Yzabel / August 2, 2005

My Top 10 Blogs

Duncan at The Blog Herald posted about it, and John at SYNTAGMA made me realize that it could be interesting to do that as well. So, answering to this indirect invitation from Steve Rubel to share them through the Technorati tag at the end of this entry, here are the 10 blogs I’d take with me on a desert island:Naniwa Spirit — I may not comment often, and I may not have commented a lot in the past, when there wasn’t any feed for it yet and I’d often miss the new posts, but throughout the past years, I’ve really loved reading what Silmy had to say on her life in Japan.ProBlogger — I may not be making any money with my blogs… however, this one is a gold mine for blogging news, advice and tools recommendations on more than one account.SYNTAGMA — Why, yes, I like the tone of your posts, John.Neil Gaiman’s Journal — This shouldn’t come as a surprise, right?Shots in the Dark — Snippets of life and observations…You need to post more often, girl! (I know, I know… Lack of time and opportunities to do so.)The Blog Herald — More about blogs, but I’m never tired of it.Alas (A Blog) — Because Ampersand always has the knack to write about touchy matters with a unique tone.Contentious — Amy Gahran’s topics about online communication are often pretty interesting. Notably her “vermin” series.The Skinny Daily Post — A huge inspiration for me, and part of which has sustained my new lifestyle in the past semester.The New World Notes — That’s about Second Life, alright. Wagner James Au’s views and interviews.Y Tags:

Yzabel / August 2, 2005

Regender The Web

Found through Badgerbag, here’s a an amusing tool written by Ka-Ping Yee of wolog.net:

Regender filters the web & remaps gendered terms. He swaps with she, woman with man, and – best – Michael with Michelle. It’s surreal to read the New York Times front page when all the reporters and subjects of reporting are women. (Or have even the thinnest veneer of womanhood: a name.) It’s surreal to realize how surreal it is. Though I’m one of the rantiest feminists around, and I think a lot about it, it still jolted me to realize just how much of the world is about men, run by men, and reported by men. I don’t even NOTICE. It goes under the radar. It’s “normal”. Ping’s tool de-normalizes patriarchy. Coming up against my own sexism — because not noticing the imbalance is sexist, make no mistake – is tough and disturbing.

Amusing, and also giving a lot to think at times, when finally noticing how much “rewriting” a whole site can make its content look suddenly so very different in meaning. I’ve tried it on a few pages, from this very blog to online newspapers, and some of the results indeed end up being almost surreal (changes applied to names are part of making it so, I think—especially when seeing “Frank Inter” instead of “France Inter” in one of my own posts, and frantically searchingthe Edit button before realizing it wasn’t a typo on my part). It would probably have even more of an impact if I were to use it to browse my regular sites during a week or so, perhaps confusing my brain, perhaps opening my perceptions some more, who knows?An example of what Regender can do? Here’s an excerpt of a regendered post at Burningbird:

“Elwell informed his boss in Anthony of 2004 about being pregnant with quadruplets, and that he wouldn’t be able to travel for some weeks because of complications. His boss, Tina Armstrong, showed him a chart of the organization with his name removed in Mark, saying that he was being removed from the position because he couldn’t travel. She offered another position in operations, which he considered a demotion. He countered with a request for the East Coast sales director position, which meant he could continue in his field of interest, sales, and be able to travel for his job, because he could take trains or drive.”

An interesting shift of perception on the world, isn’t it?

Yzabel / August 1, 2005

The Secrets of WordPress Theming

Even though I’m yet to fully dive into this whole theming process, knowing how the WordPress templates work is something I’ve wanted to learn for quite some time. The Codex however doesn’t provide with the more easily understandable documents regarding this point, so I was thrilled when I finally found Secrets of WP Theming: Part 1 (followed closely by Secrets of WP Theming: Part 2 and Secrets of WP Theming: Part 3) on Sillyness Spelled Wrong Intentionally.Is this mini-series finished or not? I wouldn’t be able to tell. It’s nevertheless an interesting source that can likely help more than one person to get a grasp on how to create one’s own templates. Not that WordPress users haven’t already created their share of the load (there probably is more than 200 themes to choose from, currently), but having one’s own, unique theme is always something good in the end.