Esoteric Renaissance

...experiments in thought and art

Site Updates

2026

31 May

I've been doing a deep dive into what they call the "Web Revival" and my old (circa 1996 - 2008) site designs. I feel that a major redesign may be coming so. But, in the meantime, I've been finishing up the base code and the MWeb Pro file set up that will let me maintain this site more easily for the long term. You may see small things pop up here and there as I rediscover the things I loved and still enjoy. And the blog section should be updated more regularly now, even as I work still to organize and decide what older posts will continue to be archived here.

05 May

Have been working periodically on background tasks, small quality of life tweaks, things you may not see or notice that improve how the site is built and functions. I've switched from 11ty to MWeb Pro for managing and designing the site. I've been recovering from burnout and prioritizing where I put my energy and learning all the things I needed to learn in order to manage things so granularly.

Pulled some things off the list. But still have a few lingering to dos for this site.

23 February

Haven't made much progress on building this site. It's been an interesting month or two. Wasn't able to finish more than a couple posts in the Character Creation Challenge, either. I'm toying with ideas for structuring this site in less of a blog format and more of an article format. ...Maybe. I'm undecided. For now, I'm focusing on cleaning up the layout and digging further into what I can do with Eleventy, which is the system I'm using to build this at the moment.

In the meantime, there's a new post up about my 18th RezDay in Second Life.

03 January

Relaunching the site on a new host with a brand new tech stack! Brushing off my old HTML and CSS skills to go back to writing this all from scratch. No more CMS-managed themes or sitemaps. I am using a static site generator to keep everything uniform. But, the bulk of the design and content is all me. I'll be importing old content back over the next several weeks, after I get full responsiveness and accessibility sorted. But, for now, I'm ready to get her up and public again.

2022

18 November 2022

I have closed the site temporarily for a complete overhaul. Archiving everything and starting fresh. It’s just become too daunting to think of cleaning up the old posts to make them presentable before writing something new. But, I hate the idea of starting new and not being consistent in design and tone.

I’m expecting to soft launch the site in 2023. Please join me then for new content, new directions, and new honesty.

2007

04 September 2007

Esoteric Renaissance has a new host!

Please be patient while files are being transferred and DNS changes are being made. We shall return you to your regularly scheduled, and soon to be greatly improved, blogging experience as quickly as possible.

2005

16 June 2005

Welcome to a Redesigned Esoteric Renaissance!

In keeping with the spirit of ‘Explorations in Thought and Art’ I have completely redesigned this main site and restructured much of the domain as a whole.

What you will find inside:

  • Essays on various subjects from religion to art to stream of consciousness writing
  • By my Hand, my personal blog and journal
  • Digital Visions, a gallery of my digital artwork ranging from Bryce renders to photomanipulations
  • Images of Life, a photoblog of photos taken on my travels and around home
  • Imagine This…, a special blog updated annually by my friends and I for Blogathon

What is on the horizon:

  • A new subdomain devoted to my fiction writing
  • A new subdomain with graphic offerings such as icons, wallpaper, stationery, et.
  • Stay tuned also for information on my participation in Blogathon 2005 to appear here.

2004

07 July 2004

It's that time of year again. Time for us bloggers to stay up for 24 hours, posting whatever comes to mind while the good folks at home cheer us on and send a small donation to our favorite charities.

This year I will be blogging solo from right here at By My Hand to benefit the Wildlife Waystation in Angeles Crest. The blog theme for the event will be "A Digital Work In Progress", chronically my work on a poster sized digtal art piece, the subject of which will be "Wildlife".

What: Project Blog 2004 (http://project-blog.org)
When: July 24, 2004 beginning at 5am PDT
Where: By My Hand (http://bymyhand.esoteric-renaissance.com)

Benefits of Sponsorship

For every $1 donated through Sponsorship, I will match it. At every $200 matched, 1 animal will be sponsored for 1 year. Each sponsor pledging $10 or more will be given the chance to request an item be added to the image. I am going to attempt to have the final image printed and, if it is, all sponsors will receive four postcard size prints. Sponsors pledging $25 or more will receive a poster sized print as well.

How to Sponsor the Site

Go to http://project-blog.org and sign up for a free account. Or, email me at jayellefsw (at) yahoo.com to be added to the list of offline sponsors.

23 April 2004

Not many visible updates this time around. Mostly some back-end coding to make the page load faster.

I'm currently still working on the Whispered Creations redesign. Almost finished. May even go up this weekend. The Blogathon pages are coming along nicely, as well.

OK, short updates for today.

30 March 2004

Design changes gallore is a happening. grin All sections of the site are being standardized and updates. This is a lengthy process, so please pardon any dust.

What's been done so far:

  • By My Hand has seen a full template redesign. There are several new entries as well.
  • Digital Visions has also seen a full template redesign and has been updated with all my latest works.

What's in the Works:

  • Our Blogathon 2003 Site, Five For Friday has been migrated from Blogger and is undergoing a new design in preparation for Blogathon 2004.
  • Whispered Creations is also undergoing a design change and will hopefully see some new updates, including a new wallpaper set.
  • A new digital piece is almost done for Digital Visions, it's in the rendering stage

What's Coming up in the Pipeline:

  • a new section showcasing some of my photography.
  • some new essays for Mystic Sanctuary
  • almost ready to start posting some of my cartoon dolls to Past Times
  • a new digital piece for the gallery based on the Illyria character from Angel

2002

07 October 2002

Added a "Who's Who" section to Backstage Unscripted.

06 October 2002

I have finally named the online journal portion of this site Backstage Unscripted. I've added several little touches, such as the Current things listed below and aortal site of the week. A few changes in format and presentation have been made to the journal pages. I wish I had time to finish the Narnia series for Digital Expressions, but alas, I have not had such so far.

08 September 2002

Been out of touch here for awhile. Things got crazy at work. I did come to the realization that I was never going to transcribe all the entries I have stuffed away for the journal here. So, I've moved everything back to LiveJournal and then embedded that here. (Guess that means I'll continue paying for the account. ::wink::) All the comforts of home and the flexibilty too! I've added a poetry poetry page to A Thousand Words and Digital Expressions is finally up.

13 May 2002

Working on organizing the journal section of the site today. Starting today, you'll always find the latest five journal entries linked from this main page. Instead of archiving the Live Journal entries, I'm going to just leave the link to them on the archives page so that you may all access them. this way, I keep the account open for LJ friends to find me as well as keep my ability to comment in friends' journals.