The Case of the Incredible Jumping Posts

I've been annoyed recently by the way my posts behave. I'd load one, to see if I'd already said something, or check on what I had said. Or fix a typo.

The page with the post would load fine, except that it would jump down to around where the comments were. More or less. The post was there: but I had to scroll up to see it.

Annoying. And frustrating. Also a time-waster. It doesn't take long to scroll back to where a post starts: but it does take a little time, and that adds up after a while.

I looked in the HTML tags I'd put in the posts, to make lists or links: and they seemed okay. Nothing unusual, nothing wrong with the tags.

My son suggested that it might have something to do with the way my browser used cookies. Sure enough: the posts displayed fine in Chrome. So I tried dumping my FireFox browser's cookies. That sounds disgusting, by the way. Anyway, the posts still jumped.

Frustrating.

Then I noticed that the incredible jumping posts all had comments. Aha! That gave me something more to look for. I finally found this in a Blogger help forum:

• "Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE"
  Help forum, Blogger Help (January 13, 2012)

I don't use IE (Internet Explorer), except every few years when I have to deal with some company whose online presence won't work with anything except Internet Explorer. It's interesting, though, that an IE glitch showed up about the same time that my FireFox browser got the jumps.

The two issues could be related:

"...5) Description of the problem: The homepage loads fine, but when clicking on any article that contains comments with IE, the page loads completely, then goes to a blank white screen or it freezes completely. Posts with no comments load fine, so this problem is definitely comment related, and just started as the new threaded comments came out....

"...There is also a problem with Firefox 9.0.1 related to comments. When clicking on any post that has comments, the page auto-scrolls down to the comments instead of loading at the top of the page, or at the read more jump. Pages without comments load fine...."
("Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE")

There's more, including a way to fix the FireFox comment issue by changing about 14 lines of code in each blog's template. I am definitely not going to try doing that.

This, I will try:

"...We've raised this with Google Engineering. Until it is fixed I would suggest settings your comments to either Full-Screen or Pop up rather than Embed...."
("Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE")

It's simple, easily reversible, and may not annoy too many folks. Including me.

Now, to see if changing the comment settings works.

If this is something I have to do individually for each blog, I'll concentrate on my more-active blogs:

• A Catholic Citizen in America
• Apathetic Lemming of the North
• Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind

And, yes: That's an example of unabashed self-promotion.

Going from Guy Lombardo to Justin Bieber: Happy New Year, 2012!

There's a wind advisory out for my part of Minnesota tonight: 30 to 35 mph with gusts to around 50 mph. Judging from the sizzling sound I hear on the north and west walls of the house, there's occasional sleet coming down, too. Or maybe really hard snowflakes. Or freezing rain, or something else.

I watched the Waterford crystal ball drop over New York City's Times Square, about 20 minutes ago. On television, of course: I'd just as soon not stand outside for hours, this time of year. Not even in comparatively temperate places like New York City.

It's officially 2012 on the east coast now. Here in Minnesota, we've got about 40 minutes of 2011 left, as midnight sweeps across our part of the globe.

New Year's Eve on television used to be mostly about dance bands like Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians. And the big parties.

America has changed a lot since I was a teenager. The music's different, the faces on television aren't the same, and the culture's changed. I'm not happy about every change that happened. But my memory is pretty good: and I remember what 'the good old days' were like. Even if I could, I'd never want to go back.

Happy New Year, 2012!

Related posts:

• "2009: This Year Was Not Boring"
  (December 31, 2009)
• "Tuesday: New Year's Day"
  (January 2, 2008)
• "Monday: New Year's Eve"
  (January 1, 2008)
• "Sunday: Countdown to New Year's Eve"
  (December 30, 2007)
• "Friday: Countdown to the New Year"
  (December 29, 2007)

Christmas, 2011

My wife, son, and #1 & #3 daughters, are in the other room, playing a game one of them got this Christmas. I plan to join them in a few minutes, but figured it would be a good idea to get slightly caught up in this blog.

I started working for my son-in-law this month: answering phones and helping with a massive spreadsheet. He and #2 daughter started a candle-making company this year, and need more space to make the things. I posted about that in another blog.

I also set up a 'between checkups' checkup at the eye doctor this week. A 'floater' had popped up in an inconvenient spot in my right eye.

It's a sort of 'good news/bad news' situation.

First, the bad news: "Degeneration" is in the name of what I've got. It's vitreous degeneration, a fancy way of saying that the gel in my right eye is shrinking, and pulled away from the back of the eye.

Now, the good news: Vitreous degeneration is normal for someone like me, who is 60: and hasn't died yet. It's one of those things that happen to folks, if we live long enough. In my case, there's no damage in the eye, and I've got a short list of things to be aware of.

Apart from that, I'm trying to lose weight and move around more. Which is a little at odds with my new 'telephone answering' job: but that's just a matter of creative scheduling.

There's more that's happened since my last post: but I'm itching to join the rest of the family.

Merry Christmas!

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Loan Approved: Next, Spiral Light Candle's New Factory"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind (December 20, 2011)
• "Candles: Analysis, News, and Very Odd Questions"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind (December 3, 2011)
• "Mostly Medical"
  (June 15, 2010)
• "I Can Feel Crumbs! Wow!"
  (January 25, 2010)
• "Tuesday: Dentist and Eye Doctor"
  (January 16, 2008)