Thursday, December 3, 2009

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Wait! Don't click that back button yet. It's not some blog about office furnitures or anything. It is my blog you've come too. I've given my blog a little makeover, if you can call it that. I've been meaning to change my blog template for ages but never got around to doing it cos I was too afraid to screw up my blog too much.

Would you believe I've been using the previous blog template from the first day my blog was ever created? The template I had before this was from one of the original templates that you pick when you create a blog. If I'm not mistaken it's called the 'No. 565' template. It doesn't look anything like the original template anymore cos I've tweaked it so much since then.

One reason why I never touched my original template was cos I'm the kind who hates change and having to have to get used to something new. Not knowing much HTML is also another big factor. I can still remember when I first started this blog and the first time I tried changing my header by adding a tagline to it I was so proud and felt like some super programming genius ... LOL!

I really didn't dare messing around with my template much back then. The first time I looked at the HTML codes for my template I almost died of heart failure! You can't really blame me when I see things like these:

#main-wrapper {
  width:660px;
  float:left;
  color:$mainTextColor;
  font-size: 81%;
  word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
  overflow: hidden;     /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
  }

They looked like something that came off a page from Dan Brown's Digital Fortress novel! I mean come on, don't tell me it doesn't look daunting to you, especially if you were a total ignoramus like me. 'Word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */', just what the heck does that even mean? It took me ages to even begin to understand a teeny weeny bit of coding language to tweak my blog a little more to my specifications.

I remember the first time I managed to remove a background, change the width of my post area, add in icons and images in the side bar widgets, change a font colour, and upload my own masthead, I was practically ecstatic! I was walking around the whole day telling wifey what a genius I was ... hahaha ...

And because of my rather bad handicap of not knowing HTML or CSS or whatever that coding thingy is called, I've kept my old blogger template until today. All that has really changed over the years is only my blog header. I've had quite a few but I can't really remember all of them and the current one was the longest I've had.

Back then, I had this preference for full sized headers with illustrations on it. The bigger and more filled out it was, the better. It's one of the first things someone sees when they visit your blog, so the more colourful and big it was, the better it was or so my mindset was back then. These days though, I prefer to keep thing much more simplified and straight to the point, hence the really simplified blog template you see.

It's a template I picked up off the internet and tweaked it to my specifications to suit me, colour and font wise. What? You thought I designed it all on my own? I may know a little coding these days but nothing to the extent of designing a blog from scratch! I wish I did though but unfortunately I don't have the time or inclination to learn something so technical.

Like I said, I like the simple approach these days, so no fancy looking colourful blog header, no icons on the side bar titles, no fancy animated, blinking or flashing stuff or anything along those line. Just a plain simple header (not that it's any good mind you) and a really plain simple white background. It does help to load my blog all that much faster. One thing I really can't stand is a blog that loads oh so slowly because of all the extensive animations and whatnot's.

Back when I first started blogging I used to install every single add-on that I thought was 'cool' and at one time my blog pages started loading so slow that I didn't even want to visit my own blog! LOL! I had tons of ads and games (yes, games) on my sidebar and god alone knows the reasons why I installed them. I guess being a newbie to blogging kinda got me all excited with wanting to have everything on my blog.

Well, I've gone way pass that phase and now, I just practice what I normally do in the office here on my blog, which is keep it simple, stupid. It works so much better. With that said and done, I'd like to thank all my blog visitors, some old, some new and also some missing ones for taking the time and trouble to visit this humble (and at times nasty) blog and hopefully you'll all keep on reading my gibberish nonsense for a long time to come :D
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43 comments:

  1. Yeeha! I almost skipped through this blog cause I totally didn't recognize ur new look! Lucky u said stop! He he!

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  2. Marzie - I don't blame you. I probably wouldn't recognize my own blog tomorrow ... LOL!

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  3. keeping it simple ye? i kinda like the kiss principle :D my boss always agrees with the principle.. but the others think that the artists are just lazy.. hehehhehee.. tweak it some more.. :)

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  4. do u think flourescent green susah nak baca.. ^.^

    hey.. urs is one of the blogs i like to come to for long stories.. hehehhe.. i really njoy reading your looooooooooooooooooong windy stories.. to come up with longer stories myself.. :) and your blog does load pretty fast

    i hate blinkers too... for some reason.. they annoy me.

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  5. come to think of it.. my template pon never tukar since day 1... i tried tukar to something fancy.. then i got a headache *LOL*

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  6. Anny - Yup, sometimes simple is the best way to go. But, but, but, artist all lazy what ... hahaha!

    I think I'll be tweaking this for weeks la ... LOL! I'm still not satisfied with quite a few aspects of it.

