MamaBlogga

After a week here in WordPress and my own domain, I have to admit that there are some things I miss about Blogger. I don’t regret switching to WordPress, but there were a couple things that I liked or even preferred about Blogger.

1. And a big #1: Label posts without opening them. Labeling posts is roughly equivalent to putting them in categories or tagging them. In Blogger, you just check a box next to the post title on your post editing page and label them (like you might in GMail). Yeah.
2. I felt cool using Greasemonkey to ‘pimp’ my Blogger. It was actually the initial reason I downloaded Greasemonkey for Firefox. Sure, WordPress has ‘plugins,’ but I feel like so much less of a haX0r.
3. Set up another blog in like no minutes. Yeah, this is probably why there are so many splogs on blogspot, but it’s fun. I set up five different blogs, with different topics, on one account.
4. It’s easier to tweak your template. I’m really scared of ruining my perfect php files on WordPress. With Blogger, I was relatively confident in tweaking the CSS and HTML. Sometimes I ruined things; then I hit ‘clear changes.’
5. It’s easy in general. Everything is simpler in Blogger. It’s a simpler platform. WordPress is a ‘professional’ platform.
6. It’s totally free. Okay, so WordPress itself is free, and if I were hosted on WordPress.com, that would be just as free. But hosting my own site is not free. I’m okay with that, though, since I have a job now.

So, after seven days, there are a few things I miss about Blogger, but I’m definitely not done customizing my WordPress yet with some more cool plugins.

Remember, you can stay with Blogger if you want, but here’s how to switch to WordPress if you’d prefer.

I was more than a little saddened to read this a couple weeks ago from Kim at Catawampus (via Karen at StrollerDerby; read both if you read one; the takes are pretty different)

These days, here’s what society preaches to women:

1. You can’t be fulfilled unless you have a man and a child.
2. If you have a child, you should WANT to stay home with your baby, all day, every day.
3. Doing this will make you feel happy and fulfilled and complete in ways you never imagined.
4. When your kids are older, you can always go right back into your career.

Here’s what I hear from society:

1. You can’t be fulfilled unless you have a career (not just a job!) and money. External stuff—praise from your boss, “going places” in your career, toys—makes you happy and fulfilled.
2. Money. Make money. Yes, have kids, but get back to work ASAP.
3. More money. Two incomes are an absolute necessity.
4. “You can have it all” or “You can have it all at once” or even “You must have it all at once.”

I was wondering if I was crazy until I saw my experience echoed in an essay that I haven’t finished reading yet, but I can tell it’s something I need to see. It’s called “I Am a Mother” (and I’m guessing it’s from the author’s book of the same name). When she decided to leave her career to raise her child-to-be,

I found that the reaction from my female colleagues was largely, and disappointingly, less than supportive. I shared my decision with one woman who smugly joked, “Why don’t you just get a nanny?” Another network executive asked me what I was going to do once I got to Boston. I told her I was going to have a family, I was going to be a mother. “No, I understand that,” she said, puzzled, “but what are you going to do?”

All of this was still fresh on my mind during that evening spent near Washington, D.C. A chorus of “I’m just a mother,” juxtaposed with “What will you be without your job?” and “You’re making a terrible mistake” made me wonder, Could they be ­right?

I may struggle with finding “fulfillment” from constantly keeping my 13 month old from playing with the cat food, but I know there is more to motherhood than just that. Society as a whole will probably never understand motherhood. (Kim at Embracing Momminess has an interesting post on this topic, too, looking at the political/feminist side of societal pressure on motherhood.)

I also realize that no matter how many children I have, they can’t give me fulfillment. It’s not a gift you wrap and stick under the tree. However, a job—or a whole career—can’t just give it to me either.

My fulfillment has to start with me. And realizing that is the first step on that path.

Check out the most recent guide to migrating from Blogger to WordPress, from November 2008 August 2009 February 2012.

UPDATED 13 July 07 (step 6)

I assume that you want to move from yourblog.blogspot.com to www.yourblog.com. Otherwise, I say, don’t bother. There’s no benefit to moving from yourblog.blogspot.com to yourblog.wordpress.com unless you really want to use WordPress. I recommend, if you like your Blogger template (especially if you’ve heavily customized it), using Blogger’s capability to publish to your own custom domain (WordPress’s similar feature is a paid add-on). If you want to, you can stay with Blogger. The blogging police won’t come and get you.

But if you’re sure you want to switch, then here’s what you do.

1. Get a domain. Don’t own a domain? I recommend www.GoDaddy.com for domain registration; I use them mostly because I’d heard of them before. Their prices are okay. I recommend three things here:

• Get private domain registration. No junk mail, no strangers getting your address from your whois info.
• If available, get yourblog.com , yourblog.net and yourblog.org. Sometimes GoDaddy offers a deal where you can get free private registration when you register 3 domains. (Then redirect .org and .net to the .com using account management. Select 301 redirects.)
• Search for “GoDaddy coupon.” Click on the first result and use whichever coupon will save you the most money (calculate out the % to see which one that is if you have to).

2. Get hosting. I recommend Bluehost.com; they came highly recommended and are a pretty good deal. Also, they’re one of WordPress’s recommended hosts and feature a very simple install for WordPress.

3. Install WordPress. With Bluehost, just login to your control panel, click on Fantastico under Addons/Plugins, select WordPress on the left, click New Installation on the right. Fill in the forms and you’re done. If your host doesn’t have a similar install, you’ll have to install manually. It shouldn’t be too hard; WordPress gives you instructions.

4. Login to your WordPress (might take a little time for the installation to “take”). Select “Options” then “Permalinks.” Select “Custom” and type this line in the box:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html

5. Import your blog from Blogger. You absolutely MUST use the Blogger RSS Import plugin. If this link doesn’t work, try again later. Follow its directions. It loves you. One day it will be included in WordPress. This brings all your posts and comments over.

