www.NovelTimes.com

Hard to believe that this here blog is well over three years old.  My numbers aren’t all that high, and posts certainly are not all that regular, but they do pop up now and again, and I still enjoy writing them.  Actually, I’m hoping to start writing a bit more.  I’ve got good reason — in less that a month I’ll be heading out for 7 beautiful weeks abroad.  But I’ll get to that.  First a few comments on the new, improved NovelTimes.com that you see before you.

The observant readers among you may well have noticed a few changes in these parts.  I am very proud to announce the third incarnation of NovelTimes.com!  I’ve been wanting to update a few things for some time, now, and I’ve finally had the chance.  My primary motivation was to be free of the headaches of manually updating my website code every time a new version of MovableType was released, or trying to learn all the new features of the latest release of Gallery.  Both have served me well, but I was ready to embrace the (not-so) new frontier of web services.

After coming across a number of WordPress blogs that not only looked nice, but also had the appearance of standalone websites, I decided to do some research.  When I discovered their CSS Upgrade feature whereby I could use my own CSS to style my page, I was optimistic such a solution could work.  And when I realized the potential of their Domain Mapping feature, I was sold.  With Domain Mapping, I am able to point http requests for my www.noveltimes.com domain to my WordPress blog, and redirect my MX records to Google Apps’ handy domain tools.  The final solution is just what I wanted: a hosted blog that meets my aesthetic requirements, and the most excellent Gmail as my email client.  The  only remaining piece is committing to an online photo-sharing service.  I’ve been doing my due diligence, but Flickr seems the obvious choice, especially considering its close integration with WordPress.

Well, that’s probably enough tech talk for now.  Suffice to say that I am in a great position to chronicle my upcoming round-the-world excursion.  Yep, RTW.  Seven weeks.  Somehow or another, my supervisors at StopWaste.Org have agreed to my request for an extended leave to see some sights.  Heck, they’ve been downright supportive, for which I am ever grateful.  This means that two of my fantasy destinations are close at hand:  Angkor Wat and Japan.  My full itinerary looks something like this:

11/16/07 - Oakland to Newark
11/21/07 - New York to London
11/27/07 - London to Bangkok
12/22/07 - Hanoi to Tokyo
01/03/08 - Tokyo to San Francisco

Family in NJ.  Friends in London and Thailand.  A boat trip down the Mighty Mekong River from Thailand to Laos.  Angkor Wat in all its mysterious glory.  Bustling Ho Chi Minh City.  And, of course, the puzzling paradox of ancient temples and futuristic cityscapes of Japan.  I can’t wait.  I’ll be blogging and posting photos as often as I can, so please, join me via hyperspace.  I’d be virtually delighted to share my adventures.