The Status of v3.0

Google has announced that the new Blogger is no longer in beta (and for you blogging junkies, you have known this for quite some time). It seems that the transition of my sites have been rather transparent. I suppose this is a good thing; I hope that the new version will allow me to get a little closer to the vision I had for this website.

mcfro.blogspot.com has been going through a very lengthy period of renovation, and I expect it will continue to be this way for most of 2007. But here and there, there will be little, almost unnoticeable changes, and only through the passage of time will the site complete its' metamorphosis. So what, you say, is taking me so long?

Well first of all, it's not just one site I manage. I manage two weblogs, the other being the work-in-indefinite-progress ZanZee tour journal, plus I am a major contributor to the Savoy Blues Band website. I tend to choose to write in the journal which best suits the subject I choose to write about. For example, if MA and I ever decide that Tung N' Groove ever needs a website (which it likely will), then I will have to maintain yet another website.

The second thing that is most crippling, is that my schedule is extremely busy, and I often don't have the level of alertness necessary to write in a blog, or edit code. With two bands on the go, a dozen students, an album to produce, and a full-time day job, I have little time for anything else, even my private family life has been suffering. And as of late, I have been trying to spend less time on the computer, and more time with family. Sadly, the blogs are being put a little further behind in priority, which is tied with sleep at the moment.

Here is a preliminary roadmap of a few things I expect to be implementing into this website in the coming days/weeks. This list has been written mainly for my reference:

1. Integration with Google Calendar. Much like the Savoys Website, implement a calendar on this webpage that reflects my upcoming performances. These can pertain to any act; Savoys, Tung N Groove, or any other gig I am asked to sit in on. This is to replace the archaic iCalX.com method of advertising my upcoming performances. No one has yet complained, but even I know that viewing the data on the iCalX website is cumbersome and annoying. The time has come to simplify the information and make it more accessible using Web 2.0 technology,
   
2. Metatags. The new Blogger has allowed the use of tags within new posts. Since my site has been converted in its entirety to the new format, tags should be inserted in all older posts, in order to make searching the site a little easier. This may take an awful long time, as it will be a tedious, and painfully repetitive process to edit some 300+ posts. Thank the maker I do not have a blog with thousands of posts. I could kill two birds with one stone, and edit the entries that have spelling or grammatical errors at the same time.
   
3. Badges of [dis]honor should be streamlined. Only use the ones that are necessary. That means to keep SiteMeter, The Creative Commons license, and the BlogsCanada tag. When the above changes have been completed, the site version will be upgraded to v3.1
4. Consider re-modification of the layout, which includes the sidebar, and the "little things" that add personality to the site, i.e. posting footers changed from "posted by MC" to something ridiculous or amusing, like was once used: "MC was committed at".
5. Consider retiring Animal as my profile photograph. Consider using another photo, real or fictitious.
6. Continue the search for a new Blogger Beta Template. This may require taking elements of 2 or 3 different templates to arrive at one that I am most pleased with. Perhaps I should consider making a temporary blog to judge the progress and accuracy of the coding process. Once the new template has been successfully hacked and customized, it may be implemented into the original mcfro.blogspot.com site, where the version number can be increased to v4.0.