I'm doing a little testing with my page, the white links aren't working too well, they get kind of lost in the background sometimes (non-content area) and the main site text needs a little work too for the same reason. Expect to see various attempts at making everything readable over the course of days to come.
Comments:
Yensid:
Considering the last major theme change I went through was about two years ago, I have to agree, change is good. I did have a post BG image, but I couldn't get it so that the text was readable on top of the image, so I had to opt for the "when in doubt, block it out" plain color BG for the blog text portion. Given the right amount of time, and choosing to remove some text from my intro, I could do an intro banner from that image instead. I did have a button in the works, but had to scrap that when I gave myself a major headache trying to figure out which of the many standards to go with.
I would appreciate seeing that view with more clarity, it's a great picture. The only thing I can offer in return are a couple pointers related to photography. A lot of photography is trial, error, retrial and error again. It also requires understanding the quirks of your camera. My camera doesn't like low light pictures all the time, it has to have a tripod for shots in any resolution mode over .3M (that's 640x480 size pictures), it hates to actually focus on certain things, and it eats batteries like they're going out of style. With those things in mind when I do some photography work, my pictures turn out okay 80% of the time. Take an afternoon to get to know your camera, then take another afternoon to get to know it in different weather (cloudy vs. sunny, foggy vs. clear) because the weather can affect the way the camera takes images. Mine likes a little bit of fog, on drizzly days (the recent train shot). Like my drawing, I have no formal education in photography, I just take the shots that look good to me. That's another thing to remember, and probably the most important. The shot has to look good to your eyes, not your neighbor's dog's, your cousin's-dentist's-hairdresser's-niece's-husband's, not anyone's. If it looks good to you, then you'll take a great picture every time.
I have to put some serious thought into joining DA. If I knew for sure getting on there would help me sell some of my photos (I really need the money), then I'd do it in a heartbeat, but right now there's a lot to weigh. I'm still working on the personal site, I may end up finding a host other than Yahoo! for it, but I'll know when I get the new page(s) done what I want to do with them.
My experience with Texans is a little different. I knew a few good poeple down there, but I also knew some with egos bigger than the state itself. Of course I was a lot younger back then, so my hindsight's not a good indicator of the norm.
You think it's bad there, come on down to my neck of the woods. The people here in West Virginia aren't even polite unless they absolutely have to be. Never in my life have I met so many self-centered, rude, arrogant, ignorant, lazy, unhelpful, kniving, clannish, and unwelcoming people as I have since I've lived in West Virginia, and this includes the people I met in New Jersey. Oh, there are a few, a very few, who are exceptions, but the majority of my human contact in this state has been less than pleasant.
sikaurai
Yeah, I was having issues with getting the text readable on top of that image, it's a good one, but, it's not ideal for a background under text. I'll make a banner out of it to get some use from it, but it won't be a post BG again that's for sure. At least I know how to do that kind of thing now, which is part of what I was going for with the new theme. I'm glad the new theme is going over well so far, it's not changing for a while to come.
In terms of being close to actual events, having read up on Ed Gein a little, I think The Silence of the Lambs comes close in characterization, the others are a bit more far-fetched. Another funny movie trivia bit, the opening scene of The Silence of the Lambs is set in Clay County WV, that is a real place. The media isn't good at keeping the facts straight, or correcting itself when it gets the facts wrong, so those misconceptions will continue to spread for years to come. As for what I presented here on Mr. Gein, I was only going on what I found on various websites, and trying to condense it for easier reading, and to be the least bit graphic as possible.
I'm not one for horror films myself. My overactive imagination wouldn't really let me get away with watching them, and I've been in theatre, I know what all that blood and gore is actually made of, but still I just can't watch horror films. Now there is one film I can watch with little problems, Event Horizon which is like Sci-Fi and Horror mixed together. Hollywood does blow things out of proportion all the time, sometimes that's good (The Day After Tomorrow) sometimes it's not (The Mothman Prophecies). Oh well, we take what they give us.
In terms of "false document" storytelling techniques, I like to use a "first person perspective". Instead of merely saying "this really happened" I tell my stories from the point of view of someone who witnessed it, they're a little more powerful that way. When something is written like it's coming from someone who was there, while it was happening, it tends to get deeper into the mind.
Outlaw Melfina:
Yep, it's been about two years I think since my last major site change. And this one is quiet the contrast from the old one.
mysterious rei
The people who've seen the real Mothman would have to agree with you about his being scary.
Actually, I was noticing that the white links kind of get lost on the other pages, so I'm probably going to have to change that too. Right now it's a work in progress, but I appreciate the suggestion. Given the colors of the background picture, I'll probably go with something warm (yellows or oranges) to stand out against the silvers and grays. I've tested blues and greens already but they don't work too well.
Angel Slayer
I hope you have a fun break, on Tuesday, I'll be manning a 20lb. turkey in the oven all day. Since my family works on Thanksgiving day, we have to move our celebration up a little.
I've got a collection of Shakespeare, I'll have to read The Taming of the Shrew in the next few days so I can comment on it more adequately. I've heard its a great play, you can't go wrong with Shakespeare. And congrats on having the date too, strangely I knew a Jay too, he was in my theatre class one year.
scorchbird12:
Thanks for the compliment, I am trying.
