My Old Blogs at Yahoo!360 / MTP
My First Blogs
I wrote this article on Nov-29-2010 as a remark for all my posts after this.I started my very first blogging in August 2006, which was the Buddhist year of 2549. I like to make notes on the Buddhist Years because it is easier and not confusing at all for me as the last two digits of a Buddhist years shows my age by the end of that year. (Oops, maybe I should not have written this here... he he he.)
My initial blogging space was at Yahoo!360. It was fun. I remember my very first attempt to type things in Yahoo!360 blog editing box that resembled a mini Microsoft Word. I had used MS Word since there was Windows so the box did not look strange. My problem at that time was not about how to blog, but rather, about what to post.
In the beginning I simply put down the quotes that impressed me.
But soon I found that I could not underline certain sentences. I mean, although I could see the lines in the editing box, they disappeared right after I clicked save! To make it worse, the fonts sometimes automatically changed their sizes.
This kind of thing would never happen in Microsoft Word!
I therefore realized that the editing box was not the same as MS Word although they appeared similar.
It was quite frustrating being unable to completely control the outcome of the appearance of the articles that I typed. In those days I had zero knowledge of HTML. In fact, I had not even heard of the word "HTML". Maybe I should have taken some computer courses when I was in college. But what's the use? During my college days there were no Windows or Word. I remember seeing computer class students going to their class with computer cards that had holes on them. They said they input info by punching holes onto the cards. Well, what an unattractive class, I had thought.
Anyways, back to the blogs.
At the time that I had problem with the underline things I started to see my blogger friends' animated pictures in their posts. Wow, how did they do that?!
I asked them how. Fortunately most of the bloggers were kind and not selfish in sharing what they knew. Soon I saw tutorials in Yahoo!360.
The most impressive first tutorials that I read were posted by "Tiger", a blogger in Sinagapore. He posted table codes, which are nowadays frowned upon by many web experts but the table codes obviously had worked well. However, even the (plain?) table codes were so S T R A N G E in my eyes.
Tiger posted:
"Very important. You must copy these into your blog...
<HTML><table><tbody><tr><td> ...
...
...
This is very important. You must copy all of these...
Goodness, what are these jargons?!
But the animated backgrounds were too tempting and I decided to give it a try. I copied the codes and went to the sites that had animated pictures. I grabbed the codes and modified them the way Tiger posted in his tutorials.
The result was of course, "WOW...!" and "COOL!"
Yay! Now I know how to do it!
Thus began my unstoppable code-learning. Soon I started testing ways to edit graphics and to make animated pictures – my special thanks to "Dwayne" in the States and "Monique" in Canada. Without their guidance I would not have known how and where to find the resources.
I believe many Yahoo!360 bloggers had similar start-out like mine. However I am not sure how many have been as fortunate as I.
Thanks again, my blogger friends! I could say thanks again and again to all of you...
Unfortunately just as we were having fun learning and testing, Yahoo!360 became more and more inaccessible. Bloggers gradually moved out to new places. I tried to stay but I also found it increasingly difficult to blog or to read the posts at Yahoo!360. There were rumors that the site would be closed down.
Finally on July 13, 2009, it really closed down and was no more.
Luckily Yahoo had kindly saved and zipped all our blog contents and sent them to us before it dissolved the 360. I have kept those files in my pc since then. I was, however, not good enough to do anything on these: I had no idea how to properly and correctly copy-paste them so that the layout remain the same as those in the old blogs.
I gradually built up some self-confidence in HTML and CSS during the next few years of learning, testing, and practicing at Multiply and at webs.com. Although I have not discovered where to post the entire contents for free I have managed to redo the codes, making the files smaller and the layout almost the same as the original. I started to "regenerate" those blogs and have already posted some of them to my website.
Not that my writings were priceless or whatever – quite on the contrary in fact! – but these "babies" were my first blogs. In the old 360 days I got encouraging comments from my friends, which were so precious. Without these first encouragement I would not have come to what I am doing these days ( which is what a real code-addicted person does, ha ha!)
There are a few blogger friends that I must say thanks. One of them is "Geoff", or "saudigeoff", who is in the UK. Geoff has been the editor for the DCRS Newsletter long before I knew any HTML. He is also the Secretary of two newer charity groups: Plymouth Laryngectomy Club (PLC) and The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd. (DCFA). All these are in Plymouth, UK.
Geoff invited me to do the website for DCRSC (now DCRS) when I had just learned some basic blogging tricks. Prior to that I had never done a website, nor had I known how to. According to Geoff, the DCRSC had no website and they wanted one.
Turned out it was FUN, FUN, FUN and FUN for me to tweak the codes for the DCRSC website. (Thank you, Geoff!) The process was not always smooth, but thanks to the internet I could always find the ways to solve my coding problem, be it about the HTML, the CSS, or the javascripts.
At the time I type this I still do not know how to write my own original javascript, nor do I have any idea what I can do if I learn more of xml, which may look similar to – but is very different from – HTML. And I am at a complete loss when it comes to creating mobile-friendly webpages.
There are so much to learn and to test while techs in the web-world are advancing at an increasingly fast pace!
Looks like my catching-up will be endless...
OK, I think I had better stop bragging now.
The links to my archived works are on my homepage. Below are two of them:
My Earliest Blogs at Yahoo! 360
Some of the old blogs – and ALL the blog comments – displayed here are simply screenshots and not always in complicated HTML. I hope this causes no harm to anyone!
One of my posts at MULTIPLY.COM
I have kept the layout of this one almost the same as what it was like.
