About the Blog
WARNING: Geeky page. A page on a blog. About the blog. Pretty much nothing of human value here.
History
I started blogging on June 9, 2004. At that time, I was using LiveJournal. About 2 posts later, I switched to Blogger. Blogger was really good for me at the time: I didn’t have to code almost anything to customize the blog. I did a little really simple HTML editing in the templates, which were really pretty ones made by Stopdesign. I could also use my own hosting, and they didn’t want any nasty ads or anything. But alas, Blogger had its annoying setbacks. It ran off of its own servers, which tended to be very slow. It also published the site to static HTML, which made for very slow site updates whenever I posted. And then there was the commenting system from hell: first, you had to sign up and get a Blogger blog if you wanted to comment at all, and then they changed it so that comments were displayed on their own site- meaning that you couldn’t modify their template or anything. Very ew.
Then on April 8, 2005, I switched my blogging engine to Movable Type, with much help from Alan (link below). It was definitely a move up- I could run the whole thing off of my own server, and MT gave me lots of new options to work with. It seemed kinda overkill, though. And then there was an acquisition by another company, and I’ve kind of worried over the free future of the software. That, and I couldn’t figure out how to modify the templates, and the one it used got really boring. On May 7, 2005, I switched the engine to WordPress. It does a lot of the same stuff as MT, but it’s PHP-based, and a bit more customizable. Oh, and it’s all open-source- a plus. I really like it here, and I plan to keep WP for a while, mainly for the sake of not throwing readers for a loop by changing engines monthly.
Blogging and me
I blog about daily. I probably shouldn’t, but I do. I have friends who pretty much only blog when something really thoughtful comes to mind… but I mix the really great stuff with some really boring, “Here’s what I did today” filler. I do that because journaling every day is just about one of the best things that you can do to become a better writer, and I want to set something down, even when nothing totally worthwhile comes to mind.
I get really anal about comments. I would like it if you left a comment every once in a while if you read my blog frequently. Just do it- it lets me know that you enjoy what I have to say. Or that you don’t.
Acknowledgements/Mad Props
This blog wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for Alan. His blog was the one that got me interested in blogging. He’s also helped me a ton with questions (”Alan, where do I store files in a subdomain? Oh, it’s just a folder in the domain? Ohhhh….”) , installed Movable Type for me, gotten his friends to set up a LiveJournal feed, and left comments when nobody else would.
I power…
This blog runs WordPress. It uses various templates at various times, which are usually cited at the bottom of every page. So far I’ve been too lame to make my own graphic design for the blog- I need to learn more PHP to work with WordPress, and I just suck in general at graphic design.
The ZekeWeeks.com domain is hosted by TotalChoice Hosting. They rule.
Aside from the blog itself, this is what stuff I use:
- Mozilla Firefox 3
- Apple iPhone
- Shure e2c headphones/in-ear monitors
- Canon PowerShot S3 IS
- Windows Vista Ultimate (Technically it’s an improvement upon XP, but it has been a PR nightmare ever since. Don’t believe the “Vista Sucks” hype.)
- FL Studio Producer Edition
- A Dell E1405 Notebook PC (Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz, 2.5GB RAM, 120GB HD)
I myself am powered by Vivarin and pretzels.
