The site has returned!

Thank you for bearing with me as the site was down. The mighty server upon which it rests needed an upgrade, and I wanted to put the site up right this time. It wasn’t put up incorrectly, exactly, but it did have AGES of cobbled-together junk and cruft and all sorts of yak hair.

Changes are on the horizon (hopefully the near kind of horizon), as I intend to make this page my nexus on the web. And as always, I’m open to suggestions about what you’d like to see here in that vein.

I feel like I need a couple of UNDER CONSTRUCTION gifs and maybe a flashing red bubble light or six…

Sub-a-thon!

Skippy smiling

Mark your calendars! This Saturday, the 25th of March, I will be beginning an uncapped sub-a-thon on my Glimesh channel!

The rules are pretty straightforward. I will be starting with the normal stream length, which is two hours. Every sub to the channel will add a half hour to the stream. If I start to feel my Old(TM) and need to end stream, any leftover time will be carried over to stream the next day. I will be streaming every day that I am able until the clock runs out.

Obviously, kid time, work, and sleep are not streamable time for me, no matter what Mosier says.

So, this Saturday, as soon as I’m able to get my butt in the chair, the stream-a-thon will begin! I hope to see you there!

What’s a Glimesh?

Short answer, it’s a streaming platform, modeled after Beam/Mixer, which is in its alpha phase of development.

Long answer, here’s what it says on their website:

Glimesh logo

Glimesh is the next generation streaming platform built by the community for the community. We know establishing a following is hard, and the hours are long. Our platform focuses on increasing discoverability for content creators and implementing the latest in streaming technology to level the playing field. We understand the importance of interaction between content creators and their fans, and we’re dedicated to innovating new ways to bring communities closer together.

https://glimesh.tv/about

Why is that something that I’m talking to you about? Well, you may remember how I have irritated is has made me to stream on the major platforms over the past few years. If no, here’s the saga up to this point:

Here are the alternative streaming platforms that I’ve tried:

The platform is in active development, and the developers have both a coherent roadmap and a firm idea of what they want the platform to be. They are resistant to corporate ownership and cryptocurrency schemes. The alpha software that they’ve rolled out is more solid than Twitch, for the features they’ve implemented. After my previous attempts to move, it seemed too good to be true.

Then, you know, Twitch did Twitch things.

So, of course, I made the move. I tested for a month or two, one night a week, and then I fully moved over. I can always move back, if this one ends up being a lemon as well. So far, I’ve been super pleased with the platform every time I’ve streamed there. If you want to join my friends and I, we’ll be here:

https://glimesh.tv/skipfordj

Come on over on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and on the weekend!

The more things change…

So, remember when I was on the journey to find a new theme? I was having such a difficult time with it, none of the themes were giving me the simple, straightforward layout that I wanted, but without the leftover cruft of the WordPress-created Twenty Eleven theme that I’d been using for a while? I spent several weeks looking, and then got distracted by shiny. Remember that?

The site has been sitting, unloved and lopsided, while I kept trying to bring myself back to the search, and instead focused on one of the other things in my to-do list. This was precisely the opposite of what I wanted to be doing with the site, which was get it ready to drive all of my traffic here as a one-stop-shop. Why in the world had I done all of that work pruning old posts, imports, categories, and tags if I was just going to let it sit here?

I have no idea.

I have acknowledged temporary defeat, and have reverted to the old theme. Eventually, I’ll figure out what I need to edit in the PHP to remove the categories from the post listing. In the mean time, I’m going to focus on my actual goal of getting the index page created and working.

Wish me luck.

Search for a Theme

Finding a good WordPress theme has turned into, as the kids say, a Whole Thing.

Maybe I’m being too picky. I’m the first to admit that in some things, I get unreasonably fussy. Perhaps this is one of those times.

When it comes to blog posts, I don’t want the category displayed, because I’ve entirely moved over to the tag system. That’s what I’d been doing behind the scenes for those past few months, and I really don’t want to have to go back through all of that again. So, either no categories, or I need to be able to turn them off.

