deeplyshallow // map of the grounds

map of the grounds

9rules has begun to formally introduce its new members, of which there are over a hundred. Deeply Shallow has been fitted into the Commentary community, which was previously occupied by just five members, and the Entertainment community, which, so far as I can tell, is a consolidation of a couple of similar categories. This whole 9rules business means that there are a few new readers here, so for their benefit (and maybe for the long-timers’, too), I thought I’d give a quick tour. Here’s what you’ll find on DS:

The blog
You’re reading this right now. Don’t let the ‘Commentary’ label mislead you. Anybody who has spent a few hours here can tell you that I complain a little too much about recurring insomnia, and that I’ve even committed the cardinal sin of writing entire entries about my cat. Aside from that, this is your typical blog: I review movies (mostly from my collection), criticize the MLB, expose dirty con women, etc. The ‘Entertainment’ label represents the secondary content of the blog, which is made up of movie reviews — usually of current films (Superman Returns, Mission: Impossible III) or underappreciated classics (The Mosquito Coast, The Hustler). (I define what ‘classic’ means around here, by the way.)

The portfolio
Until recently, I had been a freelance web designer. The portfolio remains an accurate cross-section of the work I’ve done during my freelance years and before, but probably won’t be as frequently updated as it has been in the past.

Column one
To the right of this blog entry, you’ll see three columns. This might look like an overload of information to a first-timer, but it’s really pretty straightforward.

Bio: Just what you might think it is. A condensed autobiography. Full biographical data can be found here.

Featured project: Once a month, give or take, I spotlight a project from my portfolio. See? Straightforward. And likely to be removed from the rotation in the near future, given the expected stagnancy of the portfolio (see above).

The Shallow End: Back in 1998, when DS was a literary magazine, ‘The Shallow End’ was the name of the e-newsletter I wrote each month for subscribers. Now it’s a micro-section where I spotlight interesting news and etc. from around the web. Updates whenever the hell something interests me enough to share it.

Column two
Recent projects: This is a shortlist of recently-launched projects. These aren’t necessarily my latest work.

Recent entries: The ten or so most recent blog entries. See? Self-explanatory.

Recent movie/TV reviews: The most recent reviews or commentaries I’ve written about movies, TV, DVDs, etc.

The Eleanor Sketches: I’m in the middle of writing my fourth novel. It’s all about a girl named Eleanor. These are sketches I wrote prior to beginning the novel to help me identify the character, along with various story ideas, to see what works and doesn’t. Some of these represent some of my best fiction writing.

Column three
Of peripheral interest: These are external links that are in some way related to Deeply Shallow or to myself. Contained here is a link to the official site for the Eleanor sketches, along with the only link to the dialogue archives (a several-years-old archive of a hundred or more dialogue-only entries published here), which were fairly popular at the time.

Best of DS: Just what it sounds like. A shortlist of some of the better pieces published here. Expands as needed.

Recommended destinations: Just a bunch of links to sites I highly enjoy and like to spread the word about.

There are a few other changes here on the site, most notably the availability of an RSS feed for recent entries. I haven’t mentioned this until now, but that’s only because I completely forgot about it. See the little orange icon in the next column over, near the top? That’s been there for a couple of weeks now, but I thought I’d point it out in case you missed it. RSS was a foreign entity to me as recently as a month ago. (I’m notoriously slow to pick up on emerging technologies. I usually jump on-board long after they’ve fully emerged, and have started to wrinkle from exposure.) Anyway, I assume you all knew about it before I did, but what it means is that you can subscribe to the feed and receive a notice when my site is updated. (That’s a very rudimentary explanation.) In other words, you won’t have to waste time visiting every day, only to see the same entry growing more and more stale.

I’ve also retooled the portfolio a bit. I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the site so that it didn’t feel like just another chunk of content. After all, while this blog is the main draw on the site, it’s not necessarily the main attraction. I wanted to spit-shine the portfolio so that it would, hopefully, open the freelance door a little wider for me. (Oddly enough, what happened is that it got me an offer good enough to lure me away from freelancing.) Until now I think the portfolio has felt like an afterthought, and that needed to change. So: it’s got a distinctly different (but thematically-connected) appearance, and I’ve restored the rummage bin, which is a previously-retired feature that showcases some of my work that’s dead in the water. As with any designer, there’s plenty of work I’m proud of that, for a variety of reasons, ended up never being produced.

There you go: Deeply Shallow 101. For extra credit, stick around. There’s an awful lot of stuff here, and would you be surprised if I told you that some of it’s even kind of good? (Hell, that might even surprise me.)