I have finally made the jump to WordPress. And so far, I couldn’t be happier.

No longer will I have to create a blog post in HTML, then copy that post into it’s own page while making sure I link back to the main page and the CSS correctly. No longer will I have to deal with revisions upon revisions of my custom themes. No longer will I have to think about, “Okay, I saved my images here, but I’m in this post, so the file path to that image should be …”.

I’ve only used WordPress.com which is the free, light version of WordPress. WordPress.org is where you’ll want to download the full, install-able version. I’ve now installed WordPress on my host, created the database, and got everything up and running. It took about a week to transition over. I chose the Skeleton Framework as my theme due to it’s simplicity, built-in responsiveness (go ahead and re-size the page), and overall minimal design.

I used John Saddington’s excellent guide (aptly named “The Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog”) to get WordPress running which takes you through the steps of installing WordPress on your host and securing it correctly.

It was a little daunting once I realized that PHP and MySQL are involved for getting your site up and running, but there’s actually very little on the back-end that needs to get setup in order for your site to run. Obviously you’ll need a database, but John’s guide takes you through step-by-step on setting that up. I highly recommend starting out with a framework or existing theme when starting out with WordPress if you don’t know any PHP. A framework will still let you customize the look and feel without having to worry about the back-end.

So what does this mean for this site? Their is now a comment system in place and you are welcome to comment on any posts. This also means that I can concentrate more on learning and publishing then on the blog’s architecture because WordPress can take care of everything. Also, RSS is now active and you can now subscribe to my posts. As I’ve stated in another post, I enjoyed creating the site in a static, HTML/CSS-only way, but the tipping point was when I had to start thinking about pagination and I realized I had absolutely no desire to try and set that up. Creating a static site is a great way to learn, but to me, converting over to WordPress was the next step.

More WordPress links: WordPress on the Tuts+ Network, WordPress frameworks

Lately I’ve been doing the majority of my coding at work. I like to code during my lunch break and this is a pretty nice setup to do it on. Dropbox acts as my version control system and I can have my files pretty much wherever I go.

I enjoy seeing other web dev’s setups so here’s my contribution.

On to other news: Minimal Tasks got a really cool review on my neighbor’s (and good buddy’s) site: gotworship.net. Thanks Jason!

It took me awhile, but I now have a project entry on my Projects page! Minimal Tasks is a project I’ve been working on for the past few months. It’s a super-simple, no login required, task entry site. It uses the localStorage attribute currently in-use using HTML5. So your tasks are all stored in the browser – no need for a server-side database and no need for logins as well.

I originally got the idea while at work. I always had a Notepad window open or two just to jot down quick tasks or notes but all those windows got buried underneath everything else. Typically at the top of that window “pile” was Chrome, my main web browser. Since I always had that open and spent 90% of my day in Chrome, I wanted to add tasks in there as well. And that’s how Minimal Tasks started.

On to other news: this site is now officially hosted on a real web host! I’m still debating on whether to move to WordPress or not, but for now I’m happy. Expect some changes soon as I get used to the new space.

And yes, I changed the theme again.

A disclaimer: this post has been in my drafts since about version 3 of this site. I’ve added them up (including the designs that never made it) and I’ve created about 27 variations of this site. Yes, 27.

Creating a website design for someone like myself who is not particularly artistic, is a laborious, frustrating process. Yet at the end, I have something to show others for it. Code, at its core, is hidden. To view the code for this site, obviously you would right-click on a non-image part of the page, and click on “View page source”. Not too many non-developers are inclined to do that. So I’ve been spending more time on design then content, when it should be the opposite.

This more simplistic, minimal design took me about three total hours to make everything the way it is. My sister (an amazing print designer) could have designed this site in five minutes. And that’s giving her three minutes to sip on some coffee.

I’ve re-designed this site again to include just the basics. The goal is to stop trying to make this site look pretty and produce more content. Musings about development and finally adding items to my Projects/Portfolio page are on the way.

I’ve finally settled on a new way of listening to music at work, which is where I do the majority of my listening. Instead of listening through iTunes with my iPod, I now listen to Pandora primarily and once I find a new band I like, I open Spotify, add all their past albums and continue listening to them through there. I tried using Spotify as my primary listening software but I like the shuffle/radio-ness of Pandora.

The big downside to Spotify is that it currently requires a Facebook account to login. I had cancelled my Facebook account about six months ago but I created a throw-away account just to get Spotify. It’s that good.