Earlier today, I hopped on the Web and found that JBdN was back. Gleefully I wrote a post about it in my email program, as I usually do (it has a good spellcheck program). Here is that earlier post:

As I’m sure you noticed, we were down for the past day or so. But, surprise surprise, everything A-OK now, Dr. Jones. AxisHost had a hardware failure, so everything went poop for a bit. They’re a really good company, so they’ve responded to my emails very quickly and hurried their asses up to get me and, like, a million other people up and running.

I left work early today. I’d gotten everything accomplished that I wanted to do, and we were slow as fuck, so leaving seemed like the fun thing to do. I’m getting ready to go work out, then head to Tim Horton’s and finish editing “Corporate Responsibility” and start something new.

And it’s sunny out, to boot!

JAB

Huzzah, what a happy and cheerful post! I clicked on the link to Movable Type homepage and was immediately presented with a white screen and a message: “Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client.”

Bad things were afoot in JBdN-land.

My mind immediately sprang back to that terrible October of 2003, when an entire month’s posts were lost to a great fuck-up. I emailed Tina at AxisHost, who in all her awesomeness, fixed the problem while I was at Tim Horton’s.

So all is well, nothing was lost, and I’ve got stuff to do.

JAB

Can everyone see the banner at the top of the page? I was at Habitat earlier, and on the computer I was using the banner was not visible. I checked the source code, and it didn’t even show that an image should be there. Very strange…

Now that I’m thinking about it, how does everything else about JBdN look? I’m not sure if I’ve asked before, and I don’t feel like going through my old posts to find out.

A week or so ago, I changed the font style and made it a bit bigger. It seems more readable now to me. Do you like it better?

And while I’m on this tangent, what are your feelings towards me? Do I talk too much? Too little? Am I funny looking? Are my thoughts on sensitive subjects — like intelligent design and mormonism…ism — too mean or idiotic to you?

Let me know, bitches.

JAB

If you haven’t noticed, I’d like to point out that I redesigned JBdN. Again. For like, the eighth time. I like it now, though. ‘Course, this will probably change again in a month or so. I’m just — what’s the word? — fickle.

I’ve been sick for the last few days, and it’s still lingering. It’s awesome because I’ve also been mostly off the last few days, so I don’t even get the pleasure of calling off work. Instead, I just sit here in front of the computer and the TV, getting fat. Hence why I’ve been doing a good bit of writing, and why I redesigned again.

I need to go watch the next-to-the next-to-the-last episode of ‘Enterprise’ now. And maybe eat a donut.

JAB

I was going through some old files from high school tonight, and I ran upon a folder containing a story and a poem for a class I took my senior year: Writing for the 21st Century. It was probably one of my more favorite classes in school. Among other things, such as writing a short story and a poem, one of the projects was to design a web site for a teacher. I chose my old biology teacher, Kevin Jones, for mine. Curious if my web site still existed, I went to Northmont’s home page and found that, yes, Mr. Jones was still using the site I created waaaay back on September 22, 1999.

Now bear in mind, this was the first web site I ever designed, and it definitely shows. We used some sort of weird program, though I don’t remember what it was. What I do remember is how proud I was of the logo I created, even though it looks pretty crappy. And I recall I had a whole lotta trouble with the anchor links, which served to link to various sections on the same page. They wouldn’t work properly, failing to call up the proper section when clicked upon.

It looks so damn terrible to me now, I sort of wish I could redesign the whole damn thing, if only so that my name isn’t attached to such a boring and displeasing-to-the-eye web site. Fortunately, I doubt too many people, other than Mr. Jones’s students, have ever been subjected to its visual…failings.

So without further ado, here is Mr. Kevin Jones’s Official Homepage.

JAB

The redesigned Yummy Reviews is now up and running. The new design is pretty fucking cool, if I do say so myself. I’m almost jealous of Nate’s new layout. It’s way better than mine, so I’m thinking of re-redesigning JBdN too.

While I’m on the subject of Nate and web sites, I should also mention that he keeps a shitty Myspace blog too, which he updates fairly regularly. His posts make for great reading, full of wit and anger, but let’s face it — Myspace blows. It’s like the slutty-girl-at-school of the Internets. Everyone and their mom has experimented with it, a lot of people frequently use it, and even though you feel ashamed and dirty every time you visit it, you still find yourself being drawn back. So I’m trying to convince Nate to write a real blog, as he is quite funny. Much funnier than I. Go read his other crappy blog, then come back here and tell him how much you want him to start a real blog.

JAB

For the most part I have the layout the way I want it. Yeah, there’s some other crap I wanna add — like the late, sort-of-great Gallery, an About Me page, a Links page, and a Short Story/Writing page where I can post the bilge I keep on churning out — but the layout looks pretty fuckin’ sharp. The only thing that needs major fixin’ is the individual entry pages — y’know, the ones where I allow the three of you monkeys who desire to comment to do so.

On the right-hand sidebar, amongst the list of blogs I like — or as some of the more gay sexually ambiguous members of the blogging community like to call it, a “blogroll” — you will notice a new one: Sexy Politics, by my friend, the esteemed Allan D’Angelo. On his blog he generally discusses, aptly enough, “sex, politics, and entertainment.” He has some great ideas, especially if you’re a liberal, including labeling conservatives as Anti-Freedom instead of Pro-Life and Pro-Family, and suggesting that Wal-Mart should sell porn next to the toasters (though I personally think Wal-Mart should sell porn in the huge-ass dump tables that fill the main isles).

JAB

That’s right, ladies and gents, the honorable Mr. Nathan Valentine’s wacky review website — Yummy Reviews — is back from the dead!

Okay, that’s sort of stretching the truth. Yummy Reviews has never been dead, per se, just sort of perpetually stuck in the endless Purgatory that Nate loves so much. I’m sure he’ll be writing in it a lot more, though. And to make sure he does, either through guilt or endless harping, I want you all to tell him in the comments just how much you love your Yummy Reviews!

Again, that’s Yummy Reviews, which you can visit at one of our convenient locations: http://yummyreviews.joshbales.net or http://www.joshbales.net/yummyreviews/.

JAB

After a brief hiatus, JOSH BALES dot NET is back and ready to rock and roll!

Sort of.

Bare bones best describes what I have up so far. The main blog is up with its new design and is working smashingly. The comments, archives, and everything else are up too, they’re just using the generic template Movable Type comes with. This will all change in the coming days when I bring those in line stylistically with what I have so far. I like the new design; of course I would, though, being the creator and whatnot. What do you think?

I’m kinda tired of staring at my computer screen right now, so I’m gonna go stare at another screen for a while: the TV, or as Nate likes to call it, the “boob-tube.”

JAB