Category Archives: Design

The HTML Spec

★ Posted on at 10:53 am ★

Starting to take interest in the HTML spec again. There are some improvements in HTML 5 and CSS 3, being able to embed fonts, create rounded corners, drop shadows on container elements and a whole heap of other features. The only problem is that the support for these modern web features are still limited and you need proprietary code to display them between the two major web rendering engines, mainly Gecko (Firefox) and Webkit (Safari and Chrome).

I’ve probably not learned anything new since 2006 or so in relation to web design. Even the current design was hacked together quickly with my existing knowledge. I used to spend hours banging against a brick wall (was never very bright back then) trying to coax a good design out of broken code. I eventually learned how to ‘speak’ HTML and CSS coding and could usually bend the code enough to my will to display what I wanted.

I don’t have any plans to fix up the current design, and my about page is still something I wrote from late 2007 and is 2 years out of date. There are random ideas floating around in my mind, but I’m preoccupied with too many other things to take a redesign of this website seriously.

Anyway, just a random rant on my part regarding web coding. Don’t know anyone to be able to bounce ideas off anyway, so I’ll just air my thoughts here, as a blog should be for the purpose of expressing ideas anyway.

The Two Hour Makeover

★ Posted on at 10:03 pm ★

glass

Just one of those things that caught my eye while I was at Mornington. My style’s been taking specific details and discarding the rest. I’d like to be able to take some pictures where the details are sharp and showcase the textures of the objects.

* * *

I decided to quickly redo the site. Hit Ctrl + F5 if the site has kept the old design or if it looks strange. The button combo just clears the memory so that everything is downloaded fresh.

Just wanted a change to the static design I’ve made since 2007 while I was away in New York. This is a very simple design, with no navigation bar and I haven’t included back the search or archive menus. Heh, I’ll put those back in due time over the next few months.

I’ve had the idea for a single column design with some footer information for quite some time. I’m just not terribly good at designing stuff these days so I’ve kept it as a simple white template with orange text, just to keep within the theme of having orange in the design.

* * *

Sort of knocked off something on my to do list that’s been outstanding for the last year or so. It’s very simple but nobody ever said it had to be complicated. Want to involve myself in other things and this is a good start, getting into the rhythm of doing other activities after work. Feeling more energetic these days, you can feel spring coming.

Mildura

★ Posted on at 08:29 pm ★

orange!

Was at Mildura over the long Easter weekend. Here’s where they produce all the oranges (that I know of) in Australia. The ones I ate had a tinge of sourness to it, the kind you associate with citrus fruit, but was generally sweet overall.

* * *

It’s generally a 6 to 7 hour drive up north to Mildura from Melbourne. Travelled with my cousin, her spouse to be and Vyanne on this trip. Heh, didn’t have to drive, so that made the trip all the more pleasant for me. Mildura is located inland, near the border of New South Wales, and is well known for their fresh fruit. Throughout the trip around Mildura, there were plenty of kiosks that sold fruit unattended. You just leave a few dollars in a box, and you pick up a bag of fruit. The fruit is plenty fresh and we liked it so much, that we bought 10kg of grapes (they were of the red variety, sweet and crunchy to the bite) and a giant watermelon (weighed to about 12.4kg!) for only $6.

large watermelon

Set out early on Friday, and arrived by mid afternoon. It’s quite a large town, feeling like a suburb in Melbourne. There are plenty of stores and rows upon rows of residential areas. The accommodation for the region was booked out due to the Easter break. Mildura comes alive during Easter, with the population tripling due to the festivities they have here, like water sports along the river. Stayed in a sort of apartment where my cousin was and although fairly old, was pretty comfortable.

We went to Orange World and went on a tractor tour around the estate, looking at the various kinds of oranges and learning lots of their production throughout. It’s a tough life, growing fruit for sale, as you don’t get much from it. Mildura also produces plenty of grapes, with the vineyards of Trentham just across the NSW border, next to the Murray River. There’s plenty of good food here, and on Deakin Avenue, where all the restaurants are, we dined at a few restaurants, like Seasons, Stefano’s etc. Mainly relaxed and did some sight seeing on this trip to Mildura. Visited the local farmer’s market, had fun in a sort of playground and visited a gemstone shop.

suncatchers

Heh, it’s probably a very vague description of the entire trip, but it was quite fun and a change of scenery from the usual urban sprawl. Enjoyed myself quite a bit.