Housekeeping: you want fresh towels?

August 16th, 2008

You will notice that we are now sitting in a new theme, or you’ve never been here before and wondering why I’m offering you fresh towels and going on about a new theme.

I wasn’t completely happy with the previous theme and how it appeared on some browsers, monitors etc.   When I saw this one in the newly reopened Wordpress directory it was exactly what I’ve been looking for, well almost which is even better because over the coming weeks I can add my own little touches to the design and fix up some of the stuff I don’t like.

It’s a simpler layout and it gets rid of the third column that I was kind of sick of anyway.

The other thing you may have noticed is the absence of the Friday Top Five (you may not have noticed either!) I just found it a little frustrating being tied into a format every Thursday night so I’ve given it the heave ho.   Just means I’ll do my lists irregularly.

When I get the chance I’m bringing the PodCats back, I’ve just got to work out the mp3 recording on the laptop whilst the desktop is in storage.

I’m streamlining a few things that I’ve been doing outside of the blog and what my core focus is apart from getting a new job since the previous contract has expired.   One of the things is closing down Pop Culture Heroines, it’s a shame, it didn’t really become what I was hoping and I just don’t have the time to devote to it so I think its domain name closes out at the end of the month.

Actually the only non QYDJ blog I’ll be working on is Urban Cultivation, which itself has been neglected in the past (much like the plants I write about on it).

I’m halfway through writing the script for my graphic novel, it’s coming along really well and I hope to have the script finished by next week and then start the concept art straight away.   I should be constructing pages by the end of the month.

Now I’m also hoping to encourage all you regulars to write some guest posts here like John and Arjan have already done and if anyone would like me to write a guest post over at your places, send me an email and give me a couple of weeks :).

Well that’s about it, you should be all caught up, my apologies for a boring post, your regular programming will now recommence.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Categories: Housekeeping | Tags: | 14 Comments

Housekeeping - mugshots and replies

August 4th, 2008

Now that I have a little more free time up my sleeve (for those of you who don’t follow my Twitter feed - my contract was not renewed on Friday so I’m currently falling back on my other profession: world’s worst drug lord) I thought I’d clean up around here and sort out some things that have been bugging me.

First off I have reinstated the gravatars back into the comments fields so everyone who has a gravater will now have their smiling mugs next to their comments.   I like the plugin I use because it is easy to specify the image to be used when you don’t have a gravatar.   If in fact you don’t have a gravatar you should really consider it and pop over to http://en.gravatar.com - it’s free and you don’t need a blog because it is linked to your email address.

Secondly I am changing the way that replies work, anyone who has ever commented here before know that when I reply you get an email advising you of this.   Sometimes this gets a little confusing to read in the actual comments list and I used to combat it with using your name to denote that I was talking to you.   Well no more as I now have threaded comments that will automatically email you when you get a reply to your comment - from anyone.

That’s right you can now directly address your comment to someone else’s - just click either reply button and that will add your comment to theirs.   Of course you can still just go to the bottom of the list and comment directly to the post.   Don’t worry it makes sense when you look at it.

I’m hoping these changes might promote a little more discussion on the topics amongst everyone rather than just a back and forth with me (not that I don’t dig that!)

In the coming days I will be addressing the side columns and their overflows but for now this got some stuff out of the way.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Categories: QYDJ | Tags: | 13 Comments

Housekeeping: Things I want to get done over xmas

December 24th, 2007

I’m not taking a break from posting over the festive season but I am hoping to get some stuff done that I’ve just not had the time to do so.

  • Write and draw the next Tassie the ninja dog strip
  • Finally update Pop Culture Heroines with a new essay
  • Update Urban Cultivation
  • Work out what to do with Crypt Hunter (this is really bothering me)
  • Redesign Quiet Paws for Tracey
  • Update my about me page and description on various social sites such as mybloglog which is now fixed I might add
  • Update my portfolio
  • Launch my new comic book site
  • Finish the script for The man who, in actual fact, could fly.
  • Possibly get a couple more concept sketches together for the issue and maybe even a couple of pages done.
  • Install and explore Kompozer and Gimp (open source software packs to replace Dreamweaver and Fireworks - I’d be happy to hear anyone’s opinion about these too!!)
  • Write an assignment for Friday and catch up on tutorials.

Phew, I’m exhausted just reading that list, even if I get a third of that done I’ll be happy!!!

Whilst I’m here I should add that I’m really impressed with the Blog Rush network, it’s not bringing in the traffic yet but I like the ideas behind it and where the guys are going.  I hope the referral network will start really pushing proper interested readers through as it grows.  If you’re interested in signing up be sure to do it through my link so I get some traffic love too!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Categories: Housekeeping, QYDJ | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments