Blogger enhances post editor, adds import/export feature, embedded comments, star ratings and more

This happened just in the nick of time. I've been mulling over moving my web site to Wordpress from good ole' Blogger for quite some time now, but then lo and behold, new features get announced.

Now, Blogger has an embedded comment form in blog posts, support for importing and exporting of old posts and comments, and the post editor gets a few improvements as well. There are a few caveats, however, like how the embedded comment form takes too many steps to accomplish, the import/export feature currently works only with Blogger blogs, and though improved, the new post editor also loses a few old features. In any case, there has been a major overhaul in Blogger's feature-set, and I'd be a fool to enumerate them myself when all the info is available from their official blog anyway.

Thankfully, there are a couple of new features that I like, and these are:

1. Google Webmaster Tools integration
2. The addition of a rating system to posts

Now I understand why I've been seeing those "star" comments in my blog template while I was editing it - it was a new feature that had not been activated yet. Until now.

Read all about the new Blogger features at the following links, and have fun using the updates!

Read - Webmaster Tools Verification
Read - Star ratings
Read - Import / export of blogs
Read - Embedded comment form
Read - New post editor

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What can you do in 30 minutes?

I'm giving myself less than 30 minutes to decide what I'll do next for today.

I can do another quick tech news update on Gadgetell, although my knack for perfecting the dimensions in embedded photos keep me from writing my posts in under 20 minutes.

And I don't want to do a half-assed post on a blog where I'm paid to contribute the latest tech news. So far, I haven't been able to break any mobile phone news either, and my report about the Nokia E71 coming out today yesterday hasn't seem to have come true yet as well. So what's a boy to do?

I think I'll just casually re-read my feeds again until my time is up. It's less straining, and hopefully will lead me to more breaking tech news for me to write later. Staska is going to kill me if I don't produce any more earth-shaking news about cellphones. So for this 30 minutes, all that I'm going to do, is wait. Wait until it's over.

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The answer to life, the universe, and everything... is blogging

This is republished from another blog of mine, which I will delete soon.

This morning, I finished half of a new feature story that I was planning on posting tonight. It was supposed to be about the characteristics of Jumpers (who are special human beings capable of doing special (what else?) things like jumping through space and landing anywhere in the world) compared to those of Bloggers. Basically, I wanted to draw comparisons between the two, and in the end say that although Jumpers are cool because of their powers, Bloggers can be cool too. You just have to look at things from the right perspective.

So anyway, like I said earlier, I had already finished half of that feature document, and successfully saved its draft in the memory card of my Nokia E50. You see, I don't yet have a computer of my own, and my smart phone is the only thing that I can use as a compromise. I can read and write common documents on it, which is mostly all that a Blogger like myself should need anyway.

I would've already posted that darned Jumper article here right now, but unfortunately, I no longer have the draft with me. Why? Because I no longer have my memory card with me. Why? Because I no longer have my Nokia E50. And why? Because I pawned it earlier this afternoon for some lunch money.

So here I am, broke to the bone in a computer shop, living off debt money, faith and a few of my principles, trying to look for a subject that I could write about as a compromise for that missing Jumper article. I could try and recall it as hard as I could from memory, and just rewrite the whole thing as best as I can, but I feel it would just be a waste of my time. I believe that no problem should ever be solved twice. And writing that article again would become that -- overkill.

So what now? Certainly I can't just sit here and let my time pass by. I'm paying for my Internet access by the minute, after all. And if time is gold, my online time is gold-plated gold. I can't waste any. That's why I'm determined to make my online time today useful, just like I always do. Or try to do anyway.




Do you use Google? If you do, then you must know that Google is currently the most accurate search engine available on the Internet. It can index new pages faster than most other search engines, and besides search, it has other nifty features that I bet most people (maybe even you) don't yet know about.

Google can answer most questions you ask it. Whether you ask it how much $100 USD is in Philippine Pesos, where is Buenos Aires in Argentina, and a host of other little, trivial things you might want to know. If you're inquisitive enough, like yours truly, Google might even be kind as to show you the answer to life, the universe and everything. Go ahead, try it.

But what does this all really mean? And of course, what does it have to do with a Blogger like me? I could just as easily spend my time writing a gadget-related story and earn five dollars for it. Or write a cellphone-related story and earn eight dollars for it. And yet I'm staying here in my personal blog, and writing like I'm aimlessly wandering through the streets just because I can. Am I lonely? No. Do I feel like I want to hide. Hell no. Isn't it obvious that by doing what I'm doing right now, I've preferred to take time and come out with something, if only one thing, that's really under my own name? I know I have to make a living by writing for other web sites, but tonight, I feel like I don't want any of it. I think I need a rest from trying to make a living from writing, and even if only for tonight I have to get a life. Or live my life, whatever you want to call it. All I know is I enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm proud to be writing for no one other than myself.

And you can even see my face! Right there on the left sidebar near the top of the page, I have a small square thumbnail showing a portion of my handsome face. That's how proud I am of what I'm doing right now. I don't need a crappy magazine, or a lousy excuse for an op-ed article to bash a few people or tell you how I feel. As long as I can write in a place where people can clearly see who I really am, I'm comfortable and will gladly take anything thrown against me.

