Redesign
I think I'm just about done with the redesign; this is version 4 if you're counting. I need to fix the code on some of the pictures in the photo archive and, since that requires touching each image file, it'll be a bit of time until those are done and if you dig into the historical pictures, things will look a little funny for a bit yet. There is tweaking to be done in order to streamline some of the wires and pipes under the hood, but for the most part, I'm pretty pleased with how things turned out. There are still a few tables since I couldn't quite get my head wrapped around how to accomplish what I wanted to do without resorting to a thousand [div] tags and that seemed to be the wrong way to accomplish things (the reason why Apple's Safari browser will only fill the background of a [div] to the edge of the containing text and not to the edge of the actual tag space is still a mystery).
Part of what spawned this was so that I could use the Music section more readily as a promotional tool as I go freelance in the music world. I wanted something that could stand on its own if I needed it to be a source for review material for labels and artists. I'll be continuing to add material to that section as a historical archive, bringing together the disparate places where my work has been published, as well as giving a home to reviews of material that never got a good shake the first time around (or, more realistically, that I never got a chance to hear when it was new).
On the freelance front, I've landed a spot on the rotation at Igloo, an online magazine specializing in electronic music with loose ties to the Digital::Nimbus show at KUCI and s://kimo's fabulous mail order service. Igloo has run two reviews of mine already. It also looks like I'll be contributing to Recycle Your Ears, the magazine arm of Nicolas Chevreux's Ad Noiseam label. Nicolas is finishing up a very nice redesign as well and, once that becomes active, I'll be dropping in over there too.
This redesign has been my basic distraction from writing and, now that I'm done, I'm out of excuses again. I took back most of the books I had checked out of the library; there just isn't the time to both read and write now, though John Le Carre's Absolute Friends is waiting for me at my favorite branch. I've not read any of his work for a number of years and, while he always entertains, there has been a certain British dryness to his work that hasn't exactly drawn me back. But I hear that Absolute Friends is very topical these days, containing a rather scathing inditement of our government's behavior in the Middle East which -- "fictional account" aside -- I'm curious to read. Ian Rankin's new Inspector Rebus novel is in the queue as well. Rankin started flirting with the nature of Rebus' mortality in Ressurection Men and I wonder if he's starting to grow tired of Rebus as a character. That's the trouble with genre work and a series character: at some point, even the writer gets tired of running their character through the wringer and it does become just a matter of going through the motions. Still, Rankin is consistent enough that he warrants a look-see when a new novel hits the shelves.
So, yeah, writing. SYMBOLIC is running again. I just copied entry 66 here the other day and Opi8 is several entries ahead (and, yes, you should read it there because we like to see the traffic). I've even wrote 500 words last week that I don't absolutely loath. Of course, they're just set-up so I could completely end up getting rid of them anyway, but it's 500 words at least. If I can manage to keep my eyes open on the train rides, I'll be able to get a full chapter completed.
Which is as good a goal as any right now. Baby steps.
Heavy fog in Tukwila again this morning. Unreal world outside the train car. Drifting off to Hagedorn's Home Grown.