Shiny and new
Here’s something new for 2008 – yet another overhaul of this website. It turns out I am a bit too far gone with CSS and the like to make my own template, so I’ve stolen one instead (from the groovy Textgarden). I’m still working on little quirky things, like spacings and header graphics and whether or not I’ll reinstate the search function (did anyone ever use it, anyway?), but otherwise, I kind of like it, and it loads much faster than my old graphics-heavy design did. Let me know if you see anything broken.
The ol’ weblog well has been a bit dry, but here’s a summary of the last few months:
- Moved out of our flat and into a slightly-larger house in early December;
- Wrapped up active duty at my old job on 21 December 2007 and embarked on a year of unpaid leave. I miss my work friends and, in a way, the drama of the work, but I am enjoying waking up late and getting to focus on other things;
- Enjoyed Christmas with the fam;
- Planted a vegetable garden at our new house, featuring zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, and capsicum;
- Just come back from three days of camping by the sea in lovely Wollongong;
- Commencing new job at my church on Monday;
- Going to see Sufjan Stevens as part of the Sydney Festival.
I’m pretty excited about the whole MTS bizzo. Lots of possibilities for experience and growth. And, we know heaps of people doing MTS this year!
Neil A said,
Jan 11, 08:29 #
Hey Ben,
Nice, fresh and simple – looks good.
Guan said,
Jan 11, 16:51 #
Ooh – like the revamp!
When are you Sufjan-ing? We’ll be there tomorrow night ..
Deborah said,
Jan 11, 17:32 #
For a little while I thought the things in your header image were little brown brains!
Drew said,
Jan 16, 05:28 #
Hey Ben,
How was Sufjan? Another friend of mine went, and posted on it … what do you think of this issue? (see link):
http://crmayes.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-owns-sufjan.html
sarah said,
Jan 23, 08:33 #
Ah… the reason why your Christmas card came back is suddenly clear!!
Email your new address and we’ll try again :)
/Karen/ said,
Jan 23, 12:02 #
RE MTS: How exciting! Will pray for you.
Ben said,
Jan 25, 12:25 #
Hi, everyone,
Sorry I haven’t replied in a while: everyone’s comments were disappearing into a secret realm which I only rediscovered today, thanks to Kathleen’s prodding.
1) Brown brains yeh yeh.
2) Hey Drew, I read your friend’s blog article (Sufjan was awesome with a capital ‘awesome’, by the way). I don’t see any real evidence that Sufjan is gay – a lot of the lyrics they cite from the Seven Swans album are talking about Jesus and I find it repugnant that they recast those lyrics with a homosexual interpretation (I am a bit lost with the quotes from The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades...that song does sound a bit gay). I do see some merit in the argument about christoromanticism and coolness-by-proxy – when I discovered Sufjan, I got really excited when I found out he was a Christian because I thought, ‘finally, a good indie Christian muso!’.
3) Yeah, MTS is pretty cool, though the storm is yet to hit!