New Year's Revolution
It's a revolution here at The Naked Page. Out with the red, pink and orange--in with the black. Well, for now. Actually I'm going to redesign my whole website soon and was just getting sick of looking at that screwed up little white gap that used to be to the right of the header on this page. It was starting to make my eye tick, so I decided to just play around with my blog colors until I settle on a look I dig for the new site.
Although, honestly, it will still probably end up being...red, pink, and orange. What can I say? Those are my colors.
But let's get back to this whole New Year's Revolution thing.
Resolutions never work. You know that, right? You didn't just make a list, did you, including things like:
1. write 10 pages a day
2. exercise 5 days a week
3. stop eating Snickers bars for breakfast
4. be nicer
Please tell me you didn't do that.
The only way resolutions work is if you pick something easy and painless that can be done in a short time like, "Catch up on the sixth season of Sex and the City DVDs by next Monday." But you were going to do stuff like that anyway, so you don't have to make it an item on a to-do list, do you?
Maybe when we're thinking about what we want to accomplish in the new year, we should think of fun things instead of torturous ones. Maybe we should start a revolution, decide that life is not about forcing ourselves to do things that bring us no joy, but instead is about finding the things we cannot live without and pursuing them wholeheartedly.
So who's enlisting for the revolution?
posted by Jamie Sobrato @ 10:55 AM
15 Comments:
I'm enlisting to get you to change the black background. I must be old, 'cuz it's hard on my eyes.
No, I didn't make NY Res's. Especially not writing Res's. I have goals, but they're the same as always--to get a good agent, to break into a big house, yadda yadda, blather, bloo.
Fun stuff? To eat more chocolate. To waste my time watching TV if I want and not feel guilty. To write, write, write, because it does bring me joy, and that was a prerequisite, right?
To not weed the garden. To not ever paint the freaking sundeck ever again. To never clean the toilets. To get a maid.
Okay, I can't afford a maid, but I can dream.
Cindy
I should say too that I also believe when we're pursuing what we love, everything else that needs to happen will happen. It all balances out. Or not. Who knows.
I do believe in self-improvement, but I don't think resolutions are the way to improve oneself.
And blah, blah, blah. This is a really boring topic, isn't it?
Cindy, I'll leave the black background for a while and see what other people say. You'll just have to SUFFER. The Naked Page is all about suffering you know. That's why the thong is the official Naked Page panty.
Everyone can vote as I change the colors around.
I love the look of the black page, but I've noticed how much it bugs my eyes when I've visited other blogspot blogs that use it. And what's this about suffering through the thong? They're comfortable!!
Okay, someone else vote. Love the look of black page - but have old eyes, can't focus.
How many sets of colours can you choose from? And why can't you spell colour correctly? Must I do everything for you?
And what's this about things naturally happening or what needs to happen will happen when we pursue what we love? I need to get ten million rejections? Hey, what about that? Hey, hey, yeah, I'm talking to you with the black page and the suffering thong, what about THAT?
Call this a boring topic, will you? You don't KNOW boring. I'll show you boring!!
Cindy
I like the new page. It's a refreshing change. Of course, I also like the bright colors because I'm a fun and cheery kind of gal. :-P So I vote for: either way. Call me decisive.
I didn't make resolutions, but I did make a list of the huge things I have going on this year. Like the baby, and taking off the baby weight, and entering six hundred books in the 2007 Golden Heart because it's in Dallas and I can drive there! (And I skipped out on 2006 because morning sickness made me miss the deadline, so I'm feeling like a slacker, except for that whole Blaze-request thing which saved an otherwise useless year...)
Hey, speaking of websites, how long does it take for you to update your site since you aren't hosting it yourself? Like if you submit a change to the designer, when does it actually get implemented? Just doing a little research. I can't wait to have a professional website but I want to know if they're worth the several hundred dollars they cost.
I vote with Cindy, the black is hard on the eyes. I thought I was at the wrong page at first, and then I was confused at the lack of pink.
My resolution is always the same. Lose weight. And then I don't. So maybe I need to resolve not to worry about it and love my body just as it is. I'd probably be a lot more productive if I didn't obsess about the oreo I just ate.
I did promise myself I would finish a manuscript this year, even if it's a crappy one. I think that's a healthier, and easier resolution to make because I actually want to do it, and it doesn't involve chocolate denial.
But I'm dithering a bit on where to take my story. I think I'm actually going to sit down and write and outline and stick to it. I think I have to or I'll end up trying to stick every idea that pops into my head into one story and end up with the most confusing mish-mosh of a book ever.
So right now I resolve to get my act together and write something that is at the very least coherent.
One thing I do notice, though, is that a lot of romantic suspense writers and other danger-types have black websites, so the red-pink-orange is definitely a better fit for the Blaze "mood". That is, if you care about that kind of marketing nonsense. :-)
Good luck on the manuscript, Theresa! Your idea of throwing everything into one story sounds like the way most of us write our first books. I know my first will never see the light of day--it has no true conflict. Doh!
Ahhhhhhhh, my eyes love you, Jamie. I really like this design. It's the one I'd probably choose if I hosted with blogspot.
C, eating lunch
Hey, I'm eating lunch too, LOL.
I think this font that both of the Minima templates use is hard on the eyes. (This white page is the same as the black one, just a different color of the template).
I tried to figure out how to customize the colors in HTML but it was taking too long so I gave up.
Melissa, I'm thinking a black website would make a nice backdrop for some fun colors used as accents, like pink and orange and such. I've also thought about black with pale pink accents, sort of a retro look. But the feild at the center of the page would have to be white or a very light shade because I don't like text on a dark field.
Also, Melissa, my web mistress/designer can take anywhere from a few hours to more than a week to do updates I send her. Usually it takes more like a week lately, because she has gotten busier over time. It's hard to find a decent designer who will do nice work for under $1000, and then monthly maintenance is expensive if you pay someone else to do it.
I think I'm going to change my site to a blog-style platform, so that I can do the updates myself without knowing any HTML or other complicated crap. Now I'm just trying to find someone to design the new site for me using such a platform.
Cindy, I think I forgot to say before that Blogger has maybe 15 or so generic templates to choose from, and they let you customize them however you want, or apply your own template. But all their generic ones are really boring. Did you see the one I put on the mommylanddiaries blog? I think that's a new one they've added that's kind of interesting. Not really my style but it was different so I tried it.
Good luck with your manuscript resolution, Theresa. It sounds like you've got the determination to do it, for sure. I think getting that first book written is the biggest hurdle.
Hi Jamie,
Yes, I saw the new Mommyland Diary template. I liked it, but I also liked what you had there previously.
For the record, I don't find the font on the white Naked Page template difficult to read at all. I love it. It's just white text on a black background that I find really hard lately.
C
I'm such a nutter! I didn't realize until I read your post that I did NOT make any resolutions this year. For me, that's extraordinary. One, that I didn't feel compelled by guilt to make any; and second, that I wigged and totally didn't realize I didn't feel guilty and behind and for once didn't feel anally goal oriented. Goddamn. How liberating.
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