So, I was devastated about the problem in my blog layout as I lamented here. I realized that something had gone wrong after posted on the blog via my phone. I was at a loss - I never touched the layout - just posted a small note through the blogger app. And somehow it so ended that all gadgets in my blog (my profile, labels and blog archive) which used to appear on the right panel simply moved to the bottom of the blog. I was frustrated and the Virgo in me itched to fix things right away although I did not have time. Anyway, I spent a lot of time trying to fix things increasing the complexity of the debugging starting with the most obvious solutions (sort of like first restarting a pc as it fixes most problems). A few examples of what I tried:
1. Checking in various browsers to see if it was a browser issue.
2. Removing all customizations and hence losing the blue and orange color scheme I had put in so painstakingly.
3. Changing the blog template multiple times - so much that I forgot what I liked and what I did not.
4. Changing the blog layout to move the gadgets to the left instead of right.
5. Deleting the gadgets altogether.
6. Checking the html code to make sure tags were correct (blogger advised me that only "advanced" users should use the html editor - really? html? advanced?)
Nothing helped. The gadgets persistently remained at the bottom. Try as I might, you had to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the profile and archive. Frustrated, I gave up and thought I would live to see another battle.
And then tonight I resolutely took my laptop to my bed (generally my laptop is on my desk in the library upstairs) and did what I should have done in the first place - GOOGLED. And the first result told me that "gadgets normally go and sit at the bottom because one of your posts has an improper html tag" and more importantly sometimes blogger does not alert you that the tag is not good (I checked and blogger fails to alert you if you are using the mobile app). So, I checked my last few posts and sure enough Dracula was the offending post with an open tag. I fixed it and lo! everything fell into place. I did not google in the first place because I never connected these problems to posting from my mobile - I had that many times earlier without any problems. And I had checked the html of the template - never thought that any of the posts would have a problem.
This unexpected source of problem made me realize how correct my comparison of this problem with life was. The problem existed in a place where you would never look and would not imagine to have any problem at all. And so you keep on fixing the wrong symptoms and things finally fall apart around you. And you never understand what the problem really was. You are just left with the frustration that you could not save the situation in spite of giving it all you had.
Conclusion - wait for a Google for life!
1. Checking in various browsers to see if it was a browser issue.
2. Removing all customizations and hence losing the blue and orange color scheme I had put in so painstakingly.
3. Changing the blog template multiple times - so much that I forgot what I liked and what I did not.
4. Changing the blog layout to move the gadgets to the left instead of right.
5. Deleting the gadgets altogether.
6. Checking the html code to make sure tags were correct (blogger advised me that only "advanced" users should use the html editor - really? html? advanced?)
Nothing helped. The gadgets persistently remained at the bottom. Try as I might, you had to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the profile and archive. Frustrated, I gave up and thought I would live to see another battle.
And then tonight I resolutely took my laptop to my bed (generally my laptop is on my desk in the library upstairs) and did what I should have done in the first place - GOOGLED. And the first result told me that "gadgets normally go and sit at the bottom because one of your posts has an improper html tag" and more importantly sometimes blogger does not alert you that the tag is not good (I checked and blogger fails to alert you if you are using the mobile app). So, I checked my last few posts and sure enough Dracula was the offending post with an open tag. I fixed it and lo! everything fell into place. I did not google in the first place because I never connected these problems to posting from my mobile - I had that many times earlier without any problems. And I had checked the html of the template - never thought that any of the posts would have a problem.
This unexpected source of problem made me realize how correct my comparison of this problem with life was. The problem existed in a place where you would never look and would not imagine to have any problem at all. And so you keep on fixing the wrong symptoms and things finally fall apart around you. And you never understand what the problem really was. You are just left with the frustration that you could not save the situation in spite of giving it all you had.
Conclusion - wait for a Google for life!
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