Thursday, February 04, 2010

All change

Interesting times.

So, at the tail end of last year, my good friend - and flatmate of the past three and a half years - Hamish very nervously told me that his partner had been invited to apply for a job in Wick and that they were seriously thinking about moving there. Late last month they went north to see the place, and for Craig's interview and (unsurprisingly to anyone who's heard him talk about his work) Wick have snapped him up. They're relocating in April.

After some thought about what to do next, I've decided that I'm moving too. Our flat in Stockbridge is lovely, but it's at the upper end of what I can afford* and Edinburgh is teeming with other lovely places to live. Also (at the risk of jinxing things) I hope to be moving in with my partner before too long, and his pets are apparently not welcome in the flat by our current landlord. So while initially staying put seemed the ideal, on consideration it seems less attractive than taking the opportunity to move somewhere new.

It's funny how these unexpected changes can turn into really exciting possibilities. Nothing (except moving out) is set in stone yet but plans are coming together. It looks like, come April, I'll put myself in a kind of "parking orbit" around Edinburgh. All being well I plan on putting the bulk of my belongings into storage, and temporarily moving in with another friend who has a small (and cheap) furnished room going in her flat. I'm excited about that in itself because we've lived together before and enjoyed it, and because - while the room will be small - the flat is lovely and very well located for me. I'm also excited about the sense of potential that kind of a temporary move will open up in front of me.

Not everybody 'gets' this but I get very excited about possibilities... I love the thought of spending a few months not really tied to anywhere, looking around for where to make my next home, not least because (I hope) that home will be shared with Joe and - as well as being the most exciting prospect of all! - that will make it a completely different shape to anywhere I've lived before...

So its all change for my physical home... and this morning I learned of developments which will change my electronic home too. After six and a half years of publishing this blog through Blogger, the FTP publication channel that I use is being closed down. Apparently I'm one of only 0.5% of Blogger users relying on FTP publication and supporting us is hampering their plans to develop the platform so from next month it'll no longer be possible to update Blogger blogs over FTP.

I'm fine with that.

It would be easy to get all bent out of shape about the change, but I can see how my use of their tools isn't really what they were designed for, and (like with the flat) I'm excited about looking for a way to do this differently - right from day one** the beginning my blog has been structurally a kludge and to be perfectly honest I'm surprised the basic form of the blog has lasted this long***. Time for something new... though I don't know what yet - suggestions welcome!

Wherever "splateagle.com - blog" finds its new home the chances are that you folk out there on the other side of the screen will notice little if any visual evidence of the change. There'll probably be some different typesetting and that little orange logo (which you hadn't noticed anyway) will disappear from the top right of the page. Happily one big difference to moving house online over the real world is that the address travels with you, so while the blog will have a new home, your route to come and visit won't change.

So, so long Blogger, and thanks for all the fish.

*mid-range for the city, cost-wise and imo very reasonable for what it is... although my recent searches have turned up some similar places for markedly less. Probably reflects the change in the economy since we signed our lease
**I didn't get the blog part of the site up and running until a month of so into the life of the website and (sadly) the wonderful wayback machine didn't notice and record splateagle.com until a few months after that... I think it's still fun to see back in time like that though, even if though the great web archive doesn't save the old graphics...
***Another reason I really don't mind being turfed out of my blog's electronic home since 2003, is that Blogger are very kindly helping me pack, they're offering a range of migration assistance for us tiny percentage of affected users, and I can take all my archives with me when I go. Very nicely handled if you ask me.