Thursday, June 15, 2023

Ah, Technology

Bee on wallflower

Has anyone else noticed that the tools for adding photos and links to blog posts in Blogger have moved into the drop-down menu, rather than sitting atop the composition field? Why on earth did Blogger make this change, I wonder? Now every time I want to upload a photo or link I have to click the three dots for the drop-down, which is an extra click. Annoying.

I'm having tech issues with my iTunes, too. On my computer my music library looks fine, but on my iPhone, the album covers are all mixed up -- when I'm playing Adele I'm seeing Boz Scaggs, and when I'm playing the Alan Parsons Project I'm seeing Cocteau Twins. Syncing the phone doesn't help. I've done Google searches about how to fix this -- it seems to be a common problem -- and many people dispute the proposed solutions, so I'm still trying to figure it out. I suppose it doesn't matter, really, as long as I can hear the music, but it bothers me.

Two days of work left! Will I survive? I feel as though I'm limping across a finish line, but at this point it's just tedium, really. The kids are gone, so it's a matter of tidying and doing any last-minute checkouts. Tomorrow will be mostly school meetings. I did get to come home early yesterday, which was nice -- I sat out on the garden bench and finished a New Yorker.

Speaking of which, I have to decide whether to renew. (Sigh...) I suppose I will. That magazine makes me crazy with its frequency but there's no question I learn a lot from it. And though I've talked about going all-digital, the fact is I'd be less likely to read it if I didn't have a paper copy in front of me. So I guess I'll bite the bullet, even though it is exquisite torture.


Our pink Asiatic lilies have opened...


...and our brook thistles are blooming...


...as is our sage, though it's coming to an end.


The patio is looking very colorful, with the new foxglove I got at Homebase and our orange Peruvian lilies and pink cascading geranium. That geranium is really going gangbusters.

27 comments:

River said...

My "new post" page looks exactly the same as it always has, so no troubeles here for me. I have issues with i-tunes though, many of my songs won't play unless I sign in to the apple store which seems ridiculous when I don't want to buy any songs, and my "favourite" playlist got accidentally set to shuffle the songs instead of just playing through from beginning to end and I don't know how to fix that.
Your garden is looking lovely, especially that foxglove.

gz said...

I haven't noticed any blogger change...yet!

It feels odd to see foxglove flowers pointing up! You must let us see what happens when it rains....

Frances said...

Beautiful plants. Love the colour of the foxglove. I have recently bought 3 " Bowles Mauve" wallflower plants as the 2 large ones I had didn't make it through last winter.

sparklingmerlot said...

Lovely flower pics, especially the wall flower and the bee.

I haven't read many online magazines. Do they have every single thing in them? There is something relaxing about reading a proper mag. A step away from the digital chaos we seem to live in.

Thanks for the sage pic - reminds me I have to go to the woo woo shop tomorrow and buy some smudging sage for Three.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I may be utterly wrong but I get the impression from this blogpost that you really like flowers. There are far worse things to like such as hare coursing, sado-masochism and crack cocaine.

Andrew said...

If many people are have the same issue with iTunes, don't bother trying to fix it yourself. If it is known problem, it will eventually be fixed.
I haven't noticed any difference with uploading photos. As you describe, maybe you upload differently.
You are right about not reading properly if you go digital.

Moving with Mitchell said...

Wordpress regularly changes, too, and often changes back. Some menu items completely disappear. Last week I wrote to them about missing edit menu items. One day one would reappear. The next day it was gone again and another would reappear. I had already done a whole lot of troubleshooting. I was given a list of 10 things I should try before they looked into it on their end. When I said I’d already tried, I was told to try again. I said thanks but no thanks. Two days later it was back to the way it was. And I pay them! I understand your attachment to the hard copy New Yorker. I miss it.

gz said...

Just blogged...no change...

Bob said...

Check to see if the page size has increased, because that makes the icons on the top larger and some are put behind the evil Three Dots.

Michael said...

My sister works at a middle school in suburban Boston, and her last day is tomorrow as well. I use Wordpress for my blog and I find that things are always changing as well. It can certainly be frustrating!

Jeanie said...

My photo insert logo is still on the comp line. Wonder if it's a UK thing or if they are "testing" with a random control group. I wish they'd leave everything alone!

I stopped New Yorker (and Vanity Fair) because I never finished them. Especially New Yorker (more, deep articles, without the glitz ads). Too bad, because I always enjoyed it but just didn't have the time.

Ed said...

My photo tool is still where it always is. I wonder if they are just starting to rollout a change or perhaps a template error.

As for the iTunes, I’ve had the same thing occur but when I checked my library, I found two copies of a lot of albums, one copy with the correct album cover and one copy with a random one. No idea how that happened. I deleted the copies with the wrong album covers as I find them but it requires listening to both to verify which is time consuming.

Marcia LaRue said...

Your flowers shots are always so beautiful and I love seeing them!
I don't blog ... I read blogs!
I have Android items ... I can make them work. I am not smart enough for Iphones! 😊

NewRobin13 said...

I haven't noticed any changes in the blogger photo insert. I may go check on that later to see if things have changed.
Your flowers are looking so beautiful.
I am glad you are going to keep your New Yorker subscription. There is something about actually holding a magazine and reading quietly without looking at a lit screen.

Sharon said...

The garden is looking like a little slice of paradise and that lily is gorgeous.
A few weeks ago when I was getting ready to post, the whole way that adding a photo had changed and I had to try to figure it out to get my post done. It happened just that once. Now it's back to the same way as before. Someone is doing a lot of tweaking to blogger and it's not all positive improvements.

Ms. Moon said...

