Apropos to the classic A&J strips that have been running lately, I read yesterday where Kylie Jenner, 21, has become the world’s youngest billionaire. Ms. Jenner, who is an integral component of the Kardashian brand, owns a line of makeup she markets to young women, mostly online. I will have no further comment on this.
After a rocky February, the Web project is getting back on track. You are excused for asking, What is the big problem? I have asked myself that. Unbeknownst to me, I undertook this makeover at a time when the WordPress world itself is undergoing something of a revolution. It is, indeed, a back-to-the-future moment.
Since it was introduced in 2003, WP has become the most popular content-management system on the Worldwide Web. It was, initially, a blogging platform. It caught on quickly, because it was easy for anyone to use. It was a fill-in-the-blank proposition. A user, such as myself, would insert a title, some kind of art or picture and some text. Unseen and—for most of us—inaccessible code took over from there. How the content appeared to a reader on the internet was controlled completely by a WP “theme.” Appearance could be altered superficially by changing themes, but that was about it. This is how blogging became the rage and why so many Web sites took on a sameness with time.
The WP facade has been chipped at gradually. Coders and designers began tinkering almost immediately, coming up with ways to customize WP. I did a little of this myself within my previous WP sites, but it wasn’t easy, and there really was not much leeway, even for those who could manipulate code. Now, the facade is tumbling. Now, there are many “page builders” coming into maturity, complex programs that allow true customization of WP without having to understand code. (But, believe me, it helps!) I call it a back-to-the-future moment, because it is a mashup of WP and the old WYSIWYG page builders, such as Front Page, that WP effectively replaced. I, among many, am having to learn a lot of new tricks. Unfortunately, I’m sure we’ll talk more about this in days to come.
23 responses to “Makeup Something III”
For the 3/6/19 comic, there’s no comparison to thick, deli-sliced, bologna with the thin, pre-slice packages. Thick slices are almost infinitely better! It’s nice that Arlo is eating his baloney sandwich on white bread, too. The only problem is that “Everyone” knows that a good bologna sandwich has mayo, not mustard. The jar on the counter looks like fancy brown mustard, even. At least he hasn’t added a runny egg to the top! 🙂
Well, not “everyone.” I blame my time in France. 🙂
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That ? Was supposed to be a winky smiley…
😉
Wow, I felt like I was reading a newspaper! My 3 year old Grandson may never quite understand newsprint and the newspaper format. Good luck with WP.
I was wondering who would be the first to notice! The column layout is a perfect example of what I’ve described. As far as I know, this layout was an impossibility for most of us blogging peons until very recently. It is a welcome innovation. Today it’s possible to present appreciably larger artwork, but the text beneath tends to become tedious and unnatural within one run-on column.
What I noticed was how much you wrote. I don’t recall a longer post.
I know that you are short on time and can’t always leave a post of that length, but I thoroughly enjoy the longer entries.
The three column looks good on the desktop, but kills readability on handheld devices. Does WP have the option to check device and present a mobile device formatted page? The WIX website I built for my wife’s CPA business has the capability and it allowed me to use bells and whistles for desktops and still be usable on mobile devices.
I will address those issues within the “new” site. We’re just treading water here.
Yep. Wanted to be sure you knew it is a possible issue is all.
After some digging in the myriad CSS files in my WordPress site, I did discover code for detecting the display screen width and selecting a designated style sheet as appropriate (i.e. elements that are side by side on a wide screen become stacked vertically on a narrow screen). So this does exist.
Of course I’m much better at working this stuff out when I have working code to examine than I would be writing it from scratch. We paid some web designers to create our WordPress site framework and get the appearance and layout how we wanted it. I got nitpicky about a couple of small things later, of course, but managed to take care of them myself.
My favorite bologna as a kid was the garlic kind that came in the big sticks like the ones in the deli. You could slice it anyway you wanted, and it was fun to peel off that red coating.
That makeup consultant in the retro reminds me of my thoughts on the stylists working in the local hair cutting establishments. Most have their hair in weird colors akin to a clown wig, multiple tattoos, and enough piercings to set off a metal detector. There’s gilding the lily and then there is ruint, as Arlo said.
Your journalism roots are showing in the column layout. I actually like the column layout as it makes it easier to read.
I used to be Crab in Grapeland but as you have said, everything changes. As a programmer and designer for almost 40 years I have an idea what you are dealing with. I have been using Microsoft’s Visual Studio for several years which does support the kind of thing you are doing but one has to build it from the basement up and the graphics aren’t all that pretty. I am benefiting from your posts on the subject.
WYSIWYG, What You See Is What You Get. I was in the computer graphics business when that acronym came into existence. We quickly modified it (internally) to WYSIWYB, What You See Is What You Bought.
Columns? Plural?
Wow, I haven’t seen “WYSIWYG” in decades! I well remember when it was really the cat’s pajamas.
I learned to code websites with ye olde HTML back in the 90s, before it got burdened down with javascript, CSS, PHP, and all that other crap. Oh, I can manage a little bit of those fancy things when I need to as long as I can borrow code from tutorial web sites, but we recently converted my purely text-editor-coded company website to WordPress. I can still fiddle around the edges a little bit more than your average Joe, but for the most part the workings of the site is a huge bloated block box. (The type where something goes in and something else goes out but you don’t know what happens inside, not the airplane data recorder type.)
Other than never knowing what color her hair would be when I showed up for an appointment, Pneumatic & Pulchritudinous Hair Stylist was pretty natural. And her hair colors were always “real” shades. No visible tattoos or piercings, and considering the ways she dressed over the years, there weren’t too many places they could have been and not been visible. 😉
And my Oklahoma stylist no longer has purple hair. Although I must say she made the purple work surprisingly well.
From the Journal Times:
“Bologna is a cooked, smoked sausage made of cured beef, cured pork or a mixture of the two.
“The bologna might include choice cuts, depending on who’s making it, but usually contains afterthoughts of the meat industry – organs, trimmings, end pieces and so on.
“A typical recipe uses seasonings such as salt, sugar, pepper and spices, plus a curing agent that includes sodium nitrite to prevent food poisoning.
“The meat is chopped, mixed with the cocktail of seasonings and put it in a casing. Like all sausages, bologna is covered in a natural casing made from the gastrointestinal tracts of cattle, sheep and hogs.
“Or it’s put in a synthetic casing, which could be made from collagen, fibrous materials or even plastic.
“Yes, plastic. Is there anything it can’t do?”
Ummm. Yeah, boy, give me some more of that! Actually, our favorite nearby eatery has a “Hillbilly Steak Sandwich” on their menu…”A thick slice of grilled bologna with a fried egg, American cheese, red onion on a toasted bun.” Perhaps I will take a bullet for the Village by ordering one and reviewing it.
And how did “bologna” become to be known as “baloney”? It is in the South.
The newspaper layout was a pleasant surprise. My late significant other, a retired newspaper editor, would have appreciated it. And… I like that I do not have to page back up to the top to get to today’s A & J.
By the way… when I mentioned my SO, I thought of something amusing (at least to me). Before he retired, he reminded a lot of people of Shoe. I know a lot of Villagers are fond of that strip. And yes, chomping on a cigar and glowering over the edition-to-be – that could have been Jerry. He DID mellow somewhat after he no longer had the stress of getting out that daily paper. His saving grace was always his sense of humor. His humor books – collections of his newspaper columns – are my treasures. Ah… a man who can make me laugh…
Nice to hear from you, Galliglo. I remember reading your posts when he passed away. It was so sad, and you have missed him very much. He must have been a fine man.
Love the columnar format and the larger art frame. Nicely done! Thanks for keeping at it, Jimmy!