We got the royal summons a few days ago - change over to the New Blogger or you won't be able to log-in again until you do so!
So we did - and it was very painless. The email notification to say that all had been done arrived within 5 minutes.
I've been playing with the new features for a couple of days now, and here are some observations.
I like:- that my existing template did not get screwed up
- that Publishing and Republishing is a thing of the past - no more rotating triangles as the cogs whirr and the gears click and then sometimes jam!
- that the blogsite is now faster to load
- when composing posts, image loading is much quicker too
- the labels/categories/tags feature
I don't like:
- that I can't use my chosen html template from Caz with a lot of the new features. I would have to change over to one of the existing Blogger templates that have already been modified to take advantage of features such as label lists/clouds and the Layout page elements editing and composing
- in our profile, it now abbreviates UAE to AE, so I've now erased the <$BlogOwnerLocation$> code from my template and manually entered United Arab Emirates into my location - call me picky!I wish that:
- the Blogger developers had made the Post Composer window bigger as it's annoyingly small when I use it to upload images into my posts
- images didn't always load at the top of the compose window and would load where the cursor was positioned within the compose window
- the action "New Label" in the "Label Actions" drop down menu would be at the top of the window and not at the bottom, so I don't have to scroll down to the end of my labels list to create a new label
To elaborate more on the template features:
New Blogger templates are written in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code to take advantage of features like Page Elements and Fonts and Colours when editing the template layout.
Just as I had come to terms with basic html adjustments, I am now attempting to learn CSS!
With CSS, coding for elements on the template page is written within "containers" which means there are different containers for page elements like the Blog Post Body, the Blog Owner Profile, the Blog Heading, Categories, Archives etc. This allows for easy editing and customisation of the template in the "Adding and Arrange Page Elements" window under the Templates heading in your Blogger Blog interface.
For basic html-user people like me, it's a little nightmare! For instance, no longer can I use code like 
within the CSS containers to create a space between my Post Title and the Post Body - I now have to add "bottom padding" to the Post Title code. I have enough bottom padding of my own without having to add more!
Anyway, it's a challenge, and I am having fun learning new stuff. I've created a test blogsite where I'm playing with new templates.
I'm hankering after a 3-column template because of the desire to add a labels list/cloud, and found a couple of websites that offer 3 column templates - Hoctro's Place and Hackosphere. I've now loaded one of Hoctro's designs and am using it to learn how to change it to my liking.
I'm also happy to read that Caz is also looking at the New Blogger to hopefully design some templates as I really like her styles.
Sites that I'm finding helpful are:
- Hoctro's Place
- Blogger Hacks
- Testing Blogger Beta
- Beta Blogger for Dummies
- Known issues for the New Blogger
If you know of any others, please post them in the Comments section.
A question that pops up from time to time from people seeing our images is, "What type of camera do you use?"Having grudgingly taken to digital for convenience, M mothballed her 35mm film Canon A1 and F1 cameras, and splashed out on a small point-and-shoot Canon Ixus 400 back in 2003.
Canon Ixus 400 or S400
It's proven to be a great little camera, and takes the majority of images that you see on this blog.In 2004 on her way from Dubai to Auckland, J purchased a Canon G5 for M in Singapore. It has a few more bells and whistles than the Ixus 400, but the shutter-lag is appalling, so M uses the Ixus 400 for any moving subjects.
Canon G5
The biggest advantage is being able to add a wide angle lens to the G5, and as M loves to shoot wide-angle, the below configuration is how the G5 is mostly used.
Canon G5 with wide-angle lens
As you've probably worked out by now, M is in love with Canon, having used them in both professional and personal capacities.In digital cameras, the one thing that stands out above all other features is the quality of the image sensor, and Canon has superb sensors in their range. While shooting inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a bystander peered over M's shoulder as she took a shot in very low light, and raved over the quality of the image that appeared on the screen. That's mostly due to the Canon sensors - and also a little credit to the photographer!So, dear readers, now you know our dirty secret. No humungous digital SLR cameras - just normal little consumer models take these blog images!
We love to walk down the free beach at the north end of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and when we do, we stop to pick up all the pieces of glass that we come across and dump them in the bins.
Today, we gathered a lot of glass - mainly due to the surf tumbling onto the beach, as it's uncovered, or washed up, a lot more than usual.
We also rescued some wildlife!
On the last of our usual 6 laps of the beach, we came across 2 Indian gentlemen throwing something back in the water. It was a small turtle and unfortunately, due to the men still having their shoes on, they didn't throw it back far enough.
We waded out to rescue it, and as J refloated it, it was obvious that it was ill. Covered in barnacles, it made a feeble attempt to swim away but was very weak.
We carried it down the beach and gave it to one of our dive instructor friends from the Pavilion Dive Centre at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, who promptly took it into the diveshop to receive some TLC.
We hope that it will survive. We know that it has a better chance of doing so now, than if it was left to fend for itself on the beach.
Wth all the disturbance occuring to their natural habitat in the shapes of palms and world maps, these little guys need all the help that they can get.
Our resident squirrels, Ginger and Van Hazel, and the 3 Bluejays were not happy campers last week.An intruder invaded the garden in the shape of a young female fox.
Quickly dubbed Samantha, (UK readers should chuckle now!), she made a temporary home for herself under the shelter of our garden table which for winter has been taken off the lawn and placed on the bark-covered garden.Van Hazel did make a daring run for a nut, but 5 minutes later, she discovered the sleeping fox, freaked out and disappeared!
For two days during the daylight hours, the fox hardly moved, except to stand up and turn around a couple of times, doglike, to sink back down into a more comfortable position. She pricked up her ears at our neighbour walking around his garden, but was largely unperturbed by any human noises or presence.
We knew that foxes lived in the nearby cemetery grounds, but it was the first time that one has slept in our yard! We can only surmise that the New Year’s fireworks, or possible maintenance around her usual hideaway, had forced her to seek other safer accommodation.
Life is back to normal now. Samantha has disappeared, leaving only a shallow hole moulded out of the bark, and the squirrels and birds have resumed collecting the nuts which we throw out for them!
Click this image for a short exciting video of a moving fox!
within the CSS containers to create a space between my Post Title and the Post Body - I now have to add "bottom padding" to the Post Title code. I have enough bottom padding of my own without having to add more!
