I’m spending the little time I have available for this site scrolling repeatedly through the same pages of code, trying to tweak a series of templates into the design I want. It’s not the fault of WordPress (WP) — it works really well at what it does after a simple installation. The problem, I’m beginning to see, is that you have to either be content to use a template (again, there are many great free templates available - but I want my own design), or know PHP, and understand the WP structure.

I seriously considered both WP and Movable Type (MT) initially. I went with WP because it seemed more configurable, had a great support community, an enthusiastic development team, extensive documentation, and was free. MT seems cool also, but the array of similar products the parent company has available, and the pricing structure (free, unless you want support, or multiple users) led me to choose WP.

I’m rethinking that, but I still like WP for all the same reasons - and if weren’t for wanting my own design, it would be a cinch. At any rate, please continue to excuse the frequent (and often unpleasant) changes to the site, and the infrequent posts until I’m able to muddle through this process.

My stepfather rode in the rodeo when he was a teenager. He had a basketball scholarship to a local college when he finished high school at seventeen, but he joined the Marines instead. My grandmother says that if she didn’t sign for him to join, he had sworn to join anyway a couple of months later when he turned eighteen. My aunt says, he was so wild that grandma thought this might be his only chance to avoid ending up in jail, or, ironically, dead. So he went to Paris Island, and then to Vietnam. He was decorated for bravery, and for the injuries he sustained in combat.

He and my mother moved to a farm a few years ago. He raises horses now. Miniature horses. Useless, silly little horses. Not particularly macho.

I only asked my stepfather about the war once, when I was ten or so. Mom had always told me that he didn’t like to talk about it (she also told me to stand across the room and shout at him if I ever needed to wake him up, rather than stand within his reach). It’s no wonder he didn’t like to talk about it. He was basically a kid when he was shipped overseas

I don’t know that I’ll ever feel comfortable repeating what he told me, somehow it just doesn’t seem like it’s mine to tell. But it was a horrific and disturbing story, even with some of the details that he must have omitted. He only hesitated for a minute before telling me, and it was difficult for even an imaginative child to imagine. I don’t know why he told me. I like to think that it was so I wouldn’t have a glorified image of war — and so I’d never want to go myself.

Those nightmarish circumstances left this man one of the most gentle and generous people I’ve known. I think he’s happy on the peaceful little farm now, tending his silly little horses.

I’m in the process of teaching myself WordPress (WP),and consequently, PHP. Not to mention brushing up rusty HTML and CSS. I’ll begin to add posts about things other than the process of building the site in the near future. For now, that’s what is consuming much of my free time, so it’s what is on my mind. There are some really great WP themes, but art and design are my area, so I’ll be changing the look here frequently as I learn to incorporate my own visuals via the aforementioned WP/PHP.

Of course the design is just the presentation, and once that is settled, or perhaps before - the site should start to gel in terms of content and non-visual identity as well. So come back. Say hello.