I’m definitely still alive

I’ve had my little Creative Zen Nano for a while now, almost a year. But it’s nothing special and has only a 1gb capacity, which just hasn’t been enough. I got sick of changing it. For Christmas I got a cheap mp4 player, which turned out to have faults, so I got a replacement which turned out to have faults too. I gave it to my brother and went in search of something else.

While browsing minidisc.com.au, I came across the Cowon iAudio D2 which seemed okay. I had recognized the brand though I didn’t know anything about it since it’s not quite mainstream in comparison with stuff like Apple, Creative, Sony etc so I researched the player to see what it was all about. I was happy to find many good reviews for it, and even a community for Cowon’s iAudio range.

I guess you can figure out now that I ended up getting it and I’m completely in love with it. I ended up getting the white 4gb version and it turned out to be more than I expected.

So, what’s the deal with this player? Well, just to give a quick overview of some of …

I’ve been stuck in a design “rutt” lately due to some stresses in my life causing me to just have this huge block of any creativity. To break myself out of this block, or brick wall built up in my mind, I’ve decided to start a short project (which I will probably end up continuing permanently). Soon, I will be adding a new page to my website here which will be all free, downloads for XHTML & CSS templates.

My aim is to give something a little more than what you would expect, design wise, in a free template. A lot seem quite generic in terms of design, so I want to try and do something a little more flash to crush my design block (and ultimately, my complete creativity block). Hopefully it will help.

Look forward to that coming in the next week! :)

I’ve been missing from my website for a while. But I’m still alive… just. I’ve had an up and down few weeks with not feeling 100%. I started work on the 21st January which left me feeling physically drained. I then had wrist problems (still do) which turns out to be a case of tendonitis and doesn’t seem like it will be going away any time soon. Strapped wrist for me (when I can be bothered!). I then got attacked my an insect and my small blood vessels burst in my legs where I got bitten. Then I came down with the flu (which I still have), which I’m sure I caught at work.

So, my life has been a little on the down side. I’m still designing a little bit, but not as much as I should be. I’m just so busy lately organizing my documents for my visa application (more on that on my other blog later). I still have no redesign for my website, but maybe soon. I’m not going to say for sure anymore! But there will be one, one day! ;)

I’ve been in such a design slump lately, so yesterday I redesigned my photoblog to get my brain functioning again. I managed to redesign it and develop it within a few hours yesterday and it’s already online.

It’s very different from the previous design (and a bit cleaner I think). I’ve gone for a darker style, particularly around the photo since I find (not quite) black works best with most of my photography as opposed to the previous white I had. I’ve also added some javascript to hide the photo details and other information below the photo.

Unfortunately, I’m not very familiar with javascript and it was one of the first times I’ve really used it to such an extent. I’ve tested it as much as I can (in Firefox 2.0.0.11, Opera 9.24, Safari (Windows beta 3.0.4) and Internet Explorer 6). It works in all of them, and seems to run best in Firefox and Opera, Internet Explorer then Safari. It seems Safari has issues with the javascript but it’s still usable. This could be because it’s …

Well, I have finally upgraded my WordPress version. I’m now up-to-date with the latest (WordPress 2.3.2) and believe it or not, it was a jump from 2.1.3. I have been fairly slack with upgrades. I always have, though now I will be keeping up to date even if it is time consuming and I don’t have that much of it.

Also, as silly as it may sound, I have been using WordPress for over 2 years now and had never, ever done a manual upgrade before. It was indeed my first time ever. I suppose in the past it has always been daunting and was worried I would break it but amazingly enough, I didn’t break anything, all the plugins work etc.

I also cleaned up my plugins. I upgraded all of them (the ones that needed it, which was most of them) and got rid of the ones I don’t use anymore (with the exception of a couple that I may be using when I redesign).

Anyway, just a heads up that I did upgrade. I don’t think there are any problems, but if you come across anything, drop me a line and let …

Just a small note to let everyone know that I’ve made some updates to PocketT. These fixes have been waiting to be done but I’ve been so busy! But they’re finally done and ready to download.

Learn about the changes at Updates for PocketT - January 2008 or  head to the Download page.

That’s right. I finally have my redesign well on its way. I’ve been wracking my brain for about 2 months with trying to come up with something. Goes to show with the design I will be using that I was designing the wrong thing.

In web design, I tend to focus quite a lot on the images. How the website looks with images. Everything I designed something over the last couple of months, I felt as though it was restrictive and just generally cramped. I’ve taken a step in the opposite direction and the new redesign will be quite interesting for me.

What can you expect? You can expect a new colour scheme. I can’t say it’s a dark design but it certainly isn’t a light design. I can definitely say it’s colourful though. I’ve stuck with my pink though have thrown in a yellow. Yes, you heard right… yellow. Yellow isn’t used often in design I find and it goes well with this colour scheme.

You can also expect freedom. My redesign is not restrictive in terms of layout. It is still fixed width (I don’t think I’ll change to a fluid layout any time too soon) …

It has been a while since I’ve updated here and people might be wondering if I’ve stopped blogging or creating (or have died?) but I’m still here. I’ve been super busy what with Christmas and the New Year plus a few other things.

2007 has now passed us by and we’re moving along nicely now into 2008. The last year has been quite good to me. I decided to start doing design for others instead of myself and have seen myself grow in so many ways it was unbelievable. I started doing things I never though I would be able to do. All in all, 2007 was what I will always call from now on, my year of growth. Not only did my design skills improve 10 fold, but also the speed in which I was able to do them.

Towards the end of 2007, I moved again in another direction and got a job. Granted, it only lasted a week during 2007 but I am going back next week as the new school year starts at the end of January.

2007 also saw my website get a lot more attention and this is especially true of the …

Redesign Delays
With Christmas coming and other more important design/development jobs lately, I’ve decided to push back my redesign to be launched at the end of January. This is mostly to cut down on a little stress on my part and to give myself some time to work on some other outstanding bits and pieces.

Of course, I still might catch the bug and think “What the hey?!” and just get it done before the end of January anyway, but we shall see!

Just thought I’d do an update on that so that when new years day comes and people check to see the new design, they won’t be disappointed in what they (don’t) see.
2,000 Downloads
I also wanted to mention my RSS Feed Icons which I released the other week. I released them thinking perhaps a few people would enjoy them but I was pleasantly surprised to see they were actually quite popular! They passed 2,000 downloads about a week ago already, and of course, the downloads are slowing down, but they’re still getting hits. I suppose this could be a small amount for a lot of people, but it’s quite a …

What with missing my last two Saturday Colour Schemes articles, I decided to put it on hold until the new year. In it’s place this week, I’ve decided on an article about fonts - my favourite and most used of course. I did a similar post a very long time ago. Well over a year ago in fact, on my old blog. I felt it was time to pay another visit.

Almost all designers I know use fonts for something, whether they’re a web designer or a graphic designer. Even non-designers use fonts quite often. It’s important to use the right fonts for the right purposes. This list has a variety of fonts from serif to sans-serif, and I think just one script font which can be useful on the odd occasion. Hopefully some people will find a new font from this list, though I know some of you will know some of them already! Be sure to check the licenses before using them for commercial purposes! The list is an alphabetical order, so there is no preference to the number 1 spot.

1. Angleterre Book | License: Freeware

2. …