---
title: "scribbling in ink"
date: 2007-05-09T15:48:50-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2007/05/09/scribbling-in-ink/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [asides]
---

# scribbling in ink

This is a recurring issue for me:  Although I've yet to find anything I actually like overall, I keep thinking I need some tumblelog software that's more inviting for quick quips and quotes.  Sometimes, the affordances of the WordPress posting page make me think I should really write more than a few lines to fill up the space.  So, I don't post anything because I just kind of wander off and never reach the imagined threshold for posting.

This seems oddly related to when I first let myself start writing in a journal with ink instead of pencil - I couldn't stand not being able to erase things and correct them and make them perfect.  Nowadays, one of the first things I do to an Moleskine is ritually tear out the first page and scribble in pen on the next.  Then, I can write on the rest of the pages.  Hmm.  I wonder how I can scribble on a blog?

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090227">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://beesbuzz.biz/"><img src="http://disqus.com/api/users/avatars/plaidfluff.jpg"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://beesbuzz.biz/">fluffy</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090227" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-10T01:26:07">2007-05-10T01:26:07</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>How about posting a "test post, please ignore" entry?</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090229">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href=""><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=719ad7cfa24c00bbcaa8030427dd8743&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="">Mike Taylor</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090229" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-10T02:22:00">2007-05-10T02:22:00</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Have you seen http://www.tumblr.com/  ?  A very good implementation and it's very customizable.  You can even have it pull feeds from other sources.</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090231">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://lantner.net/david"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=e0e01b28a3b9fb63b5f653088f0f79b9&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://lantner.net/david">Dave L</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090231" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-10T02:31:07">2007-05-10T02:31:07</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Maybe re-kindle your OPML blog?  I realize it's a separate entity, but it's already there:</p>

<p>http://blogs.opml.org/decafbad</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090232">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.joegrossberg.com/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=f288a8afe5302a16a366d5e9d34f2fec&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.joegrossberg.com/">Joe Grossberg</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090232" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-10T17:08:07">2007-05-10T17:08:07</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Allow Google to cache it.</p>

<p>No erasing after that. :)</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090233">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://brian.cors.org"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=7b3073e125f3ac8f09130950ef5d7790&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://brian.cors.org">brian cors</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090233" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-10T17:41:18">2007-05-10T17:41:18</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>This is exactly what I use Twitter for.   Glancing thoughts, and not-quite-posts.
It's why I get pissed when people do "@whoever - blah blah blah" posts.   That's what IM and email is for!  :)</p>

<p>Perhaps start a Twitter account for JUST blogging/microblogging, and then swing it over to WP?</p>

<p>For Twitter-to-WP integration, check out the Twitter Tools WordPress plug-in, by Alex King.
[http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress]  </p>

<p>You can either have each Tweet go to a separate post - or archive the day's tweets in a single one.
The once-a-day-archive-to-WP is what I do.  If anything, to backup my postings to Twitter.</p>

<p>Jott is pretty sweet too.  I have donked around a little bit to do a Jott-to-WP thing, but it doesn't allow for drafts!</p>

<p>-b</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090234">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://vanhecke.info"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=f1b5ad283d61a7c1b1dadb15364593f5&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://vanhecke.info">Pascal Van Hecke</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090234" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-18T19:16:32">2007-05-18T19:16:32</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Several Wordpress themes like K2 have incorporated the idea of "asides": blurbs and halfbaked thoughts in a different layout and syndicated separately (so you could have a "serious" articles feed and a combined serious + asides feed for the groupies).
See my del.icio.us links on the subject: http://del.icio.us/pascalvanhecke/asides</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090235">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href=""><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=1487f63f54aa9b54fd725cc9721737d9&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="">Chris Norton</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090235" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-05-25T19:02:30">2007-05-25T19:02:30</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Ditto on tumblr. </p>

<p>I used tumblr to blog my notes from JavaOne for my friends back home, and it worked great:</p>

<p>http://javaone.tumblr.com/</p>

<p>Adding photos, videos and audio is very straightforward, too. It's a nice tool.</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>