UPDATE, 16 May 07: That day is today. This import function is included in WordPress 2.2. The other steps here are still important, though, to maintain your permalinks.

6. Delete the Blogger RSS Import plugin from your website. COMPLETELY.

UPDATE, 13 July 07: Now, Blogger enables you to transfer your subscribers seamlessly as well. If you haven’t already, sign up for a FeedBurner account. Then, login to Blogger and go to Settings > Site Feed. In the Post Feed Redirect URL box, enter your new FeedBurner address. This will redirect your subscribers, but you’ll want to be sure to integrate your FeedBurner feed with your new WordPress blog. (FeedSmith, owned by FeedBurner, is a plugin that does just that!)

7. Still in Blogger, select Settings for the blog you want to transfer. Select Publishing. Click the top link, “Custom domain.” Type in your new domain, www.yourblog.com. Save. Now all your links will transfer automatically to your own domain, all your posts are on WordPress and you’re ready to blog on wit’ yo’ bad self.

Afternote. Clean up: You might have to import your images to WordPress as well. If they suddenly stop showing up on WordPress, then you need to import them. If you don’t have very many (I think I have 80-90 and I’ll end up doing this by hand because I’m afraid of the warnings on established plugins), you can easily “recode” your pictures. Login to your WordPress in one tab/window and login at http://picasaweb.google.com/ in another. In Picasa, click on the album for your blog. Select the photo you’re replacing in WordPress. On the right side, click on “Link to this Post” and copy the first link they give you. In WordPress, edit the appropriate post, looking at the code tab, and replace the link that follows the code <img src= with the link you just copied from Picasa. I think that will continue to work.

Also, unfortunately, your Technorati links will not move with your blog. HOWEVER, links themselves are redirected.

Disclosure: the GoDaddy and Bluehost links are affiliate links.

Last week, we introduced Hayden to ranch dressing. On pizza. (This is Ryan’s idea of food.)

He was a bit suspicious at first. He eyed his little bite of pizza with white stuff on it, but wouldn’t touch it. I tried to feed it to him. He gingerly licked the ranch dressing. After two or three tastes, he decided he liked it, and ate the bite of pizza.

Apparently he liked it quite a bit. He toddled off and fetched my cell phone, brought it back, and dipped it in the ranch dressing. That was fun to clean up. I must have shorted my old battery in the process. Good thing I’ve had a new one sitting around for a while now.

To complete the story, Hayden’s cell phone (Ryan’s old phone) has been missing for a few days. Neither Ryan nor I had any idea where it was or even how long it had been missing.

Today Haydie was eating some graham cracker sticks today and dumped the box on the floor. What should come tumbling out but his phone!

Gotta love those little reminders.

Yes, I made the switch to WordPress from Blogger, but it’s really not for everyone—and I don’t just mean Moveable Type lovers, either. Really, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That said, here are some of the reasons I can think of why you might want to stay with Blogger.

However, if possible, I recommend switching to a custom domain on Blogger (and so do the folks at Pronet Advertising).

• It’s easy. It’s really easy not to change. I know, I know, it’s not a great reason, path of least resistance, blah blah blah.
• You have a heavily customized (or completely custom built) template. Changing will be REALLY complicated. Like you might have to hire someone to build a new template compatible with your new blogging platform.
• Blogger is working for you. People are commenting, you love your look, you have plenty of traffic, and it’s clear you’re not a splog (some research indicates 75% of .blogspot.com blogs are spam)
• The best domain(s) for you is/are unavailable, you might have to stick with a blogspot-hosted blog. For example, you’re an established blogger, but yourblog.com and yourblog.net are taken. Should you go with yourblog.org? Try to buy the domains from the registrars? Or continue blogging on blogspot and wait? It’s up to you.

There are plenty more reasons, I’m sure. I’ve heard some people complain about Blogger’s capabilities, but just because other people don’t like it doesn’t mean you need to switch. Do what works for you.

Are you sure you want to switch? Then check out my Ultimate Guide to Migrating from Blogger to WordPress!

In high school, as part of the IB program(me), we had to take a class called Theory of Knowledge.  As you might guess from the title, that’s an epistemology (study of knowledge) class.  We talked about and tried to hammer out working definitions of lots of words relating to knowledge, among them, faith.

Among the dozen or so members of this class were several faiths, including Christian (Baptist, nondenominational and LDS), Muslim, Buddhist and I believe Hindi.  (Sigh. I miss diversity.)

Anyway, the discussion on the definition of faith became interesting when I insisted that there is room in faith for doubt.  Most people in the class, especially those very active in their religions (as I am), strenuously disagreed.

Today in church our lesson was on faith, and I finally (six years later) found the words to accurately explain what I meant.

Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things.  It’s not to have a sure knowledge.  Faith isn’t certain.  (If you’re certain, which I do believe you can be when it comes to religion, then you know.)

However, faith has conviction.  You believe something to be true, you hope for something to be true, but you do not know it.  And even though you do not know, you act upon your faith (that is absolutely necessary for true faith).

But you don’t know.  You don’t always know what might happen to you when you do the things that your faith requires of you.  You may lose friends, you may “lose” 10% of your income, you may lose your life.  You are uncertain because you don’t know what the consequences of your faithful actions might be.  Ultimately, you do believe they’ll be good, but until you reach the final judgement, you might have to suffer every day for acting upon what you believe.

And you do it anyway.   You step out into the darkness, a few steps ahead of the light, believing and hoping the light will follow.  Doubt might be too strong a word, but uncertainty isn’t.

Faith is acting with hope in the face of uncertainty.