Who are you?

I hold Christian beliefs. I am typically called James, in professional and online settings. I'm older than a teenager. I dabble in a lot of things, but right now my amateur foci tend to be in full-stack web design/development, and writing. Deprecated psychiatry manuals have classified me as Asperger's.

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What's with the new layout?

I've wanted to reorganize the site for some time, to make it easier to access different sections of it, and I've decided that now is a good time to do so. The old landing page is a casualty of that, but you can find pages that look very much like it (with the logo!) by clicking on the "SooperGrape" tab.

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Why "SooperGrape"?

My father ran a grape seed extract (GSE) company some years ago, and used to market and sell his wares from this domain. The company is defunct, but the site stuck around as a place for his old GSE studies, as well as projects and other resources. The 'projects and resources' have shifted to become the main focus of the site, especially since I've taken over as webmaster. Occasionally I wonder if a second domain name might serve my online identity better, but I haven't thought of one I'd like yet. In the meantime, this one will do.

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What's the point of gPress?

It's a blog. My mother commanded me to start one. It would have been imprudent to disobey.

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Why don't you use WordPress? Why does this site look like something out of the '90s?

I once ran a WordPress site. I appreciated its (relative) ease of use and power, but I'm not fond of bloated software.

Many websites nowadays involve thousands of lines of markup, tens of thousands of lines of code, and millions of bytes. As someone who grew up with dial-up internet, and who tends to believe that "Less is more", this trend bothers me. And as someone who has actually tried to work on some modern websites and seen how convoluted they tend to be, I'm persuaded there must be a better way.

This website, and most others I make, are representative of that vision. They have the features I need, and the appearance I think websites should have. This tends to correlate with lower bandwidth costs, faster loading speeds, and soothing gorgeous grey backgrounds.

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Why can't I comment on any of your posts?

I've thought about including a dedicated 'guestbook' or 'comment' feature. So far, I've omitted it. Other aspects of the site are more important than dealing with additional security, moderation, and anti-bot measures. If you want to get in touch with me and see your message show up on the website, with your name on it, send me an email at gpress@soopergrape.com. If I think it's good, I might post it up in an appropriate place.

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I want to talk to you about something, but I don't want my emails shared.

That's fine. You can note that you don't want our correspondence posted up here. I may still publicly discuss things related to the email, but if so I will try to do it in an indirect sense, like "I've thought about X," or "I've heard talk about Y", or "I was in a discussion about Z". I won't identify you.

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Why is mobile support so bad?

If it is bad, let me know. I want to accommodate people when it's reasonable, and 'being usable' is reasonable.

That said, I design for desktops first, because of personal biases and beliefs. I've always liked the desktop/laptop form factors, and I've never felt that smartphones were 'real computers'. Larger screens give me the chance to lay out my vision and feature set in the way I like, and I don't like having to compromise that experience.

Besides, I'm disturbed by the way a number of people cleave to their phones when they're out in public. Maybe it's hypocritical coming from someone who stays indoors and on his stationary computer most days, but I feel contributing to mobile use is contributing to a problem. I'm not motivated to design a website for a platform that I don't feel should be prevalent in the first place.

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Can you make a website for me?

Send me an email with the details of what you have in mind, and we can determine the probability of this.

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