In the meantime, to move the metaphor in a different direction, if we've been up flying around trying out new tools, we have half the length of the runway we were given to LAND the plane!
Yesterday I spent quite a bit of energy in exploring My Fitness Pal. By this morning, I had figured out how to post a blog over there and notify folks (on that platform) that I had done so. It's all pretty automated! However, one weakness of the blogging over there (to my way of thinking) is that photos are harder to add. You have to host them on some other photo site and link them in, based on the sketchy descriptions and helps I read.
Whereas, here on Blogger, I have access to all the photos my phone takes, seamlessly, since I have Google on my phone (it's a Pixel), and Blogger is a Google tool, and the photos upload automatically. It's even easier than it was on Spark, which required me to save the photos on my computer and then upload them to Spark! Welcome to the integration of a monopoly!
As I recall, my brother Kevin liked the food tracker on MFP better than Spark, but I was so invested in Spark by the time he made this observation that I wasn't about to change. Over time, I had become complacent. Now that I won't have access there, I've been logging nutrition over on Cronometer, which seems to have ZERO communications tools to other users, but a powerful connection for professional nutritionists and their clients. It's also a Cadillac tool, with an incredible data base of global nutrition standards and a lab behind it.
Thus, the energy spent on MFP yesterday. One thing I found was a lot of other Sparkers easily finding me there, and I already have a group of "friends", and keep finding more as familiar Spark Names keep cropping up in my feed as friends find other friends! Looks like a fast and easy way to stay connected with more people.
As of crossover day, here are my own plans (subject to change in the next 36 days or even beyond):
- I will keep on blogging here on BlogSpot as my main blog, because of its rich tools!
- I will keep on doing my nutrition tracking on Cronometer because of its integration with my wearables (Fitbit) and my health tracking tools (Withings collection of scale, thermometer, and blood pressure cuff). And privacy. I don't need to have that stuff visible to the world.
- But I will also keep exploring My Fitness Pal beyond what I have so far. I tried its food tracker yesterday, and was not a huge fan, probably because Cronometer has already figured out most of my regular choices and saved them for easy selection! However, since there are different Sparkers there, and the easy "cheering" of likes? I'll hang out at least SOME, from my "tent" or "camper".
- I may blog there, but since photos are so much work, it will be more a "words only" kind of blogging. Might be good for some purposes! This morning I posted a blog on MFP on "How to blog on MFP"!
sounds like a great day
ReplyDeleteToday, yes starting well. Yesterday, honestly, exhausting! I commented to my kid sis that this exploring tools and reviewing them was like working a full time job used to be. Documenting how to use them for others? I used to be well paid for very similar work!
DeleteThanks for all your hard work . I hope this all works out well for you . ROSESAREBLUE
ReplyDeleteThank you. I hope you find a good landing spot, too! Nothing but good wishes for my fellow travelers!
DeleteI agree, this is my most powerful motivational tool, too: writing it out!
ReplyDeleteYou are so wonderfully thorough in your research! I have no doubt you've got exactly the tools most will need!!
ReplyDeleteWell, I got the ones *I* need, Penny, and if it turns out they are useful for others, so much the better. I did not put a whole lot of focus on challenges, etc. as those haven't been a big part of what makes me tick.
DeleteThanks for sharing your impressions!
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite the mosaic of options available to cover our various post-SP communication, blogging, and tracking needs!
And once Spark is gone, we'll see how good a job we did trying to preserve connections!
DeleteAppreciate all that you do. ~PHOENIX1949
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI’m still stuck in the mud. I have downloaded the apps but am still crossing my fingers for SP. I know I can adapt but (sticking my chin out) I don’t want to!
ReplyDeleteI knew there was something I liked about you! I can just picture that chin! And I can hear "Toddler Barbie" kicking her little patent leather shoes and telling her mommy "I don't want to!"
DeleteNice! I'm staying here, it satisfies my need to brag about things in my like.
ReplyDeleteI think we all need to "brog" a bit from time to time. It reminds us how blessed we really are!
DeleteThank you for all your hard work. Checking out the tools on a new site is exhausting, and for me at time, a great frustration. I passed along the blog info you posted on MFP to other Spark refugees. The one BIG thing I miss with this site and MFP is there are no new blog notices and I forget to check.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your brother. I like the food tracker on MFP better than Spark. Their data base is enormous and so far I haven't had to create an entry.
Thank you, again, for all your help. It is greatly appreciated!
Jeanne
Now if my status updates that I created a new blog, do you get a notice, being my friend? It updates my feed, but do you have to check the feed and watch for it?
DeleteI created a MFP account but don't have any plans at the moment to use it. Who knows what the future will bring, though. My mother has also told me how good the tracker is.
ReplyDeleteFor now, MFP is not even a life boat for you, it's just a parachute!
DeleteI still need to play around with MFP because it does seem to broadcast a bit more than I would like (my location, down to the city 😧).
ReplyDeleteI can see it, but is that because I am a friend? I think providing your city, state, and zip code is part of your profile, and you can edit that. I wonder how much one can leave out?
DeleteOK, so I lied to it, took out the town, gave it my old zip code and state (from like 20 years ago)... saved it, verifying my non-robotic status, and now location does not appear in my profile. Give that a shot!
DeleteWell ... y'all are allllll on board and movin' on.
ReplyDeleteI don't even seem to know where to get started making "a home page" here.
😲
You have started: you have an ID. There isn't really a "home page", exactly, there is your Profile, which you can edit to have a photo if you like. To get to your Profile, just click on your name, next to any of your comments! Then if you click on the B in the upper left hand corner, it will drop a menu on the left side of your screen, from which you can do any number of things, including creating a blog, managing your Reading List, etc.
DeleteGood luck... it has taken me a month to feel really at home over here... and you have a month left to lights out on Spark. You've got this!
Home page ... landing page ... what ever you call this gorgeous page of blue sky and dandelions. How do you create it????
DeleteOH! That is the theme I chose when I created my blog! It can be changed. You pick them from a selection. You CAN, of course, free lance if you're skilled enough, but this one is one of the defaults: Watermark, flower. The archive I made Watermark, birds.
DeleteWhatta lotta work -- we appreciate you Barb!! You've got the skills and are generously sharing them for everyone's benefit!!
ReplyDeleteConsider it my "pro bono" case! (Did I make you smile, lawyer?) Seriously, who wants to be ALONE out here in the wider world? I wanted at least a few friends along for the ride, and everybody starts at a different place when it comes to skill sets. Sharing tips is the way to go!
DeleteI'm glad we are friends on MFP. I also will use this platform to blog and I like MFP tracker better than Spark. AS for community, Spark friends are finding each other and as for Community, the tools are there and how vibrant and active it becomes for us refugees will depend on us. Community is what we make it.
ReplyDeleteI've joined several teams and one is even an index of other Spark teams.
We are a resilient and inventive group, yes we are! We *will* survive and even thrive! Glad I found you (among others) in multiple places!
DeleteLaughed out loud at your reply to a comment that you used to get paid for all this work you are doing now…wish I could pay you as I, like many, apparently, are sooo grateful for your thorough research and analysis!
ReplyDeleteSweetie, as I just said to WATERMELLEN, I do have a bit of enlightened self-interest in helping others along the way! Don't want to be isolated out here! And with my particular professional background, I well know what happens if you don't provide training and tech support when rolling out a new product... it is disastrous... it's my volunteer work... my way of "giving back".
DeleteHang in there, we will all make it!