Left to review, per the phone app: 3088 individual blogs. Pages of blogs from the laptop: 206. BEATLETOT told me this morning when she started capturing things that meant a lot to her, I had 235 pages. So... lots yet to go, but progress being made. I got through some of the heaviest lifting yesterday, with the series surrounding my son's first deployment and the shooting at Fort Hood, and those surrounding my brother's passing and the "last" 5K, in his memory, in NYC.
This morning, before I paused, I tripped over the one where I unleashed MOBYCARP on an unsuspecting Sparkiverse, in July of 2011. So I'm almost to the "ten years left to go" point!
BTW, in the process, I have transferred a few of them directly into this blog: Encouraging Words from OneKidsMom.
If I found one that I didn't think fit my current classification system and yet I wanted to save it for its philosophical slant... I moved it over. I am trying to resist the temptation to do this too much, as I don't want my secondary blogs "taking over" people's reading lists if they choose to follow them. My overall plan is to "dribble" the updates out, as the spirit moves, once I get as much saved as I can. I am marking them as published on their original Spark publication date now. But they show up in the reading list as I add them, so five or six of them showed up over the weekend, and another clump yesterday.
But one huge fact is starkly outlined as I go through this: how much we, as regular Spark bloggers, relied on reading and referencing one another, and how much the Spark platform facilitated this by featuring different ones of us at different times, and by the friend feed, and by our cross-linking one another's entries!
It is my hope that some shadow of this will be created here in the refugee community, but we all know it will not be as rich and full as SparkPeople has been. It truly was a unique community. One of the sad things about reviewing the blogs, through the years, is that as folks have deleted their blogs or removed their accounts, many of the links in my own older blogs are no longer valid... and they take me to a 404 error... bittersweet, that was Kevin's last Bib number, the number he wore in the race he ran, the day he died.
Enough of that... exercise done, endorphins pumping... which reminds me, I chose this time and this kind of workout this morning in support of my coach/trainer, who was undergoing outpatient surgery this morning. Walking prayers is a big thing with me... I walk solo, no music, just the RunKeeper app reminding me every five minutes that it's time for another jog interval... and talk to/with God during the walks. The jogs take up mental cycles by counting steps!
Healthy breakfast is on board, and I'm hoping that my fellow Spark refugees (and anyone else who happens to trip over my blog here) are taking care of their own healthy efforts, this one and only Thursday, August 5, 2021 we'll ever get. Let's have some Adventure before dementia!✨💖🎆
I've had trouble clicking through the links to your blog from SparkPeople. This one worked, so I was able to read it. I'm on my desktop rather than my phone, so maybe that's the difference???
ReplyDeleteAnyway, beautiful blog! Since I haven't been following you long, forgive me for asking - is Kevin your son? If so, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Good luck with continuing to capture your blogs. I've been on Spark since 2009, and I didn't always blog, so I was able to get through all mine in about a week. But there sure were some gems in there. Thank you for encouraging us to go through our blogs, or I never would have done it.
Nancy
Awwww! Glad you found me. YES, I can't follow the links on my phone app, either. I think there's something about the way it displays that messes with the links.
DeleteI'll take all the luck I can get. I started blogging pretty regularly around May, 2009... and I'm up to September 2011 going from earliest forward, with a few side glances to specific periods later in the timeline because I had something I particularly wanted to capture.
Kevin was MOBYCARP, here on Spark. He was my "baby brother", and I will accept the condolences on his loss, because yes, it hurt, and still stirs up amazing memories. I knew him from cradle to grave, from when my parents brought him home in a basket through his discovering fitness and a love of running in his mid to late 50's, and three runs of the Boston Marathon. The phone call from his daughter the day he died is in one of the blogs I've saved. But yesterday I saved a whole bunch more. Eventually I will put the saved blogs out on secondary BlogSpot blogs, as this one is the day to day "real time" one.
Glad you were able to save your own gems!
Hard to believe only a dozen eggs . . . days . . . left.
ReplyDeleteHUGS adn thanks for sharing.
Going to take a break now... lots of work, this review. Today will have to be a lighter day, as yesterday was some of the tougher ones.✨
DeleteEasy does it 🤗
ReplyDelete💖
ReplyDeleteThank you! Trying to pace myself! And remember to take breaks! 💖
ReplyDeleteDo what you can, and take breaks. You may want to set a timer to limit how much time you’re spending at one time.
ReplyDeleteBingo! My Fitbit nags me periodically to move.
DeleteYes to all the above.
ReplyDeleteLinks, friends, blogs, smarts, not-so-smarts and funny things. What would my life have been like without the chance I signed up 01012009?
Different.
SO now it will be different. Again and again.
It's been a wonderful ride... saving the yearbook photos? Who'd have thought I'd stick with something for 12 years? But life does move on, and we move with it.
