Birthday today, so it’s been a day of lazing about sipping cider and reading.

Only problem with having the post meta data on the left is that these posts need to be a certain minimum length so it don’t overlap with th next article down.

Problems always problems…

I’ve spent the day (Well, not the entire day…) getting down and dirty with the code for the site.  The main structure is all in place and theres been some work done on the colours.  It’s a bit like using a wordprocessor really, get the blocks of substance in the order you want and then worry about tarting up the fonts and colours.  It definitely was the right thing to do, starting from scratch.

You learn a whole lot more from doing.  Even though a lot of the constrution has been cutting and pasting from about a dozen differnt sources, never type it in if you can paste it from somewhere else, you need to know why you’re putting what where.  Saying that, the browser no longer detects a RSS feed from the page…

The link is still there but there must be some code missing from the page somewhere.  Examining a kosher theme to see what’s in there should bring the answers.  So the index page is on it’s way to being done, many other pages left to do, including ones with forms on, which is a whole new ball game for me.  Should be interesting.

If the site looks like a bomb’s hit it, that’s because I’ve decided to start from scratch with the theme. I’ve tried half a dozen 3 column layouts and none of them are quite what I’m looking for. Some are close, but on examining the code they look like they been put together in the most bizzare ways.

The closest one to what I’m after was the Bogart theme I started with, but that’s been released under a ‘No Derivatives’ licence. (And although the code was clean, it looked like too much work to beat it into shape.) So that’s why I’m gonna start with a clean slate.

So if things look a bit ragged round the edges for a while, you’ll have to excuse me. if you can’t see anything wrong that’s probably because I’ve toggled the theme back to something respectable…

On the plus side, I’ve discovered firebug, an insanely great Firefox extentsion that allows you to step thru the HTML and CSS and make changes on the fly. Absolutely invaluable for tweaking the theme.

I bit the bullet today and upgraded my storage with Google. I’ve now got 10GB of additional space to split between Mail and Picasa. This gives me enough space to upload all my photos of the three months I spent travelling around the USA. They aren’t all up yet due to bandwidth restrictions on my broadband account. It’ll take a few months to upload them all, and allow me to do my normal monthly surf.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former

Albert Einstein

At the moment these pics are spread over three PCs, and I can never get at the ones I want. I just thought it would be easier if they were all online. A few months ago I wanted a particular pic to upload into a profile on one of the social networking sites. This meant digging out a network cable, booting another PC, finding the image etc. It’s just easier if I can get all of them online. I’ve already migrated all my important documents, and I’m only creating new ones online. This means putting a lot of faith in Google and their systems, but I get the feeling they’re gonna be around for a while…

In the future I hope to get all of my older photos online, and of course, my scans of Calamity James. Then I can sling the hardcopy out.

On a more site related issue, I’m getting slighty concerned at just how similar this site is looking compared to one of my favourites. I might have to use another theme, but there are only so many ways you can do a three column layout with ads down the righthand side. I don’t have the time or inclination to start from scratch, so it’s always gonna be a reworking of something else. I’ll have to see what else I can find…

Tweaking with the code that makes a website is a thankless task. If you get it right it goes unnoticed. If you get it wrong it either breaks or looks awful. I’m only pointing this out because I feel like I’m approaching something I’m happy with. The index page has been bearing the brunt of these changes, and that needs reflecting thru the daughter pages in order for the site to hang together stylistically. Really there is only one thing left to do.

Drug dealers are the best neighbours. All they want is a quiet life. They may ask to borrow a cup of sugar occasionally, but it’s a small price to pay for having a paranoid neighbour who watches the street 24 hours a day

Source unknown

Deign the logo, then I can finish the mast head and call it a day. Once that’s done then I can look at getting the domain registered and hosted. After that, this site will probably be retired, though I’m thinking of keeping a personal blog going alongside. Something to record the back story.