Back Before Blogging was Cool
by subacati
There was a tv advert that often comes to my mind that talks about blogging. Ironically, I can never recall what product was been advertised, making it hard to find any reference to it. However, I have managed to locate a transcript of it.
“Blogging… blogging. On the Internet, Mikey set it up for me. Kids these days know everything. It’s like your own website where you can speak up, play, inspire. I know, I used to find the Internet intimidating too. But this is amazing. It’s… my space where I can just express myself and when you sit back and read what you’ve written its like, Wow! This is me. My creativity.”
The scene is of a woman, presumably a mother, around 30 years of age. She is standing in front of a fridge taking something out. She closes the fridge as she begins to talk, looking straight at the camera as if the viewer is standing there with her in her kitchen.
This was the first time I’d heard the term ‘blogging’ used. I had some vague notion that this activity existed, but since neither I nor anyone I knew had Internet access back then, I had no idea what it was all about.
The description of this ad is from memory as I can’t find a video clip of it anywhere. The transcript took me a while, but I found it here;
http://www.mikestopforth.com/2006/11/12/the-stork-margarine-blogging-advert/
Yes, this was not an ad for some new tech gadget. It wasn’t advertising any new Internet service or product. This was a margarine ad!
I often recall this ad, though I can never recall what the product being advertised was! 😛
I never thought that I would one day publish my own blog. (well, I type and you read. It counts)
subacati 
Oh yes, it counts.
I remember the time that I didn’t know what blogging meant. I remember sitting with an older work colleague several years ago while he told me that he liked to “blob”. As it turned out, he didn’t know what blogging was either!
Ah…! The niavity of youth.
The weird thing is that even as far back as this advert I had some vague concept of what blogging was. I’d read about in a magazine or something. (back then, magazines were these floppy books with glossy pages that had interesting articles full of facts.)
I remember that ad! But as I was reading it kinda wanted to be recalled but couldn’t till I remembered what it actually was all about… 🙄
and here we are and So ask yourself….what would you be doing if you weren’t blogging….
Um, there’s only two things on the Internet for a single man. One of them is blogging…
…the other is reading Linux forums! 😆
Touché my friend, touché! 😛
This reminded me of my very first Online community and my very first Comment EVER on the Net! I had read these AOL Message Boards for a while, but I had never commented. I thought that maybe I had to pay extra to be able to comment. I kept think, “What if I put in ONE friggin’ comment and then I get some extra fee for having commented?” Heck, I didn’t even know if my comment would go through if I was supposed to pay for the privilege of commenting and not having paid.
So, one day with some trepidation, I finally threw caution out the window and submitted a comment. Oh Man! I was excited that my comment went through. And I was even more so excited when someone replied to my comment. I was, “OMG! Someone replied! I have arrived!”
The first comment I made was on MizzMartinez’ MOTW post! 😛
Well, the first My Opera comment that is.
I had my old C=64 hooked up to Beltel in the early ’90s (Telkom’s Prestel service)
The was a social network thing chatroom thing there that I was a member of. Kind of like a message board, but based on early eighties technology.
Reading Linux Forums? Noooooooooooo! Yikes!
The funny thing is, when I bought my first real computer back in February 2001 (Not counting my Commodore 64 and my Atari 400), I supposedly wanted it ONLY for Offline purposes. I only wanted it for creating some illustrations, writing some Docs and creating some procedures.
When I was ordering it at the Gateway store, I tried to get them NOT to include the FREE AOL because I had no intention of using it on the Net … no E-mailing, no browsing and certainly no Message Boards or Blogs.
I was told that no, they couldn’t send it to me without the Free AOL, that it came with it as is. Rolling my eyes, I gave in, “FINE!”
