So here we go, eh?

I've been saying for quite some time that I planned on writing my own CMS.  I think at the time, everyone was kind enough to say that yeah, I could probably do it—with the unspoken caveat that I had a lot yet to learn before I'd be able to complete such a thing.

This is the code that powers the syndication of wondergeeks.net, the portal site for my group of friends. For some time, we were using a standard RSS-and-Perl solution, but we had a good deal of problems with it.Problem 1: Non-ASCII characters

"Oh dear God. The db people got to you"—said Danno, upon learning of my current activities.

"Crack dealers!" I said.

"When they say 'the first query engine is free,' that should be a tipoff…"No kidding. So here I am, sitting here, helpless, a junkie looking for her fix and staring this error down: "Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in…"

I omit the rest. Why bore you? Suffice it to say that I finally swallowed my pride and started hammering on database stuff today. Just a teensy little table, I said, just one, and I'll see if I can make it do what I want it to, and maybe I'll branch out from there.

As said to Heather: the last error in a script is always the most difficult to track down. Sure enough, I've spent far more thought-cycles today on the last, final error in the portal code I was writing than on any other bug I've squashed today.

In an effort to make the ultra-unhip domesticat.net appear fresh and new for spring, the front page of the site now displays shortened versions of several of the most recent entries. Yes, I'm catering to you goofy folks who have better things to do than visit my site every day to see what the last 1500 semi-coherent words have sprung from my keyboard.

I'm running out of excuses, really.  While I'm not exactly allowed to link to it yet, I can tell you that I got Jeff's site designed, finished, and ready to roll yesterday.  All it lacks is content.  My famed, never-ending Sites To Do list is now down to one:  the redesign of Kat's site.