New Essay Topics and Other Site Updates

I very rarely publish updates like this but there have been so many changes to the site recently that I thought you’d appreciate hearing about them.

I’ll describe each change in detail below, but here's the short version:

There are new Essay topics (you must update your subscriber profile to receive them; see below), a new Travels page, new location tags for where on Earth each post was published; there’s also a new Resources page, new Journal pricing options, new audio recordings of me reading Essays and Journals, and new subscriber options that let you select how frequently you want to receive updates from me (see below for details).

New Essay Topics

I’m adding two additional essay topics to my site: Technology and Writing & Publishing. I’ve categorized my other essays as ‘Personal Reflections’, as that was closest I could come to a topic for them.

I’ve held myself back from writing about writing and talking about technology for a long time as I recognize that many of you have subscribed to receive my more introspective material on life. I was previously maintaining a separate website for my technology-related posts and I was thinking of starting a new website for essays on writing. However, I’ve decided to keep everything in one place instead.

This new setup will allow me to write on vastly differing topics while giving you the option to receive only the topics that interest you. As my interests change over the course of my life, I can add new topics and publish them without adding noise to your inbox.

If you want to receive these two new topics, you will need to update your profile using the link in the footer of an email from me. (If you can’t figure it out, just reply to this email or leave a comment and I’ll help you.)

New Email Frequency Options

You can now select how frequently you want to receive new Thoughts and Essays by updating your profile using the link in the footer of any of my emails.

I will be experimenting with publishing more frequently, so if the frequency of these emails gets to be too much, you can always switch to the Weekly or Monthly option. These new options are also available to Journal subscribers (again, simply find the ‘update your profile’ link in the footer of one of my emails).

New Journal Pricing

I recently changed the pricing structure for the Journal and it’s now available at $40/year, $7/month, or for a one-time donation. Existing Journal subscribers can upgrade / downgrade at any time (simply login to your account and visit the Upgrade / Downgrade page).

New Resources Page

I’ve started collecting links to different products, sites, and other resources that I use and recommend on the new Recommended Resources page. You can hover your mouse over any link on the page to see a description and/or a mini-review. I’ve separated items into various categories, including resources that I use within specific countries that I travel to. The list is always growing and changing, so check back for updates.

New Audio Recordings

At the top of recent Essays and Journals, you’ll find an audio recording of me reading the post. (See ‘A Writers Manifesto’, for an example.) I thoroughly enjoy hearing other authors read their own writing, so I thought I’d experiment with offering the same to you.

To create the audio readings, I use Audacity and my Apple earbuds mic while reading the post aloud in a quite room. I find that doing these recordings also helps me improve my writing because when something doesn't feel natural, I rewrite it until it does.

Where in the World is Raam?

You can now see my current location at the top of the home page (and on the new Travels Map). My location is automatically updated whenever I check-in to a place on Foursquare. I use Foursquare for nothing more than to track my location, so sometimes I will check-in to a place not because I’m actually in that building, but because I’m going past it and want to plot my travels.

To make all of this work, I’m using a combination of jKMLMap, a custom Python script that I wrote, and a custom WordPress plugin that I also created.

New Travels Map and Schedule

There is a new Travels page that includes an automatically updated map of my travels, as well as a collection of maps for my previous travels and my current and upcoming travel schedule.

The schedule is linked to my personal calendar, which is the same one that I use for planning things, so if you’re curious about where I’m thinking of going next, all you need to do is look there. If there are blank days/weeks/months, that means I have no idea where I’ll be!

New Recently Published List

The recently published list on the home page has been updated to reflect the new organization of my essays into specific categories and the consolidation of Notes into the Journal.

New Featured Photos

There’s a random photo displayed at the top of the home page, pulled from one of my Flickr Sets. All photos were taken by me. You can hover over the photo to see the title, or click on the photo to see an enlarged version with the title at the bottom.

Consolidated Notes into the Journal

I’ve decided to consolidate the Notes into the Journal after realizing the notes were really just short Journal entries. I also feel that making them Journal entries will encourage me to share more of my thoughts along with the notes.

Where was it Published?

All Thoughts, Essays, and Journals now include a location of where the material was published. The Thoughts have the location below them, the rest have the location underneath the title. This is handled automatically for me, as my last reported location automatically gets added when I publish something new.

Hover to See Map

You can hover your mouse over the location on any Thought, Essay, Journal, or Note and you’ll see a map of that location pop up.

Cleaner Design

I’ve continued to clean things up as far as the design of my site and my friend Ali Dark helped with providing a cleaner code-base. My custom theme, based on the WordPress TwentyEleven theme, is now available on GitHub. I’ll try to keep that updated as I change things.