Changes to the blog

So there’s been a couple of minor changes to the comments on this site. I’ve added in the new, cleaner comments template from Movable Type. I’ve also created a white-washed version of the ‘logo’ (the guy on the left on the homepage), which now floats in the background.

Finally, I’ve been thinking that maybe I should give this thing a name, different from my domain name, which, ego-stroking as it may be, is not terribly descriptive. When I was younger, I used to have a moniker that I used when creating things, Frustrated Guppy (which came from a very disturbing nightmare). Homework was often a ‘Frustrated Guppy Production’. Anything money-making was through ‘Frustrated Guppy Inc’. I went so far as to sketch out a title sequence if I ever had a film company (I was once a film student). So I was thinking, for old time’s sakes, something along those lines. But perhaps not.

But consider this an open call to name my blog. If any of y’all have any ideas, please feel free to let me know.

12 Replies to “Changes to the blog”

  1. Well, I’d always thought the name of this thing was “Tannock.net” (like Communicopia.Net), but links into here are (if from friends) ‘Steve’ or strangers, ‘Tannock’. Which is odd. Maybe I should rename it along the lines of my posting short-hand, and be tnnck.nt rr Stv.nt 😉

  2. Well, I’d always thought the name of this thing was “Tannock.net” (like Communicopia.Net), but links into here are (if from friends) ‘Steve’ or strangers, ‘Tannock’. Which is odd. Maybe I should rename it along the lines of my posting short-hand, and be tnnck.nt rr Stv.nt 😉

  3. I dunno, I’ve always been a small-c conservative, so I have to say I *like* Tannock.net. But then … I have bantjes.com, so you can see I need to make some kind of defense for the old “name it after myself” default.
    I can certainly see your point though about the strangers, when you become the icon of bloggism that is “whatdoiknow”, “tesxtism”, “dooce” or “alistapart” … except in the case of the latter i have trouble remembering the name and think of his site and him as Zeldman(.com).

    BTW the background image in the comments is tres cool, but making it a little difficult to read.

  4. I dunno, I’ve always been a small-c conservative, so I have to say I *like* Tannock.net. But then … I have bantjes.com, so you can see I need to make some kind of defense for the old “name it after myself” default.
    I can certainly see your point though about the strangers, when you become the icon of bloggism that is “whatdoiknow”, “tesxtism”, “dooce” or “alistapart” … except in the case of the latter i have trouble remembering the name and think of his site and him as Zeldman(.com).

    BTW the background image in the comments is tres cool, but making it a little difficult to read.

  5. I can see the argument for going with the .com for linking purposes. Mabye this is just me (somebody back me up here!), but please please please don’t call yourself “Frustrated Guppy”! 🙂

    It makes you sound like a bad 80’s band – i.e. a little goofy, and like an in-joke that nobody wants to know. It also sounds a bit like one of those guys in high school who says things like “methinks” and “verily” when they don’t have to (and I should know, I think I might have been one of those guys – and maybe I still am). But who knows, maybe contemporary-sounding things like “textism” will be just as bad and pretentious in the rear-view mirror. But then again, I know you well and you may want to play up your geekiness, and if you go ahead call yourself “Frustrated Guppy” I won’t bug you about it again in writing – but I will call you that in public (i.e. yelling “Hey Guppy!” accross a crowded bar)…

    The blog names I like the best reflect the overall attitude and content of the site. So maybe something along the lines of “self-doubting left-winger” (but better).

    I guess it depends on what kind of reputation you want the site to have. If you want random pepole talking about it, I think it should be easy to say and spell – and maybe have an aura of meaning – but if you just want your friends posting, then you can call it any random string of characters with a dot com at the end of it and people will still come…

    Now get back to work!

  6. I can see the argument for going with the .com for linking purposes. Mabye this is just me (somebody back me up here!), but please please please don’t call yourself “Frustrated Guppy”! 🙂

    It makes you sound like a bad 80’s band – i.e. a little goofy, and like an in-joke that nobody wants to know. It also sounds a bit like one of those guys in high school who says things like “methinks” and “verily” when they don’t have to (and I should know, I think I might have been one of those guys – and maybe I still am). But who knows, maybe contemporary-sounding things like “textism” will be just as bad and pretentious in the rear-view mirror. But then again, I know you well and you may want to play up your geekiness, and if you go ahead call yourself “Frustrated Guppy” I won’t bug you about it again in writing – but I will call you that in public (i.e. yelling “Hey Guppy!” accross a crowded bar)…

    The blog names I like the best reflect the overall attitude and content of the site. So maybe something along the lines of “self-doubting left-winger” (but better).

    I guess it depends on what kind of reputation you want the site to have. If you want random pepole talking about it, I think it should be easy to say and spell – and maybe have an aura of meaning – but if you just want your friends posting, then you can call it any random string of characters with a dot com at the end of it and people will still come…

    Now get back to work!

  7. Alright, you’ve convinced me, Day. Just so you don’t shout out ‘Hey Guppy’ across a bar. Although that was just an example. And I like being ‘Tannock.Net’. But I don’t really like being called ‘Tannock’. It makes me think of my high-school teachers, who would invariable call me by my last name, often in a stern tone, which a french accent. So whenever I read my name, I hear that. In particular, I hear Mlle. Markov shouting it at me, with her franco-russian accent.

    Finally, Marian, I agree, it does make it somewhat harder to read. I’m going to try washing the image out a little more, but if that doesn’t do the trick, then I’ll have to get rid of it.

  8. Alright, you’ve convinced me, Day. Just so you don’t shout out ‘Hey Guppy’ across a bar. Although that was just an example. And I like being ‘Tannock.Net’. But I don’t really like being called ‘Tannock’. It makes me think of my high-school teachers, who would invariable call me by my last name, often in a stern tone, which a french accent. So whenever I read my name, I hear that. In particular, I hear Mlle. Markov shouting it at me, with her franco-russian accent.

    Finally, Marian, I agree, it does make it somewhat harder to read. I’m going to try washing the image out a little more, but if that doesn’t do the trick, then I’ll have to get rid of it.

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