This and that...

[hells_half_acre]

I'm thinking of changing the look of my LJ - same layout, different colours...maybe a different header. I have a nice one from raloria that I wouldn't mind using. It'd be black/white/grey themed. What do you guys think? Too boring? I could do the links in deep red and...something else...green? Too christmassy, maybe the classic blue, or a deep purple.

I've found a fanfic author that's a dude. I'm now consuming everything the guy writes, because I'm so fascinated that there's actually a guy who writes wincest. I don't even like wincest, yet I'm reading it anyway. I'm such a hypocrit, because one of the things I like about user-names and internety thing is that you don't KNOW what sex people are - not unless they say...and I've always been of the opinion that gender shouldn't matter...yet, obviously it does to me, because I want to read guy's stuff and girl's stories and see if there are differences. I actually debated with myself for a long time about whether I would admit to being a girl on my own journal...preservation of anonymity being one aspect of the debate, the other being that I actually do have a pretty f*cked up gender-identity.

I got into a discussion in the comments to my last Quick Reaction with claudiapriscus about Dean and Superheroes, and now I want to write a whole meta on it - like, go to the library and take out literature books on Superhero architypes and do it all right and proper like it's an essay for school...I also want to write a spin-off series about Bobby and Jesse fighting evil. All these things I don't have time for. My little sister is expecting to read the first chapter of my novel at the end of the month and I haven't even started it.

I'm supposed to be working...I'm a bad worker...I always get progressively worse as the week goes on.

Comments

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

You would think there'd be a difference, but I couldn't see one. Of course, I wasn't really looking. But then, if you have to go looking for it, it's not a huge difference, is it? Besides, fanfic is fantasy. I think through media and cultural influences, we're all (men and women) trained to fantasize about the same shit. And contrary to popular belief, men like a bit of romance too.

I heard a story once about some porn actress who decided to become a producer. She was wildly popular as an actress, but nobody liked her films because they were *too* hardcore, too much sex and not enough romance. And she thought that's what men wanted. She didn't understand that they might like more or less what she might like as well. Interesting, huh?

In terms of your current layout, one thing I dislike is that the banner doesn't stretch all the way across, even though the bars do. It feels off, symmetrically speaking. But that could just be because my screen is wider than yours.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Odd, yeah, on my screen is looks perfect. That'll happen with the new header too, unless I change layouts...which I could do, I'd just have to find the new banner code, because my current banner code is JUST for this layout.

And yeah, that's the ridiculous thing about WANTING to find a difference...because most of my friends are guys, and I KNOW that they can be just as hopelessly romantic as any girl. It's interesting though, I mean, the fact that we aren't dissimilar...that it's all crazy social myths and whatnot. I often feel sorry for guys actually...because it's like they have to hide so much of themselves in order to fit into the image of what a guy is supposed to like/dislike do/don't do.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Just define it so that your banner width is the same width as your journal table, and it should be ok. I *think*. I'm pretty rubbish with the custom css.

Yeah, me too. I think about it sometimes, and I'm like you know, who *enjoys* getting punched in the face? No one! But from watching tv and movies, we're trained to believe that that's normal guy behavior, to get into fist fights and stuff. It's not unreasonable to think that a guy doesn't want to get hit or to hit anyone for that matter, and he might not like insects, or gross stuff either! But it's like, culturally accepted that they be the ones to defend your honor, and smash the bugs and unclog the drains etc.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah....I don't know how to do that. I'm COMPLETE rubbish with the custom CSS. I really wish these things were more user friendly...sadly, they probably think they are already user friendy.

Haha, yeah, that bug-myth was soon disproved when I arrived at university...first spider in my room, and I run across the hall to Eric's door and ask him to come rescue me - he freaks out...we end up running around asking everyone in the dorm if they can squash the spider, and finally this tiny 4'11'' girl was like "yeah sure, what the heck is the big deal?" Haha...way to make everyone feel ridiculous for being afraid of spiders.

Society is so crazy.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

...hey...you wouldn't perhaps be able to do me a favour and let me know how you got your layout looking so good? Because that's BASICALLY what I want, but different colours.

