Winner! Free Blog Makeover Contest

After read­ing and re-reading, after much thought and the input of Strawberry Blonde, I have picked a win­ner in the Free Blog Makeover Contest. Before I announce the win­ner I want to state that there were many, many excel­lent entries. Choosing the win­ner was not easy. Still, I had to choose but one entry to win the blog re/design.

And the win­ner is…

First Runner-Up: Chris, who is cre­at­ing a blog he describes as: 

Well unusu­al. I am an alco­holic, I have been sober over 7 years. I own a web host­ing com­pa­ny, and small design firm (spe­cial­iz­ing in e‑commerce design) I have spent many years dis­cussing spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and the search for ‘it’. This blog is a per­son­al, non-commercial site. One where I can dis­cuss my day to day life as a sober alco­holic, one to help bring inspi­ra­tion and hope back to those still suf­fer­ing. And ulti­mate­ly to dis­cuss the pur­suit of ‘it’ in my life. I have had a pas­sion for some­way to express these things to oth­ers, and over the past few months I have had a grow­ing sense that start­ing a blog might be a way I can accom­plish this. 

Second Runner-Up: Anthony. Anthony describes his future blog thusly:

On Sunday March 7th this year I am get­ting mar­ried in Brisbane, Australia to my girl­friend of 8 years. I want­ed to have a site which would not only host our wed­ding and hon­ey­moon pho­tos (we are going to Fiji for 2 weeks) but a place where I could write about my expe­ri­ences as a new­ly mar­ried man in addi­tion to oth­er events and gen­er­al thoughts.

I am hop­ing to even­tu­al­ly have an online diary of things that mean some­thing to me which I can refer to and rethink on as time goes by. I am not attempt­ing to take the blog­ging world by storm and rev­o­lu­tionise blogs, but I hope that any­one who stum­bles onto the site will find some­thing interesting. 

And the Winner of the first Pariah’s Free Blog Makeover Contest is… Joni and Robert of http://​www​.ro​-jo​.net.

Jonie writes:

My hus­band is in the hos­pi­tal bat­tling a spinal abscess that has left him par­a­lyzed. He wants to start a blog–a place where he can vent his thoughts and strug­gles. I’ve kind of start­ed such a place for him, but I am not hap­py with the results. Maybe I’m too close to the subject.

Basically, I don’t have any ideas. I have the wheel­chair as the focus. I thought about get­ting him his own domain but what? For right now, he just wants a place to write about this. He’s been in the hos­pi­tal since September 18, 2003. He was at TIRR (one of the best rehab facil­i­ties in the nation, right here in our home­town of Houston, Texas). But he went into kid­ney fail­ure and con­tract­ed an infec­tion. He just got out of the hos­pi­tal and is now in an acute care facil­i­ty. Hopefully, he’ll be out in about six weeks and ready to come home. That’s when he wants to start writing.

I have includ­ed a link to a screen­shot of the cur­rent ‘design.’ It’s what I set up to post news to his fam­i­ly, who is scat­tered all over the country.

He’s 55 years old, an ‘old hip­pie,’ grew up in the ear­ly 70s, hung around the Austin, Texas ‘rock­a­bil­ly’ scene (the Armadillo World HQ and Soap Creek Saloon) in those days. I met him in San Antonio (my home­town) in 1980 when he was dri­ving a cab. We’ve been togeth­er ever since. He nursed me through my can­cer in 1990 and it’s time to repay that debt. 

Congratulations on win­ning the con­test, Robert and Jonie. I was touched by your essay, and I look for­ward to cre­at­ing a blog design that helps Robert express him­self. I will e‑mail you short­ly with some ini­tial ques­tions and ideas.

Thank you to every­one who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the con­test. It was not an easy deci­sion by any means.