Deleteprayers for your coach hugs
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Deleteinhale peace, exhale stress, inhale calm, exhale worry
ReplyDeleteOmmmmmm! 🧘♀️🕊☮✨💖
DeleteI am impressed by your efforts in all directions. I have a copy of most of my stuff as I composed in Word and then pasted into SP for the most part. Whew! I am glad I did it that way!!!
ReplyDeletePrescient, on your part. I only did that *sometimes*, and composed in the same word document, over and over... a running entry.
Delete🤦🏻♀️Feeling guilty that I started your trip down this rabbit hole (of blog sorting)😔
ReplyDeleteDo not feel guilty... I am glad I am doing it. By the way, I found the OTHER Mud Run blog, the one from the FIRST time I ran it, the one with my son in a cast! I haven't moved it over yet, but I will, at some point, and you're my first "note" when I do.
Delete😁👍🏼
DeleteI agree that the blogs were a key way of communicating our evolving ideas amongst each other, over on SP.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to see if we can eventually start a thread in the Google group, highlighting blogs we’ve enjoyed or gotten fresh insights from.
But for now, I think many of us are still in the throes of packing up and transitioning, so I’m not stressing about that yet.
As far as making links clickable when posting them in SP, I’ve always routinely had to strip the leading “http://“ (or “https://“) from the url to get them to be “clickable” using my phone. This is something that was consistently an issue in SP for the whole time I was on there (since 2009)
PS About the intervals, I got H a Forerunner 45 for his birthday and he’s started Galloway’s run-walk-run program on there. So I thought of you and your intervals while we watched the little explanatory videos 🙂
Delete(H has run marathons in the past. But he hasn’t run much in the last several years and we’re pretty isolated here in the woods so we’re seeing if this Garmin program can function a little like a running buddy)
Oh holy carp, what happened to my FIRST comment?? I swear computers are getting too fickle and complicated, LOL
DeleteWhat I said 5 min ago (and I swore I saw it published) was that I have always needed to strip the leading “http://“ or “https://“ from any url I posted on SP. Othetwise, not clickable unless I stripped manually in the browser I was using to try and follow the link. Always been something I had to do, since 2009 when I started SP.
The OTHER thing I said was that I agree blogs have been super important for communicating our evolving ideas and that I plan to eventually start a thread in the Maintaining Group for sharing blogs that we found particularly insightful or interesting.
I don't know what happened to your earlier comment... to answer your comment in the e-mail, I used to have to do that with links I pasted in SparkPeople, too (strip the https:\\, especially, since Spark "did you favors" and added it). The problem either disappeared or I got so automatic about doing what I needed to do that I stopped being bothered by it.
DeleteOne thing I HAVE noticed is that a lot of links that work on the laptop do NOT from the phone app. I think it is due to their length, and again, the app "doing us favors" by inserting spaces in the link. Still...
I have generally found problems here to be related to the nut behind the wheel (me) clicking automatically on something I thought said reply, but in fact said "delete"... or some such silliness. The spacing of controls on a web page / browser can be a problem!
Good luck to H with his new "running buddy".
Anja's first comment was: "I agree that the blogs were a key way of communicating our evolving ideas amongst each other, over on SP.
DeleteI’d like to see if we can eventually start a thread in the Google group, highlighting blogs we’ve enjoyed or gotten fresh insights from.
But for now, I think many of us are still in the throes of packing up and transitioning, so I’m not stressing about that yet.
As far as making links clickable when posting them in SP, I’ve always routinely had to strip the leading “http://“ (or “https://“) from the url to get them to be “clickable” using my phone. This is something that was consistently an issue in SP for the whole time I was on there (since 2009)
"
Anja's second comment was the P.S. at the head of all this.
DeleteHer third comment was: "Oh holy carp, what happened to my FIRST comment?? I swear computers are getting too fickle and complicated, LOL
What I said 5 min ago (and I swore I saw it published) was that I have always needed to strip the leading “http://“ or “https://“ from any url I posted on SP. Othetwise, not clickable unless I stripped manually in the browser I was using to try and follow the link. Always been something I had to do, since 2009 when I started SP.
The OTHER thing I said was that I agree blogs have been super important for communicating our evolving ideas and that I plan to eventually start a thread in the Maintaining Group for sharing blogs that we found particularly insightful or interesting.
"
Well THAT seems to have stayed up... 🤷♀️😂
DeleteBTW the clickable url thing (stripping the leading “http://“ or “http://“ only seems to be necessary if I’m trying to click a link from my phone - which is actually most of the time these days)
Thanks. I suspect it has something to do with my referencing URL prefixes, combined with some spam filter on here, “doing you favors”
Delete😂🤣
I learned a lot from copying and pasting blogs. I struggled with my own struggling. Reading showed me it is a universal experience. I had an unrealistic expectation for myself to not struggle. Ha! Maintenance is a struggle at times. Struggling is not failing at all. It’s part of the keep on keeping on.
ReplyDeleteOther people’s blogs are where you learned the things that resonated and clarified the journey. That’s what I miss most. I miss MOBYCARB’s blogs and look forward to being able to read more of yours.
