Well, dear readers, the times they are a changin’. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, the times they are a changin’. We are inching ever onward towards the update of this here site. It is a complicated process because we are feeling our way. On the one hand, we don’t really want the site to have a completely different feel. So, Doug has subtly altered the look of our home page where the notes appear. But, yesterday I got a link to WordPress, where I’ll be typing in the notes, and they’d already imported our existing site and while the notes go in fine, video and audio doesn’t. When I link to a You Tube video, for example, it is way to big for the column as it exists – I’m sure there’s a way around that, but we don’t know what it is yet. But in a way, designing the site around the column into which the notes go is rather like putting a square peg in a round hole or, at the very least, a round hole in a square peg or vice versa or even versa vice. Then coincidental to all that, I happened to see a WordPress blog within a certain WordPress “theme.” The interesting thing about it was that the actual blog itself was very similar to mine in terms of width. So, Doug and I had a long conversation about it and he is going to find that “theme” or a similar one, and then try his best to have “our” look within that them, in terms of feel and color. Because if he can do that then everything works much easier because the WordPress column is already designed to have video and audio fit within the existing column width. So, suddenly it’s like putting a square peg in a square hole or a round peg in a round hole or something in some kind of hole that works.
So, Doug will be talking to our tech people in the morning and we’ll see what can be done. I think he’ll be able to do his design very quickly within the WordPress template – he’s already done his other design, so IF we go with that, it’s already finished. But I’m thinking to keep everything in the WordPress realm makes it all very simple, especially for me. I did some tests yesterday in the form into which I put the notes, and it carries over all the italics and bold stuff that I do in Word when I write them. So, no extra work there. And working within their own templates, then video and audio are a breeze – the WordPress page I saw had both photos, audio and video in that particular blog and it looked really good. That person’s blog, however, had no style – just gray and ugly. That’s where Doug comes in and hopefully everything he wants to do, design-wise, will be possible within their template or “theme.”
No matter which route we go, one thing will definitely be changing, just because it will make everything easier – the Unseemly Button and the second section of the notes will go away – the notes will be all on one page now, and that’s better, I think. At the end will be a link directly to the discussion board. So, we’ll see how this all plays out today, but I’m very hopeful that this is now all going to changeover in the next two weeks. The site is completely “clean” now and working just as it should. The search function for the archives will work again, too, so that will be very cooliscious. I was supposed to get the link to the updated discussion board so we can begin testing it, but I guess that will be coming at some point today. I tell you, the times they are a changin’.
Other than that, yesterday was a perfectly nice day. I got up around ten, then did a three-mile jog. Then I drove to the Dale of Glen and delivered a box o’ books to Mystery and Imagination Books. Christine loved the cover, loves the new title, and especially loves the title treatment’s fonts. It’s now handsomely displayed right at the front of the store – the first thing you really see. Then I went to a lunch meeting, which was very interesting and fun. We went to Mo’s and I had the grilled salmon, about six ounces – a really small piece, along with some grilled vegetables. A six-ounce piece of grilled salmon is under three hundred calories, and the vegetables are nothing. After that, I picked up some packages, then came home and had to answer a lot of e-mails, then have several really long telephonic conversations with the tech guy, going over everything with the new WordPress form. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled That Man From Rio, a French film from France, starring Mr. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Francoise Dorleac. It is one of my favorite movies. The film was never available on DVD in the United States of America, other than a bootleg copy from Russia – full frame and subtitled in English, but obviously taken from the VHS release. In other words, this film has never had a proper home video release. There was a French DVD sans subtitles, that was letterboxed but not anamorphic and apparently it was truly awful in quality. But the French in France have just released the Blu-ray and while it’s not perfect, it’s the first time I’ve seen it since seeing it many times in theaters that it looks right. They say it’s a “restoration” but the film wouldn’t really need one, because I’m sure the negative was in decent shape. But the transfer is a little erratic – the source that was used (presumably the camera negative) is spotless and the image has wonderful detail and color. The erratic part is the contrast, which veers wildly from milky and indistinct to perfect – there’s no real rhyme or reason that one shot should look brilliant and the next shot should go milky, but a little more TLC and a knob-turn or two would have probably made it perfect. But I’m not complaining because it really does look amazing compared to previous incarnations on home video. The biggest downside of the release is that there are no English subtitles – I know the film well enough (I’ve seen it at least forty times) that I don’t really need them, but it would have been nice if they’d included them. The imdb lists the running time as 112 minutes, but the Blu-ray runs a full 115 – I can’t find the Russian DVD I have, and I wonder if this really isn’t three minutes longer. I’ll see if it’s on You Tube.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below (do it while you can!) because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall do a jog, I have another lunch meeting, this one at Hugo’s, then I’ll write liner notes, hopefully pick up some packages, and hopefully find that we’ve figured out the design aspect of the new version of this here site, as well as taking a gander at the updated version of our discussion board.
The weekend is unknown to me, other than writing liner notes and my contextual commentary. I do hope someone comes and whisks me away for a meal, and I do hope to get some relaxation in before a very busy next week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, have a lunch meeting, write, hopefully pick up some packages, hopefully see a newly-designed site on which I can begin to play, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/Blu-ray player? I’ll start – CD, too many to name. Blu and Ray, too many to name. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where the times they are a changin’.