2007.08.25 Site Revamp... Again

I'm in the middle of revamping the site. I've made the upgrade to Movable Type 4.0, but I have a lot of work to do to bring in a new design. What you see now isn't my design (I'll update this post when it's actually done). Until that time, I'll have different bits and pieces of the site working and not working the way they should, and with different pages looking different than others. Thanks for showing some patience as I work through this. To keep you guys a bit updated on what I still have to do, I'm making a list (it's probably more for me than anybody else):

1. Implement New Designs for:
   • Blog
   • Billboard Charts - maybe time for that overhaul too? Certainly get at least a search form built in.
   • Implement new design for other parts of site
2. Move over Page Copies/Rips
3. Move over AboutMe/Contact page and get that working right. Maybe even separate those out for the new design.
4. All Entries:
   • Tag
   • Possibly Markdown-ize
   • Possibly re-edit to dump "Excerpt"
   • Possibly get rid of intro and merge with body
5. New favicon with new design
6. Ma.gnolia:
   • Incorporate into lifestream feed
   • Make a new bookmarks page that pulls over a JavaScipt feed.
7. Twitter
   • Move latest Twitter to my About Me page
   • Incorporate into lifestream feed
8. Possibly re-enable Google Coop
9. Enable/publicize LifeStream feed
10. Fix print css on IE 6 and 7. Grr
11. Flickr
    • Make random not just most recent?
    • Fix formatting to be square as opposed to one column – if so, make 4, not 3 (duh)

Things I've done:

• Fix commenting error - 500 Server Error when comments are left (with Captcha enabled). Funky error reporting in logs. Already have thread going in MT forums (Fixed 20070828-2110. Just reloaded all the files, based off of Clifton's suggestion. Apparently it must have been some corrupt file. Rockin.)
• Rename "search" to "Blog Search" (Done. 20070901-1730 (when I moved back from Google Coop))
• Fix feed so I advertise my Feedburner-based feed in the header (Fixed 20070825-2130. Just need to update sidebar feed pointing (Updated. 20070826-2320))
• Move over (Moved 20070826-2320. Still need to update styles for it) and implement new design for recipe page (this might involve a much bigger revamp I've been considering) (Done. 20070901-1730. Whoa. I think I love it.)
• Update Recipe page to possibly have recipe search box in the side bar, and remove blog search bar (Fixed 20070901-1730. Scratched Google Coop… didn't like it.)
• Link to all my other index pages (recipes, billboard, photos, about, rips/copies/portfolio) (Fixed 20070826-2320. Maybe move to left column?)
• Fix issue with links not pointing to correct location for blog entries - Fixed 20070826-1615. Fixed issue in MySQL that didn't have Entry template set as preferred template. Couldn't find something that would do this through the MT UI.
• Google Analytics back up and running (Done 20070917-1945. I'll be curious to compare this and Mint. I still love Mint.)
• Finish looking into Mint and possibly do that (Done 20070828-1530. Holy crap. I love Mint. Totally cool. Really love it.) instead of Analytics (maybe both? - yep… both.)
• Flickr Pro? (Signed up. 20070903. I really like it. So much more robust than a dinky open source app that is hardly getting developed.) Seems to be a question I've been toying with for too long - if so, update all entries accordingly (Updated 20070909-2315. Should be good to go. Maybe a couple straggling things out there.). Maybe just use built-in photo stuff in the new MT 4. (No.)
• Move old BlogRoll links to my Ma.gnolia roll (Done 20070906. The dates didn't get moved properly, but the links are there.)
• My Ma.gnolia links incorporated. Done 20070906.
• Get my unimpressive Twitters incorporated too (Done 20070906.)
• Print CSS (I really want to do this one, but I really should do other stuff before I do this) - Done. 20070901-1530. Implemented it when I moved over all the recipes. Could probably be optimized a bit, but it works for now.

Should be easy enough, right?

2007.07.02 5 Things - Listmania

I was (not super officially) tagged by Shelby to do the latest list thing. I'm happy to oblige, since I've never truly been tagged for one of these things but have been secretly wanting to do one. I modified the list back to the original requirement of 5 items and added the question she chose to exclude (plus added a new one of my own creation). Nothing here is listed in any particular order.

2007.03.21 More with Less

I imagine I could accomplish more by doing less, at least in some cases. I know this applies to more than just me. Coca-Cola could completely stop advertising and I would still buy just as much Diet Coke as I do currently. I imagine that there are several others out there that feel the same way. It's not like I think, “I just saw a commercial for Coca-cola, so I'll keep drinking Coke. Uh oh… now this one is for Pepsi, time for me to drink Pepsi instead.” I think they both could keep the millions/billions spent on advertising, and just keep getting my money I spend on their drinks. They'd get more money, by doing less work. With something like this, I wonder what other things out there in general, or even more specifically in my life, could use less work/attention/effort and be able to come out ahead. I might be able to start with the length of entries on my blog.

2007.03.11 Contact Form Idea

<heavy sarcasm>Hey, I've got a great idea… Use my handy contact form to ask me a legit and valid question (which I'm usually happy to answer), and don't leave me a legit and valid email address so I can respond to you.</heavy sarcasm> Sounds like a great way to not get your question answered, and for me to add you to my mental list of people with whom I'd rather not converse in the future. Here's lookin' at you kid.

2007.02.07 The Vastness of the Internet

I'm constantly amazed at what I find on the internet. It seems that several times a week I find some new site that I didn't know existed, or wouldn't have even thought existed. The amount of content out there/here is overwhelming. Last night I was pointed to a web site by a guy who collects copies of boxes, decals, and instructions from model spaceships. Why? Why not?