It's been a while
My, oh my. More than eight months have passed since The B2 Journal has offered up anything new - or anything at all, for that matter. They say there are reasons for everything and I suppose a more trite, inane phrase was never uttered.
However, several events bordering on the dark side did indeed come to pass this year and unfortunately, forced me to totally focus energies elsewhere. But now is not the time to dwell upon serious matters; such things will be bared in upcoming Journal entries. No, now is the time to explain why the B2 Web page has undergone yet another metamorphosis.
Prior to the self-imposed writing hiatus, I had been trying to keep abreast of every major news story and event of import, offering alternative opinion to the obscenly biased reportage with which America was and still is bombarded daily. But the fact is that it simply became too difficult to keep up. Having a life with real demands and real issues to resolve, I had to prioritize.
But the exact reason why the journal was spawned in the first place - to share random opinion pieces whenever there was time or inclination to do so, was lost. The non-work ethic of no rush, no deadline, no stress, slow and easy - or sleazy, as brother Randy would say - had been forgotten. So after months of dealing with at least some of the demons that were plague-like in their onslaught, B2 vowed to back off, loosen up, and simplify.
B2J's new URL and format
Before continuing, stop reading right now and bookmark the site's new URL. I changed service providers and the address changed as well.
Now that the new URL is is out of the way, the site had to be redeveloped so that file management was no longer an issue. The JavaScript-dependent older version simply required too much maintenance on archive files and imagery to conform with valid Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) rules. Bye bye JavaScript.
"New clean look, simplified navigation, minimal labor-intensive bells and whistles, limited graphics, easy-as-pie archive maintenance, and no CSS or XHTML hacks because there is no need ..."
Next, there were simply too many subdirectories and ancillary files - hundreds of them, with each one requiring physical alteration every time there was a W3 Consortium rule change or site tweak. Most of them are dead and gone.
And then there was the fact that the journal simply contained too many segments which demanded too-frequent updates. No more recipes, no more daily quotes, no more ... stuff.
So here we are. New clean look, simplified navigation, minimal labor-intensive bells and whistles, limited graphics, easy-as-pie archive maintenance, and no CSS or XHTML hacks or workarounds because there is no need. The imagery sections are now easily maintained and feature either pure CSS-driven slide viewers or PowerPoint presentations. No more tables or, again, JavaScript. I may change the presentations from time to time ... or not.
Each page within The B2 Journal now strictly and cleanly validates (try the CSS and XHTML validation links at the bottom of each page, I dare you!). Visitors are no longer required to have JavaScript enabled to see the site in its proper format. But best of all, page revisions are now a snap - no muss, no fuss, no worries - sleazy.
OK, now what?
Well, for one thing, B2's new opinion pieces will now appear when they appear; there will be no rush to publish and it will occur only when time and the impulse directs. I appreciate the inquiring email correspondence I received during the last eight months, but the days of laboring under self-imposed, time-sensitive deadlines are over.
So settle back and enjoy the beautiful views of the Finger Lakes region or peruse some of B2's brilliant archived opinions until the next article is published. But no worries, mate - you'll be inhaling a new dose of B2's obnoxiously satisfying, common-sensical public nuisance before you can spell chrysamthema ... chrismathema ... daisy.