I want a banner graphic area that will fit some version of the laser eyes graphic without being a complete pain in the rear. I understand that most businesses have moved on to square graphics that bleed into the background. It’s part of that scroll *waves hands* stuff that has become so popular. I have a great banner graphic, dang it, and I want to use it.

I want color customization. I am shocked at how few free themes include more than background color pickers. Most of them don’t even have paid versions to upgrade to.

Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. I’m using the theme browser inside of my (self-installed) WordPress administration panel. Are there others out there? Should I migrate over to their hosted solution, WordPress.com? I know I’ll find the right path eventually, but I’m frustrated with being stymied in the here and now.

Whew.

Just a quick note – I’ve finished updating the blog entries with proper tags, and removing categories. This was an involved manual process that took me along the roller coaster ride of my life since I began my Livejournal account, which I later imported here.

Honestly, how did anyone tolerate me back then? ;)

What this means is that I can now move forward on finding the WordPress theme that can turn davidmcrampton.com into a landing page for All The Things, rather than just the home of my Writery Goodness. The reasons for this are many and varied, and I may ramble on about them sometime in the future.

For now, this mountain has been climbed. On to the next.

Site Updates Coming

Skippy with mask

Hey everyone. First, I want to say thank you, for sticking around while the blog’s posts have been intermittent in the best of times. I’ve been stalled, as of late, getting some security updates installed for WordPress, and it didn’t feel right adding new content while it might not be secure, and with everything else going on in the world, I’ve put a hold on shilling in general. So, it really means a lot to me that you’re here. Same goes for people who are just coming by. Welcome!

Secondly, I’m going to be updating the theme of the site so that the landing page is more of a, well, landing page. The blog will still be here, but it might require an extra click to get to. The good news is that you’ll be able to check in on all of my major projects from one place. The blog, the writery goodness, vlog, the Twitch channel, the YouTube archive, the tech projects, the webcomic, all of it.

Thirdly, in an effort to get back on the fiction-writing bike, I’m intending to post some fan fiction that I have rolling around in my head. Right here! For your eyeballs! So, get ready for that!

Remember, you’re awesome, and you’ve got this.

I’m getting smaller!

Let me first say that I am not on a diet. I am purposefully and willfully still eating what I want to eat. I did not set out to modify my intake in any way whatsoever. Additionally, my only increase in activity is a less-regular-than-I’d-like morning walk. No gym membership, no weights, no exercise machinery or videos.

That said, my Hawaiian shirts are now too big and my tighter pants fit. The previously-comfortable pants now threaten to fall off, even with the belt. Pants that I had no hope of fastening are now snug. My comfortably-loose shirts… I’ve never been able to say that clothes “just hang off of me,” but now I can. I fit into my LiquidWeb polo shirts, which I couldn’t do when I worked there, nor any time between. I’ve dropped about seventeen pounds (I won’t go on my rant about focusing on pounds as a metric of getting healthier… this time).

What’s changed? I’m paying attention to what goes in my mouth, and how much. I’m paying attention to how active I am. As I mentioned before, I’m using MyFitnessPal for the former and FitBit for the latter. Being able to see it and to track it has triggered a change in my behavior.

I’m saying no to seconds, and finding that I dish up less for firsts. When I don’t immediately feel full, instead of getting seconds, I wait a bit to see if I feel satisfied. I drink coffee (black) and water (often with Mio).

None of these choices were conscious. I don’t consider the benefits, weigh the pros and cons, before I make these decisions. Just like when I started tracking my food and added a FitBit to my wish list, these all seem to come from my gut.

I worry, sometimes, that this is a flight of fancy rather than a change in my lifestyle. I really like the results – how I feel, less pain in my knees (noticeable already!), not having the urge to finish the food my kids didn’t eat. If this isn’t a conscious choice, will I backslide as easily as I got into it?

Only time will tell. For now, I really need to get the Hawaiian shirts out of my closet. They look terrible.

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