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2012 Mar 17 — Ear Candy!

I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so it's time to get the wheels turning again.

First up is a song by Within Temptation called Never Ending Story. This is one of my favourites from their discography:

This song's melodies and words erupt with truth; in life, we are part of that greater tale. I also think that, reading between the lines, it's a good idea to be able to switch roles between observer and participant, muse and purveyor, creator and consumer, leader and follower. The stream of life is bursting with opportunities for us to experience, learn, and accumulate knowledge. The more we explore, the more versatile it can make us.

Being present and aware of one's existence in the overall context of that tale as it is being written is, to me, one of the most important aspects of being alive.

You can find the lyrics to this song here.

And now for something completely different ...

If you know my tastes, you might remember I'm also a long time fan of the Cruxshadows. Aside from Rogue's gravity defying hair getting plenty of stage time, they've been burning up the airwaves with some especially profound tracks during the last decade and only seem to be getting better with age.

What I'd like to share with my readers tonight is a 2009 release, Quicksilver, that stands brilliantly head-and-shoulders above the rest. I'm actually rather embarrassed this one somehow managed to fly under my radar until just last night.

Quicksilver is a motivational anthem whose lush, danceable soundscapes and powerful lyrics convey soulful perseverence with no shortage of unapologetic honesty and raw emotional power. The vocal intonations will reverberate particularly well in the heart of anyone who's been down that unenviable road to hell (and back).

(Is it really any wonder this track ended up topping the charts?)

Quicksilver is a song that a lot of people have needed to hear for a long time. It beautifully touches on the price of individual struggle, voices the feelings that come with rebuilding the psyche, and exudes the courage that comes with learning once more to step forward.

I'd actually take it a step further and say what this song inspires in me: the reminder that healing is not all (or always) individualized. Sometimes it can take the help of another, or many others. If you know someone who's down and hurting, don't let it go unnoticed. Share inspiration, and let hope find a way in.

2012 Mar 04 — Site Status

NOTE: all site related updates will be posted in this entry.

As the revamp cycle finally nears its end, I'll be updating the status of the content in this post as more pages are uploaded.

Tidings: online - all pages live, now in upkeep phase.
Emporium: partially online - placeholder pages in place, no content.
Art and Design: online - all pages live, now in upkeep phase.
Chronicles: not in service - no pages or content in place.
Writing: not in service - no pages or content in place.
Environmental: partially online - some material still in development, remainder is available for viewing along with some new content, fixed the YouTube viewer issues on remote-loaded videos.
Contact: online - all pages live, now in upkeep phase.
Links: online - all pages live, now in upkeep phase.

Focus

The site's current and future emphasis is on low-bandwidth delivery. This will decrease load times and make access easier, in particular for those users who have a slow, throttled, mobile or capped Internet connection. Other changes are also going into effect:

There will be an expanding goal to reduce object and HTTP counts, which likewise serves to cut down the load wait time dramatically.
Gallery presentation is receiving an overhaul. Images will be thumbnail based, with large versions served on-demand by an AJAX applet.
Web-based typography will supersede all previous type display methods, and while a few browsers (MSIE and some mobiles) still don't properly support the CSS3 spec, sufficient workarounds exist that should be able to make it viable and eliminate platform font dependence.
I am currently using a set of free, open licence Web fonts provided by Google, hosted directly via this domain. I found in testing that the Google CSS calls are incomplete and fail to address browser-specific bugs, meaning that if we want to see the same styles on all browsers, a fair amount of tweaking and augmentation will be in order.
Type is now sized in ems, not pixels, to increase accessibility in some client browser features. Letter sizing and line spacing has also been adjusted for increased readability and legibility.
The colour palette is based on neutral tones as a suitable matting to present art and design content. Since the old layout was blue, it caused some drift in colour perception as its blue tones caused the eye to attempt to reconcile image tones with the background. The new layout doesn't do this.
The navigation menu applet has been carried forward. It tends to degrade well if the user dumps CSS/Javascript/cookies.
Addition of right-hand icon menu in article headings giving access to permalink, e-mail and top jump. Future revisions may also roll out print button functionality.
And several other minor (or major) refinements ...

I look forward to updating the existing content, adding new entries and improving all aspects of the site's functionality during the next few weeks. As you can no doubt tell, this is a significantly large project, and nearly all past or existing technologies are due to be overhauled.

I'll be updating the Contact section first, after an anti-spam e-mail form has been finalized and readied for deployment.

Please stay tuned for further updates.