Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Technical Tantrums and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your Week

The following section contains an explanation for my week+ absence based on a petty first-world problem.  Feel free to skip down to craftiness after the asterisks.

I am a little naive at times.  When my RSS reader (Reeder) told me that it would continue to work after the demise of Google Reader, I believed it. I didn't confirm that it would indeed work closer to the planned date.  Nope.  Imagine my surprise and dismay on July 2nd when it didn't. Blerg! Apparently, they're working on it but it wasn't going to be ready in time. ( I find it important to add here that I am not a total Luddite; I have embraced new technology faster than the average bear, but I'm rarely a first-adopter and I am cautious regarding change.  I still don't like the new Flickr....)

I went looking for a replacement, hopefully temporary, as I love Reeder - I had it all set up the way I like, I was happy with the interface, and it synced across all my devices.  I wasn't crazy about Bloglovin' but the Feedly app wouldn't let me login on my phone.

So then I spent a day and a half importing all my carefully curated feeds manually into Bloglovin'. I was then too tired and annoyed to read any of them for a few days.  And when I sat down to delve in, I hated it. I would even say I loathed it. It changed my settings randomly, wouldn't adapt to needs and ways of doing things, and it wouldn't import some of my feeds for seemingly arbitrary reasons.  I threw my hands up, closed the computer, and stewed.  I tried the mobile app.  Hated it, too.  Had that existential blogger moment where I questioned why I even bother to blog or read blogs, and in the grand scheme of things, what does it all mean???  I moped, offline, for a few more days.

Then, missing the interaction and inspiration (and my damn hockey news!), and blindly hoping that they'd already found a solution to Reeder, I returned to the desktop. Alas, no. But I spend another day manually importing my precious feeds, (and adding several more that I don't really have time for...)  into Feedly.  While it's not Reeder, it is more adaptable to what I'm looking for and how I use RSS.  I could breathe. It'll do.  Faced with an overwhelming total of posts in the 4-digits, I spend another afternoon going through each feed to clear out posts prior to when I'd checked out of the interwebs last week.  That brought it back to a manageable level. That's where I left it last.  Manageable.  Though I still worried about how to read on the go, which is how I do most of my non-comment/lurker reading.

Imagine my delight when the phone app for Reeder has been updated to work with Feedly. And all is right  moderately okay again in my blogging universe, though I still have some catching up to do. Phew.  Sometimes, technology is not worth the paper it's printed on....

******* (These are the asterisks I meant...)

During my impromptu blogging hiatus, I threw myself into sewing.

A July bee block for SimplySolids is done. It was very fun to do, though she'd warned us to be conservative with the fabric.  I didn't want to end up short so I made a little template for each row, save the last one, and used it to cut a triangle from each fabric ahead of time, and religiously trimmed each seam so that it would be easier to line up the pieces.  One pink triangle got a little cheeky but I didn't notice it until I'd already packed up the block for sending. I can see it in the photo but I'm hoping it's not a disappointment to my bee mate...

On my own bee quilt, I have almost all of the blocks (just two to come in) and I've started working on the sashing and border strips.  The sashing strips are 4.5x16.5" and are made from the scraps left over from the blocks. It's much farther along than this photo but I still have the top and bottom "border" strips to do. I've even made the binding!  I'm really enjoying this whole process.

I also finished up the charity quilt made by our guild but I'll save that for another post!

There were rumours this week of looking for a summer job but visiting family and a nasty chest cold that's left me worse than sotto voce (in fact, zero voce!) has quelled that idea.  I'm spending a lot of time watching movies, knitting socks, and glaring at people who ask me questions they know I am unable to vocalize an answer for and then make fun of my hoarseness. (That's right, Dad - I'm writing at you! Now, quit giggling.  It was funny when Seester was the voiceless one, sure, but you've gone too far... "What? What was that? Heeheehee."  Too far, sir.  :-P )

19 comments:

  1. you are so funny. i much prefer feedly, too, and despised blogluvin'. i really like to be able to mark 'unread' if i want to come back to something later. i've heard good thing about 'the old reader', but would have to manually import my blogs. (which, maybe would help me cull through them!)wow, those are some crazy fun blocks!!

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  2. How totally harassing! I like Feedly. Even apart from the name and annoying apostrophising Bloglovin' didn't do it for me. It does feel out of control when unread blogs are sitting there. And techy fiddling is an easy way to suck time out of the day. I already liked your great impro blocks for the simply solids bee on Flikr and the fiddly looking block looks amazing, was it paper pieced? Can't see any pink issues...?

