Of late, when it comes to writing, I’ve been leaning toward the arcane. I’ve decided to set aside the computer in favor of the rollerball and spiral notebook—at least for rough drafts.

But now I’m eying a new toy that may help to synthesize my techie and Luddite natures.

For Christmas I got my better half a LiveScribe Pulse pen. It’s a digital pen that when used with special paper records whatever a user writes. It also used a microphone and built in MP3 recorder to record audio in sync with what is written. I got it to help her with school, which is really what the pen is designed for. When used to take notes for class, one only needs to touch a section of the text to hear what was said as the words were written.

The features that I’m most interested in are it’s ability to translate what is written into computerized text, or even to search through handwritten text for words or phrases.

I’m always wary of such devices, as early generations of these fusions of technologies often have all the grace of a hippo in a tutu. But the reviews of this pen have been largely positive, and my sweetie’s experience, so far, has fallen in line with expectations.

So a few months ago, when she decided that she wanted to make her way back online, she decided she wanted to move blog back to her old URL, and give it a design overhaul. So as I redesigned my own blog, I hired an artist to come up with a whole new set of graphics befitting her new theme.

And now I’d like to announce that she is back…

Head on over to Volcanic Sacrifices and see what she has to say.

WordPress 2.7 was released a couple of days ago and I have upgraded. The new interface behind the scenes is nice, but I’ve been using it on wordpress.com (for a blog I contribute to) for a couple of weeks now.

And the functionality I was looking forward to—the new way WP handles comments—is a little more complicated to implement than just installing the latest version.

Supposedly the new version included comment threading—so that I, or other visitors can respond to previous comments—and comment pagination—so posts with large numbers of comments don’t go on and on for ever.

Strictly speaking, this blog doesn’t need either of these new features—after all, in the last month I’ve gotten about 25 comments. But as someone who designs websites and blog templates here and there for a few extra bucks, I feel it’s a good idea to understand how to use the new functionality.

Well at least so far WP2.7 comments are confusing. I carefully followed the instructions provided on WordPress.org for installing the new features, and all I got was an oddly formatted version of what I already had.

I guess the best way for me to figure it out is to find a functional WP2.7 theme and dissect it.

I probably shouldn’t quit my day job.

I recently took on a client who does business with the government and military of several NATO counties. And evidently in the government sector IE6 is still the standard browser.

And let me tell you, it is pull-out-my-remaining-hair frustrating to design webpages and blog templates that work correctly in new browsers like FireFox and Opera (and OK I guess I should throw IE7 in there among the fringes) that also work in a Neanderthal like IE6.

There’s not just a slight difference between IE6 and IE7, there’s worlds of difference. In between those browsers Microsoft fought and lost a legal battle for unquestioned dominance of the browser market. And as such, Microsoft had to actually develop a browser that met people’s needs.

So earlier today I took a look at some of my blog stats to see which browsers my readers were using to read this blog. I was shocked to learn that IE6 is the second most popular browser to access this site. Now I’m sure much of this has to do with the fact that the computers at work use IE6 so I’m sure that has a little to do with it, but IE6 users drastically outnumber IE7 users on this blog.

For anyone interested, the most common browser was “Generic Gecko”. Gecko is the rendering engine used by FireFox and many other smaller browsers, so I don’t know specifically what “Generic Gecko” breaks down to.

So I guess I can’t call IE6 extinct yet. And I guess I’d better make sure that all the website I design work well enough in IE6 to look professional.

Sigh…

But I was never all that sure what I wanted to to with the blockquotes. In past designs I’d found something at least moderately creative to do with blockquotes—either tying it to the design, or playing around with things like giant quotation marks. But looking at what I had—a blue box with large quotes on both sides of the text—just seemed so boring.

So a couple of days ago I went looking for ideas. And when leafing through my copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Guitar I found my inspiration.

So I now present to you my six new blockquote designs, each with it’s own purpose.

The Quotation…

If you need an explanation here, then you probably need more assistance in your day-to-day life than a blog can really offer. Look in the phone book under “Assisted Living”.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

— Albert Einstein

The Information…

I’ll use this one to let my readers know stuff. It might be a link, or an aside. Or it might be one of the innane bits of useless information, that I’m quite famous for in my own home. But more often than not it will be simple information about me or my blog—such as…

I’ll be out touch with reality tomorrow, so don’t expect a post.

P.S. That’s just an example. I’m out of touch with reality for large parts of most days, so it shouldn’t affect my ability to post. So don’t throw a tantrum or anything.

The Annoucement…

I’ll use this one to make important annoucements. They may only be important to me, or a select few, but damnit they’re important to someone. And that’s what’s important. Plus with my love of Heraldry, that little guy to the left was hard to pass up. A fine example of an announcement would be…

In just her first semester of college, My Sweetie has been selected to join the Honors Program. Way to go, Babe!

The Advice…

I don’t give a lot of advice. This stems from the fact that I know, and accept, that I’m an idiot. Having a blog just means I’m a self-centered idiot who doesn’t know when to shut-up. But when I do offer advice, I’ll dispense the little rabbit pellets of wisdom in a box like this. Don’t you just love that little guy to the left? So peaceful. Anyway, if you still need an example of what might go in a box like this, here you go…

Sell, at most, one of your kidneys.

The Rant…

I’m not the ranter in the house. If the whole house were ranked I’d come in somewhere after the dogs. But now and again something will irk, or confound me. If I need to vent, or if I think one of the offenders may be reading, I just may let out some steam here. For instance (this isn’t bothering me today, but I needed an example)…

What is with NaNoWriMo? That’s supposed to be an abbreviation? My first and last name together is shorter than that. How about the Global Organization of Obsessive Novelists? Then we could all be GOONs and save ourselves three syllables everytime we say it, five letters everytime we write it, and a whole lot of social awkwardness.

The Lecture…

I’ll use this one to explain things. It might be a list of instructions, or an explanation of a tricky concept. Here’s an example I hope you’ll never need…

Blowtorches should not be used to dry your hair.

So what do you think of my new blockquote system?