When I originally launched this site the upkeep was insane. Everything was hand written, but I loved the look and feel I had developed for the page layout. Problem was, my tastes change a lot when it comes to design, and I found myself spending more time on maintenance than actually posting content. Lately, I’ve been slacking on content because the presentation isn’t where I want it to be. So it’s time to fix that, it’s time to get back to my roots, while still being able to allow WordPress to do it’s job and handle all the backend code that I’d honestly rather not deal with on this project.

So hopefully you’ll be seeing a change again by Thursday, and if nothing else, I’ll post some screenshots of the work in progress. (Even though my visit count has gone down recently due to lack of updates, I still can’t launch an at least mostly complete theme)

Until then.

Now, what else is important about this? Well, I need to do some testing to make sure I didn’t completely break any pages I’ve already had created. That’s going to take some serious work if I have… but hey, I’m pretty sure I didn’t, so here’s to hopeing right?

Well, back to work hacking on this. More later.

What does this mean? Well, more likely than not, it’s not going to mean a lot for the people reading other than you’ll have a glimpse into my life more often. But for me, it means a great deal in redefining myself thru this next year.

So that’s it for this post. However, you can be certain that within the next 24 hours, this website is going to get a major overhaul, and that should intrigue you enough to come back soon.

• Updates
  • WordPress: 1.5.1 -> 1.5.2
  • Gallery 2: Beta -> 2.0.1
  • Bad Behavior: 1.2.1 -> 1.2.2
• Additions
  • Weighted Words: Basically this is for my own personal curiosity. It shows me what words I use more than others, and allows me to quickly search for words based on how often I’ve used them. You can take a look at my “Word Cloud” over at /word-cloud/
  • WP-ContactForm: Now working over at /contact-me/, you may use this page to contact me via a simple email based form.

And finally, one major change to the website. I’ve decided to un-embed the gallery from the website, mainly because it was becoming a complete pain in the rear when it came time to update either portion of it. So now, the gallery is a stand-alone module, which I think not only looks more professional, but just makes my life that much easier.

Well, that should about do it for the updates today on the website. I THINK I covered everything, though who knows, I tinkered around with it quite a bit. If you’ve got any suggestions/comments on it, please, feel free to speak up! I always like hearing what others have to say regarding it.

Other than that, yea, this is the first in a series of “Seasonal themes” that have been designed for Peoii.com by yours truly, so as to give some fitting looks to the site throughout the year. So far I’ve designed 4, with more on the way, and I’ve even modified some of the template code to make my job even easier. For those of you out there who run WordPress and would like to make a similar setup on your website, some tips:

• Custom Plugin: My website employs a couple special functions and additions to the template which need to be changed when I add/remove content. I made functions to output these in the proper location, so I only have to edit one file, and all of my themes will be changed
• K.I.S.S.: Keep it Stupid Simple is a VERY good idea. Hell, 90% of my modifications are simply modifying the CSS for the website. Saves me a TON of issues with static pages/etc. Have fun with it, but don’t make your head hurt.
• Use the “Preview Theme” plugin: I don’t have a direct link for it, but it shouldn’t be TO hard to find. Basically the plugin allows you to preview ANY theme installed on your website, however, you must be logged in (as the admin level account) for this to work. So you can check them out without having to make your site go live! Very handy indeed.

Anyway, hope everyone likes it

More later.

The next step in this series is to check out plugins that would allow me to fight back against this spam… And so, the first plugin I tested is known as Bot Check, which forces spam authors (at least in theory) to go thru an additional step of verifying a graphic string before allowing them to post random crap on my blog. Great idea, but upon attempt to install, I discovered my host is lacking one of the libraries I need to run it. Sure, I could email them and ask em to enable it… But I’m feeling rather lazy, and should I decide to move hosts, I don’t want to have to carry a huge list of addons I need for them to activate on my account before I can get up and running. So, on to the next option.

Next in line? A rather interesting non-wordpress specific package known as Bad Behavior. What’s it do? Well, I’ll let them explain it…

Bad Behavior is a set of PHP scripts which prevents spam bots from accessing your site by analyzing their actual HTTP requests and comparing them to profiles from known spam bots. It goes far beyond User-Agent and Referrer, however. Bad Behavior is available for several PHP-based software packages, and also can be integrated in seconds into any PHP script.

Sounds pretty cool huh? I thought so. Not only was the installation a BREEZE, but it allows me to log all the bad requests, find out what their doing and how, and even goes as far as to allow me to white list people in the event that they were blocked when they should not have been. All without me really having to modify anything at all in this package. Me like!

What do you know, tried out two packages, and the second one did everything I wanted and more. Not only that, but I get the peace of mind that now spammers will have to fight thru yet another iron curtain to get into my blogs comments. This is very very appealing to me, and I can’t wait to find out how much of an impact this is going to have on my current spam levels. My prediction? I think it’ll help significantly. But only time will tell, and here’s to hoping.

