Not as pretty; but a lot more easy

Hi,

Welcome to Lindsayism 4.0, and to this rambling and mostly unecessary explanation of same.

1.0 First, there was my Diaryland site, which opened with a whimper in November of 2000 with a rant called "Slim Shitty: An Open Letter to the Music Critics of the World." It contained the sentence "Eminem makes Vanilla Ice look like Leonard Cohen," and trust me, the five human beings who read it (all, disappointingly, not music critics) didn't speak to me for a couple days (and rightfully so -- I've come around since Stan. A little.)

For the next three years, I updated sporadically with little confessionals about such things as my teenage obsession with the movie Gone with the Wind, Bambi-legged early attempts at pop culture parody, 'subtle' hidden messages to certain boys, and a pretty decent reaction to September 11th.

In short, That shit is password protected for a reason. (Though I have printed every entry and given them a rightful place nestled next to my high school letters to Carrie Fisher, William Shakespeare, and Annie Dillard. Swear. To. God.)

2.0 In May of 2003, after giving up on my then-boyfriend's fantastical promises of a real website, I got a friend to burn me a copy of Dreamweaver, spent a weekend studiously taking the tutorials, and painstakingly put together this baby.

It soon became popular with people who were linked on it and googled themselves obsessively, my friends who wanted to make sure I was keeping their Union Pool bathroom secrets, and those who mistook it for the first blog designed entirely by a four year old child.

I say all these mean things about it because I fucking love it so much. I mean, look at it. Gaze upon its disorganization, its clutter, its breaking-of-every-single-rule-of-design-ever-made, and not in a "you have to know the rules..." way. I wish I could say I was just trying to get into the next edition of Web Pages That Suck, but that thing was exactly the earnest "magazine of my brain" that I'd dreamed of since the 'zine era, and I adored it, and it changed my life (though I did know the design sucked.) Luckily, it was short-lived.

3.0 In March of 2004, my friend Ben Chappel announced he was giving me a birthday present: a complete redesign. And he did. (I've saved it, of course) Ben spent hours, no, days, on it, and it was so beautiful and good and the best present I've ever received.
Most people reading this know that we lost Ben in March of this year, a subject I've never found appropriate to write about here, on this silly site about comedy and funny links and stupid unimportant immaterial unlasting things. But I can't exactly do a redesign without mentioning his contribution, since that's still his illustration up there, altered a bit to fit this template, but still in Ben's charming, friendly, affable style. When Ben first unveiled the design, I was shocked at how perfect for me it was. (Though my representation was even skinnier and with bigger boobs than she is now (believe me, I had to fight hard just for the stick figure I ended up with.) But that was Ben's style (more of which can be seen, heartbreakingly and brilliantly, here (click the yellow star))

Which brings us to this site. My old site was set up to update with Blogger, which is unreliable, hasn't kept up with technology (categories? hello?) and which made me actually cry with frustration a few months ago when I couldn't post for almost two weeks (I even tried calling Google HQ. As you might have guessed: you don't get a real person.)

I've tried to use as much of Ben's design within the Typepad interface as possible. I'm still a bad designer, so if you have anything constructive to say, please email me.

This new version has

- Categories (I've gone 3 months back, eventually I'll get to all the archives)

- Comments (because I like blogs with comments best. This time they're moderated according to the note on the left)

- Actual Event Listings (many more to come now that they're easy to add)

- My ability to add to the permanent links is restored (right now they're the blogs I've read and the people I've known the longest, more will be added soon)

- An about page with stuff on it because my friends keep telling me to step up and be more professional and shit. (TK)

- A lot of cool other stuff Typepad offers that I'll be adding soon.

Tomorrow: more funny links and stupid immaterial unlasting things. Updated daily and spell-checked for your pleasure.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Okay-I read the diaryland site BITD and I STILL think you should reprint the "Interview with L-Ro piece."
Whatevs-peace.

Opportunity to leave comments? I'm drunk with power. WEBSTER HALL SUCKS! BLOC PARTY ARE SOOOO OVER! JARED LETO'S A TOOL!AHAHHAHHHHAHAAAAA!!!!
I like the new set-up with the different size 'categories' & such. Well-appointed... Also, cuz this is the inaugural comment I win prizes, right?

[Toby]

Ah, the perfect segue into your new-ish layout! I will miss the cute animation though.

And THANK YOU for creating a Highdeas category! YES!

[Felix]

Full RSS feed, pleeeeeeeeze?

[lindsay]

Felix, you got your wish! I meant to set it on "full" anyway.

[Kerry]

Congrats on 4.0! A truly great start to any blog is a test post containing the word testes.

Yeah, I agree. The Diaryland stuff was awesome. I liked the one with the guy drawing you on the subway. And whatever happened to that ex-best-friend series?Also, "Not as pretty but a lot more easy" was the nickname of my prom date in high school.

[Tam]

I would love to read your Sept 11 post...
and yay for comments and new design

[Uncle Grambo]

Da da dah dah dahhhhh, I'm loving it! And by "it", I mean your redesign. Not McDonald's. Although you can't deny the majesty of their fries.

[jo]

hey lindsay, as ben's pal, i just want to say thanks for keeping his illustrations. when i saw the words "redesign" in my bloglines feed, i held my breath until i saw the header, and the exhaled with relief. i guess that i can't handle the idea of any little tidbit going away. okay.

[Dervin]

Yay!!! Comments!!!
Witty Things!!!
Bon Mots!!!!
No HTML!!!!!

[Chris]

Kickass, I love it. And, by it, I mean this site.