Back and Biting

Isn't Denver pretty?

Hey there... Blogger. I'm back. I had a good year on my own domain, but sadly I was never happy with the rebranding I did and was never motivated to update the site or the blog. And it was just too much money to throw at something that I had no interest in. So, for now, I am back here on Blogger. As much as I might hate it.

Having spent a year away I am curious to see how the two compare. I'm still of the opinion that Wordpress is just a thousand times better, but as a free option I am comfortable with this platform. I also need to get more familiar with the analytics and operations of the Blogger platform. I'm also going to be looking into how this will mesh with some Youtube integration. I'm hoping over the next few months I'll be able to get an idea for how much difference there is between them.

This post is all kinds of scattered. It's late here and I've spent the last thirty minutes exporting and importing the few posts I had from my Wordpress website. So there is a bit of new content to check out if you didn't follow me over last March. AtypicalBrain.com will be shutting down here in the next few days. I'm going to spend the next month working up a new layout for the blog and using some new SEO information to optimize it. Any ideas on good software/plugins to accomplish that are appreciated. Just drop it in a comment or email.

Later gang.

New Look 2009

I don't remember when I changed the blog's look last, but I felt like I needed a dramatic shift. Thus the lack of dark colors and the now stark white slate with blood red highlights ready for my colorful or bleak ramblings. I'm still doing some adjustments on the script for this design that I downloaded from www.btemplates.com. Once that's done it should flow smoothly. Biggest itch right now is the lack of spacing between sections of the sidebars. Flaw in the original design. A few tweaks and I should get it fixed.

Let me know if there are any parts you find hard to use or annoying. I'll probably just tell you to suck it up, but don't let that discourage you. Lol Also, I did lose my site list when uploading this new template so it will be a bit before I get that up and running. Oh for the days of Photoshop. This thing would be in top notch performance if I had all the right tools. Someday soon.

Thanks for reading guys. Readership is up to a high daily average now. Why you people want to read this dirge, I don't know, but I love you for it. Lol

The Quickie

Boy how I wish that title was what it implies at first glance. Sigh. Strange here, checking in from the ranks of the unlucky to leave all a snippet of my life in the last two weeks. After reviewing the material for this one, I don't think it will be as short as it was going to be originally.


Since posting last, we've celebrated both the commercial holiday of Halloween and the ancient and resurrected festival of Samhein. Halloween went off without a hitch and gave me reason to succumb to my love of pumpkin carving. The mass lobotomy of the collected Jacks resulted in four fun and funky pumpkins that drug out the comments in spades from each of our trick-or-treaters. Ahhh, a little bragging-ego-booster there for me. I am quite proud of my handiwork. Samhein was quiet and private and consisted mostly of a time of releasing to the universe all the old baggage from the year before. Good for the soul, good for the body. It is amazing how much you can keep inside and not realize without some self examination. A good detox is always good for the body and soul.






With the end of October a new wave of knitting books surfaced at the local Barnes Ignoble and my find was scouted and acquired with much rejoicing. I reviewed this book in an earlier post without realizing that it wasn't out yet. Duh. I finally have the Son of Stitch n Bitch and I've already started my first project. It's a double knit scarf with a diamond pattern in black and lime green. I don't have pictures yet because of the lousy camera that I have, but when I do there will be an update. It's challenging, but loads of fun. Very left brained.



Couple of weeks ago we had Maggie Sefton down from Ft. Collins for a quiet... uhhh, not that quiet... night of knitting and chatting about life and books. She spilled the good news on new books, publishers, and her own LYS. We've decided, after a generous invitation, to take a field trip up to see our favorite author in her natural setting. The date for that is not set yet, but it will be sometime after the first of next year. I'll be raving about that again in the future, just you wait!


Knitting Knuts! With the ever expanding size of our knitting group, we've decided it would be a grand plan to start our own knitting blog with multiple authors in order to showcase events, current reads, and other big news bytes everyone should know about. There will also be plenty of room for random knitting rants and humor to spice it up. You can see the starter page for our new blog here. Knitting Knuts is the current working title. There will also eventually be an email list to join.


And that wraps most of this entry up. I'm working on incorporating an mp3 widget into the sidebar for some entertaining music for you all to listen to while perusing the archives. I'm all about the entertainment of my readers. Hopefully that is why you all keep coming back to read. Lol. Don't make me have to result to "naughty" tactics. I may just be desperate enough.