I didn’t immediately use the Free AOL. But, I guess one day I was bored and decided to see what this AOL and this Internet thing was about. And I haven’t gone back to my alleged ONLY for Offline purposes.
lol So it was a classic case of not knowing you wanted it until you tried it? 😛
And actually, while my memory is a bit rusty and I can’t confirm with 100% certainty, I’d almost have to say that I probably only tried it because my youngest sister and my oldest niece twisted my arm, ridiculed me, insisted and in general prodded me into setting it up and trying it out. You know … in that sorta subtle way of theirs, “WHAT? You have FREE AOL and you haven’t set it up?!!! What’s the matter with you? Quit being ridiculous. Get with it! Stop procrastinating. Drop what you’re doing. Set it up and send us an E-mail!!!”
lol And in your stubborn way you protested by keeping your dinos anyway! 😛
Are you sure you’re not confusing the scenario and your Post’s title with “Back Before Country Music Was Cool?”
So where did you say the MyOpera Smilies palette is?
Oh I see it. It’s right next to my Linux computer. ROFL
Country music was cool? 😮 😛 I’m not that old! 😛
No, it’s not Country WAS Cool.
That was – Back BEFORE Country was Cool.
You know … back before the movie Urban Cowboy with John Travolta and Debra Winger.
Now Country is Cool … or so I read and hear. 😀
OMG!! We’re back in the ’60s?
As the Fonz would go in that irked way … Heyyyyyyy!
C’mon! Urban Cowboy came out in 1880.
Oops! I mean, in 1980. So, in 1979 and before, Country wasn’t Cool. 1980 and above, Country became Cool.
Come on, Aadil. Don’t be bashful. Let’s see a pic of you in those Cowboy boots and Cowboy hat.
Lol Never happened! The ’80s was Disco and Breakdance! 😛
WHAT? The 80s Disco?
Well, you had mentioned before that a lot of things arrived later over in South Africa. Cuz here, Disco was over when the 80s came around.
Disco morphed into raves in the early ’90s But mobile disco and K.I.T.T. lights were big in the mid-eighties!
Remember, there was no Internet back then. The USA had a cultural embargo against Apartheid South Africa so American TV and movies were less common. And when movies were released here, they were on a slight delay due to the practice of regional releases. Mostly, American trends gradually sublimated into South Africa via Britain or Australia.
Discotheques were only really in the big city, Jo’burg, in the ’70s. But the mobile disco trend only took off in the ’80’s.
So is that + Follow Button at the bottom right of your page the equivalent of the Join This Site Button over on the BlogSpot Gadget? Or is it some door to let a trojan in?
I have it on my dash at the top.
The one you see is for non-members to agree to get spammed everytime I write a post! 😛
Actually, the interface here is really crappy and I fought with it a lot already
Well, I have a lot of clout over at BlogSpot. I can pull some strings and get you a parking spot in the VIP area.
You COULD PAY and then unlock all the Customizing Treasures.
I’ve got two empty blogs there already! 😛 http://subacati.blogspot.com/ http://subacati-qlue.blogspot.com/
Me? Pay? Blasphemy!!
Oops! That sequence came out wrong. I meant you could pay at WordPress and unlock all its Customizing Treasures.
Anyway, well, you could Tuxafy one of those 2 empty BlogSpot Blogs.
Hmmm! You up for the challenge? And how do I get them MyOpera smilies there?
Anyway, if I wasn’t Blogging, I’d be watching more TV.
Certainly not reading books.
So blogs got ya reading at least! :p
Doh! Yeah. And not only that, but the ultimate irony is that it got me writing … voluntarily! OMG! I mean, back in school, who in their right mind wanted to voluntarily write ANYTHING? 😀
ROFL I actually thought of being a writer, for a minute or two! 😛
Back in the nineties I was running a professional business where we applied all the latest things in digital and online technology. We had two computers, one of them a laptop – both Macintosh, of course. We had a scanner, even a handheld scanner, and one laser printer. This was a monthly magazine (you know,a real magazine, printet on paper with nice pictures and all), and these two computers and our eqiupment and least but not last our internet uplink was so expensive to establish that it took one and a half year before we had payed it out. A business enteprise with 15 eployees, selling 1,500 issues of magazine every month..
Now, every eight year old child has that in his room.
Tsk…tsk…
Oh, yeah, forgot that we also had ‘mobile phones’! Four of them, even… And on the software front we were also in the high end: Aldus Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXpress. I mean, this was the shit!
