So, with that in mind, here’s a regular post. I’m writing this using the latest version of the WordPress app on my iPad 2. Since my blog is self-hosted, it’s nice that WP gives away a free editor when they could easily restrict it to only those blogs hosted by WordPress.com. One of the “big” new features of the new app is the formatting toolbar located just above the keyboard which appears when you’re writing a post. In theory this is a good idea—no more typing in HMTL markup directly. And maybe on an iPhone where I type with two thumbs that makes sense. But on the iPad, I’m a landscape-oriented 10-finger touch typist. And, as I’m sure is apparent, touch typing when there’s nothing to actually touch is more an exercise in trust (that autocorrect will work) than pure skill. That’s where the placement of the formatting bar comes in. I’m sure it’s placed near the keyboard for convenience but it is certainly not convenient to invoke a blockquote when I’m going for an “e” or a hyperlink when I’m typing a “w”.

I hate complaining without offering a solution. Here’s my solution: put the formatting bar at the top of the editing pane. Let’s face it, an iPad screen is not so big that this placement would greatly affect usability or convenience. And it would eliminate the possibility of inadvertently invoking formatting commands. At the very least make this a user-selectable option.

I plan on writing a longer post on my trip – maybe a bit of a narrative – and of course embed slideshows of the photos I took. I have a lot of raw video to go through as well but I’m waiting for iMovie ’09 to get it all put together. I really want to use some of those cool new map transitions – Indiana Jones style!

Still, the idea of slowly crafting a post via iPhone throughout the day when a spare moment presents itself is an attractive proposition. Heck, it sure beats wasting time on Twinkle which seems to be slowly morphing into some sort of Web 2.0 dating service (see attached screen grab – “female playmate” – enough said).

And so concludes my first truly mobile post. I hope there will be many more.

Note: After posting originally with WordPress on my iPhone, I went back in with ecto to center the image (for some reason I hate left-aligned images) and also to add a few links to the body of the post. Despite some minor post-production, I think posting from my iPhone is powerful indeed and will—hopefully—drive me to be more active.

Now the question I’m faced with is this: where are paragraph breaks in a Twitter novel? Right now it’s just one stream of sentences. There are no hints from the authors as to where to make these breaks so I guess it will just have to be a big jumble of text.

UPDATE: So it seems that only a certain number of the most recent tweets are fed into the RSS feed. Therefore the story doesn’t—and never did—start from the beginning as it appeared on my 140novel page and it would continue to cut off more and more from the beginning as more posts are added. Not sure how to fix this. I’m a little upset because the code works. The story is formatted perfectly. It’s just the RSS feed that is the issue.

Also, I’m extremely disappointed with the Jawbone I purchased on Thursday night. The darn thing couldn’t be more staticky. Holding my iPhone at arm’s length causes the headset severe distress whereas I was accustomed to roaming around my entire apartment with my $20 Jabra. I’m concerned about the Apple Store’s policies regarding non-Apple branded merchandise. Hopefully they will exchange it for me without an issue as I’m assuming I simply got a defective unit. All those glowing reviews can’t be wrong. Right?

Not much else to update on other than 7:15am meeting coming very very quickly. Oh, and MoodBlast 3 rocks. Everyone should use MoodBlast. Everyone.

Posted while listening to Satan’s Bed from the album “Vitalogy” by Pearl Jam.

As for the import issues, I have an idea: use a free WordPress account from wordpress.com. Here are the steps I’m planning on taking:

1. Setup the free account.
2. Import Blogger posts into the free account. (It should work on their server, right? At least that’s what I’m hoping for.)
3. Once imported, export imported posts in the WordPress archive format.
4. Import the exported formerly Blogger now WordPress posts into my installation of WordPress at ben.kwinix.com.

My iPhone is currently in transit in the capable hands of FedEx. I’m being facetious, of course. FedEx blows. It took less than 48 hours to get from Sacramento, CA to Chicago, IL. Then for some inexplicable reason, they decided to forward it to Hammond, IN, where it’s been on a truck since the 3 AM hour of September 15. Now, a full 3+ days later, I still don’t have my iPhone. To their credit, FedEx did attempt to deliver last night. See, I’m having the package delivered to work because I knew someone would be there during the hours that FedEx delivers, which I assumed to be between 8 AM and 6 PM. When did they come? 7:13 PM. What the heck is that about? We had just left. I’m sure the truck was pulling up as we left the lot. Pisses me off. So hopefully the driver took note that the bank closes at 7 PM and is going to come earlier. It’s a little after 2 PM and still no delivery.

I’ve got 187 pictures of the White Sox – Angels game. They’re all loaded into Lightroom and I’m going through them one-by-one. It’s a somewhat tedious process. Some just get a tone curve adjustment and a star rating. Others get cropped. Still others get virtual copied and re-cropped. I’m about 90% done. As soon as they’re posted to Picasa there will be a post here announcing availability.

Now, back to Lightroom while listening to Jeremy from the album “Ten” by Pearl Jam.