Thursday, March 04, 2004
Fun with anti-blogging...
Ok, so I spent way too much time reading this and the responses. Pretty much a long rant against Movable Type specifically, which also manages to insult just about eveyone else... ;)
Obviously I don't agree with that, and most of his legit concerns are lost in the vitrol, but it did cause me to think about some different things. First, I went to find out just what trackbacking really is. I have to say that the concept is pretty interesting. Surely a lot easier than looking at referrer logs, and maybe not to difficult with the auto-detection methods on some blogs. It seems like there is also pingback method which might not cause so much trouble with google? Then again, I don't see it as that huge of an issue. Maybe it's because I don't search for political info. that often, but I haven't seen much intrusion on search results and usually the top ones have interesting links anyway...
It also made me question Movable Type a little bit. I need to research more, but so far I am liking the look of WordPress, especially since it can aparantly import my blogger posts. I don't know what to do about the halo comments, though...
Also made me think a bit about why I am blogging. On the one hand, people do seem to like my opinions on stuff, and it can be nice to share links with people. On the other, I suppose I've already said a lot of the stuff that I had built up from the years on the subject of comics. Also, while we are in interesting times, I think in some ways there is more understanding out there and more of a wait and see approach. I dunno.. maybe it is just a combination of Dirk missing and not having as much time to read the message boards and blogs. I think maybe I do better responding to other people than just coming up with stuff out of thin air.
In regards to that last point, the newest edition of Sequential Tart is up, and reading some of the articles there got me going a bit on some subjects. I'll see if I can post some stuff in regards to those pretty soon.
But I suppose I've partly just been led into other stuff a bit more lately. Now with the PDA, I'm starting to realize just how much stuff I can get done when I'm not just sitting there wondering what I should be doing (happens quite often with my memory..heh). The house is a big mess in terms of clutter (both Mom and I are seriously sentimental and hate throwing stuff out), and I really need to throw tons of stuff into big rubbermaid containers in the cellar and perhaps just sell or throw out stuff. Now that I have the digital camera, I can always just take some pictures of sentimental items for memory's sake without actually keeping the object itself.
Plus, the old addage of my layout and design teacher was that everything can't be as important as eveything else on a page. If you make everything bold and crazy fonts, it is just a muddle and you can't even read it. Same goes with a house.. just because I want to hang onto things or I might want to use them some day in the future doesn't mean that I should let it all take over and keep me from finding the stuff I most want to be using.
Also, what's up with nostalgia itself? We want to remind ourselves of how we were as kids, and yet when you're a kid, you don't think that way. The act of nostalgia itself just shows how far you are from all of that. If you really want to relive your childhood, then get some toys and play with them. Look at the clouds and find animals in them. Don't be afraid to try new things, learn new things, constantly re-evaluate things. Don't let the world suck away your creativity and the good parts of being a child. Instead of setting up stale monuments to childhood, keep some of that kid alive inside of you.. :)
Wow, this entry is really unfocused isn't it? What else can I throw in? I was a little down in that I installed a counter and seemingly had very few hits coming in, but then again my own fault for not writing much of interest lately..heh. Also, someone actually searched for my site in google which was cool, and tangognat and Augie have been commenting, so nice to know some people are still watching. :)
But I do want to do some diversity of content on my sites. My looping guides still get a lot of positive comments, but they could really use some re-writing and illustrations and maybe some videos. Speaking of which, my latest batch of videos still don't have descriptions, and really the whole thing should be made interactive. Currently it is using an xml publishing system called Cocoon, which is really cool, but it is java-based, which most hosting places don't support. I am pretty much generating the pages on my computer, which I can then upload to a site. That works, but is cumbersome and also doesn't let readers do things like search or re-sort.
I may end up doing that part in regular php and mysql myself and then use Coppermine for the gallery and Wordpress for blogging. Then again, maybe I can work with a full content management system like Mambo or Typo3 or something and not have to do much actual coding myself.. I'll have to experiment I guess...
