Saturday, March 08, 2008
Lazarus
After three months of sherryneal.com being offline (our community Web server in Athens, GA officially closed its doors in December) and even more months of silence, Sher’s Drivel is back up!
I discovered Blogger at the Web2000 conference in San Francisco and thus began my inception to blogging. It was fairly limiting for a Web geek, so I starting messing around with other blog software. I’ve broken up with my long-term boyfriend, Movable Type. We’ve been dating since 2003 and that’s a long time for an Internet romance! We’ve had our ups and downs throughout the years, and I think it’s time for me to move on.
I flirted with WordPress for awhile and that was a fun time, but I wanted more. So, I’ve decided to use Expression Engine after looking at what people I admire in the Web design community use and reading what reviews I have been able to glean off by googling “WordPress vs Expression Engine” and the like.
The install process was a breeze, especially due to the fact that there is a video tutorial to guide you through the process. The only frustration I’ve had so far was finding where I could import my MT blog entries—which took some considerable poking around. In MT and WP, this was very easy to find. However, once I found it [Admin > Utilities > Import Utilities > Movable Type Import Utility], it was just too easy to bring my old drivel back from the dead. The images that I had to accompany my blog entries didn’t carry over, but I hope to resolve that after I get some data off of Dignan (the now retired Web server).
The theme you are looking at now is the default theme and I’ll be looking to customize that in the coming weeks. Even though I haven’t been blogging in months, I feel that I’ve been in a small way due to Twitter, which is really difficult to explain in a way that doesn’t make it sound silly, so I’ll refer you to Stephanie Sullivan’s excellent write up. I’ve also recently created a Facebook account, after months of badgering from my friend Glenn [who needs to blog more because he is so smart and writes very well]. He’s also been trying to get me turned on to Google Apps for months on end and a handful of other cool technology, but sometimes I’m slow to react.
So, now that I’m back, what can you expect? Definitely more mundane drivel about my life as an American Expat living in Germany, but I’d also like to focus on some of the passions I have in life, which are: travel, gastronomy, photography, and music. I’m exploring the possibility of doing some vblogging, but first I need a camcorder and somewhere to host these videos (You Tube seems like the obvious choice, but I know there’s more out there to explore). Any suggestions on HD cams and video hosting is much appreciated, as I’m new to that game.
For now, I’m off to watch the video tutorial on customizing this thang.