Let your trainer know he had many prayer warriors sending thoughts above for his well being.
Thank you so much for your prayers. My trainer is a man of faith and I know he will appreciate knowing there are many holding him up.
DeleteYes... this whole review thing has dug up a LOT of old struggles. And triumphs. And joys. And sorrows. Today I got to the diagnosis of my sister in law with ALS, and how that impacted the lead-up to my son's second deployment. But I also got the FIRST mud run (the one that never got featured). And the trill of watching my first "real" triathlon.
You said a mouthful: "Struggling is not failing at all".💖✨
Oh holy carp, what happened to my FIRST comment?? I swear computers are getting too fickle and complicated, LOL
ReplyDeleteWhat I said 5 min ago (and I swore I saw it published) was that I have always needed to strip the leading “http://“ or “https://“ from any url I posted on SP. Othetwise, not clickable unless I stripped manually in the browser I was using to try and follow the link. Always been something I had to do, since 2009 when I started SP.
The OTHER thing I said was that I agree blogs have been super important for communicating our evolving ideas and that I plan to eventually start a thread in the Maintaining Group for sharing blogs that we found particularly insightful or interesting.
I just had to post this AGAIN because it keeps disappearing (?!)
Sigh.
Oh holy carp, what happened to my FIRST comment?? I swear computers are getting too fickle and complicated, LOL
ReplyDeleteWhat I said 5 min ago (and I swore I saw it published) was that I have always needed to strip the leading “http://“ or “https://“ from any url I posted on SP. Othetwise, not clickable unless I stripped manually in the browser I was using to try and follow the link. Always been something I had to do, since 2009 when I started SP.
The OTHER thing I said was that I agree blogs have been super important for communicating our evolving ideas and that I plan to eventually start a thread in the Maintaining Group for sharing blogs that we found particularly insightful or interesting.
To Anja: 4A-HEALTHY-BMI...
ReplyDeleteI have the e-mails in my G-mail inbox proving you posted the comments you said... the part that sends me an e-mail whenever ANYONE comments worked. I have NO CLUE why they didn't show up here!
I’m gonna try again 😂
DeleteOh holy carp, what happened to my FIRST comment?? I swear computers are getting too fickle and complicated, LOL
What I said 5 min ago (and I swore I saw it published) was that I have always needed to strip the leading “http://“ or “https://“ from any url I posted on SP. Otherwise, not clickable from a phone unless I stripped manually in the browser I was using to try and follow the link. Always been something I had to do, since 2009 when I started SP.
The OTHER thing I said was that I agree blogs have been super important for communicating our evolving ideas and that I plan to eventually start a thread in the Maintaining Group for sharing blogs that we found particularly insightful or interesting.
That sounds like a lot of labor and organization, a time-consuming and emotional task. But very meaningful. I agree with you that nothing will be like SparkPeople, but I am glad to be able to follow some of me friends over here at this new place. I was moved by your idea of walking prayers. Walking has always made me reflect, but to decide consciously to pray while walking is a good idea. I hope your trainer feels better very soon. Good luck in your continued efforts to organize all your valuable work.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Both for your good wishes for the trainer and for my old blog work!
DeleteYou're doing great. Keep PDFing.
ReplyDeleteSparks provided a domino effect of making friends ... Blogger, ya gonna want to follow a friend over here. OR is there a way to search on someone's name???
✨
DeleteI am up to 400 pages of Spark Blog transferring. It's been quite an emotional journey, reading all of those blogs, looking at comments from people who came and went (I was one of those people for the last couple of years, sadly.)
ReplyDeleteI haven't figured out a way to know when you update your blog but if you comment on my blog, I will click and pop over.
Reading list is kind of klunky, but it's what we have... my "follow" button is at the bottom of the page.
DeleteToday, your blog was top of the reading list. Just a fickle site, I guess.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your massive project.
I finally got a response from the Blogger team that they had been having trouble with the Reading List the past week, and they think they have it fixed now.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are doing the work . . . and taking care of your health too, at the same time!! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are settling into your new life in PEI! Taking care of your health is important... I've been finding a lot of fascinating past history in the blog review, and it includes who all has Sparked me along the way... I cherish you all!
DeleteGlad you got yourself outdoors for a jog and some fresh(?) air.
ReplyDeleteSomething very special to me about running solo. I've never run to music except when circumstances have forced me indoors to a gym treadmill with music being pumped. Otherwise, my choice was outdoors and no electronics. I had a run watch; but, rarely ever looked at it. I was simply listening for beeps to tell me *times up*; otherwise, I likely would have been prone to over do it.
~ JEANKNEE
There is something about running solo that lets the mind roam free. I haven't run with music since about two phones ago.
DeleteThanks for the info on coach! I’m praying! I can only imagine the brain work in which you are immersed. Praying for you!
ReplyDeleteHe's got me on the schedule for tomorrow. Outpatient surgery was successful and they are treating some residual issues with medication and monitoring. Rejoicing for that success.
Delete