Monthly Archives: October 2012

My Handwriting Has Got Worse As I’ve Got Older

I mostly hand write these blog posts initially. I think there was a time when my handwriting was neat, perhaps in school, but not now. From a distance it looks OK; fairly small, consistent in size and mostly in straight lines on plain paper. But up close it’s messy. It’s not properly joined up, although some letters flow into each other a bit. The main problem is letter definition. This deteriorates the faster I try and go. If I try really hard to slow down and pay attention, I can usually get the letters to come out OK. There is some pleasure to be gained in slowing right down and really making an effort, but it’s also very frustrating. Usually I have got a whole load of ideas I’m trying to get down on paper as quickly as possible, and going slowly doesn’t feel right. Continue reading

Web Design Templates and the Purist

While I’m reasonably skilled at working with HTML and CSS code, I’m a hopeless graphic designer. I have tried to make nice looking websites in the past, but they always end up looking ugly. My attempts at minimalism come out boring, and my attempts at exciting look busy and confusing. And besides, I’d rather work on code than design anyway.

So I make use of the many available web templates from sites like ThemeForest. These always look amazing in their demos on the site, and I can usually find something that suits whatever project I’m working on. But it’s not quite so simple when I come to work with these templates for my site. Continue reading