Journal archive: May 2004

Wordpress

Been trying to migrate this site to Wordpress. Thought it would have been a breeze but a whole can of worms has been opened.

Some of the main reasons to move to Wordpress are that Wordpress is opensource, coded in php (which is something I can actually play around with, rather than perl) and supports subcategories. Plus it is also enabled with a centralised built-in search program.

However, in actual implementation, I found out, through the hard way (more on that later) that its concept of subcategories is different from the way I would have had it; its code is messy and not modular enough and lacks the template flexibilities that Movable Type has.

Problem 1: Subcategories

First let me describe my interpretation of subcategories. In my opinion, subcategories should behave in a drill-down navigational way. For example, say I have a photo gallery in my site that is subdivided into different sections: friends;work; school. I would consider the photo gallery as a main category while its sub sections subcategories. You can see that system built into my current website using movable type. However since movable type’s architecture doesn’t allow that, I had to fake the look with multiple blogs.

Subjects: Websites ウェブサイト

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Movable Type, programming, Wordpress

Anticipating: 2004-05-21

The two Chinese films currently showing at Cannes:

2046

Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 - A Writer’s DeskWong Kar Wai’s 2046 - MailboxesWong Kar Wai’s 2046

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Tags: 2046, Cannes, cinema, Final Fantasy, Kaneshiro Takeshi 金城武, Square-Enix, Wong Kar Wai, Zhang Ziyi

New Workplace

Visited my new place-of-work yesterday, where I am to be a book/journal editor come June. It was a handover visit since the position is a replacement. It completely matches my preconception of an editorial office. There are books everywhere and mounds of completed-and-sealed manuscripts packed into boxes or lying under the desks; not to mention incomplete ones. The people were warm and friendly. I am excited, albeit a little anxious about my abilities to handle this new position.

Subjects: General

It's a Fool's World

When you watch a John Woo film…
you see how shallow the world is
and it makes you relax, right?
Coolness is in full force, even with
a strand of nose hair poking out.
It’s that kind of manly aestheticism.
Only idiots do the cool,
dangerous stuff.
That’s why they’re cool.”

—Preview for Furi Kuri Episode 5 “Bura Bure”
Furi Kuri Episode 4 “Furi Kiri”

Subjects: General

Mood: Learnings & Quotations

Recent Reads: Veniss Underground

Veniss Underground

This book is worth every dollar and cent I paid for, despite my initial reservations about purchasing it: it seemed just too expensive for a 207-page paperback. I had intended to borrow it from the national library but it turned out that for some strange reason it was not available in the library’s catalogue even though the book had been on sale for more than a year.

Most of reviews I’ve read for this novel describe it as a Dantean-Ophean phatamasgoric fable set in a futuristic society where biological living artworks have pervaded into human society for both aesthetic and functional purposes. Having read this novel, I come to the realisation that there is probably no better way to describe it: it is the sum of what the reviewers have described and much more. Vandermeer’s writing style is impossible to describe, it can only be felt through reading and imagination.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: bio-art, Jeff VanderMeer, new media, Olaf Stapledon