Today was a lazy Sunday. As with many Sunday’s I wake up with hopes to do something productive, but by the end of the day I haven’t been productive at all. I don’t really regret it, I just state that as fact. I did clean up my place a bit, and do the laundry but that is normal routine on lazy Sunday’s. Watched some TV, worked on the computer a bit, and then played around with the themes on this site. I settled on something less than what I wanted just because no free WordPress theme seemed to really say use me. Pondering buying a theme but I don’t keep one long enough to justify the expense. For now just playing around.
Blogging
I Am Not Writting
To me the title of this post is a question and a statement. I am not writing, and I am not really sure why? I have a ton of stuff I want to and can write about, yet I am not. I can only attribute it to I am not in the mood. Over the past few weeks I have sat down to write a few posts and then haven’t finished them. I have a bunch of drafts sitting in my Blog editing client (ecto if you are wondering) but nothing finished yet.
I will eventually get to them. I go through highs and lows with posting. Not two months ago I had a queue of posts pending to be published. Oh well. In my writing absence my blogging experience had a birthday. It turned 6 on the 23rd. Wow, I can’t believe it has been six years since I started writing online. I also had a birthday. Well that is all that really went on since it has only been less than three weeks since my last post. Just feels like longer.
More soon!!!
6 Years
It totally slipped by me that I actually started blogging 6 years ago yesterday. I can’t believe it has been 6 years since I started writing online. I have kept journals before but this is the longest I have consistently (if you call it that) written. The site has evolved over the years. Changed names and URL’s a few times, but my ramblings remain! Here is to another 6 years!
Changing Themes
Since I am never content with my blog theme, I changed it again today. I was never a huge fan of the one that I just had, but it was one of the better ones I had found. I am now using a theme that I like better. I am still not in love with it, but I will keep it while I keep looking! Can I ever be content, or will I always continue to tinker with this site? I probably will always tinker!
The old theme is captured above for posterity.
Live With WordPress
My site is now live with WordPress. They typepad version of the site still exists for now at http://powerz.typepad.com/. I am still tweaking some of the plugin’s for my WordPress install, but so far things are working ok. The hardest problem is getting my Feedburner RSS feeds to be the default feed for my blog when you click on the RSS icon.
I am still trying to find a better theme than the one I have, but for now it will do. More updates as I tweak the site.
The WordPress Plunge
I have talked about it a ton of times over several years but I am finally taking the leap and moving my blog to WordPress. I have been very happy with Typepad over the years but the flexibility of WordPress is bringing me over. I tried to build an instance of Moveable Type to port my blog into but I had issues with it on two different hosting providers. WordPress was easy to setup, almost too easy since I started and stopped working on a site at least a half a dozen times. I finally found and configured all of the widgets I wanted that I have with Typepad. I also found decent themes that make the site look good.
As I write this my hosting provider Lunar Pages is making some minor DNS changes so I they can host the DNS for my powerz.org domain yet I can continue to host my mail elsewhere. That will enable the URL I currently point to Typepad to point to my hosting account with all my other domain names. Actually since I am writing this entry on my WordPress site, by the time you read this I will already be running on the new site.
The good news for me is if I change my mind or end up not being happy with my choice to move to WordPress, I can always move back to Typepad. I paid for the service through the beginning of November. I know bad timing on my part, but I will wait till the Fall to cancel just in case I get cold feet.
One noticeable downside of my new setup is I see a bit of sluggishness with my site loading. I am not sure if it is the server my account is on, or if it is just wordpress being slow?
Playing With WordPress, Again
I decided to play around with my WordPress configuration again today. I am still a customer of Typepad, but since I already have a hosted web account on Lunarpages I have had an instance of WordPress sitting around for a few months. For the longest time I have toyed with using WordPress or hosting my own Moveable Type install vs Typead. I always keep going back to Typepad because it has most of the features I want and it is just simple to use and manage. Recently I have been contenplating cutting costs and things like two hosting accounts (Typepad & Lunarpages) seems like it might be excessive. So today I decided to search through the assortment of WordPress plugin’s and see if I could get my WordPress site to look as good or better than my Typepad site. So far I think it is dam close. Is it better than my Typepad site, I don’t know. Is it good enough to save $89 a year, maybe.
I loaded up the WordPress site with the latest backup of my blog. I will continue to tweak the site and see if it is worth it to point my URL to it. The big dilemma is that all the archive links will break when moving between Typepad and WordPress. That means all the google links won’t work. For that reason I am still pondering what I want to do.
So, Who Am I?
I have hinted at this for ages, but I never publicized who I am on this site. Well, way back when I started writing this blog it was trivial to figure out who I was. Then there was a period of time where I went out of my way to mask who I was. In recent history I haven’t come out and said my name or where I work, but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. To me, because of an scare at work a few years ago right around the time I read about people being fired for blogging I have been very shy about saying my name on this site. It is probably an over reaction especially now since I put anything detailed I write about work on a private site. I have still been a bit gun shy. Gus, pointed out to me that hiding who I am might actually be a bad thing. He might be right. More and more people look to someone’s online presence when looking up someone. I have heard of people getting job offers or not from their writings online. So why shouldn’t I say who I am? I have seen my postings commented or quoted in an online magazine here or there, or vmware blog once or twice.
So hi, my name is Scott Weinstein. I live and work in NYC. Please don’t confuse me with the 36 other Scott Weinstein’s in the US according to a census website I found a few months ago.
Now the disclaimer, the postings on this site are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. That is verbatim from my current companies policy regarding personal blogs. It goes without saying but I will follow their rules and say it anyway. My views are just that, mine. I haven’t stated who I was until now specifically because I was concerned about employers not approving. Now that I work for a company that has clear guidelines, and are open to personal blogs as long as these guidelines are followed I wont do anything to violate those policies. The topic of blogging isn’t so new anymore that I need to be so paranoid.
In the end, no one really cares about this topic but me. As I always have said I write this for me, so talking out loud about this is good (for me).
I am having way too much fun uploading embarrassing photos from my past.