Version Something Dot Oh

I finally pulled the trigger and updated this site to the latest version of the Blush framework. I also brought along a new design, something I’ve been furiously throwing together over the last week or so.

I am really digging my drawing and painting pages with the design upgrade.

Screenshot of the site’s drawing portfolio.

The update was not without issues. For some reason, I thought my server was running PHP 7.4 (the minimum requirement for running Blush), but it was on 7.3. No biggie. The plan was to migrate to 8.1 at some point this week anyway. I just had to do it a bit earlier.

FTP crapped out on me at some point as I was getting everything up—yes, I really need to find a better deployment method. So, I had to figure out what didn’t get uploaded. There was a stressful half hour or so there.

After those couple of hiccups, everything was running smoothly.

I had a ton of fun designing the footer. Note that the footer credit line is randomly generated, so there might be a surprise or two.

Screenshot of the site’s footer.

Mostly, I just wanted to enjoy my own blog, so I added some little details that harken to my early foray into the web, such as a custom scrollbar design (probably only viewable on desktop). I also wanted to add other elements that were representative of my journey as an artist. That’s where the page header brushstroke comes in, which I borrowed from WordPress.org’s recent redesign.

More than anything, I built something that was for me. I hope to have a lot of fun going forward with the site.

Some of the posts before 2018 or so might have some broken images for a bit. I am reorganizing 19 years of media and consolidating it all into a single location. After running several systems over the years, my media has ended up all over the place. So, I am working on it.

Wait, wasn’t Blush supposed to go official on Sunday?

I am glad you asked, dear reader. Yes, version 1.0 was supposed to go live on April 3. However, things rarely go according to plan. Between yardwork in the real world and just trying to squash bugs online, well, there are only so many hours in the day. Plus, I wanted to spend some time running Blush live before giving the greenlight to the rest of the world. It is coming.

With the delay, we have gotten some testing done from PHP 7.4–8.1, so everything is ready for those who want to run their sites on the latest and greatest version. Some new features were tacked on and plenty of bugs exterminated. I am eager to release Blush, but for today, I am going to enjoy the fresh paint job here on the ol’ blog.