Like...maybe you could just take a screen cap of what your Custom CSS page looks like? I really don't understand anything.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

LOL sure! I honestly have no idea what I'm doing either. My css is just a bunch of code cobbled together from various websites I skimmed. Hrrmm do you think if I posted it in this comment box that it would show up? If not, I could always email it to you. Oh, and I use the premade layout Mixit.

Ok, the code is this minus the () so let's hope this works!

(/* Layout ----------------------------------------------------------- */
#page {
background-color: #FFF0F5;
}

/* Header ----------------------------------------------------------- */

#header-inner {
background-image: url("http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7036/enterprisebanner.jpg");
height: 365px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position:center;
background-position:top;
background-color: #000000;
}

#header {
background-image: none;
}

#header-text {
color: #FFF0F5;

}
#header-text a {
color: #FFF0F5;
}

#header-name a {
color: ##FFF0F5;
}

#header-description {
color: #FFF0F5;
}

#header .nav .item {
border-left: 1px solid #FFF0F5;
}

#header .nav a {
color: #FFF0F5;
}

#header-inner .sponsored-group-badge-text {
color: #FFF0F5;
})

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Cool! Let's see if this works or completely f*cks everything up!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ok...that didn't work. So, what do you mean by the premade layout mixit? Like...when you select a theme and then just tweak it? Sigh...I hate computers.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I selected a theme, and then just put the custom css in the custom css box. The theme I used was Mixit. Mixit has many colors, so you can probably find one that suits what you're going for.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ok! Off I go to try again!

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

BTW the reason it's still pink is this:

/* Layout ----------------------------------------------------------- */
#page {
background-color: #FFF0F5;
}

Which I put in because I wanted PINK! =D

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

It's pink? Man....my laptop displays colours funny.

Ok...the header isn't coming out the way I want it to either...sigh.

I'm going to change it from pink, but then I've gotta drive my sister somewhere and go to the bank. Still, I'm closer than I was before, so thanks!

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah. It's very light, but it's definitely not white. In fact, anywhere it says #FFF0F5 (pink) I would replace it with white, if that's what you're going for.

I really like the new banner!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Unfortunately it's cutting off the bottom of the banner, which attributes the background image to raloria and the words to Hey Rosetta! ...

Also, apparently I can't change font colours in the entries on this layout :-( So, there goes my idea for having a splash of colour in the titles or links...

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

You CAN do it! You just have to add custom css to make it so! I don't know how exactly, but this is what I've got on my fic comm, and it turns all italic text a different color!

i {
color: #006699;
}


The reason your banner is getting cut off is because of this:

height: 365px;

which is what I set because that banner pic is actually ginormous.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ok...so I have to figure out how to do it with links...

Man, is there a website somewhere that gives you these codes? I get i for italics...but what would links be?

I figured out the size on the banner thing right before you told me! Yay! I'm not completely useless. :-P

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Hehe, yay for figuring stuff out! :) It only makes sense once you get it. Before that, it's just all a bunch of gobbledygook, you know?

I just google css and stuff, and see what comes up. Sometimes I do view->page source on people's journals when they have stuff I like. That's how I did the italics thing. The newtrekslash comm has bold and italics in different colors. I viewed their page source and then just kind of scrolled through until I found what looked like it might be the code that did it.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ah! Brilliant!

I will go do that...actually, I could do it on my own frickin' page, because right now the links are turning up grey, and I just want them to be a different colour.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like it! Although I'm not sure about the header text being in red. I think it was more legible in white.

This looks good though! I like the clean, stark colors.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I agree about the header text...I was just wondering if red would take away less from the header itself...but I think the write fit the theme more.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like the white. Is it supposed to have the black strips on the sides of the image, or was the image supposed to fill the whole space?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately that's the full size of the image, so it's not big enough to fit the whole space. I could resize it, I guess, but then I think it would loose definition or look pixely.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't resize the finished product. You should ask Raloria if she can resize it for you in its original form. Then you'd get the least amount of degradation.