Because of those things, my creativity level has been very, very low. I haven’t been able to find much in the way of inspiration and any time I did, I just could not execute. Even my photography suffered and I didn’t update my photoblog for ages.

It’s slowly changing though and my to-do list is growing larger and larger, as you can see below

• WordPress update. I still haven’t updated to 2.5
• Redesign - I still haven’t redesigned and have been planning on it since last year. But I have some ideas, finally
• Commissions - I have a couple of redesigns to do for other people built on WordPress
• Complete various art projects of my own
  • Vector-vexel-styled image of David Forbes, referenced from a photo taken by Kym van Vliet
  • Some journal CSS projects for deviantART
  • More wallpapers, tutorials etc that I plan to release here on my site
  • Updates to PocketT for WordPress 2.5 to it works 100%, plus other bits and pieces for it
  • A new free theme
  • And finally, actually getting free html/css templates up like I was supposed to but never got to
• Just more activity in general, both on my blog and others

I’m sure there is more! So hopefully, starting today, I’ll be updating more regularly. Fingers crossed life doesn’t go “boo” again. :)

While browsing minidisc.com.au, I came across the Cowon iAudio D2 which seemed okay. I had recognized the brand though I didn’t know anything about it since it’s not quite mainstream in comparison with stuff like Apple, Creative, Sony etc so I researched the player to see what it was all about. I was happy to find many good reviews for it, and even a community for Cowon’s iAudio range.

I guess you can figure out now that I ended up getting it and I’m completely in love with it. I ended up getting the white 4gb version and it turned out to be more than I expected.

So, what’s the deal with this player? Well, just to give a quick overview of some of it’s features:

• Premium mp3 player - Music & Video
• 2.5inch touch screen
• Virtual click
• SD card slot
• 74mW sound
• Battery life: 52 hours music playback, 10 hours video playback

Obviously, there is a whole lot more to this player, but the thing that hooked me in was the battery life and SD card expansion. I haven’t played with it enough yet, but I’ve loaded up a heap of music. The D2 came fully charged so I had music playing all night to give the battery a test. It didn’t even drop one bar, which would have happened on any other player I’ve tried.

This isn’t a review, just sharing my new toy because I’m happy about it, and I don’t get to buy myself a lot of gadgets. And let me just say, the sound on this thing is amazing! Everything sounds great and I can hear things I’ve not noticed previously. I’ve taken some pictures, check them out below.

The D2 (left), official Cowon leather case in lime (right) and the stylus (front)

The stylus that came with it. Bit too small but it does the job, though it’s okay to use fingers. It also doubles as a stand for the D2.

The D2 in the leather case, displaying the music playing screen.

What I really like about this player is the theming and wallpapers. In the photo above, I’m using my own wallpaper. I’m also using a user created theme, which you can’t see. I’ll probably create some of my own themes eventually.

I also have a video of me playing with it if anyone wants to watch. There’s no talking, so I haven’t explained what everything is. But there is background music. I can’t be bothered uploading it anywhere, so you can download it and watch it on your computer (avi).

More infomation at cowonglobal.com

Also, just wanted to mention that I applied for my visa this week for the UK. I’ll hear back in a couple of weeks I guess, but hopefully I’ll get it! :D

My aim is to give something a little more than what you would expect, design wise, in a free template. A lot seem quite generic in terms of design, so I want to try and do something a little more flash to crush my design block (and ultimately, my complete creativity block). Hopefully it will help.

Look forward to that coming in the next week! :)

So, my life has been a little on the down side. I’m still designing a little bit, but not as much as I should be. I’m just so busy lately organizing my documents for my visa application (more on that on my other blog later). I still have no redesign for my website, but maybe soon. I’m not going to say for sure anymore! But there will be one, one day! ;)

It’s very different from the previous design (and a bit cleaner I think). I’ve gone for a darker style, particularly around the photo since I find (not quite) black works best with most of my photography as opposed to the previous white I had. I’ve also added some javascript to hide the photo details and other information below the photo.

Unfortunately, I’m not very familiar with javascript and it was one of the first times I’ve really used it to such an extent. I’ve tested it as much as I can (in Firefox 2.0.0.11, Opera 9.24, Safari (Windows beta 3.0.4) and Internet Explorer 6). It works in all of them, and seems to run best in Firefox and Opera, Internet Explorer then Safari. It seems Safari has issues with the javascript but it’s still usable. This could be because it’s beta though so I’d appreciate it if someone on a Mac can check out how the javascript runs for them.

There is a fix that needs to be made in the CSS for Internet Explorer 6 but it isn’t major so I’m not going to rush. I’ve not seen in it IE7 yet so it may have the same problem. You just never know any more with those two browsers.

And since I was redesigning anyway, I upgraded my Pixelpost installation (which broke). And while I was redesigning, I removed some things I had previously and added a new textual Archives page (below).

I also added a Comment Stats page (below) which displays the 5 most commented photos and the top 20 commenters.

And last but not least, I’ve finally burnt my feed with Feedburner so I can keep track of my subscribers.

Also, as silly as it may sound, I have been using WordPress for over 2 years now and had never, ever done a manual upgrade before. It was indeed my first time ever. I suppose in the past it has always been daunting and was worried I would break it but amazingly enough, I didn’t break anything, all the plugins work etc.

I also cleaned up my plugins. I upgraded all of them (the ones that needed it, which was most of them) and got rid of the ones I don’t use anymore (with the exception of a couple that I may be using when I redesign).

