Posted in Computers & Internet, Site | Tags: Web Design, WP, | Archive | 7 Comments »

I hate how many Wordpress plugins contains invalid code. It’s probably valid if you use the Transitional Doctype but I use Strict and therefore have to change these codes. The problem is that the plugins are written with code far more advanced than anything I can do so it can be quite a hassle to figure out what I can change and delete without messing up the entire plugin.

I’m kind of obsessed with having my entire site validate correctly but why shouldn’t I be? Valid code is like correct spelling. Sure you can read a text that’s badly spelled but it’s probably harder to understand. It’s the same with browsers. Sure they can display invalid code but often it looks kinda funny and not at all how you intended it to look.

What I hate even more than invalid code is code that’s valid but works differently in different browsers. This layout should work fine in all browsers besides maybe the most unusual ones but I think that has more to do with those browsers not being that good than my code. Still, it’s annoying. I remember back in the days when you coded for one browser and put up a disclaimer stating which browser (and resolution) your site should be viewed in. Not very user friendly, but still, easy.

It’s interesting to think about how coding has evolved in the past ten years. When I built my first web page back in 1999 I coded in HTML and didn’t use any CSS whatsoever. My first site was basically two frames. One with a text link menu and one main window for the content. The menu frame had a black and white background with tree branches (a photo I scanned) and the main frame was black. It didn’t look too bad considering what many other sites back then looked like. I’m proud to say that Whirlwind never have contained ugly clipart, dolls or annoying moving GIF images. Besides my celebrity blend phase I’ve always kept it pretty simple, not using too many colours or too much graphics.

I wish I still had my first layout saved but every layout I made up until 2001 were lost years ago. There wasn’t that many of them but still, it would have been cool to be able to look at them.

When did you start web designing and what did your first layout look like?

Plugs: Marie Claire, Lady, Kristen, adastra, Rose, Dee, Malin

Posted in Site, Yada Yada | Tags: School, | Archive | 8 Comments »

And then it hit me. For the first time in a long time I’m actually doing what I really want to do. Not just for the day, not just for a weekend but with my life. I’m doing something with my life that I truly want to do. When I really think about, actually for the first time.

You see high school doesn’t count, because even though here in Sweden you choose a major most of the courses you take are mandatory ones you haven’t chosen yourself and can’t get out of. The jobs I’ve had doesn’t count either since sure they’ve been all right but not what I want to spend my life doing. I want to work as a web designer and now I’m studying web design, moving towards that goal. For the first time in my life I’m actually doing exactly what I want to do. And it makes me feel oddly at ease. Right now I can ignore the fact that I hate the town I live in. I can ignore problems in my life. Because at least one piece has fallen into place. I’m moving forward and I’m kind of happy.

Uni is going well so far but I’m expecting it to get harder. So far I’m doing nothing but reading in my Flash Animation class and the first assignment in the CSS class is so easy it’s not even funny. Right now I fear that class will only involve things I already know. If that’s the case I guess it’s not too bad anyway. I’ll get a good grade and having studied this class I’ll be able to get into a more advanced one next semester. I reckon I continue with my studies this fall and right now I’m even considering studying through the summer as well. That will insure I have a income between June and August and I do need a income. If you live with your parents not having money for three months might not be fun but you can manage, living alone and not in a dorm though it’s absolutely necessary to have a income every month. I guess I could get financial aid of some kind during the summer but why not just keep studying? Besides that one maths class in 2008 I haven’t studied for eight years so I don’t think I’ll run out of motivation for a while.

Moving on, from a serious subject to a not so serious one.

Just looked at my little “to do list” for my site. I don’t think anyone but me understand much of it. And if you don’t speak Swedish you understand even less of it since I mix Swedish and English. It easily happens when it comes to site related matters since after all, my site is in English and so is all code but Swedish is still my first language. Just look at this confusing little list. Even I have trouble remembering what all this means when I haven’t looked at it for a while.

twitter time link
linkimages shadow
tags osv underrubrik
image background shadow
image address /
80×15 banner pink
whirlwindarchive swe ww
galleries divs i wp?
sidan hoppar vad göra?
bakgrundsfärg playlists + 1px för mkt top
copyright inte x2
searchbar

Anyway, this is the current list of things I need to fix on Whirlwind. Everything from looking into whether there is a way to use div tags within a Wordpress page (and with the help of div tags set up the gallery) to making another banner. I always have at least three things on my site related to do list. Whirlwind will never be “done”. There’s always something to fix, things to do better. Sometimes that bothers me but I know always striving to do better really is a good thing.

