Work on mikevscancer.life is finally in full gear. I took my time with the first step, because I felt that a good first impression was important for a site like this. It needed to be something that represented my attitude towards this fight. So yeah… the champ was a no brainer, and never cliché.

I had to break out Gimp to darken the original image so that it would blend better as a background image, taking note from the default images used in the Parallax theme. Contrast up a bit, and brightness down did the trick. I’m quite satisfied with it.

I’ve created an “about me” page as well… but I could easily incorporate that into the homepage using Parallax’s Home Section widgets. I’m weighing the options. I kinda like the one-shot look of just the opening image and the option to read more with a click. For now, the “read more” button doesn’t go anywhere.

I can make a final decision on that later. For now the next thing is to get the content flowing. I’ll also decide what cancer resource links I’ll add to the site. I really want enough content in place for it to be launched Monday or Tuesday.

I’ve decided that updates to this site as well as my other sites will be included in these updates too. It’s too easy to discredit these things as legit dev time, and it’s amazing how much time you can burn doing simple back-end stuff. Ok, on to what’s new:

• My first post on this site had the content of what should have been an “about” page, introducing me and the purpose of this site. So I made it just that, moving the content to an actual page and removing the post.
• This clearly won’t be a high traffic site, and SEO isn’t the goal here, so I won’t bother with tags. I’ll use categories for organization though.
• Social links have been added in the left widget area. I’ve decided against using a plugin to include my twitter feed. Those things can get pretty chunky. I’d rather keep things clean and simple.
• I’ll be using Google Analytics on this site to get familiar with it’s workings. Integrating it using Cloudflare’s GA app was definitely the way to go, easy to set up and ensures accurate results. This site will be the test dummy in that regard, but I’ll be interested to see how my cancer blog performs with GA. It’ll be nice to see if I’m successfully reaching people who need that content and assurance.

Side note: I like blocks. Like really, blocks in WordPress and so simple and dope. No derpy plugins needed.