I’m not even going to try and explore the sheer lack of attention this site has been getting from me. Instead — here’s some pictures. The first is a drawing of Josh Holloway from this morning.
And here are some pictures from last year and my adventure back to Parkes, including exploring an abandoned hatch in the ground.
I flew down to Sydney two weeks ago to see Stephen Fry at the Opera House, and then flew down again just over a week later for Neil Gaiman. Both nights were excellent, and I had the biggest smile on my face when each man walked onto the stage. Of the two nights, I think – and as a massive Stephen Fry fan (as in, he’s a personal hero)this is saying something – I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s reading the most. The combination of Neil Gaiman’s words, Eddie Campbell’s images, and FourPlay’s music was magic.
I didn’t take many photos during my visit for Stephen Fry, despite bringing my camera, but I had a morning to myself while waiting for a table discussion with Shaun Tan, Eddie Campbell and Neil Gaiman so I wandered around Sydney Harbour for a few hours snapping off shots.
Welcome to the new design of my site. Ever since I finished the previous design something in the back of my head has itched, ummed, and aahed over the possibilities of a redesign. For a while I was having none of that. The previous design was perfectly functional, after all, and I’d put a lot of effort into getting it to work. Why would I want to undo that effot and put myself through it again? Why? Why?
Why not?
Why not come up with a new design, even better than the first? Why not give the site a fresh new overhaul? Why not simply things a little, and give the text some room to breath?
OK, little thing in the back of my head with your quiet but persistent yammering. I yield. What next?
Come up with a design!
I quickly established the theme for the redesign would be Adventure! Or would at least contain the word adventure in some capacity. After all, adventure is a compelling word and, indeed, concept. And as I hope to have further adventures in the future it only seemed appropriate my design would reflect that. A gesture of good will to myself, it is now up to me to have those adventures and see that it is not misplaced. How awkward would the design be then, right?
They say that any adventure begins with a first step. And unless it’s a very short journey there are subsequent steps as well. This particular journey of mine, this adventure, had several initial, hesitant steps as I sorted which direction I would like to go. I’m referring here of course to the steps in designing the new look for the site, and not any sort of physical, emotional or spiritual journey.
It is my intention, then, to show you these first few steps. In the spirit of adventure and having being subjected to several years of basic public highschool English on the topic I think it’s appropriate to show the journey, as it enriches the destination. Apparently.
However I’m not going to show these steps in their entirety. Oh no. Bizarre, misshapen things they are. Unfinished and rough. They probably don’t even make sense. Well, they certainly won’t now. I’ve pixelated them, shielding you from the full horror of witnessing them. It’d be like looking directly into the eyes of a basilisk, only worse.
What this means is that it engages a rather important part of your brain – your imagination. How exciting. How wonderful. It is up to you to imagine what originally existed beyond these assemblies of large, square chunks of colour below. Exciting things? Things of despair? Designs that maybe, just maybe, I should have stuck with and not proceeded any further?
Who knows?
That’s the magic of it. Project your own whims onto the images below. What would you like them to be?
The following images are in chronological order. The first is completely different from the final design, while the last might only be a few degrees away, if the differences between images can be measured in degrees (angle or temperature).
Enjoy or don’t. It’s your imagination:
Quel horreur!
Bon nuit!
Je suis train station!
Mon nom est bizarre!
Qu’est-ce que c’est! C’est impossible!
Où est la salle de bain?!
Au secours! Mes yeux ont été insultés !
What did you see? Or, perhaps as importantly, what didn’t you see? Is what you see before you now enriched by what might have been, by knowing (or imagining) the adventure that was undertaken to get here?
I look foward to sharing new adventures with you. In fact…
stay tuned for further…