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  7. Anny - You're the second person to say that. Wifey also think the green is too strong. But the thing is it looks nice on my laptop but on her desktop it is kinda hard to read.

    Anyways,I changed the green to something less painful for the eyes ... hehehe ...

    Hahaha ... I've been long winded from those days la!

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  8. Anny - Well, ever since I've been reading your blog, it's been the same template. Sometimes it's good to stick to something familiar.

    As the saying goes, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' :D

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  9. i think Nessa's green also quite hard to read on her mumblings too ya? what do u think? mebbe its our desktop or our old eyes... who's been watching the screen for 12hrs ++ *LOL*

    well.. i'll probably change the header for christmas.. if i can sneak it in... as you know.. artists are quite lazy.. esp this one :D

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  10. Wah Anny oso haven changed template since day one? It's about time Anny! I think I've changed my template more than 4 times edi hehehe! Kurious to see new look mah! :)

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  11. hey, i like!
    simple and just neat.

    i still keep my previous blog's css themes as well as the current ones, the list of font color codes and some other useful html codes in hard copies. properly filed some more. i takut lupa bah. :D

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  12. owh btw, is it hard to load up my site? :)

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  13. Anny - I suppose it has to do with ones screen preference. I have my laptop muted so it looks brighter on desktops. And also our eyes la, we all getting too old to see properly ... LOL!

    Looking forward to your Xmas header change :D

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  14. Marzie - Yeah, I agree, it's about time for Anny to give us something new ... hehehe ... not that there is anything wrong with your current template la :D

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  15. Carol - LOL! Same here la Carol, I even keep the actual fonts and images I use for my header in a special folder. You never know, one day kaput the current template, at least go spare :D

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  16. Carol - Your blog loads just fie these days now that my P1 is fast again ... hehehe .. it does load up slow sometimes but I think that was more to connection rather than too many things slowing down the loading times.

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  17. New look! I thought I visited the wrong blog! But nice. It's time I change my blog look too.

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  18. LOL. love the tagline "i blog because i can".

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  19. I like the 'keep it simple' concept but I still prefer your old template - it had more character to it :)

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  20. I like it because of the simplicity. Then again, I like change, just look at my blog. :-P

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  21. Ahahha HAHHAHAH ahahah

    HTML code gives me HEART FAILURE too! Thats why I leave all bloggy changes to my lovely friend to deal with for me and why my blog has remained THE SAME since day one - FOUR years ago!!

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  22. BT - Thank you :D The next time I change templates will probably be years from now ... LOL!

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  23. Xin - Thanks. I was sitting and thinking for days upon days on something not so cheesy to put for my tagline :D Wifey was the one who came up with it actually ...

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  24. Sriyany - You did? Well, I still have the old template codes, who knows, maybe I just might use it again one day ... LOL!

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  25. Gallivanter - I subscribe to the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' saying ... LOL! It'll be a long time before I even change this template again.

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  26. Meleah - Glad I'm not the only one who fears CSS and HTML codes ... LOL! Now, I really need to go find some friends who will handle all my template changes from now on ... LOL!

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  27. Though i was in a wrong blog just now..HAHAHA double checked the url..Aik? It's Nick's blog what..Hmmmmm..after i read your post, then only i understand..hehhee

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  28. I still remember my 1st blog header... it was polka dots, multi colors like candy... adoiii. I shud have taken a screen-shot of it!

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  29. What? you too!? >.<

    *procrastinating

    I need to change my layout but I'm too lazy to code it. And I'm too lazy to back up all my widgets yes, notice I have a lot of em? @_@

    Help!

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  30. Kadusmama - LOL! At least you read the post instead of just closing the page.

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  31. Kadusmama - :D No worries about the typo, I have loads of them myself :D

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  32. Nessa - Hahaha ... I think I remember that one. Yeah, I should have kept my first ever blog template too, it would have been fun to see it now :D

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  33. Maslight - At least you can code your own blog. I'm hopeless at it!

    That's one reason why I have so few widgets here, too malas to load them all again whenever I change templates :D

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  34. I like it Nick. It's crisp, clean and simple and very easy to read. Well done you.

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  35. hohoho I thought I came to the wrong site, by mistake :-D It looks nice, though! ;)

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  36. What a surprise! Now, you're talking about HTML and CSS. This is too white for me. Can you place a border on four sides? You will find it in the css file. Hehee, just joking. I'm crazy about changing and modifying themes and thought of changing my theme again for five times this year, lol! Welcome to the world of internet language!

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  37. Marlene - LOL! Yeah, I notice you change your template quite a bit ... I'm much more comfortable with something I know and rarely change much :D

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