We’ve got 3 sites to push out with a couple more in talks and so I stayed up all night working on this site. Why? Because I’ve had a website since Jonathan Thomas showed me how to put up a WordPress site nearly 6 years ago and this is the first time I’ve ever had it come close to looking like a professional site. “Close” as in “Katie did most of the work picking out the template back in 2012 and then it sat there and I didn’t finish it while I scrambled to do many, many things very, very badly.”
And we’re at a point where we’re having to take our online presence somewhat seriously.
Best foot forward and stuff.
Update 5:05am: the black random button will now be #696969. The designer has spoken. It’s amazing how she can judge color with sleep & brunette curls in her way on her way back to bed better than I could with Picasso by my side helping me choose. Well, Picasso and some serious smelling salts. And his wiener, Lump.
Update 5:29am PDT: she’s right.
I finally finished the contact form and threw up readable CTAs for RSS & email subscriptions. I balanced the header with the header nav. More blue, less brown. Responsive tweaks and colors. We put in a working font. Katie wouldn’t let me have the American Typewriter font despite the Kerouacian existence we’ve been living: The Dharma Bums part where he’s living up in the watchtower giving buddhist prayers in thanks for life, not the On the Road orgies with co-eds one.
Dirty, dirty people.
I got away with Cutive though. The mountains and foothills and oceans we keep seeing on our monthly trips from #Eastbay to the Oregon coast have me swirling with visions of The Big Sur. I’ve even been on Highway 101 and El Camino Real. Really. Come May, we’re going to take Highway 101 up the coast to Rockaway Beach, OR. And I want the site to reflect those stages and feelings. Right down to the classic pictures of landscape and an Underwood Typewriter & 35mm camera with which to track it all.
She knows. And she also knows that the Project 03 migration discussion is coming.
It’s not perfect, but it’s close
There’s a list of things I still want to do to finish the site, but speaking of the Project 03 migration discussion: we’re debating taking the site off of WordPress because eventually we want them all hosted on Project 03.
The advantage of keeping the site on WordPress
It keeps me in touch with what the natives are doing. Like, for example, I about screamed tonight when I realized they did their interface the way I was thinking of having Project 03 do theirs. Fixed sidebar. Fixed header. Not quite what we were doing, but still had me growling.
The disadvantage of keeping it on WordPress
Well, for all the reasons we built Project 03. For example, in order to really get into the site tonight and feel comfortable doing it, I had to update WordPress to the 3.9.1.whatever as well as 8 plugins. Less styling and writing. More time securing.
And the Socratic Method could begin…
But I’m stopping it right there and reminding myself what I have left to do on this site for now.
List of things that should really get finished on the site
- Do something with the home page content – finally lay it out, style it, and give the home page a point
- Get the random feature to the navbar. The plugin I found didn’t have it. Seeing if it can still be done
- Clean up the footer: many caps. Looks like crap. And it’s just thrown there. The suck part is I have to hack the thing to put a title down there with the menu.
- Fix the cloud server setting to upload images. I hate asking The Wolf these little things but I set the server settings all I know how to do in FileZilla. I’ll get a nap first (Sunrise soon and it’s almost 8am on the East coast so I’m going till Noon PDT. If there’s no uploaded image / featured image for this post, this list item is the reason.
- Get a banner ad ready for when Project 03 is ready for beta. The space in the header is waiting for it.
- Get back to writing: I’ve overcome a pinched neck & twin ear infections & flu – at the same time – and moved across the country since last I wrote. A couple friends still want to know what the f*** is going on
And, lastly
Get back to writing. I’m caught up from the move and from the flue which kicked are asses.
The rest can wait for the Project 03 decision.
Except for…
The fact that Kelly’s going to get on my ass here in an hour about his project. RG & Mr. Lee need a phone call as well.
Back in the saddle again
All the updates about sickness, the oldold man, moving, #Eastbay, Project 03, and that white dress & tux party Katie & I are having next Summer…are coming. As well as stuff you’ll even want to read about. Hopefully.