On Version 3.0: Like Light to Flies.

Yesss, the Journal has undergone a major redesign. It’s finally done after weeks of procrastinating planning. Here’s a quick wrap-up of the redesign.

The concept.

• CSS is poetry.

Obviously the new design has something to do with lights, streets, buildings and, err, wood? Well, yeah. Close. It is inspired by urban infrastructure; the wooden cabinet at the corner of some coffee parlor down town with chewed gum sticking somewhere on its surface. Like Light to Flies, the theme’s name, is actually a song title and I couldn’t think of another phrase that perfectly describes how the city is as perceived by the society. Society gravitates to it beyond its own control, either obsessively craving for it or despising it - which is basically the same thing. As Matthew Heafy, its writer, describes it: This song is about people’s attraction to all forms of tragedy. It seems like everywhere you turn to today, it’s all about murder, violence, war, cruelty - and it’s because this is what sells; people are totally captivated by subjects in this vein. We are the flies. Indeed.

So, anyways, I utterly don’t care if the idea of urbanity is evil to some, even though it may be evil in terms of blogging. As seen right from the front page, the design is opposed to the standards commonly used for blog design: white background, easy-to-find navigation, blogging widgets, 12px font, rounded corners and all. Knowing so, it’s not recommended for bloggers to use this concept, but if you’d like, check out this post and this one from Smashing Magazine. For tools, I use Macromedia Dreamweaver and, uhm, Notepad.

• Content.

During the first year, Journal by The Lightbeamers, MD. is more about making an appearance and such - Tebar Pesona 2.0, that’s what I call it. And now the Journal has finally come full circle and beginning its stable period, returning to the knowledge womb that gave birth to the little demon in the beginning: the world of creativity, urban culture and philosophy. The Journal will focus solely on those subjects and whatever correlates with it. As for everything else, it still contains categories of content like ones in Version 2.0: Activism, Advertising and Media, Arts and Culture, Blogosphere, Music, Design, Indonesia, International, Jakarta, Journalism, Lifestyle, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology and Web 2.0. Personal Note is basically the part where I get to break my own rules and write sappy things.

What is it that you say? Topics on religions?
NAY! Away from us, fight your wars some place else.

• Visitors, commenters and blogging neighbours.

There’s only one commenting policy in this place: Be the cloud you want to see, sort of adapted from Gandhi’s Be the change you want to see. Bear in mind that I’m not a person that believes there are people who naturally have bad intentions, however, I won’t deny that there are always people in this world that desire to win everything and be the authoritarian figure, seek a sense of superiority and control others - others who show no interest in being the subordinate to whatever vague. It’s quite understandable. I do that too. Especially when waiting in line while holding my pee.

This type of blog visitor, whether they’re old or young, married or single, rich or not-rich-enough, blogging senior or n00b, of this religion or that religion, I have the least interest in them. Nevertheless, they’re still welcomed in this blog and their existence is still needed in the local blogsphere - they provide that Yin and Yang balance, if you know what I mean. However, the respect that I have for others will not be out of fear, guilt and power play. Even if there’d be people that feel subconsciously intimidated to whatever Journal by The Lightbeamers, MD. is associated with, I’d suggest that they take a deep breath, get some sleep, less on the coffee and cholesterol, then return several days after, perhaps I’ve prepared something that could make them smile.

And no use of analyzing, it would be like trying to measure the depth of an ocean just by using a stick - it’ll eventually end up as shallow. Why not plunging in and swim freely instead?

• How to support.

Don’t bother, I’m fine. Please consider bookmarking posts you find shareworthy though. You could also subscribe to the content. Oh, and this is my PayPal account, you know, just in case. By the way, I’m single and (pretending I’m) not looking.

I’m fine, seriously.

• Bottom line.

It seems vain yet more spontaneous. Darker yet more colorful. Somewhat impractical yet more focused. It’s something one ought to experience first yet has happened before. You know, like life.

The engine.

WordPress, no doubt. Plugins used for the previous version are temporarily deactivated, plugins such as for displaying related contents and for social bookmarking. Still trying to figure out which ones go where at the moment.

Note: Friend of mine is presently fixing Kataku™ Translation plugin. Hang tight.

The theme.

Version 3.0 is a heavy duty modification of HemingwayEx, the WordPress theme that provides its basic PHP structure. HemingwayEx is nicely designed by Nalin Makar. Screenshot of the original version:

The kitten.

Yoda Kitty was first found at LOLcat. Fell in love at first sight and decided to keep one for the Journal. It functions as a substitute image for gravatars and any other unidentified objects. For those who haven’t had a gravatar, please get one here.

The favicon.

During the first year of publication, the Journal used a self-made pink ribbon image as its icon. Exchanged it with a cause ribbon. The orange ribbon is a symbol for those in support for cultural diversity - the cause that could hopefully reflect on how the world is in reality. Not only that it’s for representing diversity, it’s also for wide variety of uses such as human rights in Tibet and Guantanamo, self harm, child cancer, obsessive compulsive behavior - you heard me right, transportation safety, democracy and racial tolerance. Click here to view original image.

The galleries.

This particular section is a special tribute for photographers and digital artists. The galleries are basically consisted of two sets of images retrieved from Flickr feed. The front gallery features a collection photographs tagged city and night, and for the sidebar gallery are photographs tagged jakarta and people. Clicking the picture will open the originating Flickr page. Please note that the feed is automatically retrieved from Flickr database, so if it suddenly displays a picture of topless Julia Perez - you wish! - or Tukul Arwana, it’s out of our hands.

Pop quiz: Anyone notice the stark contradiction between the two?

The news box.

Just as how the galleries are, the news box also retrieves feeds from external sites. It typically functions as a bird view of whatever it is going on in the world today. For now, it features news from StumbleUpon (Society), del.icio.us (Popular Psychology), Lintas Berita (General), Web Urbanist (General) and the Jakarta Post (Opinion). Let’s silently observe.

The dropbox.

The dropbox is mainly for non-bloggers, preferably those who’d like to experiment in writing online. Why should anyone submit an article to the site? Here’s the thing, do you know that proverb that says: Don’t give a person a fish, give a person a fishing bait instead? Well, this is not me giving the fish nor the bait, this is the bucket. Another reason for submitting an article is because, surely, your voice and opinion matters. Please read more here and keep in mind that Yoda Kitty has a talent for sniffing out foul, insincere intention.

Note: Journal by The Lightbeamers, MD. is a blog and not a news portal, which means the site will keep on running even without article submission.

The plurks.

The idea is to publish personal updates, similar to having a personal blog. Problem is, I wouldn’t have enough time and energy to juggle two blogs simultaneously, opening a new blog would also be a waste of space (40 megs left and counting) and since my Twitter’s account is already occupied for the MindBuzz section, Plurk would be the best alternative available. I won’t be updating each and every hour like most active plurkers, so don’t expect the high-flying, urban hipster road trips from me - you’re few years late, sorry - but I’d share some fun stuffs and daily awws in there along with some personal thoughts. Thanks to Boy Avianto for the recommendation.

The end (is the beginning is the end.)

Thanks for reading, and see you on the next post. Yowza!

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