Thing 25... blogger's toolkit

Okay, okay, I admit I'm losing interest in this blogging "thing." It's hard to keep your mind on anything but being outside when it's spring in Minnesota, especially if you like to garden as I do. I'm probably not going to meet the extended deadline of June 20th to complete my 23 More Things On a Stick. I've got a bad attitude, I know, but what are you going to do when the warm weather finally descends on the Great White North? Carpe diem!

I looked at the widgets and gadgets that are available to make your blog more interesting to others. First of all, I don't assume to know anything that would be of interest to anyone else so why would they read what I have to say. I'm a private person. Why do I even want them to read it? I need a bigger ego, I guess. In addition, I'd rather not have other people commenting on whether they like or don't like what I say, do or believe. Maybe I need a bigger ego and a thinner skin.

Secondly, why do I care if my blog has an exploding special effect or a YouTube video of my cat attached to it? It seems to me that the majority of these widgets and gadgets are just bling for bling's sake.

One thing I did find that would be helpful is how to add a favicon to your blog's URL. I have both the original 23 Things On a Stick site and 23 More Things On a Stick site bookmarked on my computer. Because of the favicon-- the little icon to the left of the bookmarked site-- I can easily tell the two apart without even reading the title of the site. I remember that the original only has the blogger logo as a favicon but the 23 More website bookmark has an icon with a wedge of something (pizza?) to the left of the site's name. (Actually, I just noticed that the favicon has been changed to "PB.")

Having said that, I was totally freaked out about inserting my own html text into my blog in order to have a favicon attached to my blog. I'm used to having some software that interfaces with the html text that will do scary things like that for me. The other problem for me is... where do you get the artwork for a favicon? I'm not a graphic designer, and I couldn't find anything I liked at PicApp. Can you just lift something from someone else? (I stole the icon to the left from my county's library website.) Even if that is okay, you need something so simple in design that it will still "read" when shrunken down to the size of a pencil eraser? Can you see it now or even tell what it is?

I'll have to revisit Thing 25 when I'm in a better mood, I guess. My garden awaits!