I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts. I installed WordPress and started blogging way back on August 2nd, 2004 (see archive to the right). I learned to add content pretty frequently for a site that had previously housed pictures of our trips and vacations and a few snippets of nonfiction work I had published at the time.

The first few years were a Golden Age of blogging for me (both reading and writing) as I both composed posts and trolled the Internet at my desk job. Posting declined with my entry to grad school in the fall of 2006 (reading others’ blogs ceased almost entirely due to time constraints) and has dropped sharply with the birth of my boy in May of this year. Plenty of other things have changed a lot in these five years and this website has more or less kept up, sometimes sluggishly so.

When I created this site, I was still transitioning from working in soccer administration to my new lives, first as a struggling writer and then as a struggling writer and graduate student (my current predicament). My interests have changed dramatically since entering my Ph.D. program in Creative Writing, and along the way I’ve accumulated a number of fiction publications I’m quite proud of. As a result, I figure it’s high time I professionalize this space, updating my interests to reflect my academic pursuits and giving the site a consistent theme.

I’ve been plugging away at customizing a WordPress template and I hope to upload a new theme soon. The game plan is to let WordPress handle the more-or-less static site content and two, count ‘em, two blogs running simultaneously: one will be more academically-minded, tracking my thoughts on the things I’m reading, my writing, projects I’m working, thoughts about pedagogy, etc., and will be little more formal; the other (which I’m planning on keeping at the trenthergenrader.com/wordpress address) is this one, where I’ll spout off about footie, UFC, and other more recreational pursuits with the same grammatical errors, comma splices, and nonsensical sentences you’ve come to know and love.

Why do this? Because I’m rapidly approaching a time in which prospective employers rather than curious readers and old high school friends may be perusing this site. Since I’m working towards a special emphasis in professional writing focusing on technology, I would do well to tidy up the house.

Hopefully the update will not result in a catastrophe (I’m not trying anything too tricky, like pulling out specific school posts to populate the new blog) but don’t say you haven’t been warned. Wish me luck.

Oh, the US vs. Mexico is being shown tonight at 5:30 CT on Mun2 (mundos, as in “worlds,” get it?) on Directv and Dish, and also on Telefutura, I believe. I just saw the half-time score and I’m a bit pissed because I didn’t know it was on tape delay. Grrrr….

Go US!

Current Mood: Sure |