¡Adiós, Posterous!

As I said before, Posterous is closing down end of this month. So this is probably my last post there.

But it’s not the end of the blog — not yet, at least. The new address is

zumbafuerteventura.blogspot.com

(are you surprised?) and you’ll find all the old and, hopefully, some new posts there.

Posterous is closing down

Oh dear. I’ve always had bad feelings about that takeover by Twitter. And look what was published on Posterous blog on 15 February 2013:

Posterous will turn off on April 30

Posterous launched in 2008. Our mission was to make it easier to share photos and connect with your social networks. Since joining Twitter almost one year ago, we’ve been able to continue that journey, building features to help you discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale.

On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% of our efforts on Twitter. This means that as of April 30, Posterous Spaces will no longer be available either to view or to edit.

Right now and over the next couple months until April 30th, you can download all of your Posterous Spaces including your photos, videos, and documents.

So that’s what I am doing. Watch this space, I’ll post the new blog location soon.

A year on Fuerteventura

One year ago this day, I came to live on this island, without much of a clue what I am going to do. By that time, my old job was already fading from memory; not that there was any chance (or desire) to find anything similar on Fuerteventura. On the other hand, I was freshly qualified as a Zumba and Aqua Zumba instructor and, according to the Zumba web site, there were no other instructors on the island. The phase transition from an unemployed scientist to an unemployed fitness instructor was almost complete. Here are a few things that I’ve learned, Zumba-wise:

1. People are not exactly queuing to attend Zumba classes here
2. I can give a 90-minute class of Zumba and stay alive
3. I can give four Zumba classes a week and still stay alive
4. If nobody turns up for the class, it is not the end of the world. The beach is nearby
5. It is unlikely that Zumba classes will pay my bills

Is one year a long time? Not really. Not on Fuerteventura anyway. Things do not happen fast on la Isla Tranquila, and if they did, it won’t be la Isla Tranquila any longer. With or without Zumba, I’m here to stay.

Preposterous Spaces

I did not post anything here for a goodish while. The reason will be clear in a minute. But first, let me tell you a short story of my alternative (to Blogger) blogging.

In 2009, I joined InstantSpot only to see it dying a slow death within a year or so. I was never able to retrieve my posts. (Maybe it’s to the best.)

In 2010, I created a blog called just some words at Maneno; earlier this year, Maneno stopped hosting blogs and so I had to relocate to WordPress.

See the pattern emerging? Moving on: last month, I started this blog. I did a bit of research and chose Posterous as a no-nonsense blogging platform with great reputation. In September, without warning, Posterous reinvented itself as “Woo-hoo!” Posterous Spaces. One can see from the barrage of comments to their latest blog post (12 September 2011) that the users were not entirely happy.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Too bad Posterous people did just the opposite: wrecked the working system and now are busy rolling out “the first of a series of fixes”. Now we have the most ridiculous user interface which does not even have a “manage” button. I am telling you, if I saw this UI in August, I would never start blogging here.

I am not ready to walk away yet — why, I just got 250 business cards with this blog’s URL! Besides, this post was published OK, wasn’t it? Let’s see how it goes for a few more weeks. In the meantime, I backed up my posts and pages in case I have to relaunch this blog elsewhere.

Welcome

Does the world need yet another blog? More specifically: do I need yet another blog? I was neglecting my other blogs recently. But here I am, busy setting up another one. For a change, this blog is to promote myself. For another change, I decided to try out a new blogging platform: Posterous. Too many changes, perhaps; something is bound to work in the end.