That tingling feeling you have, is in part, due to the fact you are experiencing CCROW.NET Version 2: Richard Attenborough Edition; it may also be related to that fish sandwich that you couldn’t say no to at Arby’s. “Who is Richard Attenborough, and why did you name this new design after him?” He is an actor best known for playing John Hammond, the fat old man who ran Jurassic Park.

The work on this site began probably a month after finishing the first one. Every so often, I’d make progress on Version 2: Richard Attenborough Edition, but never had the time to really finish it off. That is, until this weekend, when I entered into a Zen-like programming state. If one were to equate life to the video game NBA Jam, Marv Albert would have repeatedly described me as “on fire.” I listened to the following four records while in this state:

Lasse Marhaug: Bring Me the Head of Lasse Marhaug
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
Billy Joel: Greatest Hits I & II

Although I felt okay about the previous design, I was never really that comfortable with it representing all that ccrow.net stands for. I needed something that had an unmistakably unique feel. WordPress is great, but I’ve always felt they sacrifice too much flexibility and freedom for user simplicity. The result is that most sites under WordPress have the same structure, look, and feel. So, I took some time to get to know the well-documented API, did some hacking, and created my own theme. In fact, for a while I wasn’t designing a “theme” at all, and instead just making raw API calls. I scratched that in the long run, since it’s clear that WordPress isn’t designed to handle such craziness (i.e., it turned into a headache). The finished result is a hybrid: half-theme, half-API calls.

Anyway, the site should render fairly consistently under Firefox and Internet Explorer (I’ve seen the site under Linux, Windows, and OS X), although why you’d be surfing the web with Internet Explorer is pure craziness. Speaking of pure craziness, let me explain what ccrow.net has blossomed into.

I’ve tried to create something that promotes dynamic content, which spells easier, more frequent updates. Essentially, the site now consists of three blogs. The Intro page is not a static image but is instead a PhotoBlog (this is actually very tricky to do under WordPress – that is, getting a “splash” page to access the database, in addition to displaying the regular blog on another page. WordPress really wants your blog to be the first thing people see – exactly what I didn’t want). The featured image is always the latest blog post with the photo-blog tag. The first entry in the PhotoBlog is the good ol’ trusty clouds/power-line picture on the Intro page just so people don’t get too disoriented. We don’t need anyone being disoriented. The “Projects” page consists entirely of posts, too.

If you couldn’t tell from my previous posts (the “Retarded” category being the most popular), I don’t take blogging that seriously. I think it’s pretty ridiculous and unprofessional for the most part, which is why I don’t want it to be the forefront of my site.

Oh, and a word about the the site’s gray overtone: it’s not intended to be depressing, I just feel it works better with varying colors of each post. SNOOZE FEST. Anyway, that’s enough talk for now. I hope you enjoy it.