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.
   

Savoys Gone Digital

MA, our new bass player has decided to jump into the world of cyberspace and set up an "official" webpage for the Savoys. You can access the site here. I expect the site will be dedicated towards band-related news and upcoming performances. We might be able to use it as a portal to keep in better touch with our fans.

A permanent link has also been added to the sidebar.

Lazy Sunday

Amidst my illness the past few days, I have been busy learning the ins and outs of this technology called CSS. I managed to learn a little about how this coding scheme works with respect to text and images. This morning I fixed a glitch with the comments being left-justified, and the rest of the blog being fully justified.

Additionally, you by now must have seen the background image. Yes, that's me. Once again, I had to learn some CSS coding to properly place the image in the center of the screen, and have the text scroll independent of the background image. I also used the Gimp to darken the image and compress it to an acceptable web size. Let me know if you feel the image is too bright, or if it makes the text ugly to read. It looks acceptable on my screen. I will have to check on a few other monitors to make a better judgement.

I have called in sick for my Grease rehearsal today. I really don't want to miss it; I just don't want to get the cast sick so close to showtime. By the way, this is a friendly reminder that tickets go on sale to the public tomorrow, October 25, 2004. See this entry for more details.

v. 2.0

Just my luck. Just when I have spent hours customizing my blog, Blogger relaunches their site with all kinds of site modifications. I must say, I do like the new features, and I like this new skin better than the first one. Like I mentioned in the previous post, the femmy colors were beginning to get to me.

One thing is a major improvement on Blogger's behalf: Many of the features are now self-automated. For me, and the millions of other bloggers out there, there is more time for writing and less time spent coding. Coding is fun though, I just find it rather frustrating when things don't work out the way you wanted them to in the first place.

A new skin on a blog means new features and new possibilities.

Searching For Some Skin

The birth of a new webpage is a wonderful thing. Endless possibilities flood your mind. Creative juices begin to flow, and you begin to visualize how you are going to make your unique creative statement.

Being a newbie blogger, I picked a generic template to get started right away. It is not a statement of my true self; out of the ones supplied on this page, I figured this one would be the most aesthetically pleasing. I know there is so much more I would like to add.

It didn't take me long to discover a nearly limitless selection of blog skins. Some I thought were quite admirable, others less so. None of them however, was what I was exactly looking for. I expect that I will have to do a lot of customizing to have my blog appear the way I really want.

I find it unfortunate that all web browsers do not support many of my favorite typefaces. Essentially that would mean if I wanted to use them, I would have to resort to creating graphics. Not a terribly big deal, I suppose. I am certainly not so happy with the color scheme as I am the layout. I would sure like I lot more interesting things in my sidebar.

A big reason why I feel like my hands are tied is due to the fact that my computer is out of sorts. You see, the story kind of goes like this:

A little over a month ago, I was sitting at my laptop, enjoying a beverage. I was quite thirsty. I was looking at my laptop, and he was looking mighty thirsty too. So I decided to give it a drink. So I poured rye and coke down the laptop's mouth, thinking it would rather enjoy the tasty beverage. Instead, he got sick.
And he's still sick. So I have been without a computer for over a month. I was quoted between 500 and 700 dollars for a new display for the laptop. I promptly began searching for a new computer. Before I could buy one, I consulted one of my computer-geek buddies who said I could find the necessary part (an inverter board) for less than 100 bucks on eBay. I found one in New York City, and I expect it should arrive here in a week's time or so. Then it's time for some open-heart surgery.

I have my archive of images, graphics editing programs, and web design tools all on that machine. I really don't want to begin a huge project, and then scrap it all once my computer is repaired. I don't always like using other people's computers for that very reason. That, and I have about 20 gigs worth of tunes on that machine, and I am only about halfway through ripping my CD collection.

I posted another link today. Undergrads is one of my favorite animated television series. It has been the funniest show I have seen since the Simpsons. The show features four friends and their misadventures while attending College. Being a recent University graduate when I first saw the show, it had immediate appeal. The show also featured a killer soundtrack. Unfortunately, only one season was made, and it seems unlikely that there will ever be a second. At least I have the complete first season on DVD, as well as a T-Shirt autographed by Undergrads creator Pete Williams. No, I do not wear it.

The Phoenix

The birth of this blog comes in the wake of an end to an old project of mine: My personal webpage on Yahoo! Geocities. It contained a tour journal of my experiences in a touring classic rock band, and a biography. It never achieved its' full potential, and I neglected it due to time constraints. Some time ago, I had the brilliant idea of redesigning the whole thing, however I never managed to go through all the trouble, and headaches of learning flash or JavaScript. Hence like the mythical bird, out of the ashes is the birth of a new personal page. My blog.

I believe that I let the old webpage disappear into the black hole called cyberspace due to many reasons. I began to feel that some of my statements in my tour journals could have been damaging to many people's reputations, including myself. I used real names, real places and real situations. Some people might think that changing names and dates and places would tarnish the authentic nature of the journal. But I have my (personal) reasons for letting the information go off-line. Don't worry. I have an archived copy of the webpage on my computer. I may republish the journal again, complete with photographs and minor revisions.

