JBlog

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here.  There’s a new banner (thanks to a great creative commons photo of Sara & Joachim on Flickr).  There’s this odd reference that I’m in Malawi on the title.  All the old posts are gone (well, they’re actually archived under the Old Post Archive category).Behind the scenes, I’ve upgraded to the latest WordPress version and added some new plug-ins.  And probably one of the most strking differeces is that I’m posting again!  So, what’s going on here?

Well, just like things are changing on this blog, things are changing in my life.  My masters degree is coming to an end (my thesis was submitted this past week), and I’m starting to turn my mind to the (near) future.  I’ve been thinking lately of what I want to accomplish in my life and of what opportunities I currently have available.  And through all think thinking, I’ve decided to accept a placement with Engineers Without Borders (Canada) to work as an Overseas Volunteer Staff-person.  Some of you who know me, know that I’ve been involved in EWB for a while at various levels, so this shouldn’t really come as a surprise.  But it is a serious life-change, since at the end of the summer I will be heading off the Malawi to start my new job and won’t be heading back to Canada for at least a year.  Consider this just a teaser, I’ll have more in a later post on why I’ve made this decision and what I’ll be doing in Malawi.

But all this means changes for this blog!  I know that my experiences working with EWB overseas is something that a lot of you would like to hear about.  I’ll be using this blog to post my thoughts about my work and updates in my personal and professional life while in Malawi.  So over the next few weeks, I’ll be making a few minor changes around here (and posting more), so stay tuned!

I’m sure some of you have been coming here looking the O’Fishbein Factor. Well It’s not here per se, but you can find it at this link. We’ll put this link on the blogroll of this site to avoid any future confusion.

Plus the O’Fishbein Factor is now included in iTunes Podcast directory so you can subscribe to it there.

David Wasserman, my old high school friend and travel buddy from my Ireland/Scotland adventures, would like the world to know that it was he who had taken the picture that is now the banner for this blog. I would have thought it obvious that since I am in the picture that it would be clear that I did not take it, but David would like you all to know that it was in fact his excellent photography skills that now graces this page.

I was going through my pictures from my UK + Ireland trip and figured that it’s about time that I put something up here. So rather than stick up any old picture in a post I thought that I’d incorporate it into a new website banner since I was growing tired of the Wordpress Kubrick default. The cliffs behind me in the picture are The Cliffs of Moher (a.k.a. The Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride).

I still want to get the rest of the pictures up on the blog though. Anyone know of a good Wordpress plug-in for picture galleries?

Well the migration from Blogger is complete!  Blogger was nice, but WordPress seems so much more spacious!

There will also be more posts in the near future.  Yes I know I’ve said that before, and failed … numerous times.  But this time, I mean it.  Honestly!  The cogs of my mind have been jammed with thoughts, that I need to let them out somewhere.  Stay tuned!

www.jonathanfishbein.com has finally been taking down from my University of Waterloo engineering webspace and moved to theorem.ca. Over the coming months I’m going to be adding some new sections to the site and eventually move the blog from blogger to a custom system. What does that mean to you, the reader? Hopefully some better content! So bear with me here as we go through a redesign.

After a full two and a half years of nothing being here but a crappy little graphic I conjured up in 5 minutes (I’m keeping it up for posterity’s sake), there is actually something that may or may not look like a website. What took me so long? Basically, laziness. I’d like to say it was some bout with a heroic act that fuelled my procrastination … but sadly no, laziness wins again. Kudos are in order to both Morgan Grainger and Ian MacKinnon for linking to the crappy graphic prompting me to get off my ass and do something with my web space.

Now the big question is will anyone notice. Hmmm, maybe the first comment posted will get prize … or maybe not.