IBAAW

I received an email a few days ago from someone who asked me why I use Blogger. I can see why this question would be asked. It's not like I'm new to the blog scene. I've been blogging since I was 11 years old, which was in 1999. I never used Blogger until a little over a year ago. Before that I was like most other bloggers- starting off on a free server, and eventually getting hosted by some nice person, maybe acquiring a personal domain. When I started my blog here, it was just as a sort of temporary solution. Part of me always supposed that I would eventually abandon my Blogger account once again, and go back to having my typical personal site. However, when I was accepted into Katimavik, I knew I wouldn't have time to do much on my blog as far as keeping up with design styles and coding standards. So, I just stuck with it.

Recently, I began to think about change, and how I've changed throughout the years. I got to reading some of my older blogs, and laughing at some of the things I got myself into during my preteen and teenage years. French school and high school sure provided one heck of a backdrop for my wacky adventures! I was sad that I did not have each of these entries, and the others that have long been lost on now defunct free servers and abandoned cPanels, long since expired and erased from existence. I thought of how my current memories could end up with the same fate, if for some bizarre reason I forgot to save them. So, I decided I needed to become more strict with myself. I needed to show control and commitment. And I needed to do this, by sticking with Blogger for as long as possible.

So, there I was, with Blogger, and slowly getting back into the web community that I had left for the nine months that I had been away. Since I had stopped paying attention to any design-related things since before May 2006, I had obviously slipped behind as far as current trends in design, coding and accessibility. Thus, I have begun to learn about all sorts of these things again, with the added difficulty of restraints on Blogger. It's not as customizable some blogging interfaces, but it does try hard. The Blogger team is constantly adding new features which mirror other interfaces such as Wordpress.

Template-wise, I think I'm doing alright so far, adjusting to XHTML. I'm obviously still working on it. I'm using my training that I received while working at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Kelowna, with Katimavik, to try and get my blog as close to accessibility standards as Blogger will allow. (Thank-you CNIB-regulated Accessibility Pamphlets that I had to organize!) And I'm excited to see how I will be able to improve my Blogger experience over the next while, and try to push Blogger to its limits.

Random fact of the day: My all-time favourite font is "Century Gothic," normal weight. My second favourite is "Arial."

Labels: Blogger