Working on a(nother) redesign for Tabard’s in!, inspired by aspects of The Morning After (the theme I was using before) and the need for something more small-screen-friendly. I’ve been actively working on it for about a week, and it’s slow going since I don’t know PHP very well. But the OJT is proving to be an awesome challenge, and I’m having fun picking through code and figuring out how things work. So far, I’m really proud of the product in progress. It’s the first time I’ve really tried building a WP theme [mostly] from the ground up. It looks great on my EeePC, and just as good on a standard computer screen. I haven’t tested out different browsers yet. That’ll likely end up being a small nightmare, but I’ll deal with that once I get the base for everything down.

I’ve also upgraded to the brand-spankin’-new Wordpress 2.5, and I’ve gotta say, I’m lovin’ it! I haven’t hit any bugs yet, and the new admin interface is pretty and very easy to navigate. I’m especially excited about the prospect of messing around with the new Media Library, especially after spending a few minutes looking through Wordpress developer Matt Mullenweg’s use of the feature (take a look — holy cow!). It would certainly be good incentive to post more photos & art if I have access to an easy gallery engine. There’s already an idea or two brewing, and I can’t wait to start messing with it, but, once again, it’ll have to wait til I at least finish the bones of the site first.

I’ve got a test-install of WP 2.5 where I’m trying things out initially, but I’m slowly migrating pieces over to the main site. If anyone pops by and things are a little crazy or not working like they’re supposed to, that would be why :)

The last two weeks have been absolutely crazy. Apparently everyone in the world decided all at once that they needed to make up for lost time over the holidays, and we’ve been working almost non-stop. I don’t think we’ve been this busy in the year and a half that I’ve been here. I worked both days last weekend, more than making up for the two (unpaid) sick days I took recently, and worked til 10 Wednesday, and 7 last night. I am so ready for this week to just be over. Yay, Friday. I think our machines would probably agree.

I’ve been working on the site whenever I get a chance to sit down long enough. I’m really pleased with the way it’s coming along so far. I’ve been resisting the urge to post a million asides in lieu of actual entries. It’s so easy to just make quick little two or three line notes about interesting stuff I find or hear. I’ve got a few plans in the works, though to encourage myself to update more often.

Love-life has been full for months, and a little turbulent more recently. I can only hope it continues to settle. Life in general has been good though. Money is still a little crazy sometimes, but things finally seem to be evening out. I have no idea how taxes are going to end up this year. I’m crossing my fingers, but not holding out any great hope. I’ll probably up my witholdings this year to be on the safe side. Been getting out of the house a little more than I’ve been used to lately. Trying to find a happy medium between hanging out with people, and getting my “me” time so I don’t go nuts. (Heh, is there an opposite of “stir crazy,” where you feel like you don’t get to do nothing enough?) Even having Eddy playing video games, needing no entertainment from me whatsoever, is distracting. It’s funny to notice, though, that working out code for this place drowns out almost all outside influences though. If I could just make that happen with drawing or writing, I’d be golden :D

Speaking of drawing, I got a late Christmas present from the Hippie. He got me a Wacom Bamboo Fun, one of the line of tablets that’s replacing the Graphires. I haven’t gotten a chance to really just spend an evening messing with it, but as soon as I do, I’ll be posting about it. It’ll be so nice to have a working tablet again. And the best part? It’s Tachikoma-blue! XD See for yourself!

I’d like to say I have huge plans for this place, but honestly, I’m just trying to kick-start myself again, more than anything. I’ve been on Livejournal so long, that switching over to blogging on my website has been kind of a daunting prospect. It’s taken me a while to realize that if I didn’t just start writing, that I’d never make the change.

So here you go :)

One of the reasons I wanted to make the change is that I love messing with website design, and web-coding in general. But what good does that do me if I have no content and have to lorem ipsum-ize the site every time I want to try out a new look? Another, more prominent reason is that since Livejournal was bought out by SixApart, things just haven’t been the same. Sure, some things are better, but there’ve been enough issues and general weirdness that I can’t really justify paying an extra $25-30 a year to maintain paid features on a blog when I’m already paying a not-insignificant amount for webspace that comes with all the trimmin’s included.

Part of me is a little intimidated by the greater blogosphere. No more will there be a ready-built community for me to spew my thoughts into. Now I’ll be talking into the void. Maybe I’ll get an answer back, maybe I won’t, but it’ll be exactly what I make of it, and that’s kind of exciting. It’s nice to be trying something new again on the interweb after all these years.

Tabard’s in! gets a new look! Original theme (The Morning After) by The Masterplan, colors and images by me :D (Actual entry text is the same as this excerpt.)