marramgrass

Born on Monday morning, all 6lb 2oz of him.

Ugh. Metablogging. I, too, hate it. So please accept an apology in advance.

This blog has become dormant over the last year or so, maybe a bit longer. There are a whole bunch of reasons for that. Most of them come down to how radically different my life has become to what it was.

Obviously, there’s parenthood. That’s the biggest thing. I must observe that it just keeps getting better and better; that kid’s amazing.

Also, it is happening again. Wow.

Work-wise, too, things are different. Quite a while ago, now, the project I was working on with CCWA (NI) came to an end. Long story short, I’m now working full-time as web developer with a small studio in Belfast, doing generally interesting work with some generally quite interesting clients. I split most of my time there between Facebook apps, Expression Engine work and Magento development. With the latter two I get to spend a very satisfying amount of time building custom add-ons to augment their functionality. That’s fun.

Then there are the various personal/side projects I am/have been working on. All still in dark mode. Time, you know (see a couple of paragraphs above).

All of which adds up to less blogging, which disappoints me. My first post to a blog was eight years and twenty-four days ago. I don’t want to let this thing go gracefully after all that time, so here we go again.

The plan is for more of the same, but with some other stuff thrown in, too. I’ve often thought about tackling more technical blog content (code, general computer/tech stuff, gadgetry and so on) as well as the random personal stuff and occasional photo, but am totally against having more than one blog. I think I’ll try mixing the two and see how it goes. Bear with me with the bits that aren’t your thing.

The blogroll (old word for those sidebar links) is well out of date. I’m still deciding what to do about that; it may disappear altogether in the meantime. And this place is definitely due for a bit of a visual refresh.

Meta-blogging over, for now. Let’s go, then.

I was a grammar nerd before Lynne Truss made it (somewhat) socially acceptable.

Several months ago, I cooked up a slightly silly, mostly-but-not-wholly tongue-in-cheek project. I wrote the copy and put together the basic layout, but never quite got it finished.

Last night I decided to revisit the text, which was awful, and finish off the layout. The main sticking point had been the type, but @irishstu‘s www.stewartcurry.ie, which I linked the other day, inspired a go with Palatino. It’s just right, I think. Of course, use of Palatino means that if you’re browsing on a Windows or Linux computer you have almost no chance of seeing the site the way I do. You could view a bit of screengrab, though.

What is it, then? A public service, The Oxford Comma ⋅ PunctuateAware.

Remember: everything in moderation, including punctuation.

This post brought to you by the slightly clunky WordPress iPhone app.

It looks like I probably won’t be posting anything substantial here for the next wee while. I am beset by IT problems and will be having to take the MacBook in for repair, I think.

Catch y’all when it’s back.

I’ve finally got round to upgrading to the latest WordPress.

Apparently it’s quite a major upgrade from where things were, and I always find it a pretty nerve-wracking process, so I’d be grateful if you could do me a favour:

If you notice anything screwy around here (more so than usual, I mean), please drop an email to blog AT marramgrass DOT org DOT uk and let me know.

Ta.

(This post also checking that MarsEdit will still get through ;-)

Five years ago today, I made my first blog post.

I started out of curiosity about this thing that more and more people seemed to be doing, with the simple aim of amusing myself. Five years later that is still my primary aim, and I’m still astonished and humbled by the small (very small in internet terms) but steady trickle of traffic that comes through here every day. So to those who drop by and occasionally leave a comment or three, thank you.

Over the next wee while I’ve a few major things planned round here. There’s a ground-up redesign in the works, and a few lengthy, almost article-like, posts that I’ve been working on for a while. And maybe one or two other bits and bobs, too.

In the meantime, cheers again for being here :-)

I’ve done some tweaking to try and fix an old silly problem with the layout here.

I think it’s all good, but if anything looks broken to you, please leave me a comment and let me know. It’d be handy if you told me what operating system (WinXP, Vista, 98, Mac OS X 10.?, etc) and browser you’re using.

Ta.

This morning I came to a decision. I spent a few weeks trying out this BlogRush thing, but today I have ditched it and deleted this site from the network.

It’s a pretty harmless thing in itself, and it’s always fun to attract more visitors, but the widget that they give you to display is just plain ugly. I’m not pretending that marramgrass is a shining example of wondrous web design, but the BlogRush widget is just too much for my poor eyes.

For some reason, yet to be determined, I have been moved to sign up at Twitter. I can’t shake the feeling that it’s the real low-point of the new, interactive, 2.0 web, but at the same time it is strangely fascinating.

Cue questions of self-censorship and the further shrinkage of the already miniscule online ratio of signal to noise.

I’m at http://twitter.com/marramgrass/.

I’ve been looking for a new job for a while, and after a few interviews (all pleasant and enjoyable – I’m a weirdo who enjoys such things) I started my new job on Wednesday just past.

My wife started her new job on the same day. Fun week ;)

So I’m not employed to directly do youth work any more, although I continue to volunteer in that way. I now work for a network of community work projects in a volunteer development role. One of the emphases is to help volunteers reflect on their experience, and particularly on how their experience of community work interacts with their faith and their understanding of God and of the world. By the by, I’ll be hoping to do some recruitment of volunteers in to the projects as well.

You could say it’s right up my street.

It’s been a rocky road getting here, and I think the time is coming for me to write and post a bit on the experience of the last six months. Maybe not this week (all the spare brain cycles are going on trying to get my head round the new job), but soon nonetheless.