…here’s the new blog site.

for a few days, i debated installing wordpress on this site. my old blog site–which i’m not going to link to–was hacked twice, and i’m not technical enough to prevent the shit from happening again; i really don’t want that to happen here. secondly, i wanted to design the site myself, but my knowledge of xhtml and css, while never expert-level, is more than just a little bit rusty, and trying to tackle php is something beyond my capabilities and interest at the moment. i also needed a way to manage the content on the site easily, and focus on writing posts rather than fudging with site technicalities. i considered other systems, but they all seemed to require more technical knowledge than i’m blessed with, so back to wordpress for me.

for the theme, i chose neutica, designed by allan cole and based on sandbox. it’s flexible, easily configurable, and minimalist, which focuses much of the attention on the content and not so much on distracting graphics. besides, i love typography, and i heart helvetica (the documentary was good too). so neutica fulfilled much of what i was looking for as far as control, aesthetic sensibilities, and editorial focus. the only hiccup it has is being unable to change colors through the wordpress dashboard’s theme options, but i think it may be because of wordpress 2.7, and allan, i’m sure, is working on it. (maybe one day i’ll design something for this site using sandbox. but i don’t expect that anytime soon.)

the only goal for this site is the same as for any blog out there: a place of creative expression. i’m not particularly interested in gaining a wide readership–though that would be very nice, don’t get me wrong–so much as improving the way i write, express my thoughts, and convey ideas, even at the risk of becoming just another piece of passing netsam. and maybe someone out there will find something here that’s worth reading, no matter how small, and that is always a good thing.

you can find out a bit more about me here, or keep visiting the site as the posts pile up. i’ll try to keep the dull to a minimum.