Third Party Site Widgets

I don't even know the correct name for these snippets of javascript and HTML that can be added to sites to increase the "web 2.0" functionality. I, of course, am referring to the social networking / bookmarking tools.

For a few months up until now, I had added such a gadget to the site. Sadly, it added a gap at the top of the page upon the initial page load. While subsequent pages loaded on the site would not have the gap, it became rather annoying. Of course, this was because it had some sort of conflict with the CSS in the page.

Admittedly, social networking has been one of those things that I reluctantly embrace, get deep into, integrate into everything, and then feel remorse for doing so.

Why? It's not that I consider the whole web 2.0 and social networking aspect of the modern Internet to be bad; it's just not something that strongly appeals to me. As a freelancer and a web comic artist trying desperately to promote my work, every reasonable avenue must be explored in order to reach a wider audience.

Having said that, I turned off the Twitter feed display on the page for now (as I've done a few times on and off before) and removed the bookmarking gadget. The way I see it, cluttering the site design with these things does not add quite enough value compared to the aesthetically off-putting busy-looking layout that it creates.

As for 2214, I'll be straight-forward: Yes; I'm working on it. Worrying about other things going on right now always kills my artistic drive and general motivation to draw - that's always a factor. If you don't see a new 2214 page by Monday, then it's time for me to chain myself to my Wacom tablet.

Seriously, though; I'm shooting for getting it done by Monday morning.