Tue 26 Jul 2005
The site is coming along quite well! I’ve since changed the theme and changed up the sidebars. A few notes: I’m using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System). I’m quite impressed with it. There are many plugins that I’ve been installing that are allowing me to get the tools that I want for my site. One of the plugins is responsible for the Articles sidebar. The list that is produced there is a list of articles that I find during the day. It uses the live bookmark service Del.icio.us. Bascially I use a neat feature called Bookmarklets to add new articles to my Del.icio.us feed. (My feed is under the name Kratoz, which much of my other sites are) You can separately subscribe to the feed if you want. All my site does is subscribe to the feed and it automatically updates the news list. Much better than my old blog where I just pasted the links in (and where no one ever read them).
The concept that I’m working on with Mike to design for this site is a style sheet that imitates a blackboard. Mike’s initial testing can be found here. He whipped it up quite quick (He’s damn good at it) and from it you can get the basic idea. The sidebars and sections are blocked off using “chalk lines”. I personally prefer white on black than black on white. It makes it easier for me to read I think. If you have any suggestions on this concept or neat ideas that I can get implemented, just suggest them in the comments. The change over to the above described style won’t happen until sometime during my next co-op term (Sept.-Dec.) because both me and Mike are busy with exams (one week until they hit us).
In time I’m going to get my act together with an about page, a link to my resume (I need to update it before I post) and samples of my work. I have a few ideas for some entries that have been flowwing through my head. There has been some concern with a few friends that I’m abandoning my MSN space (which easily displays when I make an entry for people using MSN). I plan on just posting smaller entries on it to keep friends informed of what is happening in my life, while I use this new system to discuss what I think are more important issues and topics. Essentually this will be my more professional blog while the other only has the intent of communicating with my friends. (Plus, most of them are lazy and don’t want to learn how to work RSS feeds, thus allowing them to easily check this)
The traffic for such a new site hasn’t been that bad. I’ve even got a few visits from Germany! Take care 
July 26th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
The visits from Germany are probably spambots.
July 26th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Ruin my fun
I’ve got a fair amount of visitors though since I installed that status plugin to keep track of it. the blog search sites are also finding me, which is good.
July 26th, 2005 at 10:48 pm
That delicious tool is actually really neat. I feel smarter already reading all your crazy articles. Where crazy is really not crazy.
Also, Mike did a really awesome job on that layout so far. Hopefully you get an awesome one up by the end of co-op, I know I’ll be waiting. You should see if he can get some sort of wood looking thing at the bottom with a chalk brush sitting on it or something, just like real chalk boards. Although probably remotely difficult to do…Would still look like a cool addition.
July 26th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
I love trying to do stuff with raw photography as a base. It ends up not looking nearly as polished as 100% digital, but perhaps a little bit more organic.
There’s so many photoshop-kiddies out there who’s entire toolbox is “Render->Clouds” followed by various combinations of blurs and filters.