OMG! What happened?!

I received this blog post in my email and I knew I should share with all my followers. This is a guest post by Sarah from The Blog Guidebook.

Last week some of us faced unfamiliar territory...Blogger was not functioning. Our readers wouldn't know it because they could still see our blog and interact. But we knew it, didn't we? It is so frustrating trying to work behind the scenes on your blog and not being able to. Apparently it was only a small percentage of users affected, but I happened to be one of them. And I have been known to boast about Blogger's exceptional track record when it comes to down time. Blogger was number one when it came to zero down time people! Now, not so much. This "down time" gave me time to go look at Wordpress blogs....(traitor!).  But still, jumping ship right before Blogger makes its big reveal seems like a silly thing to do...I want to see what the new Blogger has to offer me. Will there be more features that are amazing? There better be! You can stay on top of known issues for Blogger by going here. Blogger also posts when problems have been fixed. It might be a good idea to bookmark Known Issues.

Were you affected by Blogger's down time? Did you even notice it wasn't working? If you didn't, then I'm happy for you!

Photobucket has had a few hiccups lately too...Photobucket hosts images, and when they are down, the images are down too...you can literally have a blank slate to look at for as long as 3 days (and longer). Read an article from a fellow blogger here.

Now, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. These are guidelines you might want to follow simply as preventative measures...back it up! Even if you're not on Blogger, these tips will be good for you.

Prior to an outage - we might get a warning or notice of "updates" to be performed

• Back Up Your Blog:  Yes, you should back it up on a regular basis. Especially if you’re thinking of starting a  site redesign or moving to a different blogging platform.
• Keep A Copy Of Your Posts - OFFLINE: Think about keeping an offline copy of your posts, in case something happens to your host (ie. Blogger) and they revert to an earlier version of your blog.This may take some time, you'll have to copy and paste all your posts into a text file, but it will be well worth it!

During an Outage - stay calm and carry on

• Keep Your Readers in the know: Let your readers know via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc that your site is down and you are unable to make changes, write posts etc. Ask them to check back soon, be patient, and send you feedback about their experiences with possible outages.
• Use Social Media to Run Anything on Deadline: If you have a sponsorship deadline, a contest to run, or just about anything else that needs to happen while your site is down, try taking it to social media. Get your followers active and still participating with your site, even if it’s down.

After an Outage - jump up and down in delight

• Read Your Blog: If anything looks different, or the layout has changed, go in and repair the damages.
• Inform Your Readership: Tell your readers you're back up and running. You are back in the captain's seat!
• Get back to blogging: Start back to your regularly scheduled programming, I mean posting. This way your readers will know you are cool and calm in the face of blogging dangers. Then back up your blog - again!

Some blogs have been known to disappear into the Bermuda Triangle too. Read this Google page to find out what you can do if you're one of the Lost. And, did you know that Blogger can delete your blog without informing you? Google hates spam, so don't have a blog about spam (canned ham?). Another good reason to back up your blog, right?

Read all Terms here.

Termination; Suspension. Google may, in its sole discretion, at any time and for any reason, terminate the Service, terminate this Agreement, or suspend or terminate your account. In the event of termination, your account will be disabled and you may not be granted access to your account or any files or other content contained in your account although residual copies of information may remain in our system for some time for back-up purposes. Sections 2, 3, 5 - 8, and 10 - 15 of the Agreement, along with applicable provisions of the general Terms of Service (including the section regarding limitation of liability), shall survive expiration or termination.

Remember to Keep Blogging and Backing Up!

Sometimes you just gotta let it out!!

Hey fans and friends! Do you ever get so frustrated that you scream? What about when you are bored? Take a look at what my friend Sally does. What do you do to deal with all the anger and frustration in your lives?

What I Am

Ok so I got an early wake up call this morning and after the call I had a bit of insomnia. I turned on the tv and began channel surfing. I hadn't gotten too far when all of a sudden I heard this song and I just had to stop. The song has such a positive message and I just love it. Turns out I was watching Sesame Street. Who knew all these years after I stopped watching it I'd be tuning in again and enjoying it?! Needless to say after it was over I immediately started up my computer and searched for it on youtube.

