diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index d36a84d..04881b3 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 require 'active_support'
 
+# preview project on this port - http://localhost:4000
+port = "4000"
+
+# compiled site directory
+site = "site"
+
+# for rsync deployment
+ssh_user      = "user@host.com"
+document_root = "~/document_root/"
+
+
 def ok_failed(condition)
   if (condition)
     puts "OK"
@@ -8,9 +19,6 @@ def ok_failed(condition)
   end
 end
 
-port = "4000"
-site = "site"
-
 desc "list tasks"
 task :default do
   puts "Tasks: #{(Rake::Task.tasks - [Rake::Task[:default]]).to_sentence}"
@@ -35,7 +43,7 @@ end
 desc "generate and deploy website"
 task :deploy => :generate do
   print "Deploying website..."
-  ok_failed system("rsync -avz --delete #{site}/ user@host.com:~/document_root/")
+  ok_failed system("rsync -avz --delete #{site}/ #{ssh_user}:#{document_root}")
 end
 
 desc "start up an instance of serve on the output files"
diff --git a/_config.yml b/_config.yml
index 43a6460..f4f0f42 100644
--- a/_config.yml
+++ b/_config.yml
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ multiviews: true
 sass: false
 haml: true
 post_defaults:
-  layout: post
\ No newline at end of file
+  layout: default
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/source/_helpers.rb b/source/_helpers.rb
index bbff39f..0c767f7 100644
--- a/source/_helpers.rb
+++ b/source/_helpers.rb
@@ -178,9 +178,6 @@ module Helpers
     input.gsub(/(href|src)(\s*=\s*)(["'])(\/.*?)\3/) { $1 + $2 + $3 + "http://brandonmathis.com" + $4 + $3 }
   end
   
-  def full_url(input)
-    'http://brandonmathis.com'+input
-  end
   def rp(input)
     RubyPants.new(input).to_html
   end
diff --git a/source/_layouts/default.haml b/source/_layouts/default.haml
index 08ff656..a3f4431 100644
--- a/source/_layouts/default.haml
+++ b/source/_layouts/default.haml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ---
-blog_title: My Blog
+blog_title: My Octopress Blog
+root_url: 
 ---
 
 !!! 1.1 Transitional
@@ -7,22 +8,29 @@ blog_title: My Blog
   %head
     %title= page.title
     - if page.respond_to? :description
-      %meta{:name=>"description", :content=>page.description}/
+      %meta(name="description" content="#{page.description}")/
     - if page.respond_to? :keywords
-      %meta{:name=>"keywords", :content=>page.keywords}/
-    %link(href="/stylesheets/screen.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen projection" type="text/css")
-    %link(href="/blog/atom.xml" rel="alternate" title="Brandon Mathis - Design Enthusiast" type="application/atom+xml")
+      %meta(name="keywords" content="#{page.keywords}")/
+    %link(href="#{page.root_url}/stylesheets/screen.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen projection" type="text/css")
+    %link(href="#{page.root_url}/atom.xml" rel="alternate" title="##{page.blog_title}" type="application/atom+xml")
   %body
     #header
       .page_width
         %a.title(href="/")=page.blog_title
         %ul#header_nav.nav
           %li.alpha
-            %a(href="/archives") Archives
+            %a(href="#{page.root_url}/archives") Archives
           %li.omega
-            %a(href="/atom.xml") Subscribe
+            %a(href="#{page.root_url}/atom.xml") Subscribe
     #page
       .page_width
-        = content
+        - if page.respond_to? :date
+          %h2= page.title
+          = content
+          %p.pubdate
+            Published:
+            =page.date.strftime("%d %b, %Y")
+        - else
+          = content
     #footer
       .page_width Footer
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/source/_layouts/post.haml b/source/_layouts/post.haml
deleted file mode 100644
index aafa881..0000000
--- a/source/_layouts/post.haml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-!!! 1.1 Transitional
-%html(xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en")
-  %head
-    %title= page.title
-    - if page.respond_to? :description
-      %meta{:name=>"description", :content=>page.description}/
-    - if page.respond_to? :keywords
-      %meta{:name=>"keywords", :content=>page.keywords}/
-    %link(href="/stylesheets/screen.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen projection" type="text/css")
-    %link(href="/blog/atom.xml" rel="alternate" title="Brandon Mathis - Design Enthusiast" type="application/atom+xml")
-  %body
-    #header
-      .page_width
-        %a.title(href="/")My Blog
-        %ul#header_nav.nav
-          %li.alpha
-            %a(href="/") Home
-    #page
-      .page_width
-        %h2= rp(page.title)
-        = content
-        %p.pubdate
-          Published:
-          =page.date.strftime("%d %b, %Y")
-    #footer
-      .page_width Footer
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/source/atom.haml b/source/atom.haml
index 67038c1..bcb370f 100644
--- a/source/atom.haml
+++ b/source/atom.haml
@@ -1,25 +1,25 @@
 ---
 layout: nil
-address: http://yoursite.com
+author: Your Name
 email: author@domain.com
-name: Your Name
-blog_title: My Blog
+blog_title: My Octopress Blog
+root_url: http://yoursite.com
 ---
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+!!! XML
 %feed(xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom")
-  %title= "#{page.name} - #{page.blog_title}"
-  %link(href="#{page.address}/atom.xml" rel="self")
-  %link(href="#{page.address}")
+  %title= page.blog_title
+  %link(href="#{page.root_url}/atom.xml" rel="self")
+  %link(href="#{page.root_url}")
   %updated= Time.now.xmlschema
-  %id=page.address
+  %id=page.root_url
   %author
-    %name= page.name
+    %name= page.author
     %email= page.email
   - site.posts[0..14].each do |post|
     %entry
       %title= rp(post.title)
-      %link(href="#{full_url(post.url)}")
+      %link(href="#{page.root_url}#{post.url}")
       %updated=post.date.xmlschema
-      %id= full_url(post.id)
+      %id= "#{page.root_url}#{post.id}"
       %content(type="html")
         = h(absolute_url(rp(post.content)))
\ No newline at end of file