Running After My Hat, like certain real-world counterparts, has always had a back room or two into which its proprietor secretly hopes no one will stumble, because they’re filled with old junk, and sometimes even with new junk. Broken knick-knacks and furniture. Tumbled piles of books. Telephone handsets which lack base stations and/or wires. Family photos, fifty-year-old report cards, greeting cards from people who no longer share the faintest remembered connection with you, paintbrushes stiff with dried varnish, board games which have lost their dice or their, um, actual boards.
One such back room has always been the “About” page.
I’ve spent some time sprucing that up. It looks much the same, but the verbiage has been cleaned up. And it’s a little less preciously self-conscious, if you know what I mean. If you’ve been visiting here for a while, I doubt that you’ll find anything new, except new expressions of what you already knew. But for anyone who’s a stranger, or imagines him/herself to be, I’ve added four new and (I hope) not-too-preciously-self-conscious pages about me.
(Aside to those of you who do visit regularly, and expect to continue: this will save you from many tedious first-person-POV posts in the future.)
The new pages are:
- Where I Came From (and When)
- What I Do for a Living
- What I Write (and Have Written)
- Where I Live (and With Whom)
We now resume our regular broadcast schedule, such as it is. Until the next interruption.
Which may, or may not, have something to do with how the joint looks. (I’m still terrified to touch it.)
Jayne says
Good for you. You’ve managed to accomplish the kind of housekeeping I’ve been meaning to do for some time. Those tabs at the top of the page drive me crazy–I’m always at a loss for autobiographical words.
Guests have departed north to stay ahead of the storm. Wish I knew how to do the same. Maybe I should tend to all that accumulated junk now. Or maybe I should take a nap and wait until tomorrow (when we’re sure to be without power).
Will be checking out your shiny new spaces… Don’t worry, I don’t own any white gloves. ;)
whaddayamean says
nice.
John says
Jayne: I’ve opted (for now) not to tinker with the page categories across the top here. Whatever bothers you about the ones at your place, though, they’re pretty good at arousing curiosity!
When first building this site, I learned that this theme’s default behavior is to add a new “tab” at the top not for every post (thank the gods), but for every page. (That’s WordPress’s term for the one-off “meta” things that might be of interest mostly to a first-time visitor, like an “About Me” entry.) I knew I’d be posting a lot of stuff that I didn’t want showing up in a chronological list.
(E.g., when I post about something I wrote years ago, I often post that thing itself apart from the discussion of it. The discussion constitutes a regular entry; the story or essay or whatever is shoved off onto a “page” of its own. Visitors won’t find such a page by browsing through the archives at the left… only by reading the corresponding post, and following the link at the end.)
The dashboard tells me I’ve currently got almost 60 of these “pages.” That’d be a lot of tabs across the top. :)
Figuring out how to suppress this behavior, which required more than just (un)checking a checkbox or whatever, was one of my first self-perceived triumphs over WordPress!
John says
whaddayamean: Thanks!
Nance says
Always wanted a Yorkie.
I’m really proud of you for being married to someone with responsibility in The Innocence Project, too! Please thank The Missus for me.
Your Jersey sounds a lot like my Greensboro in the growing up years. I feel so fortunate to have had that kind of springboard.
I’ve been eyeing Insight Cruises for some time, wishing the lottery ticket would fly in the window. How cool that you got to present on one!
The clean up looks very nice. Your OCD’ish friends approve. Not too precious; just very pleasant background.
John says
Nance: thank you for checking out the upgraded — or at least changed :) — facilities here, and thank you for the comments.
One thing I’ve always liked about the town where I grew up: although the population back then was homogeneous in almost every respect, it was still possible to go through childhood and emerge as a liberal. It didn’t breed folks who seemed particularly insistent on homogeneity, if that makes sense (and does not itself reveal a subtle sort of bigotry).
We actually went on two Geek Cruises that year — the Alaska one, and a longish trip to the western Caribbean. (I taught on that one, too.) I was amazed how much I liked it — I can’t swim, and have little , or, well, okay, NO interest in water sports. I figured I’d be in a constant state of nervousness, waiting for the “lower all lifeboats!” alarm to sound. Nope.
Have you cruised???
marta says
I can’t keep my actual home tidy much less my blog. Good for you on the work! And I’ll probably learn something I didn’t know or be reminded about something I forgot.
John says
marta: I don’t know; you’ve done a pretty good job making your blog over a few times. I like the light, airy feel of it now.
One challenge for me in finding a theme has been to come up with one that’s good for the, um, let’s be kind and say the relaxed verbosity of many of my posts. (And I’d also like more room for larger images and videos. The column width here, when on-screen, is only 500 pixels. I need to open that up a bit.) I think I’ve started to settle in with one. We’ll see, though, and probably sooner rather than later. (I can’t afford to spend too much time decluttering!)
[reCaptcha is suggesting a faux-French slogan for the remodeling effort: compact lesAll. Ha.]
Jayne says
@John – Boy, wouldn’t I like to hide some posts on my blog. Not much in the way of layering at Blogger, so I think my only choice is to delete the posts that embarrass me! Or maybe I should just go back and edit. But who has time for that?!
Maybe when the kids finally have a full week of school I will tinker.
Ok, off to make pesto. Irene really pounded my basil plant.