Writing is what I do to make a living, and blogging is what I do to live my life online. Surely it isn't that hard to see. Or is it?

The reason why I blog is not just because I want to write. I can do writing with my eyes closed, insincerely and half-heartedly. But blogging is something that you can never do, unless you make a commitment and take all your writing to heart. And once you do that, once you succeed in taking everything you do to heart, only then will you be able to blog about something that's straight from the heart.

And of course, being able to say something isn't the be-all, end-all of blogging for me. I highly suspect if it even is for anyone out there. The underlying reason why I, and many other bloggers continue what they do, is not just because they want to write and have a chance to tell an infinite number of people how they feel, but to touch, inspire, motivate, and share.

Bloggers are the next generation of journalists. We are Media 2.0. Traditional methods can't hold us down, and neither will anything thrown in bad will and blind judgment.

Bloggers can teach, have feelings, pick sides, and uphold truth. I would never trade this for an opportunity in traditional media. Why would I want to downgrade my standard of living? If anything, I’m looking forward for more experiences in blogging. You can’t make a future man go back to the stone age. And you can’t make this man let go of his digital pen either.

The last, and probably the main reason why I continue to be proud in calling myself a blogger, is because I can find closure in all the things I do. Unlike regular writers who are satisfied with superficial knowledge and are eager to write about things that they don’t really know anything about, Bloggers (at least Bloggers like me, and I’m not trying to be a show off here) have integrity. I, for one, will go down to the deepest of anything to find truth. And will resurface with it thinking that I’ll share it with the rest of the world. Now for those who disagree, I have only one thing to say. Don’t hate me because you’re not me; I blog, and I rock.

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Where it all began

I need to create a blog that smart people will keep coming back to. My first idea for it of course would be a personal blog just like everyone else. I would document my daily activities and present them in a way that would be light-hearted, informative, and fun. It's a great idea, I'm sure you'll agree. But there's a problem: I'm boring.

My days last more than 24 hours, and I do a lot of things, yes. But my life would hardly be seen by anyone as amusing; if not annoying. I think my life is the most un-news worthy of all the bloggers here in the Philippines. So what's a boy to do?

That's why I've been having a hard time trying to pick a niche for me to cover. The fact that I'm probably the most indecisive blogger in existence doesn't seem to help either. I need a revelation.

So where exactly am I driving at? Well, I'm thinking of starting over. Nothing fancy, I just plan on throwing everything out the window and starting anew. I don't care about SEO, existing links, RSS subscribers, and my 0.99 PageRank. I just want to begin again.

I'll admit, I have a thing for starting with a fresh, clean slate but I assure you this has nothing to do with it. Maybe I'm just psyched over owning a new iPod Touch, but I think I'm really on to something here. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm sure it'll come to me soon.

So anyway, yeah, that's my plan. And if you used to visit some of my sites, have an idea of what they look like and what kind of things I write about in them, let me take the time I have to tell you I'm sorry. I just need to do this right now. Don't worry, I'll make sure that what I'll replace the old stuff with will be hell of a lot better. If it's not, well, forgive me and I'll just have to keep trying. :)

Alright, so if you haven't got any more questions, can I grab your hand and take you to the dance floor now? I think you can see that I can hardly wait. Let's?

Sent from my iPod

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Is it safe to come out already?

OK, after all those test posts, now I'm ready. But am I ready to hold it steady? This is the umpteenth time that I've "redesigned" my blog, and I went so hard on it that I made a new one entirely from scratch. If you have read any of my other blogs before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with the ever-changing layouts, greatly varying posting schedule, wide gaps between topics and my extremely bad taste in web site design. This here is my I-don't-know-how-many-eth blog, and I'll even bet that I'll be leaving it for a "new project" some time soon.

So to get things into perspective, why did I do this to my site? And more importantly, why the fuck do I still try my hardest to create these "personal blogs" when it's so blatantly obvious that I'm not having any success with them?

I am a professional writer for a couple of high-profile technology news web sites, and the pay is on the high-end. I am 100% self-employed, earning more than $1,000 per month just through writing, and yet I still try to "waste" my time with this personal shit. Which so far doesn't even look the least bit personal. At least not to me.

Is there any hope left in me having a successful personal blog? Was there even any hope at all to begin with?

My goal, with this web site, is to simply become successful. I want to become the Filipino Blogger. I want to become the source. It sickens me to know that there are a bunch of stupid-ass trying-hard bloggers out there who are getting all the attention when they really deserve none of it. I'm not jealous, I just want to put them in their right place.

That's the one and only reason why I still try and keep my personal blogs - because I know that the many others who do it too suck so hard at it. Most of these so-called Filipino Bloggers, or "Pinoy" Bloggers, are crap-writers who can't even use the word "don't" correctly in a sentence. And maybe I'm just nitpicking, but really, if everything can be found and easily had for free, would you settle for less?

Whooza... Let me just catch my breath for a second. I completely lost track of this post's subject. This was supposed to be an introduction, David! I apologize to all the poor souls who got offended. You're lucky I realized I was going way off topic with this post and decided to stop. But I'll still be coming after you in a future post so don't hold your breath.

This is me, I'm David. You can call me Your Worst Nightmare.

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