May 4, 2008
Comments page
I found the comments page template and applied the Tree House's style to it. The formatting is all wrong and the banner is missing but it's a start.
I think what I'll have to do is modify the main style sheet then save it as a separate style which I can then apply to the comments page.
In the meantime it's fully functional so feel free to comment. :)
Posted by OldGuy at 9:38 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
May 3, 2008
All is Right With the Tree House Again
I did a little more work on the back end last night and everything is now as it should be on the main and archive pages. Fonts are all back, things are spaced correctly, and the place looks good. One very minor issue is that the "Fresh Nuts" category only shows 4 entries (with a space when viewed in IE) even though I've set it for 5. I figured out last night it's because my "Happy Birthday To Me" banner/post doesn't actually have a title so MT isn't picking it up. Putting a title in looks silly so I've left it out. As soon as I have 5 posts with titles again the issue will resolve itself (anyway, I only put up non-titled posts 2-3 times a year).
Now I have to format the comments page, but not today. I think I'm just going to kick back and relax.
Although it was a bit of a pain straightening everything out I have to admit I enjoyed it too. I finally learned how the newer MT pages are structured and they're not as complicated as I thought. In the end it's still all HTML and CSS and knowing which pages to concentrate on and which ones to ignore.
Cheers and have a good weekend folks.
Posted by OldGuy at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 15, 2007
The Tree House Redux
I fixed it and it looks good in IE and Firefox.
I still have bit of tweaking to do as the fonts in the Category section need to be changed and some links are messed up but it's getting there.
It sure feels good to have the place looking like it used too, almost like getting home after a long day's work and finding a fresh cup of coffee next to my favourite chair.
Posted by OldGuy at 7:52 AM | Comments (3)
December 14, 2007
The Tree House
It's still looks totally screwed up in IE but Firefox is looking good.
It's a start.
Posted by OldGuy at 9:11 PM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2007
New Look ?
My host upgraded my blog to MT 4 and it seems to have reverted to a default style. He's trying to bring it back. If not then I'll have to give it a go. However the upgraded version looks so different I'm going to have to learn where everything is first.
I probably won't be doing much of anything for the next few days though. I'm home with pneumonia and possibly some other infection. MY GP is close to sticking me in the hospital, says if I don't make some improvement by the end of the week then in I go (I've been sick since the weekend).
Anyway, all of which is to say that watching television and doing some reading are the extent of my activities for now. So I may not get to the blog until next week.
Posted by OldGuy at 11:18 AM | Comments (2)
April 4, 2006
The Red Orb is Done
Hey, I just noticed something, I like round graphics.
The smilie is round, the Rimz is round, the orbs are round, my head is sorta round, not too much though, otherwise I'd look like a ballon head.
Maybe I should have a round blog.
Nah, it would never work.
Anyway, I'm finally done with the red orb. Yeah, I still wasn't satisfied with it, the letters were blurry and it was missing something so last night I played around with it some more and now I'm happy with it. I changed the text back to red and added a 2 pixel black stroke and that did it. Now the text "pops", as my wife likes to say.
It's kinda like in the movies, when the guy kisses the girl if her foot comes up then she "popped." Or like when a woman has a baby and it "pops" out, everybody gets excited ang giggly and they stroke it, except in that case it's the other way around. On the other hand, there might have been some stroking ... oops, sorry, this is a family site, we'll have none of that ! I worked on the gold OG for quite some time before I was satisfied with it too so this shouldn't come as a surprise.
On another note, Easter's coming so don't forget to get your goodies, especially if you have kids. Hey, I wonder if I could do an Easter egg ? And stop by TN's blog too, she's having a little Easter caption contest.
Oh yeah, one other thing. Remember a few months ago I wrote about vacuuming my head after a hair cut ? Well, I did it again last Sunday and I almost sucked an eardrum out. Seriously though, I'm okay now but for about an hour my ear hurt and all I could hear was a loud sucking sound, so if you try this stay away from your ears !
Posted by OldGuy at 9:59 AM | Comments (6)
February 3, 2006
Cleaning House
I decided to do a little maintenance on the blog tonight. I took the sidebars out on the category and monthly pages so now they only appear on the main page. I figured things would load a little faster that way and you can always click on "Main" or on the banner to get back to the main page. Not that I have a lot of images on here yet but I have started to notice that as I add more things are slowing down.
