Will the real Nutwood Junction please stand up?

All new entries will be made over at the current Nutwood Junction. This site is archival, and contains the entries from my AOL Journal. Feel free to browse if you like, of course, but the new stuff will be over at my new digs.

http://nutwoodjunction.blogspot.com/

See you there!

From 9-17-08...this seemed appropriate

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.


~~ Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

On my way home from the store yesterday, the song "Closing Time" by Semisonic was playing on my compilation CD. That quote is used in the song, and it has always "spoken" to me...when it played yesterday, I was a little surprised to find tears spring immediately to my eyes. Well...not totally surprised, because that happens to me a lot. (Ask Ken!)

Maybe it's just that summer is coming to a close, and we'll soon be into winter. Winter always seems like an end, but I've also come to believe that it's a beginning. "Spring: The Prequel," if you will. There's a cycle in the seasons, just as there is in our lives. We've all felt the promise of a new beginning, but there's a measure of bittersweet in realizing that we are also leaving a part of us behind. Sometimes it's not bittersweet at all, and it's welcomed. Either way, it's turning a page in the book of our lives. Some of those pages aren't worth re-reading, but others can be revisited with fondness. I suspect that we all have certain pages that we wish were never written, or that we'd like to burn, but they are ours, like it or not. Some people simply re-write those pages, and re-invent the occurrences that have happened. These "mental editors" choose to tear those pages out and hide them away from others, but they still exist. Pages from our life book cannot be destroyed, no matter how hard you may try, or how desperately you try to cross out certain passages, or write over the lines. The ink is indelible, and while it might fade until almost illegible, it is never truly gone and can never be erased.

The song "Closing Time" is about something as mundane as shooing people out of a club when it closes. For those of us who used to go out dancing a lot--and I mean A LOT--we all know the bouncer's mantra: "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here!" Ha ha! At that time in my life, I was with someone who started out as a promising beginning...but that beginning ended...badly. The next beginning also seemed promising...and that one ended, too. (I wish I could re-write those parts...but I can't.) My next new beginning was the best one, and it's a story that is still unfolding. I enjoy reading each page as it is written, and can hardly wait to see what happens next.

So as the night winds down, the band packs up their gear, and the festivities come to a close, I know exactly who I want to take me home.

Closing Time

Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world

Closing time, turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl

Closing time, one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer

Closing time, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

Take me home

Closing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from

Closing time, this room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come

So gather up your jackets, move into the exits

I hope you have found a friend

Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

Take me home

Closing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

Take me home

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

I know who I want to take me home

Take me home

Closing time

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Update

If you haven't seen the post yet, you can find it here:

http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2008/10/08/blogger.com/4660

It has a link to where we can migrate our journals, but I haven't tried it yet. Good luck!

A few thoughts

According to Vish, everything will migrate over to Blogger: text, pictures, videos. I don't think animated graphics will transfer, but everything else should. More info will be coming soon about the migration.

Apparently, they won't be able to migrate things over to an account that has the same name. I.e., my new Blogger blog is called Nutwood Junction. When they migrate these AOL files over and the prompt asks the name of the blog where they should go, if I try to use Nutwood Junction, it might say that name is already in use. I guess you can't do this with an existing blog. So my idea last night was to create another Blogger blog when the time comes, just for the archives from THIS journal. Then I can link to it on my Blogger blog, and all my archives will be right there. Seems like this will work, and I'll see if Vish can confirm that.

I also thought last night about needing to modify accounts, including Technorati, to reflect our new addresses. I did that this afternoon, although I'm sure I'll think of other ones I need to update.

One nice thing I've noticed so far is that there are no restrictions on HTML codes. As you know, AOL had a limited list of allowed sites, and not every code could be used. I added a fun little hit counter to my Blogger blog today--it looks like an odometer! I think that seems appropriate, considering my Route 66 obsession--er, interest.

 

 

Tags: AOL Journals, Blogger, Technorati

Some good news for a change!

