No I haven’t fallen off the planet. I have been on holiday and taking a step back from !maginality to rethink a few things. !maginality is coming up to its third anniversary and with that in mind we’re going to spruce things up and ramp things up too.

We’ve got a custom theme on its way, in the meantime a little simple thing to tide us over.

We’ve also got more focussed posts for different times of the week etc.

All in all, I am quite excited about things, but first I have to get back to finishing the design and catching up with the post holiday inbox.

Well I’m not exactly sure how or why it happend, I am doing my best to get to the bottom it, but my installation of WordPress sort of broke. It seems to be up and running now but it does feel like it is convalescing. So for the last few days the site may have been quite invisible.

The reason for it being a little unwell has been solved by playing with the permissions on the files. This is fine, as it is now working, but I am also finidng bits of the site which are still a little creaky, so please bear with me.

While I’m here I’d best point out that I have been a little unorganised with a hefty writing commission. This has taken far too much time and eaten into my other writing time. There should be a couple of posts to explain what I have learnt in the process but it has meant posts here have been infrequent.

It would be of interest if I was able to say that the reason for intermittent posts was due to a wayward muse or some life debilitating issue. But the truth will be told, I have been building, decorating and sorting out some deeper life issues, for the past few weeks and months. That isn’t to say they are all acceptable excuses for neglecting you all, but they are all reasonable.

Having said that, most of the building and decorating has been done to enable me to be in a more creative environment. I’ve been decluttering in as many areas as possible and the poor dustmen have been inundated with black sack after black sack. I’ve also recycled so much that I think the UK goverments target for paper recycling has been met twice over.

So the upshot is, I am back and !maginality will be cruising to its creative best over the next few days. And for all you writers out there, don’t forget that NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. I’ll once again be attempting to complete, but this time I have done the preparation, to allow the inspiration to flow with a little less perspiration. May your creativity shine forth.

Just a brief message about the site. I just upgraded to WP2.5.1 and I had a few issues with the upgrade. They are sorted but, due to my inefficient backing up of the theme, things may look a little weird for a few days. I am sorry about this, but it may be the push I need to get things a little closer to how I really want them.

In the meantime, may your creativity blossom.

Well I have managed step one, upgrading to WP 2.5, although there was a slight detour via a server migration. I have to say WordPress handled it beautifully. I exported the posts and then imported them into this version. We should be working fine now.

I am using the fantastic sandbox theme, although I will be skinning it for !maginality. I have made the decision to make the skinning a viewable process. The reason being that if I leave it hidden, it will be out of sight and possibly out of mind. This way, if it looks bad, I should do something about it.

All the plugins aren’t fully loaded yet either, I’ll be choosing what ones to use and where soon, so hopefully not too much discomfort for those viewing.

Now let’s get back to being creative.

The road ahead may be a little bumpy and there may be a little disruption to !maginality in the next few days. I’ll be upgrading to WordPress 2.5 and I’ll also be taking that time to change the design of the site. A new logo and, therefore, favicon will be available and this will herald in a new era for !maginality.

Sit tight and enjoy

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Part of this includes a light server change, which is happening very soon. I didn’t want to be fussing with content as I moved things around. But believe me there is plenty of content just around the corner… 2008 is the year for living !maginalitively.

As you may have noticed by the lack of posts I have been a little busy of late and I don’t see any let up in that in the foreseebale future. However, I will be pressing on with things here.

One thing that often happens with creative poeple is that they get engrossed in what they are doing. The focus is total on the creative task at hand. Whilst this is great for that task, the more routine and mundane tasks that life often demands get left to one side. [Please note that I am not suggesting for one moment that !maginality is a mundane task.] It is no wonder that creative poeople can be hard to live with as they focus on what they are doing rather than the relationships they have.

The danger with such a strict focus is burnout. Creatives will seek the to stay in the zone and the more they cling on the more it can damage. It is all too easy to then look for external stimuli to stay in the zone, excess caffeine and even something a little stronger.

What any creative needs to do is make sure they take downtime, this doesn’t mean they can’t be playing with ideas, taking notes and doodleing, but they should take a break. The batteries need recharging. There is more than one masterpiece in us all.

There may be a little disruption over the next day or so as I upgrade Imaginality. I’ll be upgrading WordPress, changing the theme and also installing a few more widgets and things to make your experience here more enjoyable. So I apologise in advance if things go AWOL for a while.

update to WordPress 2.2
change theme
develop theme
add widgets and plugins
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Yep, I’m finally sorting out the site design. The first major change is the addition of the new logo. I do hope you like it, a nice Web 2.0 feel, a cool colour and the T-shirts will follow.

Seriously though, if the site starts looking a little weird, it means that I have got something a little wrong. But no one ever said creativity is pain free.