...that I didn't care if the old pages passed the XHTML validation check?

Yeah, I kinda lied. Granted, I have no intention of scanning and reposting every single post from the old blog again -- that would be overkill -- but I did go backwards from current posts through to fucking August correcting things as necessary to pass the bloody test. Turns out that it's not all of the posts that cause a problem -- just the ones in which I found it necessary to center something. Back on the old blog, I used divs to center things, which I didn't think was really a problem but then I didn't give a crap about XHTML validation over there because nobody stuck a bloody XHTML validation link up front and center and practically challenged me to face its various trials or forfeit my webmaster's honor. However, over here, things were (I think) also a little different. Whereas before I believe line breaks stayed line breaks, in WordPress two line breaks are converted to paragraph... you know what, let's not go into too much depth about it. Reading over those entries yesterday as I "fixed" them, I noticed just how much of my blog was discussion of its own design, or SC's design, or things I was planning for SC, etc. etc. So I won't go into that. Suffice it to say that I fixed a lot of the old posts and made 'em XHTML valid, and also figured out how to ensure that future posts will be valid as well. Alllllrighty then.

If I told you I spent the last 9+ hours, sitting here without food or drink, hell-bent on reposting every single post I ever wrote on the Blog of Wes until I'd fixed the aforementioned problem, would you believe me?

You should, because that's what I did. In addition to adding a few new categories and grouping the old posts accordingly, I also added (more...) links to a lot of the longer posts and GOOD GOD WHY THE FUCK DOES THE PHONE KEEP RINGING?!?!?!? I swear it must've rung like thirty times in the past five and a half minutes. Argh. Anyway, all of the old posts have been fixed. I don't know if they're XHTML compliant -- I didn't do that much with them -- and I don't bloody care, but they've been reposted and they're done. w00t.

Welcome to WESOTERIC. Please enjoy your stay. 😈

Okay, so the conversion has been made, but not painlessly -- apparently I neglected to apply the v1.51 hotfix to the import tool, which means that while the old Blogger posts do show up here, they're not listed as having an author! Which means that I'll have to individually republish every fucking last one of the posts in order to fix that. I've also added some new categories, so I can add old posts to those while I'm at it. But, natch, publishing every post is going to take forever and I'll probably just not care to do all of it. We'll see. Ugh.

Also, there's apparently a lot of code in the old posts that isn't XHTML valid -- natch, since I wasn't really shooting for that, with most of my HTML being in the realm of 4.0 -- and while I'd like for most of the newer posts on this blog to be compliant (something about that damned validation link that came in the sidebar has made me want to appease it -- if they'd had a donut validator there I probably would've shipped them a box of Krispy Kremes), there's no bloody way in hell I'm editing all of the other posts to fix that. The fact that post titles are links to individual post pages in this new blog and that I actually included links in old post titles, since they weren't hotlinks, is also causing a few problems -- so I'll probably do something about some of those instances as well.

Well, it's raining outside, so it's not like I was going to be skipping around or anything. Ja!

YES! WESOTERIC is ready to go -- layout's done and double done, though of course I'll be tweaking things and adding stuff from time to time. Anyway, now all I've got to do is import these Blogger entries over and the move will be complete! New entries will be posted there from this point onward. SO I'LL SEE YOU THERE!!!

Okay, I just had my interview... and while I hope that it actually went better than I think it did, I'm not sure it went too well. Granted, I was nervous as all hell, and I hope they take that into account when assessing the conversation, but man! To my mind, I sounded a lot like President Bush talking about "fiscal sanity" -- rambling on and on and saying the same things and not really driving home a clear point. But then, he got reelected, so maybe the American people who work at the magazine headquarters will see fit to give me a chance. I've no doubt that I could do the job -- and do it well at that -- I'm just not sure that I convinced them of that during this phone interview. I mean, I've got the writing and editing part down, but admittedly I'm not the ubergamer that I once was, with my hardware being too old and my schedule being too packed and my income being too low to allow me to enjoy the latest and greatest titles at length. I do try to kinda keep up with what's coming out, though, and I'd love to get back into the swing of things! Among other things, Resident Evil 4 looks pretty sweet, and I can see very easily getting hooked on one of these MMORPGs. Anyway, I think that my lack of total immersion in the gaming world at the moment might have made appear me less attractive as a potential writer/editor. Sigh.

There's always Scary-Crayon, though! For my devoted readers, here's a preview: Dusty Plastic HELL: Hot Flash #34. Enjoy, and thanks for all of your support and well-wishes. 🙂