The Meeting's On!

We are finally going to have our writers meeting: 7 pm, Tuesday, February 26! We will meet at the First United Methodist Church on the third floor, room 303. Sandy Wood and I are hosting. Catrina Pelton will be speaking on writing oral histories.

An oral history is: "A recording containing information about the past obtained from in-depth interviews concerning personal experiences, recollections, and reflections" (Merriam-Webster)

Catrina teaches history at Maryville High School. Through the Civic Voices International Democracy Memory Bank Project sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers she studied techniques and strategies for recording oral histories. She will share with us the importance of recording history that would otherwise be lost to us and ways in which oral history can enhance writing projects.

Google+ Going Away Soon - Tweak Blogger To Stay Visible

With the impending doom of Google+ just around the corner, and deletion of Google+ profiles, communities, etc., you may need to adjust a couple of things.

For instance, if you're using Blogger for your website pages or a blog, and if you have previously associated that with your Google+ profile, then you need to tweak your settings.

Go into your blog and go to the "Settings" section. Choose "User Settings" at the bottom of the list. Then, to the right, make sure the button for "Blogger" is selected and not the "Google+" profile. Right beneath the "Blogger" button is the word "Edit." This is for your Blogger Profile, which you need to fill in, update, whatever, especially if you have the profile set to be viewed on your blogs. Click Edit and fill in the blanks, then "Save Profile" at the bottom. There's even a spot on there to upload your picture, as the one you had on your Google+ profile will no longer show up soon.

On the left menu choose "Posts, Comments, and Sharing" and scroll to the bottom. There you will see "Use Google+ comments in this blog?" Make sure it's set to "No." Right below that you may see a large drop-down box. Make sure it says, "Google+ Disabled."

Google+ users should have all received an email by now telling them how to download their Google+ stream, comments, etc. Do it. Just in case you ever want to access it to search for something later. It will be in an html file. Have it saved to your Google Drive or to your own laptop. I went ahead and opted to delete my Google+ profile ahead of schedule, to avoid the April rush. However, when you go to do that, you DO NOT have to delete your YouTube channels, or any other stuff. Just Google+. Unless you are a Google Suite user, then that's different. Follow the instructions in the email you received. I think it stays active.

If you have more than one Blogger blog, you will have to adjust these settings for each one. Okay, that's it. Tweak away. Happy blogging.