Blogging Offline

I must admit that, up until now, the concept of offline blogging confused me a little.  I could see the point if you were in a place that just didn’t have a connection, but if you can connect, why not use the facility?

Well, I’ve just ‘Gone Mobile’ and realised that this presents two problems.

1. The first is that my bandwidth is limited.  I’m paying for my data on a ‘Pay As You Go’ basis and this makes me much more aware of the cost.
2. The second reason kind of relates to the first.  It’s all about distraction.  If I’m online, I do a lot of research that often just turns into surfing!  This is not good when you’re trying to do something specific but it’s also not good when you consider point 1!

Therefore, I thought it would be logical to look for a client that I can use offline and then upload to my blog.

Hardware

I’ve just managed to treat myself to an Asus Netbook (despite Asus saying today that the Netbook is dead!).  I bought it to replace a broken laptop but also because I wanted a very compact machine I could bring along to hospital (That’s where I am now!).

I’m very pleased with the machine and it’s certainly doing it’s work keeping me entertained whilst stuck on this ward.  More on that later!

Software

I then researched the offline blogging tools that are available.  The result was a little surprising.  Despite being a recent convert to Ubuntu Linux on my Desktop machine, for the moment I’m opting to keep my Netbook running on the Windows XP it came with.  I would normally do all that I could to find an open source solution to my problems but since many of the reviews pointed to Windows Live Writer, that’s where I headed for first.

I have to admit that, so far, I like it!  It’s nice to have a WYSIWYG editor that actually imports the theme from your blog – a little surprising too considering my blog sits on WordPress and not a Microsoft product.  Live Writer also gives you many facilities not immediately available in WordPress like tables and some rich formatting options.  Of course, these options are available through WordPress but they are not so readily available without digging into plugins or writing your article in HTML.

Experiment – Success?

It’s probably fairly obvious that I’ve only just started playing with this programme.  Really, I wanted to publish an experimental post to see if it would publish first time with the ease I would really like from my software.  If you’re reading this, it worked and I’m really chuffed!  Expect to see more articles written directly with Window Live Writer.

It’s Official – Hospitals Are Boring!!

Well, haven’t I had a really exciting couple of days?  I was due to be admitted into the Walton Centre on Wednesday so that my Warfarin could be stopped ready for my Op on Monday.  The letter said get here by 10am but it also said to speak to the Bed Manager before you leave (but after 0830hrs).  Well, of course, it’s a 5 hour drive from home to Liverpool so this was a problem!

I phoned the Bed Manager on Tuesday and explained the situation.  She said it was not necessary for me to be there by 10am and suggested I call her back at 0930 the next morning

When I called on Wednesday morning they said  “Come Down!”

So imagine my surprise when I arrived at 2pm to the news that there were no beds! Mmmm, I was not Mr Happy.  Luckily there’s an ‘in house’ hotel within the hospital complex down here so it was easy enough to get me a bed, the problem was that the Doc didn’t want to stop my Warfarin when I wasn’t on the ward.  He decided it would be OK to stop my it the day after, so the problem was sorted but since I didn’t stop the Warfarin, I could have come down a day later instead!

A Bed At Last

I was finally booked into a bed last night and immediately give a Heparin jag to replace the Warfarin that was now stopped.

Everything settled down quite nicely, the ward was quiet and the staff very friendly.  Apparently the hospital policy for my type of surgery says that I should stay in a single side room to cut any chance of infection.  The problem had been that there were no side rooms available and rather than put me on the open ward, they preferred the idea of me staying in the hotel.

Of course, this also led to problem with the Warfarin, so in the end they had to compromise and put me in a quiet corner of the ward.

All Change!

When the night shift came in, they decided to put their own stamp on proceedings.  They had an emergency coming in which meant they needed my bed space.  I had to be moved.  Guess where to?…….  A single Side Room!!

So here I am.  Sitting in peace and quiet, with nothing much to do.  I have to wait for the Warfarin to get out of my system before the Op can go ahead.  At the moment this is planned for Monday.

I’m Sorry!

There has been very little happening on this site for the last couple of weeks and I really am feeling bad for letting it fall by the wayside.  I have made a number of changes to the back-end.  Tidying up some of the plugins I’m using and adding the Intense Debate comment system.  I think I’ve just about finished ‘tweaking’ for the time being, so I’ll get down to the job of adding some proper content to my sites.

Treatment (New Stimulator)

Next week I’m heading back down to Liverpool to get my Spinal Column Stimulator fixed.  Hopefully this will improve the gradual loss of sensation I’ve experienced over…… Read the rest

Wave Invites

As of this morning I have 22 Google Wave invites to give away.  All I need is an email address to add to my invite list.  These invites are offered on a “First come First Served” basis.

Click HERE to access the comments for this post.

Comment Luv

I’ve added the Comment Luv plugin to this blog recently.  If you give a URL when commenting on a post, the plugin will try to pull a link to your latest post into you comment.  Please feel free to give it a go, but please don’t spam.  I will delete adverts, anything not suitable for…… Read the rest

Updated for 2009

This is the Second Edition of the Rough Guide To Accessible Britain.  The first was published in 2008.

There are several striking differences between the two editions.  The first is size, the new book being a much more regular A5 and having many more pages (192).

The second is colour.  The first book was colour throughout.  The second has a coloured introduction and the rest is black and white.  This is not a criticism though, the book is well presented and FREE!

New Layout

Probably the biggest difference is the way the…… Read the rest