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Err, well, it's there, anyway. Actually, I'm working on a number of different fronts to get it functioning correctly and to make it aesthetically pleasing (and usable). I'm studying several different guides to html and cascading style sheets, working out designs on Paint Shop Pro 7, weighing the pros and cons of various color schemes, checking out other blogs for an idea of what works and what doesn't, reading various FAQs, and doing a lot of trials-with-errors. I have several competing good ideas of what I want it all to look like and the functionality I want it to deliver. The software, Movable Type, is quite flexible, but there are no "wizards" to guide me through each step if I want to go beyond the bare minimum default settings (which I certainly do). On the other hand, I could use something from BlogSkins. What I'll probably end up doing is "borrowing" bits from some of those. I'm still uncertain as to what will become of this diary or what I will do with its archives. Wouldn't be hard to just separate the diary posts into four years worth and just link to them from the blog. Maybe I could pick out a few notable posts as a "best of". I know what I'm doing this weekend. Lots of work ahead. Heck, I may publish to this diary for a few more days. I have, oh, about nine thousand things to talk about. In fact, that's one of my hang-ups right now. See, a blog is not a diary. I've been used to writing on a hundred topics every few days. I'd like to write much more often. But not TOO often. So perhaps my blog posts will still be combos--not a hundred topics, but three or four each, a few times a day; maybe with a common theme. I don't want to push something I posted about two days ago right off the page because I posted eighteen other things since then. But I'm extremely happy to be starting this. I think it's going to be a captivating, rewarding experience. So what is Nepenthe Island about? Oh, current events, local/state/national/international politics, punditry, media critique, culture, technology, motorcycles, cars, computers, games, books, music, art, philosophy, family, and the everyday happenings and musings of my life as I transition from "college student" to "working adult" through the next eighteen months. I plan to have comments open on some of the topics and welcome all feedback, input, etc. I feel a true message board, such as vBulletin, is a far better device for lengthy public discourse, for a wide variety of reasons, than the "comments" sections of blogs. But in my case, for what I'm doing, it should be just fine. A big shout-out goes to Dean Esmay, who performed the initial configuration of my blog software for me, and also referred me to what seems like an excellent hosting solution. My blogging software is Movable Type. My hosting is by Verve Hosting. My images are hosted at Village Photos. I also use Paint Shop Pro 7 and rFTP. I've also gotten a lot of help from HTML Goodies. � � |