GeorgeAppiah.com |||||

After what seemed like a never-ending marathon of bug fixing, the long-awaited re-design of my website is here. While it’s certainly not perfect, this new design is very dear to my heart in a very special way.

Sure, there are a lot of really great and completely free WordPress themes out there ready for the taking — but it’s always felt like I’m throwing my legs into someone else’s shoes whenever I pick one of these off-the-shelf designs to use.

While I certainly didn’t build all the components pixel by pixel and line by line, I — at least — planned the whole damn thing, from concept to the finished work you see now. What I really wanted to do was to bring out that little child’s voice that continues to coo so loudly inside me — in vivid imagery. But being the graphics-illiterate person that I am, I could only settle on using colors.

Still Undone - Lots of Known & Unknown Issues:

Despite the many hours of labour, there are still some issues with the new design — some known and (likely) many others unknown.

The obvious one is that most of the pages from the previous theme aren’t showing anymore, and clicking on the “Home” navigation link at the top takes you to the Journal (blog) section of the site. This is done on purpose, as I’m still preparing those pages to transfer to the Site Build It! platform.

I’ve been trying to woo some of my graphics-savvy friends to design a header image for me — but none has been wooed yet. Now I’m using text and a background color — and I really don’t like the colors up there. So this will change soon.

There are also a couple of minor bugs under the hood that I need to fix, and I’m sure there may be a lot more that I’m not even aware of. Feel free to contact me if you find anything fancy.

The Building Blocks

As I’ve said already, I pulled in components from here and there, spent what seemed to me like eternity on these building blocks, and ended up with the design you see now. There were times when I would stare at the screen for hours (yes, occasionally clicking here and there aimlessly) and not knowing what I was doing.

If it helps, you may think of this “design process” as a million monkeys dipping brushes into oil for a million hours — to produce the Mona Lisa — except in my case it’s a single clueless monkey (that’s me) that spent a billion hours.

The Horizontal (Top) Navigation

The top menu is a pure CSS menu I grabbed from 13Styles.com, a fine website that provides a few but high quality CSS menus. At time of writing there were only 12 CSS menus available at the site. All the menus are free, and for $US29.99, you get the source Photoshop files to customize to your heart’s delight.

But you probably know that even if I had these Photoshop source images, I couldn’t make any use of them. So I simply grabbed one of the pre-built menus (Wax) and used as-is.

The Vertical (Left) Navigation:

You probably have guess this by now: that this was also got from somewhere. Well, if you did, you guessed right!

The vertical menu you see on the left is a customized version of the Accordion Menu script from Dynamic Drive — a very popular website for script kiddies like me and (arguably) the source of the many fancy and completely useless animations you see on many websites.

This is also a free menu that’s available for anyone to use. But unlike the horizontal menu from 13Styles, this one uses Javascript to handle the accordion-like feature. Click on any of the yellow navigation menus on the left to see what I’m talking about

There is a “static” version of this menu from their companion website, CSSDrive, that uses pure CSS (no javascript) — but this doesn’t have the the accordion effect.

The original menu is shown to the right. I essentially changed the two background images used for the main menus: one for the “open” state (red) and the other for the “closed” state (black).

While I like the collapsing nature of this menu, I don’t know how long I’m going to keep it, as I really don’t like heavy client-side scripting that doesn’t add any substantial new features other than eye-candy effects.

The Layout & Other “Inspirations”:

The actual layout of the new site is based on an SBI! template I used in the past. But note that this was not a complete design — just a layout.

I used SBI in the past (and will be using it exclusively henceforth for clients’ websites) so I have lots of SBI! stuff lying round. Also I’ll be moving the main section of this website itself to SBI very soon, and that’s how I could justify using their layout to design this site even though I don’t have an active subscription for this domain.

It’s 5am now … and I’m already feeling dizzy. Probably hungary. Chest pains are also lingering around. I guess another trip to the hospital later in the day. Time for exercise now though. Let me know your thoughts about this new design.

After several lonesome moons of planning and procrastinating, I’m almost ready to launch a new version of this website. While the redesign is a welcome one (and it’s really been long overdue), this is not just about a new design at all.

Throughout the past two years this blog has been a great companion to me, more than any human. We’ve fought our individual battles (website hacking, server crashes and a fight for my dear little heart), some of which we lost, but many of which we won. Heck, we’ve even been in and out of love together.

We’ve stood together as close pals packed and left, and as dear little things wandered away without a word. We even reminisce together over good ‘ole days and what life could have been.

But of course I’m not leaving you … my dear reader … out of this love affair. How could I? I’m very grateful to all of you for standing solidly behind me throughout all the turbulence. You rock!

That’s why, now that I’m quite stable (health-wise), I’m taking this website away from sharing my troubles with you … to more like sharing my knowledge and know-how with you. This transformation has taken way too much time … but, alas, it’s almost here.

Damn … I wish I had three or four of this pillow. But I can only wish. And this morning I woke up to a spanky-shiny-funny new email from a laiiidy … and dear, that got me laughing all over.

