Bits

Posted on March 12, 2010

Late last night while I was waiting for an email response, I thought that I'd go through the 37 abandoned blog posts in my "drafts" folder. The majority of them were unfinished, but a few were completed entries that I decided not to post for one reason or another (usually because they were angry rants that I thought I had better sit on for a few days). Surprisingly, a full half of the abandoned posts were either geeky or technical in nature, and I ended up ditching them because nobody except me would ever care to read them.

Then, just as I was ready to do a DELETE->ALL on my drafts folder, I had a change of heart. That was a lot of work I was about to trash, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This is what always happens, and I justify it by saying "well, I'll finish them up and post them someday"... secretly knowing that it will never happen. That's how I ended up with 37 drafts in the first place.

But just because I didn't want to post them here doesn't mean that I can't find another home for them. It was then that I got the bright idea to dust off my Tumblr account and re-brand it as a repository for all the crap that's left over from my blog. Blogography Bits was born...

I've temporarily slapped a DaveToon on a Tumblr template, but I'll eventually integrate it into my site when I find some free time.

So far I've posted...

• An "Ask Me Anything!" form. I already had one of these at Formspring, but thought it would be easier to manage here. If you've ever wanted to ask me something, here's your chance! You can even ask anonymously if you want. Replies then get posted back to Tumblr once I've had a chance to answer them. Rude, abusive, or offensive questions will be deleted, but I'll try to answer whatever else I can.
• A rant spelling out my frustrations with Gowalla. Here's a perfect example of something I wrote a while back and didn't publish because I didn't think anybody would care. But, if you're a Gowalla user, it might be worth a read, so off to Blogography Bits it goes.
• A transcript from a completely useless chat with Charter Cable. Just like always, I got the runaround followed by a long, drawn-out bag of crap that solved nothing. What's funny is that I Tweeted my frustrations and got immediate help from Charter's excellent customer service agents on Twitter. They fixed everything they could on their end, then gave me clear instructions on how to solve the problem on my end. Brilliant. THIS is customer service!
• A link to NASA's Big Blue Marble Shot on Flickr. And here's an example of something I tried to make into a blog post, but failed to make work (hey, it happens!). Usually I would hold these until Bullet Sunday and dump them there, but sometimes it will be easier to just dump them on Tumblr. If this really takes off for me, Bullet Sunday may eventually transition to be bullets with the "Best of Blogography Bits" or something.

With more to come.

Maybe nobody will bother reading my leftover crap, but that's okay. It's still a happier alternative to deleting stuff that doesn't work out for my blog!

Comments

I'm just waiting until you have a post called "Kibbles and Bits" Pet or no pet, it just screams to be posted.

Posted by marty.mankins on March 12, 2010 | Reply

   

I've had this exact same idea... a place to store my writings that wouldn't fit the blog, but I could have for search engines, reference, or just in case someone really wanted to dive into them.

A lot of them are technical in nature, some more are political, and others are just plain not interesting except to a small few.

But I haven't done it yet, and if I did it NOW, it'd look like I copied you.

So I'll wait a week or so.

Posted by whall on March 12, 2010 | Reply

   

For some reason Blogography Bits gives me the impression of teeny little Daves and Bad Monkeys running around. I have no idea why.

Posted by Sarah on March 12, 2010 | Reply

   

Sometimes I go through my drafts and absolutely LOVE that they are there because I take the beginning of them and turn them into something new and refreshing.

However, most of my drafts should stay that way. There is a lot of angry Hilly in those drafts and my god, she is all venom and shit!

Posted by Hilly Sue on March 12, 2010 | Reply

   

A truly brilliant idea! I will happily read the marbits. :)

Posted by Poppy on March 12, 2010 | Reply

   

Dude! I will totally read your leftover bits of whatever. Loved your Gowalla rant -- my main beef (and keep in mind, I DO live in Austin, where Gowalla is supposed to be extra cool) is that they do not yet have a native app for Android, which means I have to use the mobile site on my Eris, and the mobile site SUCKS TIMES A MILLION. It is so, so, SO BAD and non-functional and stupid. Argh. So yeah.

Posted by Badger on March 13, 2010 | Reply

   

What Sarah said. :)

Posted by Sybil Law on March 13, 2010 | Reply

   

Even your leftovers are delicious!

Posted by The Momshell on March 13, 2010 | Reply

   

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