all things me

This must be at least the fourth time I’m starting to code a new blog theme. I’m not sure how long I’ve had this layout — +3 years in any case. (Can it be 6 years? An internet archive site showed this layout in a stored page from 2004… Whoooboy, high time then.)

First I started making a theme based on the blogging application I did for a University course.

Then I wanted to do something red…

Next I started creating something around a nice photo of mine…

(The pin is from my sister and I often wear it on my winter coat.)

Now I’m creating a theme around this colour palette I created at Colourlovers.com when I was planning the colour scheme for my apartment (back in 2007, sheesh).

I’m feeling this time I’m actually going to finish it. Thankfully, I have 2 more weeks of vacation left! The creation process is always very difficult for me because I can’t doodle, draw, or design the graphics, AT ALL.

I have miscellaneous recipes all over the place: saved from the net, cut out from a magazine, written down on a tissue.

So, I had an idea: I should start collecting them in a cookbook. But what is my first thought how to implement this? WordPress on a USB stick!

I didn’t think of a plain old notebook, binder or a card index. Nope, not I. I was already checking out USB sticks when I decided that maybe I’ll just make it a local installation of WordPress for now.

But I think it’s going to be great! WordPress 2.3, which should be released tomorrow, is going to have tags. Categories and tags will make for excellent browsing. Categories for appetisers, main meals (maybe divided into vegetable, meat, fish, soups, special e.g. Christmas), desserts (this might need subcategories, too), and drinks (coffee, fruit drinks… all non-alcoholic of course). Tags for the ingredients. So, whether I need a certain type of food or feel like a certain ingredient, it should be easy to find inspiration. A search box finds the ingredients of course, but sometimes it’s easier to pick from a limited list.

My recipe collection isn’t extensive yet but I think it’ll have to be unless I want to eat spaghetti bolognese (let alone tv dinners!) every single weekend…

On July 11th, 2004 I switched from Greymatter (after barely a month using it) to WordPress 1.2 “Mingus” which had been released in May of 2004 (had to take a peek in the developer blog on WordPress.org to be sure, but I had a hunch I jumped on the WP wagon¹ with version 1.2).

So, I made the switch on July 11, 2004.
The first anniversary I remembered on July 13. I may’ve been using version 1.3 then, with the amazing theme system.
In 2006 I didn’t mention the anniversary at all! I hope that doesn’t mean the era of the Puppy Love had ended.

Now, it’s three years later and switching to something else has never even occurred to me.

1. On the WordPress wagon: Slang Abstaining from other blogging tools.

I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 2.1.2 and I haven’t had time to inspect all the pages and how the old plugins work. If you see any errors anywhere in the blog, do let me know.

Thank you il Filosofo! Now I can blog from my mobile the way I want: not via email (a haven for spam), not through a WAP page (I want to make the most of this amazing screen) and definitely not through an external service. The fancy WP admin interface prevented me from posting an image as I learned the last time, but while I was doing research on various ways to moblog I stumbled across Old-Style Upload plugin. Now I can upload images directly from the phone!

Now, if only I knew how to copy the image path from the browser…

Remember to convert database export into UTF-8 before importing

Luckily I’ve been playing around with local installations of WordPress and I just noticed the special characters (ä, ö, etc.) which really aren’t that special (you darn ASCII Americans ) turn into questionmarks when I import. I remember noticing it before and I guess I’ve corrected all the questionmarks in the past (have to check, actually) but after the amount of posts increases, I don’t really feel like flipping through every single one of them.

Oi, how some people complain every time there’s a new .x upgrade to WordPress. “Why couldn’t they make it good enough the first time around?” “Upgrading is such a draaaaaag.” So, you’d rather have an upgrade every 2-5 years at most? You’d rather wait that long for a cool new tweak in a feature or a fix to a flaw? Why is it so difficult to grasp the concept of an on-going open source project where the users actually have a say in what the “product” is going to be like? (And at the same time everyone complains how Microsoft and Mr. Gates are so dictatorial.)

After theme structure was introduced to WP, upgrading changed from pretty simple to very simple. Unless you want to go hacky-hacky with the core code, I don’t see any problem with deleting a couple of files and uploading a couple. Sure, there are some files and folders you’re better off not deleting, but there aren’t so many you couldn’t remember them all. All the important stuff is in the database which you don’t touch during the upgrade.

Simple.

Or am I just too happy-go-lucky?

I can’t believe I forgot new WP was released on Monday! This lazy bum here is now going to upgrade. Keep yer fingers crossed.

@19:45
Whoa… no glitches yet and all the plugins seem to work. Please let me know if you bump into something odd (technology-wise, not content-wise )

Don’t mind the odd shaped intro box up there (appears by clicking on Intro). I have a thing going on there Now I gotta go watch Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital

Darn, I got a WordPress.com invite back in September but as I was about to redeem it now, I found out it expired in seven days. Back then I didn’t think I’d need an extra blog (where I can’t be as big a control freak as here) especially as I’m having hard time keeping this updated. I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I entered my email. Now I was going to do a little research for my article on WordPress… but it said “whoops, sorry, invite expired.”

Oh well, perhaps I should retry my invitation lottery luck but I’m sure now I’m trampled on by flocks.

I hope the article offer hasn’t expired even though I have been a terrible employee (I don’t care if I’m freelance/volunteer, terrible employee is a terrible employee). I’m just glad I’m writing again, because I’ve been such a procrastinator. It’s scary to write publicly about something you know you don’t know enough about (enough = everything). Am I being too tough on myself?

Ahhh… hilarious. Some poor sod is trying to write JavaScript alert popups in comments. His (no offense guys, but I bet it’s a he) newest attempt is a recursive function. Clever.

*raspberry*