Well boys and girls, we've got a new site design (and backend). Much, much thanks to Mike K. most of all for all the help. I think I, in turn, helped him tweak his site by experimenting relentlessly with all the stylesheet settings to get a design I was happy with. At least I hope so! =)
I was able to incorporate solutions to just about all the design problems I identified with the last version. The thing I'm most happy about figuring out is the "recent comments" panel in my sidebar (labeled "Fresh Seasonings").
A brief aside on why I love this feature: I think it's the biggest missing element in blogs to allow easy following of its happenings. With it, you can see at a glance if there's any new comments to check out without scanning entries for clues or silly things like that. Also, you can post a comment on a really old entry without fearing that people won't catch it!
Anyway, it's a little kludgy since it doesn't appear MT thought about using the macros in this fashion. For one, it makes you construct the actual URL for the link by hand, and to boot I don't think there's a URL construction to "jump" directly to the comment. At least it brings up the proper entry though. Sweet enough... If anyone want to incorporate this into their own blogs, it's pretty easy. Let me know and I'll help you out. Also, if anyone figures out how to improve it (or has an in with MT people), let me know too.
Thanks should also go out to all my fellow scribblers, for beta-testing the site Sunday night and giving me feedback (particularly you Tony). Along with this face-lift, I have some new plans for my blogging habits - but I'll write about that in the next entry. Meanwhile, I'm just basking in joy of finishing this migration. Let me know how you like it!
My new MT-based blog is about ready to go live (after much tweaking and discovery). It's currently undergoing beta-testing with an eval panel, but other than that I'll just need to export my entries and move the URL. Yay!
Seattle's been fun... Tomorrow I head home.
Well, today's been a fairly "take it easy" sort of day. I thought I might finally get some trip recap and/or highlight entries posted, but I ended up vegging for a while and then my dad dropped a "future" talk on me =). It went alright though.
Transitions abound in the family
In case you're wondering, the wedding was interesting and went well. Euni and Bob got to enjoy a nice stay at the Grand Hyatt after the wedding, courtesy of my parents. Meanwhile I spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with my brother and his friends. All of his friends have recently left or will soon leave for college, as is Alex (he'll be going to Oberlin if you're curious). That was a fun time - I actually got to bond a bit with my bro and even a few of his friends, which was pretty cool.
One thing which I was happy to discover was that Alex's friends seem to genuinely care about him and each other. I wasn't totally sure before today, since I've noticed he lets them make fun of him with relative impunity (I guess we may be more alike than I realized!) - not generally a good sign. But there is love behind it all, so that is good. Also, I've decided he's more intelligent than he gives himself credit for (which might be surprising given the ease with which trash talk flows from his mouth ;) ).
The future should prove interesting. I hope to build that relationship more, as I haven't had much chance to do so (or taken the opportunity) over the last several years. Anyhow, I'll post more about my various exploits here (and before) later.
Embarkation
Tomorrow, bright and early, I'll be heading out to Tokyo, en route to Seattle. As I mentioned in my comments, I found a host for my one night in Tokyo. I have no idea where I'm going (Ueno or thereabouts, wherever that is) so this will be a little adventure. It should be some welcome fun. Plus I get to meet new friends of a friend of friends (or possibly just friends of an acquaintance of acquaintences). I'm excited.
I've been having a wonderful time so far this trip. I have been thinking about what the future holds, and I wonder where I will end up. Moving away from Champaign feels more and more like a certain imminent event. I still have uncertainties that I'm hoping to discuss with people in not too long.
I'm also hoping that all is going well with all my friends. Perhaps you'll see me in Japan, but otherwise it'll be in the States... Now for some sleep!
Went out with my mom, brother Alex, and Euni and Bob yesterday for some random shopping. Later, we were joined by our dad for suit fitting and one yummy dinner. I promptly crashed afterwards. Woke up at around 4am here and will probably have a day full of stuff today (later) too. My mom has lined up a bunch of appointments for me while I'm out here. I think I'm going to see a sleep specialist/analyst at 9:30 this morning. Should be interesting...
Pulling out the stops
Anyway, what I really need to find out is this: Does anyone know anyone in Tokyo that I can spend the night of Monday the 19th with? In order to get a reasonable price on my ticket, I needed to schedule a stopover there. Only problem is, I don't know anyone offhand that's there now. So if you do, please let me know or have them contact me! I would be mucho, mucho appreciative - I'd rather not sleep in the airport =)... (don't know if you even can anymore)
Posting a quick entry from Narita Airport in Japan! I got an operational upgrade on my Japan-Korea segment, so that entitles me to a free hangout in this ultra-swank Red Carpet Club. Lucky me... =)
These keyboards are totally wack though (finding/using punctuation is arduous). Anyway, I have to run off to my flight now. Lots of updates to come though. Hope everyone's having fun!
Playing around with tags
I'm not in the habit of writing in HTML (unless with vi, IE, and a lot of reloading!), but I'd like to make these entries a little more readable. I'll be playing around with this for a little while...
Frisco Feast
Made it into SFO yesterday. Have a small story about the subsequent airport pickup, which I'll relate in the next entry. Last night, I went out with a bunch of my cousins (3 of them! plus assorted SO's) and my sister to a tapas place down in Mission, Ramblas I believe it was called. Yum.
Slow Start
After dinner last night, a bunch of us vegged out at my cousin Sunny's where he made a batch of fake cosmos. It's been pretty much veg-city since then - I haven't done anything today really except watch Bait (Sunny's roommate rented it from Netflix). However, Sunny is planning a BBQ that may be a rooftop affair (?) or in Golden Gate Park. Also, talk of dropping by the Jazz Festival has been thrown around. Later tonight, a cake party is scheduled at Cookie's new abode. So hopefully, this should turn into a good night.
That's it for now. I'll catch you all later...
It's done. I have booked tickets to Korea. I also threw in stopovers to San Francisco (outbound) and Seattle (return). This means if you live in/near these two towns, and would like to meet up with me (during 8/9-8/13 and 8/20-8/26 respectively), you should definitely throw me a line.
As this was all last-minute, I haven't contacted anyone (save Mike K.) or planned anything yet. I hope to track some people down over the next week, but I'd be ecstatic to hear from the more enterprising!
Well, I got back in to town late last night. I had actually arrived here first with Jet late Wednesday night, but I spent all of yesterday helping my sister move stuff, bumming a ride up to Chicago for practice, getting my car, playing with the band, (eating IHOP) and driving back down. Oh yeah, and catching up on everyone's blogs.
So now my backlog of entries to post is growing, almost seemingly without bound. Up on deck include: details on my projects of a few weeks ago, band doubts, roadtrip recap, new projects, yesterday's practice (which kicked ass as far as I'm concerned). I think that's it, but it's hard to be sure with so many things trampling around my head right now.
On top of this, I need to see about getting tickets to Korea (a dicey proposition from all indications). Also, I just found out that I forgot to pay Prominic (a startup of my friends' that I worked a little while for) for a few months of my COBRA insurance after being reminded the first time a few weeks ago. Don't worry - things are still cool (I've been paying in larger chunks). I just hate needing to be reminded of something like that twice.
Alright, enough (boring) prologue. I really want to get this stuff down. So I may be editing multiple entries simultaneously (because my brain just sometimes functions that way under this kind of pressure). Bear with me. This is especially irritating since I'd like to finish the transition to MT, but I'm worried that it will take more time/thought than I'm hoping.
In any case, I'm back and I'm trying to rock.
P.S. I realized last night that I forgot to add Tony's blog earlier. Oops. Glad to have you in the "rack"! =)