As I mentioned in my last post now over a month old, I have some big ideas for this site. There was a dream once that was my website, and I’ve got the drive to get it to that point now. I know what I want to do, and I’m working on that goal. Not only that, but I’ve realized that I’ve been hiding from some things now for far to long, and I’m going to change that.

This site has always been about reform in myself, my site, my life, and the way I think of things. It’s going to remain in that light, with some help from tools I plan on launching here shortly, that will empower me to make this an outlet with which I can share my experiences with the world.

Here is what I have on the table so far:

• More Articles – Whether they be a tutorial, a piece on something that bothers me or I feel I need to speak out in more than just a post, or whatever, they’re a very important thing I haven’t done in a while.
• Mini-Posts – For when I don’t have time to post an entire article, something that’s a tid-bit about something interesting I’ve found somewhere or something along those lines. These posts will be designed around directing people towards stories elsewhere that I feel you should check out.
• More Pictures – My digital camera needs to get a good workout. So I’m going to go around, take pictures, and share my world with everyone.
• Regular Posting Schedule – Working on setting up a schedule with which I’m going to start posting here. I’ve recently applied at 2 new jobs, and once I figure out my work schedule, I’ll be able to narrow down time where I can set aside for posting here and getting things off my chest.
• Theme Cleanup – I really like the look of the site as a whole, but there are certain elements that I’d like to expand on and improve.

And that’s just what I’m sharing right now. I’ve got some other ideas on the plate, but right now I’m not going to share those. Why? Because surprises are good for everyone, and I find if I don’t have an expectation of them getting done, I focus more on what I want it to become, than simply getting it done.

Anyway, Yes, I am alive, I am kicking, and I am reforming my life. I just got a backlog of email on one of my email addresses, so I’ll be responding to some people here in the next couple days. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, but I was otherwise unable to check that email address. Which, btw, is another thing I’m working on fixing.

Well, more later.

I had just gotten to the point where I wanted to simply maximize my down time, and just try to get in the rest I needed whenever I could, so I started abandoning things sadly… Things in my life started going down hill, and I then one day I reached what you might consider a point of enlightenment. I realized that in an attempt to undo the damage done by my employment, I was giving up on the things I loved to do most in my spare time. Write on this website, work on various programming projects, catch up on my friends websites, and in general, socialize out here on the great world wide internet. So in an attempt to wipe the slate clean, and start-a-fresh, I posted up a faux index.html here on peoii.com, and started work on what would become my new presence on the internet.

What does the future hold in store for this website? Time will only tell, but as it stands right now, I’ve got a couple ideas that I’m working on seeing to light, and I’m atleast going to try to post here every once in a while to make sure people know I’m still alive and kicking.

The last incarnation of Peoii.com was focused on adding stuff that other people wanted to see on the site, and while I still enjoy doing things that other people want to see, I’m going to focus this incarnation on what I want to put out on the net. I want it to grow into something I can be proud of, while still maintaining my level of readership from those out there who might be interested. Yes, I’m going to work on more tutorials/etc, but I’m not going to bind myself on any schedule or anything. That additional stress at this time would most likely do more harm than good. So we’re going to play this by ear, and take it one step at a time.

That said, is there anything anyone would like to see re-added from the old site, or anything new they’d like to see added? I’m definately game to hear what you’d like to see, and I’ll make notes of anything that strikes my fancy as something I’d like to add anyway. I’m looking for some inspiration, anyone got some spare?

I hope you all enjoy the new site, it’s going to be an interesting ride rebuilding it, but I think the new direction I have in mind will be very good not only for myself, but for anyone who might stop by and do some light reading. So please, take a minute, sit back, and enjoy the show. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride, but it’ll be worth it.

1) After having my previous forums hacked (more on that later), I became amazingly concerned with security, and after some research and some good ol’ memories, I decided on WordPress as the medium by which I’d lauch my new, more secure website.

2) While I absolutely LOVE coding in PHP, I found that writing my own CMS was more a labor of reinventing the wheel, than actually enjoying what I was doing. By allowing this to happen, I can focus on other projects that I’ve had going for a while, and hopefully get them up and running for all to see and enjoy.

3) I found myself needing more time. I need to, if the mood suits me, have a quick medium where I can post something, and then enjoy the time I have with my family and pets. It’s important to me to set aside that needed time, and if I was stuck sitting here looking at a computer screen coding away at something while not participating in something they’re doing, I’d be missing out on a great many things.

So there you have it, the basic reasons I switched over to WordPress as my new power source for Peoii.com. I hope you enjoy the new site as much as I do, and make sure you check back soon, because I’m still working on getting everything just so to make sure this site really starts to feel like home.