While I was at it I did a little cleaning on my desktop. I had so much junk on there and some of it was in folders I don't even remember creating so I deleted everything I don't need and reorganized the rest.
Geez, all that work tired me out, I think I'll go lay down.
Posted by OldGuy at 8:08 PM | Comments (1)
Just an Old Dog
As I've said before, I'm like a dog with a bone, I'll just keep chewing at it until I get what I want. So the OG graphic you see in the left sidebar is the final result. It stays. Period. I've worked at it all week. Yeah, I know, some people could have done it in 5 minutes but what can I say. I'm not sure how many I actually made before I settled on this one, I stopped counting at 20. It was fun though, I learned a lot, and hey, it was a nice change of pace. Anyway, that's me, a little old maybe, a little silly maybe, but with just a touch of class and fast when I have to be. He he.
BTW, the Capn's Tree House graphic stays too of course, I wouldn't be without it.
It's Friday already, another week down, and February is a short month so believe it or not spring is around the corner. Okay, it's a big corner, but we'll get around it. And you guys know how I feel about spring what with the flowers blooming, and the trees turning green and the birds and the bees doing their birdy beey thing. Don't you just love it ?
My wife and daughter went to see Hillary Duff in concert last night. Hilary used to be a cute little kid. She's not a kid anymore.
You wanna see some cool graphics, go here, she's pretty good.
Anyway, the weekend is just a few hours away so I'm gonna get into weekend mode by emptying my head of useless information (basically everything but the location of the refrigerator).
See you folks on Sunday.
Posted by OldGuy at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)
January 31, 2006
The Name is Bond
After much hand wringing and teeth gnashing I've decided to keep the black and gold logo. I'm going to play with it a bit more tonight, adjust the size and stuff and then put it up in the sidebar.
A couple of reasons have brought me to this decision.
First off, I like it. Yeah okay, it isn't brown or green like the rest of the blog but I like it. Besides, it jazzes up the place, gives it a bit of class, a bit of flair, if you know what I mean, like maybe every night I change into my black tux and get behind the wheel of my Aston Martin and go off and save the world, all while making love to ... my wife ! Just my wife. Because I'm married. Happily.
Secondly, this is one of my first graphics, I did it the day after I started playing with Fireworks and I think it turned out good for a first effort. Okay, it wasn't that hard to do, but a month ago I would have looked at a graphic like that and figured I could never do that, not in a million years. But I did. And I'm proud of it
So I'm going to put it up in the sidebar tomorrow, on my side of the page.
Just call me Bond, OG Bond.
Posted by OldGuy at 2:42 PM
December 14, 2005
A Few More Changes
Well, I added a smiley that I'd had for quite some time, it's there on the right side. It was originally a blinking smilie but the blinking was driving me crazy so by resizing it and resaving it I was able to stop it from blinking. I put it in place of the calendar, which I'd been contemplating getting rid of for a while anyway.
Also, when I was in the Shout Box today somebody mentioned that they thought I lived in the United States, which made me realize that when I last downloaded the clock on the right I'd forgotten to put the city name back in so now it's there. I'm from Ottawa, Canada, and it's cold as bejeesus here today. And the maple leaf in the Rimz is Canadian, that should be a hint.
Finally, as I've said before, Movable Type is weird sometimes. I've got frames around all the images, did this in the stylesheet, but for some reason it wouldn't put the frame on the Rimz when I put em up last week but now it's there, in fact for a while I was getting a double frame effect, which, although it was kinda neat didn't fit it with the other images, so now it's the same frame on all of them.
So, just farting around and tweaking stuff again.
Posted by OldGuy at 6:43 PM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2005
I Created an About Page
I created an about page, which is something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. It's there just under my picture.
Of course, as I'm always looking for the easiest way to do things, I just created it as an oridinary entry and changed the date on it, so it looks like it was the first entry created, and as I didn't assign it a category to it shows up on it's own page.
Hey, whatever works I always say.
Posted by OldGuy at 4:16 PM | Comments (2)
December 6, 2005
My Return, the Redesign and Stuff
Well, I'm back.
