It’s Been Fifteen Years

Earlier on I received this notification from WordPress :

15 Year Anniversary Achievement. Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 15 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

And that ‘s accompanied by the familiar logo of WordPress. 15 years and I have about 5,451 blog followers and 796,589 stats in all of my five blogs. The four ones are updated occasionally though. My main focus is on DREAMS AND ESCAPES. If I were to add up my blog posts in all five, that’ll be close to 5,000.

Before WordPress, I started with Friendster then moved to Multiply back in 2007. Between these three platforms, I loved Multiply best, I had a premium account there with my youngest brother Noel paying $20 a month to maintain it. I was able to upload several of my favourite CD albums and photos all in high-res. Except for a few posts on our road trips and some poems, I did mostly political blog posts at the time when Gloria Arroyo was president. Since I cannot reblog them at WordPress, I started with one lone poem 15 years ago. Friendster and Multiply have closed years ago. And since I didn’t know how to customize my new site, it took me more than a year to add something. I learned to navigate, choose a theme, upload photos and customize eventually. I chose the Sadie theme which I am still using on my main blog until now. I love it’s clear lines and the easy way I could update it. WordPress has been changing its algorithms over the years and I have to adjust and learn more.

15 years writing at WordPress and through the years I met several blogging friends worldwide. The earlier ones have come and gone but there are several who remain loyal to my blog, regularly liking and commenting on my posts. I love the exchange of ideas and we have become a community of bloggers.

15 year and I’m still writing.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

New Followers

Oh, I wonder if I should be glad for having so many followers lately. When I check and look at their sites, either there is only one follower or just one or two with one blog post. Some are even blank.

I don’t want to be choosy but I want someone I could interact with or someone who comments on my blog posts. Come to think of it, they follow you but there is nothing there that would let you know whether they like your posts or not. I always acknowledge those who follow and read their posts too and I click ” follow” when I find their sites interesting.

I click Discover every now and then and I visit the blogs of those who interest me. Lucky to find them following me back.

I’ve used the Jetpack prompts three times already and I earned lots of views on the very first one I wrote about. Not all topics are worth-writing about. I earned sizable views yesterday (439 total) when they looked and read a previous post I wrote back in 2011 entitled Happy Hearts Day. Curious about love day? It does not mean that the V-day is only for lovers, it’s a celebration for everyone who loves life – friends, siblings, grandparents, grandkids and every one in the family.

I started writing daily since the year started. WordPress says I am on my 16th day this month of February. Hooray to blogging❤👨‍💻💐

Read Full Post »

Blogging Woes

Frustration to the max. Elizabeth who I follow and follows me back has just posted a new one. Pete gave me her URL because it seems I am no longer following her so I clicked follow and tried commenting, upon submission there’s nothing there, NADA.

My password is saved so I don’t need to log in but every time I check my “view admin”, it points me back to log in and it won ‘t accept the saved password. I tried password change but I am getting a hard time. I am afraid by the time I change my password, I could no longer access my account.

Have similar problem with another blogger friend Derrick, I could only see his posts when I go direct to his web site. He is neither in my reader feed but he could see my posts. There are no like and comment options in his blog.

Help please!

Why is it that I can follow other blogs but not the two of them?

Read Full Post »

Are You Using A Tab?

I don’t exactly remember how long I’ve been using my tab since my PC conked out on me. Right now having my own computer is not a priority because most of the time I only use it for my blog and saving photos from my cam. Besides, considering my gargantuan expenses for going back and forth to doctors, it’s not viable at the moment.

When someone comments on my posts, I can manually approve them and like them too but if they comment back again, you won’t see the like button. When I comment on someone’s post, I can click like as well but when they answer my comment, I don’t see it. I used to enlarge paragraph if I need to but the tab doesn’t have it or am I just missing it? All I have or I know how to use are the bold and italics and of course one can change the color but when you have it published, it is always colored yellow.

I miss linking photos in some of my posts where you can choose whether to place on the right, center or left . Using a tab means you only have a choice whether it is hi-res, large or medium, I would have wanted to post them in medium size, but the photo won’t be centered. It is always on the left side.

I no longer see those spam mails that I used to encounter everyday but once in a while legit comments go to spam.

One advantage though of using a tab is you won’t need to boot it and it is convenient when you want to create a blog on the dining table, in the bedroom or while you are cooking. I like it that it has all the emoticons you can always use. I don’t want to experiment on the other symbols because one time I lost a post by clicking one of them.

Are you comfortable using a tab?

Read Full Post »

Blogging Still

Just like on Facebook in which I cleared my list of friends lately, I’ve done the same thing to those blogs I follow online. As I have said before, it is not the number of followers that counts or the number of blogs you follow, I’m more appreciative of the content.

On Facebook when I posted that I narrowed down my list of friends, most of them asked, Am I still in? The mere fact that you could see my updates means you are in the loop…still.

I understand that some bloggers may not always have the time to compose a post, they might just be busy with life itself. But when it takes years that they are not blogging, they might have abandoned their blogs.