In the music video, Will.I.Am sings, "If what I am is what’s in me, then I’ll stay strong that’s who I’ll be," presumably sending a message to kids on the value of individuality and self-assurance, but if you ask me it's a great message for everyone. Singing and dancing with him include popular Sesame Street characters Big Bird, Elmo, Grover, the Cookie Monster, Bert, and Ernie.

Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

In Remembrance of a Legend

The world has once again lost a true Hollywood legend. Actress, Elizabeth Taylor, died early Wednesday morning of Congestive Heart Failure.

Beginning as a child star then throughout her adulthood, she was known for her acting talent, glamour, beauty, love of jewelery, and striking violet eyes; as well as a much publicized private life that included eight marriages, several life-threatening illnesses, and decades spent as a social activist, championing the cause of AIDS awareness, research and cure. Taylor, a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress, is considered one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list. 

Taylor struggled with health problems much of her life,and many times newspaper headlines announced that she was close to death. She is known to have smoked cigarettes into her mid-fifties and feared she had lung cancer in October 1975 after an X-ray showed spots on her lungs; she was later found not to have the disease. She broke her back five times, had both her hips replaced, survived a benign brain tumor operation and skin cancer, and faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice, one of which (1961), resulted in an emergency tracheotomy. In the 1980s, she received treatment for alcoholism. She was treated for drug addiction at the now infamous Betty Ford Clinic in 1983, and again from the autumn of 1988 until early 1989. In November 2004, she announced that she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a progressive condition in which the heart is too weak to pump sufficient blood throughout the body, particularly to the lower extremities, the ankles, and feet. She used a wheelchair and when asked about it stated that she had osteoporosis and was born with scoliosis. In 2009 she underwent cardiac surgery to replace a leaky valve. In February 2011, new symptoms related to congestive heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment, where she remained until her death at age 79 on March 23, 2011, surrounded by her four children. -Wikipedia

Liz was a leading child star by the age of 12 after her performance in MGM's National Velvet. It wasn't long before she was knocking critics dead as a serious adult actress with films like Giant, Raintree County and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She reigned the box office as the quintessential movie star taking the breath away from viewers with her glamorous looks and those velvet eyes... See full bio on IMDb »

Born:Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor  February 27, 1932 in Hampstead, London, England, UK
Died:March 23, 2011 (age 79) in Los Angeles, California, USA

Elizabeth Taylor is considered one of the last, if not the last major star, to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. And not just any studio, the top of the heap: MGM. Her early movies, as a child in the early 1940s, starred such Hollywood luminaries as Orson Welles and Spencer Tracy. She quickly grew up, however, and by 1950 was, if not starring in, assuming major responsibilities for the success of motion pictures she appeared in. Then with major roles onscreen, came worldwide attention off-screen, most notably due to a succession of famous and/or rich husbands and a series of health crises throughout her life. To put it simply, Elizabeth Taylor has lived a life far more exciting and dramatic than any movie she's ever appeared in and probably most any other movie you could name. She's known internationally for her beauty, especially for those violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early on in her youth and has kept the world hooked on ever since. She's won the Oscar twice and she's earned her place in and out of the sun.- IMDb 

Wednesday on "The View", Barbara Walters opened the show with a few clips from their conversations to honor her friend, the Oscar winner and social activist. One clip, from 1999, showcased Taylor's trademark humor. Walters inquired what the actress wanted on her tombstone, to which she responded, "Here lies Liz. She lived. Wait, no...Here lies Elizabeth. She hated being called Liz. But she lived," she said with a laugh.

"She had a sense of humor so bawdy that I’d say 'really, did that just come out of your mouth?'" "The View's" Whoopi Goldberg recalled. "She was a great broad and a great friend."

Walters agreed that in addition to being a great actress, Taylor could be "very salty," but that's also what everyone loved about her.

A special edition of "Nightline" featuring Barbara Walters: "Remembering Elizabeth Taylor" aired on Wednesday night, March 23 on ABC at 11:35pm.

All these comcast service interruptions are ridiculous. Everything is out- phone,tv,internet,mobile internet. 2 days in a row! comcastisannoying