site-related techspeak, computer crap, other technical garble not of interest to the general populace.
Just upgraded my blogging software, Movable Type, and added a new plug-in to incorporate my Twitter posts into my blog proper. My tweets don’t look very pretty right now, either on the site or in the RSS feed, but I hope to remedy that tomorrow evening.
Until then, sit tight and know that I’ll be working my magic soon enough…
(Wow, that doesn’t sound egotistical or anything.)
Since I’ve had a little extra money to throw around, I’ve been treating myself here and there to things I’ve been wanting, but haven’t really been able to justify. This time, it was a macro lens for my Nikon D50.
I’d noticed recently that the lens I usually use didn’t work so well with close-up photography. This is unfortunate, as I really enjoy finding small and/or unusual things and photographing them as best I can. Granted, I do think my “old” lens is in need of cleaning (OK, I know it is), which would explain the weird glow in the comparison photos I took tonight:
I can get in so much closer now, and the images seem to be crisper and have more contrast. I can also narrow the depth of field waaaaay down, throwing everything but my subject out of focus. (Which, for those of you who have seen a decent amount of my photography, is my usual MO.)
So, now I can give you the marimokkori photo I really wanted you to see:
Note the pronounced, um, mokkori. Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.
I finally did it.
After turning the thought over in my head for months now, I finally submitted my resignation as LSM webmaster.
It’s nothing against them. It’s just a reorganization of priorities for me. I can only handle so many projects at a time, and can only keep focused on so much. I’m sure that there is someone actively participating in the corps who has HTML skills and can do just as good a job as I did. Or better, probably.
I just haven’t been devoting the amount of time to the website that the corps deserves, and it’s been like that for quite a while now. LSM deserves more than I’m currently giving them. And I deserve to be cut free of the guilt I’ve been giving myself over that very issue.
The announcement feels like a weight lifted from my mind.
Some of you may remember the drum corps website I worked on back in ’05. Well, it seems that the corps is “streamlining” their communications, and they’d like to retool the site. That’s fine. I can dig that. I can even use the design they’d like me to use, although I insist on trying a few different variations on it first.
The only thing that really makes me sad is that I worked SO HARD on getting the content management system to be robust enough to serve their needs, and now the site is pretty much going to be a static electronic brochure. No individual member logins, no real need for members-only news items… they’ll keep the news feed around, and they’ll keep the schedule up-to-date, and I think they’ll keep the file upload feature for staff, but it’s not the same. The site will mainly be used as a recruiting tool, rather than the multifaceted communications tool I’d wanted it to be.
Maybe I wasn’t proactive enough. Maybe I didn’t keep up with it as well as I should have. But I did what I was told, when I was told, and I was so proud of what I’d achieved. I learned so much by programming all that, and I was actually pretty proud of my design. (I went through lots of thumbnails and comps to get to that final.)
Maybe this is my chance to make something that really pops, though. I can take the site and streamline it all to hell. I won’t be depressed about this — I’ll be grateful for the chance to update this two-year-old design.
Really, I will.
I don’t usually spend an excess of money on display items. However… I think I may have scored this before PodBrix.com exceeded their bandwidth:
A limited-edition Young Woz and Jobs custom “Lego” set. I read about it on Wil Wheaton‘s blog, who read about on BoingBoing (which I need to start reading again).
Their mockup of the 1984 commercial sold out in less than a minute, according to their website. This set may have done the same, barring technical issues. The Young Woz and Jobs set went on sale at 9pm, and I had a heck of a time getting the page to load. I just kept hitting Reload, Reload, Reload… and kept getting Firefox telling me to Try Again. Then I got a few minutes of 403 Forbidden errors. Then, just after 9:10 or so, I got through.
I do have a PayPal confirmation e-mail, so I *think* I’m golden. We’ll see if I am one of the elite 300 soon.
Update: PodBrix says, “If you were able to make it through to PayPal checkout and ordered, we have your order.” So, it sounds like I’m golden.
BTW, Aaron saw the $200 price tag on the 1984 Playset and about shit a brick (a Lego® brick, perhaps?), but then he saw that the Young Woz and Jobs set cost much less. 🙂