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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...

Let the Bloggiesta roll

It's the weekend for me, finally! Phew, I spent all day thinking when I can start playing with my blog. After work, I stopped on my way to buy a medium-size strong coffee because I didn't want to waste one minute at home with chores. Now that I'm home, with my workstation set up, my coffee, water and snacks beside me, the geek in me is so excited to start twiddling with code. Luckily, I did spend some part of this week making my to-do list, so the most important task is done.



The to-do list unfortunately spans two pages. I guess I micromanaged when listing the stuff, so I'm going to be a bit more concise here. Besides, I made the list with the long-term in mind, so I'm going to have to tweak the list a bit further. After all, I do want to achieve something here this weekend, right? So here's what I plan to do:

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.
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.
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 all those policy pages (Rating/Review/About me..)
  3. Move to either IntenseDebate or Disqus. Preferably Disqus? Hmm, I need to check that again.
  4. 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.
How are you all doing? I haven't been by to visit any of you so far, Bloggiesta or otherwise (for at least 4 days), but that changes this weekend, I promise! (Does that sound like a regular book blogger's promise?)

Comments

Madigan Mirza said…
Wow! You really put the "O" in "PEDRO"!
This is the most organized Bloggiesta post I've ever seen!

Kudos to you!
Awesome list (but so overwhelming!). I love the idea of a layout re-do, it's so refreshing. I did that last year and was really happy about it.

I back up my blog each week (it's on my to do list for that day each week) since in blogger it's so easy to do. It allows me to relax, knowing I won't lose it all

good luck and have fun this weekend!
bermudaonion said…
You have a busy weekend ahead of you! I personally like the name of your blog.
Athira said…
Madigan, thank you! I'm so flattered! :)

Helen, overwhelming, very true! You should see my to-do excel. My eyes are already glazing over, lol! Must. Do. Must. Focus.

Kathy, now you're confusing me. :-| You were supposed to say that you don't care for the name of my blog. Just kidding. ;-)
Lucia said…
That is one super impressive, super organised list! I'd keep the name, it's cute. I personally like Intense debate as it makes replying to comments much easier. Good luck!
Ash said…
Great list! We also need to start our plans for February yes? If you like Disqus I think I might change to as well.
I am calling this bloggiesta a big fail for me, but you seem to be rocking it! (Mental note: do not agree to help launch another blog at the same time as bloggiesta)

If you ever want some help with a platform move or have a question about Disqus, feel free to shoot me a message:)

Cheers to your productivity!
Lisa said…
Oh my--you have big ambitions! I spent hours cleaning up my tags and I'm still not happy. We need a Bloggiesta every couple of months, don't we? It's our permission just to play with our blogs for a whole weekend!