Techie Explorations

And no, I don't mean back stage people in black that get in your way while you try to perform. (Harmless jab, guys, don't flip out if you are on the techie side of all things theatrical.)

I am however referring to techie issues with the blog itself. As I mentioned on the blogs 4th birthday a few weeks ago, I would be slowly but surely initiated changes to the lay out and over all look of Always Off Book. It is time, and it has become, in some way, unruly for new people to navigate. (See the Archives.) Yet I fear the untimely destruction of this, my online pride and joy, that screwing around with code could cause. (I have no grasp of the concept, despite trying a few times.) I remember how dry my mouth got just cutting and pasting code when this blog was new. Simply adding dates and a links section, (as you see on the left of the home page as of now) had my scared out of my mind I was going to wreck everything.

That fear has not gone away. Nor has an understanding of code evolved within me. However, (and somehow I missed this) Blogger does offer an updated account, still for free, which allows people to make changes with a point and click interface that formerly required knowledge of code. This is very good news for me, and my desire to update the look and feel of the blog, (without altering the content.) It is in fact out of fear of losing any or all of my content, built up over 4 painstaking years of writing and acting, that made me decide to open up an anonymous new blog, under the new format/rules of Blogger, to see how easy it is to navigate, and more importantly, how difficult it is to screw everything up. If, as I play with it, I am satisfied that I can rebuilt Always Off Book with the new format, I will bite the bullet, and hit the "upgrade" button on my account...hopefully leaving room for all sorts of oohing and ahhing later next month.

But until then, I dare not experiment on the offspring. So I will keep testing it, and until I feel my feet are on the ground with it, I will keep the format here just as it is.

(Anyone who happens to come across my new anonymous and totally utilitarian blog which I created today just to test all the new features, and KNOWS they have found me, gets a free t-shirt. But no hints!)