Crunchy ‘Nanas

For those of you thinking, hmmm, Crunchy’s gone quiet, she must be out running marathons left and right and is too exhausted to write about her sub three-hour personal best, you’d be oh so wrong. (But thanks for the compliment!) For those wondering if maybe she is absorbed in re-reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in eager anticipation of midnight 21st July, you’d be sort of right. If, instead, you are betting she is tinkering behind the scenes, you’d be almost right. If you are sure she WOULD be tinkering behind the scenes if she could get her phpMyAdmin to do what it is told, you’d be SPOT ON.

Nothing is ever easy, is it? This is what I wanted, wasn’t it? A challenge? Yes, I like challenges. I must keep reminding myself of this. I like challenges. I like challenges. Challenges make me smile. Or grit my teeth. One of the two.

Deep breath in. Slow breath out. MySQL extension, we are on the same side here. Help me, help you.

~~~

She shoots, she scores! One minor challenge hurdled. Hooray! (Okay, so now I’m tinkering.)

The contract has been signed. The walls have been painted. The furniture’s been brought in and arranged. The music’s pumping and there are a couple of people already hanging out and dancing on the tables. It’s time for the housewarming. Welcome to Crunchy ‘Nanas’ new home. (This is the first post not originally posted at http://crunchynanas.wordpress.com.) It’s not designed exactly as I’d hoped, it may be at “fixer up-er” status for a while, but it’s got a roof and a functioning toilet so it’s a good enough start.

There shouldn’t be any major changes to come. I won’t trick you and put the bathroom where the kitchen once was. I’d like to you to come back. But, I am hoping to clear away some of the half-empty boxes and move the sidebar contents into a fully functional rollover navigation menu that will work in other browsers besides Firefox. (I was feeling very accomplished when I completed styling my navigation bar. Until, I tested it out in Internet Explorer and it went to absolute pot. As I know I can’t encourage the world to switch on over to Firefox, I need to flex to your needs and re-style a bit.)

I am not sure when these changes will come. I’ve been a bit (over) consumed with this blog design challenge, and I think I need to step back a bit and not worry so much about getting everything done RIGHT NOW. Plus, the WordPress support forums scare me. Some members on there are a bit rude and patronizing. Which really doesn’t make sense because people usually need the most support when they’re just beginning. But, I’ve read a couple strings that actually say, “if you don’t know that, you shouldn’t be using WordPress”. Not very encouraging, helpful, nor the sentiments of the WordPress organization, probably. Personally, I think these people need either to step off their high horses and become a bit more compassionate (there was a time when they didn’t know the answer to that question either), or keep quiet. But, since I cannot dictate where or when Mr or Miss Does Not Play Well With Others will strike, I’m investigating alternative sources to learn how to get my blog site to look and do what I want.

That could take a while. But, please come in and have a look around. Have a cookie. And PLEASE tell me (either in comments to this post or in an email) if it does funky things in the browser you’re using (I’m aware that in IE you can’t see the bullets next to the sidebar listings), or if there are things you just don’t like. I can’t promise a speedy change, but I will take suggestions into consideration. After I have a cookie.

Baked by Chef Moose

I promised a wordy post. This is not it, or at least not the one I had in mind. That post’s half-formed, unedited body is waiting hopefully, yet patiently in my drafts folder for me to bring it into existence. It is very forgiving. It knows my thoughts have been directed elsewhere. It also knows I am a perfectionist. It knows I want my new site to be high standard before it goes “really” live. It feels the obsession through the keyboard. It smells the sweat off my un-bathed body. It is aware that I swapped a timely lunch yesterday for the small success of getting the rollover navbar into my site. It also knows that that accomplishment is just the beginning of an on-going obsession in perfecting the look of said navbar, nevertheless the entire site.

It understands that I have little patience for perfectionism, but doesn’t get worried when I start yelling, “why didn’t that change DO anything? ^%$^&&^%$!!! Don’t you love me? I HATE you!” It stays calm during my times of frustration because it knows I won’t smash the computer because to do that would mean I wouldn’t be able to put forth a site that I can take pride in. A site that won’t make you run screaming, holding your head in pain, won’t make you vomit, nor think, a tad bit smugly to yourself, “gee, if that were my site, I’d sure be embarrassed, maybe someone should tell her it sucks.”

Crunchy husband, after I showed him how I got my header image to be clickable, mentioned that I was tri-lingual. I understand he was being supportive, implying that I was learning more and gaining slow, but steady fluency in the language of code. But even given that, I’m trying to figure out what the third language is supposed to be.

I know some folks don’t take well to change. That’s why I’d like to give you this reassuring head’s up. Yes, it’s coming. But no, there is no need to worry. I hope it will be more “me” than what you see now.

Underneath the cool-as-a-cucumber exterior, this blog’s been in crisis. It’s actually been in a creative crisis for some time. Like, oh five minutes after it began.

The web is an intriguing place. Among other things, it allows you to express yourself (or your brand) with words as well as images and design. Though the words in my posts are my own (for better or worse!), the design, well if you’ll take a look at the footer, you’ll see the design is all Beccary. Props to Beccary. It is an aesthetic theme. But because it’s hers, it means it’s not mine. And I have an issue with that. I have had an issue with that from day one, but bite my tongue (nearly) each time I feel a complaint gurgling in the back of my throat because hosting on wordpress.com is free, and as free goes, it’s pretty darn good.

Yesterday, after mulling things around for a while, a switch flipped. I realized that if I give up half to three quarters (depending on the brand) the amount of ice cream I buy per month, I could divert those funds to web hosting. And give myself room to grow, to experiment with design and what is possible, if you know how to do it. To stumble and fall, and pick myself up and try again. (There may be a lot of stumbling and falling for a while. My only experience with this stuff is a website I did with Dreamweaver a couple years ago.)

I am not sure when the roll out will occur. It could be tomorrow, next week, or next month. Or never, depending on if I can figure out how to translate what I have drawn on paper into the computer. (Okay, that’s a little drastic. Something will go up soon. It just may not be the best to come.) I’ll pony up the address closer to the time. When I installed wordpress, the domain went live. And I have bigger things to worry about than how to take it down while I play. It doesn’t take a PhD. to guess the address, though. So no snooping!

Ben and Jerry’s Fossil Fuel, oh how I’ll miss you. But, you’re way too expensive here anyway.