Tag: Wordpress

blog problem solved!

Yay! My blog problem has been solved. It wasn’t my doing, but my posts are displaying correctly again.

Now, if I could just manage to write more and more timely posts…

blog problem

Hello, Friends! Just wanted to let you know that I am having a bit of a problem with posts showing up correctly. At the moment, when you go to the Posts listing, you may see just the most recent post or two, followed by a post from early March, skipping over several other posts. To access those posts, go to one of the posts listed and use the “previous” and “next” posts at the bottom of the page to be able to read the ones that aren’t listed. I’m in the midst of troubleshooting with WordPress to figure out what is going on, but wanted you to know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the blogging world quite as much as it seems when you click on Posts.

20 Questions

Regular visitors here at Top of JC’s Mind know that life has been challenging for me for a number of months and that I haven’t been keeping up with visiting and commenting on other WordPress blogs as I used to. I haven’t visited my blog’s email inbox in a long time, but there are a few non-WordPress blogs that send notification to my personal email, which is how I saw this post from Eclectic Evelyn. So, I am participating in answering a series of summertime questions to link to her blog (and to have a post that doesn’t involve a lot of brainpower, which is in short supply).

The questions and my answers:
1. Favorite animal? chickadees
2. Wine or beer? neither, although I very occasionally drink a hard cider
3. Socks on/off while sleeping? off
4. One piece or two piece bathing suit? one, although I haven’t had a bathing suit on in years
5. Cooking at home or eating out? usually cooking at home, although I love eating out
6. Pepsi or Coke? neither, as medical issues make sodas unwise for me
7. Regular or electric toothbrush? regular
8. Candy or chocolate? I love chocolate, but am not eating it these days (see #6), so candy
9. Coffee or tea? I never do coffee or black tea, but once in a great while will do an herbal tea (also related to #6)
10. Music or talk radio? talk, but only on public radio which involves no screaming or name-calling
11. Chick flick, action movie or documentary? documentary
12. Regular or mechanical pencil? mechanical, so that it doesn’t dull
13. Swimming or laying out? neither, as I prefer to be indoors
14. Dog or cat? dog, although we can’t have house animals due to allergies (and that I don’t need another being to take care of)
15. What do you drive? SUV, van or sedan? I drive a minivan and our fun, fully-electric Chevy Bolt
16. Early bird catches the worm or night owl? unfortunately, both, because, insomnia….
17. If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life what would it be? pasta
18. While sleeping: Phone in room by your side or phone in another room? cellphone in another room with landline in the bedroom in case of emergency
19. Singing in the shower, yes or no? I do sing, including 35 years with the Binghamton University Chorus, but I don’t sing in the shower
20. Oreo cookies, Eat whole? Take apart and/or dunk? I haven’t had an Oreo in years. As I kid, I used to take apart; not a fan of dunking.

So, there you have it! Please visit Evelyn. If you would like to answer the questions yourself, she has a handy list in her post ready to copy and paste.

do-it-yourself 2016 summary

Once upon a time, I think I got a year-end summary from WordPress that compared how many people visited the site to various buildings or transportation modes, like trains. You could share it to your blog.

I assumed that WordPress sent us an email with a link to our personal information, although I didn’t remember. I have been on the lookout, though.

I finally searched for my 2015 summary and realized that I had the info well before now. I started searching and found out that, unfortunately, WordPress is not sending out year-end summaries for 2016.

As a (less fancy and engaging) substitute, I am taking a (rare) look at my stats page to share a bit.

In 2016, Top of JC’s Mind had 226 posts, which garnered 7,507 views from 3,578 visitors from 62 countries.  (Or thereabouts, given that people who read my blog via email don’t show up in my stats.) The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada were the top three countries.

The top posts were:
Shock 
crying does not help dry eyes
Poem: Crowning Glory
Feeling the Bern in Binghamton
the legacy of Father James
April 8

It’s a fairly eclectic list, albeit a bit heavy on the personal trauma scale, but that was the kind of year that 2016 was.

I want to thank everyone reading this post and everyone who visited Top of JC’s Mind in 2016.

And thank you to Linda for once again motivating me to get off to a good, energetic start in January with Just Jot It January. No promises, but I’ve made every day so far…
*****
Linda is hosting Just Jot It January again this year. Join us! Details here:  https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/06/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-617/

jjj-2017

 

a note of thanks

I am somewhat shocked to discover that I have reached 750 followers, including just over 600 from WordPress alone.

