For the first article in my series about building the new HSU site with ExpressionEngine, I thought I’d write the compliment to my earlier article where I explained how I built HSU’s A-Z index with Textpattern.
So, I have been trying out Vox for a couple of weeks, and I have to say that I’m impressed. The interface is really nice, and makes it a snap to add photos, video, audio, and books to your posts. It also allows you to control who can see an individual post— you can restrict access to friends, family, or friends & family. This is the most important aspect for me— I have been finding that there are things I want to write about that are not really relevant to anyone but my family, and that I don’t want to have out there flying around and getting indexed by Google. The easy listing and rating of books is also great for me— I read every night and have been wanting a way to easily catalog and discuss what I’m reading. The templates are fun, and use CSS for layout with somewhat semantic classes and ids. It is kind of a relief to be able to just write and not focus on design or functionality of the site, as well— I do enough of that during the day job, and I’m finding it really nice to just focus on writing. I have been thinking about my career a lot lately— where it’s going, where I want it to go, and how to get there. One of the steps I may be taking is moving the personal posts off of this blog and making it a more professional site, able to morph into a site for my business if things go that way. So for a while at least all the personal stuff will be found on my Vox site, Graceful Degradation, while I test out this idea. One great thing is that I am also able to cross-post my Jangly Ganglia posts from there, so I only have to blog in two places, and my three readers can have one-stop shopping on Vox if they want. So, check me out on Vox. And, let me know if you want a Vox invitation— I have a few.
I feel like I write posts like this all the time, but it’s part of the process for me. I am just now coming out of a major depressive episode that started sometime in March, before I went to SXSW. I haven’t been able to do much writing since then, and I’ve been a bad friend and family member as well. I owe apologies to a bunch of folks that I should have been keeping in better touch with: Jess especially, but also some others in places like Australia and England. I’m not going to go on much more about all this, I have other places where I will do that. So instead I will fill y’all in on some of the major happenings that I haven’t reported. First, the tickets for my trip to Australia are bought. I will be there from January 15 to February 28, flying into Melbourne (which you have to pronounce Mel-burn or you’ll sound like a Gringo) and leaving from Sydney. We’ll be in Melbourne for about 2 weeks or so while Brian works on a research project on greater gliders, and then spending the rest of the time traveling. Not sure of the whole agenda yet, but we’ll be spending some time in Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef. Which leads me to say that I’m much more sad about the fate of the Crocodile Hunter than I thought I would be. The guy was annoying and flamboyant, but you can’t argue that he was a genuine animal lover. And the conservation movement has lost an important player. The project that I have been spending the last 6 months or so working on launched to surprisingly good reviews, despite unprecedented amounts of stress. And we also just launched two new department sites, a program site, and a virtual tour. I’m still working on a retooling of this site to make it easier for me to add new animal themes. I still need to replace the skunk. I am thinking about going with an all Australian animal theme, if I can get things set up before I leave. I’m sure there’s more that I missed, like Brian getting tenure and other milestones that have passed in the last six months— I’ll just have to let those go an once again start over. If I owe you an email, I’m sorry, but I had to move everything to the archives to be able to face the inbox. I’m back on top of things now, so I should be a better correspondent.
Just a quick announcement that I recently launched a redesign of the Humboldt State University main site. This pretty much explains most of my silence for the past month or two. The new site focuses on recruiting, which is a major goal of the university at this point, and has been in development for over 6 months. Highlights include:
Every time I get linked to by a gallery site I am mortally embarrassed by that stupid little piece of white border and shadow that is always out of place in Safari. So, after the latest one that clearly shows my little nemesis, I think it is time for a sneak peek at my realign coming soon— as soon as I can get the stupid corners on the fixed position comment form to behave in… Safari.