Instructions For All
I got a lot of email yesterday and today, and I'll be writing each of you personally, but a few people asked me about how to use Live Journal so I thought I'd comment here for anyone who has questions now or will have questions in the future.
What was the question again?
Right, uhh... how to use Live Journal. The answer to that is, I don't know. No, I'm not trying to be funny; I don’t know how 99% of it works. I'm either computer illiterate, technologically challenged or just plain lazy; take your pick (all right; we all know it's the latter!).
Although you do have to log in in order to post a comment, you don’t have to actually have a journal even though you automatically are set up with a place to start your own journal.
I opened a new email account for logging into this place but one can set up a block for email here so that no one can see the address. Also, I haven't received more than a couple of spams in that mailbox since joining, so I think it’s safe to give out your address for logging in. I think it was a coincidence that my computer crashed a few days after joining. But if you'd rather not take the risk, and all you want to do is to comment on my entries, you can just keep sending me emails like you do now. I was in fact, thinking of just posting from now on via email instead of keeping the journal, but Millie and Kenny said that they think it's cool that folks can look up previous posts going back weeks or months. Oooooke. Really? I don.t mind doing the journal but I can't imagine folks are gonna want to read all the old stuff!
For those of you who are considering starting your own journal, the mode most of you will want to use will be S2. I think that works more like a template; you don't need to know HTML. The fact is, I haven't even been to this site in something like six weeks, so I've already forgotten how I set things up, but it's pretty simple if you follow the FAQ. Some help, huh?
I think people use these journals in all sorts of ways, so you can really do anything you want. So far, I've only looked at a few other journals, so I know that my posts are a lllllooootttt longer than most people's. I can’t believe you guys have the time, interest and patience to read my stuff but as I've said many times, ya don’t have to!
There are ways of downloading the journal elsewhere, and also ways of insuring that it doesn't get picked up by a search engine but I haven’t read any of that gobbledygook. I’m lazy (remember?), and I’m allergic to simple instructions posed as intimidating computer-babble.
As for the communities and friends, I haven't had much time to check out those either, but there are lot of great blogs out there and even intelligent life forms. I guess anyone who is listed as a friend and/or community on your user page can have access to your journal, and of course anyone you give your URL to.
And lastly, I hope that there won’t be any more lapses lasting weeks, but I can't guarantee that I'll be posting regularly. If you don't receive an email saying that there's a new post up, that means I'm flaking out or busy.
Today's a pretty hairy one over in Washington. Alberto Gonzalez is getting grilled (but will get in anyway) and in about 20 minutes, Rep John Conyers will stand up in the Senate to challenge a senator to allow him to formally hold up the confirmation of Dubya's election, and to ask the House and Senate for a recount in Ohio. If at least one senator doesn't give him the floor, that's it for any hope of democracy left in the land. Even if one senator does allow Conyers to speak, the House and Senate still have to get together to vote on whether there should be a recount, so I expect that maybe a senator or two might allow Conyers the floor just for the sake of appearances. Then they'll vote it down. Of course, nobody expects the recount in Ohio to swing the election back to Kerry, but the recount will prove that there were dirty tricks played in Ohio and that new, tighter laws insuring accurate counting have to be made and enforced. And, that people even have a chance to get to vote, which thousands were not allowed to do.
Cross your fingers!