It's been a while since the last post; that's getting to be a bad habit. Lots of little things all up in the air at once. Plus some annoying hurdles to get past. I did finally resolve the cookie consent issue for the upcoming eBay Ephemera-focused blog. I've been using CookieYes for Grace Notes, but they only let you have one free site. If I wasn't on such a limited budget, I'd have been happy to sign up for the cheapest available paid service they offer. It's only $10 per month, and allows up to 600 pages per scan. Not sure if that's 600 "unique URL" sites, or literally 600 pages in total scanned. Either way, the cost was very reasonable. It's my income/living expenses that aren't reasonable. Currently I'm on the Google Office plan of $12 per month, plus $12 per year for the custom URL. Unless Monique and I can improve our finances significantly, I'm not willing to spend more on what amounts to a hobby.
Instead of upping my game with CookieYes, I found another cookie consent site called "Osano". Like CookieYes, Osano has a "first one is free" policy. With restrictions. And difficulties. For some reason, this one was harder to get working. Then I had a hard time confirming it was actually functional. Finally ran into CookieBot. Their site has an app that checks your site for cookie consent compliance. They confirmed "Not Working" at first, and after some effort, I finally received positive confirmation.
So, after far too much effort, the Ephemera blog is ready to begin. There's still a ton of set-up, design, and of course, actual blog posts to write... but it's ready to start now. You can check out my progress here: eBay Ephemera: A Page Out Of Time. Still working on the next gospel song. Haven't been as focused as I should be, so it's going slow. Finished a personal project today, that should free me up to work more on the blogs now. Hopefully that will include enough practice time to get that next song ready.
Went to visit my folks yesterday. Aside from spending a great day together, Mom decided to go through her old 'home video' collection. We found three tapes that seemed like good potential. They're on my desk in front of me at the moment. Will get them transferred to computer, then fast-scan through the videos to see what's on them. With luck, there might be some footage of my uncle playing piano. Not quite so important, but one of them might have some footage from the early 90's of me playing. I'm curious to see how my playing has changed over the years, but also hope to see one of my favorite pianos. Back in the Missouri days, my final year or so in the Air Force, I had a vintage upright piano. Not the best condition, but most of the keys worked. The piano itself was stained a faded green. Can't remember who made it. Like any old beat-up upright, it had a strong honky-tonk sound, and was a lot of fun to play. When I moved, it was too big to take, so passed it along to another family. Fingers crossed, I'd be very pleased if that piano was on one of these videos. I'd love to hear it again.