Monday, July 17, 2006

A New Look and my Geekiness

Okay, so I am thinking about a new look. I have actually started it, without anyone really recognizing that I have changed things on my site. If you look at my short stories, my blog roll, and my archives, you will notice that I am now using drop down menus.

I am turning into such a geek. I mean, when I started blogger, I knew nothing of HTML (the markup language that the Internet primarily uses). I guess I should make a small aside – I am not a real geek and I am going to describe things that are wrong. Okay, I am not computer expert, so please don't show your geekiness by correcting me. I can see someone with thick glasses and halitosis typing into my comments, "Actually, Ms. Leesa, there are 4 variants of HTML now in common use, and that does not mention any server side or client side … blah blah blah."

Okay, back to me and HTML. When I started blogger, I knew absolutely nothing. And after a while, I got a bit tired of looking at my site that had links to Google and something like "Add a Link." Plus I wanted to get back to ddot, and I did not trust my memory. So I learned something that would link files – something called hyperlink.

So here I was using that confusing code to link other people – and then to hyperlink things I was talking about. What do you know, I look like I know what I am doing. Then I started using a few other tags, to bold and to italicize my words, because frankly, I use these crutches to make my thoughts seem more rational or intelligent. Whatever. Two more markups that could also be used in comments. Impress your friends. You know the drill.

And that's all I knew until Friday. Well, once I figured out how to change colors to text, but I forgot how to do that. That's okay. Well, on Friday, I thought to myself, my side panel was sort of out of control. I wanted a shorter list of stuff on the side. Enter drop down menus.

So I figured out how to do that with my short stories. And it took me some time. A heck of a lot more than 15 minutes. Like more than an hour just for the short stories. And afterwards, I thought I would do my friends and blog tools. Same way, easy enough. And then there are the archives – I notice someone just hard coded the archives. Not geeky enough for this babe. I had to use something else – and now I cannot remember how, and presto, with one line of code, I have all of my archives.

And my drop downs looked okay, but the font was in black when the rest of my lists were in some funky blue color. What to do? Change the color of the drop down menus. Again, I did it on Friday, and I cannot remember what I did, but I like this change.

I have a friend, my musie, who wrote on Saturday about how sexy one of her skirts feels to her. I think most of us have some clothes we buy and then don't wear because the clothes are too revealing – they sort of scare us. Well, now musey likes her skirt – and she had the legs for the skirt. Well, as far as my blog, I am now embracing my geekiness. I wanted something really plain – the writing is what is important – and now I am wondering about changing my header. Not that the header will turn heads, but it makes me feel good. If I can find the time.

17 comments:

Deb said...

Okay, I've been trying to get a drop roll or whatever that's called onto my blog. Wanna help a sister out? When I first started blogging I knew nothing about html. I still don't. I don't know 'where everything goes', and at one point, I ended up making my template (which is the same as yours) ORANGE! ......the entire template turned orange with black text. It looked like a Halloween nightmare!

Grant said...

Here is the HTLM and CSS (basically HTML on steroids) reference I use since I can never remember all that stuff. It's kinda no-frills and includes a few examples. Go wild. =)

Unknown said...

hehe, you said header. ;) jk, yeah, the post today was a tad too geekie, but hey, it was still fun. now if you'd mentioned nipples or something like that, whoa!!! ;) just giving you a hard time, love the blog, no matter how techie you get with it, it's all about the words...

Tony said...

I had a header this weekend and it made me feel good. I can relate.

I've been working on my HTML and am wanting to do more with my blog. Time is my biggest enemy. I like uncomplicated, easy-to-read aspects of your site. The drop-downs are nice though I miss seeing the lists. They always piqued the curiosity and sent me to different sites. Now that they're hidden I'm not so prone to wander since it takes so much extra effort to mouse over and hit the down button.

TrappedInColorado said...

Hmmm..soooo .. now to go to a linked blog we have to hit the down arrow, scroll down to the link, select the link, then hit go. Instead of clicking on the link. I love progress! :) It is fun to play with that stuff isn't it?

Pittchick said...

I want to blogroll my stuff as well. I started playing around with blogrolling.com, is that what you used?

Stacy The Peanut Queen said...

I'm still pretty much an idiot when it comes down to the HTML thing.

I think you've figured it out pretty well! :)

Jason said...

Embrace the geek within you. I grew up being called 'nerd' and 'geek.' Now I don't mind it. I'm not a computer genius either. Although I wouldn't mind associating with a geeky female who knows how to get around html and computers. The geeky guys are usually oddballs, but everyone loves a geeky girl.

Muse said...

Your adorable in your geekiness, Babes. Im still HTML challenged and Ive been blogging for years..lol

And thanks Honey, Im grinning from ear to ear. :-)

Leesa said...

~deb: not sure that I can help - I hard code my blog roll.

grant: now I will be blinking on my site. Enraging everyone.

jd: it was a flat post today.

tony: your header was probably soccer-related.

trapped: those links were for me, except for the archive links.

dna: I actually just hard code the people I normally read.

stacy: thanks, sweetie.

jason: I am not looking forward to the bad breath and drinking diet Mountain Dew. Just does not seem natural.

halo: love to see you grin - you can even see it in your words!

~ Amanda X&O said...

I still know nothing about HTML. But I'm ok with that, because it keeps people from calling me a computer nerd.

And I like your changes, they look nice.

Rick said...

Took me a minute to figure out the drop-downs are only on your home page, not on individual posts. (I use Firefox to navigate directly to the newest post.) But I applaud your geekiness nonetheless.

MOAB said...

htmhmmm?
Good for you for being curious and actually caring enough to learn what you needed to make it happen.

As for me, I'm gonna go make lemonade. It;s frickin hot here (no really---like 98 with a heat index of 109---frickin hot)

Leesa said...

amanda: thanks for the compliments.

rob: muse has a nice short denim skirt - but poor thing, it is beginning to ravel.

monica: I would rather make lemonade than make HTML. Good idea!

Rick said...

Wanted to wait a day before commenting on the new look. Not to go all geeky on ya, but it's broken in a couple of places and doesn't show up in the Firefox browser at all. I might be able to unravel it if you want.

Leesa said...

rick: thanks for the head's up. I fixed my HTML. Not sure how, but I fixed it.

Rick said...

No problem. Internet Explorer is very forgiving on HTML errors (I should know, I was there). Firefox is not. But Firefox lets me browse with RSS, so I only open the blogs that have a new post. Microsoft won the war, but lost the edge.