I’m almost finished with my new theme (or shall I just call it a extremely updated version of my current theme). And before I will launch it, I would like to ask the visitors of my blog to give feedback, tips, comments on stuff for my website. I’m just wondering what items are missing on my blog? What items do you think are still missing?

A poll - Do you think I should have one?
Shoutbox - Do you miss my old shoutbox? Why?
Guestbook? I really don’t like guestbooks… They’re so… dull
Registering… Should I open up my blog for ‘anonymous’ visitors? Right now it’s register-only. And I kind of like it that way. But I know it’s keeping people from replying to my posts.
Sitemap? I doubt you’ll need one once my new theme has launched. But I might add one anyway.

I would like to hear your thoughts. You can also post your thoughts on this on Twitter (just reply a message to me).

I’m just posting a short note here to let you all know that the lack of updates here is mainly due to my activities (projects, yes). I currently have 8 websites I’m working on, so I’m kind of occupied until I have at least four of them online. Not to worry, I’m almost done with three of them.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date by adding me on Twitter. If you want to see my latest photos, I suggest you take a look at my DeviantArt or Flickr. And if you feel the need to stalk me some more, FriendFeed, Profilactic, Onaswarm and Soup show you most of my (social networking) online activity. Have fun with that

For the past two days, I have been developing and designing a new Wordpress theme for my co-worker and friend Alex. Alex is a frequent blogger. I figured he would be the first to get a new design for his site, since he blogs on a regular basis. Now, creating Wordpress themes isn’t something new for me. I’ve been making them for years now. But I haven’t used Widgets myself on my own blogs. Simply because the themes I created and used, are for me only. I used ‘old skool’ php snippets to put in the sidebar template files in my theme folder. That worked fine for me. Yes, for me. Now, my friend Alex would prefer a theme with widgets. I promised widgets in this new theme, for two reasons. I need to start creating themes that are widget compatible. And Alex is also already using widgets. The problem with widgets is really the heading. There isn’t any on default. I can style every widget, the text, its color, links and more. But since there isn’t any heading, I can’t style the heading I find this very odd. How can I use images in stead of text for the heading, if there isn’t heading in the first place? After stumbling upon this failure, I decided to go afk for a few hours. I went off and played MySims. I could use the relaxation. After I was done playing (4 hours of MySims), I went back to work on the theme again. In the end, I could only solve the problem by editing the widgets.php file in the wp-includes folder. But every time I upgrade Wordpress, I have to change that file again. What’s the harm in putting heading around titles on default? It would help a lot of designers, including myself.

Now, after I had solved this problem, I stumbled upon another issue. I am currently also redesigning my own portfolio. And I tried embedding the flash badge from Last.fm. Turns out you can’t make it any wider or smaller. For my own site, I tried making it wider. But the flash content just wouldn’t stretch. The badge itself was wide, but the songs stayed 184px. It seems the songs in the flash badge have an absolute width that can’t be changed.

The problem doesn’t end here. I tried embedding the same flash badge into Alex’s new theme. And I am really wondering why Last.fm won’t just offer html/javascript badges. You see, Alex’s sidebars are a tad too small. And no, that can’t be changed. It’s perfect for all other widgets. But not for Last.fm. The Last.fm flash badge can be made smaller. But it will just cut off some pixels. Items on the right of the badge disappear.

I really prefer non-flash widgets. But the only other badge Last.fm offers is an image that is generated every x minutes. I’d prefer a Javascript badge. Too bad they don’t have one.

I have been uploading photos (almost) every day to my dA (DeviantArt). I was inactive for about two years. We all know why. But I’m enjoying the activity again. I have made thousands of photos while in California. So you can imagine how many nice pictures I have that I want to share and publish on my portfolio/blog. I will continue to upload photos to my dA. Some of my latest can be seen here:

I’ve also started using Apophysis today. I am fairly tired, so I haven’t really taken the time to read and learn through tutorials and such. I just started playing around with the program and this was one of the things I created:

I know we just recently had the holidays. But I couldn’t help myself and made this free template with Sanrio characters (Hello Kitty, Chococat, Badtz-Maru, Cinnamoroll, Chibimaru, Chi Chai Monchan) in a winter setting. Better late than not at all. You can view the template below:

Click here to view all Sanrio Sets templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.

I created a free Deery Lou template yesterday. See below:

Click here to view all Deery Lou templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.

I created a free Cinnamoroll template yesterday. See below:

Click here to view all Cinnamoroll templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.

I also created a Badtz-Maru template in 2005. This one is available for download now. See below:

Click here to view all Badtz-Maru templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.

I’ve created some free Chococat templates, which you can download now. There are two free templates, both of which can be viewed below:

Click here to view all Chococat templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.

I’ve created some free Hello Kitty templates back in 2005. Now they’re available for download. There are five free templates, but you can view two of them below:

Click here to view all Hello Kitty templates, or click here if you want to view all free templates.