Posts Tagged ‘Site News’

Yes, Gate 21 is “Moving on Up“…

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Gate 21 Version 2.0

It was a chore, it took far longer than it should have, and—in terms of substance—it amounts little more than putting lipstick on the pig, but here it is.  After weeks of gnashing my teeth at CSS and html which refused to do what I wanted it to do, I am pleased to announce the debut of the new and improved Gate 21.  For those of you have been around these parts before, you can see that things look a bit different.

After nearly two years of the same basic layout, I decided it was time to do a little remodeling here at the Gate.  One thing led to another and “a little remodeling” turned into me completely redesigning the Gate from the top to the bottom.  Yes, though it was a faithful servant, I have sacked the old iLeather theme that was the mainstay here are the Gate for so long.  In its place is the new completely custom look which took me far longer to pull together and design than I ever dreamed was possible.

Everything is new again (that doesn’t mean, however, that it is actually any better though … sigh.).

There are still some kinks to be worked out here and there and there are a few new content areas I hope to roll out in the coming days, but—for the most part—the project that has eaten up nearly every second of my time over the past few weeks is finally done.  Hopefully, both of you out there that regularly visit will like it.  If not, well, that’s what the comments box is for—I welcome any and all criticism.

At any rate, just to give everyone the 50-cent tour.  The main changes are … well … everything.  The highlights, however, include:

• New page and category bars at the top which feature fancy-schmancy drop-down menus.  Hopefully, that will make it easier for everyone to find what they are looking for.
• Gus, our trusty mascot here at the Gate, underwent some major plastic surgery and—all things considered—looks a bit better as a result.
• No, the rather massive blogroll that has been a staple here at the Gate did not disappear, it simply moved down to the footer to help make things a little cleaner and less cluttered.  Everything is organized by subject and the whole list (at least in theory) will now expand and collapse at a click.
• The typography is new as well, hopefully improving readability.
• I added a little more “visual direction” to the header so that people who have never been to Neyland Stadium might actually be able to figure out that the name “Gate 21” actually refers to the Real Gate 21 and have some idea of what it looks like
• Oh yeah, and following the lead of the Blackjack General (a/k/a “Lane Kiffin”), I decided to adopt a darker overall look with more black—especially in the background.

At any rate, I hope that these changes improve the experience here at the Gate.  I hope these changes make it look a little nicer.  I hope the whole site doesn’t crash and burn as I finish up converting all of the old content around here over to make it play nice with the new design.  Either way, please feel free to let me know if you like it, hate it, or could care less.  If there is something that isn’t working properly, is hard to read, or simply annoying, feel free to let me know that too.  Though Gate 21 version 2.0 is now here for the entire world to see, it is still a work in progress, so any feedback is appreciated.

At any rate, here it is in all of its radiant glory—the new Gate 21.

I do sincerely hope you like it…

– So it goes…

Just in case you were wondering, I have not abandoned the Gate this week.  In fact, I have been working harder on this joint this week than I have in months.  Unfortunately, all of that work has been behind the scenes…

…for the moment.

Let’s just say that I am taking advantage of the current off-season lull to make a few changes around here and to do a bit of remodeling.  Let’s just call it “Gate 21 — 2.0.”  Hopefully, all of this work will not be for naught.  Hopefully, I’ll be done with this marathon soon.  Hopefully, there will still be more than three people around to read once I bring the changes live.  Who knew this whole “blogging thing” would be so much work?

In the meantime, I’ll just leave you with this little visual representation of where this ship is headed.  Trust me, this is but one very small part of what I have in store for everyone in the near future:

The Changing Face of the Gate…

November 2007	February 2008	?? July 2009 ?? (I sure hope so)

Hopefully, I will actually get a little chance to write a few things here this weekend which I have had to put off a bit.  Yeah, yeah … excuses, excuses.  At any rate, please bear with us—there are exciting things to come in the near future.

In the meantime, just try to remember that Gate 21 does exist, and check back with us soon…

– So it goes…

Gate 21 is Currently Experiencing Server Problems

(a/k/a Lawvol must have screwed things up)

For anyone out there who reads, views, rips-off, hacks, or otherwise visits the Gate, please be advise that we are experiencing rather massive technical difficulties at present which intermittently result in the site simply not appearing.  Thus, if you attempt to visit the Gate and instead are greeted by an offer of hosting services from Host-I-Can, then you know that the problem is not yet fixed.

