Fuse Gone Corporate
Why, hello there.
Don’t mind me. I’m just going to poke and prod around the place. Get a feel for it. Test the floors. Check the locks. Bounce about on the sofa cushions. You know. Really dig in.
Change is scary but this is a nice little place for A Fuse #8 Production and I’m sure we’ll all get used to it. It occurs to me that perhaps there are some of you out there who don’t know me. If not, howdy. I’m the newest addition to the School Library Journal blogger circle. Yep. Just me Amy Bowllan, Brian Kenney, Chris Harris, and Diane Chen (who, without knowing about this move, wrote a rather nice piece that’s up right now regarding me blogo). I’ve been blogging for some time through Blogger, but SLJ made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse and here I am. All shipshape and sea worthy. As it were.
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Okay. I can link. That’s good. My ability to post pictures will come in time. What does this superscript button do?
Ah. It makes tiny words. Both up and down. How odd.
I’ll be toying around with a lot of these features this week. As I do, feel free to give me some tips. As faithful readers will note, my blogroll is missing. In time it’ll come. Plus, eventually my past posts will migrate over to SLJ, but for the moment they are now sitting adrift at my now bereft old site. Lackaday.
Fun stuff to note. First of all, my name is misspelled as I write this. I can’t change that at the moment, but I’m sure that when you read this it’ll be okey-dokey. I never really understood why people feel the need to put a second "e" in "Betsy". It must say something about a person. A spelling Rorschach Test. Second, you’ll note that my head keeps popping up. A lot. It’s a fun picture, granted. I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m resting my chin on the head of the Ugly Duckling right in front of the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park. Figured I had to work in some kidlit somehow. Don’t bother clicking on it, though. It doesn’t get any bigger.
My spell check isn’t kicking in on this site either. That’s not good as I have an atroshuss way with words. Ha.
Aw, who am I kidding? Let’s do some posts, just for the heck of it! I’ll crank this puppy up to 100 and see how fast she’ll go. WOO-HOO!
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Liz B says
Congrats on the move. And if this posting form agrees with me I may eventually be first….
Not to be annoying, but the SJL RSS page doesn’t include you (not that I could find.)
Dan Blank says
Betsy – Welcome aboard! Liz – We are working on adding the RSS link now. Should be up shortly.
B. Johansen Newman says
OK, here is my first try to comment at your new home. Best wishes on the new digs! Looking forward to many more posts with the Fuse 8 flare.
So, do I change my link now?
Diane Chen says
Hello! Welcome! I had heard rumors you were joining SLJ’s bloggers, but I kept waiting & waiting & waiting. I decided you just have too much good stuff out there that everyone should be reading. I’m glad they can still go to the old for archives while they wait for it all to be mashed together. Hooray for SLJ! Looking forward to reading even more. I am especially glad to note that SLJ grants us great freedoms. We can disagree all we want with them and no one tells us what we should or shouldn’t say. How many publications are that open and honest?
Gwenda says
Yay, you! Quick question: What’s the correct RSS feed for the new site? I’m pulling up a good half-dozen and can’t tell.
Gwenda says
Whoopsie — that’ll teach me to comment before reading the others. RSS feed to come. Will you post that in the move post at your old site too, Betsy, when it’s available? I forget to check stuff that doesn’t come through on the feedreader.
Tasha says
Congrats on the fancy new digs! Can’t wait for the new RSS feed to be up and running.
Monica Edinger says
Had time to eat or are you still unpacking. Can I bring by some jello with little marshmellows on top or a casserole perhaps?
Fuse #8 says
Ha! I’ll take my jello with banana slices, if you please. I’ll also put up an official New Site posting on the old blog with the RSS feed info as I get it. No worries. Now for the worrisome unpacking. *shudder*
cloudscome says
Does this mean a party? Will there be chocolate? OK I’ll bring some. Crank up some tunes!
Congratulations on the new crib!
Monica Edinger says
Well, I certainly would take banana slices over marshmellows much less marshmallows.
rams says
Cupcakes!
SHEILA RUTH says
Congrats on the move, Fuse, and it’s good to see you up on your new digs! Looks great, although I hope that the ad for Atherton that keeps scrolling to stick to the bottom of my window goes away soon. It’s REALLY REALLY annoying. As much as I pay for my School Library Journal subscription, I shouldn’t have to be annoyed with ads that follow me around where ever I go.
