Watch your step—objects in motion!
If you're visiting this Website close to the date of this blog post, you may notice that the site looks a little...unfinished. Things may look a little...wrong. If you stick around, you may even notice things changing here and there, right before your very eyes: the background color may suddenly change from white to grey to puce to #a8e6ff, or a piece of content on the left may suddenly jump over to the right.
What the heck is going on?!
Normally when I create Websites, I do all the development work in an area that the public can't see. Then, when I'm ready to publish the site and/or changes, I make it happen all at once, within a matter of seconds. Changing the look of a public Website on the fly, like I'm doing here, is (to use a highly technical Web development term) a "no-no."
But this is my Website, and I can do with it as I please.
And what I please is to teach myself something. Not how to create Websites—I already know how to do that, to a decent extent. No, what I'm trying to teach myself is a little something called Drupal.
Drupal is what is known as a Content Management System (CMS), which is basically a Website that lets you create and manage a Website. You log into the CMS, you add or edit some content, you publish it, and then that content appears on your public-facing Website for the world to enjoy.
The reason I'm trying to teach myself Drupal is that there are lots of things that a sophisticated CMS like Drupal can do that I as a lone Web developer would probably have to spend a long time learning how to do. So rather than trying to keep building houses from scratch, I decided to give this pre-fab option a try.
Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems out there, used on countless high-profile Websites (including whitehouse.gov). Learning Drupal will give me a powerful new set of tools that I can use to help people build robust, dynamic Websites for fun and profit.
So, like Frenchy in Grease, who tried to learn hair coloring at beauty school by experimenting on her own hair, I'm going to try to learn Drupal by using it to construct my own Website.
Now I could do it the right way and create a development version of the site in some hidden location, and then move all the content and design changes to the site when I'm ready. But I thought, "Hey! (I'm paraphrasing.) Why not just make the whole experience public, so that people can see changes as I make them?!" It'll be like a construction site, only without the yellow hardhats and the manual labor and the potential for massive physical injury.
Now in addition to Drupal, one of the things I'm trying to teach myself is a Drupal "theme" called Omega. When you create a Website using Drupal, you have to use these things called "themes" to modify the visual design and layout. Omega is one such theme, and the reason I chose it is because it's described as the first (and so far only) "mobile-first" Drupal theme. In other words, Omega is designed to make this Website look different depending on whether you're viewing it on a smartphone, a tablet, or a desktop or laptop computer. And with more and more people experiencing the Web through their little handheld devices, I really want to learn how to develop Websites that are maximized for the mobile browsing experience. (If you're reading this on a computer, go ahead and see what it looks like on your smartphone. If you don't have a smartphone but have been thinking about getting one, go here.)
Lastly, the reason I've decided to use Drupal is because it'll allow me to start posting blog entries, movie reviews and other content on this site right away, without having to wait ages for me to find the time to create a Website of my own from scratch. With Drupal, I can start posting content right away, and then learn how to make the visual design catch up over time.
So that's what this site is all about. That's why all the changes.
If you have any comments, questions, or if you just want to say Hi or make a snarky remark, feel free to post it as a comment below. Or use the Contact form by clicking the Contact Me link at the top right.
That is, unless I've moved it somewhere else.