It was a really long mail and included everything — from serious accusations to a love proposition (no, I’m NOT kidding). And gee… that was good, because these days I hardly get any interesting mails at all — except the spam, of course!

I’m not posting the entire mail here … just the part about me disappointing her everything she heads over over to this website and doesn’t find anything new (and I’m doing this with her permission).

Just to let you know I’ve been reading your website for over a year now, and I really do appreciate your sharing your life with me. Yes, your descriptions are so vivid that, sometimes it feels like I’m right by your side (not that I don’t want to), and you telling me a story.

And I’ve always been looking forward to the next article, though I must admit I can never tell what’s coming next and when. And that’s my problem with you, George. You’re so disappointing.

Day after day I dash over to your website looking for something new, and nothing. Week after week you disappoint. And that gets me so angry. So angry and I just feel like eating you alive, or shooting you, or something.

Of course, knowing you (from your writings, that is) I don’t expect you to take that para above seriously. Or would you? Why, are you cheese? You seem to be a busy man, and I do understand there may be a million things that may be keeping you from writing. But could you give just a little TLC to us, your readers too?

Are you currently in Ghana? A friend of mine will be travelling …. blah blah bla (and she went on and on into talk about how great it would be to live a “poor” life in Africa, and eventually asked “if we could get to know each other” and more blah blah blah :-) )

Hmmm. Of course after reading such a mail I simply had to fire up Firefox and start writing rightaway. Actually I’ve been writing a LOT more recently, except I’ve been writing more and more for myself and not for public consumption.

But the real reason I’ve not been blogging more frequently recently may be that I’ve been so so so “busy” doing nothing. And when I’ve got so much nothing to do, where’s the time to write a new blog post?

Or may be not. But who knows? Anyway … these photos may be a clue:

I know of a man who named his daughter “Innocent” because he felt he wasn’t responsible for that pregnancy. But this one?

This one says only members allowed. Simply key in your username and password and enter. Problem is, anyone can have a username and password these days

Lost Found in translation? A restaurant in China boldly displays this great “Chinglish” menu:

Exactly when I’ll turn 30, I may never know. But going by my “official” date of birth, I’m about 20 or so little moons shy of this critical point in life. What’s really special about the age 30 anyway?

I really don’t know. And that’s got me thinking — a lot. Sometimes even worrying.

Like the “Teddy Bear” (Teddy Pendergrass), I’ve never missed a thing throughout this twenty-something fine years I’ve spent on this little planet. The good, the bad, the very ugly — I’ve seen it all. I’ve lost some, but I’ve won even more.

I’ve seen love come knocking at my door so many times– and so many times I’ve been too deeply stuck in my own little world to get up and turn the door.

That I’ve drifted away from the yellow brick road in recent times needs no mention. It continues to amaze me how a simple “conforming gimmick” quickly took a whole new life all by itself.

But now that I’m 100% convinced that no girl really wants me, it’s time to start living for the one single person who really matters to me: which is me (despite what I might have made you girls to believe).

Ironically though, the more I close up this little life of mine and really live for myself, the more I genuinely find myself seeking the interest of others. The fewer — but deeper — the relationships I build. All the long and loose talk obviously give so much instant gratification, but never help anyone grow.

30 is beckoning, though I may never know when it exactly arrives. Time to move on. Time to stop worrying and start living.

[Below is Teddy Pendergrass singing "In My Time" (1984) ]

Last year I banned myself from cooking, and here’s why: just see the photo below. For some reason, any food I try to cook gets burnt. Heck, I even burn water!

I remember very well the last time I cooked — with BB (Big Bully — my big sister). We were both in the kitchen waiting for the food to get ready, while her (then) 6-month old baby was sleeping in the next room. Somehow we drifted into a conversation, and before we knew it, the food had burnt — right under our big noses.

And how did we get to know the food had burnt? We heard this wee cry from the baby and rushed over to check why she was crying. Suddenly we stood staring at each other: the food was burning and the smoke was choking the baby!

And just for your information, I studied Catering for three good years at school, and I even made an “A” in the final exam. So much for the restructuring of our educational system

So how do I eat? What do I eat?

Actually, most of the time, I don’t. That’s a trick I learnt when I was a kid: hunger doesn’t kill– at least not that quickly. When I do eat, it’s mostly juices (because fresh fruits and veges are difficult to come by here in Accra) and biscuits. On rare occassions I get the Esthers and Dzigbordis to make me pepper soup.

And by now you should have figured out why I’m writing all this: I’m just trying to woo Esther to come over and make me pepper soup. If you’re reading this, Esther, someone needs you. Pepperly. Souply. Dearly.

Here’s one odd-old-new news: I was one of the lucky folks who won MarketingSherpa’s weekly book contest way back in December, 2007. The book I won: What’s Your BQ: Learn How High Brand Quotients Helped 35 Companies Succeed, written by branding expert extraordinaire, Sandra Sellani.

