To distract myself from peeking at Christmas gifts, I pushed ahead with a new design. You might need to refresh your browser, to see it.
From the start I decided to do it a little different. First I did a site map, figuring out how all of the content was laid out in my site. I figured out that a few sections were extraneous, so I excised them, and consolidated others.
Then I did a wireframe. I figured out that I wanted a 4 column layout. I wanted navigation to be a vertical list on the left. I wanted a side "ad" or high attention section like before. I also wanted a fixed layout. I need to brand on to my hands "You don't design liquid layout sites that you yourself like" so I stop trying to do one.
Once all that was done I started working on a design. I started first by letting go of all of the previous colors in the site. Instead I looked for a pretty neutral palette. (I've been watching too many home flipping shows.) Once I had something I liked, I went back and added some color.
Finally, I decided on fonts, specifically, I picked Calibri to be the main font of the site. I know it's a Vista font and most people don't have it yet, so I've gone back and made sure it looks okay in Verdana and Helvetica. One thing I don't like about Calibri is that it's decidedly smaller at a given font-size than Verdana, or Arial. I'm sure someone who knows something about fonts could tell you exactly why. I am not that person.
Once the design was done, I found that I could do a few other things that I had wanted to do for a while:
I incorporated Google Co-op powered search. Which is awesome if you haven't played with it.
I added my latest blog content to the static sub sections of my site. RSS rocks.
Got the download footprint of the site to be next to nothing.
I have few other things left to do, like prune away all the old sections of the site, but for the most part I'm done.
December 26, 2006 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 3:13 PM
I got tagged with this meme by Scott. Let's see if I can actually shock anyone here, without saying anything that would get me fired.
I was a teenage comic book writer. I never read them, but used to make my own comic books. The first set was called "Traveller 12" and starred me (get it "T.R"?) as a knock off of Golgo 13. My later, less subtle self -reimagination was fantasy based and named "Tercet the Ranger."
I loved an alien. Instead of a teddy bear, my best friend as a young child was a stuffed E.T.
I am a thief. I once stole merchandise (clothing) from a former employer. Everyone was doing it, and I was a stupid college kid. I feel extremely guilty about it to this day. Especially since they are out of business now.
I am a socialphobic. I fear large social gatherings. Even things over 10 people tend to make me anxious. I do well with groups of about 4-10.
I was a dangerous child. I once almost burnt down my house growing up. I saw an episode of Mister Wizard in which he made a magnet by running current through copper wire. I tried to emulate using solder and an electrical outlet. I was 7, yet still had the presence of mind to attach the solder to a broom handle so I wouldn't be electrocuted. Sparks flew, lights dimmed, and I darted out of there like a bat out of hell to find an adult to help fix it. Mr. Wizard was banned in my house for awhile after that.
It's about a guy who finds a philosophical master, but he's a guy who works at the gas station. But he's really wise. Then they get in a fight. But then the younger guy realizes that the older guy was right. And then this happens again like another 20 or 30 times. Then the older guy dies, and the younger guy regrets all the fighting. And then the older guy appears in a vision and shows the young guy what it is like to be dead. And then the young guy realizes that he should be nicer to his wife.
Actually wait. That does sound pretty subject to mockery. Ummm. Never mind guys.
December 18, 2006 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 11:58 PM
Tonight is the last night of my 20's. I feel I must right the obligatory "I'm 30" post. I do it while enjoying a cigar and a glass of Blue Label.
I tend to look at my life in 5 year markers. I remember a lot about 5 years ago at 25. I remember impressions of me at 20. I have only the vaguest sense of me at 15.
I know that all of those different versions of me would not have expected me to be where I am. That's not a lament. It's just further proof that life is really hard to plot out past 5 years.
At 15:
I was painfully single, but somehow
I thought I would be married at 25
I thought I would be a Psychologist
I thought I would move away from the Philadelphia area forever
I didn't think life was that great
I thought High school was pretty pointless
I figured college would be more of the same, but at least I'd be out of my parents' house
At 20:
I was painfully single, but
I hoped I would be married at 25
I feared I wouldn't be able to get a real job
I didn't care where I lived as long as I had a job
Life was okay, but would be better once I started making real money
That high school was pointless was a confirmed fact
College was more of the same, but at least I was out of my parent's house.
At 25
I was painfully single, and
I accepted that I would always be this way (thanks to my ex's for that )
I was a relatively successful computer geek.
I felt like I might just accept Philadelphia as a home
Life was better than before, but the real fun started when I made more money
I couldn't remember almost anything about high school; except a vague suspicion that it had been uncomfortable.
College was the best time in my life, and I wished I had lived it up a little more.
Now we come to 30
I'm happily married
I hope for a long, long time
I'm still a geek.
Hey, assface, you didn't just say something bad about Philly? Did you?
Life is pretty great, but you know what would be greater? More money.
I assume I went to a high school at some point
College was the best time in my life until now. (Thanks to Janice)
I have no idea what 35 and 40 will hold. I hope I hold on to my wife, I hope I have some kids, I hope health is in there too. Past that, not much you can really plan on.
Except that more money would be nice too.
December 18, 2006 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 9:39 PM
Not that original a subject, but I figured I might at least talk about it, and solicit some advice.
Due to a number of reasons I'm looking to update the look of Aarrgghh!.
It's not looking good cross-browser these days.
Dave Konopka just did a redesign that looks awesome.
I'm spending a fair amount of time dealing with a redesign of a site here at work.
I do this about every 6 months or so anyway, to keep my skills sharp.
I might add a little Ajax-y stuff to practice it.
My process until now has been very haphazard. I basically go to CSSZenGarden, WebdesignFromScratch, and OpenSourceWebDesign, and browse. I shop for little things I like from various examples there, and try and tie the whole thing into one design.
This tends to leave me with a site that mostly works, but doesn't really feel right, but I put up with it until I decide to do it all over again.
So instead, I'm going to take a longer look at all this. Then, I'll actually try my hand at wireframing before even look at design.
Anybody got any advice out there?
December 15, 2006 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 10:27 PM
After trying pretty hard to not have to institute anything that makes commenting harder, the spammers have forced me to do something.
I tried to install a MovableType Image Captcha component... It completely fragged my MovableType install, and I had to blow it away and reinstall. I bet this wouldn't have happened to me if I was a good ColdFusion developer and started to use Blog.CFC.
After getting everything back up, I installed the Comment Challenge text-captcha plugin. It's accessible, and it doesn't, you know, completely hose my site, but I'm not sure how effective it will be. If anyone runs into any problems commenting, please drop me a line via my Contact page.
December 6, 2006 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 12:13 PM
