Welcome to the new joint, and all that (yaznot)jazz

So now that we’ve said goodbye to good ol’ ramblingmonologues, why don’t you pull up a chair, and go right ahead and prop your feet up on the coffeetable; that’s the only way I know how to sit comfortably, and you might as well do the same.

And while you’re getting settled in and looking around curiously, I gotta ask: So! Whaddaya think?

For those who are interested in such things, the new Sweep The Sunshine weblog title is inspired by a collection of short stories by Hanan al-Shaykh, entitled I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops. Bookworms amongst you may recall I mentioned it in a post early last year (which reminds me, I still haven’t paid off those public library fines, nor did I give all y’all the book recommendations I promised in the comment box). In the collection’s title story, a mother, exasperated by her daughter’s fascination with the sun and its warmth, remarks disparagingly, “What can you do with the sun? Sweep it off rooftops?” Something like that. It’s been a while, and, weblog title notwithstanding, I don’t really remember any of the stories now, so you should read the book and let me know what you think.

The banner is from a photograph I took, but you already knew that, didn’t you?

Special thanks to Elysium, who has graciously agreed to be my tech support whenever he gets a moment, and to HijabMan, who seemed to be as excited about this move as I was (even though he was apparently quite fond of ramblingmonologues and wished I wouldn’t give it up), and who told me how awesome I was for knowing how to center the weblog banner all on my own. (Come to think of it, he may have been being sarcastic, who knows; the only sarcasm I ever truly recognize is my own.)

Yeah, so what do you think? Honest opinions will be taken into consideration, except if you tell me it sucks and it’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen in your whole entire life, because that will just make me kick your sorry ass. I did everything all by myself, and I’m mighty proud of it. I think this is the longest I’ve stared at HTML since my random fiddling-around-with-the-layout sessions back in Fall 2003. I’ve realized that if you squint at HTML long enough, it sort of starts making sense, even to those with kindergarten skills like mine. Vast amounts of cranberry juice are also extremely helpful.

If you’re feeling all bitter that I didn’t share this with you ’til now – well, geez, I warned you, what more do you want? Actually, don’t feel bad; I’m just really independent and stubborn and I hate asking for help except as a last resort. Basically, I’m all about sharing the end result, and not the work-in-progress. This explanation reminds me of the time my father emailed me, expressing his hurt and disappointment that I had neglected to share my resume/cover letter-writing steps with him. He took it as a deliberate rejection and undermining of his academic/career/business experiences. My dad thinks I’m ambitious and intelligent (his words not mine, and laughable to think of these days), but also that I’m highly self-centered. Which is true, I’ll tell you that. But, as usual, I digress.

This space is sort of a work in progress though, so don’t be too alarmed if things still look funky for a while. I have no idea what this site looks like on a Mac, so if you want to give me your opinion on that, that would be highly rockstar-ish of you. I already miss my periodically-changing taglines from the old weblog, so perhaps I’ll resume that once I figure out enough Photoshop skills to put something together. The Blogrolling spacing is hurting my sense of obsessive-compulsiveness; it’s tops on the list. And, if you haven’t already noticed, links within the posts are small and harsh on the eyes. But, hey, I wear glasses, and if I can handle it, so can you – at least until I figure out how to fix it. Also, I have a feeling my permanent-links within other posts may be kinda screwy; I’ll have to look at it later. If you’re using Internet Explorer (WHY?! DON’T DO IT!), the sidebar has some mass craziness going on. (Who wants to help me fix that?) Meanwhile, do get with the program and download the Firefox browser. Please.

That’s all I can think of for now. If you find something else that’s cracked out in a not-so-good way, let me know.

Aright, kids, this should be fun. Geez, look excited already.

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