Okay, I'm a day behind, and I'm probably taking considerably longer than 10 minutes. But I'm writing, and it's more fun than it ought to be for something that hasn't gotten any easier.

Anyway, I hope the Memorial Day weekend leaves everybody feeling rested and rejuvenated, and with more free time to write a little.

I'm wi'cha. It's just been busy lately. I know that's the Cichelleistikos' excuse, too.

It's mighty lonely out there all by myself...

Just sayin'.

No, I don't really know how this relates to "unpopular science". I guess I'll leave it up to the rest of you to stay on topic. (Hint hint.) :)

My name is Nihil, and I have a happiness.

*blink blink* Blog... publishing... in correct order. I'm not going crazy, right? There was a time where the blog was in strict reverse chronological (newest at the top), right? And now it's chronological within a day? Golly.

"If you love Google so much, why don't you marry them?"

"Because polygamy's illegal."

Faith, I wish I knew what to tell you. I haven't changed any settings or permissions, and I'm not seeing any network failures being reported, so it's something of a mystery to me. I'll have to contact tech support and see why the comments are no longer working. I don't seem to be having trouble with e-mail, however. Anything sent to my domain, regardless of the name you use, should reach me. (I just tested this, sending from another address messages to two of my aliases and one made-up jumble of letters. All three messages went through.) I'm not really sure what to tell you.

Thank you, though, for bringing this to my attention. I'd really like to figure out why the comments stopped working.

Addendum: I seem, after changing a few CHMODs, to have fixed the problem. More or less. I can't edit or delete earlier comments, but posting and editing for new ones seems to be back online. As for e-mail, I've received two from you, to which I'll respond. You can also reach me at Gmail, if you'd like. My address there is the same as my domain name.

Looking for a Plan B... Comments don't allow any html, not even paragraph marks or line breaks. So that won't work.

I don't think it's a knee-jerk reaction. I think some of us were just expressing a mild-to-serious preference for the old version, or at least elements of it that seem to have been lost in favor of prettification (or Googlefication). Not all change is good, you know, just as not all fear of change is warranted. I dunno, there's good and there's bad here. I think we're still just getting used to the new interface and features. Just because some of us didn't immediately fall over ourselves in love with it doesn't mean we're afraid of change, or that we won't grow to like other elements of Blogger's new setup.

As for the essays-as-comments thing, it sounds like an interesting idea.

Happy travels, Shawn. (He likes to sound like he's suffering, but it's three days of T&A, so don't buy it.)

600 seconds now posts in reverse-chronological order, which isn't what we had before, but is better than what it was in the interim. I endorse my essays-as-comments proposal, and will implement it 'ere long, provided there is no public outcry.

And as a final point, because it's been bugging me, what's with this kneejerk resistance to change? There are a great many improvements in this interface and the underlying code, and heaps of new features, and it looks more work-appropriate.

So the post-ordering flake is listed on the Known Issues list. I missed it yesterday, but the Blogger folk were very gracious about gently pointing it out. (I felt like such a user.) I don't know if we'll have the option of selecting the order, but we can at least get it to put the newest posts at the top.

I had an idea, in light of Blogger's new built-in comments. You can limit the ability to post comments to only members of the blog. So I suggest posting a topic, and putting the writings in the comments. I can format 'em up pretty (My own blog is not a representative example of comments formatting.), and then you can read the topic but not get your ideas colored by other posts.

I also plan to switch to a new template, 'cause they're pretty.

I've requested help from Blogger Support, but y'know, kids, you could do a little research rather than standing around talking about it. I'm just saying.

Resources:
status.blogger.com: Current state of the service and servers
help.blogger.com: Knowledge Base articles
Known Issues: Under development
Ask Blogger Support: Submit a request for support

Regarding the new interface, there are a million new features. I can hardly contain myself. New tags for the templates, built-in comments, easy RSS feeds, improved user profiles, meta-tag generation, blog post stats... And that's just what I found while poking around for a post-order setting. Shiny.

It looks like gmail. Much on purpose.
Also, it looks like a series of small annoyances. Probably as much by accident as anything else. Can't complain. The price is still right.

Dislike might be a bit strong, but I'm definitely not sold on it yet. It looks purty, but I don't think all the kinks are worked out. (Case in point: 600 seconds is now posting in reverse order.) I've only been using this new interface for a couple of hours now, but I do think I preferred the old one.

I mean, if it ain't broke...

Y'know, I missed the matching shoes. Probably because I didn't get past his knees.

I think we covered the spread pretty well, as far as costumes: a toga, a cute plaid skirt (with matching shoes!) and a cowboy in blue.