Showing One’s Backend

Wednesday September 24th @ 6:55 pm in the category Glot-glot

I’m just trying to prove it’s a labor of love. For the record, no, it doesn’t make sense to do this custom CSS work when no one but me will ever work with it. Pleasure isn’t always sensible.

Considering the current financial climate, both personal and national, I feel forced to justify the frittering waste of several hours of time that is updating one’s admin screen. So here goes (prepare for long sentence): it’s an exercise of skill which not only keeps the mind sharp, provides a small bit of accomplishment, and is something to show off, but reasserts and reminds me every time I login of my personal sense of style, a style which is particularly energizing and, well, awesome. I like it. Do you?

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Why I Do Web Design

Friday February 8th @ 1:02 am in the category Glot-glot

Why I Do Web Design

Often I’ve been asked, in the fifth hour of a project to improve some small thing on my GLOT, why I bother. Why not bother to actually update it, rather than improve something no one will notice anyways? Well, dammit, I notice. I notice that the Rubix cube doesn’t display correctly in Internet Explorer 6. I notice things that don’t match well, like the alignment of the contact form and me-photos. I know that the search was placed incorrectly and used borrowed CSS since I put the damn thing in. And so today, I fixed it. I fixed all of those things. Yet do I find satisfaction?

No. And here’s why: the web isn’t real. It’s not a tangible experience. Up until the moment someone pointed their browser at this particular website and saw this particular thing, it was just an idea. It was information, data stored in a machine of irrelevant location, and will go back to being there once that someone leaves. The data might be slightly different. It might be very different. But it’s still just data, and it doesn’t have a life of it’s own, it doesn’t DO anything that isn’t in its basic nature. It’s not even a thing, it’s an it.

Existential pontificating of digital existence complete. Back to the original question: why do it? Because it’s a challenge. Because it’s one I can usually accomplish, given enough time and tenacity. Because it fits my habits, sitting in front of a computer. Because it’s something I’m good at. Because it makes me feel like I did something. Because I can. And so there you have it: I do it because I can. Sometimes it seems like a pointless exercise. Often it is. But here you are, and for the moment, it’s real. Hm.

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Restructure

December 2nd, 2007 @ 11:58 pm in the category Glot-glot

I just created a new category, “Smartglot,” for all the thought-piece writings that I tend to be proud about and that tend to be forgotten. Also, it gives me more of an excuse to write throwaway posts about junk that’s happening at the moment. Just saying. There’s also the semantic and also highly unimportant addition of the Stuff-n-Glot category, which is broken down into audio and video/pictures. I was also try to install a word-meter that will show the amount of words written since a certain date (no reason here given for such an addition) but that has yet to be worked out. Thanks, ProgressFly—how many fields do you want in your table, anyways? Why must I ask casual readers in SQL jargon? Wouldn’t it be better simply to ask on a proper forum?

As they say, Content is King. Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually have some of that. But really, who says that but douchebags? I’m not gonna say that. Come back tomorrow.

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Booted

May 1st, 2007 @ 10:59 am in the category Glot-glot

Sometimes one has just stop caring about our dear ones. We grow them well, we make them the best that we can with the time we are given, but at some point we must let them out into the world and hope for the best.

Here’s my web redesign. I call it: The Glotocracy, or rule by Glot. It’s been in born and incubating now for more than two months. Checking the first confirmed date—February 23rd. Those of you who are long-time… fans? Long-time readers (i.e. those who know me personally) will attest to how much has gone on between then and now. Moved out of one place, got another, lost a job in the process, still don’t make hardly any money and have more to write about than you could shake a shtick at… Hell, half the reason I don’t write anymore is cause every time I sit down to blog glot I start fixing something.

So here it is, the solution to all my worries. The solution to all my very web-specific, non-life-relevant worries. And hey, just in time for the internet. The Glotocracy. Version 1.0!

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Notice the New

December 8th, 2006 @ 12:01 am in the category Glot-glot

Please refer to post #35 (the Tragedy of Blogs) and post #55 (Cheating) if you require an explanation as to why I suddenly have all these new entries. I do what I want, people. I’m free.

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Writing a Post Helps

July 14th, 2006 @ 7:47 am in the category Glot-glot
Daily Visits are going up.

Tan Tan Wordpress Reports Plugin tells me the following:

During the past 7 days, your site received 56 visitors (+143%) and 373 pageviews (+604%).

That’s a fact. Pretty amazing, yes? It’s all because I took the time from coding the site and actually posted something. Somebody even took notice and put me on BlogOfTheDay. Wow. You can just write, and have people read it.

This is an important realization to have (and remember) for one such as myself. It’s really easy to be a do-nothing perfectionist. If it’s not perfect—screw it! Here I am, striving forward in my own private multi-day coding marathon, but do the means justify the end? Why have an awesome-looking blog if you only post twice in a month? I feel I should declare some sort of resolution. I know there’s supposed to be a personal challenge statement somewhere around here.

