ContentedLife

ContentedLife is about Content, not Presentation.

This is my first blog, and it may take me a while to figure it out. I resisted blog software for a long time, preferring to write all my own HTML and CSS by hand, as I have done since 1993. It felt like a cop-out to use someone else’s software to drive one of my websites. I was also prejudiced against blogging itself, because my impression of blogs and bloggers was overwhelmingly negative: they have nothing to say, and say it at great length, and then they copy each other’s nothingness. Of course, I had failed to notice that many good sites are also blogs, but don’t contain that sort of daily journal rubbish.

I became aware of the need to have something which enabled me to write a webpage quickly, so I could concentrate on content rather than getting sidetracked into presentation. So I tried out various Wikis, but I still ended up spending a lot of time modifying the software and the templates, trying to make it suit what I was trying to do.

Two things persuaded me to plump for WordPress.

• It looks good enough out of the box. I can hack around with it when I have time, or not and not be too bothered.
• It does all that complicated RSS stuff which I have no real interest in becoming proficient in myself, but which is undoubtedly a good thing to have.

Incidentally, I have no doubt that this entry will become increasingly ironic as the weeks pass. It’s very unlikely I will be able to resist fiddling with the presentation, especially as my wife complained that the site was “too beige”, and probably ditto talking at great length about nothing. Just to prove myself right.