'Til next time then.

Great Tidings of Increased Blogging

A new job is on the move. This will be my second job on top of the Barnies and Noblies full time position that I hold. And second job means more money! And more money means Halloween extravaganza and a fixed computer. Yes, my darling, soon you shall function fully and beautifully once again!



As for the Halloween extravaganza, I have big plans for an industrial vampyre costume. Similar to Lestat's (left) look in Queen of the Damned. Well, plus a shirt. I'm not that sexy... yet. I need money for the not-so-expensive fangs I'm buying from Vampfangs, and some chunky silver jewlrey I need for my fingers and ear along with the cross I want for my neck. I think I'll get that from Hot Topic or some other gothic site, or, even better, some little out-of-the-way shop. And that whole cross-of-burning-holy-death thing is such a fable! Well, the whole vamp thing is a fable, but the cross thing has no metaphysical basis. Makes a good story though. I'll get into that the closer we get to Halloween and I start exploring the different folklore and fantasy around my favorite holiday. But the clothes I plan on raiding from the local thrift store since goth/industrial are so damn expensive anymore! Damn goth wannabes! You're not goth, you're just emo with a goth fetish! Arrgh! Okay, I'm done. To each their own.


Yay, Halloween!

Template Poltergeists

So, many may wonder what the hell is going on with all the pretty stuff that used to make up my blog's template. I'll tell you. It's a poltergeist! Screwy thing just keeps messin' up my layouts. I believe most of this is in part a conspiracy of the Web Lords who own the webspace on which my layout dwelt. Polter decided to haunt there, and thus the resounding chaos. I since left the groovy layout to find its own way in the WWW and have stuck with a supplier closer to home. Until I have built a template in my own kingdom, I will just have to use the borrowed one from Lord Bloggertemplatebuilder. In short, if you see things goin' screwy, just sigh and pray for my soul. Who knows, I may end up possessed if Polter finds his way back.

There will be other changes soon. Enough that I really don't want to go into detail and will simply let you all know when we've hit the stable state. It may be a while...

Tell Me What You Think

Like what you see? Feel stimulated by what you read here? Fallen in love with the author?

Or...

Maybe you hate the look? Want to hear a wider range of topics? Or loathe the author's new profile pic?

Then leave a comment, blog readers! This is the place to tell me all about what you'd like to see in a blog such as this one. Constructive comments are always welcome, senseless comment violence will be dealt with by my good friends, the Blogger Mafia. If they exist. Seriously, give me a piece of your educated mind and I'll try to see where I can improve my iSpace. For the good of the reading public!

Go in peace, earthling.

Updates and a New Web Address

Hey all, as you may have noticed, I have changed the layout a bit. lol



These are just to get the feel of my blog's template and will probably change again. I bought a book called The Rational Guide To Google Blogger by Wei-Meng Lee and it's gotten me on my way to having the whole lineup. I'm working on Atom syndication, site counter and statistics, and template adjustments with html editing.



I'm also toying with the idea of including AdSense. I'm not sure I like the idea of ads on my blog yet, so for now it's no.



I have also changed my web address for the blog. It is now http://www.ispaceofstrange.blogspot.com/. Any links to my blog that you may have added in the past will be null and void. Sorry!! I promise not to change it anytime soon.



Whew, almost done. I am going to put up a permanent "Tell Us What You Think" entry where you can leave a comment on what you like or think I should change or topics you'd like to hear more about. I may have that up today, maybe not.

That's it for now, guys. 'Til next post, Strange out.

Mobile Blogging

Starting my mobile blog! I call it... portrait of a help page. Corny.

Mobile Blogging

I tried out mobile blogging today via my cell phone's SMS email texting and... it flopped horribly. I couldn't figure out what the heck my email server number was! If any of you know what I'm talking about, leave a comment and tell me what the flip is goin' on.



I'm getting a new phone here soon, hopefully today. My "plan" is running out on my t-Mobile phone and it would be cheaper to switch to Verizon Wireless since half the people I know are on Verizon. It seems to be a very popular company to go with out here in Wyoming, I guess because you can't get service with Cingular, Sprint if you travel, and some complain of inconsistent coverage with T-Mobile. I've never had problems with T-Mobile and would stick with it except that it is free IN-network calling with Verizon.

Maybe with this new phone and the mobile web feature I'll be able to work out the mobile blogging thing. One can hope.