A couple days ago, I was “talking” with my friend Steve, who thought it was funny that I, a theology student, am fascinated with the idea of adding “weird hacks” to my blog, while he, a webmaster, never gets around to hacking.
I was quick to point out that strange new JavaScript can act as a kind of escape for me, because when I finally get the code to work, it seems like magic. Obviously, this escape is not available to a master programmer, who could glance at the code I am puzzling over and install it seamlessly in ten minutes. There would be very little “magic” in the equation, just a little added functionality.
I’ve always been up front about the way I handle code for my blog, using only my thumbs. This way of doing things is precarious, but it makes for an exciting moment now and then. When you cross your fingers and click “save template changes,” the potential for thrills is fairly high.
Some of my techier friends would have to regress, unlearn some things, and become more technically child-like, to enjoy the wonder that new code can inspire. I’m like the kid who wanders through a forest, picking out good climbing trees, while dedicated techies roar through with the heavy machinery and convert the woods to useable lumber.
I like to think this makes me a true lover of coding.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Magic of the Unknown Code
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5 comments:
Or the blogging equivalent of Jack Horner. Whatever.
I would have to agree. As a novice with html and the like, I had to play around and learn everything while constructing my blog. I borrowed some ideas from various blogs, including this one, and have constructed something I like. However, the only problem I still have is the desire to change my title banner, and no way of knowing how to do it.
Hey Dustin, you should definitely take a look at the list of Blogger hacks at Freshblog. Great stuff, and there's actually a hack for changing your title banner. Get over there yesterday!
Belinda, I see that you're still sore from the Gonzaga loss. What can I say? You just shouldn't have picked them.
Dustin,
GTD Wannabe has the scoop on a one-time switch of your header image. William Bontrager has a hack that will scroll randomly through a series of images. Have fun!
I guess I do some nifty things.
I've got the recent comments thing, which required pulling in an RSS feed and showing an excerpt, among other things.
My blogrolls are cached on my web server so I don't have to query blogrolling.com on every page load. The larger ones display random links.
And, of course, my favorites, my referrer and search histories. And I do get some interesting searches to my site.
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