Plugs: Malin, Grace, maria, Lady, Cara, Daniella, Ravencroft

Posted in Site | Tags: Web Design, | Archive | 17 Comments »

New layout! Yay, yay, yay! I call it “All Bats Are Grey”. If you know of The Cure you’ll probably get it.

I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent working on this one but somewhere between Friday and Saturday I stayed awake for 36 hours, coding non-stop. It was all worth it in the end, of course, because here it is and I love it!

I noticed something when I upgraded Wordpress. I’ve always uploaded my photos into www.whirlwind.nu/images but now even though I haven’t changed the image code the photos won’t show! If I use use the full adress img src=”http://www.whirlwind.nu/images/pic.jpg” it works but not if I use img src=”images/pic.jpg” like I’ve always done. What is this? Why is this? Is it because they want you to use the Wordpress media manager update thingy or whatever it’s called? Well I won’t because I’m old fashioned when it comes to coding. I upload by FTP! I wish Wordpress wasn’t so automatized. I want to make changes in the layout by coding, not by changing settings in the admin panel. Like I said, old fashioned. It’s just the way I’ve always done things.

The gallery isn’t up yet. This is because I made major changes in the coding. The only part of my site ran by Wordpress used to be the blog section. All other sections (she, site, gallery, www) were my own code. I preferred it that way but making first one layout for Wordpress and then another one looking exactly the same down to the smallest pixel, while it was structured in a totally different code, was a real pain. You really couldn’t tell it was always two layouts and I’m proud of that. Enough is enough though. It’s just too much work. First making two layouts and then making sure those two works in five different browsers (I test in Opera, FF, IE, Safari and Chrome). So, now my entire site is ran by Wordpress. Not the way I prefer it but I just can’t be bothered with all that extra work any more. Now I need to figure out a way to structure my gallery. I don’t think the way I coded it works in Wordpress, with using pages and all. Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

So, what do you think? See any errors? Let me know if something isn’t working like it should. Thank you!

Plugs: clarity, Maria, Angie, Malin, Marie Claire, Aly, Alice, Ravencroft, Jessica, Joebs, Nikkole, Pim, Kristine, Kristen, Zanna, Deanna

Posted in Site, Yada Yada | Tags: Looks, Online Exchange, Web Design, | Archive | 26 Comments »

You know what’s about the fugliest make-up faux pas there is? When people use foundation/powder/whatever in a colour different from their skin but only apply it to their face without blending it down the neck. Some use a darker shade than their skin to look tanned while alternative kids use a chalk white colour to look pale. I don’t know which is worse. Probably the chalk white actually since the difference between the face and skin tends to be so extreme when white make-up is used. Even if you apply it to your neck no one is that pale and it will look unnatural. Dita Von Teese the queen of pale may have a fair complexion but not even she is chalk white. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve also done this mistake back in high school. Now many years later I can honestly say that it’s one of the worst make-up crimes I’ve ever done myself guilty of.

What do you think is the fugliest make-up faux-pas and what’s the worst make-up mistake you’ve done?

Oh and by the way I got a comment about the layout saying that the menu is off and the www link button is located under the start link button. For me the menu looks good in Opera, IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome but maybe it doesn’t work correctly in a different version of one of those browsers. I dont know. Could be the hack I used to make the layout look exactly like I wanted it to in Opera, Safari and Chrome. Different browsers, different standards you know. If the menu is off in your browser please let me know.

Oh and this is the last chance to exchange Christmas cards with me! I’m buying the cards tomorrow so if you’re interested in this e-mail me at quende[at]spray.se today.

