So earlier in the month I alluded to the fact that I have been updating the look and feel of the website.

I thought I would explain what has happened, without making you go blind with looking at things like this:

• Perhaps the most obvious difference is that the website should have a different look. Gone is the old gray background for pages and blog entries. The background is now white. This should make it way easier to read text. Which will be a benefit if I ever get back on the short story horse.
• Another change is that now all posts include a featured image. This is the image at the top of the blog post.
• I have added a slideshow of “Favorites” in the upper left hand corner of every page. Currently there are only pictures of peoples in that slideshow, but its content will expand over time. From the slideshow, you can click on an image and then go buy it. (Last sentence provided by the Shameless Commerce Division of Photography 139).
• Also on the sidebar of every webpage, I’ve gotten rid of the drop down list of Categories. This has been replaced with a more aesthetically pleasing Cloud of the most popular Categories. The size of the Category in the cloud is based on the amount of times it has been used for a post.   It is an easy way to find all the posts that have been categorized under let’s say “Jesse”.
• Gone is the old “Social Media” page. Instead I have added social media icons to the menu that link to the social mediums that I frequent.
• A skilled observer will notice that in the menu there is an icon for Snapchat. Clicking on that will take you to a page where you can scan my Snapcode and follow me on Snapchat. I use Snapchat mostly for contacting co-workers, hiding from the Sweet & Sour Mafia, and checking the haters.
• There are now images for people that leave comments. These used to pull from Gravatar, but I’m pretty sure the only person to ever leave a comment that uses Gravatar is Lowell. Now, there is a default daisy image (because cool people like daisies) for commenters that I haven’t created an account. I have created Avatars for frequent commenters. The one of you and for my beta tester (Shannon). However, anybody that becomes a commenter in the future, I will create an avatar for you as well. If you want an avatar, the best way to do that is to leave a comment. If you use Gravatar, the website should still pull your Gravatar image.
• There are new headers and a new logo. There are only 5 headers currently, but I will be added to that in the future. The new logo might not be permanent, but if it isn’t permanent, some variation of it will be. At this time, I’m leaving the old logo as the watermark for images in the Gallery.
• 3 blogs are featured on the home page. The 3 featured entries will change as new blog are published.
• There is a search function now on the far right end of the menu bar. In case you want to find all blog posts where I use the word Proust for example. Suddenly thinking about bringing back the Proust Questionnaire.  Hmmmm… I’ll see if anybody responds to this little outburst.
• Added a new complementary color to the website. It is a shade of green.

I’ll probably make a few more changes in the coming months, so I’ll keep you updated on those as they occur.

Also, thanks to Vest for aiding in much of this transition!