Proto-mastheads

While mulling over a blog site redesign (which I’m leaning more against, though tweaks are possible) I looked at some of the other images I had made to use as a possible masthead/header for the site.

And here they are!

Sims 3 masthead

This Sims 3 masthead I rejected because while it’s cute, it just looks odd visually with the breakaway walls of the house and it’s difficult to see who the other person being hugged is, which lessens the (allegedly) humorous nature of it.

I still like this one. It’s maybe too centered and it’s my partner, not me, strolling along through the woods. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just seems odd to feature someone else in the masthead of my own blog. Then again, I ain’t fishing in the one that’s up there now.

Barley is, like most chocolate labs, eminently photogenic. The biggest problem with this image is that I no longer live in the same house as Barley, so the picture isn’t strictly accurate anymore. But he’s so dang cute.

I’ll probably peruse the photos I have to see if anything stands out as a solid replacement for Buntzen Lake. I do really like that shot, I just wonder if sometimes some poor sod might stumble across my blog and expect some kind of nature thing instead of my rambling nonsense.

Web-based dopplegangers

As you may have cleverly guessed my real name is not Creole Ned, though I have been known to answer to Ned in person. I like having this one layer of separation online, where my real identity is not exactly hidden (it’s listed in the About section here) but not front and center, either. This is not to say that I write through a persona — Creole Ned is simply the online ID I use.

From time to time I have thought about going with a domain that uses my real name but it turns out they’re all taken. My last name is very common — James — and the first name (Stan) is not uncommon enough to not be hooked up with James online. I took a little stroll on the web and discovered that stanjames.com is, of all things, a gambling site. That’s kind of depressing (and it’s the reason I’m not providing a direct link to it). I don’t think I’ve ever gambled, apart from an occasional lottery ticket, which I view as more of a charitable donation than anything (I am always reminded of the old Lotto 6/49 slogan from back in the 90s. It was “Hey, you never know!” The long-defunct Doppler Superstore had a sign out front and after they became an authorized lotto dealer, they had the slogan up for awhile, except they got it slightly wrong. It read “Hey, you’ll never know!” It’s probably the best case of accidental truth in advertising I’ve seen). stanjames.net, stanjames.org and stanjames.info all redirect to stanjames.com. Man, that guy was thorough. stanjames.ca is also taken but in this case it’s “under construction”. I can only dream in anticipation over what wonders will be revealed there.

It turns out that most variations on stanleyjames are still available but I never use my full name, though if I did it might cut down on the whole “Stan the Man” thing or the “No, my name is not Dan” thing (I once had a roommate named Dan and occasionally carried on longish phone calls with people who actually wanted to talk to him and not me). I could also try a variation like stanwjames which is available (trivia: all three of my names can be re-arranged and still work; the middle name is William) but again, I just don’t have a compelling need to switch over.

So creolened.com it shall be for now and the undermined future. Go me!

UPDATE: It turns out this “Stan James” fellow is simply a composite name for a well-known UK bookmaker (Wikipedia link) and when I did a Google search of my name, the bookmaker monopolizes nearly all of the first 20 pages of results. I show up once on page 14 due to my Facebook account. I guess this is good if someone decides to “google” me before hiring me for some sort of job. Unless they think I’m a UK bookmaker and have a thing against them, of course.

I tweak because I can (site update)

I’ve made some changes to the site. Here they are. Woo.

  • a new theme: Blocks2
  • added jQuery Colorbox to the photo galleries (this makes the photos pop-up all pretty-like)
  • removed a bunch of links from the sidebar, moved some to the Books etc. page and re-ordered others
  • removed the Sections, uh, section. The Sections links are now only at the top of the page. Redundancy is redundant.
  • killed the ‘jogging’ tag as it is now its own category

The biggest change is the complete removal of all of my writing. I’ve decided to take a different approach for now and will only be making a few selections available on the site, though all of the writing exercises will be back, since they are freely viewable on the Martian Cartel forums. I haven’t modified the theme yet but will be tweaking the colors and perhaps adding a graphic at the top of the site.

My inane posts are, of course, untouched.

How to read this blog, Part 1

How to Read This Blog, Part 1
by Creole Ned

This site is divided into six categories:

  1. Dating
  2. Gaming
  3. General
  4. Health and Fitness
  5. Photos
  6. Writing

Every post has at least one category attached to it. The content of each category is as follows:

1. Dating There are no entries for this because I am writing about my dating experiences elsewhere, therefore this category should have been removed but I forgot. Oops.

2. Gaming In which I share my gaming experiences or write about games like roughly one billion other people on the web do. As I don’t game as much as before, these posts are becoming less frequent. If you are not a gamer there is probably only a 50% chance you will find my insights worth reading. I arrived at 50% by just making a number up, kind of like a review score!

3. General The inevitable catch-all category. Random nonsense about life, media and anything else that doesn’t fit into the other categories.

4. Health and Fitness Currently I lift dumbbells three times a week and jog three times a week and it is here where I chronicle my hi-jinks, ranging from pulled muscles to getting rocks thrown at me by ill-mannered children. I also chat a bit from time to time about diet and food choices. If these things don’t set your heart a-flutter, safely ignore!

5. Photos When I add images to my gallery I post about them under this heading. However, I am currently debating over how to add photos to the site and my current hodgepodge method means I’m not adding nearly as many as I could. On the one hand, entertainingly bad pictures from my youth are going unshared. On the other hand…well, the exact same thing.

6. Writing Here I talk occasionally about the process of writing and books I have read. Mainly I discuss my ongoing writing projects, whether they are exercises, short stories or one of my novels.

Now that you know more about each category you can better choose how to read through this rich tapestry I call my blog. Or just skip all this and skim for saucy words like “hooters” and “malfeasance”.