Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Happy Birthday to Us - Introducing our New Look!

Everyone needs a makeover from time to time, and a birthday is the perfect opportunity to freshen up. So for our big third blogging birthday, m-pyre is prettier, crisper, more personalized, and better organized than ever before!

Here's what's new:

  • How "us"! A photo collage on our front page implies we're sculptural beauties who read, drink wine and coffee, smell flowers, cook, lounge on quilts, and protest. That's pretty accurate, right?!
  • New "branding," as Karlos puts it... A tagline created after hours of e-mail and IM debate. "Paradox or perplexity? Fire or flames? No burning alive imagery!" The big debate: "Serious or fun?" And over on our sidebar, three women who don't sew have created an homage to front-porch knitting, because, well... why not? It's our blog, after all.
  • Better organization. Our old links sidebar wasn't aging very gracefully, so we thought we'd take the less-is-more approach and show only ten links for each of us. Choosing our ten (which we plan on changing frequently to keep them current) was a bigger challenge for some of us than others. ("But I have 25 listed!" "I'm having a hard time even getting to 10!" "But I have Alterdestiny too!") We managed to hit the requisite number with sites we enjoy that aren't straight news, because all of us (and you, too) spend the first part of our days there anyway. The m-pyre links are more mid-afternoon than CNN and the NY Times. Keep an eye on the sidebar for freshness.

Here's what to expect:
  • Renewed commitment. Commitment is the big theme this year, and working on the blog for the new look enabled us to think hard about what we want it to be and what we can commit to in the long-term. We've all had sabbaticals from writing and I'm sure we still will, but going into our fourth year we really do love the blog more than ever, and that's a good thing.
  • More fun! Now that m-pyrical is resting for all eternity, we've committed to bringing some of the fun that went on over there back to our original blog. This should inspire more posts about un-serious topics, because we can't keep a straight face all the time. (Sidenote: Renaming m-pyre "Hybrid Taxicab Confessions" was only a fleeting fancy.)
  • Regular series. One of the great things about m-pyrical was that it gave us a place to do book reviews and movie reviews, and that's something we want to do on m-pyre, too. Those are just two of the regular series we'll be doing here, so stay tuned for new features that will have us all chiming in.

Finally.... THANK YOU! It's hard to believe we've been writing here for three years, and the folks who chime in have truly been the best part about that. Although we started the blog primarily to talk to each other, it's been such a treat to have interesting dialogue with all of you, too. Please keep it up! We love hearing from you.

Thanks so much for our first three years, everyone - here's to the next three!

-M3