Last week, while eating a bag of chips, I was surprised to find that it had a blog. I can't say it was a particularly good blog ("Current Mood: Maltodextrin ^_^"), but it made me realize that I'm way, way late for my personal trip to Blog Town. It's 2006, and here I am.

Hi, I'm Cabel. I'm the co-founder of Panic (a Mac software company), and my friend Steve has had a blog forever.

First blog step: secure a hot, hot "internet domain". With most of the obvious ones long since taken, and after rejecting the extremely tempting "cabelog.com", I thought I might as well be the sixth person in all time to register a ".name" domain. It seemed perfect and beautifully awkward — with a name like Cabel — to grab cabel.name. (And no, I did not consider www.cabel.tv. And yes, I have heard that before — like, only a million trillion times.)

Next blog step: the design. This was fun. Blogger is easy. I did some interface exercises. For example, I wanted to try to improve the way previous links are presented on blogs (do they have to be always visible?), and so I came up with a pop-up floater (click "Previous Entries" at the top). I hope it's an improvement. (Let me know.)

Final stop: photos. I plan to post pictures up in here, but I've never been totally happy with how to present full-size images on the web. Usually, at least on the Panic site, I simply have them pop open in a new browser window, but I really hate introducing a whole new window just for a zoomed-up view.

So what's my new idea? Well, for example, I write, "Hey, here are some amusing pics from Canada", and then you click:

Meanmo! How about that. Cool? Lame? Looks weird? Too slow? Let me know. (I'm still working out pre-loading issues, and don't be surprised if this idea works its way into Panic-y things.)

All that's left now is — oh goodness — writing about stuff.

Here's my topic prediction: interesting Panic happenings, the Mac (or, as I said when I was about three years old, "Compooters and Ewectwonics"), design (graphic, interface, real-world), games, snacks, etc. Basically, Cabel stuff. (I'll try to keep it away from the mundane personal observations, for example I only just discovered this weekend that cinnamon toast is just as delicious — if not more delicious — when you don't toast it. Yes: mind blowing.)

Anyhow, thanks for visiting, let me know if there's any stories you'd like me to tell or topics you'd like me to cover, and please e-mail me if I never post again. Awesome. See you in 2007!