Welcome to the all-new Off the Kuff. I've said my goodbye on Blogspot, now I'll say hello on my brand-spanking-new domain. This is very much a work in progress - I'm not sure I want to stick with this color scheme - so please feel free to give me feedback in the comments or via email.

Though the recent Blogger permalink problems helped to give me a push, this move was a long time in coming. I've always liked the look of Movable Type blogs, and since you can't use it on Blogspot, that meant I'd have to find a web host. Ultimately, I wanted the freedom to do things that I couldn't on Blogspot, such as incorporate pictures and my own archive structure more easily. I may even be able to use some of those Perl/CGI skills I learned in a class last year (I get to sling some Perl at work, but it's never been convenient for me to do any CGI work). I'm free to do what I want, within the bounds of my disk space and bandwidth allotment.

I'd like to address what Brian Linse, Matthew Yglesias and Chad Orzel in Matt's comments have said about the recent spate of migrations from Blogger and Blogspot. After two days of fooling around with Movable Type and nearly a week of having my own domain, I can definitely say that I like it but it's not for everybody. I'm an IT professional and I ran into a few bumps in the road getting everything configured. Had I not had a decent amount of tech fu in me, I'd have been sucking my thumb and crying for Mommy. If you think telnet is a long-distance plan and FTP is a brand of motor oil, take my advice: Stay on Blogspot. You can always get Blogger Pro if you want to spend a few bucks for extra bang.

(On a side note, I must say that I've been impressed with my web host so far. I've found the answer to every question I've had in their knowledge base, usually with a minimum of fuss. Most of the issues that I encountered with the MT install had to do with my web site config. I'd still be futzing around with configuration if I'd had to resort to sending questions to tech support and waiting for answers.)

So I'll send my heartfelt thanks to Ev and the crew at Pyra for getting me started down this path. They made it easy and accessible. I made the decision to challenge myself, but I wouldn't be trying to run now if I hadn't learned how to walk first.