Like the new look? Like the new logo?
Yesterday's redesign was a long time coming. Not only did the blog itself look tired and old-fashioned, everything associated with it - including its author - was not where it should be. After a good number of hours staring at my laptop, I can say that I am at least moderately happy with how it looks now.
I have also made sure that the awful logo that I clung to like a child with a dirty stick is no longer brandished everywhere. My Facebook and Twitter pages have therefore also received a much needed upgrade. I'm sorry you had to look at the old logo for so long - deeply sorry.This place has also has also been tidied up quite a bit with many of the unnecessary, and indeed ugly, gadgets and links consigned to a good number of unchecked tick-boxes.
Along with some de-cluttering, there have also been some subtle changes and additions. My Facebook widget at the top has been changed slightly so that a banner of all of your friends who also like the page show up. I thought that this looked good as a header to the page and reminds me how lucky I am to have people who take an interest in the stuff I write.
As part of the redesign I went through all of my posts and standardised the style I will be using from now on. On the back of that I decided to introduce the 'random post' button which I had in Ramblings of a Teenager to make it easier to dip into the past 3 years of my writing - if you are that way inclined of course! Be warned, it's a bit hit and miss.
What prompted all of this? Well, as I said above the blog looked tired and, by extension, I was tired of it. I am hoping that a fresh lick of paint will make me more willing to put my thoughts and experiences here again.
The second reason is that I realised that the old look wasn't fitting for something that I claim to be proud of. A certain someone got me the best gift ever for finishing university: a printed book of my blog posts. Reading through my old posts and realising that I have literally written enough over the years to fill a book, it dawned on me how much this blog means to me. The writing is sketchy and I don't publish nearly as much as I should, but it still means a lot to me.
So those are my reasons for getting out the green paint and hacksaw.
To go along with the little thrust of enthusiasm I had yesterday, came the realisation that I've got plenty to write about. Between trips away and finally finishing university, there is much to be rambled about.
On that note I best get on with it. Expect to see a few posts over the coming days!