Plugs: Deanna, Angie, Daniella, Kristine, Bella Rose, Rose, maria, Kristen, Milla, tiff k, taryn, Emily, Rachel-Rebecka, Ria, Jeniffer, Samantha, Julie, Vashael, Alyssa, kitty, Shaina, Aly, Sean, Nicki, Mallory, Stef

Posted in Site | Tags: Web Design, | Archive | 15 Comments »

Et voila! The new layout is up. Let me know what you think!

Plugs: Rachel-Rebecka, Ashley, Kristine, maria, Angie, Mallory, Jessica, Marie Claire, Ravencroft, Beara, Ivy, Aly, Gel, adastra, Shaina

Posted in Site | Tags: Web Design, | Archive | 9 Comments »

This blend which I based the layout “La Vie Noir” on is my favourite out of all the blends I’ve made. I just love the feel of it. Very Film Noir and The Roaring 20s. Because of this blend La Vie Noir also is one of my favourite layouts. At least graphically. If I had made a layout based on this blend today I would have coded it differently. I still love it though and I really want to make something similar again. Similar but different, updated. More web 2.0 and less cluttered.

Click on image for bigger version.

Plugs: maria, Crash, Marie Claire, Alice, Maria, Alyssa, Kelsey, tiff k

Posted in Site | Tags: Web Design, | Archive | 6 Comments »

This weekend I’ve been working on a small project. Basically I was bored and felt like making another site. Not just another layout but another site. So, I decided to make a small resource site.

A while ago I removed the tutorials and graphics I’ve made since I didn’t think they fit in at Whirlwind which is a personal site. Now that stuff is back but now on a site of it’s own. Hopefully I’ll find the time to actually make something of my new little site. I really want to make some layouts for people to use. If I am to make a living out of web design some day I’ll need a portfolio.

Anyway, without further ado I give you Whirlwind Design

Plugs: maria, Kristen, Ashley, Shaina, Pauline, tiff k

Posted in Site | Tags: Languages, | Archive | 8 Comments »

Someone from France Googled “blog teenage 14 years nue” and ended up on my site. I guess nue is a combination of the French word nu which means naked and the English nude. The perv must have been very disappointed because there’s no 14 year old here and no nudity either. This tops my list of weird things people Google and end up on my site.

It’s a bit disturbing that nu actually means nude in French. I got a .nu address because nu means now in Swedish and my site at the time was all written in Swedish. I may have chosen something else if I at the time had known about the French meaning, or that I’d eventually change the language of the site. Now I’m stuck with this though because after four and a half years with this address I’m reluctant to changing it. I’m used to this address and so are the people who have been visiting me in the past years.

So yeah, please keep visiting Whirlwind.NUDE

Now I wonder how many weird Google hits this blog post will give me, with all these references to nudity.

Plugs: Brian, maria, Marie Claire, Giza, kitty, Gel, Vivian, tiff k

Posted in Site, Yada Yada | Tags: Blogging, Looks, | Archive | 7 Comments »

I hate to say it but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll blog as much as I’ve done in the past few months from now on. First of all except for work absolutely nothing happens in my life. And I do mean nothing. In the past month I’ve partied with my friends twice and that’s really the only thing I’ve done outside work and alone time in my apartment. Second of all working every day is pretty tiering and I don’t have the energy to do much when I get home.

I will however do my very best to blog every day. I really want to do so. I have a list of blog topics but it’s getting smaller since I haven’t had any new ideas in a while.

I’ll leave you all with a question. What the fuck is up with guys wearing big diamond stud earrings? Why, why, why would a guy want to wear something like this? I think it looks tacky.

Plugs: kitty, Alyssa, Vashael, maria, Mallory, Fatima, tiff k

Posted in Site | | Archive | 11 Comments »

I’m thinking about removing the You-section with tutorials and graphics since none of it’s very good or original.

According to my visitor statistics that page is quite popular but I wonder if anyone actually use any of the content. It seems many check the page out but few actually read the tutorials. Have anything on that page been to any use for any of you?

Besides, this isn’t a resource site. Whirlwind is and always has been a personal site.

EDIT 13/9 1:17 AM: As you can see I decided to remove it. Whirlwind is now a couple of files smaller but I think this change was for the better.

Plugs: Nimil, Vashael, tiff k, Julie, sarahb, Bella, Angie, Ivy, Shar, Ria, Shiri