I am in the process of trying to figure out what the issue is and to fix it.  Until then, however, please bear with us as we try to sort out the mess that is my creation.  We appreciate your patience and (hopefully) I will have them resolved soon.

Until then, if for any reason Gate 21 does not appear when you attempt to navigate to the site, please try again a few minutes later. Sorry for the inconvenience.

With any luck, we’ll be back up to our usual low standards as soon as possible (we really, really, hope)…

» Updated:  9 June 2009 — 2:30pm

The problems appear to have been fixed.  Thus, you can return to your regularly scheduled aimless wandering throughout the Gate.  Thanks for your patience.

– So it goes

Well, after taking the better part of two weeks off here at the Gate, and enjoying a little vacation in my “real” life, I am back once more.  If anyone noticed that I was gone, that is.

At any rate, now that I am back I am hoping to get a few features back up and running while we wait for football season to finally get here.  Apparently the mainstream media is feeling the same pressure to find something … anything … to write about at present.  Hence the News Sentinel’s in-depth focus on some old Tennessee football photographs (which are pretty cool, I must say) and observations on Lane Kiffin’s meteoric rise to prominence in the world of college football.

Slim pickings…

Since my other team, the Carolina Hurricanes, lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs (ouch) I can’t even talk about hockey anymore.  I guess we’re just going to have to depend on HSH for any real substance until the season rolls around (no pressure or anything).

The good news is that, as the little tell-tale countdown in the right sidebar ticker confirms, we now officially have less than 100 days until kickoff.  Furthermore, things are heating up in the race to win the Fulmer Cup.  Still, football season has a ways to go before it arrives.

Needless, to say I am counting the days…

So, you might ask, is there a point to this post?  Well, in short, no.  Then again, I have never been one to sweat the small stuff such as accurately and succinctly conveying a message.

Minor details, minor details...

Sometimes we all fail, no matter how hard we try.  I think this is one of those times, not that I tried all that hard.

Anyway, go check out the old Tennessee football photos I mentioned above.  Oh, and make sure you go to see the new Star Trek movie, it rocks!  Other than that, I’ve got nothing for you today.

Yeah, this off season thing is a killer…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of: The Fail Blog

To both of you out there in internet-land who read the Gate, I just wanted to send out a quick FYI:

Those wild and crazy folks over at WordPress have rolled out the newest offering in blog publishing software culminating with the release of WordPress 2.7 earlier this week.  In case you didn’t realize it, WordPress is what makes Gate 21 possible, and it is an absolutely unbelievable testament to the power of open-source software development.

This, however, is a sports blog, not a tech blog…

Thus, I only mention all of this to let you know that, after playing around with 2.7 on my test blog for a day or two, I will be upgrading the software here at the Gate sometime this weekend.  More likely than not, it will come off without a hitch.  That said, since I am the one minding the wheel it could lead to some sort of meltdown.  Do not be alarmed if things seem out of place (but feel free to send me an email saying that the blog has crashed or looks funny).

You may now return to your web-surfing activities…

– Go Figure …

It has just come to my attention that there is an error in the display of this site when using Internet Explorer, which causes the comments to float to the right.

I am trying to figure out what is going wrong and apologize for things looking odd.  As usual, everything looks fine in Firefox.

If anyone out there has any ideas as to why IE refuses to play nice, feel free to let me know.

– Go Figure …

In case you haven’t noticed by the temporary header…

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I am in the midst of remodeling here at Gate 21 in preparation for football season.  Bearing that in mind, I am currently adjusting the color scheme here at the Gate, changing from the brownish “off-dirt” family of hues to more of a “light-black” (as if there were such an oxymoronicly named color — oh yeah, there is: “gray”) direction.  I’ve also added a few minor touches: such as the “shinier” checkerboard pattern, and the little “21” logos down the page a bit.  On the whole, my goal is to make things a bit darker near the top to improve visibility and make it more likely that some one might read my drivel.  If things look exactly the same, just hit refresh in your browser to see my coloring project.

