light in the shadows » Blogging

Upgraded to WordPress 2.5

Derek Chirnside — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:20:21 +0000

This was a suprisingly painless experieince, the first time I have done it completely unaided. I have decided to not move over the themes: I will engage in a new theme search tomorrow and get some new ones to try.

I’d like a theme that

allows more pages, more content.
is widget ready
is easy to use with e-mail subscriptions. Too few of my friends use RSS yet.

The new editor looks great. WordPress as an open source project is superb.

Fictional Blogging

Derek Chirnside — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:44:14 +0000

GE331 at Otago University runs a really cool class activity.

Write collaboratively in a wiki. (In this case a script for a soap opera)
Blog (in character, in german) for a month. [This is an interesting genre]
Shoot the video and put it on YouTube. (Complete with Bloopers)

See it here: http://seifenoper.wikispaces.com/
Fictional Blogging. An interesting use of blogs, a little outside of my direct experieince. I did hear Angela Thomas in 2005:

Fictional Blogging and the Narrative Identities of Adolescent Girls – Angela Thomas -University of Sydney
Abstract: This paper explores the emergence of fictional blogging such as blog novels and the diaries of fictional characters as a new form of narrative construction. A typology of blog fiction is first presented to outline the scope of this emergent genre. The paper then introduces a case study of two fictional diaries kept by adolescent girls who use the diaries as one of the means to co-construct and add depth to their crossover and alternate universe fan fiction based on the fantasy worlds of Middle Earth and Star Wars. The case study examines the range of discursive and social practices used by the girls in their collaborative narratives using a combination of narrative theory and post-structural feminist theory. The paper also explores the ways in which these practices embedded in fiction also reflect aspects of the girls’ real identities.
From Blogtalk downuner: http://incsub.org/blogtalk/?page_id=109

A new theme

Derek Chirnside — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:05:27 +0000

I need a new theme. I’ve done a bit of browsing, and decided on something a little less busy than the current theme. I guess I still like Anaconda, and tried Cutline (Number 2 on WordPress Themes) for a while, and Talian. I’ve settled on 1 blog theme. More minimal. I’ve browsed a few of the mega sites like 83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen And then there is the question of plugins: 10 mission critical WordPress plugins

Three blogs designs I really like . . .

Eli Horne: really minimal.

Ed Merrit: dark, autumn tones, live the fonts . . .

Redoable. http://deanjrobinson.com/wordpress/redoable Cool.

To be frank: I am still a little bamboozled by options. But this theme has a few really good options on the setup page, better than having to do a little code hacking.

PS. A little later. I’ve also managed to upgrade WP successfully. Now 2.3.1. Only a few problems with getting redirects sorted out.