Double or nothing

There is nothing I like better than setting out to discover a new place. . .trying a new food. . .tackling a new language. . .charting a course to some new adventure.  

From Old Town Rhodes, Greece

Unless, that is, the new adventure takes me into the land of technology; that part of the world that still gives this notepad-and-pen-packing writer the chills.

Kastellorizo, Greece

I had planned this week to give you a look at that far-distant Greek island we recently visited, Kastellorizo. But that tale will need to wait a few weeks as the time has come for me to depart on a new adventure into the unknown: making changes in the way TravelnWrite is sent out to those who've signed up to receive it by email.

Adrift in the world of technology - Limeni, Greece

This new journey was forced upon me and the countless other writers who use Google blogs as their writing platform with a departure date of July 1st. So it is time to get packing!. Google is no longer providing a distribution service so to keep the posts coming to you we need to set up new systems of delivery.  

I certainly wouldn't have set off on this one by choice as I've long referred to The Scout and myself as those woefully behind-the-times 'techno-dino's' - whose technology skill set is pretty much limited to turning on and off the computer and signing in and out of applications as prompted.

While this post is meant to alert you to upcoming changes, I managed to find a real-life 'small world story' connected to this new adventure that you might find of interest. 

Searching for a 'Travel Guide', aka Technology Guru

Being a techno-dino approaching a frightening new adventure of changing email distribution, I turned to the most logical sources of help, technology! 

First, there was You Tube (for those do-it-yourself-tutorials and which in this case, became horror flicks when I saw what I needed to do), and then to FB pages specifically for blog problems (everyone there seemed searching for help as was I) and turning to friends who might have the skill set for tackling this adventure (but then how much can one ask of a friend, right?)

My Tech Guru on the other side of the world

It was while on one of those Facebook pages, a fellow blogger had posted a link to a web designer, located somewhere in the world.  I had nothing to lose so I opened the link. . .

 . . .And here comes the small world story: the business is located in Duvall, Washington. . .just 'up the road a ways' from where we used to live in the Seattle suburbs.  I've known the Duvall Mayor for years -- way back before she was Mayor -- so I wrote her asking about this company. I was hoping that she might have at least heard of  the company and might recommend it, as by then I had decided it was beyond my skill set and I needed serious help. 

Ann Marie Gill - Cascade Valley Designs

Mayor Amy's response was that I would 'love her' as she wrote of Ann Marie Gill the creative force/technology guru behind Cascade Valley Designs.  

Thanks to technology, Ann Marie and I communicated over the weekend and she is set to start work on the change over. The good news for my fellow Google bloggers still facing the task is that she is developing a tutorial as she does the work on the change over!  (And here, let me assure all of you who are 'subscribers' nothing used in the tutorial will give away any information about any of  you!! She is a pro and knows privacy issues!)

Double or Nothing

Greek islands from above

This idiom seemed fitting as a title of this blog post as when I was studying the tutorials there is a step where you must have the courage to delete the first distribution service and make the switch to the new service, otherwise readers for a time would get two emails for each new blog post.  I was thinking that with my skill set it could easily be double!

I doubt Ann Marie will let that happen as she knows what she is doing!  Hopefully she is going to teach me how to use the new email distribution once it gets set up, otherwise it will be nothing!

Kalamata, Greece

So until the switchover is complete I won't be writing any blogs as Google is real sensitive to sign in's coming some 8,000 miles apart and I don't want to lock us both out of the program.  When I do start it up again, I will post as usual to FB, my followers will still see the posts in their reader feeds and those of you getting it in the mail will continue to receive it -- it will just be coming in a new format -- one of which I have no idea what it will look like yet but it will come from Mailchimp instead of Feedburner.

Thank You!

Queen Anne's Lace - my Greek garden

As I was going through the subscriber list I found that many of you have been readers since back in 2010 when I first figured out how to add subscribers.  I can't tell you how empowering your continued readership has been!  And to all the new folks that have just signed on ~ thank you! I promise some interesting journeys in the future.

Heading into Techno Land - Greece

With that, it is time to set off on the Techno Land Adventure. . .hope to see you all back here in a few weeks! (If you haven't received an email from TravelnWrite by July, could you drop me an email and let me know? travelnwrite@msn.com  Many thanks!!

Our best,

The Scout and The Scribe