Bits

I’ve put it off for as long as possible and have finally added a ‘linkblog’ to this site (see Bits in the menu). The only reason I didn’t add this sort of thing sooner (especially after seeing most of the people I read do something similar) is because I was never too sure that I wanted to keep up with it. It then dawned on me that I’ve been doing this in a roundabout way for many years: I have a notorious habit of e-mailing links to any of my friends who might find them remotely interesting and have even gone so far as to create 11 different e-mail ‘groups’ to more easily allow me to send the link to those that would find it pertinent. The new ‘linkblog’ will allow me to do the same, but in an easier, faster, and more accessible way (i.e., available to anyone that reads this site, not just the people I e-mail). It will also act as a bookmark repository for myself. I should mention that below the list of Bits you can find an RSS feed for the links.

I’m going to do a write-up sometime soon (later today or tomorrow) on how to create a ‘linkblog’ in Movable Type. My solution is really simple and adding a new link is mindless after you get it up and running.

About The Minor Design Changes

I keep flip-flopping on whether I want the menu on the left or the right, so I’m not sure which side it will be on when you read this post. As much as I loved the previous menu (simple, simple, simple), the menu column needed to be widened to accommodate the Bits section. The previous menu was on the left and the text was right-aligned, but this posed a problem when I widened the column because the space between the menu text and the left edge of the container became too great and it visually offset the page. I played around with a lot of different layouts, including a horizontal menu (as I’ve used in the past), but I really like the dual-column menu that you see now and I think I’m going to stick with it. To make the columns equal (four links in each), I removed the search link and placed the option below the menu. I’m not sure it will stay there.

I’ll be making slight tweaks for the next couple of days (font sizes/types/colors, column widths, etc.), but I doubt I’ll deviate too much from this layout.