New Digs

by dusty on Jul.13, 2009 , under Uncategorized

***EDIT/NOTE – We’re aware that the new site is kind of jumbled and broken for anyone using Internet Explorer… and that it’s not just in the older version browsers like we thought… These are the kinks we’ll have to work out… Thanks for bearing with it***

Well, if you’re reading this, you’ve made it this far. You didn’t get lost among the twisting, turning labyrinth of the interwebs, and you’re still with me. You’ve also probably noticed, or will in fairly short order, that I have a brand new, thematically-overdramatic website that plays off the minor obsession I have with being a character in my own noir flick.

I know, cool, right? Now remember to update your bookmarks, your links and your RSS feed!

What’s not so obvious as the redesign and the new domain name is that the site isn’t even hosted on Google’s servers any more. All the packets of information crossing the series of tubes and landing on your monitor originate on a server wired into a guy’s basement on the north side of Madison. Not that Google was really bossing me around before, but this blog is now really and truly a 100 percent independent operation. It feels kind of liberating.

That guy with the server in his basement, by the way, is my buddy Matt Rockwell. He’s the nuts, bolts and network cables knowledge behind one of my radio Alma Maters, UW-Madison’s Student Radio WSUM. He’s also the wizard that built this site for me. All I had to do was provide the content and the artwork, and he did the rest.

I’ve collaborated with MattRock on a couple of other projects before, usually radio-related, but it never ceases to amaze me how frighteningly competent he is at everything he does. He’s an enabler of creative people. Whether working with recording equipment, computers or building blueprints, I have yet to encounter a situation where I could not say to him, “I want it to do this,” and have him fix it so it does just that. He’s been subtly kicking me in the rear to work with him on this new website for months, and the moment I finally got it together and pulled the trigger, he was ready to make magic happen.

Thanks dude for all you help, and for dealing with me.

So yes, rolling out this new blog was one of the big announcements I had planned for today. I’m really excited to have my own custom-built sandbox to play around in. The blogging will resume as normal, but this space enables me to go beyond that, showcase other work and pursue bolder projects. The possibilities are basically endless.

And if you or anyone you know would be interested in sponsoring what you see here, I do plan to make ad space available at a very reasonable rate. Tell your friends.

Now I had said I was going to have two announcements to make today, but unfortunately the specifics of the second will have to wait because the details are not completely hammered out yet. However, I’m comfortable saying that sometime in the next month, my byline will be appearing in print again. It’s been almost a year-and-a-half, and while the blog has been a necessary catharsis, it’s true that there’s no way to get ink out of your blood once it’s been introduced. I’ve been asked to freelance a column every other week for a daily newspaper, and I’m excited as hell.

When it happens, that column will become a feature on this website too.

So yeah, there’s been a lot afoot, but it all seems to be working out pretty well. Stay tuned for the latest. I’m back on a blogging schedule this week, and thanks for hanging in there while we work out the kinks in the new website.

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