Once again I have my coloring book out…

A Coloring Book for Lawyers ( PDF)

Anyway, let me know any thoughts either of you two folks out there who read this rag might have about this — including any complaints about how brown is your favorite color, how you hate my mascot “Gus,” how you can’t understand why I insist on having that infernal checkerboard across the middle of the screen, and how  you liked it better before I started screwing with it.

Seriously, if you hate it, just tell me…

– Go Figure …

Coloring Book Courtesy of: Office Spam

Here in the lull, I have made some fairly substantial updates to the masterpieces on display in the Tennessee Home for the Visually Offensive. Including these amazing works of art:

For those of you who truly appreciate beautiful artworks, slide on over to the THFVO and give it a look, and for any of you who have works you’d like placed on permanent display, or a site which you think has the quality required for placement in the permanent collection here at Gate 21, send me an email by clicking on my signature below, and fire me a link or a file.

– Go Figure …

Images Courtesy of: YMSWWC • LSU Freek • Loser With Socks

Now that the NFL Draft has come and gone, we have truly enter the deepest, darkest, dankest, despicable, and moany other words starting with “d” time of the year. This is the lowest point of the off-season, and the point which pains my heart so.

More importantly, it is the time of the year during which I have a particularly difficult time coming up with things to say here on Gate 21 for all of you to ignore.

Thus, I plan on rolling out a little something new here in the next few days, and doing a few “retrospectives” until something of interest begins to come along.

Oh, the angst of not having anything to write about, it’s enough to make you … edgy

In the meantime, however, I am pleased to say that the Wise and All-knowing MoonDog and I have been working on a little something over at his joint, which will hopefully come screaming into existence shortly. In the meantime, feel free to slid on over to his world and sample the wares, if for no other reason than to say “Ahh, I remember back when…” like my parents, grandparents, and pretty much anyone more than two years older than me always did.

Uh, oh yeah, and congratulations to govolsxtra.com/news/2008/apr/26/patriots-go-mayo-no-10/” target=”_blank”>Jerrod Mayo, Brad Cottam, and Erik Ainge on being drafted by the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and the New York Jets respectively. Godspeed gentlemen. As for the rest of the 2007-08 Tennessee Vols, thank you for all that you gave to Orange Nation during your time around the Hill, and best wishes for the future.

Hopefully, something substantive in the near future…

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: LOL Jocks

Yes, my students, Professor Lawvol is sad to say that these are the times that try our souls…

Now that basketball season is officially over — at least for the college players — we have reached the terrible sports lull that precedes the beauty of football season.

Sucks, don’t it?

Yeah, yeah, I know — there’s baseball. Baseball, however, is my least favorite of the major sports (despite the fact it was the only one for which I ever had any degree of skill), and — unless someone wants to come on board as a writer here at Gate 21 and help to cover it — it is not my intention to try and give any semblance of legitimate treatment to baseball, aside from the occasional side note or observation. I will continue to post regularly throughout the summer. That said, unless something important is going on, weekends are out until the fall gets closer.

Still, we must persevere and press forward with our studies of all there is to learn. Thus, this “off season” period of the year is the time during which I really plan on delving into that “Life, the Universe … ” part of this trash rag blog’s byline. I am going to try and roll out a few new features here in the coming month, and may try a few “off-message” postings. So, be prepared for some seemingly absurd and inane things around here for a while — such as this:

Intelligent Design?

** Note the completely inappropriate and inexplicably off-topic use of scurrilous images to improve readership, and (perhaps) distract readers from the lack of substance in this post

I am hoping to get the old stream-of consciousness brain-barf (see informative graphic for example) going here shortly and start pontificating on subjects so ridiculously above my pay grade that it would make Larry Flynt blush (well, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but you get the idea …).

Either way, I will do my best to find things to help bide the time, until football season gets close. I can’t promise any of them will be worthwhile, but they are a useful substitute for the usual drivel I pour out during Football and Basketball season for the sole purpose of occupying myself when I really should be doing something more productive.

So, there, I have spent several paragraphs writing a rather pointless introduction for the rather pointless things I am going to write later, but which I haven’t yet thought up. This off-season thing is off to a wonderful start!

15 minutes down, 4 months to go, that wasn’t so hard…

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: The Fail Blog