It's been a while since I posted to my blog and I've really missed it. As I said in my last post though (which was almost a month ago) none of us here on the range were feeling too good. My wife was quite ill (she's better now although suffering from a nasty cold at the moment), and my son, the princess and I all had rotten colds that dragged on for the longest time. Also, with the cold weather setting in my arthritis started acting up; if anybody ever tells you that pain is all in your head give em a swift kick in the ass and see if that makes em rethink their position.
Work also got quite busy there for a bit as we were going through our annual billing period and to make matters worse the organization introduced all sorts of new procedures over the last few months. Good thinking guys, change the way we're supposed to do things when it's really freakin busy.
Can you say "DUH ?"
And finally the redesign. As you can see the Tree House is looking brand new and all spiffed up.
Okay, not so brand new but definitely spiffed up.
Okay, okay, it's just a little different.
Geez, cut a guy a break will ya !
Seriously though, although I haven't made any major changes I've added a brand new banner, moved the sidebars around (my stuff is on the left, your stuff is on the right), changed the background, and generally made the place more fun to look at. I kept most of my original colours because I happen to like em and it's my place so there.
When I first started I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but fortunately a few very nice people came to my rescue (more about them shortly). I soon learned though that if I wanted to actually do something other than change a colour or two I'd have to learn some HTML and CSS and that was the hardest part. I'm no expert by any means but at least now I can look at the stuff without my brain hurting, So, after a lot of studying and many mistakes later I understand what most of these templates do and I'm not afraid to try stuff. Hey, you know what they say, as long as you have back-ups you can experiment all you want.
I'd like to thank a couple of people who really helped me out. First Jerzey Girl who created the images used in the banner. Next Jennifer who put the images together into several different banners for me to choose from. I've kept em all Jen, and might even swap em around on some of the other pages. And lastly, my friend Liz who has always there for me when I need help with coding or just get frustrated and need to rant.
Wihout you ladies I'd just be an old man sitting in a tree playing with his nuts and wondering what might have been.
Update - as some of the pages don't have sidebars (e.g. the individual entries page) I used the smaller version of the banner so it fits better.
Posted by OldGuy at 9:46 PM | Comments (14)
August 14, 2005
Passionate About Blogging
If you're just surfing for credits I suggest you move on because this is going to take longer than 30 seconds.
Do you hear that ?
It's the wind of change blowing softly through the tree house.
Okay, so this post is about a few things, the first being change. The tree house may undergo a few changes over the next couple of weeks, although I'm not sure what they are yet. What I can tell you after having spent a couple of months at Blogexplosion is that I concede that design does count for something. I have seen some awesome designs over the last few months and certainly people like Jenny work damn hard to bring blogs to life with their incredible designs, so yeah, I admit it, design counts.
So does this mean a radical design change? Well, no, I'm not skilled enough and can't afford it so ... However I may try to move a few elements around, eliminate others. We'll see. All I can do is try.
But design is still only packaging and packaging hopefully isn't what blogging is all about. It isn't to me anyway. To me it's about passion. I blog because I'm passionate about it. Over the years I've tried and abandoned several hobbies, mostly because after a while I realized I didn't have the passion to go any further with them.
But writing I'm passionate about. I started slowly about a year ago and since that time I've wanted to do it more and more and get better and better at it. To make someone laugh or cry or smile is to me an incredible feeling and to know that I can do it blows my mind. And I've become a keen observer of the world around me in the last year too, I notice things I've never noticed before and I'm always on the lookout for an idea and when I get one I get excited and can't wait to get started. And I'm happier because I have this hobby that I'm so passionate about, and that shows. My family may think I'm a little nuts when I start to laugh or cry unexpectedly but they also kinda like it because they know the old man just had an idea and he's raring to go!
So back to change, which is where I started. Another change was today's post where I announced that I'm going to start showcasing other people's stuff in the tree house, like Suzi's or Stacie's or Knapp's or whoever. Does this mean I'm running out of ideas? Hell no, I've got plenty of em! These are people who've struck me as being passionate about their blogging and I'm proud to showcase them here. Go read their stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.
