Changed the layout
May 12, 2008 by prairieflounder
Well, incase you haven’t noticed I changed the layout. I am not sure if I like the new layout but I am sure that I needed a change. I have had the same layout since I started this blog in October 2006. The change was long over due.
While the look is changing the content, for better or worse, won’t change a hoot. I will continue to write about things that I do, people I meet, and stuff that enters my brain. “Be careful what you put in your head, as you will never ever get it out” I wish I knew who said that. It applies to most of the things I do, and a lot of places I visit on the internet.
I guess you could say that my interests are eclectic, you could even say weird. What you can’t say is that they are exaggerated. I enjoy being absurd for the sake of proving a point, but I don’t tell fish stories. Anyone who knows me personally knows that if I say “I flung a coconut 130 yards and almost hit a duck” that is exactly what happened. I have witnesses.
I have tackled, or tickled the following subjects:
Cats, aliens, computers, zombies, movies, Volkswagens, controls, air conditioning, rockets, fireworks, guns, coffee cups, Steampunk, alcohol, NASA, sporks, monkeys, clowns, and D&D.
I would like to explore over the next few months:
The Democrat convention in Denver, The libertarian convention in Denver, Pyrotechnic convention in Gillette Wyoming, Deep thoughts about why some people piss me off while others are nearly invisible. Why machines are better than people. Why people last longer than most machines. Little known facts about flounders. And why I feel compelled to keep writing this crap.
And much, much more.
One of the things I really enjoy “Blogging” is the community that it generates. In a virtual way, I have met people across the world who I would have never known about in any other medium. It’s like having pen pals from everywhere at once. I have found that a blogroll is kind of contagious. I still get a thrill when I find myself on a stranger’s blogroll. Its especially fun to navigate other blogrolls and find other people you know. It’s like meeting someone you know while on vacation. What are the odds?
I get to post about anything I damn well please, yet I find myself constrained. Not through any kind of censorship, but due to something I learned while taking a writing class. I had an English teacher who really made an impact on me. She is an interesting lady, irritating and quite daft but interesting. I believe that all English teachers are a bit daft. I blame it on the language. Anyway the concept that really stuck with me was the idea that you have to write to be read. Considering your audience is a major part of how to convey ideas. This of course didn’t mean a thing to me at first. I didn’t know who my audience was, so I started writing with my brother in mind. This is a really scary concept if you knew my brother. Saying that he is a better writer than I am is like saying that Bill Gates makes more money than I do.
Then an interesting thing started to happen. I found that a number of people started reading my blog. So I wrote more. This caused the quality slip in favor of quantity. However at the same time I was taking English composition classes. So it may be that I was actually improving while paying less attention, learning to write better while at the same time producing poor quality posts. This probably doesn’t make much sense but a lot of things don’t.
I find a modicum of comfort in that..
So to make a short post even longer, I changed the theme and removed a few widgets. Let me know what you think.
No not you.
You comment enough, I am speaking to the other ones who read my blog but don’t post comments. I know you’re out there. Out of 21,000 hits and 200 comments I probably only have about 10 people who ever put out the energy to post a comment.
You know who you are.
-pf
Well then, please let me be the first of the ones who doesn’t post all the time (or to have posted on this blog anyway, never… before…ever) to post! Wait… did that make sense? Hmmm.. The rum might have shorted out my logic circuits.
I’ll do the lazy “cut and paste” reply…
“Anyone who knows me personally knows that if I say “I flung a coconut 130 yards and almost hit a duck” that is exactly what happened.”
I’ll trust you on that for no better reason that it’s more fun to take stories like that at face value. I’ll pick the “more fun” option most every time.
“I have found that a blogroll is kind of contagious. I still get a thrill when I find myself on a stranger’s blogroll.”
As do I! Many thanks for the link! I’ve enjoyed poking around here as well.
“I believe that all English teachers are a bit daft.”
Well put. I think you’re on to something there. I’ve known several as friends and colleagues. They were all bonkers to some degree.
As for your topics of interest, I find them spookily close to the things at interest me as well… with the possible exception of clowns. They just creep me the hell out.
I’ll do believe I’ll be back often.
Cheers!
Turkish Prawn
http://foxandmaus.wordpress.com/
Not to worry, I feel the same way about Clowns.
http://prairieflounder.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/the-giving-clown/
Thanks for the comment.
BTW What kind of rum?
pf
Cruzan Black Strap, last night. It was mixed with some good quality ginger beer and lime. I’m not big on mixed drinks but a Dark and Stormy (or two) in the evening is mighty agreeable. If you’re a rum person, I know a book you’d love.
If I’m not nipping at the rum, I’m into the Calvados (Boulard), single malts (some times but not always Glenmorangie), or port (Local vintner called Blacksmiths). Failing that, a good local or German beer. As far as I’m concerned, surviving another day deserves a reward.
So, what’s your favorite tipple?
Turkish Prawn
http://foxandmaus.wordpress.com/
Well I did it again. I replied to a comment via e-mail by accident. This happens to me more than you would think. I get a e-mail every time a comment is posted on my blog, sometimes I reply to the e-mail as if it were simply an e-mail from a friend and forget that it is also posted on my site. So now I feel obligated to answer in public the same or nearly the same as my reply to the email. Does that make any sense?
The important questions are always the easiest to answer. So, I have been asked what is my favorite tipple.
Lately I have been a big fan of the Grand Teton Brewery Particularly Sweetgrass and Bitch Creek. Before that I went through a Big Sky Brewery phase with my favorites being Moose Drool and Big Sky I.P.A.
As for hard liquor I love a good dark rum or smooth whiskey. Notably Whalers rum and Tangle Ridge , arguably the best Canadian whiskey I have ever had. Glenmorange is great stuff too, but pricey. Try Tangle Ridge, it’s on par with the best.
Metablogging? Really? Tsk, tsk. I suppose it’s a trap we all fall for at some point.
pf,
Love the new look. Great picture of the HPM through the back window. Your blog gets better every post.
And thanks for the compliment about my writing. I really needed something to get myself through the day yesterday. I had 18 resumes and applications out and not a peep from any of them. So you got me through the morning. Went home for lunch and my lovely wife put me on a better path for the afternoon. Got back to work and found two requests for interviews. Feeling like a human being again.
I thought a lot about your previous post about turning things around. Sometimes it is so hard. Nothing like a small threatening fire to turn the tide. And Layman Pong’s comment made me remember how lucky I am never to have been seriously injured like he was.
Oh, and mmmmmm, Calvados. . . .