Over the past month or so I’ve been having an affair of sorts. No, not that kind of affair. I’ve just been splitting my time between English Rules and my new techie blog, Learning jQuery. jQuery is a new JavaScript library that lets programming neophytes like me do cool things on web pages. It’s what has allowed me to dynamically load “noteworthy articles” and my “blogroll” in the Widescreen Bonus section of my web pages. It made my secret, Harry Potteresque, skeleton-key style switcher pretty easy to accomplish. And it helped me slick up the home page of the David LaGrand for State Senate web site with images that fade in and out and big buttons that reveal forms for ordering bumper stickers and yard signs.

Update: The big buttons aren’t on David LaGrand’ home page anymore, because the campaign is over.

Learning jQuery chronicles some of the things I’ve been learning and offers up my discoveries to others who are new to jQuery or JavaScript or web development in general. It’s been a lot of fun to be involved in the community of jQuery developers and learn from them and also give back a little bit through the blog.

The only problem with the new blog is that I have no time for it. I mean, I barely have enough time to keep English Rules running, what with work and family and my other little hobbies. I once heard someone suggest to packrats that for every new item they bring into the house, they discard two — whether they sell them on eBay or donate them to Goodwill or throw them in the trash. As a hobby packrat, I’m beginning to wonder if I should drop two interests for every new one that I pursue. It’s so hard to let things go, though. Know what I mean?