Blogging In A Snap & King Kong

First, I am not a shill for the author, the publisher or the series. I happened to come across the blog for the book when I logged into Blogger one day. I went to the blog associated with the book, which led me to Amazon.com.

From there I checked out the book, examined the contents page, and decided to purchase the book.

I received the book a few days ago and, as promised in another comment section, I am proffering my opinion about the book because, as a man rather unskilled in confusers and Blogger in particular, others had asked about the book and whether or not it contains valuable information.

I'll cut to the chase:

Should you purchase the book? Yes, if you're not really familiar with Blogger and find it difficult to interpret their help areas and, more importantly, find their help areas woefully inadequate, this book is for you. I'm still reading it (at 270 pages, I'm around half through) but, though not finished, I give the book very high marks.

Once I finish the book, I hope to garner the time to attack my blog and make some updates and/or more completely understand how Blogger functions.

Some bloggers have sites that are feasts for the eyes. They've broken down their side links and blogrolls exquisitely and enhanced their sites with wonderful graphics, moving gifs, photo links, surveys, hit monitors and the like.

Of course, in my opinion, it's all about the writing. But it doesn't hurt that, in addition, one's blog is well organized, pleasing to the eye and customized to your wants and needs.

Also, there is a website concomitant with the book, maintained by author Julie Meloni, entitled Blogger In A Snap. Please remember: the book, though entitled BLOGGING In a Snap, is specifically about Blogger and no other blog provider.

Once I start to apply the various ideas and concepts I've gleaned from the book, I'll provide another review regarding the ease of application.

KING KONG: The New Movie

I saw the new King Kong today. Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) directed this second remake (1976's King Kong starred Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange, Charles Grodin) of the classic 1933 black and white thriller, starring Fay Wray. On the heels of Rings' success, Jackson is gold and could, essentially, have made a movie about banana slugs and found it funded.

First: be prepared. This movie is 3 hours and 14 minutes long. I timed it. Better hit the bathroom and squeeze every little bit of pee from your bladder prior to finding a seat.

Was it another Lord of the Rings? No. Out of 5 stars, I'd give it 3.5.

It was just too long. Peter: learn to listen to your editors. But the Brontosaurus stampede scene was absolutely riveting and marvelous -- what viewpoints, digital melding and drama!

A very good movie, not an exceptional movie, but there was just -- I don't know -- something missing. So much of it was digitally contrived. Yes, it yielded some Eye Candy scenes. But the digital thing just lacks -- for want of a better word -- humanity.