I've confirmed with Vish that we will be able to move our archives--entries AND comments--to our new Blogger site. The most recent entry on Magic Smoke says that we will need to do this, it won't be done automatically by AOL, but I'm sure Vish will be putting up instructions on where we need to go and what we need to do. I hope that helps everyone feel a little better about this!

Comment alert!

Sweet!

 

On your Blogger site, if you go into settings and into the Comments section, there is an option at the bottom to receive a "comment notification email." I put in my AOL address, and got my first alert from Lisa. It even includes the text of the comment! YES!

 

I still haven't found anything for Entry alerts, but I'll take what I can get.

Transitioning

 

Well, I'm loadin' up the truck and movin' to Blogger...eeeee

 

Blogspot, that is.

 

Smaller field.

 

Less space.

 

Movie stars.

 

Okay, probably not the last so much, but not too many platforms had the wide open space we've enjoyed here on AOL Journals. I don't know of any, as a matter of fact. It will be missed, but I'll adjust.

 

I'll still be posting here for a while, too, as we all make the transition. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about going to Blogger. I'm definitely no expert, but I might be able to help. I certainly will if I can.

 

A couple of things I've learned so far:

 

While there's no true equivalent of Alerts, you can "follow" a blog, either publicly or privately. So far, I've been choosing privately, just...because. I don't really know why. I'm not quite sure where that info shows up, and I'm not into collecting friends like on MySpace. But the nice thing is that if you click on "follow" on a blog, it adds it to your "reading list," and includes the first few lines of new posts. (Unless your journal is private; then the text doesn't show up.) Hmm, I just looked and realized I don't have a "follow" on my blog...is it because it's my own? Someone let me know if it shows up when you look at mine.

 

Anyhoo, it's not as easy as getting an alert by email, but it'll have to do. Oh, also, if you use Google Reader (and I have been for some time now, with this journal, as a way of archiving my posts), "following" a journal will add the feed to your Reader list. That way you can read a whole bunch of blogs at once.

 

As for getting started, first you need a gmail account, if you don't already have one. Go to Google and click on "gmail" at the top and do what you need to do. Again, I've had a gmail account for some time now, but only because I use Google Docs, Google Reader, and Picasa. I don't use it for email, I'll be retaining my AOL email address, and that's how to reach me.

 

Once you've got your gmail address, the easiest way to create a blog seems to be to go to blogger.com, and it should be fairly self-explanatory from there. You can fiddle with lots of different settings, and when I first started this a while back, I had already set my layout, background, etc., so it was easy for me to start right up. There do seem to be lots of neat options for backgrounds and layouts, so just play with it until you find your grail. Ha ha! As for the privacy settings ("permission" in this case), you can set it so that anyone can read it, no one can read it but you, or that people whose email addresses you provide get an invitation to join you (i.e., a private journal).

 

One nice feature I've noticed is that to leave a comment, you have to type in those squiggly letters. I've always thought that was kind of a pain, and sometimes I'm like, "Is that d or cl?" but it also will cut down on unwanted, spam-type comments.

 

Oh, and you can name your new blog what you want--maybe you want to keep the same name as you have here (if it's available), or a similar one, or start with a fresh new look and name. I was happy to be able to get the Nutwood Junction name, so as I wrote to friend Pat, Nutwood abides. <wink> Here's the URL:

 

http://nutwoodjunction.blogspot.com/

 

Stop by and say hi, and see what you think of the layout, and if it's one you might like to try. Oh, and although I can't confirm this, I'm getting the impression that if we're on Blogger, AOL may be able to migrate our archives over there. I cannot confirm that. I hope we'll hear more soon. Vish and Guido are keeping us informed over at Magic Smoke, so check there for updates.

 

I'll also let you know here if I hear any scuttlebutt that I can repeat, and I'll try to pass along any helpful hints, or things I discover with Blogger. And don't hesitate to leave me a comment or email me at Luvrte66@aol.com if you're wondering about something. Like I said, I'll help if I can.

 

Good luck, J-Landers, and let's get crackin'!

Tags: AOL Journals, Blogger