Back when we decided to go on our first cruise in 2004, we figured that it would be much easier to use the Internet to communicate with our family back home. At the time, we had 4 cats (including a diabetic cat who required twice-daily insulin injections) and a dog, and as anyone with pets knows, it can be hard to coordinate petsitting between family members.
I had just recently started using a now-abandoned Blurty blog as a personal journal, so we set up another one as a form of communication.
Little did we know at the time, but it really did become invaluable, as Hurricane Jeanne stepped in and closed the Port of Miami just as our ship was sailing toward it. Having the blog allowed us to give family members up to date information on what was going on onboard (as we were pretty much out of cell phone range, and ship to shore calls are frighteningly expensive!), and they were able to update us with what was going on at home.
But Blurty had its own drawbacks – most noticeably its lack of customization features, and no photo integration. On the cruise, we were forced to just dump the photos into a folder on our server, which can cause security issues. Since we are both former photojournalists, having photos integrated into the blog was an important feature.
So when we went to Japan in 2007, I set up my first WordPress blog and integrated it with the Gallery 2 photo hosting. Having everything integrated does make for a more seamless finished package, and all the coding is done pre-vacation.
What does the 2009 blog offer? Links to all our other projects/blogs, as well as my Twitter feed, which of course I’ll be able to update using my cell phone (at least when we’re in Florida, not sure about the Bahamas since it’s a GoPhone), and also links to my Flickr account, which I’m sure I’ll be using as well as the Gallery2 integration.
Thanks for visiting!
Namaste
