Mayhem-Online

Archive for May, 2008

Wow that’s a bit of a mouthful for a title!

So let’s go in order of what’s in the title. Obviously I decided to change the theme for the site. Now its really dark! But its cool, a fairly simple design and its a change which was what I was looking for. The little avatars don’t work on the front page of the site, but they’re still there – though I think I need to draw a new one lol.

Web Styles – this was aimed at re-reinvigorating one of my websites ReBoot Mayhem. It looks okay, but its a hell of a thing to update, I don’t have all the time in the world to sit down and re-create new pages for every update or new page added. I’d rather have something more simplistic to use, like a CMS. Unfortunately finding one that suited my needs was a harrowing effort in itself. I did try installing Joomla! to begin with but the darn thing wouldn’t load on the server. So I tried WordPress, which I currently run here (obviously) and on my Animay website. It’s really easy to run, even easier to update, has a lot of great features… so it would seem ideal right? Wrong. I don’t want my site to look like a blog because its a fan site, NOT a blog. The only good thing about the blog is the ability to use it like a news-update type of posting, but then if I wanted that I could just re-use Cute-News, which was what I used before. But then you’re back to coding and creating html pages yada yada yada, I don’t have the time for all of that so I looked around for some templates that could turn WordPress into more of a website than a blog.

Most templates and themes I’ve seen are built on the basis that you’re using WordPress as a blog, so it seemed my search was futile. Then there are the premium themes – ones that cost you money but are still a heck of a lot cheaper than getting a designer to code one for you personally. But again, the bulk of these premium themes don’t make your site look like a blog or a website – instead they turn it into an online magazine. I don’t want that either!

I then decided to try another CMS – Drupal (I’ve posted of this before I think). Drupal works well too but again, the styles I’ve seen around the place turn it into a blog or there’s little way of making it seem like a website with a lack of imagery etc. Of course you can always do it yourself, but again, I don’t have the time yada yada…

I then discovered, only yesterday mind you, of a theme that used WordPress and looked and worked exactly the way I wanted it to. It was called WP-Remix. There were all these built in styles and templates and features, it was amazing! The demo showed them all off and I was really impressed. It was a premium theme but it was actually about $20USD cheaper than most of those themes so I was definitely interested… until I saw the reviews and comments from various people who had bought the theme. Thank GOD for that! The feedback from people are that they are adamant that you should not buy this theme. The templates need to be coded in order to work, they don’t work through the WordPress interface. The owner/creator says he tried a plugin but it didn’t work so he took it out and yet the theme is still not fixed. Now look, there could be some people out there who genuinely find it a great new tool, but if its still only going to make the site look like a blog in the end, then its money wasted for me.

So now what do I do? I honestly had no idea. There were stll no templates out there for WordPress that made it look like a website, and I don’t have the money to pay someone to create a template/theme to turn it into a website, let alone the time to do it myself. However, all was not yet lost. I decided to try and see if I could install Joomla! yet again. The reason I was pushing myself to try again was because of a number of templates that I’d seen that were absolutely ideal for the ‘new and improved’ website. So today I spent probably half the day uploading the hundreds of files (it seems like hundreds) to the server. I’d already created a temporary database etc, and I was using one of my offline sites as the test site (which I’m also using to test themes for WordPress, Drupal, Coppermine etc very handy!) Then the installation process began and I had my fingers crossed the entire time. By 9pm, I had a working Joomla! test site…. woohoo!!! Of course, before I even THINK of doing anything else like creating the new website using the new program, I need to test it out completely and make sure it really is the program for me before I go any further with it. I’m really hoping it will be what I need, it definitely looks more like a website than WordPress.

And just to add, I love WordPress, absolutely love it, but its just not the program I need to run ReBoot Mayhem.

Okay now the third note listed above is “Head Colds” and currently I have one. A couple of weeks ago I had the jab – the flu injection – which we get through work if they remember to organise it. Last time I had the jab, I got sick though it was more of a side effect than the actual flu. It is supposed to take about 2 weeks before the stuff kicks into your system and so far I was doing okay. However at the beginning of the week I could feel a cold coming on. I didn’t do a lot about it, just upped the vitamins and orange juice a bit, but by Thursday I was feeling pretty miserable. Didn’t have a lot of money but ended up getting some ‘herbal’ tablets to help with the cold (“Ease A Cold” Cold Relief Day/Night tablets) though in comparison to real cold/flu tablets, I think they’re more like a placebo to make you think you’re feeling better lol. But I’ve been taking hot lemon/honey drinks, Vicks Vapordrop lollies and drinking plenty of water to try and stop it from getting out of control.

