Life Blog
personal blog 2004-8
I'd experimented a few times with blogs in the past, but "This is my Life" was intended to be a completely freely written blog for the anonymous Internet-surfer. I would write whatever I felt, which meant supremely intimate thoughts in the beginning, and eventually rounded out to a general archive of life experiences. The main technological significance of the project was in helping me learn CSS, and in the process, become aware of cross-browser style issues...
site designs
After designing the initial layout and MovableType structure, I soon decided that the blog needed a new design. But rather than change everything, I decided to expand upon my CSS knowledge, learning from sites like CSS-zen, while keeping the existing HTML code. I later implemented a style-changer so visitors could select their favourite style, and a cookie would keep it there. Some styles worked better with the existing content than others, but most of them are available below.
Resolution (2008)
For this final style, I wanted to create something that was inherently Vancouver. As a Vancouver blogger, none of my earlier layouts reflected the city. An overlay from the California trip helped give the image extra depth, a minimally-edited photo of myself gave it a human touch, and a dark content background completed the eye-friendly package.
Click here to view in full.
Alcatraz (2007)
This style was built around the header image I captured while on a roadtrip through San Francisco. I wanted something that would allow the eye to relax upon entry to the site, to then engage the reader with the text below. The seagull added a nice touch and asymmetry to the overall layout, and this layout is still one of my favourite designs.
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Passenger (2007)
Ready to start blogging again, I looked back to an earlier favourite, Solstice, for general feel. The look was inspired by Death Cab for Cutie's "Passenger Seat," and focused on the roadtrip photo I shot in northern BC. Brown was a colour I had't often used on the web, so I decided to go all out with it, and I think it all came together quite well.
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Prodigal (2006)
Apple had recently started putting reflections everywhere, and I was ready to give it a try. The goal was emotion, yet minimal. The photo was captured at an old, abandoned farm outside of Elbow, Saskatchewan, and the menu was thrown to the very bottom of the layout to place full emphasis on the writing.
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Paradise (2006)
Tired of my lack of vacations, I took a photo from the parents' recent Oahu album, and styled the old Autumn Sun design around it. Autumn Sun was one of my favourites, so I was ready to give it an update: complete with Hawaiian floral printed background. It wasn't the most beautiful design, but it did the job.
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Wings (2006)
I was going through a little bit of an identity search when I came up with this. The photo features my Grandpa (left) and his brother-in-law playing around on the prairies back in the good ol' days. I really wanted to give the site a textured look, which was quite difficult to do without modifying the HTML structure of the site.
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Opportunity (2006)
I wanted to experiment. To me, this was avant-garde web design. I wanted colour, complexity, and confusion: to make as seemingly random a layout as possible, using the same, organized HTML structure from the earlier designs. The photo was captured out of the window of a Skytrain approaching the SkyBridge over the Fraser river.
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Solstice (2005)
Autumn was over, and I needed something wintery. A photo my Grandma captured of some snow-covered trees in the park provided the perfect header image, with a very subdued colourscheme making up the rest of the layout. Simplicity was the goal, and a few small layered effects helped the design feel brand new.
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Autumn Sun (2004)
As the second design for my blog, this one emphasized the season and the feelings that go along with it. I shot the photo on the way home from campus one day, as the late afternoon autumn sun was shining through the trees. The leaves around the date boxes, and simple colour scheme, wonderfully complimented the writing and other content.
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Fin/Past (2004-2006)
The first layout for my blog was originally entitled "Prairie Blue." I created the fin/past layout in 2006 when I decided to stop blogging for a while, and my approach was to use the first site design, and modify it to a monochromatic colour scheme in order to emphasise the historical nature. To say, this is where I began, and this is where I end.
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conclusions
Although I no longer write in the blog, and the archive is not currently online, this project allowed me to improve my writing and coding abilities. At the same time, it allowed me to create an archive of memories, usually text-based imagery, to look back on, and a set of website designs expressing a range of styles and concepts. Every now and then I miss having a blog. I wouldn't be surprised if I soon start again, in one form or another.
