Finally, We’re Less Lame!
Posted by Ryan on August 6th, 2006
Welcome to the new and improved Blogger of Jared!*
*the phrase “new and improved” is meant to apply only to design elements and new tools made available by wordpress. Blogger of Jared makes no guarantee as to an increased quality in content.
In addition to a nifty new design, improved recent comments, and more informative bios (”about the contributors” pages), we are also kicking off the release of the new site with a symposium on our namesake, The Brother of Jared. The symposium will last for one week and will cover many different aspects of Mahonri’s life, his people, and their story. If you have anything insightful, obscure, or unusual regarding this topic that you want to share, please contact me at ryan_austin68 at hotmail dot com.
Because we want to make this site as user-friendly as possible, please leave any compliments, criticisms, or suggestions so we can know where we need to improve.
And a special thank you to those who have visited and supported Blogger of Jared over the past months. Our old site meter read close to 12,000 visitors by the time we left. We have enjoyed all of your input (even the snarky anonymous ones).
So again, welcome to the new BoJ. Let the symposium begin!
Nice new look. Congrats!
Comment # 1 left by Guy Murray on August 7th, 2006
BTW . . . you may want to consider leaving a link at your old site directing folks over this way.
Comment # 2 left by Guy Murray on August 7th, 2006
Guy… the story behind why we can’t do that would make a grown man curl up into a ball and rock himself into a coma in his tears.
That man is actually Connor.
Actually, Blogger went mental on us so right now the aggregators and T&S are our only salvation.
Comment # 3 left by Ryan on August 7th, 2006
I am of course quite biased, but I really think this is now the best looking blog on the ‘nacle. Well done everyone, especially Conner.
Comment # 4 left by Eric Nielson on August 7th, 2006
Neat, I like the eggs in the corner, kind of makes me think of God gathering us like ahen gathers her chicks.
Comment # 5 left by Stephen M (Ethesis) on August 7th, 2006
Ryan, Ok–I’ll take your word for it. I just noticed your old site doesn’t even seem to exist any longer anyway. You may want to shoot DKL an email at LDSelect so he can get you aggregated as well. Site still looks pretty cool.
Stephen, I don’t think those are eggs. If I recall those are the 16 stones Jared’s brother brought before the Lord to illuminate the voyage. But eggs are a good guess!
Comment # 6 left by Guy Murray on August 7th, 2006
Neat, I like the eggs in the corner
That one is going down in the BoJ hall of fame.
Comment # 7 left by Ryan on August 7th, 2006
Y’all were never lame. Now you’re just more Wordpressy…
Not bad…not bad at all.
BTW, the stones were clear, right? Try that with a little sunlight behind them. I’ve always loved the symbolism.
Comment # 8 left by Matt Elggren on August 8th, 2006
Eggs? Oh man, it’s 1:30am and I guess I find that a little more funny that it actually is
That’s awesome.
Comment # 9 left by Connor Boyack on August 8th, 2006
I like your stones Conner.
Eggs.
Sheesh!
Comment # 10 left by Eric Nielson on August 8th, 2006
Oh, thanks Matt. Hope to see you around often.
Comment # 11 left by Eric Nielson on August 8th, 2006
Those are some wacked out eggs! However, I guess eggs could be pretty symbolic too: newness of life etc.
Comment # 12 left by Wade on August 8th, 2006
Matt, The stones were clear until they were illuminated. Can’t you tell these stones are illuminated?
Comment # 13 left by Guy Murray on August 8th, 2006
Guy,
Actually, no…I can’t tell. Though I imagine this is the intended effect.
They actually look like white stones with light shining on them.
Comment # 14 left by Matt Elggren on August 8th, 2006
Also, I’m sure you guys know this, but the recent comments links are pointing to Connors weblog.
Comment # 15 left by Matt Elggren on August 8th, 2006
Matt, thanks for the heads up - I was using the same plugin I had tweaked for my own site, and forgot to change it up. It should be fixed now.
Comment # 16 left by Connor Boyack on August 8th, 2006
They actually look like white stones with light shining on them.
Well, Matthew… that’s because they are special JPEGs that only look like transparent stones illuminated from within to smart people. Everyone else just sees white stones with a light shining on them.
So I guess we know how smart you are. (unless you want to change your answer and be like the rest of the smart people who see the correct image)
Comment # 17 left by Ryan on August 8th, 2006
Yeah.. that’s it… as I designed them in Photoshop my spiritual eyes were opened, and I saw the refined matter of the stones I was designing. Maybe you just need to pray to have your eyes opened so you can see these eggs for what they really are.
Comment # 18 left by Connor Boyack on August 8th, 2006
Like the new site, guys. Glad to have the technical difficulties gone, too.
Comment # 19 left by mullingandmusing (m&m) on August 8th, 2006
Yeah, some praying may be in order. Though last time I checked Photoshop didn’t have a “view with spiritual eyes” function. Not that it would need such a function but that the results could not be claimed to be a feature of Photoshop. Which might explain the reason that them thar stones look like white rocks (or eggs)…at least to the under-educated physical eye.
Here’s to much Photoshopping success from the spiritual eye perspective!
I also like the dudes packing boxes. I imagine with my spiritual eye that one of those boxes might contain a new MacPro Quad Xeon 64-bit Workstation…with a new copy of Photoshop Universal binary.
Sorry, enough of that stuff. I really do like your site and the story of the Jaredites is my favorite in scripture. The symbolism blows my mind.
Comment # 20 left by Matt Elggren on August 8th, 2006
Re the egg-stones: Could you make the stones dim until a user rolled over them with the mouse, at which point they would light up? That would definitely give your viewers a sense of importance.
Comment # 21 left by BrianJ on August 8th, 2006
BrianJ:
Brilliant! I don’t know if Connor can pull that off, but it’s a ingenius idea.
Comment # 22 left by Wade on August 8th, 2006
That is to funny! My mouse pointer is a finger.
Conner? Is this a big deal?
Also, my wife was wondering if we could set up a search by author thing. She seems to like Ryan’s posts, but doesn’t want to skip past mine in order to read his. It’s inconvientient for her.
Comment # 23 left by Eric Nielson on August 9th, 2006
Nice idea - I can definitely put it on my to-do list - a list which is getting quite large right now. I’ve been dating somebody for two weeks, and man, I become so unproductive
But it’s worth it! Perhaps the Blogger of Cupid will no longer be necessary here in a little while…
Comment # 24 left by Connor Boyack on August 9th, 2006
Okay hang on a second.. two weeks? You’re moving into the Mormon engagement window.. I am not so sure we can allow things to move forward without performing a little interview.
Comment # 25 left by Ryan on August 9th, 2006
Engagement window indeed.. I’ve always been an “intense dater” though. But things are progressing quick rapidly, and it’s getting serious..
Of course, I’ll keep you appraised of all developments on the issue so that you can gather material for this interview you’ve proposed.
Comment # 26 left by Connor Boyack on August 9th, 2006