kartooner.com

I’ve been reading Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, an in-depth examination of the history and dark side of the fast food empire. Scholosser’s research reveals gritty details including how a great percentage of robberies take place in fast food establishments and the perps are usually employees. It also reveals the hidden agenda of these multi-billion dollar empires, focusing on their bleak advertising campaigns directed towards children and the amount of chemical flavorings and tinkerings that make a Spicy Chicken sandwich taste spicy.

One such chapter deals with what is called the “white flight”, wherein a good portion of a predominately white population will flee an overpopulated area and move to more rural or western plains. Despite this escape, they usually end up in small towns which are quaint and slow-paced but are overrun by Burger Kings, KFC and Taco Bells.

I’ll have to admit that Fast Food Nation has really opened my eyes to the true agendas of these corporations who originally began with such humble beginnings. Their goals were quite different in the mid-50s to late 60s when most of these establishments were formed as a location convienance to the (at that time) freshly built freeways and highways.

Today, however, it’s evident that money is what drives these corporations and hearding as much people into fast food restaurants means expanding their egos and filling their pockets. It’s interesting that a gallon of Coke syrup costs around $4.25. Add water and several bags of sugar and you begin to see why fast food joints allow consumers to have free refills.

As for me, I’m completely content with smaller Mom and Pop joints where the food might take 10-15 minutes to make but tastes all the better. It’s home cooking that makes my tastebuds sizzle and not the grease that saturates the wrappers of a hamburger or the chewy fries that sat under the heaters for the past several hours.

After months of searching for a new host for kartooner.com, we’ve finally found our golden goose. It’s a hosting service called Dreamhost.

Here’s the gameplan; I managed to export all of my entries from Movable Type and completely re-install MT from the ground up. I love the fact that Dreamhost essentially supports several Perl modules that I haven’t had access to previously. This is exciting news considering I will be able to do new things with this site design.

Which brings me to a rather somber note, the fact that I’ve stripped the site of its previous design including missing images which are currently stored on a local drive and will be uploaded soon. In the mean time it will be using a whipped up template (which I’ll get around to in a bit) and eventually will transition into the new design.

For now, I’m tired and going to bed soon. Moving servers takes a lot out of a person.

Walt Disney once said “Our heritage and ideals, our codes and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.”

A few days ago I mentioned that kartooner.com would be undergoing an extreme design makeover. Phase One of this process includes:

Choosing a layout and style.

• For this process I’ve decided to incorporate my fascination for 1950s serials, the movies that would always end with a cliffhanger somewhere along the lines of “To be continued. . .” or “Will Frank flee the runaway train?” or the infamous 60s Batman ending; “Will Batman and Robin escape the evil mastermind. Stay tuned. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.” I will be researching whatever material I can get my hands on (noir publications, websites, etc.) to flesh out this idea.
• I’ve also decided on a three-column layout. Granted, I realize there are a variety of blogs using this layout but my doing so is because I’d like to display more than just Categories, Recent Entries and Links. Two columns is just not cutting it. My plan is to also showcase my own design work in addition to others. Again, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel but utilizing techniques that others have used and have proved to be successful is not copping out.
• I’ve decided on earth tones (light browns, etc.) and a sprinkle of red which will provide contrast. I’ll be honest, I’m partial to blues but I’m attempting to break my usual habits in design and work with something different.

Wish me luck.

For those of you who are eager to own a computer but don’t have the financial means to do so comes this handy step-by-step guide.

Be forwarned however; this is not meant for those hard-nosed serious individuals.