title/makeover

As you may have noticed, we've been cycling through some major design changes here in this blog. I've also been fiddling with the name, which I'd just like to apologize for right here and now. I realize some of you may be (or have been) devoted fans of "the Journal" which is what this blog was originally named. Realizing that I was in dire need of something a little less pedestrian, I changed the name of the blog to "the Journal of a Pretentious Blowhard" a couple of weeks back. However, the blog still seemed to lack pizazz. (Moreover, the phrase pretentious blowhard gets tossed around in the media, or in reference to the media, far too often these days.) So I have now changed the name of this blog to "the Sententious Vaunter," named after your humble self-deprecating blogger, yours truly. Sententious is a word that means self-righteous, given to holier-than-thou moralizing, and vaunter is another word for a braggart, or a blowhard. So there you have it, I'm the pretentious blowhard, or the ostentatious braggart, or the sententious vaunter or whatever you want to call it. The design of the blog, templates and colors in particular, have been undergoing some changes as well, as you may have noticed. I started with the fairly standard "Rounders" template, and stuck with the original colors. Around the time I overhauled the title for the first time (changing it to "the Journal of a Pretentious Blowhard"), I switched around all the colors as well. But I didn't stay happy with that for long. The background was dark green and the text was bright turquoise. Things couldn't progress like that forever. I also realized finally that the "Rounders" template wasted too much space, especially on my wide-screen laptop. So, a couple of days ago, I changed the template to "Stretch Denim" (occupying more breadth) and also switched up the colors to something more coordinated and less tacky. I hope this ice-blue sort of color theme I've got going works. If it doesn't, please let me know. I'm a little concerned that the vibrant blue is making all of the formerly blue skies in my posted photographs look dull and drab and tarnished by comparison. If this color scheme (or design) doesn't suit you in any way, drop me a line and clue me in, and I'll try something else. I've already half a mind to. Finally, the central, defining image of the blog at the top of the page (a feature I intend to keep no matter what other changes I may make) has also undergone some mutations. In the beginning, it was a Grumman Albatross (a large flying boat I'm rather fond of); secondly, and for the longest duration, it was a Fairchild C-123 Provider (the same type of plane, though not in the same livery, as used in the movie Con Air); thirdly and briefly it was one of my very own snapshots from Korea, the jungle room in Yeomiji Botanical Garden; and the current image is a shot of what appears to be Alaska or some similar region in the frozen Northwest, which is also the inspiration for the aforementioned ice-blue color theme. I'm currently contemplating changing this, too, however. Once again, I invite feedback. Otherwise I might do something even worse than the green-turquoise combo, people...