I think I pretty much have this site the way I want it to be. Sure there is tweaking to do. And I could probably spend another few weeks getting things even better, but it’s good enough for now. I have other sites I have been neglecting. I am moving onto my thisflapfirst site, which was originally my online journal. christopher.jorgensen.name (the site you are currently viewing, so I won’t link to it) has since taken on this function.

I intend thisflapfirst.com to be a showcase of the projects I work on with a simple commerce site to buy these things. Chapbooks, cards, bookmarks, masks, etc.

I will still post my thoughts here, but consider this site “feature frozen” until I get the other further along.

I do strange things. I’d like to say I do them for my art, but that sounds pretentious (because it is) and I do not consider myself an artist. Regardless, I was thinking about being odd last night (as I write this it is last night, so I guess I am thinking about it now, but this article won’t post until after 5 tomorrow just to make things confusing). I am sure people do crazier things than me, but a week or two back I dumped a box of razors off my porch so they will get all rusty sometime this summer (hopefully). I am then going to use these for a poetry project (I’m a professional, so don’t try this at home, kiddies!). I also have a spool of 20 gauge shiny copper wire unfurled on my back deck. This I want to get corroded. I am then going to use it to hang my masks. Yes, see I am strange.

Now, about the jack-o’-lantern and the geekyness. That image is from a pumpkin my girlfriend and I carved last Halloween. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about the idea as she was, but I think I ended up having more fun than she did. Ha! I, of course, had to take picture after picture of it. A few turned out pretty darn cool. Originally the jack-o’-lantern was supposed to have two teeth, but I accidently excised one during its creation surgery. It was also supposed to have nostrils (I think), but these damn things are harder to carve than I imagined. Anyway, all this is an aside, because it really isn’t that geeky. Carving a pumpkin is a normal healthy activity that any two consenting adults can engage in as long as they wash their hands afterward! Oh, ok, losing it a bit there.

The geeky (can’t use that word enough) part comes in with the background to this site. You probably have never noticed, but the background is dynamic. It changes on reloads or when you go to different pages within this site. It’s set on a 5 minute cache for speed and bandwidth issues, but trust me it does change. Ready for the geekness yet? Do I have you in suspense? Probably just annoyed, huh? Well, all those images of me will go away on October 30th at 11:59 and a picture of the jack-o’-lantern will be my background for 24 hours and 2 minutes. Is that geeky enough?

If not, I’ll try harder.

I’ll also write more about the razors and wire when I finally get to that project. In the meant time, create an iCal event to remind yourself to come back on Halloween. I know you want to.

I was thinking of coming up with a logo for this site. Some kind of play on my initials or maybe a photoshopped banner of my head, something that sets this site as being about me, but then it dawned on me, I am the brand I don’t think this site would be helped by any kind of logo. You would have to be a bit silly to wonder what this site is about. From the URL, to the favicon, to the use of my little face in most posts, the purpose of this site should be apparent without a logo. Part of me still wants one, since it would be fun to create one, but I think it would just add clutter.

So I am marking it off my to do list and moving on. I am also giving up on the video for now. It’s just too difficult to make sure it shows up consistently across browsers. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was only IE for the PC, but it fails in Firefox as well. I will eventually come back to this, but for now, I am fine without. So I am nearly ready to move on.

I moved the two video posts I’ve already done far into the future, so they shouldn’t show up for another year or until I figure out the layout.

Today I go over my main template one last time, and start to put it across the site. Should be fun. (I know, I have a sick idea of fun.)

I decided to revisit this post, to update what there’s left to do, and to go over what all has been done. I know I’ve mentioned this a few times, but I really need the main page hammered out to near perfection before I worry about the other pages on this site. It’s getting closer. Each of the boxed side elements are almost all templated now, so if I want to make changes it will be much easier. I have also made some of them dynamic, so you get different content on each page load. This will reduce the number of page impressions certain things like ads and links to my digital chapbooks get, but it also makes the margins less cluttered. A good thing if you ask me.

continue reading...

I firmly believe in the saying “A fool and his money are soon parted.” I know this is true because I go through a lot of cash.

You probably have notice my little this space for rent banners. I hold little hope of actually selling that space, but put them there for two reasons. One, I want those panels to have content for future growth (and I want to get this template finished so I can propagate it to my other pages), and two, I have a site I plan on launching in October that will most definitely have ads. I just want to start trying to figure out the best way to make them work now. Oh, and if I can actually sell one, well, then this fool gets a little more money to part with.

continue reading...