Yes that’s right return as in to blogging. Although maybe not permanently. For the past year to year and a half this blog has lain largely fallow as I managed my business and personal life. Those two priorities still remain ahead of blogging. However I didn’t like leaving the blog just to die and I missed writing on a daily basis.

On many occasions I did some short term bursts of blogging (not to be confused with a “blogburst” God, I hate that word) however something else was keeping me from blogging. And that was the look of my blog. For the entire duration of my time as a blogger I have never been happy with my blog layout. From the earliest days on blogspot to the various Wordpress themes I found them to be uninspiring and in many cases not very reader friendly. In fact I find most blogs to be guilty of this. While it is true that many bloggers use generic templates – and these are at best average, there are quite a few blogs out there that have been “designed” or at least tweaked by bloggers and the results are generally atrocious.

As a reader I like to feel drawn into a blog or website so that I want to read and feel comfortable doing so. I don’t like to feel like my eyes are being assaulted with loud colors, noise and cluttered sidebars. Not only are blogs guilty of this but many other websites are as well. In fact if you want to experience the epitome of ugly website layout try going to some of the major sports media websites. They cram so much into the front page that you don’t know where to look and don’t get me started on their “blogs” like this one - see what I mean?

So I set out on a journey of sorts. I looked at hundreds (actually maybe even thousands) of blogs and then I looked at hundreds of on-line magazines and journals. I noted what I liked and what I didn’t like. And once I had a feel for what I liked as a reader I began to look for someone to re-design The Meatriarchy.

This turned out to be a lot more difficult than you might realize. Think of this simple proposition: you have a blog; you would like to customize the look and feel of the site. Nothing too fancy just some layout changes, font adjustments etc. You would think there would be thousands of people who could do this and would be willing to do so for money but it is very hard to find them. They seem to be hiding in another “internet” somewhere.

I posted a request on my own blog – no response. Well that’s not entirely true. Darcey from Dust My Broom took pity on me on several occasions and helped me out with technical issues relating to behind the scenes stuff like upgrades to the latest version of Wordpress etc. But when it came to hardcore tear it down and build it back up there seemed to be slim pickings.

Sure there were places that did “corporate blog design” but I didn’t want to pay 5-10k for a blog that I don’t intend to monetize and certainly don’t wish to continue writing on indefinitely. So that option was out.

Then there were all the folks who advertise their blogging design abilities for reasonable prices. Some I contacted but most I didn’t. Why? Well if you are going to hang your shingle out as a blog or website designer you better make sure your own site looks damn good. And frankly quite a lot of them didn’t. At least to me.

I had actually intended to dump Wordpress and move to Movable Type largely because the MT sites have a cleaner minimalist look to them and I contacted some MT designers about this. I was in serious discussions with one or two of them about porting the whole thing to an MT based design when one night while surfing the vast amount of Wordpress Themes that populate the ‘net (all of them looking pretty much the exact same) I stumbled upon a site by one R. Bhavesh

What attracted to me to his site was his obvious expertise in Word press and more importantly the fact that he not only did blogs but fully functional websites. I liked this because he obviously could do a bit more than just swap a few themes around. So I emailed him and we had some back and forth discussions and in just over two weeks The Meatriarchy was re-born.

A couple of things you might notice. First the blogroll. It is no longer on the main page. It now has its own tab on the top. Want to see what blogs I am reading? Just click there. This was important to me in keeping with my desire to keep the front as clutter-free as possible. On the right the categories are still there as well there are listings for the most commented on postings, the most “popular” (I don’t know what that means yet) and “the best of the Meatriarchy” this will be a section for my all time favorite posts. I don’t have it fully populated yet as you can see.

There will be some minor tweaks over the coming days and weeks but the overall look and feel will remain.

As for the blogging I will be doing I am not sure what direction I am going to be going blog-wise. Some of you may remember from an earlier post I did here that I was growing disenchanted with political based blogging. Not that I feel it is unimportant I just feel there are some much better bloggers out there than I who are really able to influence things. And as one blogger put it:

If you want, you can surf all day and never swim out of the warm, stagnant waters of the “aren’t those bastards evil” pool.

So I am going to try to avoid those waters for the most part. I will probably talk a lot about barbecue, hockey, dogs, music and my newest obsession woodworking. Boy is this going to be boring!!

I will not be posting on a daily basis – my work doesn’t allow that. And I may at some point even remove the comments and sitemeter – I find them distracting. But for now they will stay.

And for now I will stay. Look for some more posts on what’s next for the Meatriarchy over the coming week. You can now return to your “stagnant waters of outrage”.

Oh but before you do feel free to comment on the new design . And be sure to visit Bhavesh and contact him if you need your blog or website re-designed for a decent price.

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