My sister is into psychology, particulalry in that area, so I guess a litlte bit of wanting to find the truth rubbed off on me. It's an interesting case, but as sikaurai mentioned, what most people know, even about the real Ed Gein case, isn't close to the truth because of the media. I do remember from my early days in public school in Texas hearing an urban legend or two relating to the chainsaw massacre movie, but I can't remember any of those now. While we're on the subject of movies, do they still run that "made for TV" movie about the girl who fell down the well in the mid-late 80's? They used to run it every single year near the anniversary of the day they got her out I think, it drove me nuts.
I'm an amateur UFOlogist, so I kind of keep myself up on the various excuses that the "experts" and "authorities" like to claim the UFO phenomenon is (my favorite being the planet Venus). I'm going to get really technical on you here, but basically both fireball lightning and St. Elmo's Fire are types of plasma. Fireball lighning is believed to be RF (Radio Frequency) in origin. Basically take a high frequency radio wave (2.4 GHz or higher), zap ionized air (a regular lightning strike will do) with it, and you get, in theory, a little baskeball sized ball of energy that glows yellow or red, and floats around for a bit before dissipating. No labs have been able to successfully recreate this natrual phenomenon, probably because they can't get voltage high enough to properly ionize air. St. Elmo's Fire is a little more complicated to explain. It's a plasma, but it's usually seen as a blue-white "flames" or jets coming off tall or pointed objects (cattle horns are said to show the phenomenon during storms sometimes). Both phenomenon are very difficult to photograph, so there aren't any guaranteed authentic photos I can show you of either. Now I'll point out that Levelland Texas is a flat plain, in the 50's there was nothing big enough to produce the size glow that was reportedly seen on the horizon, the glow doesn't fit the explanation of St. Elmo's Fire.
When I'm not too busy with other things, I'll try to find an aftermarket housing company to see if there's a cover for my model camera. Maybe if there isn't a stock housing anywhere for it, there may be a company who custom makes them.
Magnus Lensherr
Actually he's not a bird, he's the Mothman of West Virginia. A statue of him anyway.
It's a theory, I can't promise it will work, but that same theory is what led to the creation of the Telezapper device here. Human ears understand that after the tones you get a normal message, but the computer dialers hear those tones and think "This number is no longer in service" and disconnect from it right away, adding the number to it's database of numbers not to call again. All I can recommend is trying it for a while to see if the number of telemarketing calls drops, if it does, you know it works, if it doesn't, then the telemarketers aren't using computer dialers, or the computers are too smart for their own good. You just want the tones to be at the start of your normal outgoing message.
Actually, if that's a town named for a family, they might just be related. In New Jersey, I don't know how long ago, the time of the settlers I think, the Leeds family had a curse put on it, and the 13th child to the matriarch was born deformed, it was said he had batlike wings, glowing red eyes and looked like a devil, that's where he got his name. In recent years people started calling him the Jersey Devil (the NHL hockey team the Jersey Devils is named for him), but it's really a Leeds family thing. The family can even take you out to the ruins of the house where this demon was said to be born, it's on their property. I'm sorry I can't really tell you much about it, I haven't adequately researched that whole thing. I can handle one major mystery at a time, right now it's the Mothman.
Well, I can't make origami dragons. I've tried for a whole year now and just can't find correctly worded or illustrated instructions. I can make the frog, the crane, the Samurai helmet, the box, the book, the turtle, the hawk, the boat, the cicaida, the pecking bird, and a few others, but not the dragons, I have to see the sculpture to be able to draw it correctly, and since I don't know anyone who can do origami, I'm royally screwed till I can get that [Censored] dragon to work, or I come up with an idea I like better than that for the cover of my project.
Caprice
I've had my old stuff up for almost two years if not longer than that, so I figured it was time for a change. I'm glad you like it.
You haven't missed out on anything there, I'm still unemployed, and there are no prospects right now. I wish I could even get a job soing something I don't like, I can't even manage that.
On the art comment, they did change up a couple things only recently, one of them being the length of time for voting on fanart. Adam mentioned it here, and the site's programmer Massin also covered it here. If I recall that process was eating a lot or server resources to have it up for every piece of art all the time. Apparently, it was part of what was slowing down the whole site, which is running faster now. For the art itself, I did some different things with it, but it turned out okay I guess.
kout3uka
It was funny, the day I was taking the pictures, I had like four or five people come up to the spot where I was shooting, just to see what I was doing. Those are the people who annoy me. I should get a cap with a major network logo on it or something, just to spite those people who feel the need to know what I'm doing with the camera.
I love a good hot cup of tea, sweetened with a little honey myself. If I recall, rose petals are used in some teas.
Thanks for the compliment. I'm not used to changing up the layout like this, so it means a lot. I've noticed the slight lag in load time too. It may be something with Photobucket, but I think it may be the code I'm using. It also may be the sudden, drastic change from what it used to be. If your computer doesn't get used to it after a while, let me know and I'll see what I can do to clean up my code to make it load faster. I am curious about your terminology though, what do you mean by a "page that's not the initial one"? That may help me isolate what's causing the problem.
