Sidebar Refresh

When was the last time you took a look at your sidebar? 

The sidebar is one of those things that we set up when we set up our blogs, and then we kind of forget about it. Perhaps you add something to it from time to time (like when April rolls around), but then you don't think about it again. So, today is just a friendly reminder that it might be time to take a look and weed out some things. Do all your sidebar bits still work? 

First, go take a look at your sidebar. You can either click on "View Blog" or click on the eye icon on any of your posts. 

Slowly scroll. Is there anything there that no longer works? Is there anything there that you no longer want there? Back in April I noticed I had a lot of A to Z Challenge trophies that took up an awful lot of space, so I moved the majority of them to a page and only left the most recent on the sidebar. 

Adding to or deleting from your sidebar is pretty simple. First, go to "Layout".

Then, scroll down to the sidebar. 

Anything you want to delete, first click on "Edit". Then you'll get the choices of "Remove", "Cancel", or "Save". "Remove" will delete it. "Cancel" will leave it there. "Save" is if you make any changes to it (although, when I just check it, I generally click on "Save" just to be safe). 

Of course, not all of my gadgets have labels, so if you're anything like me, be extra careful if you're planning to delete anything. 

Speaking of, have you looked at the gadgets lately? 

Now might be a good time to add some of these. Or update them. 

The main one I want to point out is the HTML/JavaScript one. That's how you can add things not from Google/Blogger to your sidebar. You just need to get the HTML code. Most of the time, if you're adding something that you're getting from another blogger (like the A to Z Challenge trophies), they'll provide the HTML for you. 

If you add a gadget, you can just put it where you want it by dragging the box. Make sure to hit save (the floppy disc icon). Then go back and look to make sure all the gadgets are positioned where you want them. 

What do you have on your sidebar? (Is there anything I should add?) When was the last time you checked it/updated it? Is there anything on my sidebar you have questions about? 

Out of Phase

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

I've been watching a lot of NOVA lately. (I have a bunch recorded on my DVR.) And while watching one on the formation of Earth's atmosphere, I had an odd thought. 

What if the universe is teeming with life, but those lifeforms (on other planets) exist out of phase with our own reality? 

I'll (probably) resume my ranting next week. So many things to rant about. It's good to not only rant, though. 

Starting the Sweater

After finishing the second beanie, I immediately began working on eldest nephew's sweater. 

A refresher for those of you who weren't around a month ago: when I visited brother and family in Ohio, I asked them if they wanted me to knit/crochet them anything for Christmas. I got a list. I searched patterns. I immediately began working on a beanie that I already had yarn for. And I ordered yarn online for the sweater. 

It took a little over a week to get the yarn I ordered. (I got notification that they had tried to deliver the yarn and I wasn't home. Although, ahem, that came on a day when I was home all day.) When the yarn finally arrived, I set it aside as I was working on a second beanie. 

I started the sweater on July 30th. 

Decent progress thus far. This is the back. I'm about halfway through. (Eldest nephew is tall, so I'm making this a bit longer than is called for.) The pattern is called When Harry Met Lucy, via Knitty. It's a fairly straightforward cabled pullover. Nothing I can't handle. 

It's a bulky yarn, so it works up quicker. It's getting to the point where it'll be on my lap, so it may get set aside due to heat. We'll see. I'd very much like to get the back completely finished by the end of the month. 

I'd very much like to finish it in time for Christmas, but we'll see. I still have this week before school officially begins. Our district is starting later this year, for some odd reason. I don't seem to knit as much when I'm working, but unlike the dragon pattern, this one doesn't require special attention. At least, it doesn't until I make a stupid mistake. (I haven't done so yet, but it happens.) 

Now I have time to plot out what I'll work on next. Or concurrently. I might need breaks from this sweater, so it'll be a good idea to have a couple other things on the needles. 

Are You a Cookie, Brownie, Macaron, or Cupcake?

Quizly sends me daily quizzes. If I have time that day, I take them. So, when this one popped up... 

Are You a Cookie, Brownie, Macaron, or Cupcake?

...I thought cool. Why not? 

And... 

I didn't get cookie or brownie or macaron or cupcake. I got... donut... Donut? 

