I've done it! I think. After a week or so of struggling with Movable Type (which was my blog software) and phpBB2 (which was my forums software) and my hosting company (which was GoDaddy), I've managed to make some big changes. But not after nearly an entire week lost to computer problems and hair-tearing. That means some changes. You're witnessing the first one, which is that I've switched to Wordpress for my blog. It's not nearly as flexible, not nearly as pretty but, man, it's easy to install and manage and I've just run out of time and patience for managing MT. Until I'm a gabazillionaire and have my own IT department, it's going to have to do. (When I get some time, I'm going to play around with templates and see if we can't get it to look less like a sixth-grade HTML project, etc.) I think I've made the transition pretty well, losing only a couple of entries during the import stage. Nothing important, of course.
It also means that, after much consideration, I've done away with the reader forums. You guys were so great and loyal in keeping them going for five years but, let's face it -- activity had dwindled a lot in the last year. It made sense to have an online gathering place while I was posting a weekly column that drove traffic to the site. But for right now that's not happening, so it no longer justified the amount of time I spent trying to manage and maintain it. I hope you understand. I can't thank you guys enough for your continued readership and support.
If I've done things right, though, then you should actually be able to comment freely on this blog without any trouble - another kink I hope to have solved moving to Wordpress. So I expect all you Usual Suspects to keep in touch that way.
Thanks to all of you for your patience!