Tweaking Day

Today, it was a day of tweaking for me. I tried to change a lot of things about this blog and realised that small tweaks take a long time. So here I am – fatigued from clicking Ctrl-F5 (which refreshed the page overriding the cache) the whole day.

At the end of the day, these are the things which lingered on my mind:

1. Tweaking takes real long, but you need to do it once in a while. See at the changed look, isn’t it cleaner and refreshing?

2. Google ads (or any ads for that matter) create clutter, not money, for a small blog like mine. So, gone are all ads.

3. Go with one of the default blogger theme. You can tweak it to suit your style and needs. The freely available themes across Internet have so many blind-spots which you just can’t edit only because blind-spots are so many there. Plus, standard themes are a plus when you post content with a blog editor like Windows Live Writer (which is highly recommended). To read more about Live Writer, go to these excellent posts on Digital Inspiration.

4. Not copying, but you can model the design on some nicely-designed blog. I like cleaner interfaces with readable fonts. Google’s blogs were a natural choice for me. Except the image in header, Many things resemble Google’s blogs. See here and here.

5. You need to look in right places for answers and you need to use right tools. I used Firebug, SnagIt, Picnik, IrfanView, and this blog proved to be of great help, not to mention the uber-notepad for editing comparing the HTML’s.

6. This tweaking is worth it. Though there some things on which I still need to work, overall, I am happy about what I see.

Next, I will add the widgets which I use regularly. But that – some time later…

Most Popular James Bond - Sean Connery? Nah!

Who is the best bond ever? Is he Sean Connery? or Pierce Brosna? According to Blogpulse trendsearch, Daniel Craig beats earlier two bonds in last 6 months on mentions in blogs.

What I Didn't Do At BlogCamp.

BlogCamp.In the grand gala of intelligent and blogging minds ended in Chennai in 9th and 10th. Before going there, I had formulated some objectives for myself. Most important thing on my mind was 'whether this unconference is going to be neo-hippyism?' Informality, participation than speeches, 2 feet rule- it interested me to see if all this actually didn't mean Indiscipline (or Indiscipline 2.0!). Dear friends, though there were some issues relating to the chaos about sessions, it was through and through paisa vasool for a person like me who travelled there all the way from Pune. Many a persons tried and did beat their own drums there (e.g. I didn't understand why there was a session about SEM in Blogcamp? or Why Sulekha.com was propping up again and again on various occasions? I never heard about Ford or Yahoo except at right places- these were official sponsors.). There were also some people who walked in the hall like a police-man talking loudly and silencing some sane voices.

If this was the situation, then where did I get my payback? It was (unfortunate for an Unconference but-) on a cup of coffee. I got networked to a good number of people and relations with whom, I hope, will go beyond profession.

A session on podcasting by Kiruba, Ram and Kaushik and all those who attended it was the best. It just evolved. I am sure that the session chartered a totally unplanned path for these wonderful guys. A novice to writing a blog (not blogging!), I was immensely benefited from their tips on podcasting.

Other persons which interested me there were Amit Agarwal and Dina Mehta. It was a sad thing that I could not actually caught up with Amit. But hey there will always be the next BlogCamp.

I was a bit surprised at this social gathering about a curious phenomenon. The girls you know! Look at these girls- Dina and Neha-hogging the center-stage and active in each activity. I was wondering about my own observation that the girls today are more active and open and free, especially at such social gatherings. Is it just a feeling of mine? It may be the confidence oozing out from beauty the girls would always have. I wonder. I wanted to discuss this issue with Dina but except on blogging and gender issues, I didn't talked to her.

One more thing I wanted to hear about was somebody writing on Recipes. Personaly I would have loved to hear from some of these blogger cooks. But alas! None was there as per my knowledge.

All this and a visit to Mahabalipuram- I didn't do at BlogCamp.

BlogCamp!

The unconference,which I am waiting for eagerly is just 4 days away now. I am excited and eager to be in Chennai.
I registered for it and man! today the registrations are 'Sold Out'! I escaped by whiskers.
Now there is still issue of booking of Chennai bound train. Hope I could get one through our travel agent.
Main purpose there will be networking and finding answers to some questions.
Let's see how it goes.