Template tantrums and Blogger bustups

Keegan's having a rant today -- bear with me. Little puffs of steam are coming out of both ears, it's been One of Those Days, and alas, it ain't over yet.

There are times when Blogger makes it easy. There are times when it's so impossible to make the engine do what you want it to do, you want to turn off the computer and walk away.

I just spent a couple of fascinating, joyful, bliss-filled hours bashing my head against Blogger's walls, and at the end of it I'm no closer to uploading LEGENDS than I was this morning.

Now, as you know, the template was designed like this:

...you remember the one. Sure. We've sweat blood on it for weeks to get it perfect. And on the other blog, which is nothing more than a "test bed," it works 100%. I figured we'd copy it over, set up the gadgets, and it would be good to go. Right?

Well, it was a nice idea! It was copied over, and it ... exploded. It's currently doing things I've never seen Blogger do. Things I had no idea Blogger could do. Like -- you edit one "widget" in your sidebar, but the results execute, and appear on-screen, in the footer section of the page. You add a widget to the sidebar, but it appears in the footer ... so you delete some of the accumulating dross from the footer section, and in its infinite wisdom the engine deletes elements from a sidebar!

I have no no idea what's going on with it. I imagine Jade will have to get in there and rewrite it at the code level -- which won't be happening for a couple of days because DreamCraft is flat out right now with another job.

So ... I wait a little longer, just as I'm still waiting on the proof for The Lords of Harbendane, which should have been here over two weeks ago; and I'll continue to wait for Google to show a little courtesy, if not actually compassion, and eventually take a look at this blog and deign to say why its page rankings were zeroed out and the Googlebot ceased to index it, over two months ago.

Y'know, of all the things in this life I think I dislike the most, it's the waiting. Being utterly dependent upon a third party to do his, her or its bit to make the machine go, and having them do nothing, or do it wrong, or otherwise stuff things up to the point where several centuries' worth of hard work are back in the desk drawer, languishing.

Today has a bright spot: have you seen AG's Album today?! Check this out, throw up your hands and surrender: Brendan's back! But I doubt he'll be looking quite like this in his new movie... someone out there has got one hell of a lasso around Photoshop! Fantastic work.

Actually, the day has two bright spots. It's about 102 degrees in the shade outside. It's so cold where I'm sitting, I need a seater. And you gotta like that. The a/c ... works.

Thank gods something does!

Let me go grab a cup of tea, take five, and then I'll have another go at Blogger. They also serve who sit under the a/c beating their brains out.

Ciao for now,
MK