I am immensely grateful to all followers, readers, and commenters who are visiting Top of JC’s Mind these days as I continue my less-than-ideal blogging practice.

When Grandma died unexpectedly in March, I knew there would be some disruption in my usual routine of posting and visiting/commenting on other blogs, but I couldn’t know at the time how draining the aftermath of that loss would be or how many other losses, changes, and complications would ensue.

The current state of affairs in the world hasn’t helped.

I have struggled to get back to posting on a somewhat regular basis. I am doing almost no reading and commenting still, which feels odd. It isn’t that I can’t come up with the time; it’s more that I can’t muster the brainpower and concentration.

I thank you for your patience and understanding. I have given up projecting when I may be back to visiting you all and re-engaging.

Some of you have assured me that it is okay to take my time, to do what I need to do, that everything will work out eventually.

Please continue to save a little room for me in a corner of WordPress.

Someday, I’ll be dropping back in.

 

Record views

People who have been visiting Top of JC’s Mind for a while know that I am not a diligent stats watcher.

I tend to look in every once in a while, but not every day.

Or even every week….

Since Grandma died and I have not been posting much, I hadn’t even looked at my stats at all – until today.

On May 2nd, I set a new record for views – 153!

I would tell you what the old record was if I could figure it out…

I published a post that day about attending a very emotional service, which was then shared by one of the participants. I’m sure this accounts for the new record views.

As always, I am grateful to all those who visit here at Top of JC’s Mind.  It’s fun to have a new record as a prompt to say so.

inscrutable stats

WordPress stats can be weird.

At the moment, for today I have 29 views, 20 visitors, 43 likes, and 3 comments.

It seems strange to have more likes than views.

I’m guessing that means that some of the likes are through the reader or through people who get instant email messages of new posts.

Maybe there are reasons I don’t pay that much attention to my stats page…

beyond the “like” button

Last July, I wrote this post about the need for an empathy button on social media.

Amazingly enough, Facebook has recently implemented an expanded menu of option beyond the old “like” button.

Yay!

I realize this has nothing to do with my little post, which did not go viral and lead to a social media wave demanding a change.

Still, I’m hoping that other social media will follow suit.

Okay, WordPress. Your turn.

Another record!

I posted last week about a new record for likes.

I am shocked to report that that record, 66 likes, was shattered yesterday, setting a new record of 103 likes!

And, in the odd record-keeping of WordPress, I had only 79 views…

I realize part of that is that I allow full posts by email and in the reader, so some likes come in that don’t register as views.

I had four posts yesterday.

The first was a re-blog of gorgeous flowers from My Food and Flowers. It attracted likes and some new followers from the photo-blog sector, including one who went on to explore and like a lot of posts. Thank you, v4vikey!

My planned post yesterday was about the ever-popular subject of exercise, featuring adventures with Wii Fit.

Then, there were two spur-of-the-moment posts on my re-vamping of my blog theme, one on the new header and one on the menu.  Posts about blogging always seem to attract attention – among bloggers.  Go figure!

Part of the success of the post-likes in a single day is the time of day when the posts appear. All four posts appeared in the morning in my time zone, so it gave more hours for my readers to find them the same day.

Thanks to all my readers and “likers” – especially those of my followers who visit on a regular basis. I really do appreciate your visits, comments, and likes here at Top of JC’s Mind!

Wishing you all a great weekend,
Joanne

I have a menu!

In an attempt to make my new blog theme exploration almost as obnoxious as my poetry publication squealing, here is yet another post on my newest tweak to Top of JC’s Mind.

In my quest to discover what happened to my link to my About page, I found the menu feature of my new theme.  I had never done much with menus in my prior themes, but decided to expand my horizons.

Besides the About link and a Posts link to my main page, I added three category links. One is poetry, which will include anything that I have put in that category, so, while links to my poems are there, there are also links to other poets’ work and anything that relates to my writing, groups, workshops, submissions, etc.

The two other category links are to my posts in the two series of Linda’s Life in Progress blog to which I regularly contribute, One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

I was pleased to discover that the new menu links appear above the new header image, which has the happy effect of making the blog title and tagline font size more proportional and intentional-looking. They seemed puny and forlorn before.

So, yay! So much progress (that I wasn’t actually planning to make today)!

Comments welcome!
~ JC