I have a bad memory for words and names: a dangerous trait in a writer. I couldn’t remember the words of songs during my short foray as an opera singer (I’d often mumble the phrase “words, words, words” under my breath in place of the words). I don’t remember the names of celebrities. I’ve been told I need this device, but I’m not a mom. I even have a trick I employ when I don’t remember the name of a person I have met… but I won’t reveal it, because then I won’t be able to use it again. My lack of ability to remember the names of people, places and things is a running joke among my closest friends. It’s apparently endearing to them, though it’s not the most convenient way for me to navigate my life.
Because of this, I don’t remember the principals of management my friend Stu mentioned to me when I explained that I was having difficulties settling on a theme for my blog. Sean condensed it to “Quicker, Faster, Cheaper,” and I’m ashamed to say it took me a least 5 minutes to remember that abbreviated phrase when I sat down to type this entry. No matter. The general idea, as it was explained to me by Stu and later Sean is: choose one and the other two suffer. So if I get a “better” theme, chances are it won’t be “quick” or “cheap.” If I get something “cheaper”, it won’t be sexy, and it might take forever to build. If I do it “quick,” it won’t be “better”, and I might have to pay to get it done. That’s just the way it is. I don’t make the rules up, I just have to follow them. I was unhappy with my blog, and I wanted something pretty that reflected my aesthetic needs. I also wanted it to be easier to navigate. More than anything, I wanted something “better.”
But I am not a rich person. Right now, a single chef is a labor of love, since it doesn’t generate any discernible income I can think of. I can’t afford a phenomenal web designer. And yes, I could learn to become a coder. I have a healthy “can-do” spirit which makes me good at many things (but a master of few). But I don’t want to be a coder.
My first site was stored at an all-in-one hosting/design place: SquareSpace. But I grew weary of paying the rate every single month. They didn’t offer a lot of templates – and I couldn’t make my site look as good as I wanted it to look without advanced CSS knowledge. Then I tried building the website using “flat files” with iWeb – but it didn’t suit my blog needs- since I really needed a database instead of files that I had to recreate every time I wrote an entry. And when I switched to flat files, I lost all of the comments my readers wrote. My RSS feed broke. It was generally a disaster and it kept me from doing what I set out to do: write a food blog.
Back in January, when I was starting a single chef, both Stu and my brother Steven told me that I needed to have a WordPress blog. At the time, WordPress seemed like so much work, and I just wanted to get it done, and I went with SquareSpace instead. I wanted it done as quickly as possible, and though WordPress promises a 5-minute instillation, there is a learning curve if you want a pretty blog. I sacrificed “quicker” for “better” and I realize now that was a mistake. Had I gone with WordPress back in January, my blogging life might have been “better” and “cheaper.”
And so, I spent most of the summer traveling, and trying to build, and rebuild, and rebuild again a single chef. I didn’t update my blog. I had to copy and paste post after post, over and over agin, so I could only focus on the past entries. I lost a lot of visitors as a consequence. And my lack of blog entries and recipes made me look flakey. I don’t know if some of my readers will be back, and this makes me sadder than I can even express.
For weeks Sean has been telling me to write this post. I didn’t want to write it, because I’m an optimist, and I don’t like to think of my failings. I prefer to acknowledge them quietly, and move on. But by not publicly acknowledging the reason I didn’t update a single chef, I failed my readers. You guys deserve to know what was going on. And I’ll try to be upfront about the changes I’ll make from now on.
a single chef is now a WordPress blog. Though I like the current template, chances are, I’ll make changes to the site again. I’m not completely satisfied with the layout. And I haven’t figured out how to give my fantastic photographers their own pages, so I’ll be making changes behind the scenes soon. But the blog will continue to be updated regularly. And of course recipes will be posted. I should probably make a habit of listening to Steven and Stu (and Sean, too) since they’re more technologically savvy than I am. So I kind of owe them all an apology. Guys, you were right. I may not remember the actual words you say, but I’ll try to listen to your good advice.
