Category Archives: Blogs and blogging

New Year, New Theme

screenshotI know. I just changed themes back in November. Truth be told I never was quite satisfied with that theme. It was OK, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for. So I did what I’ve been putting off for a really long time – I dug into the process of creating a child theme.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with WordPress, or just use it and don’t care how it works, WordPress allows you to create child themes that are based on a parent theme. Think of it this way, when you create a child theme WordPress looks at your theme first. If it finds what it needs it uses it. If not, it looks in the parent theme. The advantage is that you can make all of your changes in the child without harming the parent. Also, if the author of the parent theme updates it you don’t lose all your changes when you upgrade to the new version.

The requirements for a child theme are very simple. You need a folder in your theme directory and a style sheet. You could easily create a child theme that does absolutely nothing by having only those two elements. If you have no other files and nothing beyond what is required in the style sheet your child theme would behave exactly the same as the parent. Exactly. But that would be silly.

I started with Twentytwelve, the latest theme from the creators of WordPress. It was already pretty close to what I wanted, but not quite.

The first thing I changed was the navigation bar. In Twentytwelve it is above the header image. I wanted it below, so I moved it. Of course I wanted to keep Chris Muir’s Day By Day. I’ve displayed that cartoon almost as long as I’ve been blogging. I already had the code to display the strip between the first and second posts on the front page, but now I won’t have to re-insert it if the parent theme gets updated.

Those were the two major coding changes. The rest of the adjustments were cosmetic. On the web cosmetic means CSS. Those changes are easy to do, but the tweaking process can be exasperating and time consuming.

You see the results before you. I’m very pleased with the results. I’m also happy with the things I learned. Let me know what you think.

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Face Lift

Maybe giving the site a face lift will help lift me from my post-election funk. As you can see I’ve installed a new theme. Of course if I don’t start writing something it really doesn’t matter. If there’s anything that doesn’t work in your particular setup, please let me know. I’ve also linked new posts to my bRight & Early page on Facebook. Why don’t you jump over there and give the page a like.

Consolidation

I have some great ideas. At least I think they’re great ideas, especially at the time the come to me. Some are, some aren’t. The big problem is following through. Well, it’s time to simplify a few things.

I own eleven domain names:
4bauer.com – 1
blognewscoop.com – 2
floridimagine.com – 5
marbleheadregiment.com – 3
polkfamilyfunguide.com – 1
procleanextreme.com – 1
reclaimconservatism.com – 2
rv-bloggers.com – 1
spot-trot.com – 1
valetsplus.com – 1
and, of course
brightandearlyblog.com – 2

That’s bad enough, but do you see the number out to the side of each one? That’s the number of blogs or sites associated with that domain. Yeah, I’ll do the math for you, twenty. They are spread over five hosting accounts.

Three are for businesses, but aren’t being used — ProCleanExtreme, Spot-Trot, and ValetsPlus. They’ve gotta go. As for the rest?

Blogs.4bauer.com — This is our world-famous group blog dedicated to “24″. It’s going to stay. It’s historical.

FloridImagine.com — Will stay, but several of the sites will have to go. Some of the sites, like my high school alumni one, can stay even without much content.

BlogNewsCoop.com and the separate blog was, and is, a good idea, but it’s just never gone anywhere. I don’t have the time or the talent to take it where it needs to be. The concept was for it to be a place where bloggers could submit news stories that would then be used by other bloggers. Sort of an AP for conservative bloggers. I would love to see someone take on this project. @AndrewBreitbart Call me!

MarbleheadRegiment.com — This was originally a site for supporters of Fred Thompson four years ago. I still like Fred, but why am I still holding on to (and paying for) these three sites? And why did I set it up with three separate sites? Anyone from Boston want to make me an offer?

Polk Family Fun Guide — A good local idea that I never followed through on. It would have taken a big time and money commitment, and I didn’t have either to spare.

ReclaimConservatism.com — I’ve already pared this down somewhat, to just the two blogs; the main one, and The Bullpen (http://bullpen.reclaimconservatism.com/). Simply, this was intended to be a group blog focused on the theme of reclaiming conservatism. GM Roper and Doug (Stix1972) Welch are great contributors and I thank them both for their work. It could be something special, but I need to “do two” or get off the pot, so to speak. I would love to hear from any writers who would like to contribute.

RV-Bloggers — A nice idea, but I’m not living the nomad life just yet. Time for this one to move on down the road.

As these domain names and hosting accounts come up for renewal some, if not most, will be gone. I need to do some consolidation to make what remains more effective. If you see something here that you’d like to be a part of let me hear from you. I bet we can work something out.

Cleaning Up

I just completed a little project that was kind of sad — cleaning out my blogrolls. It is amazing (and depressing) that some very good blogs aren’t around anymore. It was also a bit telling regarding my housekeeping skills that there were a few blogs on the list that hadn’t posted since 2008. 2008!

There were also a few that have moved. Those links have been updated. The two I noticed were Bad Example and, a very recent move, Blogs for Victory.

All in all, I probably trimmed a dozen blogs from the rolls.

If you know of any blogs that I should add (including your own) leave a link in the comments. This would be a good time. I need to do something to keep busy (and to keep from punching holes in the wall).

Two Questions

I am serious about planning a blog get-together when the Republican Convention comes to Tampa in 2012, but I have two questions.

What should we call this thing? I’ve been calling it a Blogger Bash, a get-together, a party, all pretty generic. Suggest a name!

Who are the Florida bloggers? I know a few. I did go through an old blog list and was disappointed to see how many blogs on that list were inactive. Some hadn’t posted in months, a few in years. I know there are conservative Florida bloggers out there. Who are you?

Thanks for your help.

Let’s Have A Party

The Republican National Convention will be held the week of August 27, 2012. I think we should have a party. A Blogger’s Party!

I’ve mentioned this in the past, but it’s time to move on to planning. An event of this size will take some time to put together. I’ll need your help.

The first matter for discussion is “when”. My first thought is Saturday August 25th, right before the convention. Will those who come to the convention be coming in that early or will most wait until the start of the convention? Would it be better to hold the event during the week, or is too much going on already? I don’t think after is a good idea. Everybody will be ready to head out.

Please add your thoughts in the comments. Also, I’m looking for help, especially if you are a Orlamapa (Tampa-Orlando) area blogger. If you’re interested send an email to bloggerbash2012@brightandearlyblog.com