Categories
internets web design

moved site again, updated some things

So i spent a year on Nixihost. They were cheap, but their technical support was hell. I kept getting the same guy and he was kind of an unhelpful dick. Plus they don’t support Cloudflare for some dumbass reason? Wtf? Thankfully, Cloudflare themselves have made things a bit easier anyway, so when i moved to Namecrane it went a lot smoother. They’re dirt cheap. I need dirt cheap. Things are tight. For reasons.

Anyway, i also decided to update the home page, since my list of self-links was growing as i adopt less toxic social media channels like Mastodon and Bluesky and i wanted to include all the places where i currently have a presence to any degree. So now the links appear in columns: 1 for pocket-sized screens, 2 for bigger small screens, and 3 for everything larger than that. I used the quick-and-dirty approach of using column-count: 2 rather than using flexbox, which limits directionality, but is quicker and easier and doesn’t require any real thinking to speak of.

I also changed the way links are styled. This was because i was experimenting with NeoCities and liked the way the links turned out.

a {
text-decoration: none;
border-bottom: 2px solid;
}
a:link, a:visited {
border-image:
linear-gradient(
to right,
#d60270,
#9b4f96,
#0038a8
) 1;
}
a:hover, a:focus, a:active {
border-image:
linear-gradient(
to right,
#5bcffb,
#f5abb9,
#fff,
#f5abb9,
#5bcffb
) 1;
}

This way, links by default (currently) have a gradient like the bisexual pride flag colors, while in a hover state it changes to a transgender flag color scheme. I also used :not to de-target other types of links like the site logo, etc.

Lastly, i updated the microblog feed to use both Mastodon and Bluesky, since that other site went to absolute shit. (Fuck billionaires and their fascist, bigoted ideologies.)

Categories
creative uncategorized web design

new wp-theme preview: “transitory”

I’ve been hard at work the past couple of weeks on a new WordPress theme i’m calling “transitory.” It’s not as cool of a name as Big Urgent Wish, but i tried it on and it stuck.

My goal with this theme was to have a much, much cleaner page, without too much extraneous information clogging up eyeballs. Here is how i’ve decided it will eventually be layed out:

"transitory" Layout
"transitory" layout (click to enlarge)

Note that the colors are arbitrary in the above layout and will change. 

And now here is a screenshot of it in action. Note the final layout has not yet been 100% applied. Also note the cool city background, which is blacked out underneath content boxes. Trust me, it looks much cooler than this. The menu to the side is being rewritten with jQuery, and will fold out when needed, and collapse when not needed.

transitory screenshot
"transitory" screenshot (click to enlarge)

At a guess, i’d have to say that it should be completed in about another week or two. So… a month, maybe? I dunno. You’ll see it soon enough.

All comments (good or bad) welcome!

Categories
uncategorized

new wp-theme preview: “transitory”

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been hard at work the past couple of weeks on a new WordPress theme i’m calling “transitory.” It’s not as cool of a name as Big Urgent Wish, but i tried it on and it stuck.

My goal with this theme was to have a much, much cleaner page, without too much extraneous information clogging up eyeballs. Here is how i’ve decided it will eventually be layed out:

"transitory" Layout

"transitory" layout (click to enlarge)

Note that the colors are arbitrary in the above layout and will change.

And now here is a screenshot of it in action. Note the final layout has not yet been 100% applied. Also note the cool city background, which is blacked out underneath content boxes. Trust me, it looks much cooler than this. The menu to the side is being rewritten with jQuery, and will fold out when needed, and collapse when not needed.

transitory screenshot

"transitory" screenshot (click to enlarge)

At a guess, i’d have to say that it should be completed in about another week or two. So… a month, maybe? I dunno. You’ll see it soon enough.

All comments (good or bad) welcome!

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

CSS tricks: Styling parent elements with :hover

[EDIT: this site no longer supports the features described in this article. Sorry.]

You may have noticed in my sidebar that there are a few elements which are nested in an obvious hierarchical order. For example, at the time of this writing, i have a list of books which i am either reading, planning to read, or have already read, listed under the “now reading” heading.

You may also have noticed that the heading for each of these menu items is highlighted whenever you hover your cursor (pointer) over it.

What you may not have noticed is that the headings for these items’ parent elements is also highlighted when its descendant is hovered over. In other words, when you hover over the “planned books,” “current books,” or “recent books” list, the parent element, “now reading,” is highlighted as well.

(If you’re still not sure just what the hell i’m talking about, check out the demo first, and then come back.)

This is a cool trick that you rarely ever see on the internets, and it’s remarkably simple to do. You don’t need no fancy JavaScripting to do it, either! No server- or client-side scripts are used at all, just good old CSS, and a properly nested hierarchy of elements.

Categories
uncategorized

CSS tricks: Styling parent elements with :hover

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

[EDIT: this site no longer supports the features described in this article. Sorry.]

You may have noticed in my sidebar that there are a few elements which are nested in an obvious hierarchical order. For example, at the time of this writing, i have a list of books which i am either reading, planning to read, or have already read, listed under the “now reading” heading.

