That’s what I’m considering, to have the extra camera to augment the videos I’m doing with my DSLR so that the presentation isn’t static. I’m shooting live music and was a little concerned about the very wide angle of the GoPro. Please let me know if you ever shoot any music..

nice video. You are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. As Steel mentioned, I also live in a huge urban area and it takes me at least one hour to get out, unless i hop on the highway. I do that sometimes, when the traffic is light. BTW, recently I bought a GTS 300. Your blog has been very helpful in that decision (as well as Modern Vespa). Once I get out of the city there are some nice country roads, though not very many through the woods. Toronto is surrounded by farms mostly and only the Niagara Escarpment offers forests and hills. Cheers, M

Len,

I would like to make more videos. I have an epic video idea in mind but I’ll have to wait until winter to execute. And I’ll probably never do it. But there will be more small videos….

David,

I wouldn’t follow me into the WordPress world unless you have a compelling reason to do so. As you pointed out, a self-hosted solution will cost money, and you are on the hook yourself to keep everything updated and running. I’m am more than a bit intimidated about that part of things.

My own decision was driven by a number of things including growing a bit bored with the aesthetics of Blogger. Another concern was the fact that Blogger owns my site and content. They can turn it on and off at will. Google has shutdown other services that was once unthinkable.

Anyways, I’ll be using more and more features as time goes on and we’ll see if the investment in WordPress has been worth the time and expense.

As far as a blogroll goes I agree with your assessment. I just haven’t figured out how to make that go!

Thanks for your comments and support David. I really appreciate it.

eddi,

“Chasing my front wheel down the road” I love that. Like you I often ride just to go. I say I’m going for a ride like other say they’re going for a walk.

Hi Steve,

You are basically responsible for my blog. You are also basically responsible for my Vespa addiction.

Thank you.

Now I see your move to WordPress, and I wonder if I should follow.

I Googled a little and came up with this: A fairly good comparison of Blogger vs WordPress.

Based on that, I think that Blogger serves my purposes better than WordPress would.

One feature that Blogger provides that I don’t see on your new WordPress blog is the list of other blogs in the sidebar. That may be a choice on your part to unburden the page, which is fine.

I find that the “blogs I follow” feature, more than any other feature, is the one that builds a blogger community. It’s a way for readers to explore interlinked blogs, it’s a way for me to keeps tabs on what other bloggers are up to, and gives me an easy way to reach out and comment on others’ blogs because a) the link is right there, and b) it serves as a reminder to me. In that way my blog is like a social media dashboard, even if I don’t happen to be logged into Blogger.

I find convenient that when I am logged into Blogger, I can more easily access my personal e-mail in GMail.

All other things being equal, it seems like WordPress would eventually cost me money. Something that Blogger and Google never have done, so far, and don’t seem poised to do, at least the near future.

Finally, there is that dumb-stupid-simple possibility of monetizing the blog. That’s a few clicks away in Blogger, but it seems that with WordPress you have to pay not to advertise, and there is no easy way to monetize either. So with WordPress you end up on the hook to pay WordPress and they will never pay you. Unless, that is, you have other means of monetizing, which will be the case if you’re running a blog as a business.

If the blog is a business, I can easily see the advantages of WordPress. Much greater customizing options, interactivity with third party search engine optimization tools, widgets, etc. The cost of all those features will quickly become a nut to crack, but in the context of a business, the cost-benefit ratio will likely be compelling.

A last thing I note is that eventually a prolific blogger posting photos and videos will exhaust the free storage limit on WordPress and begin paying for hosting charges. Again, that’s trivial if the blog is a business, but if it’s just a hobby, I feel that the costs would add up and become burdensome. It might be like having another mouth to feed. And just as our three mouths that we dutifully fed for twenty-odd years are finally feeding themselves.

Those are my thoughts, for what they’re worth.

One way or the other, I remain a loyal reader, sometime commenter, borderline disciple, and longtime admirer, of yours.

Warm regards,

d.

Bryce: Hopefully everything just works for everyone. Even if you use the old blogspot URL it should always redirect to the new site. Kind of sad to see the old place go away.

I love your phrase “my psychiatrist on two wheels”. Hope you don’t mind if I use that sometime. Maybe you will construct something to return to the halcyon days..

WordPress is a bit of a challenge — finding out new things everyday.

The video was done with a GoPro camera mounted to the front rack on the Vespa. The first video I made. Now that I see the kind of images it produces I can think about how I might utilize GoPro footage with other footage. to make something.