V2 redux Breaking old links left and right as we dust off the cobwebs

13 Months in 6 Minutes

Where's everyone been? Never mind the fact that the site wasn't updated for the past 18 months or so... but in fairness I haven't not been blogging; it's just been done at a slightly different location.  However, now that we've wrapped up that site, I figured it was time to revive the blog, dust off the cobwebs, and catch up on things.

So, what's new? First things first, you'll notice a new layout and new URL.  I finally gave up on Movable Type after years of frustration with the system and the ever-increasing amount of bloat.  It was a nice system back in the day, but like the end of my use of Pivot before it, it was time to move on.  All of the old archives should be here (with the exception of a few video posts that I need to revise), and thanks to the magic of .htaccess everything should redirect seamlessly-ish.

So what else has happened?  Nothing much, just a new job, new daughter, new house (still renting, but yes, yet another move)... and well, that's about it really.  Same partner, same cats, same city, same (cloudy) weather, same overwrought metaphors, same oblique lyrical references (e.g., this post title).  Those of you who know where to find me elsewhere online are likely already aware of all of these things, and for those of you who just happened to randomly stumble upon this blog it's all probably irrelevant.

In the coming weeks (and months) there will probably be ongoing cosmetic changes to the layout since the current template is one of the generic ones offered by WordPress and it would benefit from some personalization.  I'm still not committed to whether this should retain the old blog title, which was actually just a placeholder itself so I could get started, or whether I should iterate to V3 or come up with something witty and/or descriptive (have I already mentioned the overwrought metaphors and oblique lyrical references?)

With regards to content, as I converted all of my old posts from MT to WP it gave me an opportunity to review my old writing and see what worked and what didn't, so to speak. With my newly refined editorial eye such things are now more obvious -- hindsight and all that.  It's also more clear to me now how the site evolved from my original intentions of June 2007, when I pre-created a dozen or so categories and organized them into complex taxonomies I envisioned filling with vast tomes of scintillating writing on myriad topics.  Some fell by the wayside (hello, Science category!), some shifted focus, and some should have been the obvious focus from the beginning.  While I have a lot of new ideas to try out and old ones to revisit in this iteration of the blog, this time around I intend to allow the site to develop in a more natural manner, letting the words lead to categories of their own volition, instead of forcing the categories to lead to words.

Stay tuned...

Tweety bird

Given my general lack of regular updates to this blog and my recent acquisition of an iPhone with an unlimited data plan, I've added my Twitter feed to the sidebar (replacing the nearly-useless "recent pictures" widget.)

Those of you in the know about such technology can find me there as @voght, and those of you not-in-the-know (hi, mom!) can just keep checking here on occasion to see what's going on in 140-characters-or-less, along with irregular longer news posts. In the sidebar there are likely to be links to interesting news articles, photos, and other general silliness that comes from being out in the world with nearly-instantaneous photo and text uploading capabilities, while the main news feed will continue to primarily feature random pictures of the cats.

And for those of you really in the know, @jasperjenkins and @wileytito also post the occasional tweet in between periods of watching actual birds tweeting outside the bedroom window. Ain't technology grand?