adam parnes

It’s been over seven months since I decided to move from a very geeky, blogging platform. I told myself at the time, I’d stick with tumblr as my blogging platform for a year.

Checking in during the past seven months, I haven’t had one thought of switching to a new service; a small victory. Will it last? Who knows, but at this point tumblr is the perfect platform for what I like sharing.

The next challenge is writing more. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem with the tools being so easy to use.

Here’s looking to another six months on tumblr.

As I’m testing iOS 6 beta, my go to Tumblr app, Writing Kit, isn’t working. I knew going in many apps wouldn’t work.

I’m using Blogsy to write this. I’m pretty impressed with the integrated social services: Flickr, YouTube, Instagram and Vimeo. It’s also really simple to search Google and launch Safari.

Markdown is an option, which I’ll turn on as default. It’s how I format online content.

Blogsy provides a ton of formatting options as well. Everything you’d expect is here. I’m impressed.

The best way to consistently write, is to write.

I spent way too much time in the past few years fiddling with how I write and publish to the Internet.

I tried all the latest and greatest writing apps. I installed and tweaked command line blogging platforms. But, I realized it all comes down to taking the time to write.

Tumblr, over the last two weeks, seems to be the simplest way for me to share what I’m writing. The best part is that it’s almost frictionless. It just works. And I can just focus on writing.

I’m publishing this post from my iPhone on a bus. This is a continuation from last night’s test postings. Will this work well or screw up the title and tags again?

Let’s find out.

Update: other than my poor typing, it worked great.

With the tumblr iOS app sucking, I found Writing Kit to meet my writing and posting needs.

The app allows me to write in the markdown language. I prefer to write in markdown so I can focus on my thoughts and not HTML formatting.

Another killer feather is the built-in research function. I can search online without leaving the app and save links and other information to a scratch pad. Before Writing Kit I would need to use three apps for the same functionality.

Adding links is also a breeze. Finally.

I’ll continue to use Writing Kit and see how it compares to other iOS apps. I might give Blogsy a try, but without an iPhone version, I would have to use two different apps to accomplish what one app can.

I’m feeling good about my switch to tumblr and the tools I’m using to write and post.

With my iPad writing test working perfectly, I’m now testing writing on my iPhone and posting to tumblr with Writing Kit.

Writing Kit allows me to save my writing files to Dropbox and post to tumblr. The best of both worlds. Well, at least closer to how I want to save my work in a text file on my computer and post to a service.

Let’s see how this works.

With my switch to tumblr, the last test is to find out how easy it will be to post from my mobile devices.

I’m writing this on my iPad with an app called Writing Kit. It allows me write in the markdown language and export to a bunch of services while keeping a copy of the file linked to my Dropbox account. The best of both worlds, I’m hoping.

Let’s see how this works.

After what feels like my 10th attempt to streamline my writing online, I’ve come to terms with my need to try new technology and services. This need to try new blogging services has cost me dearly.

I’ve been writing online since 2000, but you wouldn’t know it. I switched blogging services so many times and lost all my previous work. This ends tonight.

Tonight I’m making a vow to myself to stick with one service, tumbr, for at least a year. This sounds simple, but if you’ve followed me for a while, I’ve made it pretty difficult to find any of my previous work.

Everything I wrote on my wordpress blog for years is trapped in a xml file. Everything I’ve posted since Dec. 2011 is in .markdown files on my hard drive.

Tonight it stops. I am making a promise to myself to stick to one service and try to regain my online presence. I want to allow my writing to exist longer than a few months before switching services.

I’m hoping the ease of posting to tumblr will allow me to write more and continue to grow. We’ll see. I have a crappy track record, so far.

Here’s to new beginnings that last.

Google search has been my default search engine for years. The results are decent, especially after the last algorithm update.

With Google’s recent “Google, Plus Your World” campaign, my search results no longer included direct links to the results I wanted. Every time I ran a search, Google+ links were at the top of my results. I’d have to go to someone’s Google+ account before I could get to the content I wanted.

Today I took control of how my Google search results are displayed to me. I opted out of personal results.

Now my results are actually what I was looking for and not a link to a Google+ account.

I might also try a new “don’t be evil” bookmarklet. It shows your Google search results if Google+ wasn’t given priority over other social networks and services.