I’ll be looking for that RSS feed, too!
Fuse #8 says
You and me both, sister. Ads that follow you around. What dark twisted soul came up with that one? Run run run as fast as you can and all that.
I’ve found that depending on what browser I use, the ads are either more or less prominent accordingly. Firefox on my Mac at home shows less than on Explorer via my work PC. FYI.
sarah-marie says
Dan Blank —
Should be up shortly? I waited 12 hours… that’s not shortly in internet speak. The RSS feed for Fuse #8 is not on the SLJ feeds list. Grrrr. It should have been on the list before the blog went live here.
Brian Kenney says
Betsy, so glad you finally made it! I think we talked about this six months ago. Well, all good things are worth waiting for…
Kim says
I’ve grown fond of your other site. I hope you can find a way to give this one the same flair. Thanks for sharing your talents with the rest of us out here on the web. I love the stories of your adventures in the world of literature. And, you get to meet such cool people, too!
Alkelda the Gleeful says
Well, here you are! Congratulations. I hope that the ad that keeps floating just below eye-sight (and doesn’t go away when I click on the “close” button) is an anomaly. Pfooey.
eisha says
Hey, Fuse! You’re lookin’ good over here. Congrats!
jimmer says
Congratulations and may you continue to bloom beautifully among the weedy pop-up ads….
Ow, the blinking says
The Atherton ad is enough to make me never read again. Does SLJ know that you have illustrators and designers who enjoy your blog? Why do they have to make this hurt so much?
Zee Says says
Hi Fuse! I didn’t realize you were already up and running. Noticed the posts were a little scant over at blogger. Hopefully that RSS thing will be up soon so I can catch you on bloglines. I have gotten lazy.
affidavid says
Day three, still no RSS… and that Atherton ad is so annoying that I’m going to HIDE THE BOOK wherever I see it in bookstores and libraries.
There. Now maybe someone will DO something about it. Probably not.
Fuse #8 says
You think that’s bad? I was going to review the bloody thing! Now I don’t dare. That would just be encouraging the ad, don’t you think. A pity too since it wasn’t bad at all. Grrrrrr.
Monica Edinger says
Fuse, please do review it (once the ad is gone and you’ve managed to forget it)! As I wrote over at Roger’s, blame the messenger not the book. Let it stand or fall on its own.
Fuse #8 says
I can’t. I mean, I’d love to, but then everyone would say I was just shilling for the very book that’s making my life a misery right now. The marketing department of Atherton made their choice. Now their book will pay the price.
bb says
Hiya, Fuse. I know you probably answered this a gazillion times already, but I’m still not finding the answer… What made you switch to this blog from your old one? New job? The writing is as fab as ever, but I’m seriously bummed by the design. I fear you have no say in it, but, as another reader mentioned, you have lots of us design-y types that are following you here. Your old blog was lovely. I hope SLJ gives you some room to improve on their incredibly bad template. Dunno if this is a standard template or an in-house design, but please let SLJ know they need to work a)the header design and b) the integration of ads. Both are really jarring. A good web design student could hook them up with a better design in a matter of days. Anyway, sorry to be negative — as I said, your content is wonderful as always. Working on web design day in and day out, I just cringe to see excellent content so poorly presented. 🙁 I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you can help ’em see the light. Anyway, good look in the new digs. – bb (bblinks.blogspot.com)
Fuse #8 says
Hey, BB. So the design doesn’t weird me out so much as the lack o’ blogroll on the right. But I’ve been told that in time I’ll be given the power to update it. Right now though it’s this in-house template that doesn’t allow for much tinkering.
I moved because of moolah. They wanted to pay me to do what I was already doing, only on their site. I knew there’d be problems with that, like ads and not having a blogroll. But it’s been nice otherwise. I own my own content (though they’re free to use it if they like). I can leave at any time (as long as I give a month’s notice). I’m sure I lost readership. I mean, there was a reason ye olde Fuse #8 site didn’t have ads at all. But I’m thinking of possibly looking into doing a podcast edition of Fuse #8 on my old location that would allow me to maintain the blogroll AND report the news I do everyday, but in a different format. It’s an idea I’ve been tinkering with. I even made a Garage Band opening song.
Anywho, don’t worry. SLJ has heard the cries of pain by the designers out there. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re in the early stages here. As I see it, it can only improve.
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