Slug: planning-how-to-re-introduce-my-wife-to-blogging-courtesy-of-typepad-step-1-buy-her-a-domain-check-step-2-show-her-the
Date: 2009-11-24
Title:
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Slug: whence-the-permalink
Date: 2009-11-23
Title: Whence the Permalink?
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Slug: my-desk-at-home-now
Date: 2009-11-23
Title: My desk at home now.
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Slug: djfm-and-danceradioglobal-keep-me-going-also-caffeine
Date: 2009-11-23
Title:
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Slug: customizing-typepad-micro-posts-with-typepad-advanced-templates
Date: 2009-11-23
Title: Customizing TypePad Micro posts with TypePad Advanced Templates
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I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that the new features included with TypePad Micro (Six Apart’s free microblogging-focused version of TypePad) worked seamlessly with my TypePad Pro blog.
What I wasn’t as happy about was the way that my Micro posts got a bit lost in the front page of my blog. I run a customized theme here on Ye Olde monkinetic weblog, using TypePad’s Advanced Templates feature. This feature lets those of us with the chops (like Six Apart’s Services team - plug plug plug) create our own custom templates and themes.
So back to Micro posts: these posts don’t get a post title, so they sort of blend in with the rest of the page, since they’re not set off by the larger title text that I usually use for my post titles. So, with some fiddling, I figured out how to set off my Micro posts in a way that I really like.
Template Code
The first thing to do was to find a way to identify which posts were Micro posts so that I could target them with CSS. So, in my Main Index template (actually a template module I use for entries), I added this in the entry code:
<div class="entry<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryTitle"><MTElse>
micro</MTElse></MTIfNonEmpty>" id="entry-<$MTEntryID$>">
Because Micro posts don’t have post titles, I use TypePad’s
MTIfNonEmpty and
MTElse tags to add a “micro” class to posts that don’t have a title. That’s the important part.
The CSS Code
In my stylesheet, I then added several rules to target the newly-classed ‘micro’ posts:
/* styles for Micro posts */
div.micro {
margin: 10px 10px 15px 0px;
background-image: url('pointer.gif');
background-position: 0px 11px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
div.micro .entry-content {
margin-left: 10px;
border-left: 2px solid #2bbaf1;
padding-left: 10px;
}
div.micro .entry-body {
font-weight: bold;
color: #2bbaf1;
}
The Result
Now, my Micro posts get a little “speech pointer” and border attached, to call them out as quick posts:
With a little code and CSS fiddling, you can style your TypePad Micro posts so that they don’t get lost amid the other blog posts.
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Slug: why-must-all-plumbing-projects-require-two-hands-two-wrenches-and-be-performed-in-a-space-my-8-year-old-wouldnt-fit-in
Date: 2009-11-21
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Slug: getting-jodi-setup-on-typepad-i-think-micro-is-going-to-be-a-good-fit-for-those-times-when-staring-at-an-empty-blog-post-for
Date: 2009-11-21
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Slug: unbecoming-redmonk
Date: 2009-11-20
Title: Un-becoming redmonk
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It’s been 11 years since I “became” redmonk, when I registered http://redmonk.net. At the time it had meaning to both Jodi and I, and it was the name of my first freelance business. For 11 years I’ve used redmonk as a chat name, domain, email address, irc handle, and username on seemingly countless websites.
Several years ago (7 now, OMG) I was contacted by James Governor, one of the partners in a relatively new IT consulting venture: RedMonk. James and I had a pleasant talk about the work he was doing, and he approached me about parting with the redmonk.net domain. I wasn’t at all interested in parting with it; ‘redmonk’ was a core part of my net identity.
So, every couple years, James pings me and we have a nice conversation, and I politely decline to give up the domain.
Over the last few years, I found myself using the redmonk moniker less and less. My blog has long been titled ‘monkinetic’, and I began using that as my username of choice. I recently moved the blog itself to http://monkinetic.com, and have been redirecting all redmonk.net traffic there.
So, a week or so ago, when James’ annual “hi there, how are you, would you be willing to part with redmonk.net” email came around, I was finally in a place where the idea didn’t seriously offend me. I talked it over some with Jodi, whose blog is still hosted on redmonk.net, and who has also had a real emotional investment in our domain, and for the first time we were kinda like “maybe?”
So James and I had a few emails, and we came to an agreement that works for all of us. RedMonk will get ownership of the redmonk.net domain, and James will (well, already has!) assume the @redmonk Twitter username.
It feels weird, bittersweet, and even a bit freeing to be letting go of this long-time part of my digital identity. Even apropos, as I work out what it means to be both a netizen and a family member; as Jodi and I have rented our house, are living with the girls in a studio apartment, and are trying to figure out what that means for our family.
There are lots of changes afoot for me and mine, and this one feels right.
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Slug: unsubfollowscribing-day-3ish
Date: 2009-11-18
Title: Un-sub-follow-scrib-ing Day 3-ish
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