Saturday, August 11, 2012

60 Second Confessions From Cal - Help A Brother Out

I love blogging. It has really been the source of my sanity over the past five years. I have met so many fantastic creative people and I thrive when I am around them. Some of my followers comment everyday and I value my interaction with them more than they can ever know. It is especially satisfying to see old friends come back to find my stuff again after they have not been around for awhile.

For a genius husky shut-in like myself that is as good as human contact gets for me these day. Understand that I am not complaining. In my old age I find maintaining real life friends to be an awful lot of work. I feel more comfortable putting my time an energy into projects that don't require other people to be around. I have always followed my own way and never allowed anyone to tell me that something I like (comics, toys, art, music, movies or TV) was a waste of my time.

I collect toys that no one but myself will ever see. I have a dream that my niece or nephew will want the collection one day but more likely I will die prematurely and everything will be sold at my Mother's garage sale for mere pennies.

My attitude has really hardened in the past five years. It has so much to do with the fact that I haven't had a girlfriend in years, have no children of my own or really have much of relationship with any of my relatives who have long since abandoned me. My only niece and nephew live in Australia and my bitch of a sister does everything to keep them from getting to know me, despite my efforts and the wish of the kids to know their 'Cool Uncle Cal'.

As old friends built lives and families of their own, there was no longer room in their world for a single burden like myself and I was the easiest one to cast adrift.

So understand, that when I get so frustrated when I can't fix something on my blog.

It's so upsetting to not to be able to add anymore pictures to my blog roll on the right. Apparently under my administrative password I have reach my upload limit. Does anyone know how to fix that situation? I think that deleting pictures on my Picasso account might fix the problem but I don't know how to do that.

My last resort will be to purchase more memory from Blogger and I would love to avoid that if I could. I just want to add this terrific picture that Brother Colin of the Super-Duper Toy Box created for me so that I and everyone else can enjoy it everyday.




16 comments:

Hobgoblin238 said...

I just wish I knew how to ADD pics on the right!

Kal said...

You go into your DESIGN then LAYOUT and then choose a gadget feature. The ADD A PICTURE gadget will allow you to do that.

Jordan said...

Cal, have you considered leaving blogger behind and rolling your own? I use wordpress for my website and (since I'm my own administrator) it lets me do anything I want. There's a learning curve to doing your own web backend, but you're a smart guy.

Kal said...

OMG..I don't know if I could take the chance. But now that you have mentioned it to me I will be thinking about it alot now.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

The only thing I can suggest is deleting something that's already on your sidebar to make room.

Sophie's Choice, I know.

Booksteve said...

Can't recall exactly how to get to my Picassa account right now but I know you CAN delete from there. When I ditched my Brittany Rose blog, all those big pics were still there taking up space even though there was no blog. I reclaimed a ton by deleting them.

That said, buying more from Blogger is ridiculously inexpensive and you get like ten times more than you started out with!

Belle said...

I love the painting of you. It is too bad about your sister. Sometimes relatives can be cruel. Maybe you could write a will and leave your toys to a charity. They could sell them for a good price and you would be helping someone. I hope you are here on this "vale of tears" for many more years. My husband dropped all his friends when he got sick with cancer. As you say, it is work and just too much when you are sick.

Kal said...

Thanks for that information Steve. I think I am going to pay the money and not worry about it anymore. I need the freedom.

Wings1295 said...

Cal, I have to echo some of the comments above. Your site is so massive with so many followers, maybe spinning into your own domain makes sense. But if that is too daunting, also giving in and buying more space from blogger would be the good compromise for you. You would have the best of both worlds then, yes? :)

Kal said...

I like the idea of leaving my toys to charity, Belle. In fact, they should do an exhibit of my entire collection at our local museum. They are always displaying travelling collections and I think lots of people would be interested in an exhibit that shows off the great design work that went into the figures I have.

Kal said...

You are right, Wings, I should spin off into my own domain. It might actually bring me MORE followers and bring my balloon juice to a wider audience. The task is daunting but I think I need to start doing some research on how I can best make the transition.

Wings1295 said...

I am sure, once you got used to the new interface or whatever, you will be golden. Remember, once Blogger was totally new to you, as well!

Jordan said...

Cal, domains and hosts are really cheap these days, and blog hosting software (like Wordpress, which I recommend) is free.

You would start by buying a domain name (from Internic or someone else; go to whois.com to see if "Calvinscanadiancaveofcool.com" or whatever you want is available); and setting up with a hosting plan at a host you like (Google to find cheap/good ones).

Once you'd done all that, you'd be free to take as long as you like creating and customizing your new site just the way you like it. Wordpress even has built-in utilities that let you extract ALL your past content from any Blogger site (provided that you've got the right Blogger login/passwords etc.) and transfer it all over to your new site. Think about that: every post, every image, every comment; all perfectly migrated to your new site with the correct dates etc. on everything. (and SEARCHABLE!)

You can spend as much time as you need to build the new site, and then, when you're ready, make the switch. I can think of many other besides myself who've done exactly this.

Aside from all the other advantages, there's the indefinable satisfaction of building something yourself, the way you want it.

Kal said...

Wow, Thanks for that advice Jordan. You've convinced me. I think if I set a start date for the NEW Cave of Cool that it will motivate me to make the switch. The searchable feature really sold me. I would like to have some new design options and people deserve a cutting edge site to enjoy.

Drake said...

I like the idea of your own domanin, i like to make one for the Macabre Drive-In Theater!
Good luck on whatever you choose to do Cal!

Nick Ward said...

Whatever you go I will follow.