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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Bloggiesta Update #1


After two days of total 17 hours effort, I did manage to do quite a big chunk of my tasks. Well, maybe not in numbers but definitely in amount. You may notice that my blog layout has changed. I feel pretty satisfied with this one. I'd like to hear your thoughts however. I created the header and modified the layout from scratch, so it took me longer than it would have had I just chosen a ready-made template. Remind me next time not to play with the code, because clearly I can't seem to detach myself from it at any point. I decided not to change the name, because I realized I will have to make too many changes, starting with identity.

Two big changes coming (that's the main reason I decided to post an update now):
  1. I'm going to move my blog to a custom domain. I don't think this will affect your feeds/subscriptions, because you should be easily redirected. But just warning, in case, things do decide to go wrong.
  2. I'll be moving my comment system to (mostly) Disqus. Once I do that, I'd like to hear from you whether you're having any trouble commenting on my blog. I had to think a lot about this. Blogger users will find it inconvenient (hopefully, only the first time) because you'll have to choose one of the modes to login, but those who prefer the Name/URL method won't find it a hassle.


Right now, this is how my to do list looks like:

Appearance
  1. Decide on a whole new look (and name?): I like the look of Wordpress blogs better, but I really don't want to make a platform jump now. I'm sure it's easy, but that's going to be a lot more work than I can handle now. So, instead, I'm choosing the tricky way out - change my layout to something more polished and Wordpress-worthy. I'm also going to really look into the HTML and CSS this time, because I hate code I don't know about. Which means, I can customize it to my desire.
  2. Created a favicon.
Content
  1. Finish up pending reviews: I'm probably lagging by 3-4, which is a lot for me. So I want to get those nagging worrisome thoughts out of my head.
  2. Plan name, buttons, frequency, yada, yada, for the new feature.
  3. Copyright MY images that I've used in my blog.
  4. I had a couple of discussion posts I have already composed in my head. Now to translate that to the PC...
  5. Back up my blog. I've been thinking of doing this for months now.
  6. Set up my PIE list.
Cataloging
  1. Tag all review posts based on some err, standard, that appeals to me.
  2. Clean up the ancient 2010 challenge pages (Oh yeah, because I failed in most, I decided 'out of sight, out of mind' was a good idea. Need to fix that now.)
  3. Set up my 2011 personal reading project and challenge pages.
  4. Update the book reviews page, and find a way to remind myself to update it when a review is live. (Really, how do you remember to update your review database?)
Organization
  1. Clean up sidebars. Let's try a minimalistic approach now, shall we?
  2. Update About Me page.
  3. Update all those policy pages (Rating/Review)
  4. Move to either IntenseDebate or Disqus. Preferably Disqus? Hmm, I need to check that again.
  5. For once and for all, clean up my emails. 600+ is not a nice number. Bonus if I do this: Treat myself to a bookish coffee mug! (There, now I have an incentive.)
Social media
  1. Update my social media profiles with more relevant info, not something that was true two years ago. Heh.
  2. Update my books on Goodreads.
  3. IF I get to this, polish my one group on Goodreads and archive all the old threads

Comments

Madigan Mirza said…
Exciting stuff!
I have to say, I'm lagging by about... a dozen reviews. So don't feel bad! Also, I consider an e-mail inbox with less than a thousand items in it a triumph.
I like your new favicon!
I'll be posting my Bloggiesta wrap-up tomorrow.
Great new look, Aths! Hope you are having fun...cute favicon, too. I never learned how to create one for my Blogger sites. Word Press was easy.

Have fun! And Disqus (is that the same as Intense Debate?) has always worked out for me.

Here's my salon:

http://accidentalmoments.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/the-sunday-salon-jan-23/
It all looks so good! I have a question:

1. How did you do the Connect all in one line (I'll see if it's the same as what I've heard, which seemed a bit complicated)
bermudaonion said…
You got a lot done and your blog looks great! Good luck with the move!
Ash said…
Loving the new look! As soon as your page loaded my jaw dropped. "Is this the right blog?" I asked myself. Then I remembered your Bloggiesta things and realized you'd changed your layout. I think it looks excellent and very much like a Wordpress blog even though you're Blogger. I think you'll like being on a custom domain. I just reached my one year of custom domain and I'm really happy I made the choice.
samantha.1020 said…
The new layout turned out really nice!! Congrats on getting so much accomplished...I'm off to work on my blog a little bit more myself :) Have a great week!
Beth F said…
Congrats on the domain!!
Anonymous said…
I used to dislike Disqus, but now I like it when commenting on other people's blogs.

Your blog looks great.