Redesign Part II: The Content

If you haven’t already read, Redesign Part I: The Logo, you might want to do so.

As with any site, the content is the reason people visit. Knowing this I have spent a lot of time deciding what I want to provide as content and how I want to provide it. If I could sum up all of what I am about to say below, it would be “All I have now focused a bit more plus some API craziness.”

Currently Covered

Blog, links, and works were all givens. I’m deathly sick of the word blog so I am going to instead call it journal as others have. I’m also going to switch from “works” to “portfolio”. Portfolio has a more professional and polished feel to it. As far as links, I currently show my last few using Ma.gnolia’s link roll generator. The linkroll generator was only a temporary solution until Ma.gnolia came out with an API (which they now have). The cool thing is that the API even allows you to access the screenshots of the majority of your links (you can see an example of Ma.gnolia’s links with screenshots on Jeff Croft’s site).

Ruby Ma.gnolia API Class

Last weekend I dinked around and wrote my first official Ruby class, a wrapper for the Ma.gnolia API which I will be releasing as soon as I put the finishing touches on the documentation (side note: RDoc is amazing). If I might add, it makes accessing all things Ma.gnolia crazy easy. Yep, that easy. Wait, Ruby? But don’t you currently use Wordpress? Yes, but I’m switching. Custom, homegrown, whatever you want to call it, something really cool is on the horizon for blogging and I’m going to be using it (more on that later).

Coming Soon

Last.fm: Lucinda who?

So journal, links and portfolio are set, now on to the new stuff I’m on adding. I have been using Last.fm to track my listening habits since December of 2005 and I have decided I would like to spend some time displaying that information. I’m going to have a new section on my site devoted to the music I listen to and maybe even some thoughts on that music. Just like Ma.gnolia, Last.fm has an API (powered by Audioscrobbler) and I intend on creating a crazy easy Ruby wrapper for that as well.

Flickr: what a wig!

Another API, that I have already written about, will soon be consumed by this site. I have teetered and tottered back and forth on the issue of whether or not to show my Flickr photos on this site. I did for a while and then took it down. My goal for the next version of this site is for it to be me online, all in one place. My thoughts, works, links, photos, music and stream.

Stream: kitty? get outta my head!

Stream? Trust me there are no plans for urination. Often times I see something that I want to comment on or I have a random thought that I would like to put in permanence somewhere, but I don’t feel that either is worthy of a post. In order to satisfy these desires I am going to have a new section, which as of now is titled ‘Stream.’ The basic idea is my stream of consciousness, much like a Tumblelog. This section will have a seperate feed from my journal and will contain whatever I feel like. Some of the items will be snippets of code, others quotes and miscellaneous thoughts. Heck, I may even post what I had for lunch if it was deserving. I have always been a fan of journalizing things because it’s great fun to read later on in your life. I’m hoping this section will serve in the same way.

Conclusion

The sections on my site will now be: About, Journal, Portfolio, Media (photos and music), and Stream (links and stuff). I will have a new solution for my journal powered by Ruby on Rails (not Typo) which will contain higher quality posts. Media will be powered by Flickr and Last.fm. I will post to my stream all things interesting but not polished like my journal entries.

Next Up: Design

The next article in this redesign series will cover all my design thoughts and will basically be an open letter to Jim, who will be designing my site.