Happy Birthday, Blog!

Welcome to the redesigned Contradiction in Terms!

Yup, it’s officially been two years since I was dragged (kicking and screaming, note) into the blogosphere, which is why I had to take a break to make a new look for Blog (who doesn’t have a very creative name, but at least he’s pretty) on his birthday.

There are just a couple of new features y'all might want to check out: my virtual pet (in homage to my beloved’s secondary business, a pet store) which you can feed, ignore, or tease mercilessly by making her follow your mouse around the aquarium; and my nifty new sideblog, in which I will be featuring my latest and most egregious expenditures on reading material, cosmetics, and, well, anything else that pretty much goes on my shelves (hence the name). The sideblog also serves the function of significantly lessening my intense Gigi-envy. (Ha, now I have one! ...But she has two. Grf.) Oh, and there are drop-down menus on the top bar--I’m particularly proud of having figured out how to do that. (And now my hair is coming out in patches, and you’ll probably never click ‘em anyway... But such is life.)

As for the rest, it’s all about simplicity, and trying to get as much white space as possible in here while still accommodating my heinous tendency to rave on (as I am doing right now). The cute Nikki cartoon is by El, who gave it to me as a birthday present this year; and if you don’t get how the tomato theme relates to the blog, then you are obviously not as smart as I thought you were.

Things I have Learned in the Course of Revamping:
1. TagBoard is still, hands-down, the best thingy-thing of its kind. That is, if you have smart readers who actually have more to say than “hi” or (ugh) “jz drpn by”. Luckily for me, I do (You did get the tomato thing, right?), so there you go.

2. I had money-earning ads on this blog for about half a year and made exactly thirty cents. Which means that y’all are not very curious people, and for me, at least, the idea just wasn’t working.

3. My technical aptitude has limits. (See my message to Rickey, below.)

4. Blogger still has the cleanest free interface that is user-friendly, yet allows customization.

5. There are many very nice people on the worldwide web who make scripts and graphics available for free for no apparent reason. Well, okay, maybe for self-glorification, but I don’t mind at all and hereby thank them profusely…

... And you, too, for waiting around just to read my usual senseless blather. Which is still senseless, but at least now it’s framed nicely.

Dear Rickey,
It actually only took me a day or two to do the actual redesign; the rest of the time was spent wrestling fruitlessly with WordPress and Cute FTP to try and make all this work on your graciously-provided nikkialfar.com. Alas, I have discovered that my technical aptitude has its limits. Grace me with some kind of step-by-step instruction, Oh Knowledgeable One!

(By the way, if anyone wants to use the old layout on their blog, let me know before I consign it to eternity. It’s a little shopworn, but it’s free and has proven reader appeal!)