You may also have noticed that the heading for each of these menu items is highlighted whenever you hover your cursor (pointer) over it.

What you may not have noticed is that the headings for these items’ parent elements is also highlighted when its descendant is hovered over. In other words, when you hover over the “planned books,” “current books,” or “recent books” list, the parent element, “now reading,” is highlighted as well.

(If you’re still not sure just what the hell i’m talking about, check out the demo first, and then come back.)

This is a cool trick that you rarely ever see on the internets, and it’s remarkably simple to do. You don’t need no fancy JavaScripting to do it, either! No server- or client-side scripts are used at all, just good old CSS, and a properly nested hierarchy of elements.

First, create a nested list, with headings. For example:

<ol>
<li>
<h1>text</h1>
<h2>more text</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<h3>subtext1</h3>
</li>
<li>
<h3>subtext2</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<h4>subtext2.1</h4>
</li>
<li>
<h4>subtext2.2</h4>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<h3>subtext</h3>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<h2>text again</h2>
</li>
</ol>

Now create the following style rules:

li:hover>h2, /* matches the H2 element when its parent list-item is hovered over */ li:hover>h3, li:hover>h4, li:hover>h5
{
background: #000;
color: #fed;
}

(Note that the H1 element is not styled and thus does not actually participate in any fancy hover effects.)

Now save your page and test it out. You can adapt this technique to work with just about any set of nested elements. (Just make sure your nest validates!)

See the demo

Categories
web design

Coming up, a redesign

I’m gearing up for a redesign. Sometimes too many bells and whistles is a bad, bad thing. I’m going simple and clean next.

I expect to base it off of the current theme, just because i already hacked it up for the style switcher. This time, no extraneous code. This time, things will be clean. My plan is to AJAXify the sidebars so all the other crap is still there, just not there all the time. Go figure – JavaScript wound up becoming useful for something after all!

Suggestions welcome, as always.web

Categories
uncategorized

Coming up, a redesign

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m gearing up for a redesign. Sometimes too many bells and whistles is a bad, bad thing. I’m going simple and clean next.

I expect to base it off of the current theme, just because i already hacked it up for the style switcher. This time, no extraneous code. This time, things will be clean. My plan is to AJAXify the sidebars so all the other crap is still there, just not there all the time. Go figure – JavaScript wound up becoming useful for something after all!

Suggestions welcome, as always.web

Categories
uncategorized web design

hello, again

Thanks to ScareCrowe @ htmlforums.com, i finally got my theme working. Mostly.

I know it still looks like crap on IE. That will be fixed. And none of my plugins are enabled or updated yet.

I still have plans on releasing this theme into the wild, but i have a ways to go before it is up to snuff. Some of the backend is still kind of messy.

Btw, over at technothrope i plan on doing a tutorial on upgrading WordPress for people who are very far behind.

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

back to the drawing board!

I’m working on a project for a friend right now involving WordPress, which has got me excited enough to go ahead and overhaul this site once again.

So i will FINALLY be upgrading my WP installation and fixing my ACTUAL theme once and for all! I hope to have this completed by the end of the summer.

I promise to make it a whole lot cleaner, too, in layout if not in language.

That is all.

Categories
family internets life uncategorized web design work

absent? i have been absent?

I have been absent for a few months, due to a huge variety of reasons. I’ve been having system issues. Some of these issues are ongoing and may eventually require me to reinstall my OS. Some have been resolved with new hardware and some vigorous kicking.

I’ve also quit my job and have been taking time to myself, to play and think and forget about the increasingly troubling world outside my immediate environment and all the long hours of often emotionally demanding work*. You could call it a complete mental breakdown if you want. I would not stop you. I was having a hard time getting anything done and was feeling very overwhelmed. I still have a hard time and am feeling overwhelmed, but i’m also learning to live forwardly, if that makes any sense, and to commit to fewer obligations so that i can focus more and not spread myself so thin. Another thing was that, after my grandfather’s death, i almost immediately jumped back into the mandatory 50-hour work weeks. I do not think that was the healthy thing to do. I should have argued for a leave of absence, or just quit then. I recently found myself re-grieving, and it was not fun.

Anyhow, all this boils down to the announcement that i will soon be overhauling this site yet again. This time, it will not be a radical overhaul, just an update of the back-end, and some cleaning up of the bloated CSS.

In other news, i have also recently begun to quit smoking. It is going surprisingly well, and i am down to just a few hand-rolled cigarettes a day.

On a completely separate note:
XBox 360 gamertag: transmothra

Lastly, my car is making weird klonking noises, so if i die tomorrow, please make sure my funeral and headstone are hilarious and completely lacking in both taste and respect.

*The next time you curse out or yell at a customer service person, remember that they are not paid particularly well to listen to people like you for eight to ten very long hours every workday of their miserable lives. Be calm, speak clearly, and don’t expect more than is fair to all parties, and things will get worked out.

