If you're visiting this site for the first time, and are seeing the default WordPress theme (aka Kubrick), please rest assured that a custom designed theme is hiding somewhere within the WordPress installation -- WordPress is just having a bit of a tantrum lately, and has decided to keep reverting back to the default shortly after I reset the custom theme in the admin.

Those of you who are return visitors are hopefully missing the usual orange and brown goodness that has graced these pages for almost 2 years.

Hosting Woes

For the last few weeks, my homepage hasn't been loading at all - Dreamhost didn't seem to think it was a problem on their end (though I'd made no changes to the site between it working and ceasing to work). After going around in circles with them for too long, I uploaded a fresh install of WordPress, moved my plugins and theme directories, changed a few hard-coded absolute URLs, and things were working again. For about 5 minutes.

Artificial Intelligence?

Perhaps my blogging software is trying to tell me something? I've planned a redesign for well over a year, but other endeavors have taken priority (e.g. Sidebar Creative, Webgraph, Rounders, various client/consulting work, presentations, workshops and toying with things like Virb). I've also been seriously thinking about hitting the redesign over the last month or so -- is WordPress now smart enough to read my mind? Or is my soon-to-be-replaced theme getting jealous? It's creepy from where I'm sitting...

Separating Content From Presentation

Okay, so it's not the use for which that phrase is intended, but in a way, it's interesting to see my content without its custom skin. I've been reading through many of the articles I've written, and paying more attention to the text. Perhaps this is a normal issue with designers trying to objectively read their own content while getting distracted by their own designs -- if you haven't tried it, give it a shot sometime; it may help expose issues with your design, or your content, or at the very least allow you a fresh perspective on your own writing.