Brute's Lair

Having just undergone a marathon session updating the software, hampered by a misinterpretation of the instructions, I have yet to check if the previous instructions are still appropriate.

The update was effectively forced on us as there seemed to be a problem with the software and the server whcih meant we were disrupting everyone elses websites (oop, sorry pardon!)

The new version has some page-caching facilities that should prevent this and I have also made comments accessible only to registered users - stops some of the literally thousannds of spam messages.

Loading pictures takes more steps than I would feel is necessary. You need to start the blog entry - I had to alter user permissions which was part of the problem.

At the bottom under the blog you will see under images & Attachemnts 'Add/link files'

Clicking on this takes you to a file upload page - click on browse at the bottom and find your file - click on quickupload and after a short wait a thumbnail of the file should appear in the list above with a tick box next to it. Cick on the tick box and just below that you should see a 'Go' button next to a box that says 'insert IMG/link into post' - that should put your image into the post.

Check how it looks on preview and amend image as necessary. The image here should be of my cat when I was late back without telling it I would be!!!

This entry is something of an experiment, intended to see what I can do about putting up

Been there? Done that? Planned your categories so that people can follow your blog correctly? Didn't think of that?

Go back now before your stream of consciousness becomes a flood and drowns your prospective readers!

Now, when you are all settled and ready, click on the new post link. You should now see the same sort of thing I can see, which is a nice rectangle to type in and a list of your categories to the right where you can select the main category for this entry and other categories it can also link to.

Just below that is a set of radio buttons where you can decide whether or not to cast your pearls (of wisdom) before the public. You can also decide if you want to risk allowing people to comment. If you do allow comments then keep an eye on them or you can end up with spam,

Just above the writing area are a few controls that let you have bold type, italic type or insert images and hyperlinks. After you have used each tag click on close all tags or you may get some strange results.
Unfortunately for the image and link tags you will need to know the location before hand - there seems to be no browse facility for local files.

Also note for links and images you should type a short description before closing the tag e.g a link to a well known website

Type away, set visibility to public, click save, and there you are exposed for all the world to see.

The more perspicacious of you will have observed two tabs at the top of the input area, labeled Simple and Expert. Try the expert setting if you wish but you will need basic web editing knowledge to make best use of it.

8 months later and I only now return to this site. and I still feel overwhelmed by circumstances.

I was also almost overwhelmed by the response from friends and relatives at the funeral. Several friends who used to work with my mother turned up (she retired over 25 years ago!) as well as my niece Alison, some of mother's friends from the Dickens Fellowship; as well as several friends of mine from work and from Tower Hamlets Credit Union as well as John and Gillian, children of one of my mother's great friends now too ill to travel.

I have still not sorted out probate. Clearing the house was hard and I have had one of the storage heaters break down and the immersion heater fail just before Christmas. I felt I needed to clear the house up before getting a probate valuation, only to discover later that a friend of mine had obtained probate on her brother's house based only on an estimate of the value rather than an actual valuation - must try to sort that out but the winter weather is depressing me.