In the process of revamping this site for the umpteenth time, I’ve come up with perhaps the best improvements yet. Now with a new black and yellow (-ish) design, I’m also in the process of renewing my commitment to writing my own stuff and not just what I type out for a living. Whether I monetize this website or not, I do want a reader base, so here’s what is perhaps my greatest attempt yet at having my own website.
Inspiration for the Design
This color scheme was heavily influenced by the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game I love for its aesthetics and nanopunk theme. I’m a big cyberpunk fan, and this game has shaped the way I see design in recent years. Of course, I’d be heavily influenced by video games since that’s what I live with anyway.
It’s basically a palette swap of the previous template, but with more details like the H1 backgrounds and slightly see-through wrapper. The background is from the Deus Ex subreddit, which I found to be both subtle and detailed at the same time. I have a thing for grids, so I felt that it would fit the site to my liking.
I’ve also changed my logo as I felt that the previous one was not versatile enough. I had to tweak the old one at an angle to fit it in certain ways, so I’ve come up with this new one with more even sides. I was inspired by corporate logos in cyberpunk, and this one can easily fit as something you’d see on some security robot or futuristic office of some sort. It still stands for the initials AD and is more easily visible as an avatar or icon. I’m quite pleased with the results.
There are still plenty to fix in the website, like the CSS for Internet Explorer and various parts of the site that still look broken. I will take care of them in the following weeks, so they’ll get ironed out eventually.
The Quest to Post Regularly
A website that looks good is nothing without regular content, and this is where the struggle comes in. When it comes to topics, I’ve wrestled with the . I’m not someone who likes keeping a diary, much less put down details of my daily life. I felt that my life was too boring to ever write about, so I stayed away from that kind of blogging. I needed to look for other things to write about.
Of course, that’s where writing about one’s interests comes in. I’ve attempted at writing about martial arts, video games, and so on individually. However, I’ve realized that I’m not a certified expert at any of these things, no matter how passionate I am about them. Thus, it felt quite silly to talk about an individual topic extensively. I then concluded that I just have to write whatever I can in one place and not care about relevance since it’s a personal blog anyway. I can talk about anything, as long as I don’t come off as disingenuous.
There’s the issue of writing styles that I also struggle with. I have to admit that I really hate the usual bloggy writing styles that most people use, which seem to hawk products and so on. I’ve always absconded writing in a tone that felt like it came from a scrapbook, instead going for a thicker style that one may find in a . I like using less first-person references and . However, I’ve learned that even if this is how I like to write, it’s not exactly good for hooking readers in. What really matters is what is easy to read, not what’s easy to write.
I’ve explored blog monetization back in early 2008 since I was desperate for cash at that time and I had just started working as a freelance writer. As good as that learning experience was, there was also a lot of confusion. It’s actually through those personal experiments when I got my Google AdSense banned, which I now regret. As far as monetization goes, I’ll have to dig deeper in order to get it working for this website, if ever. The fact that I’m not very good on the social aspect of things doesn’t make it any easier.
The only thing I can really do is to push myself to post regular content. I have ideas floating around, so I’ll just go nuts with them and not look back. Whatever I come up with, they’ll be posted here on the site.
Livestreaming
I’ve tried my best to get the whole streaming thing going, but it does have its challenges. My intermittent internet connection, the nature of my work, various things coming in during the time slot, and lack of a consistent audience makes livestreaming rather difficult. I’ll try to stream at least every MWF, but the aim is to do so every day. I announce on Facebook (and Twitter) whenever I’m streaming.
You can now watch the stream right in the front page of the site. Whenever it’s online, an extra partition opens up that shows the stream itself, as well as the chat. For those who want to just see the stream, you can then click the livestream status link on top that takes you to avoider.net/live or the Twitch stream itself for a better view without having to go full screen.
As for what to stream, I’m still trying to get good enough in StarCraft II to stream that game, hopefully when I get to Diamond league in the future. I will most likely play games like Skyrim or Oblivion on stream, as well as whatever is new. I’m still trying to figure out what to stream though, and I’m taking suggestions. Perhaps the only things I’m sure not to stream are MOBA/ARTS games, unfortunately. I just don’t like them for some reason.
What Do You Think?
Do you like the new design, or does it make you cringe and vomit in your mouth? Do you think that the previous blue-on-white color scheme was much better? Tell me about it in the comment section below. Thank you very much.
