website

Website Updates & Additions

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After rebuilding this website I realized I hadn’t added any navigation menus to look around with. Well now, we can’t have that, can we?

<— First, you’ll notice the Categories and Tags to the left of each article. Secondly, you can see below the articles of the website, yes, all the way down, the Categories, or topics are listed. Then from left to right, the Archives in monthly format. Up next is a Tag Cloud, a display of all the tags used in articles. The larger the tag, the more often it has been discussed. After that is the Search bar in case you are looking for something specific. After all that, there is a button to click to automagically go back to the top of the website.

Kinetic Blog

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While I may not produce short stories, or even that novel in my head as often as I want to, this website has been a constant for the past two decades. It is kinetic, modern, ever changing and relevant.

Unlike a book where it is static in all forms, whether in digital or print. Between the pages it has a beginning and an end. Once it is written, it is complete. It is an ongoing insight into me, my interests and my life. Certainly not a best seller but there are frequent posts and updates.

Speaking of updates, I’ve added a notification that alerts anyone when an article has been updated after the original posting.

Kinetic over static.

Version 1.4

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This is the fourth update to the new and improved website. I gave it a fresh coat of paint as well as connected the Archives and Micro sites. Even better, the paint matches the photography site perfectly. This website also reflects the home office makeover. “Dark Mode” is my go-to aesthetic.

I’ll make a few minor changes on the back end for site security and speed and then I will leave it alone for awhile.

That’s how pleased I am with it.

Consolidation

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I am working toward keeping all of my web properties here under a single domain.

New long-form posts will be here. Previous posts (2022-2002) are now in the Archive. I don’t do social media anymore but I do like to fire off some quick posts, mostly to myself and they are now in the Micro page of this website.

The only web property not hosted on my web server is the photography website. I’m okay with that because I prefer the free hosting there and the way it displays images better.

Is this the perfect solution? I don’t know yet but the tinkering has been fun.

As of now, not everyone can see this website due to my domain name chrisdenbow.website being transferred from one domain registrar to another. 5-7 days they say, which is an eternity in tech time.

Version 1.0

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I have had a need to simplify my websites and the expenses that come with them. Everything changed today.

A year ago I transferred this website to WordPress.com for simplicity and ease of use but I gave up too much control. Today, I transferred it back to my own web server and taking full control back. This move will save over half the expenses too. At the same time, I moved my photography website back and forth between web hosts, Adobe and my own server as well.

I signed up with a Adobe Photography plan again mostly because of their web portfolio hosting that comes with the plan. This is cheaper than hosting my portfolio on WordPress or my own web server.

Today is a fresh start for this site. I have moved all of the articles published previously to the Archives page. There was an unfortunate issue with migrating the data over resulting in the first ten years going missing or a corrupt .xml file. Now the records go back to only 2011. I’ll keep sorting that out as I don’t want to lose all those memories.

ChrisDenbow.com was rebuilt in an hour and it will take time to clean up the migration process, slap some paint on the walls and customize the site to my liking. For now, we’ll log this attempt at version 1.0

Why Though?

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Why do I post consistently on someone else’s platform and not my own?

Yes, it is more social compared to the silence of my own thoughts.

Same goes for Instagram. I have my own photo website, why IG?

That’s it. I just answered my own question. This is for me and for introspection.

Back! Yes, I Was Gone

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Due to a denial of service (DoS) attack and suspected breach of my personal website security, I was contemplating just wiping the slate clean and start fresh with my entire web presence. 

No more chrisdenbow.website, new social media accounts, new accounts on the iTunes and Google Play which would force me to lose my digital media purchases, setup new accounts, passwords and all the rest of the inconvenient hassles.

But I’ve worked too hard these past few years building my web server, email server, content, web accounts and more to just walk away from it. With the support of my web server host support and enterprise software providers, etc, I think I’ve rooted out the issues and am staying put.

So what has changed? Nothing on the surface. All my systems have been secured as best as I could. 

The content here still stinks but I’ll still crank it out. So yeah, I’m back. 

Reboot

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The term “reboot” means to discard much or even all previous continuity and start over with fresh ideas. It could also imply that I just wanted to scratch the whole thing and start over again. Previous posts (2005-2011) have been backed-up and shelved until I create an archive.

Clean Slate

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Ever feel like taking the pages out of your notebook and ripping them out to start over?

Yeah, me too. Since you are reading this you are involved in the process as well.

The Facebook accounts are “scheduled” for deletion, the GReader inbox has been thinned out.

People on Twitter that I am following has been reduced.

The website is being streamlined into something more manageable and readable.

Possessions that might have been useful or meaningful are neither and are being sold or given away.

The ideas I want to post here should be relevant, not random. They also need to be mine, not someone else’s idea. My media content should be posted here, not theirs. I can save that for Twitter or Google Plus. 

I suppose I just want this website to be a reflection of me and you are seeing these ideas and changes evolve as I am evolving. 

The first, overreactive response I had to this feeling was to export the content, archive it and restore the database with a fresh install.

I’ve done this many times with a computer’s hard drive, why not this website? Heck, I may still do it.

I want to be intentional, focused and fresh. I need a blank page to start this whole thing over.