And here’s the interesting part: the book arrived in my Post Office letter box here in Accra, Ghana, on the 28th of December 2007 — but I only got hold of it today, 12th of April!

What happened? Confession: I hardly pay a visit to the local Post Office these days. In fact, yesterday was the first time I paid a visit to my local Post Office this year. My life is now run almost entirely online.

Thank you MarketingSherpa and Sandra Sellani for this book.

[Yes, I wear pink stuff. I adore pink.]

Just for everyone’s information, Dinah — yes, the same Dinah who was, but is no more — was here with me early in the week, for three days. No, nothing fancy going on here: she was simply here to fulfill a long promised (and always postponed) visit.

She got here Tuesday evening. With so much water gone under the bridge already, there was really not much to talk about, except reminiscing over what could have been. So she slept like a she-bull, while I sat up most of the night, all night actually, trying to write on paper what I felt in my heart.

Wednesday — the only full day she spent here — was hectic, to say the least, at least for me. We hit the streets, mostly on foot, visiting many important places in Accra. What were the highlights of the day? Well, depends on which one of us you ask.

For me, it was great tracing back memories of my early days in Accra — through the streets of Osu, all those places I used to hang out way back then (I’m talking of traditional Osu neighbourhoods like Anumansa, Kinkawe, Ako-Adgei, etc, NOT just Oxford Street).

But perhaps the real highlight of our day out was the visit to the Accra Shopping Mall, where we did a LOT of window shopping (yes, we managed to resist the temptation to buy anything at all). Actually I simply followed along, playing the “nice boy” role, while being whirled around from shop to shop, and enduring one feminine lecture after another — on topics from bra types to panty types and everything else in-between.

Anyway, I survived the day. Heck, I actually enjoyed it, and would have enjoyed it even more if I wasn’t walking with the guilt of carrying a camera with a dead battery

Though Dinah’s visit was such a brief one, this was a real break I seriously needed. This was my first non-working day out in a very long time! Her visit also (sort of) re-set the clock for me: the void she left behind (and I’m not just talking about her visit) has got me thinking about the things that really matter to me.

Here are two more photos: the first taken way back then, when we were everything to each other; and the latter taken during our day out (that was the ONLY shot the camera could take before the battery died completely). Do these two photos (and the one above, which was also taken during her trip here) tell you anything at all?

If you do follow me on Twitter, you will remember about a week ago I said I was going to work on some 3,000-plus ADSL modems. Yep, no typo here: I had this unpleasant task to update the firmware and pre-configure a large consignment of ADSL modems — a little over 3,000 units — for one local ADSL service provider. This was to make these boxes work with both their ATM and IP DSLAMS.

How I got myself into this big holly mess is another story altogether — that will, hopefully, be told in the not too distant future.

But I’m glad the work is done. It took exactly 8 days — within which time I never stepped out of my bedroom-turned-workshop, and never had more then 10 hours of sleep (total). Of course I got great help from my little friends Christopher Bennett and Remy Edmundson, and I’m really grateful for their help.

Now that this torture is over, it’s about time I moved on: go out there into the streets of Accra, find a cute little girl who can think, marry, have a whole lot of kids, and live happily thereafter.

Or something like that. What ‘ya think?

Technorati Tags: ADSL modems, IP DSLAM, ATM DSLAM

If you had been wondering the reason for my silence for nearly two weeks, here’s why: I had to travel to The Kingdom of Far Far Away to see to some really important urgent issues back home — at the village.

And while I was there, I couldn’t resist the temptation that is girls food. So I overindulged myself, and got sick — seriously sick — as a result.

Anyway, I’m back to Accra and I’m doing pretty well. Time to get started with the much talked about changes and new stuff on this website. Let’s get going.

I have observed many of my readers are not into all this blogging stuff. These people often hit the front page, read the first ten items there, and run away — thinking that’s all there is. This is a big shame on my part, as it clearly means I’m not helping my readers to find my content.

So I’ve been working on ways to make it easier for the Mr. & Mrs Non-Techie Joes to quickly find their way around this website. Here are some of the current navigational aids:

1. Archives Page: The archives page lists all the past journal entries, neatly arranged in reverse chronological order. Note that this page lists only the journal entires (powered by WordPress), and doesn’t include those pages outside the WordPress system
2. I’ve got some really neat hacks and guides coming soon. These will live outside the journal, but will have a clear navigation on the left like this Einstein collection and the great quotes
3. Site Search: Look up, to the right. I’ve just built a search tool for this site, using Google’s Custom Search Engine solution. This should be the easiest way to quickly locate any information around here
4. Pagination: I’ve also implemented a numbered pagination system at the bottom of all archive pages of the journal. See, for instance, the front page of the journal.

I’m still tinkering around over here. My goal is to make it dead simple for everyone to quickly find their way around this website. If I’ve gone through the trouble of writing something, I’ve got to do all it takes to make it easy for people to find what I write.