Site Makeover

It’s the 7 month anniversary of xvzx.net and some changes are in place. I’ve relied on free templates, themes, web apps, etc for most of my designing work and will continue to do so for conforming to my belief in the open source universe. There are times, however, when I want to break free from convention and have to pay for certain luxuries.

So there are a few changes that I foresee in the near future on xvzx.net

1). The default theme of my blog has changed from a transient K2 (20 days) to the more steady and aesthetic Misty Look (6 months) since its inception. I must say that Sadish Bala has really done a good job at designing Misty Look and making it available free of cost to all.

Over time, with addition of new plug ins and widgets, the sidebar was getting too cluttered with users (and me alike) had to browse almost to the bottom of the page to get some info. I was looking for a 3 column theme but none satisfied my interest but finally I made a request to sadish to make a custom 3 column theme and he gladly obligedSo within the next few days Scribble pad is gonna have a new look with the premium theme “ZipZag 3”

2). Initially, I created a domain xvzx.net and built upon my blog and gallery on different sub domains for ease of administration. Now, with the creation of another subdomain http://temple.xvzx.net (An unofficial discussion forum for Indians at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA), things have been a little rough lately.

I hardly get time to update my main site - which was last updated on 28th Jan 2007. Many links on the site are broken (partly because I’ve moved a few folders here and there and never got the time to verify all the links - esp on all the 7-8 static pages). Moreover I find that I spend most of my time updating my blog and actually never check out the main site for any reasons. It seems like its just lying there neglected.

I plan to implement some dynamic content on the parent site to at least display some of my recent blog posts, maybe add a guest book, etc. Someday I might actually integrate all the subdomains into one common CMS. I’m experimenting with drupal ATM.

The gallery has not been updated for quite some time now partly because I want to update to a new version 2.2 but do not have shell access (need to pay extra 10$ per year) to overwrite the necessary files. Other reason being that I have my hands full from my preps to go to USA. So never actually get the time to upload individual pics, add captions/descriptions, etc. I have taken almost 200 pics since the last update which I want to share with all of you but that will have to wait till at least mid-sept when I’ll be well settled in Philadelphia and would have the necessary time and bandwidth to upload files.

Let’s see how many of these foresights actually materialize. I’ll most probably purchase a new theme tomorrow for the blog. The rest of the stuff will have to wait till 2-3 months from now. More posts to follow