Anyway, just a heads up that I did upgrade. I don’t think there are any problems, but if you come across anything, drop me a line and let me know, please.

Learn about the changes at Updates for PocketT - January 2008 or?? head to the Download page.

In web design, I tend to focus quite a lot on the images. How the website looks with images. Everything I designed something over the last couple of months, I felt as though it was restrictive and just generally cramped. I’ve taken a step in the opposite direction and the new redesign will be quite interesting for me.

What can you expect? You can expect a new colour scheme. I can’t say it’s a dark design but it certainly isn’t a light design. I can definitely say it’s colourful though. I’ve stuck with my pink though have thrown in a yellow. Yes, you heard right… yellow. Yellow isn’t used often in design I find and it goes well with this colour scheme.

You can also expect freedom. My redesign is not restrictive in terms of layout. It is still fixed width (I don’t think I’ll change to a fluid layout any time too soon) but, it’s free. No crampiness with restrictive edges at the sides.

But the most important part of my redesign is typography. I’ve never really paid 100% attention to my typography in the past and felt it was time to do something about it! In my upcoming redesign, you will notice that typography really makes up for the most of the design and is the most important aspect of it for me.

Of course, you probably won’t realize you’re still on my website when the redesign is launched but I’m hoping people will like it. I don’t have a set date of when I will be launching the new design but I’m keeping my fingers crossed on a launch for next weekend (the one after the coming) before I start on my next project (after completing the current 2, now 3, that is).

Also, while I’m posting, I’m still looking for anyone that would like to advertise. If I don’t have any advertisers for the relaunch, I will be approaching 2 people to have 1 month free each for 125×125 banner ads featured in my sidebar. Who? I’m not sure yet. We’ll see when the time comes.

2007 has now passed us by and we’re moving along nicely now into 2008. The last year has been quite good to me. I decided to start doing design for others instead of myself and have seen myself grow in so many ways it was unbelievable. I started doing things I never though I would be able to do. All in all, 2007 was what I will always call from now on, my year of growth. Not only did my design skills improve 10 fold, but also the speed in which I was able to do them.

Towards the end of 2007, I moved again in another direction and got a job. Granted, it only lasted a week during 2007 but I am going back next week as the new school year starts at the end of January.

2007 also saw my website get a lot more attention and this is especially true of the last month. My traffic grew and my readership grew in doubles. Amazingly enough, this was mostly due to my RSS Icons that I released. And while it doesn’t mean a lot in the bigger picture, before releasing my icons and PocketT theme, I had a Technorati rank of 140,000 (approx.). Today I’m sitting under 30,000, which is a huge drop considering I really wasn’t budging. But that’s here nor there and it’s something for me alone to reflect on I suppose.

So, as I was saying, 2008 is well on its way.?? What can you expect from me? Well, everyone was expecting a redesign which unfortunately never came to see the light of day on New Years but it is still on the books. Spare time has just been hard to come by lately. At the moment, I’m working on two web projects simultaneously, which is a new experience for me. I have another 4 or so coming up. I guess you could say, I am going to be quite busy with working every morning from 6am - 1pm (exluding weekends) and spending my afternoons, evenings and weekends designing. Plus I have to try and find some me time to squeeze in there somewhere for exercise (one of my resolutions, that is) and make sure I take care of my mental health.

You can also expect to see some new icons coming. I’m hoping to push out some blog icons and some more RSS icons, plus some other resources. I have so much on my computer that I never used that I would rather give it away than leave it there to do nothing.

Unfortunately, there is some bad news as well for 2008. I’m heading back to England sometime before the mid-year kicks in. I’m only working until the April school holidays which kick off at the start of the month and the plan is to head back to England some time in late April or early May, depending on how everything looks at the end of this month. While I will be in England with a visa that will allow me to work, I am not allowed to start a business. What this means for me is, no freelancing. I won’t be continuing with that when I return to England. On the other hand though, I will still be designing and releasing WordPress themes and other things.

Heres to 2008. I wish everyone the best in their endeavours this year.

With Christmas coming and other more important design/development jobs lately, I’ve decided to push back my redesign to be launched at the end of January. This is mostly to cut down on a little stress on my part and to give myself some time to work on some other outstanding bits and pieces.

Of course, I still might catch the bug and think “What the hey?!” and just get it done before the end of January anyway, but we shall see!

Just thought I’d do an update on that so that when new years day comes and people check to see the new design, they won’t be disappointed in what they (don’t) see.

2,000 Downloads

I also wanted to mention my RSS Feed Icons which I released the other week. I released them thinking perhaps a few people would enjoy them but I was pleasantly surprised to see they were actually quite popular! They passed 2,000 downloads about a week ago already, and of course, the downloads are slowing down, but they’re still getting hits. I suppose this could be a small amount for a lot of people, but it’s quite a lot for me!

And I think I probably have Adii to thank for that, as he truly got the ball rolling. Once he had plugged the icons, that was it! They got featured in quite a few places, but I’m not going to list them all here as there are just too many.

A few people have used them in their designs recently too, but I think there is one that stands out in my mind at the moment. Magnus used it in his PortraitPress theme, which is a great theme to look at. Be sure to check it out some time.

Can you expect to see any more icons in the future? Well, perhaps I have some ideas but I can’t promise anything. Icons aren’t really my fort but I do enjoy playing with them occasionally.