My ideas of a new personal website are still deeply manifested in my psyche. A drummer's resource, chock-full of exercises, lessons, and transcriptions could materialize. A professional resume could materialize. The biography of MC Fro could return, documenting my musical career from it's beginnings to my not-so distant past.

One part of my old webpage that never materialized is the "manuscripts" section. I have been an avid writer, poet and philosopher for many years. I wanted to use the page as a collection of my best work for viewing and perhaps, publication one day. Most of the poetry was written in a dark period of my life, and the writings were the outlet in which I channeled my anger, depression, angst, and loneliness. Some of it is very good. Some of it is rather juvenile and unprintable. I hope that some of these works can be shared with the rest of the world and appreciated for what they are. One of my crowning achievements: A Tale of Two Coffees was never completed. It was a long work not unlike the works of Robert Service. The Cremation of Sam McGee is an excellent example of the form I used for the Coffees poem. It is a tale about adolescence, friends, relationships, and the loss of innocence. The urge to complete it has been rekindled due to the fact that an empty lot is all that remains of the coffee shop I once frequented, and I feel like I have lost a part of my youth. I have high hopes that the poem would have a universal appeal that it would be immortalized in paper -- even though it is still a work in progress.

I have placed some preliminary links on this webpage for your viewing enjoyment. The first I will mention is Killfrog.com. It's a cartoon / animation / humor site. I think it's the funniest cartoon page I have stumbled across. I must warn you, the page is not for the faint of heart. But if you can handle some cartoon violence, fake blood, and childish humor, you'd get a kick out of this page. I highly recommend the Ultimate Survivor series. It's a parody of the famous Survivor reality television series. [ed. note: To fully appreciate the Ultimate Survivor Series, you may have to watch other Killfrog series: namely the Bad Clues episodes, and the Little Suzie Experiments, as the Survivor episodes feature characters developed in the related series.]

I, not being a fan of Survivor, found this to be incredibly amusing. Killfrog creator Kevin Swearingen created three seasons: The original Ultimate Survivor on a Tropical Island; season 2 was situated in the Outback of Australia, and Season 3 was situated in Afghanistan. As the series wore on, it became apparent that current events became an underlying theme of the Ultimate Survivor episodes. For example, the characters in Ultimate Survivor in Afghanistan wage war on the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. It is a shame the Killfrog creator Kev Swearingen has not updated the webpage in many months.

The second webpage I would like to introduce is Matthew Good's website. For those who don't know, Matthew Good is a singer/songwriter from Vancouver, Canada. I have been a fan of Matthew Good since 1998, and have only had the pleasure of seeing him in concert once. I discovered his music at a time of my life when I was going through a difficult period in my life. It is coincidental that I discovered his music at the same time I began consulting a professional about my problems, and I know that his music was not my "drug" per se, but I still feel that his album Underdogs changed me. His 2003 album Avalanche, had the same impact on me, many years later. It is undoubtedly his best effort yet, however, his next album, will be released next month.

It appears that Matthew Good underwent a metamorphosis of sorts after the demise of the Matthew Good Band. His songwriting and musical style changed dramatically, and for the better, I believe. Avalanche is an entire concept album, shrouded in political turmoil. The blog on his webpage is full of news stories, political commentary, and links to political action committees. It seems to me that he has something important to say to his fans, in his blog and in his music, and being an artist is an excellent way to preach ideology.

All this being said, and I never thought myself much of a political activist. Funny how things change after 9/11. Mind you, I am a person who believes the world could be a better place, but I am not one to go out there and try to change it.

My final link on this page I feel is relevant to us all. It is Naomi Klein's webpage: No Logo. I discovered her book of the same name a few years ago, and loved it. Her book centers around the injustices of sweatshop labor, big-box realtors, high profits, minimal wages, and horrendous working conditions, all in the name of the mega-brand. I can't get into too much detail regarding specifics, as her book is very long, but I must say that even though it is a depressing read, it is also enlightening. I believe it is time that we all should understand what kind of human rights violations are responsible for the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the software you use, the cars you drive etc. It is time that us, the consumers have the power to choose what we buy returned to us. Believe me, we have few choices left when it comes to commodities.

I began writing a book about ten years ago. It was a work of fiction, the underlying theme centered around the fall of Capitalism. The novel would have been classified as a distopia, not unlike Huxley's Brave New World or Orwell's 1984. It centered around a number of characters, who should have had the ability to change the world, but were unable (or incapable) of changing it. I only managed to finish writing the first part of the book; it was a long work of fiction. Even though I used multiple outlines, and the whole book had been written, I felt like I had written myself into a corner while writing the first full-size manuscript. Years later, I discovered Klein's book, and found that others felt a similar way about Capitalism and Corporate America as I did. I often feel that Klein had done a much better job at communicating my ideas and thoughts, and she used non-fiction as a better vehicle to deliver her mandate.

I often think about my novel that was never finished. It often returns to me when a major event happens in this world -- just as I had predicted it in my mind. Each time I correctly predict a major event, it is further justification that Capitalism will fall -- and it may not be very far away.