Hm. Now where could I have left it…

See more progress on: Get more people to read my Blog
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List of Improvements

July 1st, 2006 @ 12:00 pm in the category Glot-glot

So far I’ve refrained from calling it Glot 2.0. I’m not sure if that’s because 1.0 never officially came out, or if it’s my nagging fear of bandwagons. It’s just so trendy this season, isn’t it? Got nothing better to call it, though. And it is the second version. What the hell: GLOT 2.0.

General

most recent WordPress build
nice admin css (Aenonfire design & Camera On Road)
animated favicon
css color variations a la aNieto2k, Impact Switcher
random css.php file for users w/ javascript turned off
categorical css layouts

Posts

unvisited links underlined, visited crossed out (e.g. visited)
link :hover interestingness a la SevenNine
post number determines color
tags listed at end of post
SIFR rich typography replacement
very visible Comment Here link
sub-titled per-post taglines
front-page category segregation
smaller text for long posts, larger for short ones
printer-friendly version (downloadable pdf version?)

Sidebar

button fiend
IM status indicator
BDP Referral stats
latest Flickr photo Polaroid-framed
better-than-live search
hybrid posts/tags search
integrate links to pages (FAQ, before I die list=43 things)

New Pages

digidentity, or, more than you’d ever like to know about my life online:

SimplePie makes possible:
del.icio.us links rss
Consumating RSS
Last.fm RSS
MySpace RSS
Wordpress support forums

about page w/sub pages:

about glot: “what is a glot/origin of glot” page
about me: author info, contact form, real name
about faq: or, QITUYMA

all organized by brain phrenology regions

FAlbum integration
custom search pages
404 error page (100%x100% background image)
tag cloud + tag info
sitemap

Comments

front-page comments (Inline Ajax Comments, Expand Comments)
custom comment text (5 of you reckon…)
comments quicktags
comments preview
canary comment (possible…)
human validation: pick three cute things method
trackback/pingback segregation/variation
gravatar inclusion (Comvatar)
gravatar signup
fake more comments on old entries
# of comments (comments meter=ProgressFly)
comments imaginary point system (points for browser, pictures, # words)
rewards for points (signed shoes, minidiscs, clothing, art crap…)

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Lan Dow Nunder

January 31st, 2006 @ 12:00 pm in the category Glot-glot

Attention visitor! There is no new glot for you here. The Glotmaster has travelled very far to glot from an entirely different continent, and you can sample his incredible excursion to the wonderful land of Oz right here:

The OzGlot

Until such and such a time when he decides he’s no longer there, you should all be able to get your daily smacking of glot right there. And hey! New feature—you can now contact this dude. There’s a form right there on that site. He loves mail.

What’s that you say—it’s too obvious I’m just writing this in the third person? I’m just trying to distance myself is all. Ha! And with that sublime pun (sublimely dumb) you’lll have to tide yourselves over for the next several months. Till then—ozzie ozzie ozzie(glot)!

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10 Topics for Past Entries

January 10th, 2006 @ 11:50 am in the category Glot-glot
  1. David DeAngelo is a very “cool” man
  2. My Job
  3. Crichton’s State of Fear (why people want you to be afraid to read it)
  4. The Archive — (here, keep this on your hard drive now)
  5. My Flowers and Trees Movie
  6. Up North, or the way we were
  7. CSUMB Sucks and I can prove it.
  8. Re-do Hello World
  9. “I am the coolest person I know.”
  10. Ten Topics for Future Entries
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Theme-to-trot

September 14th, 2005 @ 7:38 am in the category Glot-glot

As of 7:38 am Pacific Daylight Savings time, WordGlot theme 0.9 has gone live. Whoo! One chromo-glot-gasm to rule them all.

Take a look around… doesn’t look like an 8th grader did it anymore, does it? Well, there’s still a few wrinkles. For instance the entire sidebar. But dammit, I wasted half a day just retrofitting the stupid thing and countless hours refining the design itself — now I’m gonna reap the reward of all this.

Reward… reward… hm.
I’m not sure what that is now. I seem to have forgotten the point. The point in doing all this. Of fixing up a blog that’s hardly read, that’s irregularly written. And while we’re on the subject, hey YOU: who are you thinking that this is good reading material? You have better things to do and you know it. I want you to stop reading this. Now.

  • Counter-intuitive Rule #422 — If you want someone to do something, discourage them from doing it. Their essential contrarianism will cause them to do it more.
  • Counter-intuitive Rule #422a — Unless, however, you point out their essential contrarianism, in which case they will not do it just to prove they aren’t contrarian (corollary).
  • Counter-intuitive Rule #422b — If you point out that, they will most likely just get confused (counter-corollary).
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