trying to get the ball rolling again...

today i'm feeling a bit unsure of myself: i am beginning to feel classic job(-less!) insecurity.

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one of the projects i really want to do is to start a group blog that will act like an online magazine for a specific group of people in a given geographic zone... geez, writing blind items is hard! how do the tabloid writers do it?

ok, ok, i want to make a blog with articles about the area i live in. how's that? simple yet vague enough? (i tend to think that i can tell every tom, dick, and harry that comes along about my concept, but people tell me not to do so with abandon, so nobody beats me to it. the thing is, apparently some people have, so sometimes i don't know why i get so paranoid. but what the heck...)

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this little project has been in the planning stage for some time now, and a lot of really great ideas have been tossed around. however, we seem to have slowed down. so i guess that's another reason for feeling a bit unsure.

but hey, plod on, like my boyfriend always says.

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anyway, because blogger doesn't support categories by default, i looked around to find other blog platforms that did. i found them, too... but, hey, what can i say, they're just not as flexible as blogger.

the ones that fit the bill are not free, which sucks, because i really want to do this entire experiment for free, at least in the beginning.

so here i am trying to figure out how to configure the new blog to my specifications.

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in an effort to get the ball rolling again, i had coffee with a friend yesterday who knows about this project and is also excited about it. nothing like talking to someone who understands to boost your spirits. thanks to her i got off my butt and started calling on people who could help out.

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i visited another friend today to discuss her writing for the blog, and to help me do "research". her sage advice: get it out there already, and adjust as necessary.

i tend to overanalyze and as a result stop in my tracks, daunted by the sheer magnitude of the project (it only seems like a huge thing because i am easily overwhelmed).

starting now seems to be a good way to get over that.

instead of jumping the gun and mass emailing people to go to a raw (as in hilaw, hehehe; ok ok, half-baked is more appropriate) site, i think i'll first direct potential reviewers to the site so they can give instant feedback.

so that's one thing to do instead of freezing up.

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ah, another thing: i need help in the looks department. apparently being able to recognize good web design is a far cry from being able to make good web design. believe me, i've tried.

so today i met up with an old high school classmate who is doing graphic design in the advertising industry. (the meeting didn't meet the original intent, ie, someone who can do the layout and design, but we did have a good time gossiping about the people back in high school!)

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now i am back at home diligently reviewing the posts in blogger hacks to find out how to implement categories. i've tried deciphering this once, but i didn't make much progress. hopefully today, driven by need and a building sense of urgency, i'll figure it out.