Well, there's that

[gwyn]

One good thing that's coming out of the whole shitstorm about the fanfiction survey fiasco? I'm finding all these cool people posting stuff on different threads that I want to add to my reading list. You wouldn't think it'd have an upside, but hey. There it is.

Yesterday was kind of a weird day. I took Dad down to visit his cousin in Olympia, who's 88 and whose daughter, a few years older than me, recently took him out of an assisted care facility after finding him to be mistreated rather badly. He didn't really remember Dad at first, even though they were great good friends when I was a kid, and doesn't often remember his daughter, but he did have some good moments where he and Dad were able to reminisce a bit. It made me happy that Dad was happy, and my cousin said that when she told her father we were coming down, his face lit up, but it also made me abysmally sad about everything that's got away over the years, about failing parents and the loss of my sister and just everything in between. Dad's four years younger than George, and he's all kind of bent over and using a cane and I noticed that the last black hairs on his head are all gone now, and it's snow white and he's largely bald. It's scary and sad and I wish so badly that sis_r was here to help me with this (not that she would, she'd just bitch me out for being a whiner and a depressing freak, but you know, that's how we were with each other).

I'm trying to use my d-dub account more often, as I haven't used it at all really, but I'm just so intimidated about uploading my icons. Someone said there was batch uploading... but I can't find it (maybe because I'm using Safari?). And I'm really intimidated by some of the things like commands for seeing comments made in one journal or another... Are there resources for people who are too stupid to do anything on their own (something along the lines of "A is for apple")?

Comments

[kass]

I know it's possible to upload icons in a batch, though I didn't do it that way; I had all of my icons in a folder on my computer, so I just went to the upload-icons page and browsed for each one. I think that when I imported all of my old entries over from lj, their icons imported with them, also. I don't know whether that's helpful, but it's what I've got...

But here's what I know about putting a footer on crossposts which will show how many comments there are on the dw version of the post: to create/edit that, you go here: http://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/settings/?cat=othersites

I have it set to always include the footer on my crossposts at lj, and here's the text of that footer:

[read %%comment_image%% comments at Dreamwidth |  post a comment at Dreamwidth | How to use openID ]

If you copy-and-paste that into the little box provided, you'll see a version of what it'll look like just below the box, so you can tweak the code and the text to your heart's content. I got this text from the_shoshanna and modified it slightly to make me happy. :-)

[gwyn]

I'll try to give it a whirl, but if I have to add it to each crosspost, I have a feeling it will never happen. I'm at the "give me a ticky box or radio button or give me death" phase in my online life. It's like my brain just can't handle anymore thinking.

[kass]

Oh, no, you don't have to add it each time -- I'm sorry I was unclear! There's an option you can select, for "Add the footer to the post on the other site:" -- just pull the dropdown menu to "always." Then you add the code to the little text box, and you'll see a preview of it below the text box so you can tweak/edit as you wish, and then save the setting, and you're done -- it'll happen automatically from then on. :-)

[gwyn]

That's awesomesauce! Totally fulfills my need for a ticky box. ;-)

[sakana17]

Hmm. I'm also not seeing a way to batch uploading icons, and couldn't find a mention of it in the FAQ. I'm using Firefox. What I did find on the Upload Icons page is that you can "Add another from file" or "Add another from URL" -- these are buttons under the upload icon form that's in the box on the left-hand side of the screen. And you can keep using "add another" so you can upload multiple icons at once. (Not sure how many times you can "add another" in one go.) Not the same as *batch* uploading, imo, but slightly better than one at a time.

The resource I keep going back to is the getting_started community. Almost all of the repliers are nice about giving answers without being snotty. The tagging of posts there is not excellent, but it hasn't been hugely high traffic lately, so it might be worth scanning the community's archive.

[gwyn]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to have to try to do the upload more thing. It's just... wow , that's time consuming, which (time) is not something I have a lot of right this mo.

I will definitely check out that community. How are you these days, anyhoo?

icons

[copracat]

If you go to Organise, Import Content (https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/importer) and feel comfy giving it your LJ name and password, you can click Continue and import your icons from LJ (or IJ for that matter). You have to have at least as many icon spots in DW as you do in LJ or it will only import the default icon.

Otherwise, if you go to Manage Icons (http://www.dreamwidth.org/editpics) at the bottom of the icon upload panel are buttons for adding another icons so you can queue up a whole load and then upload them all at once.

Hope that helps :)

Also, hi!

Re: icons

[gwyn]

OH, thanks for that info. That might actually work for me (a long time ago I kind of gave up on privacy stuff, for various reasons) since I don't really worry about the password thing for this.

And OMG, I love your icon so much. Besides being Audrey, it's just so gorgeous to look at.

Re: icons

[copracat]

Thank you :) Audrey is fab, isn't she?

I should say I do trust DW to treat my LJ password with reasonable and appropriate security during the upload but I didn't want to assume what others might consider reasonable and appropriate for themselves.

[yinkawills.livejournal.com]

>..it also made me abysmally sad about everything that's got away over the years, about failing parents and the loss of my sister and just everything in between. Dad's four years younger than George, and he's all kind of bent over and using a cane and I noticed that the last black hairs on his head are all gone now, and it's snow white and he's largely bald. It's scary and sad...<

This? Is so familiar to me. Struggling with the very idea of my parents as frail, vulnerable, and coming very near to the time when they'll no longer be with me. They are both in their 80s- one has recently developed heart problems and as he retired abroad I'll have to try and find money to visit him. The other- my mum- has just gone into hospital for rehab (OT and PT) following a mini stroke.

So your entry really struck a chord.
I send you- and yours- my best regards. :)

Yinka

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much -- it's nice to know there are others out there who get it, you know? And I'm so sorry to hear that your mum just had a stroke -- there are so many nerve-wracking problems for elders out there already but stroke, geez, that's one of the worst and the most frightening. I wish you the best of luck and that both your parents get better.