Categories
internets uncategorized web design

IE6 users

I am aware of a problem with viewing this site through the narrow and unrefined lens of IE6. I have a fix for it in mind and will implement it as soon as we are done moving and settled in.

For now, why not get the juicy taste of the Twenty First Century in your mouth with a shiny new web browser? They’re Box Modelicious!

Firefox | Opera | IE7 | Safari

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Tweak Test

Look out for my B.U.T.T.! I’ve just finished uploading some tweaks to make the Big Urgent Wish theme a little nicer. Please, as always, wear your helmets, and let me know if anything falls on your head. I could always use a good laugh.

I hope to have a sanitized version available soon.

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Garbage Hunt

The B.U.G. hunt is on! See if you can find all the problems with my new layoutI’ve already identified the ugly 3rd-tier dropdown menu thing on the navbar at the top, but I haven’t had much time yet to test everything out. fixed Later tonight I’ll tweak it and try to get it to behave itself a little better. Please post your comments here (be sure to include your OS/browser). And thanks!

(Things are bound to be a little on the messy side for a few days while I convert this thing over to the new theme.)

EDIT: Yikes! Single posts & pages are also totally unstyled! fixed

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Wish coming together

Big Urgent Wish 3.0 is nearing readiness! The third subtheme has been completed.

Done:

To do:

  • Set CSS as PHP so can sniff browser/platform and deliver either semi-transparent PNG or GIF format backgrounds as User Agent supports
  • Download, install and support additional plugins
  • Test for bugs
  • Figure out which additional files are needed outside the normal Themes folder
  • Make sure I’m conforming to WordPress standards as much as possible!
  • Upload to server, test more
  • Fresh install on fresh, live WordPress test installation
  • Fix any and all bugs!
  • Write installation notes
  • Create ZIP archive of necessary files
  • Upload and tell folks!

Additionally, I’ve decided that it’ll probably launch with just three subthemes, due to time constraints; however, more subthemes will be available later.

Screenshots:
Big Urgent Wish, subtheme threeBig Urgent Wish, subtheme twoBig Urgent Wish 3.0

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Wish 3.0

Haven’t been feeling 100%, so I’m working on making my own WordPress theme from scratch (though I’ll admit to scraping a little code from other themes). My current theme is called “Big Urgent Wish 2.0”, and it’s based on another theme, but i’ve decided to reuse the name and call it 3.0. This one will be a three column layout.

It’s coming along flamingly so far. It looks beautiful and has tons of really tasty hover effects. Works very well in Firefox, Opera, and IE. It’s a plush, spacey theme, with burnt oranges, ambery peaches, and velvety browns.

I’m also planning on having it support style switching, Widgets, and all of the plugins I currently use. AJAX is under consideration as well.

This will most likely end up being my first public WordPress theme.

Big Urgent Wish 3.0

Categories
internets media podcasts uncategorized web design

A note on web syndication

Syndication is a really cool way to not ever have to actually come here to know what’s going on at this site. Think of it as “set it and forget it” web surfing. Let me explain.

You can use a news reader or other application (such as web-based apps like My Yahoo!) to read content from this and other sites without having to actually go there. The advantage is that you can see what’s going on in the world around you without ever having the leave the application (or site) that you’re looking at. New articles are delivered to you (instead of the other way around), so you don’t ever have to remember to check in.

For instance, I’ve got my Thunderbird set up with a whole slew of news feeds. Instead of actually checking in with BoingBoing, Huffington Post, Ze Frank, and Pitchfork every day, I let them come to me. I get all of the content I want, delivered to me almost as if it were an e-mail.

You can find all sorts of applications out there that will read news feeds for you and put them all in one place for you to check out.

To add a feed, look for the icon, which may vary from site to site, or a link, usually saying something like “RSS”, “XML Feed”, or some suchlike. Copy the link and add it to your client application (follow their instructions).

You can get feed links for this site toward the bottom of the page, in the sidebar (under “syndicate”). There are links to add this site in a variety of ways.

Special tip: you can append “/feed/” to the end of the URL for any category or page on this site. For example, to keep track of updates on the “podcasts » songs” category, you would use: https://transmothra.com/category/podcasts/songs/feed/

Extra special tip: There’s also a comments feed at jeremyjarratt.com/comments/feed/

See also:

Categories
internets web design

Google Search

This just in: this site is totally the #1 search result on Google for “extinct dog breads

Victory is so sweet.

Categories
web design

alien sky

New color scheme available. To select, look for the little purple square at the top left of any page on this site.

Categories
creative web design

New look

Using Rob Ballou‘s Styleswitcher, the previous version of which i used on my last site, i’ve uploaded a new PHP-driven stylesheet-switching system. You can see on the left hand side that there are now options for the color scheme, the font size, and the font face (serif or sans-). I also changed the default from a black background to a white one to make it look a little less like a 13-year old Marilyn Manson fan with some design potential did it.

Not very friendly towards IE6-, but IE7 is around the corner, and you should be using a better browser anyway.

Categories
web design

site update

Cleaned up a little bit, tweaked out the CSS, and created some image galleries.