equivocality 8.0 has arrived. Though arriving with little fanfare, I felt this design update was important enough to have it’s own entry.
8.0 is an evolution in the design of this blog. I wanted a layout where the information was presented with less clutter, while maintaining the minimalist feel. There’s a reason behind every margin, every line, every shade.
I was talking to Pat the other day and the subject of my sizable debt came up. Debt used to trouble me. I did everything I could to stay debt-free, and was successful until this year. For some reason though, I stopped caring about money. “You must be really happy”, he said, “if something that big doesn’t bother you anymore”.
It was true, but I never realized it until then. All the good things in life have easily outweighed the bad. There isn’t a single thing that I can point to and explain why, but it’s happened — gradually, progressively — over the course of the last year or so. I’ve become very comfortable with myself. I’m happy with who I am. The confidence I’ve gained, my luck in meeting Bronwen, the resolution of the situation with my mom have all contributed I’m sure. The small things don’t bother me anymore, and almost everything is a small thing. I still lose sight of the big picture every now and then and get in one of my moods, but they don’t last as long as they used to.
Now a new design.
I’ve had my own site since 1996, and looking back on all the different versions (around two dozen in all) I realize that they’ve all been dark — less than 30% grey. I used to be a dark person, and the designs were a reflection of this.
This new design serves two purposes. Metaphorically, the light grey (93%) represents my feeling of mirth. Technically, through various tweaking, I can take advantage of different design elements, such as strong (these were links in the last iteration) and emphasis. I also wanted to go back to the traditional underlined links, with a slight hover flourish. Pixel icons have been updated for extra playfulness. Also added is a colophon in the About section.
Not a complete layout change — really, it’s mostly colour — but probably the most drastic change I’ve ever made to the site.
And it fits perfectly with how I feel.
New layout. Back to my old grayscale style, because that’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Neutral. Took me about three days, mostly from scratch. I was satisfied with the old one, until two months ago, when I began reading several design/typography/colour books at work. The powers that be let me spend around $300 on educational material, and as I explored each one with fervor and thirst, I began to notice all the fundamental design mistakes I made. Ignorance is bliss.
It’s Friday night, and with my legs curled under me, Dolly sniffs at my feet, looking for an opportune space on my lap. Fall is approaching. The window in my room remains open as soon as the sun sets. I’ve been overwhelmingly busy, and as a result, I haven’t quite caught up on any sleep in the last two weeks.
After a more than one year hiatus, and generous ribbing by Jonathan, I’ve made a new 1280x1024 desktop background in jpg format. I wanted something very clean and simple, and spent almost four hours toying around in Photoshop yesterday, starting from scratch. I was lucky enough to manage the ribbon effect, which happened completely by chance with the right oscillation, the right canvas size, and the right gradient effect. I used my original generation, because I haven’t been able to produce quite the same results, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to again.
My adoration of the Dali font is pretty obvious in most of the graphic design I do, and in this case I use it to balance out the dual circle graphic on the screen. Both pictures in the dual circle graphic were old stock photos I had taken a few years ago. I had forgotten about the start menu when trying to centre the entire area, so everything is shifted up about 15 pixels.
I’ll probably make versions for other resolutions. A problem I often have with background design is that I’m usually too much of a web designer, and end up with very complex, cluttered backgrounds that sometimes look like page layouts. I enjoy the filter effect, and how everything is almost white washed. The entire piece is a representation of the most neutral of my emotions lately, a kind of supine view of the world that makes everything level out. I think this one is my best backgrounds to date, and I’m rather proud of it.
I’ve been rather restless the last few days. I can’t seem to concentrate, or do anything productive. I think it’s the fact that I’m so oddly moodless, that I don’t feel like doing anything in particular.
I feel…dirty. I’m unsatisfied with my XP theme, and I won’t have time to polish it until the summer. Whenever I try a new theme, it’s either not simple and clean enough, or it’s too bright. I’m using the nxPro theme right now, with Y’z Dock to replace my shortcut icons, which is the sweet MacOS toolbar for Windows XP, complete with transparency and 32-bit icon support.
I actually forgot about a geo class I had earlier this week. That worries me, because I’ve never forgotten a class before, even through high school. Usually when I skip something, I’m very conscious of my skipping it. This is one of the classes that I can’t skip anyway though, so I’m a little worried. Maybe it’s a sign of my getting older. I’ve always found myself to be very “conscious” of things, and I almost never forgot about anything. I remember my dad telling me how sometimes he would peel an orange, and then throw the orange in the garbage and start to nibble on the peel by mistake. Scary.
A bunch of people are going out to the Honest Lawyer tomorrow to celebrate Aaron’s and Iain’s birthday. I have a cryptography presentation tomorrow as well, which might conflict with the time everyone is meeting to have some dinner. I’ll probably present my subject (I think I’m second out of four) and just leave. I’m supposed to stay for other presentations for peer evaluation, but hopefully my other group members will cover for me.
