Return of the Second Cousin of the Fly’s Nephew
29 March 2005
Tuesday, 2:28 PM
If you told me, in any tone approximating enthusiasm, that you had visited my site in the last year or so (for a reason other than the out-of-left-field hit, Virtual Stan), you would have been met with an incredulous look. This incredulity would have had nothing to do with false modesty or my tendency toward self-deprecation or my inability to believe that you had managed to operate a web-accessible digital device. It would be a look of genuine confusion, and perhaps concern. “You were on my site? Really? Well, keep an eye out for the new version, which will be online really soon.”
Then I would find somewhere to be alone and contemplate the fact that I was the only one foolish enough to believe the lie I had just told.
I’ve been telling that lie for nearly two years. Today, it becomes truth, at least for anyone to whom I’ve spoken in the last month or so. Thanks to South by Southwest, those people are many, and the amazing time I had and the amazing people I met there provided the final nail in the inspirational coffin to make RobWeychert.com Version 4 a reality.
There are, of course, some areas that still need tightening up. My stuffed cohort The Monkey, for example, is currently dragging his feet a bit with his section of the site, but he should be up to speed within a week or so. No, really!
Otherwise, the site has finally become what I’ve wanted it to become for a long time: one that encourages participation and frequent visits. So please, take a look around and let me know what you think. It would be helpful to know that any satisfaction or dissatisfaction I feel about it is not merely a byproduct of the health and hygiene I jeopardized to finish it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m kind of excited at the prospect of being unconscious, and I’m also looking into doing one of those “showers” I keep hearing about.
Filed under: Site
Comments Closed (52)
2. Liz MacDonald says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:01 PM
Rob, congrats on a beautiful new site. All your hard work has paid off!!!
3. daniel says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:11 PM
Wahoo, first comment on your new site! It's great... I love ask the monkey, that's hilarious. Congratulations on making my live bookmarks folder.
Have fun doing one of those - (what did you call them again?) - shoewur things.
4. Jeremy Flint says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:15 PM
Site looks awesome Rob. Really like the header and the detail in the sub-headers (Daily Haiku, etc.) with the leaf.
BTW, is the comment preview supposed to be an active preview...you know, that changes as I type?
If so, it isn't working for me. Firefox 1.0.2 on OS X 10.3.8
5. Jeremy Flint says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:19 PM
Nix that comment about the comment priview. I had my Javascript disabled.
All better now.
6. Ian says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:31 PM
Gotta love your color scheme too. Some of it's pretty subtle (h1: #003;)!!!
7. bearskinrug says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:52 PM
Congratulations, Rob! The site looks great. It may have taken a while, but the payoff is blowing my socks off!
I'll expect you to chip in on my new socks.
8. Dan Mall says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:55 PM
Whoa, nice site dude. Finally, a home for Virtual Stan. That's mighty nice of you.
9. Jeremy Keith says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:55 PM
I just love what you've done with the place. Simply delightful.
10. Stephen Caudill says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:59 PM
Really nice work :) Stan was absolutely correct! And I can definitely relate to the design creep bit... I've been alternately threatening, mocking, scrapping and not doing anything at all with several new designs for my site for over a year... Congrats on a solid and well implemented design!
11. Eric Irvine says… | 29 March 2005 / 6:01 PM
Yep congrats, A very nice site. I hope I can get past my rut and pull off a design like this :)
12. Sebastian Schmieg says… | 29 March 2005 / 6:05 PM
Nice! I've yet to look into all the sections but what I've seen so far looks just great!
Seems like you guys in Philly have a similar style (JSM, bearksin.) that I really enjoy.
Oh, and that print-style paragraph indent is nice, too.
13. Derek Featherstone says… | 29 March 2005 / 6:07 PM
I'm definitely a fan - I really like the attention to the small details. I assume (and hope) that your posting frequency will increase?
