Secrets of the Ancient Blogging Masters – How To

I’m on double ultimate secret deadline this week, which means the procrastination juices are flowing like a raging river.  I think I just figured out an easy way to create THE basic blog post, and I’d urge anyone authoring to try it out, or even make it a regular habit.  In short, it’s an easy way to consolidate and track one’s internet travels and travails, then blog about them.

Now, I’m not 100% sure how it will work in your browser, but in Firefox, under the History tab, I can show and sort my day’s links, then highlight/copy/paste directly into the Visual Tab of the Word Press post-editor.  Here’s how the History/Library tab looks, caught in the act of highlighting/copying (click to embiggen):

Now when I paste it into the visual editor, it comes out like this:

7 7 Add New Link ‹ zombie contentions — WordPress Add New Post ‹ zombie contentions — WordPress Amazon.com: righteous victims Amazon.com: Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 (9780679744757): Benny Morris: Books Balloon Juice. All your base are belong to Tunch. Counteroffer submitted Counteroffer submitted Dashboard ‹ zombie contentions — WordPress Dashboard ‹ zombie contentions — WordPress eBayISAPI.dll eBayISAPI.dll Foreign Policy – the global magazine of economics, politics, and ideas GoodShit › goodshit.phlap.net Hot Air Little Green Footballs memeorandum Mondoweiss — The War of Ideas in the Middle East My eBay Selling Manager Pro Listings Awaiting Shipment for kymarfye My eBay: Messages: Inbox My eBay: Messages: Inbox Obama turns to his bipartisan deficit commission’s blueprint for reducing debt – The Washington Post Offer received Offer received Offer received Offer received Posts ‹ zombie contentions — WordPress sabra chatila – Google Search The Cable | FOREIGN POLICY The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast The Washington Monthly Trump courts black backlash – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com What ever happened to Sarah Palin? – War Room – Salon.com wp-comments-post.php zombie contentions – Blogroll zombie contentions – Boot for Rootin’ Out Bashir zombie contentions – Boot for Rootin’ Out Bashir zombie contentions – Boot for Rootin’ Out Bashir zombie contentions – Boot for Rootin’ Out Bashir zombie contentions – Boot for Rootin’ Out Bashir zombie contentions – inferis blogere quam dissimulari cœli zombie contentions – Takes One to Know One, or Something zombie contentions – Takes One to Know One, or Something zombie contentions – Takes One to Know One, or Something zombie contentions › Log In /2011/04/11/boot-for-rootin-out-bashir/#comment-45857

Voila – all of the day’s travels, already hyper-linked.  I can now edit them, though I can also pre-sort and -edit them at the history tab (as when I pre-deleted the underage bestiality porn sites from the above).  With future use in mind, if I leave a comment somewhere, or notice a fun image or graphic or YouTube, I can make a point of clicking on it or its “permalink” to be sure it will be recorded in my history for later uses (see last link above).

Is then just a matter of deleting the irrelevant, redundant, and uninteresting links (nearly all of them…), and I have a day’s itinerary, or a set of “interesting links” – however you want to put it.

It’s also the obviously easy way to go back to an item I may not have remembered to bookmark for future use.

Throw in some commentary about what each so-and-so was up to, or what I was up to there, add more if inspired… and I think you have THE basic blog post and also a record/guide for future use in case you want to check up on, say, whether some discussion you commented on went further, or if you want to retrieve and display or expand upon the comment.  Note:  If you want to use the history without leaving your editing screen, you can preview the post, then click on any link in it to visit the location and copy anything you want to use.

So here’s a quick “itinerary” post based on the above:  Secrets of the Ancient Blogging Masters – The Day Trip