The Lousypoet

Not so much because I’m a superstar, it’s just it’s something I really enjoy. Graphic design is something I could spend hours looking at, studying, and then putting my own spin on things. Maybe when Carolyn’s done school I’ll see if I can pick up some part time courses.

Anyway, I’m in this frame of mind because I’m thinking Carolyn’s website needs a makeover. It looks really amateurish, and her logo isn’t something impactful that would look good on a business card or letterhead. I’m doing my research, and marketing is a huge part of surviving this photography thing. Looking better than your competition can sometime be more important than your images. I suppose that’s a sad statement on the attention spans of our society, but sometimes you just have to roll with it if you want to make it.

Carolyn’s a big fan of the grunge look, which seems to be having a huge surge in popularity. I can understand why, I feel pretty drawn to it myself. The conundrum is how to making something professional first, and then kind of grungy and funky at the same time.

I’ve spent hours looking at logos that existing photographers are using, and they almost all use their monogram in some manner. Thing is, I was told by someone that if you are going to be a professional photographer, you should market yourself, not some random made up business name. Because the goal is to become big enough that you are what people demand. I mean, look at Joe Mcnally, Chase Jarvis, or Zack Arias. These guys are doing it under their name and are a huge success. So really, the business should be Carolyn Macpherson Photography. Just what to do with that….

The existing logo looks like this,

It has that grunge factor, but there’s no real pop to it.  It lacks colour, which I think it could use, and I suppose the whole Photography backwards is a kind of lame attempt at being original.  I’m giving it some thought.  I’ll need to look at the fonts we have.  Maybe play around with Carolyn’s signature.

I’m also left with what to do about her website.  I’m leaning toward a clean design.  She might not like the lack of serious grunge, but we need to start thinking about this as a potential business, not to mention that an online portfolio is part of her final course marks, and I want to make sure we have this thing nailed down before that deadline gets anywhere close.

So for now, I’ve opted to go with Michael Tyson’s Wordpress theme, Elegant Grunge. I kicked the can around what I wanted to do with the site, but I just kept coming back to this theme. Since I just couldn’t get myself to come up with anything better, I decided to give in and use the theme as it is. This is a first for me. I always make changes to the themes I use. I can’t think of a time when I didn’t do anything, not even an original title graphic! Maybe if I find myself with some time I’ll put a little effort forth and come up with at least a little something original.

None the less, I like the simple look of this. It’s got a little personality, but it’s muted and I’ve been thinking I wanted to go to dark text on a lighter background, instead of the reverse which is what I’ve used in almost every version of the Lousy Poet to date!

So here it is for now. It’s a change, and I can live with it. I think that’s all I really need for now.

So the New Year has come. It’s time to wipe the boards clean of 2008 and get used to writing 2009. I can only hope that this year will be better than the last. 2008 was a hard year for a lot of people U know. While it had its victories, they were few and far between the challenges. With the world officially in a global recession as we enter 2009, one has to wonder just what this year has in store.

For myself, it’s looking like 2009 has some hopefulness in it. I just found out two nights ago at work that it looks like our union has negotiated a contract, so we won’t be going on strike in March. That’s a huge weight off my shoulders as being the only income in the family, it would have been impossible for us to keep our mortgage and heat and food on strike pay. So that’s one thing that would’ve made this year rough down. Carolyn is also looking to going to school for photography, which I am excited about for her. She’s already got natural talent, I can’t wait to see what she’ll do with some guidance! Not to mention that it could develop into a career for her, which would help our bottom line immensely.

It’s typical to sit and take a look back at the previous year, and try and put it into perspective. This past year I had some goals. I really didn’t achieve too many of my personal growth goals, but my family as a whole has progressed considerably. Both my boys are doing better. There’s far less fighting in the house than there used to be, which has improved the general atmosphere ten-fold. In September, my youngest started school, which actually gave Carolyn and I a few days to do things as a couple, something we really hadn’t done in a very long time. While our house flooded in February, forcing us out for almost two whole months, the renovations have certainly improved the place. We also had a thunderstruck of an idea and moved our kitchen table into the living/dining room area, thereby allowing us more room to sit at the table and eat as a family. Until that point, we had the boys sitting on two bar stools at the counter and Carolyn and I would just eat wherever. You might not think this is such a big thing, but being able to sit together as a family around the table just made me feel so much more positive about our home. I guess it’s really the little things that count. Maybe that or I was just happy that we were finally making use of a $650 table set

We had found out in late 2007 that my Dad had lung cancer. 2008 saw him truly begin treatment for it. In the early days of 2008 he had an operation to try and remove the tumour. But then the crushing news that not only had they not gotten all of it, but there appeared to be another tumour in the other lung. He started Chemo in September, and in the past two months we got the news that the tumour appears to be shrinking. While we keep a realistic view of the disease, it felt like a victory none the less.

