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A new design and a new beginning

By Life, Love & Relationships2 Comments

A warm welcome my newly designed blog, Version 9 (see Geeky Post: Website Development for previous designs). I can’t take credit for the design, the good people at WordPress Theme Designer created the design and I’ve simply tweaked it with their support.

There were two reasons for the new design. The first was in response to feedback. People said that I write about a such diverse variety of topics that they struggle to catergorise my blog and choose articles that interest them. So hopefully this design will make it much easier to pick out posts that interest you? Comments welcome.

The second reason for the redesign was because I felt it was a good time for a new design as soon I embark on a new chapter in my life. So get a brew, get comfy and I will tell you what’s happened in the last month…

The story starts a few months ago Boyfriend-W came to visit, which I blogged about in a post entitled Meeting Family, Getting Closer & Making Plans. One evening on this visit he is sat up on the bed and I’m hoping on one foot putting on my jeans he looks at me.
“Antony.” he says, “Come and live with me in Benidorm.”
After my inital shock and asking for sometime to think and thinking about it I decided I would. Afterall he makes me happy and our relationship seems to go from strengh to strengh.

So the last month has been a busy one. I asked work to give me six months unpaid leave which they kindly agreed and I am eternally greatful for. I’ve spent countless evenings sorting & packing. I’ve taken and sent things over to Bendorm. I’ve thrown lots of rubbish out, given lots of things away and packed things for storage at mums or one of my close friends.

My apartment (see The Move) I have put up for rent through an agency. I’ve been telephoning and emailing various companies to end contracts and notifing relevant institutions of my change of address.

Finally add on top of that seemingly endless social engagements as I try to meet up with as many family and friends as I can before I leave (all of which I am going to miss dearly) and you can understand why I haven’t blogged in a month.

So as I start on my next adventure with Boyfriend-W in Benidorm in the next few weeks, look forward to normal blogging service resuming.

Write soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 12 May 2010

Geeky Post: Website Development

By Technology, The Web3 Comments

This is a Geeky post and in it I’m going to show you how my website has developed over the years.

Version 1
My first version was created in HTML and looked like this:

It had sections to it: Personal, Carrer and Occult. It had Quick Links News on the home page.

The Navigation was simplistic as was the site as a whole. This first version of the site was online when I was 16 years old and at that time I didn’t have the domain antonysimpson.com.

Version 2

Version 2 was designed with sidebar Navigation in order to allow me to populate the site with much more content. It again was designed in HTML using tables. It contained much more photos than Version 1 including a photo’s section.


New features included a News page that had paragraphs of my news including Site Updates to let the visitors know what had been developed and updated. The Occult section of Version 1 became religion as I accepted Paganism as part of my religion. This version of the site was online around the time when I was 18 years old.

Version 3

Most significantly in Version 3 was the new blue design. I kept the sidebar navigation as I liked that it allowed me to populate the rest of the site with more content. The site used a combination of HTML and PHP, using Iframes. Removed the Site Updates but added on a Last Updated sentence on the home page so that people know when it was last updated.


The news section (above) had a page per news entry and an archive like a blog.

Version 4

Kept the same blue colours design. Kept the last updated sentence on the home page. Moved the Navigation to the top of the page. The main feature of this site was a wordpress blog which unfortunately I deleted being unable to pull off the posts and saving them. This was probably the shortest version of the site ever online, really I only focused on the blog.

Version 5

Again I kept the blue design (look above). It was the most advanced coding I had done so far. I liked the photos and had more of them to use as technology developed. I kept the Last Updated sentence and added a hit counter.


I created a windows-style little windows for the content. For the first time I had a guestbook.

Version 6

The major change in this design was the colours, using oranges and reds. The site design was the same, but I uploaded much more content.

Version 7

Easier on the eye colours were used. Advanced PHP coding used. Meta tags added so that I would appear in search results. For the first time I used an RSS feed. This was probably one of the longest sites online.

