A lot of people in Maine are affected by seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, appropriately). The long winter months with lots of cold days cause people to stay indoors for a large part of their time, and when combined with the claustrophobia of all the trees around and a few other factors, people start feeling down. I’ve felt SAD-like effects strongly in the past, but thankfully this winter wasn’t that bad.
Regardless, many Mainers welcome the first signs of spring with open arms (ironically, many welcome the first snowfall with the same open, yet colder, arms). Today was one of the first spring-like days here (about 55 degrees… hey, it’s still Maine… that’s t-shirt weather!). How could I tell? Besides the weather, there are a few surefire signs. There were tons of dogs outdoors (yay!). There were tons of motorcycles (eh). There were people walking all over the place: attempts to fulfill resolutions that will undoubtedly be “forgotten” (ignored) in less than a week.
From the huge smile I wear when I see a dog happy to be both outside and not freezing for the first time in months to the lack of shivering when I walk, it’s clear: it’s spring!
You’ve probably noticed on your last visit or two that this blog has changed a bit. This weekend I converted the blog to a wonderful software package known as WordPress – a blogging system that is used by many, many, many bloggers around the Web.
Why is this notable? For just over four years (since March 25, 2002, when I launched my first dynamic blog) I’ve used blogs that I’ve coded myself. In other words, this is the first time I’ve used a third-party application for my blog. Why? Well, I always convinced myself that coding my own blog created a sense of pride; I could say everything on justinrussell.com was created fully by me. I thought that I could use it as a selling point for getting a job and the like (I never ended up using it). I’m glad that I was able to read the posts and comments from the old versions of the blog; as you can see from the archives to the right (if you’re viewing this at justinrussell.com/blog/ and not via the RSS feed), I’ve got quite a history.
My reason for for the conversion was twofold: philosophical and technical. I’ll be discussing the philosophical side shortly, but I’d like to focus on the technical side for a bit. Non-geeks, you can feel free to stop reading this post now.
I’ve been frustrated with the limitations of my blog for quite a while. I had a great plan (and quite a few pages of sketches) for a system I called PennyJar, a blogging system based mostly on modular post types. Quite simply, I decided that I’d rather spend my time on more experimental and challenging projects. The thousands and thousands of comment spam posts I was receiving was the last straw. I don’t consider the migration a sacrifice at all, though; WordPress offers many features that I’ve wanted for my blog:
- comment moderation (no more database cleanup)
- categories (they’re back!)
- post editing
- integrated image management
- integrated trackbacks and pings for post links
- drafts
- tons of great themes and layouts
- a wonderful community of developers
- plugins!
Let’s talk about plugins for a minute. Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress to allow new features. I’ve already installed two plugins that I really enjoy: Geo and Geo Mashup. To see an example of its usage, check out my BlogMap. See why I like it?
As always, thanks for reading. I really enjoy writing here, whether it’s for thousands of people or just myself. This is the best journal I’ve ever had. If you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to e-mail me.
UPDATE: Oh, one other thing. I’ll be slowly but surely going back in my archives doing some conversion of links, images, and more. Hopefully I’ll be able to fix some of the links that have been broken for a while. If you see any links that are broken in older posts, please let me know.
Neapolitan Dynamite. Ha… ha ha. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I’m pretty good at eating ice cream.
I’d probably only eat the Chocolate Fudge Brownie half, but I’ll give them an A for effort.
“If it’s not fun, why do it?“
It appears as though an SUV hit a utility pole on Hammond Street earlier. A fire truck and blockades created a roadblock on Hammond Street, leading to confusion for drivers. Utility workers detached the streetlamp and the transformer that were on the pole.
Lance Dutson has been going through some stuff regarding the Maine Office of Tourism’s advertising practices on Google. His findings (and the aftermath) are getting pretty heated, but he brought up what I believe to be a very valid point on his blog tonight. He focuses on a MOT campaign that, put simply, tries to convince visitors that tried and true Maine tourism attractions such as lighthouses and moose really aren’t worth the trip.
I’d like to make it clear that I’m not some in-state advertising agency… (that would make sense, of course, that the state promotes the creative economy of Maine by hiring an in-state… what? they’re from New York City? oh.) ok, some out-of-state advertising agency, but I’ve whipped up a couple of examples of how this same campaign could be used for, say, Disneyworld and Fenway Park.
I should change my profession.
UPDATE: Looks like the post was removed. Luckily, Google’s got a cache thing goin’ on.