I visit DISCOVER from time to time looking for blogs quite similar to mine and believe me, there are hundreds. I do relate with some – blogging about life in general, family life in particular, those who love gardening, reading and those whose blogs describe the places where they are blogging from (I learn that way). I also love cooking segments and how well presented their recipes are. Photography is one thing so interesting in a blog, the way a blogger shows a particular place or object arresting to my eyes. Never mind if it is just a long empty road but speaks volumes to the reader. Poems too, yes! Although I don’t indulge in it more often, I love reading poems too. Dogs, I love those who share the lives of their lovable dogs. We have six doggies outside, a Shih Tzu and a Shih Poo inside the house. The last two share a room with Jovy and Josef, an air conditioned room at that.

Are you still active in the blogging world?

Read Full Post »

Blogging For Real

It’s those moments when they just click follow but they don’t engage – no likes, no comments. I have a mind to say maybe some bloggers think that you’ll follow them back which is not always the case.

I love seeing “likes” on my posts. It means either they actually read your post or just scanned it for a few seconds. A friend once told me on FB that when she click “like” on my wall about something I wrote, she is saying that she has read it or telling me that she is there. Normally, she would come back and comment later.

I have close to 5,000 followers but I only get 15 to 30 likes on the average. I am lucky if at least ten of them would make a comment on a post. Back in my early years blogging when I participated once in WordPress’ challenge of blogging every day, there were so many comments and likes. Maybe I have exhausted thinking about contents that are still worth- reading. I have around 4,000 posts more or less because I keep five blogs. I have one for photography loving the macro shots I did, I have started one too when my grandson Nate was born in 2012, a gardening blog which I update now and then and a new one I started three years ago but I don ‘t know what happened, I could not access it anymore although I can still see those earlier posts I made with photos in every post when I am not logged in to it. And of course, this main blog, Dreams and Escapes. I am almost at the end of this free theme and platform. You could all find the links when you visit my blog. A lot of us do get updated on our reader feed without going to the blog itself.

I follow close to a hundred bloggers but most of them are no longer active and I miss their posts. Maybe they got tired of blogging?

Read Full Post »

How I Wish….

This is really annoying. Perhaps you are also familiar with my other blog called Dreams Never End which I created through another e-mail address separate from the four blogs I have linked to Dreams and Escapes just in case my free alloted space gets full.

Now here is the problem. I could visit the site when I am not logged in but when I log in, WordPress directs me to create a new blog. I have more than a hundred posts there each with a photo. What is happening? I want to access the site so I could update it. Gosh, WordPress is creating a problem left and right.

Could someone help please?

Read Full Post »

Blogging

What’s happening WordPress? I could not see uploaded photos and cannot even comment? Why?

Read Full Post »

2021 Is Almost Gone

Here I am again posting my year-ender blog. Every end of the year, I try to summarize what happened on the months and days gone.

December 28, three days to go before the calendar changes again. Except for Obet purchasing a new Ford Territory last January, nothing much happened. Nissa and Obet spent the latter’s birthday lunch with us end of January. Middle of March, Nissa was hospitalized for a week because of Covid. Nate and Obet stayed here with us for four days. We survived on video calls with Nissa during mealtimes and evening rosary prayers. The four of us here at home including my 92-year old mom had Covid during the first week of May. For me, it was almost a month-long recovery. Thank God we got well.

Birthdays were spent quietly but I was glad Nissa and Obet surprised me with their presence during my birthday. They went on leave from work. The rest of the months, we survived on audio and video calls, messages, texts and occasional chats with Nate. Those “hi”, “hello”, “I love you Nonna” made me smile.

We were not able to see each other last Christmas day because Nate and Obet had fever. I thank God they are okay now. They are coming over on the New Year. Looking forward to it.

I really miss these two.

Would you believe, I was able to read 143 books this year? I am on my 144th book at the moment.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 🍀🍻🌝🎉🎈

May we all be blessed this coming 2022.

Read Full Post »

662,919 Views And 3,288 Posts Later

I have clearly forgotten those lovely thoughts that I wrote years ago when I was just beginning to write posts at WordPress during my journey as a cancer patient and survivor. If I were to add all my blog posts at my four other sites, it might reach 700, 000 views and maybe 4,000 posts. That year-long journey triggered and inspired me to blog at WordPress. I was so happy reaching out to those with similar journey like I did.

Blogging has become a way of life just as reading does. I used to blog almost every day but over the years, posting one once or twice a week is now enough for me. Over the past two years during this pandemic, everything seemed to be at a stand still. I’ve only gone out five times from our subdivision. No visitors came over except Nissa’s family. Food and groceries were delivered. Even the Christmas gifts were ordered online. Hopefully, this pandemic will end soon.

Finally done with trimming the carabao grass with Josef’s help. We still need though to have the garden outside our perimeter wall cleaned. Our tree dogs sleep in the garage while Nikki, who has just given birth to three male pups is in a cage in our dirty kitchen. She is so protective of her litters.

The past few nights, I compared all the books I had on my tab with Goodreads. Good thing I have a virtual library there. I have read some of them the past few years. It’s funny, I used to write a brief review of the books I read before. I got lazy though since I started this year’s reading challenge. I am looking for more authors and books to read.

I don’t get to visit my friends’ blogs every day because I don’t visit WordPress that often. So sorry about that, will catch up soon.

By the way, it’s CHRISTMAS in nine days.

Read Full Post »