The ‘header’ above represents what VanRamblings used to look like.
VanRamblings made it’s début on February 15, 2004 — following on months of work by web developer, Mike Klassen, to create VanRamblings — resultant from a heartfelt plea by Michael and an editor friend of mine, Jay Currie, that …
“Raymond, you are passionate about so many things, and have much to say of interest to people on a broad range of topics. Given the current state of the media industry, although you’ve written for a variety of publications over the years, given the dearth of media outlets to employ you, at present your voice has been silenced.
We believe that it is of critical importance that you be given an outlet where you might present your unique insight on a range of topics of interest to you, and the general public. To that end, we’d like to work with you on creating a blog that will provide you with a creative outlet, and where your voice might make a difference, when you write about the state and nature of society, politics, the arts, popular culture, cinema, web and tech issues, travel and more.”
And thus VanRamblings was born, thanks to encouragement from Mike and Jay, and great — and arduously intensive — web development work by the former.
VanRamblings’ blogging platform from the outset, and for the past 17½ years, was Movable Type — the de rigueur professional blogging platform back in the day.
Over the years, a few technical issues arose beneath the hood of VanRamblings, and although Movable Type long ago fell out of favour among the blogging web developer cognoscenti — the preferred, most used and most reliable blogging platform, WordPress, in 2004 a blogging platform then in its infancy — up until mid-morning this past Wednesday all was well with VanRamblings, until disaster struck — and VanRamblings on Movable Type was no more, kaput, gone, finished.
And thus today, and going forward, a phoenix-like, risen from the ashes re-birth of VanRamblings, this time as a much more reliable — or so I am faithfully assured — WordPress blog!
VanRamblings will return on Monday with coverage of our current and incredibly dispiriting 2021 federal election, now a mere 16 days away from the unthinkable.