Oh yeah, and I'm going to add a few photo blogs to the blogroll soon too because one of those hobbies I tried and abandoned was photography. Interestingly enough though that was the only hobby I didn't abandon because I lost the passion for it, I just wasn't that good at it. But as you know I love images and when I see a beautiful picture it stirs me and the ideas start coming. So I tip my hat to those of you with a passion for photography, I wish I could do what you do.
So there you have it, change and passion.
Altough I'm not overly passionate about change I am passionate about blogging so I guess I'll change just a little.
Anyway, I've gone way over my 30 seconds but at least I warned you in advance.
Posted by OldGuy at 1:59 AM | Comments (12)
July 15, 2005
The Tree House
For those of you who are new to the tree house I thought I’d tell you what the place is all about, in case you haven’t had time to explore yet. Those of you who’ve been here many times know all this so you can just help yourself to a coffee, it's fresh.
I like to write, that’s pretty obvious.
I don’t write about politics or religion or the state of affairs in the world or movie stars or any number of other topics though. It’s not because I don’t understand these things or don’t have any interest in them, in fact quite the contrary, I can hold my own in just about any conversation about the aforementioned and I have strong opinions about a number of them. But you see, there are plenty of blogs out there that deal with these matters, some of them quite informed and insightful so one more isn't necessary.
I write about my life, my neighbourhood, my family, and when I get inspired I come up with a story or a poem or a line or two about something I’ve observed, be it funny, sad, silly, or whatever. This is the stuff I live each and every single day, the stuff that makes up most of my waking hours, so that's why I write about it.
But it’s more than that. The tree house is supposed to be a peaceful place. That’s why I created it and that’s what I hope it is.
So if you're just looking for a place to stop and rest for a while, maybe have a coffee and put your feet up, then welcome.
Oh yeah, there are a couple of rules, but they’re fairly easy to live with.
1) it’s at the bottom of the page, so go look.
2.) Bill and Liz have dibs on the big armchairs because they’ve been coming around the longest.
3.) if you empty the coffee pot please make another one.
4.) if I’m asleep when you come by feel free to hang around but don’t wake me up, I’m grumpy when I wake up. Leave me a note though so I'll know you've been here and can return the favour.
Posted by OldGuy at 10:12 AM | Comments (7)
July 2, 2005
Drop Caps
This is practice to see if drop caps actually work this way. I hope they do otherwise I'll have to get the plugin but if that's what I have to do then fine. Let's try it and see.
Okay it worked, kinda cool looking I guess.
I'll have to save the code someplace so I can use it again.
Update later today - you can even change the font, adjust the height of the drop cap, etc. This can be done either in the stylesheet (in which case they will all look the same from then on) or individually in the text box, in which case you can have different ones whenever you want.
I like Times New Roman because that's what I have in the banner and footer.
Ties things together nicely.
As usual things look different in IE than in FF so I'll have to play around with that, see what I can do.
Posted by OldGuy at 4:24 PM | Comments (2)
June 28, 2005
Scrollbar
I changed the scrollbar colours to match the rest of the page.
Only works in IE though, not in FF.
Oh well, maybe FF will support coloured scrollbars one of these days.
Posted by OldGuy at 6:26 PM | Comments (2)
June 17, 2005
Satisfied At Last
Yep, been playing around with the colours again.
I decided to soften the background a bit, looks more like the inside of a tree than a sheet of paper now.
I was finally able to create a sidebar that goes all the way to the bottom of the page. I did it by creating a light border all around the content section. As there is already a dark brown border around the container however, the top, bottom and left borders of the content section seem to disappear; only the right border shows up, giving the appearance of a sidebar.
It's just a trick, and it took a while before I figured it out (the problem was the sidebar was rendering in FF but not in IE)but I finally got it.
I kept the pink in the sidebar because it reinforces the feeling of softness and it reminds someone of cherries :)
I removed the green border and went with brown all around.
So where are the green highlights one expects to see in a tree ?
Why in the picture of the tree house of course. And links are still green when you hover over them, so there you go.
I added just a touch of blue to the background so now the tree house is set against a blue-grey sky. I also made the top and bottom margins the same so now the tree house appears to be floating in the sky :)
Finally, I changed the colour of the clock, thanks to my wife who pointed out that the yellow one looks much better than the green one with the new colour scheme.
