Changes Behind the Scenes

Well, there are those who say ANY change is bad. There are also those who believe it but don’t say it, they just loudly suffer when there’s a change at work, home or even a store they like to shop at. My Dad swore up and down that he’d never use a computer and that computers were the bane of modern existence. Now, he uses the computer to check his schedule for work and is smugly proud of his accomplishment every time he does it. I don’t think my Dad will ever shop online and I’ll never hear him say anything that starts, “I was IMing with someone who….” But hey, he could surprise me!

As any of you who regularly read The Chronicles of Nani know, I’m a big time believer that change is good. I have to be to be back in school and changing careers at 43 years old! But in those 43 years, many things have changed that have made things much better. I mean, I seriously wonder what my technophobe Dad would do if he couldn’t heat up a cup of coffee in the microwave? Change is good to the last drop there!

Ah, but one of the things we are learning about in school is being properly prepared for change! One of the scrapbooking sites I frequent, or anyway, did frequent, is going through a major change. It’s pretty much an annual change, not fond of that. It’s not good for brand recognition to change your site look all the time. But this time they are suffering from a ton of stuff that’s not transitioning smoothly. About half of their challenges didn’t happen this month, they pretty much missed DSD and they are STILL swamped with the things that aren’t working correctly! Ultimately, that’s bad, really bad, for business in a saturated market!

One of the great tools we have learned about in class is virtual systems. Someplace that mimics the online network, but is not part of the working network. It’s a place you can try out everything before it goes online to make sure everything that needs dotted or crossed is done right. As I’m winding up this semester and getting ready to collect data and write my term paper and as I’m getting ready for my few weeks break before the next term begins, I’m applying what I’ve learned so far.

Not to bore anyone who isn’t a geek with the details, but I’m collecting data to explain how the Sever OS we’re studying works with multiple formats. This is close to my heart as I work on a Windows Vista OS on my laptop and Mac OSX on my desktop! I figure I have a head start to really understanding the eccentricities of combining the platforms on a network because I understand them both, but I’ve also worked for a company that did art and video work on Macs with the accounting and library on Windows machines with a load of custom software and documents that were shared by the whole building. My job at that company wasn’t one of the more exciting ones, but it gave me lots of time to cause trouble for the IT department trying to figure it all out. I even found it exciting to stay late and stressed the night the server crashed. I got to figure out how to finish up our department’s work for the night, but I also got to hear the IT guys stress and toss ideas to each other out loud. I didn’t understand it then, but it was exciting to me. Yes, I’m a geek. There is a certain rush out of fixing problems!

But, that was ten years ago and the IT department was a 3-man team working on the problem. My holiday break project will be a just me endeavor, so I’m going to be careful. I don’t want to be a month working on major problems! The Chronicles of Nani has been on BlogSpot for two years now. I’m not planning on moving, just redecorating. I have learned a lot reading Easy Custom Blogs and seeing what other bloggers have done with their blogs. I’m in the mapping stage right now. I’m going to decide what I’d like the Chronicles to be able to do, then see if I can do it! It’s not going to be a huge change, as I’ve said, that’s bad for recognition, but I will probably update the header logo and glitz up the appearance a little. Now, I have learned a thing or two. I already have my virtual blog set up. As I get ready to put together the skeleton code, I’ll be able to try it out to make sure everything works. Then I’ll add the pretties and make sure it looks good and still functions the way I want it to. Then I’ll be able to cut the whole layout code and transfer it over. I’m kinda hoping it will be a glitch-free transition and the new look will go online and be working at 100% instantly. Keep your fingers crossed for me! The nice thing about doing the change on a virtual blog first, is I don’t have to make any changes until it’s ready to go, there will be no interim look, just the new look.

Now I’m asking my readers for some input! What types of things would you like on The Chronicles of Nani that would make it easier to read or navigate when you visit? Are there any tags you’d like t the top of the blog for easy clicking? How do you feel about the Monday Mug Shot or Photoblog Wednesday moving forward? Should I continue them? Would you want one regular day for scrapbook freebies or layouts? You don’t need to suggest a real time coffee machine that dispenses real, not cyber coffee. I’m working on that and if it’s possible, The Chronicles will be the first blog to dispense real coffee! But anything else you would like me to consider, please, let me know what you like about the blog now and what you might enjoy as the blog grows. I’ll take every suggestion into consideration!

Links: Easy Custom Blogs