The sun is setting on "Brian Blogs in Brooklyn"

I believe the end of an era is approaching. As you may have heard, Alicia and I will be returning to live in Minnesota. Given that this blog is entitled "Brian Blogs in Brooklyn," I've got two options.

1) Rename the blog.

2) Retire the blog.

Well, I suppose there's a third option: I could always move to Brooklyn Park, MN. But that just seems silly.

To be fair, I certainly could just rename the blog. But I really like the name of this blog. I think it has captured (even if only through a sprinkling of posts) my life in New York City. I think this blog has given my family a window into my life they couldn't have seen any other way. More than letter writing or telephone calls, this blog allowed me to actually post photos of the life Alicia and I carved out of Brooklyn for ourselves. Retiring this blog just seems to be a natural last step as we set sail towards Minnesota.

But never fear, I'm not out of New York City yet. And you can bet good money that I've got a few good posts brewing in my mind. There's definitely a New York City Rant in the works, plus photos of our move.

And just as my previous website http://jhinra.googlepages.com/ continues to tell the story of my life in Duluth and the move to New York, so too will this blog float on in the ocean of the internet.

I've returned the blog to it's old theme, since it might as well finish the way it started almost two years ago. Be sure to check back over the next few weeks while Alicia and I pack up everything and get more and more excited to move to Minnesota. I'm sure it'll be a lot of good reading.

Changes are a-brewing

Hello! You may have noticed a change to my blog (if you subscribe to my RSS feed, go check out my homepage, briancopeland.blogspot.com). I know rainbows aren't my normal forte, but this design was too cool to skip over.

You can expect to see some more activity from Brian Blogs in Brooklyn. Stay tuned!

A New Year, New Motivation!

Hello!

Well, I've been less than good writing here. For the new year, I've taken a step back from my blogging and Twittering and given it some thought. I realized that there are two walls that have stood in the way of me blogging:

The big one is picture posts. I know pictures are fun, but it's a hassle to take them, transfer them to the computer, load them onto the internet then finally format them on the blog. I had a policy of posting a picture with every post. I think that breaking this habit will make it easier to write a lot more! I'm hoping pictureless posts can be likened to letters home. I can keep everyone updated with what's going on and maybe sprinkle some photographs at my convenience.

Secondly, Twitter really ruined a lot of blog posts I would have normally written. I would "tweet" a tiny little snippet (that you used to be able to see on the right side of this blog), but then I would have no motivation to write about it later. So, for the new year, I'm going to cut Twitter out of the picture. It's probably a good idea, anyway. I don't need to make the personal details of my day to day life public knowledge!

I'm really going to give blogging again the old college try. Check back periodically to see how I do. Wish me luck!

The worst is over

I've finished my hard work this semester. I'll be giving the final to my students tonight, but that requires literally 0% work on my part. It was a toughie this semester.

The good news: I'm back to blogging! I'm hoping to push out a few updates out today and then resume my regular blogging schedule.

So come back to Brian Blogs in Brooklyn!

Blog Update

Three permanent additions to my blog:

1) I've added a status bar to the top. Nothing fancy, just some text above my posts to let you know what I've added.

I'm adding this because of my infrequent updates. As is typical, I might go two weeks without posting anything new. Then, when I sit down and write a lot, posts might get pushed down too low to notice.

Now, one quick visit to briancopeland.blogspot.com will inform you as to how new material has arrived.

This shouldn't be displayed to readers using my RSS feed, as you are already aware of how much I've updated.

2) I'm using Twitter. Twitter is the new rising star on the internet. Instead of writing long blog posts, internet users are "Tweeting," or writing a 140 character (or less) message and publishing it on their Twitter account. This is nearly the same as what other websites call "status," but the twitter posts (called "tweets") could be anything. They call it "microblogging," and it is much easier than regular blogging.

I'm using http://ping.fm/ to publish my Twitter'ing everywhere. Thus, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll see the same thing as my status listed on the right side of my blog. This will be the same as my MySpace profile and my Facebook status (to find me, search for cope0053@d.umn.edu).

3) Around the Internet is finalized. If you haven't noticed this section of my website, it is on the right hand side under my Status. It's basically displaying my Shared Items from Google Reader. So, if you aren't visiting my website, you could certainly subscribe to my Shared Items to see what links I've thought were cool. I usually include a description of the link through the Shared Items feed.

Status Updates on the Right

Perhaps you've noticed my status update on the right side of this blog. That is courtesy of Twitter, a big name on the internet as of late. It is entirely centered around status updates a la Facebook. Each update is called a "tweet," and you can follow people who are texting their "tweets" via cell phone.

I haven't really gotten into the Twitter community. Apparently, it is all the rage in the blogosphere (world of blogs where everyone reads everyone else). But it makes it easy to let you know what I'm doing. It's much easier to write a tweet (160 letter maximum), so you'll see that updates much more often. And if you'd like to twitter back and forth, I'd love to follow your tweets. Comment me up!

Fixed pictures in Renegade...

Whoops! There was a problem with the pictures in my previous post about my new bag and the craft fair. Sorry about that! I've fixed it, so feel free to scroll down (if you're on my homepage) or click here to see the post.

Sorry, pictures coming later

Alicia and I woke up at 6am this morning (compared to 9-10am), so we ended up taking a nap later this afternoon. As a result, I didn't get a chance to get my post up yet. It's coming, but I've got some homework to do first. Sorry!