consumed by a lot of mowing and re-mowing since it was the first time in a while the grass was moderately dry.

Onto today's business... I wanted to put some information about how you all can participate in this blog.

Comments - At the bottom of each post, there is the word "comment." If you click on that, it brings you to another page that allows you to write a short message about something in the post. And you can read other people's comments.

Subscription - At the bottom of the entire blog is the link that asks if you want to subscribe. If you click on that, you will get an email to tell you every time a new post is added.

Posting - If you want to add a post, look to the very top of the blog page. Up towards the left side is a link that says "new post." Click on that and it will bring yo to a new page. From then on its much like writing an e-mail.

If you want to add pictures, click on the little picture icon at the top. You then have two options. You can upload pictures off your hard drive. This will take a few minutes. You can also link to pictures that are already on the Internet. This is faster if you have an appropriate picture. Please confer with your lawyer about copyright issues (I think our litigation risk with this site it pretty low). To add a picture off the net, click on it with your right mouse button and select "properties" on the menu that pops up. Then copy the web address that is shown for the picture. Then past it into the URL box back on the "add picture" page.

Videos are added in a pretty similar fashion. It takes a couple minutes for a short video to load but you can work on other parts of the post while it uploads. Its really easy to post off of youtube. The video of Mike's sailboat was done that way. the following link explains more about video posting:

The interface for arranging the pictures and videos can be a bit clunky. But you essentially click and drag the box that the media is in to the place where you want it.

Post Length - Don't worry about adding every detail of the event a putting up a bunch of pictures. Just try to write a paragraph or two and add just a couple pictures. If you put up too much stuff it can make the page take a long time to load. And its better to post more small stuff than to feel like you need to spend a lot of time making a super thorough post. If people want to find out the specifics, they can ask you in the comments. Or you can break up something into multiple posts and spread it out.

For example, my first post about our trip last September was probably too long and had too many pictures for one post. It would have been better to break it up into parts.

That being said, any post is a good post. I just don't want people to feel intimidated and think they have to write something worthy of Great Book status to publish on the blog.

Labels - If you do post, please take a moment to add labels. Right above the "publish" button, there is a little script box that says "label this post." Please add key words from your post to this box. Try to include the names of the people the post involves and any big picture topics, such as camping, birthday, boat, etc. That way it will be much easier for people to find and sort old posts if we end up using the site in the long run.

Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have a good weekend!
-Paul