The new Blogger

Blogger, the platform I use to create my scintillating and oh-so-amusing/interesting/through provoking posts, has come out with a new version of their software, and is encouraging (pushing) all us old Blogger users to switch to the new version with promises of shiny new toys and faster publishing times.

However, I am afraid of the new Blogger with its widgets and fancy graphical interface.

I'm afraid that if I switch all my posts and old comments will disappear, and because I don't have any of them backed up to anywhere else, a loss of that magnitude might send me into a spiral of despair - not that the posts are that GOOD, of course, it's just that they represent what was going on at the time I wrote them, or are manifestations of my attempt to write creatively, or are, in some case, pretty funny and I'd hate to lose that evidence of good humor.

My question to you then, is this: if you used the old Blogger, have you switched to the new one? If you have, why? If you haven't, why?

OK, that was more like three questions, I know that,.....however.....please do me a huge favor and answer those that are relevant to your current situation.

I'm relying on YOU to help me through this current crisis.

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Related question - do any of you back your entries up to some other medium?

At this blog there are over 330 posts now, all written withing the blogger posting platform. I should back them up, I know I should. But, daggone, going into each one, and copying, and pasting out to somewhere else sounds like a lot of work.

For the record, I've been subject to Tracy Lynn's proselytizing on the subject of windows live editor or something along those lines, and I KNOW I'm being a techno slouch for not switching over to the newest coolest software in the whole entire world that would make my life more interesting and me a far better person than I am right now. I know that.

Yes again, I'm scared.

What is wrong with me? I'm not a Luddite. I'm not a techophobe. I'm not incapable of learning new tricks, in fact, I adore anything that makes my life easier, save for prepackaged food, which isn't all that great and if you know how to cook don't really save you a whole lot of time but DO add whopping amounts of salt and fat into your diet, which nobody but nobody really needs, now do they?

To the point - Why am I resisting?

More to the point, as kind of a tangent and yet still related to the overall theme of this post - why am I the only person left in the United States that doesn't have an iPOD?

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So, to summarize:

Who of you has switched to the new blogger (if indeed you USE blogger software), and how'd that work out for you?

Do you back up your posts to some other medium, and what's an easy way to do this?

Do you use something other than the built-in blogger post editor to write your entires, and why do you like it?

Lastly - tell me why iPODs are so awesome, and what music I totally need to have on one, should I ever get one, which I'm thinking of doing, because now that the classic rock station has gone country and the college radio station is playing more thrash than ever and the jazz station sometimes fills airtime with nearly incomprehensible multirhythmic crapola the only the most discerning of modern music afficianados would appreciate, I'm getting kind of fed up with commercial radio, and often spend my commute times in total silence, and we all know that THAT is unAmerican. (JC - I expect a rant on how bitchin' satellite radio is, and why I should get that instead of an iPOD. Go ahead, do you best, perhaps you will convince me to become a subscriber.)

Your help is much appreciated.