And tonight? I feel like shit. I feel worse than before, and yet I’m not sniffling, I’ve got a slightly itchy throat and I’m not too feverish though I am feeling a bit warm. My thoughts are that its anti-work syndrome lol. I took last Friday off to extend the weekend in order to get over the cold, and yet just thinking about returning to work is probably making it seem worse lol. Hopefully that’s all it is but I’ll continue trying to do everything so that it doesn’t get worse. Here’s also hoping that its just the flu-jab that’s kicking in that’s making me feel this way.

And so, onto more PC Woes. I have the speakers switched on but I’ve turned the fader down to 0. Why? Because the speakers are crackling all the time. It’s a real nuisance, and recently the speaker window appeared on the screen after the crackling got worse and then stopped! The speaker window only appears if you pull out or put in the plugs to the speakers in the back of the PC so it was weird when it popped up by itself. I’ve unplugged and re-plugged the speakers in but still the same crackling noise. It managed to be quiet for just a moment, long enough for me to listen to some Lucifer tracks before it got worse again. I couldn’t even watch my anime episodes ;_;

Remember when I posted about the PC not able to find my other DVD-Rom drive? Well I was trying to find some stuff on some of my DVDs and when I put one into my DVD-Burner, the burner wouldn’t read it. Frustrated, I decided to open up the PC and check the plugs for my DVD-Rom (which can read even the most scratched of DVDs). I also fixed up the floppy disk drive which I hadn’t inserted back into its little hold correctly (it wasn’t sitting forward far enough). Closed it up, started the computer and PRESTO! the DVD-Rom was born again! Until Friday that is. Last Friday I turned on the computer and once again, it couldn’t find the DVD drive. The burner is still there which is good but I really can’t put up with this anymore. However, I can’t afford a new machine either ;_;

Oh and remember that whole salary packaging thing I wrote about in the previous post? GONE. I waited too frigging long to decide and now the offer is gone. Stupid Rudd and his stupid budget >:( So now I have to stick with this machine until I can save enough money to buy a new one. And saving is a completely different story which I’ll write about another time…

Regardless of the upgrades I received a few months ago, the computer is still struggling. I was trying to play Sims 2 and it completely crashed the system. Now usually what happens is the screen goes blue and the mouse turns into the hourglass so you know the system is doing something. That’s what used to happen when I had graphic problems (sometimes it’d clear itself, but then it would do it again and then nothing would happen you’d be stuck with that screen). Now, however, the screen turns off. Yes that’s right my monitor suddenly says “No signal received” and it switches off. You can play around with whatever on the system, or you can try unplugging the monitor and re-plugging it into the system and still the message “No signal received” appears and it switches itself to standby. What’s worse is that I can’t reset the system. The reset button no longer works. Actually it hasn’t worked since I got it back from the workshop – along with a number of other things that don’t work. I have about 6 (or it might even be 7) USB ports, but 3 of them don’t work now; the jack for the headphone that sits on top of my machine causes the headphones to heat up till they are almost burning your ears off, and at first I thought it was the headphones but it wasn’t as they worked perfectly fine with any other equipment.

So I had to power down… only after I powered down, it wouldn’t switch on again. In fact it didn’t want to do anything. I opened up the front of the machine (it opens up on the front separately from the side) and discovered my new dilemma… the power button had dropped out of its hole -_-;; So I had to open the entire machine up, move the hard drive and the floppy drive out of the way and try and stick the tiny little bugger back in its place. After much fiddling for an hour, I finally managed to get it back into its spot, put everything back the way it was and sealed it all up. I then switched it on and… well everything was fine, the hard drive was fine which was the important thing, but now the DVDRom drive doesn’t work – the computer doesn’t even know its there! Luckily its not my burner, that is still recognised and it works so either my DVDRom drive has crashed, or when I was putting the wires back I may have accidentally pulled its connectors out (though I don’t see how since they’re ‘miles’ apart… >_>

Anyway things are okay for now, I’ve just uninstalled all of the Sims2 games that I had and will have to just remember what it was like to once play that game :\ However, there is an option that has come before me in the way of salary packaging. There was a little pamphlet in my payslip last week all about salary packaging for a laptop. Its actually a pretty good offer – basically you pick out the laptop you want, then the price is deducted from your pay and this is done over a period of time that you select. Its similar to taking out a loan but you don’t have to pay any interest. The good points are that you don’t have to pay for the laptop up front, and you pay tax on a lesser amount. The bad point is the reduction in pay lol, though if its what I think it is, it won’t be all that bad.

I still have to think about it though. I’ve not heard anything bad about it, though most people who use the salary packaging option are usually earning more money than me!