Jacob Grier

This site is powered by WordPress, a fantastic open source weblog system. Though I’m not a coder, the creative and helpful community of developers has produced an incredibly flexible program for publishing an attractive, functional site. They do a great service to the world of online publishing.

Hosting and tech support going beyond the call of duty are provided by my good friend Adam Gintis.

The foundation for my site is Devenir_en_Gris, a WordPress theme designed by Frederic de Villamil, a.k.a. Neuro. Neuro’s theme is a simple, well-designed three-column theme that I found readily adaptable to my own needs. Devenir_en_Gris and many other themes of his design are available here.

This site uses two del.icio.us plug-ins. The “add this post to del.icio.us” link that appears at the end of every entry is provided by a plug-in designed by Tim Yang. The sidebar links are created with a nice plugin by Tom Gilbert.

The upcoming events calendar is the result of a superb plugin called EventCalendar 3.0. It’s very easy to use and install. It automatically incorporates the CSS for the page and new events are simply added as weblog entries that, if one so chooses, do not show up on the front page.

The randomly alternating mastheads are generated with Matt Mullenweg’s A Rotator Apart, which provides an elegant solution for producing a random image. I use a slightly hacked version of the plugin to get the rotating “celebrity endorsements” on the left sidebar.

The contact form is made with Ryan Duff’s easy to use WordPress Contact Form.

Longer entries often have a “continue reading” link that makes extended text appear without leaving the homepage. This is done with the Collapsible More Link from Chroder.com.

The RSS and Bloglines buttons are made with the Button Maker from Adam Kalsey.

Amazon links under the “Currently Listening” and “Currently Playing” sections are made with the Amazon Media Manager. This is a very adaptable plugin that I haven’t quite figured out yet. Non-WordPress users, or those not wanting to mess with code, may want to try the easier to use AllConsuming.