Tweaky tweakerton...

I'm still trying to work the kinks out in my new, cushier blog. Blogger has its own (so far annoying) idiosyncracies I'm having to... adjust to, but the biggest and most satisfying change is that now any reader can leave a comment.

I'm also learning HTML to make intra- and extra-page anchor jumps. The Holy Grail of blogging, IMHO. This first link should go to the end of this page. And this link next should go to a specific point on my Xanga blog in due time.

Thanks to the help of these pages and coworker, I think I'm on my way.
1) www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp
2) www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/pagejump.html#howdo)

Now, a few things you should know about Haloscan.

1) You can insert a few emoticons and do some basic HTML. To find those options, click on the ? just above the comment text box. To underline, type < u> and < / u >. To set italics, type < i > and < / i > to become and. (Hm, "I and I"... very reggae.) To set bold, type < b> and < / b> to be bold. To post a hidden link, (say, "happy" for your blog) type < a href="http://www.xanga.com/yourblog"> happy < /a > and it will be very happy. The key is < a > and < / a >. In every case, leave no space between the <, /, or >.

2) Until I decide to pay for this service, there is a 1000 character limit on each comment you make. All that means is that you'll need to post the 1000+Xth characters again as a new comment (i.e., "cont."). You can't undo or change comments, but you could ask me to. Also, over time, it will gradually reduce the comment count on each thread. Something about archive space. I've seen a thread go from 98 to 73 to 34 within days. They'll still be there if you open the thread, but they just don't show up on the external counter. And then they're gone in deep archives. (I could be wrong about this.)

3) Once you enter your info, it will remain the same unless you change it. I'll also have a record of your IP address. So theoreticaly I could tell when you are commenting frmo work and home or from someone else's PC. I could also block you; or delete or tamper with your comments. Not to be Orwellian or anything. I'm just lettin you know what's what.

4) It can be twitchy. Such is life.

5) It's great fun. It's a "real time" way to interact and keep up. I love watching a thread grow and move.

Well, kids, have at it.

THE END.

Now, where were we?