Now people have those programmes on their bloody phones.
There’s a reason I didn’t have a computer for years! I couldn’t afford one! 😛
Then again, in 06 I reluctantly let go of my IBM Pentium which purchased in 96. I replaced it for a HP desktop which died after four years. Reverse evolution?
Planned obsolescence. 😦 Evolution uses natural selection. So were consumers to refuse to buy items designed to fail, then perhaps planned obsolescence would become extinct?
I should have known way back in the 9th grade that there was a reason why we Freshmen were forced to take Typing. It would have been very difficult writing my novels on MyOpera and now Blogger if I hadn’t learned how to type. It sure came in handy. Destiny!
Ah! But was that ‘typing’ as in”tik tik tikka tikka tik tik tik tik tikka tikka Ching!” Or on a computer?
😛
Well, I remember back when Blogging was Cool and FUN.
Then came reality … finding out that the Mobile view of Blogs is problematic, utter crap, party pooper, rainer on parades.
I had my new Blog Design all ready and was almost finished with Dewi’s new Blog Design. Then I am informed that — Oh, BTW, the text on posts can’t be read on Mobiles. WHAT? Okay, so I fixed it by compromising on the Font Color.
Then I was informed that — Oh, BTW, the text on comments also cannot be read on Mobiles. Why you sorry piece of Shi™ Mobile view!
We can never enjoy an awesome Blog Design because oh Nooooooo! It sucks on Mobiles.
I spent ALL friggin’ day experimenting with a fuggin’ crap load of themes to try and come up with a Blog Design that HOPEFULLY will have the text be able to be read on pathetic Mobiles.
Aadil, when you visited my new Blog, was it with your Mobile or with your computer? If it was with your Mobile, did you have any trouble reading the text on the posts and / or on the comments?
Cuz Dewi confused me. She first showed me some Screen Caps that showed how her Mobile displayed my Blog and her Blog … just the Transparent Foreground sans the White Posts Backdrop. Yet later in some other Screen Caps, the White Posts Backdrop was definitely there.
I asked her what the heck was going on … why the 2 different scenarios? I haven’t received a clarification yet.
I very seldom surf by cellphone these days! Too much hassle when I have a P.C. or three! 😛
you got uncapped?
I pay for 20GiB and then I’m supposed to be cut off. But for some reason the bandwidth is simply reduced. So maybe I’ve been switched to uncapped? Anyway, 20GiB isn’t enough for me as it’s gone in a day or two.
I’d say..
With who do you connect with and how much? Think i need but it’ll probably go just to downloads…
Err…like uhm free books and err stuff… 🙄
I use Telkom ADSL. R525 plus another R75 vat for ADSL line, voice line 20GiB data, one email address. (which I don’t really use) All on one account. If you use a seperate service provider, you’re still gonna pay for ADSL line and phone line anyway. You can get your landline paired with an 8ta cellphone account as well
that’s a bit too steep since I have 3 phones on contract already and maybe adding a fourth in the mix. Or something of that sort.
But maybe I should just connect via dongle {dirty mind} with one of the cheaper data networks.
Just to make my WordPress experience a bit easier at least.
The basic option is 5GiB and the rate is lower. http://www.telkom.co.za/general/pricelist/dobroadband.html It actually runs cheaper than any 3G Internet option out there as top-ups are reasonably cheap.
I think Mik was the one who told me about blogging, and that was… somewhere around 2005(?) I hated the word then and I hate it now 😆
So, I went and posted on the Blogger Forum that the Mobile View of my Blog looked like crap and what did I need to do to fix it. One of the major contributors there replied that Mobile View is meant to look like crap. LOL O — Kay! A lot of help THAT was.
I added that I know Mobile View won’t look like the Desktop View, but that I knew for a fact that the White Foreground of my Blog COULD be displayed somehow and that’s all I was asking for.
Ehhh, I wound up finding the fix myself. Actually, the fix was something I had already tried several times before, but my computer would lock up. It turns out that I can’t access my Blog’s Mobile settings with my ancient Dino Opera 11.52. On a hunch, I decided to try my Portable Firefox and BAMM! I was able to access the Mobile Settings of my Blog. And now I have the White Foreground displaying on Mobile View.
