Quickly, a few admin notes:

1) Nate is blogging again, this time at Under the Thinly Veiled Guise of Sanity. It’s blogging for the depressed, by the depressed. And it’s pretty damn funny. Check it out.

2) I imported all of my old archives, so now the the engine’s tentacles reach back to October 2002. I’m in the progress of updating some of the categorization, but you can still check any and all of them out.

3) I joined Twitter. Been meaning to for a while now, but just have never gotten around to it until today. There’s not much there, but stay tuned because I suspect it’s all that will get me through the workday for the near future.

You may have noticed there is a new skin up. Things may consequently be glitchy for a little bit. If you discover any errors or have any suggestions, please point them out to me in the comments. I’m sure most of you will have no problem with this directive.

JAB

It’s done.

At long fucking last it’s done.

It’s safe to say that I’ve put more work into building this son of a bitch than I have since when I first sat down six years ago and thought, Huh. How about I make a blog? Perhaps that will finally satisfy these narcissistic tendencies I’ve been experienceing. Then I probably turned on the TV and thought, I dunno, what the fuck is “American Idol,” ’cause this was way back in 2002.

But I digress.

This “theme” (Gods, how I still hate that word) looks somewhat different than it did a few days ago. Someone in the peanut gallery remarked that the chosen color scheme made it look like “the pentecostal Christian affiliate of NAMBLA,” or something to that effect. Though a jackass remark, it did serve to make me realize something I was feeling but hadn’t yet externalized: I didn’t like the color scheme either. So a few hours of work later, and the site is no longer just some tarted up Catholic schoolgirl to whom I told sweet lies so that it would sleep with me; now I feel genuine affection towards it.

Thusly, here is the new color scheme; indeed, the new incarnation of JOSH BALES dot NET.

Hopefully it won’t suck.

JAB

Perseverance, aided by half a bottle of vodka, and here I am, having finally figured out WordPress themes. The main page looks pretty much the way it should, with a few small tweaks needed here and there. The other pages . . . not so much. They’re completely functional as far as I know, but the code needs some tinkering. Nothing major, but at two in the morning I just couldn’t move myself to give a shit about it.

Semi-regular posting and actual content will commence in the near future.

So . . . how’s everyone been?

JAB

Oh. Hello there. I didn’t see you come in.

Blogging will recommence in the short future, once I figure out how to make a WordPress “theme,” which I despise having to do. Movable Type, despite its many sundry flaws that made me stop using it, I at least understood how the templates work. Very slowly I’m beginning to understand how WordPress’s works, but it may take some time. I do have a new layout, and it is pretty nifty. Or gay. Possibly both. I’ll leave you to decide when it finally is up and running.

In the meantime, you stay classy, San Diego.

JAB

Celebrated the third birthday of JOSH BALES dot NET yesterday with Nate and his dad at the Seoul House, this Korean dive near Fairborn. Nate’s dad brought little party hats for us to wear, while we drank sake and sang karaoke, which mostly consisted of Korean pop hits. It was pretty sweet.

Okay, I’m fibbing slightly.

We didn’t actually drink sake, or sing karaoke versions of Korean pop songs . . . or do karaoke at all, really. And we weren’t there to celebrate JBdN’s birthday, though that did fall on yesterday. Honestly, I’m not sure if there was even an occasion behind us going to the Seoul House, other than to be badasses and pick up chicks. Maybe it was for Nate’s birthday. I dunno. I’m sure if he does know, Mister Valentine will undoubtedly chime in with his usual mixture of wit and cockery.

So . . . I guess I was really just lying during the entire first paragraph, except for the parts about going to the Seoul House and it being pretty sweet. Though the food was indeed delicious: a spicy beef melange called boolgogi served with the most flavorful white rice. And the restaurant/bar really was a dive. It was nice, and I liked it quite a bit, but it was a little rundown. Places like that appeal to me, though — especially when said places are bars. They’re more . . . interesting. Why I enjoyed New Orleans so much, I suppose.

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this shit — this particular shit I’m referring to being blogging, of course — for over four years now. Every few months I always tell myself, “Self, I think I’m going to quite blogging real soon. Perhaps I’ll take up golf, or join the Model T Ford Club International (MTFCI) and race very, very slowly on the weekends.” But I never do (quit blogging, that is — I will race Model Ts one day, by God), and probably never will. I’m so used to to doing it that not doing it would just be . . . bizarre. Plus, I’m really lazy.

And that’s the kind of attitude that kept me at Wal-Mart for five years. At least I’m consistent.

JAB

New layout time, 98% bug-free. Whadja think?

JAB

Okay, so the upgrade to Movable Type 3.31 went swimmingly, despite Six Apart’s somewhat lacking documentation. Their instructions on how to go about upgrading were some of the worst I’ve seen. I sort of guessed my way through the various steps, Things Happened, and then all of a sudden my screen said “UPGRADE TO MOVABLE TYPE 3.31 SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!1 LOL!” Well . . . that wasn’t the exact phrasing used, but it’s what I half-expected from Six Apart.

3.31 looks kind of weird. It’s a lot more colorful, certain elements were renamed, and there are new features that seem scary and wonderful at the same time. I’m hoping that the much-hyped spam fighting tools are as good as people say. I intend to experiment with those in the near future. If the commenting policy changes (from the current moderated approach), I’ll let y’all know.

JAB

Just me in the house for the moment. Roland and Linda came over a bit ago to celebrate his and my mom’s birthdays (his was the 11th, hers today). Before we go get something to eat and do the assorted birthday stuff, everyone but me is going to the Englewood Fine Arts Festival. That’s really a much classier name than the festival deserves. “Possums ‘N Crafts Festival” would be more apropos, or possibly “Y’all Like That Art Crap? Festival.” It’s a decent-sized collection of vendors selling their crafty wares, assorted trucks selling festival food, live music, and other random shit. I guess I’m making it out to be lamer than it really is, since it’s apparently popular with a number of people. The Northmont band plays the festival every year, of which I was a member all four years I was in high school, and I guess I really got burnt out attending. Plus crafts and stuff aren’t really, y’know, my thing anyway.

So, like Macaulay Culkin I’m home alone now, putting the finishing touches on JBdN’s new design. It’s actually a similar design I was going to use for the much lamented Novelogue. Since that side project is going to be incorporated into the main site, i.e. JBdN, and I really like this new layout, applying the new design to the whole shebang seems like the natural thing to do. The redesign has been simmering for about two months now, with me doing the bulk of the work before I left on vacation. I’ve also been wanting to take another wack at Thirty Well Spent v0.6 recently. But dividing my time between two big projects means I just sit around wringing my hands on which to work on, and that just results in nothing getting accomplished. So last week I resolved to finish JBdN v6.0, then focus all my attention on TWS.

Before I sign off, I want to direct any of you people who are fascinated by grammar and its many intricacies to an interesting news story about a 2.13 million dollar comma. Being a bit of a grammar-nazi myself, I find this to be immensely indicative of just how important copy-editing can be. (Via Neil Gaiman.)

JAB

That’s how much comment spam I just deleted from JBdN. And that’s just since yesterday around seven, when I deleted another one or two hundred. Barely 24 hours. Gods above, I’m just glad I’m holding all the comments for approval.

So that’s it. I’ll be instituting TypeKey in the next week or so. I have some time off this weekend, so maybe I’ll do it then.

Goddamnit, this fucking pisses me off.

JAB