So why the major changes and why did it take so long ?
All along I've wanted a look I really liked, a look that was at once eye-catching yet soft. A peaceful look if you will, one that says come in and sit a while, put your feet up, relax. This is a quiet place.
I struggled with the colours for quite some time trying to get that look, then a few months ago I decided to really learn about colours. I spent countless hours at colour matching sites on the web, learning and experimenting. I also observed street signs and store windows whenever I had the chance, after all people get paid to design these things so they must know what they're doing. And of course, I studied that greatest of all canvases, nature; trees, gardens, skies.
And bit by bit I started to put the colours I wanted together, sometimes spending hours trying to get something just right, and when I found a colour I wanted it went in.
Eventually it all came together.
Anyway, it was a learning experience and I'm happy with the results.
Posted by OldGuy at 1:38 AM | Comments (6)
June 11, 2005
Got it All Packed Away
Finally got everything packed away. I created a few new categories and put everything in them.
About time too, there was stuff laying all over the place, cluttering up the tree house.
I even found a nest of squirrels under a couple of old stories. Gave the little buggers a few stale nuts that were left over from Christmas and kicked them out.
Oh yeah, I also put up a new clock, got the idea from Shannon.
Don't know Shannon ? I'll be adding her site to my links later today, but her blog name, in case you want to check it out is Wind Scraps.
Update later
I added Shannon's blog to my links.
Ckeck it out, she writes quite well.
Posted by OldGuy at 11:08 PM | Comments (2)
Finally Added Categories
I finally added a few category names I can live with, now I just have to put stuff in em.
Hopefully it'll all make sense. ;-)
Posted by OldGuy at 10:44 AM
June 2, 2005
Done ... for now
I'm happy with it.
Hope you like it too.
Posted by OldGuy at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)
May 31, 2005
Redesigning the tree house
I like the overall look of the tree house but there are still a few elements that aren't quite right and I've been struggling with these for some time now.
Liz and I were chatting last night and something she said triggered the feeling I'm looking for. Liz said that peace had temporarily returned to her little corner of the world and then we mentioned fun too and it occured to me that that's the feeling I'm going for.
I come to the tree house when I want to have fun, maybe write about the old ninja, or when I just want to sit and rest and do nothing, maybe write something peaceful or read the comments and see who dropped in today. And that's what I want for my friends too. The tree house should be a place to come and play or just sit and rest when you're feeling weary.
So that's what I'm trying to do here, create a place that's fun yet peaceful. I'll get it yet and when I do I'll look at it and say "It's perfect".
And Liz you're right about the blue font, it's got to go.
Update - later today
I added a yellow border between the green and the brown so that the brown doesn't look washed out against the dark green and made the container a bit thinner so it looks more like a tree (thanks again Liz).
Now I have to work with the border a bit as it's still too dark and work on the background too.
Here's another thought.
Maybe the tree should sit against a blue background (gotta get the right blue), which represents the sky.
You then look up the tree, which has bark on the outside of it, and at the top of the tree, sitting in a green canopy of leaves is the tree house.
Anyway, back to work
Update - next day
I think I finally found the combination I wanted. The green and yellow banner were just kind of off, especially next to the green tree house picture, caused the picture to look washed out. By reversing the colours the picture stands out much better and I'm still in keeping with tree colours.
Now to go to work on the font and background.
Posted by OldGuy at 9:55 AM | Comments (2)
May 11, 2005
Comments
I've enabled unregistered comments so feel free to leave one.
Of course I reserve the right to approve them ;-)
Posted by OldGuy at 1:00 PM
May 9, 2005
Footer Again
It was no problem, I just had to change the colour of the footer bottom and now I have the yellow line showing up. It makes the bottom border look like it changes from brown to yellow.
I like it.
Posted by OldGuy at 11:21 PM
Footer
It's fixed, looks good on every page now. I must have stared at the code for the longest time before I noticed the problem, but it's done.
