Remember not long ago, I mentioned wanting to update the look of my blog?  And that it would probably not be a very speedy process, yeah?

I still haven’t really gotten past the “wanting to” stage, but I have been rethinking whether I should stick with this CMS, ExpressionEngine (EE), or change back to….

WordPress.

Yes, I know.  That program frustrated me with the two times my site got hacked, and was the reason I switched over to EE.

But designing in EE was challenging, mainly because if one cannot find free plugins to do what one wants, or is not willing to cough up the dough to pay for a plugin that does do what one wants… One needs to be a software developer to make ones own plugins.  And I am not that, nor am I willing to cough up the money to pay for plugins that will do what I need or want them to do.  The free ones are somewhat lacking.

So between WP’s recent updates… and coming across some external tools that may help prevent the scenarios that led me to leave it in the first place, I’m reconsidering WP.  It has loads of shiny plugins & widgets, most for free.  From what I’m learning, using those that are kept up to date, is key.  Not only because there could be conflicts between an out of date plugin and WP when it does update, but also for potential security holes that a plugin developer may discover and patch.

I suspect I had a few plugins installed that were a little on the old side, which could have contributed to the issues I had.  I’m willing to try it again, being careful with the plugins, although I am not sure whether I should try moving everything from EE, into a fresh install of WP, or just play around in a test version.  Still contemplating everything, really.  But leaning toward moving it all back.

Hmm. Decisions, decisions.

On a completely unrelated note.. I think I want a stick vacuum for sweeping up the bits of cat litter that my cats seem to trail from the laundry room down the hallway.  Much easier to use than my huge vacuum, and quicker than using a stupid broom. 

I was kind of looking for something fairly cheap, probably this from Shark:  Shark VX1.  What do you think?  Any recommendations?