Well, dear readers, there’s a rainbow ’round my shoulder and a sky of blue above (depending on the time of day), because the new Kritzerland site is basically done and it’s a thing of beauty. We got all the paypal stuff loaded and have been testing it – it took a while and many thanks to the designer, Doug Haverty, and Miss Adriana Patti, who was recruited to deal with all the paypal stuff. She spent many hours getting it right, and Doug has spent three months getting the site right. This evening I tested every section of the site, and everything seemed excellent, and I even ordered a CD. I found three little adjustments, and Doug already made them – he’ll be sending the test site to me one last time and we’ll go through it again with a fine tooth comb and then the hope is that we’ll go live on Monday or Tuesday. That will be somewhat dependent on the webgal, as we’ll want to do it with her on the phone, just to make sure it all goes the way it should. Once it’s live, I’ll let you all know – it will probably require you clearing your cache, as caches will have stored the old version. As dear reader Francois probably knows, the International shipping part of the site has always been a nightmare, but now it’s as easy as pie – why it wasn’t is anyone’s guess, but now there aren’t even any special instructions, it just works easily and quickly. Doug’s design is really eye-catching and eye-candy. It’s quite different than other sites I’ve seen – very colorful, lots of fun, and fast as can be. Best of all, we are rid of the dreaded flash. I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure once we’re live we’ll probably be made aware of a bug or two, but hopefully they’ll be minor. The most important thing, of course, is the ability to order, and we know that part works perfectly. The sound clips are working (we haven’t put them on a couple of the sold out albums, but will eventually), and there are parts of the site that have no content yet, but will soon – photo and video gallery will be coming, I’ll be writing a little something every now and then, and stuff that we couldn’t fit in booklets will be on the site and you’ll be able to grab them if you want them. If, for example, we couldn’t fit the synopsis of Anya in the booklet (or the cast list, or who sings what) all of that will be on the site in the next couple of weeks. So, get ready to visit the all-new and much-improved Kritzerland. Remember – you heard it here first.
Yesterday was another weird weather day – a bit of rain, a bit of gray skies, then blue skies, a lot of wind, and ultimately a lot of heat, and then cold again. The workers were at it at seven, but they had to stop because it was drizzling, so I was able to fall asleep again – that was nice. Once up, I knew it wasn’t going to be a jogging day, so I did work on the computer, added a little to the liner notes for the next Kritzerland title (I’m supposed to hear the master this weekend), and then I did something I’ve been meaning to do for the last six months. A year ago, the CD player in my motor car bit the dust and I have not had the ability to play music in the car ever since, which is really inconvenient, as that’s where I caught up on CD listening and was able to proof all the Kritzerland CDs. It’s been very difficult, and I never did anything about it because I made a query about it with my car dealer about nine months ago and he said it would cost six hundred bucks IF they actually had the radio/CD player. I thought that was ridiculous, and then just forgot about it. But I’m so far behind, CD-wise, that I decided to go to a car stereo place that was highly recommended to me. Well, it was a terrific jernt, the owner was really helpful, and shockingly the radio/CD player (which also has the iPod cord, a great plus for me) was incredibly cheap, even including installation. I chose the model I wanted and twenty minutes later I was done. The whole thing cost under $160 including tax and the radio sounds great, CDs play beautifully, and today I’ll test out Ye Olde iPod.
After that, it was Hugo’s for some pasta papa, then some errands and whatnot, and then back home. I managed to finish watching Every Which Way But Loose. It’s really an enjoyable Eastwood picture, but it peters out in the last twenty minutes. The Blu-Ray encoding looks great. Then I began watching Broken Arrow – I think I saw it when it came out, but I really remember nothing about it. I’m a fan of the director, John Woo, so I’m finding it fun to watch despite the lame script. I got about thirty minutes in and I’ll finish it this day. I will say that the encoding of the transfer is weak – an early Fox effort – it’s just not sharp enough (the transfer itself is fine).
I also am hopeful that we have a Eunice replacement, but we’re still searching for a replacement for the dancer who got another gig. Hopefully we’ll find one today, because we’re kind of up against the wall, since the ensemble has to learn their music come Tuesday.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because there’s a rainbow ’round my shoulder and a sky of blue above (not really – the sky is quite black as I write these here notes), and I’m so excited about the new site that I could burst.
I have to get up early today (no problem, as I’m sure the ever-noisy workers will be my alarm) and be on my way for she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early.
After that, it’s more site testing (with those final two little fixes), more work on the computer, more errands and whatnot, and hopefully at least a couple of movies watched.
Tomorrow, of course, I’ll be preparing for our annual Tony Awards Do, and I Do hope we have a big crowd and our usual fun evening. Even if you’re choosing not to watch, this will be the place to be for coverage, although we’ll have to be careful of the spoilerage.
Next week, as you know, is going to be an incredibly crazy week filled with rehearsals. Also, God’s Little Acre should be arriving on Wednesday, so I’ll probably spend tomorrow addressing packages. Obviously, we won’t get them out on Wednesday, but I’ll get them in their packages and then ship them first thing Thursday morning – that’s still five weeks early.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, test a newly-designed Kritzerland, watch motion pictures on Blu-Ray, maybe try to get a long or short jog in (yesterday I did the two-mile shorter version), and eat something reasonable and amusing. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first thing you ever did on the Internet? When did you get the Internet? And what was the first thing you actually purchased on the Internet? Also, when was the first time you discovered eBay and what was your first purchase? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I continue to have a rainbow ’round my shoulder and a sky of blue above.