Navigation returned the sidebar with little yellow star bullet points! I discovered photoshop and used it to make my own banners. Put news on the home page. Kept expanding the site adding new sections and pages.

Also added Coming Soon – so that visitors would know what new content was to be added and Site Updates makes a return so visitors know what’s been recently updated.

Version 8

My friend Sye designed this site for me. I asked him to design it after seeing his cartoon artwork (see Funny cartoons from a friend and More funny cartoons from a friend). The idea was to create a noticeboard with a piece of paper pinned on to it. The Navigation was cartoon images that changed on mouse over at the top of the page.

The site was designed in dreamweaver using tables in a blog style. I also had a cartoon logo designed by Sye. I decided to have a wordpress blog for the home page and made some minor changes to the design to accommodate this to the version you see today:

So that’s how my sites developed over the years. Do you think I should make some changes to the current version or create a new version? Post a comment.

Antony

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Saturday 20 February 2010

Keeping you updated…

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Life, Love & Relationships, Paganism2 Comments

I have been extremely busy recently (see Mad Busy) and coming up to the Christmas/New Year break its got even worse, if that’s possible? I hope to write up a number of blog posts sitting in my WordPress Drafts Box during the Christmas/New Year break. But in the mean time here’s a brief update:

University
Regular readers will know that back in September I started back doing two modules at Uni. (see Back to University) Well I’m still really behind on the work I MUST get my head down and do some of the work before the deadline in the first week of January. I have:

  • 1 Assignment to tweak
  • 1 Assignment to complete (I have started it but its more difficult than I thought!)
  • About 8 workshops to complete

    • What’s worse is I just can’t seem to get motivated.

    Christmas / Yule Preparations
    I have bought everybody’s presents, even exchanged some. A few suprises for people that I picked up at the weekend need wrapping. I also need to organise to visit some people to exchange gifts. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my family and friends.

    Lots of self-bought Yule presents
    I decided a few months back as I’m single and it is my first christmas in my new apartment (see The Move.) I was going to buy myself a few gifts to open Christmas day morning. So I bought myself a few bits ‘n’ bats and then on a whim when I got paid this month treated myself to some purchases on Amazon:

  • Eddie Izzard – 7 [DVD] (also see 7 by Eddie Izzard)
  • Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid?
  • How NOT to Write a Novel
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future

    • Ha ha, I think I’ve spent more on myself than on everyone else put together. Feeling so self-centred but quite satisfied at the same time.

    Love Life
    JB and I have continued to see each other as friends (see Honest Conversations, Cards on the table & Tastilious Food with a BUT…) and decided to go on a date between Christmas and New Years.

    He had been planning a supprise for me on Christmas Eve but didn’t tell me and I have organised to catch up with some family and some friends to exchange gifts and catch up. He was gutted, I felt guilty and stupid (for making the assumption he knows what I do christmas eve, every year!). But it’s sorted with good communication and we are going to do it on the date. Have kind of a full day and evening together. He has been very patient with me considering how mad busy I’ve been in the last few weeks and I hope is patience will remain in the next two weeks which are still likely to be manic due to the looming Uni deadline.

    Other Stuff
    There’s loads of other stuff thats been going on that I haven’t had chance to blog about yet. But will do when life is less manic!

    Keeping you updated and informed as always,

    Antony

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    Tuesday 22 December 2009

    Rate my blog posts with GD Star Rating

    By The WebNo Comments

    Hello all,

    Some of you will have noticed recently this appearing on the end of my blog posts and even on the comments left:

    This is a wordpress plugin created by GD, their offical website: http://www.gdstarrating.com/. I would like to thank them for making this brilliant plugin.

    What does this mean for you? You can give my posts ratings, however many starts you want to give and you can give thumbs up and thumbs down too. That way you can tell me what you like and tell me what you don’t. All posts now have them on so you can rate past posts too.

    So go and go rating mad,

    Antony

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    Thursday 5 November 2009
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