14. Jason Santa Maria says… | 29 March 2005 / 6:19 PM
Sebastian: If you are referring to the Philly style of awesome, then yes :D
15. Sebastian Schmieg says… | 29 March 2005 / 6:29 PM
Awesome? Yeah, definitely :) You know that I never miss a chance to say how much a love your site...
17. Mike D. says… | 29 March 2005 / 7:00 PM
Booyah! The site feels like a nice pair of long johns.
Hey, one thing you might want to do is put all of your feed URLs in the head section of every page on the site so they are auto-discoverable by news aggregators.
18. Brian Moore says… | 29 March 2005 / 7:14 PM
Yeah, what they said. It's beautiful. Me gusta mucho.
19. Eric Irvine says… | 29 March 2005 / 7:21 PM
I agree with Mike D, bloglines had some hiccups until I found your about page.
20. Laura Kicey says… | 29 March 2005 / 8:16 PM
nice outfit you got here ROb, you've even got the racy lacy edges. Real purdy. Real tight. Sizzlin' content.
21. Maxine says… | 29 March 2005 / 8:17 PM
Well done Rob: I knew you'd get there, but so soon! I'm impressed.
Gorgeous color scheme, great graphics and amusing content - keep up the good work.
And you're the first real result I've seen of all that post-SxSW enthusiasm!
22. sutter says… | 29 March 2005 / 9:19 PM
nice wheels dude. it seems like only a thousand yesterdays since she was up and running. worth the wait but maybe you could get some flames airbrushed on the sides?
23. Trey Piepmeier says… | 29 March 2005 / 10:18 PM
Great job, Rob! I'm glad you got the redesign done. I've been working on a redesign of my site since I got back from SXSW, and I've gone through about 3 different layouts so far. Maybe one of these days I'll make something I want to keep.
It was cool haning out with you in Austin. Maybe we'll hit the Bitter End in '06 and see if that waitress still remembers us and what we ordered!
24. Rob Weychert says… | 29 March 2005 / 10:28 PM
Thank you everyone for your kind remarks and incredibly warm reception! Also thank you to everyone that’s been linking me up. This is quite a bit more fanfare than I expected.
Mike D., thanks for the feeds tip; I’ll be sure to implement that post haste (I’m pretty new to the syndication game).
25. Peter Santa Maria says… | 29 March 2005 / 11:27 PM
Well hey, at least this was worth the wait. Great job Rob, looks real slick. Love the header, VERY METAL!
26. Joey says… | 30 March 2005 / 2:30 AM
This is great, Rob! I was just here yesterday and things were like usual, but then the next morning I headed over to Zeldman's and BAM. I'm directed to awesomeness.
27. Malarkey says… | 30 March 2005 / 4:56 AM
Ooooh! Lots going on... me like!
28. Sheila Dollarton says… | 30 March 2005 / 8:17 AM
You are so very eloquent!! And...the monkey just solved all my problems :)
29. niff says… | 30 March 2005 / 8:37 AM
Looks great ROb. now clean yourself already!
30. mary says… | 30 March 2005 / 9:18 AM
well worth the wait. this is positively gorgeous, and i'm glad to see the monkey take his rightful place as an advice columnist. i have often wondered how we've made it this far without him.
31. wayne says… | 30 March 2005 / 9:20 AM
you are very clever....you must be destroyed!
32. jordan says… | 30 March 2005 / 11:14 AM
This is absolutely beautiful. Considering what the previous design was, this is definitely a jump, and definitely a work of art. Heck, even the code is perfectly organised.
Since I'm the sort that looks for any little problems I can (for the cause of making it perfect, really!), I noticed that the bottom row of pixels gets clipped off your name when hovering over a link at the very top of the page.
But as I said... this is a masterpiece. Oh, and... what the heck is with the title of this entry?!
33. Rob Mientjes says… | 30 March 2005 / 11:36 AM
Three columns and a sock monkey. Sweeeet. Also, being featured on some gallery sites: nice one!
