Still workin’ on it. Thought you all could use an update. It seems weird, even for me, to get on my site supposedly devoted to the Hunger Games series and see [honey] bunches o’ LOST pictures. I get it, I’ve just run into some problems… as ALWAYS. I was psyched to get my theme up and running some sweet Flash animations. That idea has since fallen through. So then I decided I’d like a nice clean UI or homepage from which to view my posted pictures/videos, casting, fan projects, etc. I want to include a link to my photography/video cache. Maybe even include a link to previous info about LOST or my other obsessions. So I started updating my home page in anticipation! Head on over to the chasinglilly.net home pageand check it out! Currently it looks a little funky on a few Safari/iPad browsers I’ve tested it on. But as long as you’re running Firefox you should see it and think it’s cool. Hey, it’s only temporary so I was not about to put too much into it!
I was able to start a mini photoblogging site for my pictures. It will also be home to some sweet videos once I get a break! You can check it out at chasinglilly.net/artsyfart. You can also click the homepage banner to visit it, as my new instructions point out! I’ve got it set up to post a new photo every day till the end of August. Hopefully by then I’ll have some more time on my hands to shoot some new ones and get some videos running! W00t!
Back to the Hunger Games train-of-thought: the new UI ideas fell through as well, though the menu has made a MENTAL COMEBACK IN MY MIND! Long story short I’m coming close to finalizing my ideas for it and such. Looks like it’ll use some .gifs in the place of flash animations for this particular design. I’ve never really worked with .gifs much before (mainly because I can’t help but think “1990s” when I hear the file extension), so it’s a bit of a learning experience for me! As a test I placed a fiery mockingjay .gif on the home page. I’m also going to put into use that slick Hunger Game countdown clock they’ve got going over on the Hunger Game movie site. That’ll take some flash coding anyways, I suppose. The blending of all the elements will really make the site “catch fire” if you get my drift I’ll keep you updated. If all goes well, I plan to have it up by this time next week! Exccciiiittteeemenetenetentent inDUCING, I know!
I even updated my banner up top from “The whole world stopped on May 23, 2010…” to “I’m workin’ on it, OKAY??” just so you guys know!
Just a few days ago I set up a blog for my good friend Billy Bacci. He’s in our band Violent Blue, so I set up his blog on the violentblue.net domain we got. You can go check it out at violentblue.net/billybacci. It’s actually a pretty simple modification of the Silent Film theme you can find on wordpress.org.
The original theme
It’s pretty funny and cool looking in my opinion, and it got Will McCarry jealous as to why I “made a cooler theme for Billy than for me! Mine just has a weird cat thing in the header!” That combined with my previous mention of how I wanted to hack some other themes got me actually wanting to do it. So I am.
I’m currently making a Star Trek theme and a theme for Fringe. I decided (after much intense debate) that I’m going to give the Fringe theme to Will. I mean, really, he can have the Fringe theme, I have the LOST theme, and LOST is better. So anyways I’m basing the Fringe theme off a pretty popular theme right now entitled Aqua Blue, and the Star Trek theme off a theme I’ve previously used entitled Inanis Glass.
Aqua Blue for Fringe
Inanis Glass for Star Trek
I see exactly what I want to make each of them, though I have a feeling both of these themes are gonna be kinda hard/confusing to make. I also don’t know exactly how I want to go about implementing the theme, because I kinda want to keep the LOST theme up. If there were a way to select a theme at the homepage or something, that might work. Though that might involve making separate blog directories, and then I’d have to worry about RSS feeds and page views and links matching up and other stuff… blehh we’ll see, I’m only just now starting to work on them. I’ll keep ya updated!
Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.
PS – If you’re wondering what happened to that home page project I had going a while ago, well… it’s still being worked out. Once I get some serious free time from homework and classes I’ll be able to really sit down and start dat der coding for it.
It’s snowing and snowing and snowing here in Fredericksburg today, and according to the weather, it’s supposed to continue blowing cold flour everywhere for the next few hours still! So, I figured this was as good a time as any to put up the information I said I would on the new theme.
A few people have been asking me to explain how I made the theme, and I saw questions on other class blogs about how to change the images. As such I made a short tutorial over viewing both things. But not just any tutorial. I figured I’d make it my first video tutorial. Plus, it’s just easier to explain if you can see it. So enjoy!
Note: If anyone else has a different and/or easier way, please post it in the comments here or on the YouTube video! This is just how I figured it out on my own, but I’d love to see any other ideas!
Those sharp-eyed followers of this blog (yeah yeah, hi mom) will likely have noticed by now that I have uploaded a new theme for the site! As much as I loved the incredibly inventive basic themes, I wanted an aesthetically appealing theme that mirrored both my deep interests as well as my creativity.
Actually no. That’s a complete lie. Fact #1: While I had originally wanted something different, our class was actually virtually ordered to change from the basic theme. Fact #2: Those of you who know me likely know that I am a HUGE fan of the show “LOST” on ABC. In fact at this very moment I am completely stoked for the premiere of the new (and final) season! *cough* on February 2nd at 8 PM EST, if you were wondering *cough* Thus combining these two facts, I naturally went to check out the themes that were available under the “Appearance” tab.
But alas, there were no premade LOST-related themes. Beyond that I couldn’t find more than two themes that looked like me. So I made the long trek across the internets to the shrine of Google. But alas, once again my searching proved fruitless, for there were no [free] LOST themes to be found. So… to make a long story short I decided to make my own theme, and have spent the past two nights staying up till 3 AM, slaving away in the dungeons of Photoshop. I hope you like it!
If I remember correctly from class, we were supposed to not only change our theme, but post about HOW we changed it and/or why we chose what we did. I gotta admit, I’m a little too lazy to do that right now… BUT I think I’m gonna put up a semi-tutorial-type-thing to let the other people in the class (and AROUND THE GLOBE) know not so much how I specifically made each element, but how they can edit it themselves pretty easily. Although I think someone in the class already posted on the topic, so maybe not…
Well I guess we’ll both have to wait and see! Anyways…
I’ll keep you updated. If all goes well, I plan to have it up by this time next week! Exccciiiittteeemenetenetentent inDUCING, I know!
