JMowery’s Neighborhood

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

So I have a new friend, his name is Rob, and he happened to have an extra ticket to the U2/Muse show in Tampa a few weeks ago.

He asked me to go.  (!)

So I went.

This is us before U2's set.  We are cute.

We were on the floor, between the stage and the catwalk (the so-called 'inner circle') both for Muse and for U2.

 

  

Muse was awesome!  The few songs I'd heard prior to the show (Supermassive Black Hole, Knights of Cydonia, Time is Running Out) I LOVE, and they sounded amazing live.  Not only that, but I loved all the other ones, too.  Muse was a delishus, fabulous surprise. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've never been a huge U2 fan - of course I've heard of them, and can name a multitude of songs by them, but have no albums and had nothing by them on my iPod.  The day of the show, I went on iTunes and bought their 18 Singles album to listen to on the way to Rob's house. 

This probably goes without saying, but they are A! MAZING! live.  I can barely describe how awesome the show was.  This was my first outdoor arena show, and to see U2, with the setup they have, and being as close as we were...well, there are no words.  We were nearer the catwalk than the stage, but there were ramps set up around the stage that would rotate (I assume that there were four so each would rotate 90 degrees around the stage).  They seemed to be at about 8' high.  At a few points the ramp was just a few feet from me, and during the show Bono walked over the ramp,

stopped at a point parallel from me, and pulled a kid out of the crowd.  The kid ran with him around the catwalk and then, when Bono brought the kid back, he gave the kid his shades!  Here are the few pics I have of that: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here are a few other random shots:  

**I spent a crapload of time trying to upload two really great videos from the show on here, to no avail.  Until I can figure out how to do that, here's a video from U2's website.  For now, enjoy the pics and the commentary.  :)

So, the dog.  His name is Torque.  I have been wanting a dog for, well, ages, but always thought it maybe wasn't the best decision, moneywise.  I already have two cats, you know. 

My sister rescued a Welsh Corgi and gave her to my mom about two years ago.  My mom named that dog Gretchen.  Well, mom met someone who had a black Corgi named Elvis, so mom decided to breed Gretchen.  Gretchen had six puppies.  My brother was supposed to get one of them and my mom sold the other 5.  I had really, really wanted one and was frankly a bit angry that my mom was giving the 6th pup to my ungrateful brother, who already has four  (yes, FOUR!) dogs.   

Turns out that Paul (my bro) wouldn't be able to go get the dog, so my mom was like, 'you take him!' when I went to Nebraska for The BLART.

 

 

Well, long story short, Torque has turned out to be one cool little doodlebug.  I love him and the weird little things he does - like sleep like this:

 

He also does this thing where he picks up sticks that are bigger than he is (not difficult to do) and brings them in the house to chew on.  He's always very, very proud of himself and his big stick(s).  (And, let's face it:  what male ISN'T impressed with himself and his big stick?)  (Sorry, mom.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also likes to work out at the gym.  To wit:

LOVE.

So, I have this friend named Libby.  Libby's into fitness like I am, and she invited me over for a run and homemade sushi.  Jodee came with me, as did Torque. 

Libby and I ran 4 miles without cease, yay!  I have no pics of that, but I do have pics of the sushi-making:

 

 

 

 

I think the captions speak for themselves.  :)