However, I'd love to see more monkey for my viewport size. Like, more monkey.
34. Britt says… | 30 March 2005 / 11:47 AM
Rob, it was great to meet you at SXSW. And the new site is beautiful. Don't stay in the shower too long.
35. Rob Weychert says… | 30 March 2005 / 11:50 AM
Don’t worry, Rob. The Monkey is currently hard at work on sprucing up his little corner of the site. And he’s something of an egomaniac, so there will be plenty of monkey for your viewport.
36. Merritt says… | 30 March 2005 / 12:42 PM
I'm so inspired I made a site of my own...check it out.
37. The Jones says… | 30 March 2005 / 3:43 PM
I feel so fresh and clean on here... Like I just showered! I smell fresh linens too.
38. Oliver says… | 30 March 2005 / 4:15 PM
Wow that's pretty awesome. Are the sounds filtered in Flash? Or are they different files?
39. Mark Trammell says… | 30 March 2005 / 5:32 PM
Very nice, Rob. Tres purrty and chock full o' standardy goodness. I feel the guilt of my own site negligence permeating my soul. BTW, has the monkey had his shots?
Slainte!
40. Rob Weychert says… | 30 March 2005 / 5:56 PM
Oliver, If you’re asking about Virtual Stan, the technique is not especially sophisticated; everything (including imported audio) is in one SWF and the lip synch is just timeline animation.
41. Brent O'Connor says… | 30 March 2005 / 8:24 PM
Great new site Rob! I'm not just blowing smoke up your, you know what either!
I'm going to put a link to your site from mine because it's so go. That is if you don't mind me having a link to your site from mine. If you do, I understand. :)
This reminds me that I need to try and find some time to do some upgrades on my mine but (insert excuse here).
PS, it was awesome meeting you at SXSW!!!
42. Indranil says… | 30 March 2005 / 9:43 PM
Nice, really nice.
You've really exercised very fine typography here, although the comment form is a little too cramped for my liking, but The Monkey kicks arse.
43. Yannick L. says… | 30 March 2005 / 11:09 PM
Very nice website. I like it very much. Keep up the good work.
44. Rob Weychert says… | 31 March 2005 / 10:31 AM
jordan, the nav problem you mentioned has been fixed, courtesy of Stan. You may need to empty your cache and refresh the page to see the changes. Bravo, Stan!
45. Bob Duncan says… | 31 March 2005 / 10:33 AM
Very beautiful work. I really like the design of the right sidebar.
46. clint says… | 31 March 2005 / 5:45 PM
nice work, I'm def feeling the typography and organization in the sidebar area...
and I can imagine the amount of backend work you put in...
47. Merritt says… | 31 March 2005 / 6:38 PM
48 hours and no update...looks like the old Rob's back!
48. jordan says… | 01 April 2005 / 4:38 PM
Ah, Stan's the man as usual... an.
49. Seba says… | 02 April 2005 / 3:57 AM
I am speechless. This webiste is massive. I like everything about it. Especially the monkey! :)
50. Ian says… | 04 April 2005 / 10:20 AM
If I'd never met you before, this is what the web has told me about you:
1) You don't get around to doing much
2) You've been credited with creating Virtual Stan
3) You are very talented and many people admire you and your work
4) Your Small Caps Blockquote syle whips ass
51. Bess says… | 09 April 2005 / 1:26 PM
I really love your site! i think it's a rarity to come across such a well designed site that is so fun to read/well written. i guess that's a snobby thing to say, but the more great stuff you have to say on your site (informative, hilarious, etc), the more people will come visiting again and again. and of course the ease on the eye makes people stop to read in the first place!
52. leveeBreaks says… | 13 April 2005 / 10:38 AM
What can I say that hasn't already been said? Marvellous site.
Really love what you've done with the place!!!
1. Jason Santa Maria says… | 29 March 2005 / 5:00 PM
Wow Rob, this is really beautiful. Great detail with all the typography, site-wide. Well done!