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  3. Oh, Carly, you make me laugh and nod my head! I'm not lovin' bloglovin' that much and miss Reader. I don't know about Feeder, but I do like the way it "sounds" more like "reader". Maybe, I'll go look.
    Oh, and your improv quilt is going to be so cool!

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    1. Oops, I guess it's Feedly, not Feeder! What do I know anyway?

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  4. Hi Carly. I don't like change either ; ) the new Flickr is harder for me to see people's profile etc. enjoy your down time.
    Lovely socks and projects by the way

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  5. Hi Carly! I can imagine how furious you have been with all those reader things. I wonder how I have been able to make my blog on my own because some other things are so difficult. I changed to Bloglovin (not too bad, I don't use my phone for these), but now I have realized that I didn't use Google reader but I had (still have) all the blogs in my Blogger's dashboard and that works great! No one likes flickr - still I can't find people profil and if they have a blog.
    Fortunately, when get get totally p...of with these things, we can sew! Your blocks are fantastic! x Teje

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  6. First of all, you're a riot. I was expecting to see something about children having read the word "tantrum" in the subject line; this was a million times better ;) I, too, am not loving the new flickr (I actually use it almost exclusively on my phone, as the app, thankfully, appears to be relatively unchanged). But I'm so intrigued by your hatin' on bloglovin'?! I vaguely recall attempting to sign up for feedly a while back, but the page disappeared and I couldn't figure out how to organize it after I'd found it again. And to be fair I never used *any* sort of reader pre-BL, and now I'm wondering what I might be missing out on if BL is *not* the bee's knees?!

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  7. Ah technology! Makes a person wonder how much more sewing time there would be if there wasn't so much time spent on fiddling with apps and readers...But I love your socks (in progress) and hope you aren't whispering for too much longer!

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  8. Wow that bee block! It's awesome. I would have been terrified to even take a go at that - so impressive! I also love how your own bee blocks are coming together, looking forward to seeing them all together :)

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  9. You have voiced lots of my ire here. Bloglovin' doesn't do it for me either. And as it pisses me off further I slip further and further behind in my blog reading. And I am convinced that some blogs I followed are not in the feed but as much as that niggles I can't figure out which ones and therefore am even more annoyed.

    My block for you is being done today so seeing all the blocks laid out is great. Helps me loads. :-D

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  10. LOVELY socks! I'm so jealous. I'm actually going to give sock knitting another go at some point. FIrst I'm going to try and graduate (from scarves, cowls and shawls) to knitting a child-size sweater.

    And I really like your bee quilt. I'm very drawn to it and can't wait to see more of it!

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  11. Your posts always make me chuckle, even when you're going off on a rant. But I'm truly sorry for your technological woes. No RSS Feed, huh? Hmm. Mine have been working just fine since July 2, and long before that. In my opinion, it's the ONLY way to read blogs, though I'm not in the quadruple digits like you are (Hockey? Really?). The blocks you've shown, all of them, are perfect in their design, and colors are smashing too. And goodness, how did I not know that you can knit a sock while wearing it! Gosh. you learn something new every day.

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  12. The blocks looks amazing. I am glad you got things worked out with the blog reader. I have never tried starting socks at the toe. Do you find it easier than the heel?

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  13. I find that I did not mind too much bloglovin, but my own actions in the end prove that I don't particularly like it, because I rarely go and look at what is new or not... Maybe it is the 'lazy summer' and I may be more inspired to figure whats up or not come Sept or Oct, or Dec, or maybe, someday....

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  14. I didn't like bloglovin' either and so I'm currently using Wordpress' internal reader, which I'm not loving, but it'll do...I don't want to waste that much time with it either! I love your simply solids blocks, they look awesome!

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  15. I also detested Blogloving (sorry, can't abide the dropped 'g' at the end!) but love Feedly - far more than I ever loved Google Reader, which used to randomly add deleted blogs to my feed...

    I love your swirly bee block and the bee blocks that were made for you are amazing!

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  16. Reader? I've HEARD of these things but never bothered to look into them. Instead I rely on my old fashioned way of reading blogs - I check in whenever I think of it. Hence my completely random comments that pop up three weeks after your post.

    I can't believe how far behind I am with my own blog posts. As you say - first world problem.

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  17. I read from my blogroll. What??? I know...

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