So maybe 2008 wasn’t as horrible as all that. I know globally it could have been better. I know for many families it may have been the worst year they could imagine. But I suppose when you view the world with that large a lens you can always say such things.

I looked back at the first post I did in 2008. It was about changing the site design. Which was actually the layout before this one, meaning I didn’t even go a year with the same site design. Who am I kidding? I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised, this design probably won’t last past the middle of the year! Web design is just one of those hobbies I enjoy too much to leave alone for too long. It was also that same day that I added the Now Reading plug-in to the site. It says I’ve read 27 books in the past year. So just a little over 2 a month. I’d like to see that increase, but we’ll just have to see how the year pans out.

So what about 2009? What does it hold for The Lousy Poet? Well, I hesitate to make any grand statements because every time I do on this site, few if any ever happen. I mean, how long has it been since I posted a Blog of the Day or a Literary Quote of the Day? I guess I just got tired of having things that seemed like stop gap posts. Honestly, I like the Word of the Day. I find many very interesting, and I really do think sometimes that I would like to use them in my writing. But let’s face it, for the most part they exist so I can have something new posted on the site every day. I guess really for 2009 all I want to do is have some decent content that will bring visitors to the site. What will that content be? Well, I hope to write more, but I’m going to focus on poetry. I know I’ve always said I want to write a novel, but I’m really just not at that point. I need to work on expressing myself in words, and I think poetry will help me do that. I’d like to feature different poetry styles, and challenge myself to write in those styles. I want to do some visual artwork. I actually have a project in mind that would unite the two (poetry and visual art) but I don’t want to say too much in case it doesn’t happen. Once again, fooling myself, because I make it sound like something might prevent other than my own laziness.

In the end, I just want to make this site something more than Word of the Day and sponsored posts. I know I will probably never grow my page rank while I do sponsored posts, but they have paid for some things, so they will continue. But with a garbage page rank, they’ll be few and far between. I want more articles like this one. Long, heart felt, original. Is it interesting? Probably not if you don’t know me, which I don’t think anyone who comes here does since I don’t publicise the existence of this blog to people who know me.

So Happy New Year everyone. I hope that the challenges that 2008 gave will turn to opportunities in 2009. I hope the hate and violence becomes hope and peace. All the best in health and wealth to you and yours. Happy New Year.

As I wander the endless fields of the internet, every now and then I come across blogs that I want to pass along. Today, I’m passing along a blog by Jaspreet.

He and I are very like-minded. We both enjoy writing short fiction, we’re both techno geeks, and we both have this drive to share our respective experiences with the world.

As a design comment, I love how his dates display on his posts. Overall, his site is clean, easily navigated, but I really like those dates. Too bad my current format fits so nicely with the rest of my layout, otherwise I might have to ask him how he does it!

So go ahead and check out a fellow blogger, read some great tech reviews and some really nice poetry and short stories. Till next time webbers…

So the other day I was searching for Wordpress themes to change the look of the Lousy Poet (what do you think BTW?). While flitting from one blog to the next, I came across a great article that I would like to share. You can read the article for your self by following THIS LINK.

In a nutshell, the author demonstrates how having effective, and at least 10 comprehensive articles on a single topic will set your site ahead of others like it. His example is simply that setting up an e-store can be done by anyone nowadays, so the only true thing that sets sites apart is their content. By providing consistent articles that start with the initial 10, you can gain some love from the search engines, and have an audience that consistently comes back to check on your site.

It made me realize how the manic and inconsistent quality here at the Poet is probably doing no favours to my visitor counts. However, it also made me start to question just what topic I knew enough about, and loved enough, to write at least 10 quality articles about. There was a time when I could think of some, but life and living on a budget has taken me some distance from pretty much all of them. It’s something I’m going to be giving some considerable thought over the next few days. Meanwhile, I’ll continue with the site re-vamp.

So a while back, a company called Stampington & Co. came out with a magazine dedicated to “Artful Blogging (you can check out the official page for the mag @ http://www.stampington.com/html/artful_blogging.html)

Anyway, in my travels to get inspiration for Carolyn’s website (at http://firewithinstudio.com) I decided to check some of these sites out. I admit I had some preconceived notions of what I would find and in some ways I was disappointed, while in others I was pleasently surprised. On the disappointed side, I kind of thought that these blogs would be pieces of art in themselves. I expected to see unique layouts, artistic designs, and revolutionary concepts of navigation. Instead, these were pretty straight ahead blogs, mostly using blogger or livejournal, that were your standard design, nav system, and some arty banner. Pretty much as usual as it comes. However, some did contain some especially interesting works of art. I was impressed with the works and the pretty open honesty these artists display on their blogs. It’s inspired me to try and work more on visual art projects. In fact, I’ve decided to mothball the novel idea, and instead focus on images, poetry, and short fiction. It’s still my hope to one day expand out into a novel, but I think this road is more at my pace for the moment.

