Just upgraded my WordPress installation (i.e., my webpage’s content management system) to 2.6! Everything seems to be going smoothly, and I hope there’s no bugs hiding in the corners of the code! The user interface from the administrator’s point of view seems to be a bit sharper!
Also, check out my flickr.com website because I’ve added more photos to it! I added some pictures from the Foo Fighter’s concert, the 80′s party I attended yesterday, and more photos from Maryland!
Lately, it seems I’m being pulled in many different directions: is it an inability to say, “No,” am I just managing my time poorly, or am I just succumbing to false expectations of myself? I definitely know the first one contributes a lot. I feel I’m agreeing to do anything and everything when asked for favors/jobs/social time. I also know I could manage my time better: this is especially true in the sleep department. I need to get more of it so that I can stay focused during the day and have that additional energy to start/finish projects. But, everyone tells me I expect too much out of myself. I don’t know if that’s good or not. I hope they don’t have low expectations of me (I really don’t think that…) or they’re just telling me to relax and enjoy the present. Taking these last couple weeks, I’ve seen an improvement in my productive time without sacrificing the me time. But, I’m not quite where I want to be…I’ll know it when I get there in the next couple weeks…
Anyway, I’ve updated my WordPress to 2.51, and I hope this means this website will run smoother and securely. Oh, I’m also going to add a new commenting system using intensedebate.com‘s commenting ecosystem (a funny word to use in the digital world, but if I do succeed in creating a community here, then ecosystem isn’t too far off the mark!). So if you see something here that needs to be commented on, go right ahead and do it!
It was quite the marathon, but I posted every kooz.net post ever!* There were 153 posts in all, and as the title says, it spanned eight years. I’ve tried to retain the original spacing/paragraphing (is that a word?), and I think I largely succeeded. I didn’t correct any spelling errors or re-format a page. The only thing I did do was put notes in brackets [like this] with a today’s or yesterday’s date if a picture link needed to be added later. I also added titles to my posts: I think 2007 and 2008 already had titles, but from 1999 to 2006, none of my posts had titles. I tried to capture the spirit of the post without being prescient (too much). Also, for the first 7 to 8 months of kooz.net, I updated everything purely by straight html, and the date was part of the post: I kept it in for nostalgia and to keep, as I intoned earlier, “it real.”
Also, if you have at least one working eye, I have added a picture of my roommate’s dog, Snickers, at the top of the webpage. She is an awesome Chocolate Lab, and I thought it would be cool to have her looking down on my webpage. In fact, I think you might eventually see me up there with my legs hanging over the “ledge.”
I’ve also added a Twitter updater on the far left right (oops!). Twitter, for the uninitiated, is a social networking website that allows your friends to keep tabs on you. If you don’t have too many Twitter friends, you can get these updates via a text message/SMS on your phone (or you can choose who you get updates from). SMS is limited to 140 characters and so are Twitter posts or “Tweets.” Due to this, you need to keep your updates short and pithy. I recommend it to everyone, because it’s just a simple way to keep up with people and to also coordinate a group of friends/people.
*Footnote: I don’t have posts from July 2007 to Jan 2008 due to the lack of a backup database. 
Once again, I have re-invented kooz.net! I love this new style of blog! I hope you all like it! My last Content Management System was called Joomla. It wasn’t all that bad! It did what I wanted it to do, which was to blog, add some links, and have up to the moment updates, but it wasn’t always that easy or seemless. If you can wrestle with a metaphorical bull whose horn is stuck up your pants and you’re about to show everyone your junk, then Joomla is not so bad. Oh believe me, I like airing my stuff out just like the next person, but the bull and that horn complicates matters. I just don’t have the time anymore to deal with it.
And so, I’ve chosen WordPress as my new blog CMS. I couldn’t be happier. It’s easy to use and post content. Unfortunately, as these CMS’s get more robust, it’s harder and rather time consuming to create your own look and feel. So, what you’re seeing here is a reflection of an aesthetic choice than a creative process: I just don’t have the time to create my own “kooz” themed website. I chose this one called, “”SoSuechtig 2.9,” and I really connected with it because it’s minimal, classy, and easy on the eyes It was also designed by some dude from Germany. A hearty, “Gutentag!” to whoever designed this! If you’ve noticed, some of the descriptive elements are written in that lovely Deutsche language: I’m debating whether to keep it or not! I think it adds to its kitchy appeal…we’ll see. I also like it because us English speakers in the Midwest probably don’t go trolling German websites. Ergo, my website, for all you know, is unique! Language barriers FTW!! 
What you will see are more posts, and I’ll be importing old posts in an archive. Unfortunatley, I lost about 10 months of posts due to a mix up with my web host: even though they did botch it up, it is squarely my fault because I didn’t maintain backups. Any web person worth their salt should frequently back up their database. I had only one database/website backup, and that was from June of 2007. The good news is that I probably only lost about 4 or 5 posts at most! W00t for being lazy!
Update: 11:21pm I’ve disabled registering/being able to leave a comment, even though you think you might be able to (In this case, if you can read German, you might be even more suceptible to this.).
