the slop bucket that holds it all
Palenburg, OH – January 16, 2021. Porkopolis.org is now twenty-six (26) years old.
Posted today, is v9.x of the theme design code named “Pigs in Clover.” It is based on simple shades of green with a wee bit of piggy pink here and there.
Tweaking of this sow’s tail will continue until she improves her fashion sense – lipstick seems OK, but lace and actual clay pots full of clover scattered about? I dunno…
Bestiary
A bestiary, or bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Such collections were first made popular in the Middle Ages as illuminated volumes that described various real or imaginary animals, birds and mythological creatures.
Stories and pictures within the bestiary provided each creature’s natural history in an allegorical format as well as an interpretation of the moral significance or lesson each animal was thought to embody.
Porkopolis.org is a modern version of such a collection. It is single–minded because it only discusses pigs. And its moral lesson: “Sometimes, the path of enlightenment leads through the pig pen.”
Same pigs, different circus
The v9.x theme design is a continuing evolution of those before it, and a near total re–write of the theme code behind the past v8.x site.
As with previous upgrades, almost all past posts, pages and information have been included, albeit some were re-formatted to satisfy the design requirements of the new theme. Much new information continues to be added as well.
Sages and Pilgrims
I have been inspired by and adapted the ideas from the web designs, tutorials and publications of many intelligent and generous professionals. Their print and web resources have enabled me to build my vision — a pig web site with information arranged in alternate streaks of fat and lean.
I certainly do not know any of them, we’ve never met… But what works here is because of their guidance. What fails is because I lost my way in the haymows during the hog days of summer.
I consider these folks some of the fittest hogs at the trough. Because of them, the web is less a Paris and more a Porkopolis. Thank you: Jeffrey Zeldman; Eric Meyer; Dan Cederholm; all the folks who write for and maintain A List Apart; and Justin Tadlock and the forum members at ThemeHybrid. I learned so very much more about WordPress through all these folks work and immeasurably fine advice.
Also, much of my research has been made possible by the great expertise of the librarians and staff of public libraries throughout the United States and many foreign countries. Libraries remain a powerful and dependable source in information, education and personal growth
Epicurious, Pig?
Porkopolis.org is built and maintained on a Windows PC. It is written in XHTML, PHP, HTML and CSS. The site is tested locally on an XAMPP Apache web server.
Starting with v6.0, Porkopolis.org switched from a static HTML site to one using WordPress as the power behind a content management system for the majority of the information presented here.
When this sow’s belly itches, I scratch her with: WeBuilder, TopStyle, Photoshop, IrfranView, HTML Tidy, Notepad and some terrific extensions for the Firefox web browser: Web Developer, Firebug, HTML Validator and Total Validator.
Validation
I hope the design is enjoyable and efficient, but it is what it is… I have only one version of the site so every browser gets the same code. Your browser–of–choice must decide what to do with it. You should know that the pigs and I prefer the discretionary judgment of the Firefox, Opera and Chrome browsers.
Unless some errant swine has rooted up a page recently, all this site’s pages validate at the W3C Markup Validation Service — http://jigsaw.w3.org/css–validator for CSS and at http://validator.w3.org/ for HTML and XHTML.
Ah, that being said, the thorough rooters among you will notice some CSS and XHTML do not actually pass validation. This is because I have included some progressive enhancements in my code and the ThemeHybrid design focuses more on what works correctly and on semantics rather than than validation. So again, it is what it is.
Content
I have attempted to insure that sources of original copyrighted images and content have been contacted. I am grateful to all those who have responded to my requests and have allowed me to reproduce versions of their material here.
Copyrighted material should be credited. Please notify me of any omissions. Some modification or editing may have occurred in order to accommodate size or design requirements. This is usually noted as “adapted from” in the credits.
Colophonem adidi!
This project was completed under the protection of the sorceress Circe, the daughter of the sun, in whose halls I have feasted, and before whom I will always bow, enswined in the allure of porculation and the animality she has shown me in my own being.
It is with the pleasures of the Circean Cup that I have pledged Circe my service and dedication to her belief that an insufficiency of pigs is one of the great faults of all that the gods have made manifest to man.
I look upon this design pridefully, for I believe it is pig punditry true to the Porcine Muse’s honor; and I thank the gods that I have completed this project!
Little pig, big pig,
Root, hog, or die!
Daniel E. Schultz,
Editor, Curator and Swineherd
