Teacup.

I’ve spent the last week or so coding line after line of…a new layout I’m working on. It’s quite ready for public viewing I think, but I do want to make sure it’s as bug-less as possible. Most drastic of changes though would be navigation links! To actual real pages! I know! What a shocker!

As I’m typing this post, I’ve upgraded to WP 3.1 and testing a few things out, most notably the Math Comment Spam Protection plug-in which just basically tests your ninja-1337 mathematical skills to make sure you’re not some spam bot trying to spam the database. It’s been seriously problematic since I started Teacup, has been problematic, is still problematic, will always be problematic for me in the near future as well… *has lost all hope*

EDIT:
MCSP is working! One of the most silliest error contributing to MCSP’s failing is the ” symbol. But this plug-in makes it inconvenient when upgrading WP automatically as I’ll have to edit the comment.php file directly. Blurgh.

I’ve been toying with the idea of releasing the upcoming theme and this current old-as theme for the public under the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License. I’m not too sure yet but I’ve got my reasons why but won’t ramble on about it until we have to cross that bridge.

In real life, I’m sure nearly everyone who doesn’t live under a rock has heard something of the Christchurch Earthquake which happened just last week. I don’t live anywhere near it but I have a relative that lives around there and they are safe. There was another earthquake last September, also in Christchurch but there were NO casualties as it happened in the early morning hours. This time, the quake happened during the LUNCH HOUR on a weekday so…casualties are expected.

If you know someone that lives in Christchurch, I hope they are safe and well.

The last few months I’ve been hopping, skipping and jumping around scouting for some inspiration for a new layout for Teacup and Playroom, my TCG post.

There were a few times that I was so close to finish when I just deleted everything because it just wasn’t meant to be. A few things I’ve noticed about my design…skills/fetish is that I’m a mega-huge fan of Courier New or monospace font types. I’m not too sure what about it that just screams “put me in your layout!” — I just do. In every single layout I’ve made, I can guarantee you that monospace font types were included somewhere, be it the in-your-face header, or sneaky-and-subtle links.

I can’t guarantee that the next layout will not have monospace font types…but…I just feel a bit weird that I can’t deviate from that. It’s like…I’ve lost my flexibility, the feeling that I can’t give a different font type a chance to shine. I can almost say that I rely on the monospace font types to set the tone of the layout. Which is freaky.

Well, we’ll see how my next layout comes along. I don’t mind if it doesn’t have monospace font types. I just need it to look…like it belongs to where it is, and relates to what the content is. Maybe that’s hoping for too much at this stage.

On a similar note, I was looking for a micro-blogging software that was similar to Twitter, but without the social network component. Which led me to the P2 theme for WordPress. I don’t want to gush on and on about it, but I have to. It is sheer genius work! I think this theme highlights how flexible WP is that you can have it like a micro-blog, or a heavy CMS, or a photo gallery…or whatever you want it to be!

No…nope, Teacup is staying as a blog. Micro-blog for a side project. Put your fear to rest, my minions…

I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 3.0 and it takes some getting used to what with the very light gray of the whole administration layout scheme in comparison to the previous darker colored scheme. I actually wish that dark-colored scheme had stayed. Or at least give me an option to choose it…

It’s been about two and half weeks since first trimester ended and I still haven’t sat my first exam. It really is a drag when ¾ of the student population have finished all their exams, and then there’s me who hasn’t even sat one yet. Well, my first one is this coming Friday. I’m going to fail that one. I know it. Fuck.

The next and last(!) exam will be Chemistry on the coming Tuesday. I’m…unsure about that one. I’ve told everyone, and myself, a million times that I intend to just pass that paper. I hate Chemistry but it’s required, so I’m just going to pass it. I’ll be glad if I actually pass it though…

The Saturday straight after my last exam, I’ll be going on a little vacation with two of my friends for four days. It’ll be interesting, me thinks. Not stating where I’m going cause I’m paranoid about my privacy but I’ve never been to this city, hell, I’ve never been to 95% of this whole country (New Zealand). I’ve told my friends that it’ll be a first for me to visit this city, so excited!

I’ve been planning a Teacup 2.0 for the past few months now but I haven’t been happy with where the design ended up. I must have thrashed at least three designs. And I don’t know if other people follow this rule (highly unlikely), any designs that I thrashed are archived. Never to be used. Ever. Again. It feels…dirty to recycle layouts.