So perhaps this is a turning point. Or perhaps it’s nothing more than another hopeless delusion I’ve worked up for myself to keep my dreams treading water. Who knows? I’ve found only time really answers such questions. In the mean time, if you see a copy of Artful Blogging, check it out. And to give you an idea of what awaits, I’ll include some links below to websites that have been in previous issues. Enjoy

http://www.ramblingrose.typepad.com/
http://mistymawn.typepad.com/
http://michelleward.typepad.com/
http://anahata.typepad.com/
http://stephmcatee.typepad.com/
http://www.visual-voice.net/
http://lisahoffman.typepad.com/
http://deardaisycottage.typepad.com/
http://bgmartjournal.blogspot.com/
http://ruthrae.blogspot.com/
http://moonstitches.typepad.com/
http://susannassketchbook.typepad.com/

So I finally got some work done of Carolyn’s Deviant Art journal. Feels like it took forever to come up with something. Once again, it boiled down to making my own spin on someone else’s work. God, I wish I could be more original. None the less, she likes it, and this makes me happy. Now comes the weeks of tweaking, cause lord knows I can’t be satisfied. At least I’ve managed to leave this site alone for some time. Which is kind of unusual for me to still be active and not changing the site layout.

Anyhoo, if you feel so inclined you can pop over to Carolyn’s Deviant Art account and see the work. Find it at http://a-fire-within.deviantart.com/

So I’m sitting in front of the computer listening to this song by Daughtry (Feels Like Tonight).

Carolyn’s getting into DeviantArt again (you can see her deviant site at http://a-fire-within.deviantart.com/). It’s a good thing, cause the girl’s got talent and I think that place is definately the right forum for her to grow and develop. Maybe she’ll finally get some self esteem built up and make some money from her art. Time will only tell.

But she’s asked me to customise her journal. I have to admit, I’m at a fucking loss. Actually, I feel pretty generally lost. The story idea picking at my brain seems good, but I just realise that I have no idea how to write. I don’t know how to develop characters, plot, it just all feels like some dream that I have no hope of realising. I’m feeling pretty fucking low. And I know that when Carolyn gets home she’s going to wonder what I’ve been up to. How do you say that I’ve been listening to the same song over and over just kind of staring at the computer screen hoping that somehow I might be inspired to do something that I could feel some kind of pride in.

Reality check for me I suppose is that even though I’ve always wanted to do some kind of art, I’m pretty hopeless. And I’m sorry that I’m being a suck here, but it’s my goddamn website and if I feel like sulking then I’m fucking well going to do it…..

Hmm, anger stage.

Anyway, I just browse DeviantArt and it’s filled with people doing things I want to do. But I just never seem to find it in myself to make that happen. Maybe I just need a break. Work has been pretty steady and it just feels like I haven’t stopped to breathe in a long time. Hopefully some of that will be coming as of the end of this weekend. I don’t get to have the holiday weekend off, but I do get 2 weeks off after it’s done. If only I didn’t feel so weighed down.

Breathe, just fucking shut up and breathe.
Let the light fade and the noise fall away.
Stop thinking so much
Stop punishing yourself
Tell yourself that little white lie
The whole wide world is mine…..

Thanks Tom

So I put together a new site for Carolyn. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. I finally found some inspiration from this template at CSS Zen Garden.

Then, using the Wordpress template Bluebird theme by Randa Clay, I was able to bring this thing together.

I’m not sure what it was about the Blue Bird theme that made me use it. To be honest, I tore it apart and put it back together again. I guess it just looked the easiest to accomplish my end result.

Photoshop played a big part in this one too. I tried a few things I’d never done before, and I think they turned out pretty well. I’m becoming far more proficient at manipulating margins and padding to accomplish my design.

Of course, I have to give Carolyn some props for creating a really nice piece of work in the art doll angel I used as the central header image. The pic doesn’t really do it justice. It’s probably hard to tell, but each wing was done with over 200 small flowers folded to look like feathers. It’s brilliant to see in real life. I hope to get my hands doing some “physical world” art soon. Something I’ve always wanted to do is create hand made journals. Oh well, maybe after I get my book written, which at this rate will be never

Anyway, check out the result at http://firewithinstudio.com.

So I was totally bored with my old site, so I decided to go with a new theme.  I like the look of this one, though I know I’m going to be doing some heavy editing in the next few days (weeks, months, you know how it is).  Bear with me, this is very much a work in progress.

I also added a new app that will allow me to show what books I’m reading, planning to read, and the ones I’ve already finished.  I’m looking forward to wasting many hours inputting all that info

Anyway, work calls in the am, so off I go.