New blog style

November 15, 2005 D. H. McKee

I’ve been testing out Movable Type 3.2’s new StyleCatcher plugin, which allows you to change styles at the drop of a hat. Sounds like an interesting prospect, but I’ve previously half embedded the styles in the web page itself, and half used a stylesheet (I know, my bad), and the results with StyleCatcher are horrible. So I’m trying out some new page templates, and they seem to work well with the new stylesheet. I may leave this for a couple of days, tweaking it and refining it, until I’ve got something I like. It’s a bit more grown-up looking, and a bit less garish than my previous page — that’s why I hesitate so. I enjoyed the previous garishness. Made it seem more fun.
I don’t know. I do like the new colours a little better, and putting my car in the banner is still pretty immature of me. What do you think?

2 Responses to “New blog style”

Dr. Matt
18 years ago

The new style’s a lot cleaner than the old one, which I like; busy web pages can get annoying after a while.
I’m not sure about the semiotics of juxtaposing “Power to the People” with a photo of your car. Some sort of implication of the degree of personal freedom that an automobile represents? Or are you just inviting the Internet out for a spin?
dmckee
18 years ago

Yeah, I know. Looks more like a car ad with that picture in the header. To be honest, I was stumped for pictures, and put this together in a bit of a whirlwind. I was scouring my images folder for suitable pictures, and the car pic (you know I love my car) had the most negative space. I’m currently looking for other pictures — maybe adapting some of the current “chickie” themed headers for that spot.

About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.