This weekend I have invested some time into improving my blogging workflow. All it really takes is a desktop weblog client (that works with wordpress). That allows me to write my blog even when I don’t have internet connection (using the data card is usually slow, unstable and ‘more’ expensive. Data card works great for emailing purposes though.) After reading a bunch of reviews about the software options out there, I’ve finally settled on MarsEdit, over ecto, Journler, and MacJournal.
I find MarsEdit to be the most intuitive program, and the fact that it simply works. I haven’t encountered any bugs yet. The only hiccup I’ve encountered was trouble (error 412) accessing the xmlrpc.php file for wordpress. The reason, so I found, is because some hosting companies security actively blocks access to this file. One could either let the hosting company know and release that security or rename the file into something like xml-rpc.php instead, then redirect the path to that. I did the latter method and it worked.
With MarsEdit, I can now insert pictures into my post straight from my flickr account, so I don’t have to upload stuff to two separate places! I think this really makes my life a lot easier. I know that many other softwares have this function too but I just want to express my joy for having it worked the first time I tried, exactly the way I wanted it.
Without further ado, here’s me, four weeks into my six months in Tanzania :-)
> Click on the picture and follow the link to my flickr photo stream to see all my other pictures!
July 28th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Looks like the houses are coming along nicely. I suppose you could learn a lot from the locals how to install the basic necessities and convenience with what’s available. You may on the other hand make suggestions. It should be a revelation to see how little “convenience” one really needs to live without hassle.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Definitely. And I sometimes wonder if our American/western sense of ‘improvements’ - bringing in higher quality tools, clothes, soccer balls… goods in general - is really ‘good’.
For our construction I think we’re definitely using nicer tools than they’d generally use. Not to deny that the generator and power tools (as shown) are not significantly increasing our efficiency.