version 4.0
Wednesday 23rd November 2005
Ever since changing over to Wordpress a few months ago, I’ve been meaning and failing to do something about the way things looked around here. In the mean time, though, I’ve been stuck with Wordpress’s default look which, while ok, meant that the place just didn’t really feel like home any more. It felt like living out of a suitcase in a flat that someone else has furnished — which by a strange coincidence is exactly what I’m doing at the moment. So there is probably a certain amount of transference of some sort going on here, but it’s a lot easier and cheaper to personalise a website than a flat, so here we are.
Of course, I should really be writing my 1,700 words a day instead of doing this. Maybe I should take on these sorts of ridiculous obligations more often: when I’m procrastinating over one thing I seem to actually get other things done. I might be about 30,000 words behind schedule, but look! my website has a new look!
The new look is sparser than before, partly because I’m a bit fond of the old minimalist look but mainly because I don’t have time at the moment to faff around with transparent drop-down menus like last time round. So: there’s not much to it, but at least it’s mine, and it should do for the time being, and now maybe I can stop living out of a suitcase.
Posted by Andrew — Friday 25th November 2005 at 6:42 pm
Ahh, it’s lovely. Striking, but understated; contemporary, yet with a classic elegance. Look at the colours, and the italic headers! Mmm.
Posted by lva — Saturday 26th November 2005 at 2:40 pm
Why thank you. It’s meant to be a bit like an old ship’s log from the days when ships were made of wood, hence all the classic elegance and the italics.
Posted by graeme — Friday 2nd December 2005 at 2:24 pm
aye aye cap`n! i noticed the nice itallic heading and simple layout… i really like it! it seems website design has just moved into this horrible designers republic mess of flash rip off lately. i like the recent comments bit at the top of the page, it`s so simple but a great idea!
Posted by lva — Friday 2nd December 2005 at 6:11 pm
Thanks! The recent comments thing was actually the bit of the new design that took the most fiddling to get right! I used a plug-in that someone else had made, but it didn’t do things the way I wanted, so had to mess around with it a bit…
I think I probably originally got the idea from Antipixel. Do you know it? It’s about the only weblog I read that doesn’t belong to someone I know — an Australian bloke living in Tokyo whose knack for still-life photography I am very, very jealous of.
Posted by mayee — Thursday 8th December 2005 at 2:38 pm
this is awesome! need to make time to learn more about WordPress… gosh the number of things you’d like to do… the number of things that’s actually done. sigh…
ps sorry to hear about another bike incident… would it help to get a vintage?!
Posted by lva — Thursday 8th December 2005 at 6:51 pm
Thanks May. Wordpress is pretty good, and pretty easy to set up & get working. Mind you, I’ve never used Moveable Type, so I don’t know how much of a practical difference there is.
My landlord sawed the lock off my new bike, and now I’m careful to chain it to railings, so hopefully it should be ok now. Touch wood…