Switching from Xanga

Having just had a call from a friend encouraging me to think about sharing the xanga blog more widely, and having been thinking for quite some time about switching from the juvenile-dominated xanga with its intensely frustrating idiosyncracies (like not loading all the photos), and having checked out blogger last week, I've finally decided to set up a blogger account to see if I can replace pohanginapete at xanga with pohanginapete at blogger—i.e. this. If you've arrived here from somewhere other than the xanga site, check it out to see what you might expect here in future; if you've arrived from xanga, well, I guess you already know...

Why switch? Two main reasons: 1.) anyone can add comments here (if I choose to allow them), but at xanga you need to sign up for a xanga account; and 2.) xanga is best known for blogs **~WrItn lykE diS~**>!; blogs promoting anorexia as a lifestyle choice (it's true, but don't expect me to support it by giving you a link); and blogs by people struggling with puberty (including some over 20. Or 30. Or...). There are some exceptions, but, not unreasonably, I'd feel more of a sense of collegiality among bloggers like norightturn(to whom I'll turn for validation when the upcoming NZ Parliamentary election depresses me too much) and fuelfools (to whom I'll also turn for validation when the upcoming election ..., etc). Cheers, Wordgirl, Comfy and the rest of you :^) )

Initially, I'll copy some of the latest xanga entries here (perhaps interspersing them with new blogger posts and photos), and I'll decide later whether to stick with this and abandon xanga completely (just leaving it with a link to take readers here). However, despite my irritation with xanga, it does seem to allow more flexibility with presenting photos, so I might decide to stay there for the interim. Who knows, perhaps I'll eventually learn enough to set up my own real website?

So, here we go... and here are the first photos. I stepped outside yesterday, into an elegiac evening; the darkening sky shifting with mauve clouds, the Tararua Range down south all orange-pink and violet and a big, bone-coloured moon rising... I nearly froze my tips off (that's fingertips in case you misread) enjoying it and trying to catch the light, but it was worth it. Well worth it.

Send me some thoughts about the switch, eh?

Photo and words copyright 2005 Pete McGregor