Monday, February 21, 2011

Sleeping... But Not Gone

Seems I was having this same debate about a year ago. Then, as it is now, it was over Blogger's less than feature-rich commenting system -- plus it seemed over the short life of this blog, I received feedback stating that the same system had munged their detailed remarks and forced them to re-type their comment more than once. Not good. I did manage to delay the argument by deploying a third-party system (JS-Kit's Echo system) last April, and that helped... some. But even with its nice social networking features, threading, and better editor, that too began to crack (and some like my friend Will couldn't even comment because older browsers had issues with Echo). Of late, whether it was Blogger's or JS-Kit's fault, it stopped working more than once... then Echo's support (did I mention it's a paid service?) stopped responding to this client's requests. It appears like I wasn't the only one unhappy with it.

While all of that was diverting enough, I began to feel that wasn't the only thing driving this. Then I remembered this scene from Silence of the Lambs:
Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice Starling: He kills women...
Hannibal Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...
Hannibal Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice Starling: No. We just...
Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day...
I guess the gist of it has been the fact that I've wanted to change or improve things for a while. Don't get me me wrong. Blogger is not a bad blogging system. In fact, Google made it quite easy for me to join in on the sphere back in 2008. Ridiculously so. But again, after a while, there were things I began to notice that I craved. So when I opened a Wordpress.com account (also free like Blogger) early last year on a lark (or so I believed), I liked what I saw in its writing and publishing features. I'm not, nor do I ever expect to be, a blogger that produces extraordinary content or have a boatload of followers. However, I am one who likes to tinker with things. That's just me. And I'm not interested in getting into flame wars over platforms: Mac vs. PC, iPhone vs. Android, or Blogger vs. Wordpress (but there are loads of posts arguing one way or another on this one). But, I am making a switch... or sorts.
Since change seems to be in the air with some many of my blogging friends (Jen and Kaye have deployed her own custom domains [http://www.jensbookthoughts.com/ and http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/, respectively], and author John Kenneth Muir and Sci-Fi Fanatic have updated their blogsite's design with nifty new templates), I'll begin posting new content exclusively over at my Wordpress blog site: It Rains... You Get Wet (points awarded to the first person who names the film this quote emanates from) starting this week. I contemplated moving my Blogger posts and comments over to the new blog with this change, but decided against it since I am not really abandoning this blog site or giving up my Blogger account. The only difference is what I've written about in the past (here) will just begin to land over there, instead. If someone leaves a comment on a blogpost (on either site), they'll still get a reply and thank you, regardless, since I'll monitor both to the best of my abilities. I don't do this lightly (hence my months long procrastination) because I realize getting people who are regular readers of Lazy Thoughts... to also make a change to a new site (and/or add another email subscription or RSS feed) is a big request.


I sincerely hope I don't alienate anyone with this, especially those who have read (or lurked), followed, and/or commented over the last few years. In many ways they are the best part of it all, but I do feel like it is for the best at this point in time. Lazy Thoughts (past) will be here, and there (those future posts that are coming). This in no way changes my commitments to friends -- I plan on contributing the promised posts to Kaye Barley and Edward Copeland on their wonderful blogs, and continuing the joint post project with the wordy one, Rachel over at Scientist Gone Wordy. I've learned, too, to never burn your bridges. So who knows, I might myself right back here sometime in the future. But for now, one leopard will be sleeping while another begins prowling. My heartfelt thanks to you all for your readership and understanding.



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20 comments:

  1. Oh, the quote's from HEAT! What do I win? A year's supply of Slim Jims would be GREAT.

    I won't get into a blogger vs. WP debate with you but will say I'm excited about your switch!

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  2. DING, DING, DING, DING! And with those Slim Jims, I'm including an original Veg-o-matic! Separate shipping and handling, of course ;-).

    Thanks so much, Elyse.

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  3. Change is good! Good for you!

    "I will follow youuuuuu."

    I just heard that oldie on the radio this afternoon, ha!

    But then, you might be too young to even remember it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Ahn0h18kU&playnext=1&list=PL7497A0FC21061936

    So anyway.

    I'll be seeing you here and at your new place. AND looking forward to seeing you at my place too.

    Change is most definitely in the air. I followed Jen's lead and moved to my own domain also. 'Course, the old blogger address automatically redirects everyone, which is very cool.

    Elyse? Any chance of you sharing those Slim Jims??!

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  4. Yeah, I completely understand L13 and I don't think you'll have a problem having people join you on the other side. Is that the force or the dark side? : )

    Seriously, at first I was a little..... nooooo... after seeing Will go on hiatus. But this is more like a rebirth and as Kaye said above "change is good." CHange for the sake of change not so much, but you have a lot of good reasons for change and, as you mentioned, like love, I guess change was in the air all over. : )

    Oh and I don't blame you for not dragging all kind of stuff over. I might feel the need for a little cleansing that way yoo.

    We'll definitely see you in the rain brother.

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  5. @ Kaye: D'oh! I should have been more attentive and noticed your new domain (and I've updated my post to include it). You are one classy lady, my friend. And I'm honored with your follow and that we'll be working together. Meeting up in St. Louis will be another. Many thanks, Kaye.

    @ SFF: Thank you so much! And yeah, "change is good" in this case. Like few others, you are scholar and gentleman, and I'm glad to call you friend.

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  6. le0pard13 I'll be sorry to see LTFAB go. But I'll be over at If It Rains as quick as I can!

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  7. I changed blog services and titles about five times before settling on my current name and site, so I understand the desire for change, and don't worry about debates over sites, go with what floats your boat. And you can count on me following you to It rains...you get wet!

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  8. @ Bryce: Thank you very much, my friend.

    @ Colonel: Good to know about your experience. Thanks so much, Colonel.

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  9. Ah, great quote from a great movie, Heat. Said by Robert DeNiro as Neil McCauley...and yes, I will follow you to It Rains...You Get Wet. I have been thinking about going to Wordpress too, they have much more to play with. I will miss your lazy thoughts though.....

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  10. Thank you, Moondancer. I appreciate that very much, my friend.

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  11. You couldn't shake me even if you tried! :)

    Heading over to see how rainy it is...

    (I've also been tinkering with wordpress and trying to get the layout how i prefer - wish was not too cheap to pay for CSS access - and will probably be making a move myself in the next couple months. the straw for me with blogger was when hitting 'return' starting sending my cursor home. Garg!!!! it's driving me nuts and i'm tired of that kind of stuff from blogger's publishing software.)

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  12. Good to hear, Rachel. And looking forward to our next joint post (mine will just be at the new digs). Thank you so much, my friend.

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  13. wordpress works wonders.
    and since i meself altered my site, it's a good time to switch it up!

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  14. Love your updated site, christian. Thanks very much.

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  15. Thanks Jenny To share my comment as well. Really nice one.
    Burun EstetiÄŸi

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