Surprise! You're a Donut. You're spontaneous, wild, and bursting with fun. Life's too short to be basic, and you live by that motto. You bring chaos—in the best way possible—and people never know what to expect with you.

Yeah, no. 

Spontaneous? Wild? Bursting with fun? Chaos? Nope. Not me at all. 

I mean, donut is cool. I'm good with donut. But, that interpretation? Wildly wrong. 

But these things aren't meant to actually tell you anything about yourself. They're just things to do. So, let me know in the comments. What did you get? Was the interpretation accurate? Or wildly off, like mine? 

13 Netflix Shows

A couple weeks ago, I listed shows from Apple TV Plus that I have seen and rather liked. In the same theme, I thought I'd do the same for Netflix. This is by no means a best-of list. These are just my rather limited choices that I liked. And, of course, it's a Thursday 13. 

1. Midnight at the Pera Palace: A reporter in Istanbul doing a puff piece on a hotel's 125th anniversary manages to travel back in time about a hundred years and of course throws history off course. I wrote about this show already, and I hope they give us a season 3 (although I have no idea if it'll happen), but the two seasons are still excellent. If you like these sorts of stories (and don't mind that the show was dubbed into English). 

2. Travelers: Five travelers from the future have taken over the bodies of people who were about to die, and their mission... Well, I'm not sure what their mission was, but it was fascinating to watch. Three seasons (with a finale, not a cliffhanger) were not quite enough, but a great show nonetheless. 

3. 3-Body Problem: You may have heard of this one. A group of college friends end up in the middle of... Well, it's hard to explain without giving the whole thing away. Give it three to four episodes, for that's how long it takes to really get off the ground. And then just hold on. I'm not sure if there's going to be a season two, but it really does need a season two.

4. Man on the Inside: Ted Danson plays a retired widower who is driving his daughter crazy. So, he takes on a "project". He takes a job with a private investigator as the "inside man" in a nursing home. He's investigating a theft. Sort of. (He's not a very good investigator.) This one is a comedy and it's definitely as good as you've heard. 

5. Warrior Nun: A dead, disabled young woman is revived with a "halo", and now she's part of a group of warrior nuns who hunt demons. It was only two seasons and then cancelled, but it was fun while it lasted. 

6. Lucifer: This one was on broadcast TV, then cancelled, then brought back to be finished off on Netflix. Six seasons (and it ended with a finale). The devil left hell because he was bored. He hangs around an LA police detective and helps solve homicides. (Yes, a procedural.) 

7. The Good Place: Originally on broadcast, but now all four seasons are on Netflix. Eleanor died and went to "the good place", only she knows she does not belong there. So, she's going to do all she can to fake it so she doesn't get sent to "the bad place". It's a comedy. If you haven't seen it, totally worth it. 

8. North of North: A 26-year-old woman is trying to find her place in the world. Hijinks ensue. It's only one season so far (a second is coming). What's unique about this show is that the main character Siaja is Inuk and living in a small Arctic town. It feels familiar and relatable in a place that is foreign to most of us (I suspect). 

9. Bridgerton: This is another one you may have heard of. Historical romance. Three seasons thus far (plus a spinoff). The eight children of the Bridgerton clan will find their spouses one by one (each season). If you like historical romance, this is the show for you. 

10. The Queen's Gambit: This one season and done miniseries is based on a book. A young girl in an orphanage discovers chess, and the game gives her access to money and success in the mid-twentieth century. 

11. Wednesday: Wednesday Addams (of the Addams Family) has been sent to a boarding school after she has some "issues" at her school near her home. Only one season so far, but I believe that season two is coming soon. 

12. A Discovery of Witches: Based on a trilogy of books, these three seasons are about an academic witch who has inadvertently stumbled upon the "book of life" for all the "creatures" (witches, vampires, and demons). It was originally on cable TV, but now the whole series is on Netflix. I just finished rewatching (which was great to watch it all at once rather than with a year plus between seasons). 

13. Dead Boy Detectives: Another one and done series, sadly cancelled too soon. The dead boys are ghosts who solve mysteries for the also dead. 

Anyone have any good Netflix recommendations. There's so much there, it's hard to know what else to try. 

Setting Up the Comments

So, um, I'm starting to run out of ideas. But, I've only got a couple more weeks until school starts back up. If anyone has any good ideas on a how-to-in-Blogger post, let me know in the comments. 

(Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué did a couple posts on blogging things as well. First: How to create a custom "Back to Top" button in Blogger, with a reading progress indicator. And then: How to add a visual box such as a display box or horizontal scroll code to a blog post, with a "copy" button. Both are new to me and very cool. I thought you might enjoy them as well.) 

Comments. In Blogger, they can be glitchy. So, we each chose our comment boxes based on that which we felt worked the best for each of us. 

(About a month ago I did a post on how to respond to comments via email. This can work with your commenting box choices if you wish.) 

To adjust your comments settings, go to "Settings":

Then scroll down to "Comments":

You can click on any of these. Let's start with "Comment location". As you can see, I have it set to "Embedded". There are other choices: 

I like "Embedded" because it has that little "Reply" option. So you can directly reply to any individual comment. Alas, some people have trouble with Blogger recognizing them. When they go to comment: 

(Using the arrow key next to the "Comment as:") they can't select their name. I don't know why this is. I know I sometimes (when I'm using a different computer, like at school) have to log in using my Google account. Or I'm logged in, but I have to tell the thing to use my account. But for some, they can't get this to work. 

(I don't know if it's a cookies thing--like they need to clear their cookies, or if they have to turn something on or off. When I use "Incognito Mode", there was a toggle I turned off, and then suddenly I could log in and stay logged in. All I know is it won't work for some people.) 

Because of this issue, many bloggers use "Popup window" instead. When you go to comment: 

You get a popup: 

Which, now that I'm doing this, I see it has a little orange "Reply". So, popup windows do reply now? Wow. 

The reason I hadn't gone to the popup window (besides the annoyance of having to scroll through a second screen to get to the place where you comment) was because you couldn't reply directly to people. But if you can... 

Although, it is a second step. Whichever works best for you is the way to go. (If you do the popup window, let me know if it has glitches, too.) 

Then we've got "Who can comment?":

I have "Anyone" selected. Because of the glitches with some people not able to log in. You can limit it to people with Google accounts as well. "Only members of this blog" only works if you have a closed group of subscribers. Otherwise, you're limiting your reach. (I can think of reasons why someone would want a closed blog, but I doubt that's for many of us here.) 

"Anyone" includes anonymous commenters. And some of you might not want to allow anonymous commenters. Spammers use anonymous, although some spammers have accounts they use as well. I don't have a big spam problem, mostly because I get all my comments emailed to me, so any spam gets deleted from the blog within a day. Depending on your reach and how much time you have to moderate your comments, you might want to exclude anonymous. That's when you select "Users with Google Accounts". 

Then, finally, did you know you can write your own "Comment form message"? 

If you click on the message, it'll take you to a form where you can write your own. You can use basic HTML for line breaks, bold, italics, and such. 

Most of us set up our comments and have since forgotten about it. And that's fine. Whatever works. But, if you've been wondering about changing things, you can always do that. If you hate it, you can always go back to what you had before.

Have you considered changing your comments? Do you have any other blogging topic ideas for me? 

A Quibble

Today is my Uncle Frank's birthday. He reads the blog, so feel free to wish him a happy birthday in the comments. 

Last week I shared a graphic I found on Bluesky about the ICE raids snatching more non-criminals than criminals (even though they said they'd go after the criminals). One comment attacked the veracity of the statistics used. 

And, the thing is, I don't care. I don't care if the statistics were wrong. (I mean, I won't knowingly share fake statistics. There's enough false information out there. No need to add to it.) My point was that the masked thugs kidnapping people off the streets are indiscriminate. The comment talked about all undocumented immigrants being criminals. 

(Of course, the thugs are kidnapping citizens and legal immigrants. These aren't targeted raids. They're going after brown people and people who are "hindering" their kidnapping attempts.) 

This whole thing is not about immigration. The legal immigration system is broken. 

This whole thing is a racist dog whistle trying to "cleanse" this country of non-white people. (If you didn't catch that, you're not paying attention.) And, it's also a way for the thug in charge to punish the parts of the country that have gone loudly anti this regime. 

The cruelty is the point. 

(It's only hurting the economy. And yet, they're still planning to ramp this up to make it even more cruel.) 