It’s not like Blogger didn’t warn me from the get go that they detected an unsupported Browser and to choose another Browser or there could be weird behavior.
Yeah, well anything Google tells you that the Internet is broken and you have to install Chrome browser to fix it! 😛
Well, I believe them…don’t you? 😆
Aadil, can you go check Teresa’s Blog and see if she has anything weird, anything out of the ordinary going on?
For some reason, starting with yesterday evening, I can’t load her Blog. Very shortly after it starts loading, the Opera GUI disappears and an Opera Error message comes up informing me that Opera needs to close.
I let it close and no matter how many subsequent attempts I make at opening Teresa’s Blog, I get the same situation.
I was able to load your Blog, so it’s not like something related ONLY to WordPress. It’s likely related to something in HER Blog.
Ok, I found it. Teresa’s blog loads fine for me. But I wonder if it might not be simply that your dinos are getting too old to load via dial-up?
You’re rapidly running out of options as time moves on.
You’ll have to provide the url as I’ve no easy way to find it. That’s the one great loss with leaving My Opera
I do see something in my Blog List in my Sidebar that maybe confirms that something IS different on Teresa’s Blog. The other 4 Blogs that I have there on my list show the post with the latest activity just as that Gadget is meant to show. Well, for whatever reason, Teresa’s Blog listing on there is not showing any post of latest activity.
Uh Oh, now I kept getting one of those Security Issue popups here. Something about — public-api@wordpress.com
You know … one of those popups that say that the Certificate is incomplete or something.
Okay, Aadil, I need you to put on your Mobile cap instead of the Computer cap that you’ve been wearing lately. Then I’m gonna need some Mobile feedback … and Screen Caps if need be.
It’s that Teresa informed me of some problems she was experiencing on my Blog:
http://suntana511.blogspot.com/
… yet Dasha is NOT experiencing any of those problems. I have yet to hear back from Dewi to see what feedback she has for me.
Anyway, Teresa said my Welcome Sticky Post had become officially too heavy to load on her Mobile … yet NOT on her Laptop.
Then she showed me some Screen Captures of how on her Mobile, for some unknown reason, on my Blog, her Avatar and the Avatars of Dewi and Annette were displaying in HUGE King Kong size on top of each comment instead of displaying Avatar size. Yet interestingly enough, my Avatar and Dasha’s Avatars are displaying correctly on Teresa’s Mobile.
It’s possible the problems are being caused by Teresa’s new Mobile and / or her Android OS. Cuz Teresa’s new Mobile is I believe a Samsung something or other and uses Android OS … while Dasha has a Motorola Razr and uses some funky, arcane OS that’s not exactly a household name. I forgot the OS name. I’m waiting for Dasha to tell me the funky name again.
So yeah, Aadil, let me know if you have any problems with the Avatars of Teresa, Dewi and Annette displaying King Kong size in my comments.
And well, I already deleted my Welcome Sticky Post that had 200 comments on the SAME ONE page as it was actually starting to get a bit heavy for me to load.
I replaced it with a Chalkboard whereby I’ll reset / erase the comments when they get to 50 since Blogger doesn’t change to a new page every 50 comments like MyOpera. I’m still trying to find a solution to this problem.
Ok, but just a few problems. My ‘new’ phone is not a smart phone so I can only test Operamini. Also, no screenshot on this phone. And last, but not least, I most just check in from Gmail now as everyone is all over the show and WordPress isn’t letting me log-in again! :irked:
I already heard back from Dewi and she too was seeing the Avatars normal size. And like Dasha .,. Dewi also said she never had any problem with my Blog being heavy to load.
And the guy that replied over at the Blogger Forums checked out my Blog and he too said the Avatars were displaying normal size on his Mobile. He’ll be looking into the issue now that I just finished posting that certain Info from Teresa over at the Blogger Forum, which the guy requested.
As of right now, it looks way more like a problem on Teresa’s end.