So, I do want to continue blogging, but I think things will still be a bit sporadic as I try to work out everything else both at home and on my sites. But it'll all be cool if it works out.. :)
Obviously I don't agree with that, and most of his legit concerns are lost in the vitrol, but it did cause me to think about some different things. First, I went to find out just what trackbacking really is. I have to say that the concept is pretty interesting. Surely a lot easier than looking at referrer logs, and maybe not to difficult with the auto-detection methods on some blogs. It seems like there is also pingback method which might not cause so much trouble with google? Then again, I don't see it as that huge of an issue. Maybe it's because I don't search for political info. that often, but I haven't seen much intrusion on search results and usually the top ones have interesting links anyway...
It also made me question Movable Type a little bit. I need to research more, but so far I am liking the look of WordPress, especially since it can aparantly import my blogger posts. I don't know what to do about the halo comments, though...
Also made me think a bit about why I am blogging. On the one hand, people do seem to like my opinions on stuff, and it can be nice to share links with people. On the other, I suppose I've already said a lot of the stuff that I had built up from the years on the subject of comics. Also, while we are in interesting times, I think in some ways there is more understanding out there and more of a wait and see approach. I dunno.. maybe it is just a combination of Dirk missing and not having as much time to read the message boards and blogs. I think maybe I do better responding to other people than just coming up with stuff out of thin air.
In regards to that last point, the newest edition of Sequential Tart is up, and reading some of the articles there got me going a bit on some subjects. I'll see if I can post some stuff in regards to those pretty soon.
But I suppose I've partly just been led into other stuff a bit more lately. Now with the PDA, I'm starting to realize just how much stuff I can get done when I'm not just sitting there wondering what I should be doing (happens quite often with my memory..heh). The house is a big mess in terms of clutter (both Mom and I are seriously sentimental and hate throwing stuff out), and I really need to throw tons of stuff into big rubbermaid containers in the cellar and perhaps just sell or throw out stuff. Now that I have the digital camera, I can always just take some pictures of sentimental items for memory's sake without actually keeping the object itself.
Plus, the old addage of my layout and design teacher was that everything can't be as important as eveything else on a page. If you make everything bold and crazy fonts, it is just a muddle and you can't even read it. Same goes with a house.. just because I want to hang onto things or I might want to use them some day in the future doesn't mean that I should let it all take over and keep me from finding the stuff I most want to be using.
Also, what's up with nostalgia itself? We want to remind ourselves of how we were as kids, and yet when you're a kid, you don't think that way. The act of nostalgia itself just shows how far you are from all of that. If you really want to relive your childhood, then get some toys and play with them. Look at the clouds and find animals in them. Don't be afraid to try new things, learn new things, constantly re-evaluate things. Don't let the world suck away your creativity and the good parts of being a child. Instead of setting up stale monuments to childhood, keep some of that kid alive inside of you.. :)
Wow, this entry is really unfocused isn't it? What else can I throw in? I was a little down in that I installed a counter and seemingly had very few hits coming in, but then again my own fault for not writing much of interest lately..heh. Also, someone actually searched for my site in google which was cool, and tangognat and Augie have been commenting, so nice to know some people are still watching. :)
But I do want to do some diversity of content on my sites. My looping guides still get a lot of positive comments, but they could really use some re-writing and illustrations and maybe some videos. Speaking of which, my latest batch of videos still don't have descriptions, and really the whole thing should be made interactive. Currently it is using an xml publishing system called Cocoon, which is really cool, but it is java-based, which most hosting places don't support. I am pretty much generating the pages on my computer, which I can then upload to a site. That works, but is cumbersome and also doesn't let readers do things like search or re-sort.
I may end up doing that part in regular php and mysql myself and then use Coppermine for the gallery and Wordpress for blogging. Then again, maybe I can work with a full content management system like Mambo or Typo3 or something and not have to do much actual coding myself.. I'll have to experiment I guess...
So, I do want to continue blogging, but I think things will still be a bit sporadic as I try to work out everything else both at home and on my sites. But it'll all be cool if it works out.. :)
