Friday, January 29, 2010

Blogger vs. the other ones

I've been on Blogger for what now seems as ever, but as you've learned from my previous post I decided to host my wedding blog on WordPress. I'm not quite sure why I went with WordPress, but it was probably due to some great designs that I had seen around - and tabs. I love tabs! I guess that there was a certain hope in there for something more sophisticated.

Now that I have both, I can see the pros and cons of both and I'm not sure of what I want to do. Do I want to keep this blog here, where it's been all along? Do I want to move it over to WordPress? Or about some of the other sites, such as TypePad and Tumblr? It's so hard since there are so many options and no "perfect" option.

Since I have only tried WP and Blogger (both as free accounts), here are my personal pros and cons for each:

Blogger:
  • Pro: You can edit your CSS!!! Not that I made that many changes to this template, but I like the fact that I can change anything and everything that I want around.
  • Pro: A history, a sense of belonging.
  • Con: Limited & mostly ugly templates.
  • Con: No tabs.
  • Con: Puts you in charge of deleting spam (and I have just deleted 10 spammed messages today!)
  • Con: I have to use a web counter service - and can't even remember my password anymore!
WordPress:
  • Pro: The Dashboard is genius. It makes my life so much easier.
  • Pro: Included stats! It's addictive.
  • Pro: Automatic detection of spam comments.
  • Pro: The Widgets make (certain) things easy!
  • Con: No CSS to edit (unless you are willing to pay).
  • Con: No perfect template (unless you are willing to pay).
So. While it seems that my preference is leaning more towards WP, I'm still holding on for dear life to my CSS and the option to add certain things, like my DOPPLR badge or LinkWithin...

What do you think? How did you choose your blogging platform and what's keeping you there?

Friday, January 08, 2010

Yikers

No update since August... shame on me!

I have truly been overly busy, consumed even, but ideally, as always, I would like to think that things will get better. "This year, I'll do better! I'll write more!" For the first time ever though I can honestly say that I don't think that my blog neglect will be addressed anytime soon - I just don't have the time. But I do say this: later on this year, there will be plenty of time.

What is this all about? Well, Travis and I got engaged in June 2009 and will be tying the knot in beautiful, sunny Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We love to travel, so a destination wedding was de rigueur! As such though, there is tons of planning to do - which is mostly not travel-related. To keep things logical and organized, we have started a wedding blog for our nuptials. As you can guess, all of the updates and attention have been directed towards our new blog.

As such though, one of the many wedding traditions is the honeymoon, and we plan to live this one to the fullest. So, if there are any readers left on this blog, worry not! There are guarantied blog updates up ahead. We both have been dreaming of hitting the road again and seeing the world. With this in mind, we have decided to have our honeymoon be a great tribute to how we’ve met - and who were are. When people ask us where we are going on our honeymoon, we say “everywhere”, and we really mean it! We will be hitting the road for *two years* and we hope to be able to hit every continents, see world wonders, drive and hike, eat and drink, learn and explore. From Timbuktu to Tuktoyaktuk, we’d love to see it all!

Currently our plans are to leave Vancouver in September 2010, but this date could be moved forward. Until the wedding is over, little trip planning will be happening but as soon as we return from Mexico, expect a lively blog! Until then, you can follow our adventures on our other blog.

Happy New Year everyone! This will be a good one.