And those who are arguing any sort of "but they deserve this" are arguing for concentration camps. Which are designed to be cruel. No one deserves to be rounded up and thrown into these terrible locations (many times for the profit of the concentration camp owners). 

If you think we're being "overrun" by immigrants, you're a racist. Have you been to any place that has a lot of immigrants? I live here. Really, we're not being overrun. We're fine. 

I've been in the newcomer classes at the middle and high school. Some of them are badly behaved. But I don't fear for my life. 

I fear for their lives, now. Because with this indiscriminate kidnapping and imprisonment, how many of them might be swept up in that? And yes, they're going after kids. 

We're just a step or two away from death camps. Seriously. The rhetoric has started. These human beings are being called dehumanizing names. That's how it starts. 

And I had a comment attacking the statistics. 

Don't apologize for the concentration camps. Oppose them. Loudly. Call your reps. Remind people that this sort of thing has happened before, and as a whole the world was horrified. 

The people doing this deserve to be tried for Crimes Against Humanity. The atrocities are already happening. We must all oppose this. Now.

Two Down

When I visited family at the beginning of last month, I asked them what they wanted me to knit/crochet them for Christmas. Middle nephew requested a beanie in "Lakers colors". 

So, first I went on a search for beanie patterns that utilized two colors. I found this pattern. That'd work. 

Then I headed to the local Michael's. I knew I'd find the yarn there, and I did. 

Unfortunately, digital images do something to the color purple. (I've discussed this problem in the past.) So, you probably can't see how perfect those colors really are. 

Right after finishing random beanie, I started on this one. My gauge was a little off, so I knit a couple sizes down to compensate. I finished it on Wednesday. 

My father was kind enough to model it for me. 

I knit the "child/teen" size using the lengths for the adult size. I made it a bit too long, but slouchy works, right? 

I rather like the way it turned out. It was way easier to knit than I imagined. 

I had read someplace that the best way to do colorwork is to hold one color in each hand, "picking" for one color and "throwing" for the other. (Non-knitters will have no idea what that sentence meant. It's not critical, really.) Turns out that works really well, especially for a pattern as regular as this. Plus, it makes the floats on the inside really regular. 

So, now it's on to eldest nephew's sweater. That will definitely take longer than a week to complete. (Eldest nephew is 19 years old and over 6 feet tall.) 

And I'll be contemplating the rest of the Christmas projects. It's better to have them all going at the same time just in case I get stuck on one for whatever reason. 

After modeling the beanie, I offered to make my father one as well. He said he wouldn't mind. 

(As I got questions, I'll give a brief rundown of the family. I've got my brother and his wife. And their five kids--in order of age: niece, eldest nephew, middle nephew (15), and the twins (12).) 

General Knowledge Quiz

Quizly now sends me a new quiz every day. Last week this one popped up: 

Can You Pass This Increasingly Difficult General Knowledge Quiz?

When they warn me these things are going to be hard, I believe them. And then, they're not. But that's a good thing. For us.

I got 13 out of 15. I missed the capitals of countries. (Geography is my weak subject, so no surprise there.) The rest weren't as hard as advertised.

Let me know how you did in the comments. 

Happy Birthday to Me 13

Today is my birthday. (No, it's not a decade one.) And, as it's Thursday, it's time for a Thursday 13. 

Several years ago, my brother got all of our very old pictures digitized. And then he uploaded them to Google Images. In honor of my birthday, I'm posting images of me as a kid. Just because. 

1. Me as a newborn. Although, I have a couple pics where I had just... ahem... emerged, I think I'll go with one after I've been cleaned up a bit. 

2. I searched year by year, and this is me at somewhere near one-year-old. 

3. I do not remember this pic, but I recognize the couch, and I recognize the room. This was taken in the house I grew up in, in the living room. (The kitchen was behind that wall behind me.) 

4. Same location as photo #3, just a different angle. And about a year later. 

5. My hair still kind of curls like that. But I wear it longer now, so I can kind of tame that weird wave away. 

6. I vaguely remember this dress. 

7. As the years go on, it gets harder to find pictures of me solo. The feet and hand to the right of me in this photo are of my brother. 

8. I look perturbed. I don't know why I was perturbed. But I loved this dress. 

9. The year I was the Pink Panther for Halloween. (Mom made the costume. Mom made all my costumes until the costumes stopped somewhere around junior high.)

