After getting word on my Twitter feed that WordPress 2.5 was released earlier today, I quickly updated this site. I’m not sure if you will see any real changes, but Nadia will be surprised when she sees how different (and better) the administrative area is.

I really can’t apologize enough for doing such a poor job of keeping up with this site. I really don’t know what happened, I just totally flaked over the passed few months.

I have finally upgraded to version 2.3.1 of Wordpress and grabbed a new theme from Wordpress Themes.

I am certain you will come across a few bugs here and there. Please drop a message in the guestbook if you see any problems.

With that huge project I’ve been working on finally behind me (for the most part), I can finally stand to look at my PC again when I get home in the evenings. That means that I will finally update this site’s old, tired look and correct a number of issues with it.

The first on my list is installing a CAPTCHA plugin, which will require commentators to fill out an additional line when leaving a comment. I don’t intend on implementing one of those awful ones that warp text and ask you to guess what it says. It’ll be a very simple one, just like the one used by my friend and frequent commentator Joe on his own site. While Wordpress’ built-in spam protection is awesome (it has stopped over 50,000 to date), some spammers have learned to circumvent it. That’s why your comments no longer post automatically.
Other things I have in mind:

1. Replacing the wp-stattraq traffic metering plugin with Google Analytics. Not only do I like how they present my traffic data, but it doesn’t fill up my database tables with tons of rows.
2. Integrating Picasa Web Album into the site and removing the wp-gallery2 plugin, which will make it easier for us to add photos. That way you won’t see a four year old wedding picture every time you visit the site.
3. Better integration of my Twitter feed and Google Reader instead of just slapping those JavaScript scripts that are currently in the sidebar.
4. Switching to Feedburner to display the site’s feeds.
5. Bringing back the blogroll! I read lots of other blogs and I’d like to share them all with you.

That’s just off the top of my head. Who knows what else I’ll come up with as I finally get to work on this site again?