Oh WordPress, why do you hate me so?
Updates have been sporadic as of late. For this, I blame the Christmas holidays, and the New Year eve parties that ensued. Not to mention the natural disasters, alien invasions, and divine miracles I’ve been subjected to witness, all of which lured me away from posting.
The frequency of which postings occur will change in 2009. In my experience, while it is a good habit to develop new content everyday, it can be detrimental if said content stems from my deepest pits of my bowels. Often in the past three months, I found myself without much to say, but compulsively delivered 400 words for the sake a streak. Quantity? Readership? A true writer craves not these things. It should not be the positive results of Google Analytics that drives me, but rather a need to tell a story, or even a desire to voice, if not force my opinions onto others.
A few posts ago, I discussed my concupiscence for a new layout for the site. Much like building a city, it is easy to visualize the utopian result. Carrying out the process to achieve the goal is a much different story. For the past few days, I have spent hours upon hours “googling” for instructions to not only modify, but completely design a new WordPress template. Upon burying myself in these instructionals the way a hormonal teenager applies himself in a vault of Hustler magazines, I emerged with the realization that I need more than instructions, I need a God damn teacher! Not only so that he may convey the instructions to me, but so that he may walk with me through each and every trivial step, holding my hand along the way.
I now hold my parent’s constant struggle with technology that much closer to my heart. I blame the confusion not on my inferior skills to follow instructions because like a mindless droid, I follow them quite well. Rather, I find it is due to the author’s often inaccurate assumptions of the reader’s ability, leading to jargon and abridgment of required steps. I only rejoice in knowing that, having felt their pain, my parents will no longer be subjected to my acrimony during their mind numbing “Window Updates” inquiries.
Hey bro! I am in the same predicament as you, in terms of site redesign. From what I learned about site layout is that it is basically all written out in html/php/ and most importantly css. At the moment I am reading this book “Html, Xhtml, and Css Visual Quick Start Edition.” I basically had no idea of how all this mess worked out, but I was determined to fine out. And sadly the best way to learn something and understanding it is to go to the root of it and learn from the ground up… No skipping around and trying to learn the area that suits your needs, just learning everything from the bare basics up… Indeed it is tedious and can be frustrating… but I believe the payoff will pay it self back in dividends… I’ll let you know when that happens though. :p
While I could never run out of useful information to share and don’t get writer’s block, I can totally relate to having that ideal WP Theme in my head without the skills to create it. I even started a series on the Perfect WP Theme and am still trying to get others interested in the WP Theme Joint Venture room at FriendFeed http://friendfeed.com/rooms/wordpress-theme-joint-venture.
One way or another I WILL get a Theme developed that will fit any business or blogger. In the meantime, I’m posting upgrades made to my existing blog along the way to assist others who want better blogs. You’re invited to come on by and join the party.
Another great one. As someone who writes articles and tutorials myself, I find that I often overestimate the knowledge of the reader.
However, it is sort of like how you assume that your reader knows that Rhodes-scholar-college vocabulary that you are currently showcasing here. You, my friend, have sent me to the dictionary twice: ‘exiguous’ and ‘concupiscence’…
…so, at the very least, I’ll be checking back regularly for my ‘word of the day’. lol.
Good luck with WordPress. She plays tough to get, but if you are persistent, you’ll be able to have your way with her.