10. Not my cowboy hat. But we kids liked "borrowing" the cowboy hat. 

11. I remember this jacket. I don't remember anything else from this photo. 

12. The t-shirt says "Catalina" as in Catalina Island. (We had visited not long before this.) 

13. Me in glasses. I think I still have this pair lying around somewhere. I started wearing contact lenses when I was a freshman in high school. 

Customizing Blogger

Danielle asked about templates on Blogger. Alas, I have no idea what those are. When I searched for them, I got a bunch of third-party sites and designers doing various things. If anyone has any expertise, I think there are many who would appreciate a blog post about how they work. 

So, in lieu of writing about templates, today I'm going to talk about customizing your blog. Because that is something I know how to do. 

From your first screen, click on "Theme". (If the sidebar doesn't pop up, click on the "hamburger"--the three lines--in the upper left hand corner.) You can click on each of these images to make them bigger if needed. 

I think most everyone has gone through and picked a theme that they like. And that's cool. Personally, I like to keep a background image of something I knit. My current background image is of a blanket I knit a little over a year ago. (I like to switch that out every so often. I haven't knit anything that would make a good blog background recently.) 

To use your own image, you click on "Customize" and "Background", then you can add your image there. 

This bit requires some trial and error. Because, depending on the image you use, you may wish to adjust how you do "Alignment". I have mine as "Tile" and "Scroll with page" because that way you can actually see the knit piece in the background. Other types of images will work better with different configurations. 

You can also adjust the "Layout", especially if you want to add things to a sidebar. (And it is a good idea to clean up your sidebar from time to time. When was the last time you checked to make sure everything was current and working?) 

The last tab, "Advanced", is where you fix fonts and colors. From my image, you can see Page Text, Backgrounds, Links, and Blog Title. The rest of the list contains: Tabs Text, Tabs Background, Post Title, Date Header, Post, Gadgets, Footer, Footer Links, and Add CSS. 

Click on the item you want to play with. Up will pop the option to change the font and/or colors associated with it. 

If you plan on playing with this a bit, set aside some time for it. You might be surprised by what you can do. 

There is one last bit that I kind of skipped over. The arrow next to "customize". 

If you click on HTML, you get the code behind the whole blog. Which is fascinating to look at, especially if you kind of understand how HTML works. I wouldn't change anything there unless you know what you're doing, but if there's some formatting issue that you're continuing to have issues with, that would be your final way to fix it.

Have you customized your blog? If there was one thing you could change on your blog (that you haven't attempted), what would it be?

Breaking Up Families

I keep seeing headlines about a certain dead felon and his "files". But I'm angry about the concentration camps. 

I don't like living in interesting times. 

Some articles I ran across: 

• Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain
• The Landlord Gutting America’s Hospitals
• 'Hell on Earth': Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse

Feel free to rant in the comments. 

A Finished Random Beanie

Last week I told you about the first beanie of my Christmas projects. I was about halfway through random beanie when I decided it would be the perfect birthday present for my sister-in-law. (All the birthdays for that branch of the family are done for this year except for hers and eldest nephew, who was born the day after Christmas.) 

And I finished it on Thursday. 

I modeled it as it's easier to see worn. I really like this colorway, especially for SIL. It's perfect. 

I rather enjoyed knitting this. It may look complicated, but the yarn did all the work. There were a couple interesting rows (where you pull up a strand of yarn and where you tack that yarn down), but otherwise it was a 2x2 rib. 

It went fast. I'm tempted to make a bunch of these in various colorways. But, that would require buying yarn, and the whole point of using this pattern was to use up the yarn I already had. 

My one complaint is this top bit. I deliberately made the "slouchy" version. To get this to flatten out, I need to block it. Which I have not done. I need a balloon or something, which I do not have. Of course, just wearing it long enough to stretch it out will fix all of that. 

Otherwise, yeah. I'm good with this. 

I have one other colorway that I might make for my brother. Would this be too busy for a guy? I have some time to ponder as I've already begun middle nephew's beanie in "Lakers colors". I'll show that off next week. (Not sure if it'll be finished or not, though.) 

Oh, and just to note on the other thing I mentioned last week, the yarn for eldest nephew's sweater arrived. So, I can begin on that sweater any day.