Speaking of which, ever notice how you can stare at a problem for hours and not see the fix but if you walk away from it and come back a few hours later the solution slaps you upside the head like a wet ironing board cover ? ;-)
This is strange though, when I view the footer at home it's green with yellow writing but at work it's green with yellow writing and a thin yellow line underneath as if the border is made up of 1 pixel of brown and 1 pixel of yellow on top. I think it's the IE 5.5 issue again. I'm not going to mess with it though because it's too much trouble and I like it anyway.
Unless...
Posted by OldGuy at 11:47 AM
April 30, 2005
Looking Better All the Time
I added colour to the sidebar and moved the title over to the right a bit so it's not sitting right up against the picture of the tree house.
This was driving me nuts for a long time but I got help from katymum at the MT forum.
Thanks katymum !
Posted by OldGuy at 7:55 AM
April 8, 2005
I Did It All By Myself
I added links to Bill and Liz's blogs today.
Now, before you go thinking "yeah, so what, no biggie" to me it is a biggie.
See, I'm not real good at this stuff and seems every time I try something new it takes me forever, I usually muck it up and end up having to fix it and sometimes I cry for help (not that any of this stops me from trying, after all that would take the fun out of it).
But not this time. Not only did I get the links in but when I noticed that the link to Liz's blog opened up a separate window whereas the link to Bill's did not I managed to figure out why and made the necessary changes.
So yay for me, I did it all by myself and didn't lose my blog in the process.
Of course I copied my index and saved it somewhere before making the changes this time.
Posted by OldGuy at 7:53 PM | Comments (3)
March 15, 2005
Still learning
So I just spent an hour and a half trying to get a picture in my banner with limited success (it ended up in the wrong place, the title disappeared a few times then it would come back all screwed up etc.) so I'll have to try again tomorrow.
I've learned a few things in the process though so that's good.
I love experimenting like this, it's the only way to learn.
And thanks to my friend Liz for providing me with the means to upload a picture.
Yes Liz, I will do it !
Posted by OldGuy at 4:06 AM
March 10, 2005
I got the links I wanted in.
Had to play around a bit to figure out how to put the names of the pieces in but I did it.
Today I'm gonna try and figure out how to put a picture of a treehouse in the banner.
Posted by OldGuy at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)
February 17, 2005
New Name
So why the new name ?
I was thinking the other day that I wanted a name that reflects what I do here. Okay, seems obvious, I write stuff, nothing complicated about that.
But that's only part of it. I enjoy what I'm doing, I get a kick out of it.
If I'm writing about something sad, maybe crying as I type, I still try to find the words, the rhythm, that will convey what I'm feeling. And if I'm writing about something funny, well damn, I go to town.
Either way, I'm enjoying myself, having fun in my space.
So I asked myself what name would convey that sense of fun.
Sand box ? Nah, a little too young.
Park ? Well, park's not bad, but still not quite right. Dogs poop in the park, can't have that here.
Hey wait, remember the old tv sitcoms ? The boys almost always had a tree house, and they did all kinds of neat stuff there like read comics and play monsters and talk about girls and stuff.
And what about the movie Jack starring Robin Williams, the one about a boy growing up in a man's body. Where did they go to play ?
Up in the tree house.
So there it is, when I think of boys having fun I see a tree house.
And I'm having fun so what the hell, OldGuy's Tree House it is.
Oh yeah, speaking of fun, I slapped a new coat of magic paint on the door. Now it turns green when you touch it.
Come on in.
Posted by OldGuy at 3:03 PM | Comments (2)
January 28, 2005
Still playing around
I'm starting to figure out what's what in the template and am changing fonts and colours to my heart's content.
I'll get just right but for now it's kinda fun to play with it.
Now I gotta figure out this trackback thing. I read cnm's post about it and tried it this morning but I think I messed it up, tracked my comment back to myself somehow. Sort of like a jungle guide leading the great white hunter through the jungle and back to the hunter's camp where the hunter shoots the guide's pet elephant.
Posted by OldGuy at 7:42 PM
January 27, 2005
Changing moods, changing shades
Not sure how I did it but my name goes from light blue to dark blue when you hover over it.
Guess I'll keep playing around, see what else I can do.
Wow, changed the font too ! Now I can read it without putting my nose on the screen.
Posted by OldGuy at 6:45 PM | Comments (1)