Monday, December 17, 2007

Bwahar. Customization!

You will (hopefully) notice I have a shiny new layout on my blog! Yes, I've spent a little while messing around with HTML and various other customizations and now my previous two-column blog has turned into a spiffy three-column blog. I think that this will help ease the crowding on my sidebar, since I now have two sidebars to split my things between.

I did have to make some further changes though:

Firstly, I now have so many blogs that I read and link to, that having all of them in one long list was just turning into a gigantic wall of text that I'm not sure anyone would want to wade through. So I've split my blogroll into two parts; hunter-related blogs, and other class/general WoW/general gaming blogs. There were a few blogs that I was having trouble placing; for the most part, if you talk about hunters but you also talk about a lot of other stuff, I put you in the "general" section. If you see your blog in my links, and you would rather I shift it to the other blogroll, let me know and I can do that for ya. =D And of course, I will keep an eye on you (in a non-creepy way) and if your blog ever shifts focus I will try to move your place in my lists accordingly.

Also I have noticed that while on the one hand, my blog appears somewhat cleaner, it also, paradoxically, appears a bit more cluttered because I've got text on the left, text in the middle, and text on the right. This is something I'm going to work on; seeing if I can shorten my blurbs of sidebar text so it's not such a strain on the eyes. Let me know if you have any ideas or comments for me regarding making my layout more attractive in that way.

And yes, I know the title image looks off-center now; it's because the text on the image is off-center. I've been thinking of doing a little revamp of my title image anyway, so I will probably do that at some point.

In the meantime, pardon any dust as I continue to move things around a little. I will return you to your regularly scheduled blogging as soon as I can.

9 comments:

Jim S. said...

Great job Pike. I like the new look. Of course I read your blog using Google Reader on my iGoogle homepage so I am minimally impacted by this ;-)

BTW, good luck on your chemistry classes. The fun is just beginning.

Pike said...

I actually haven't taken any chemistry classes in a little while; I'm currently not in school and because I did indeed take them "for the fun of it", they often got the backseat to classes related to my major. /cry

And yes, I'm sure a lot of people read my blog from various readers, that's definitely fine with me! =D I think I'm probably the one that stares at my blog the most, haha.

Jim S. said...

You know, blogging is sort of like social networking.

I have trouble deciding best split my time between reading/writing blog and playing WOW.

Right now I am trying to eat my lunch in my office and and catch up with the blogs so I don't miss my playing time at night (I sound addicted, probably should cut back).

Well, speaking of which, my break is over. Need to get back to work. The lab is probably on fire by now.

Matticus said...

That header's gonna bug me for a while :S. I'd suggest extending it to take up the width of the entire page. OR, slap a fade gradient on either end so that it kinda fades into the background blue.

Other than that, it looks GREAT

Anonymous said...

Pike, I don't read your blog from any sort of reader...so my immediate reaction coming to your blog today?

"WHOA! HEHE!!!" *smile*

I wish I had the inclination to possibly edit my own blog. As it stands...I don't wanna!

=P

Good job thus far though. A little tweaking here and there until you're satisfied and all shall be well.

I wonder if you could do this for your "blips" on the left side: Have it say "bla bla bla me" and a little tiny arrow next to that. You'd have to click the arrow for the text to become visible and thus, shift the rest of the stuff down. Clicking the arrow again brings the text back up inside the title only.

I've no clue how to do it on a blog though.

H said...

Looks great

Amy said...

Wow, I would have no idea how to use html like that, well done (that < b > stuff is about as far as I actually understand.

)I have a problem with my title too actually, first it shrunk it down and cut it off, then when I put the text on in a image editor and told it onyl to load an image it jsut leaves my header off the edge of the bubble it puts aound it, I've noticed I'm not the only one think google have messed summit up?

Pike said...

@ Matticus - Yeah, definitely got a new header in the works.

@ One Among Many - That is a good idea, I'd have to look into how to do that though, cause I'd have no clue how to start.

@ Lienna - admittedly I had a lot of help, I opened up google and searched for "customizing Blogger", and got all sorts of neat tips and tricks. Really gotta credit them!

Rayare said...

Hey, Pike, thanks for the link! I love reading your blog. You are very down to earth about playing, which makes for a fun and informative read, and Tux is absolutely adorable!

Plus, I think the new layout is just spiffy!

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