I'm still getting the same New Post screen as before. Hmmm...
And I was JUST thinking about how if I got my NY'ers online I'd never read them. So I'm with you, I guess. I'll keep getting them by mail.
Your flowers are just a joy. And now you will have time to enjoy them thoroughly.

Beth's Patio Chit Chat said...

Hi,
Yes I have noticed for ages now that I have to click the 3 dots in order to upload a photo or video. It has been this way for a long time, so I think that for me it is going to stay the same.

Hoping that you will survive the last couple of days of school. I know that you among others are just ready for it to be over and done! The last day of school just seemed to drag for me when I was in school, back in the 70's. I didn't think that it would ever end and we never had any good school trips. My poor kids didn't either. They got to go eat at CC's Pizza one year. Big Deal because most parents frequented that place at least a couple times a week lol.

Your flowers are just fabulous. I love the fox glove and lilie. It is so hot and muggy here that nothing survives the humidity any longer than May it seems.

I canceled my copy of the New Yorker and went digital and I ended up canceling that as well. Just didn't have the interest to actually read it if I didn't have a paper copy in my hand.
Now that my eyes are so bad, it isn't much of an issue anymore because it is hard for me to see anything to read or even type these days.

Have a great day and hang in there. It is almost over.

Red said...

You have a very colorful garden that you can sit in but then it takes work and dedication to have a good garden.

Linda Sue said...

I finally let the New Yorker go to digital, saving trees and all that, haha. I am not sorry especially with my weird poor vision. I miss the covers and the little jokes but the content of articles is much easier to read, for me, and there is not a stack of guilt mounting every week.

Kelly said...

I'm pleased to know you listen to the Alan Parsons Project!

Your flowers are all beautiful, as always!

The Bug said...

I don't see a change in blogger either - but I shall live in fear now. Ha!

I'm reading blogs instead of working because things have slowed back down for a minute, but if I don't get back to work things will pile back up again. This is me giving myself a pep talk. I'm not sure it's working.

Allison said...

I have the love hate relationship with New Yorker. They seem to go in spurts of bad issues followed by good ones, just when I've decided to cancel. I re-upped in April, so decision made for awhile.
Your garden is looking very nice.

Boud said...

I wonder if the changes you notice are only on certain devices? My Android tablet and phone are unchanged.
I love your flowers. I keep marvelling that this is in gritty old Lunnon!

Catalyst said...

Sounds like you're secretly contemplating retirement in your future.

As for the New Yorker, when we have subscribed off and on in the past we too grew frustrated with the piling on. I mean, I don't live in New York, never have, so gimmee a break. From what I've heard recently, you might consider subscribing to The Atlantic.

Margaret said...

That lily is incredible! Love the two toned ones. Boz Scaggs and the Alan Parsons Project--what a trip back to my past!

Debby said...

Wow! That geranium IS crazy!!!

Steve Reed said...

River: If you click on the playlist in iTunes (in your phone) you should see a "shuffle" button on the very top. I think if it's shuffling and you hit that it should turn off the shuffle?

GZ: Lots of little cups of water, I expect! IF it rains, that is...

Frances: I've heard that wallflowers only last a couple of years. Apparently they're not long-lived plants. Fortunately they do occasionally re-seed!

Caro: I think some do and some don't. Sometimes they only put abbreviated content online, or just content that supplements the regular magazine. But The New Yorker online seems pretty complete, from what I've seen.

YP: What on earth is hare coursing?

Andrew: From what I've read online it is a known issue with the iPhone 14, but it requires some intervention on my part to fix.

Mitchell: There's got to be someone somewhere monkeying with the code!

Bob: THANK YOU! That's the problem. I don't know how I inadvertently increased my page size.

Michael: I guess sometimes the changes are "user error" (at least in my case)!

Jeanie: I used to get Vanity Fair years ago and I loved it for a while, but then they started writing more and more about celebrities I didn't know and didn't care about and I lost interest. (I think that had more to do with my advancing age than their editorial policy.)

Ed: Yeah, I've heard about that problem, too. Apparently the code for the album artwork clashes with the music, and in an attempt to rectify that, the app creates whole new copies of the albums. Fortunately that's not happening with me. (Yet!)

Marcia: I'm so glad you're out there reading!

Robin: Yeah, it's true. Screens get old.

Sharon: How weird! I do think it just goes on the fritz every now and then. Sometimes it's their fault and sometimes (as in my case) it's not.

Ms Moon: I've transitioned to reading newspapers online, but not magazines!

Beth: Maybe you need to plant more tropical or subtropical plants? If it's more humid they might do well. Do you read Ellen's blog, "Out of Ellen's Head"? She lives in Texas and gardens and she might give you ideas if you're up for trying.

Red: It definitely takes work! No pain no gain!

Linda Sue: I think if you can still keep up with it, that's great. I just don't think I would without the real thing.

Kelly: Well, I'm not a HUGE fan, but I have a few of their songs, yes. I have lots of early '80s music, since that was when I was in high school.

Bug: You're obviously still running on adrenaline from your busy time a few weeks ago! You'll eventually slip back into your old work patterns. :)

Allison: It is definitely a love-hate relationship. I read stuff there that I don't get anywhere else, but at the same time, why does it have to come so OFTEN?!

Boud: It was all about screen magnification, as Bob said. Problem solved!

Catalyst: Yeah, the Atlantic is very good. I read that at work sometimes. (When I should be reading my New Yorkers! LOL)

Margaret: I don't know about you, but I still listen to a lot of the music I've been listening to for decades!

Debby: Isn't it? Dave wants to cut it but I think it's mean to cascade like that and we should just let it do its thing, at least until fall.