My New Domain Name

After about a year of using the name James as my online alias in chat-rooms, I have realized that it works much better than my Hebrew name. I never liked my previous name, but I could never figure out what to replace it with.

Now, James happened by chance. Any random name would do, and it was simple and accessible, and just uncommon enough in the chat.

I use their domain services, which are working fine.

So, with a more western name in tow, I have moved to this new domain!   JamesKoss.com

All previous links should still work. Everything should work the same, really. And all pages should redirect to the new domain. Eventually, the old domain will die-off, so make sure you bookmark the new domain, instead!

Updating The Backgrounds

So, today, I felt like doing something about how this blog previously looked like; a tileable forest-green background image, with all these nice partially transparent gadgets. It just looked silly.

I really love partially transparent backgrounds and outlines for gadgets and different parts! It gives a smooth and easy-on-the-eye feeling for the looker. Still, I felt the background was overwhelming. So, I went at it! :-D

I decided to create a nifty fade-in effect, using a regular fixed (does not scroll) sky background, and putting a landscape photo at the bottom. Scroll down! See how they merge! I used a PNG image for the bottom, and to reduce loading times, I also used TinyPNG on it.

Thanks for good work and free service.

While going through the CSS edits, I decided to change some opacity values and colors. For example, I made it so the Header has a darkened background. Also, I gave those floating (backgroundless) texts a "text-shadow" CSS effect for an outline. There are a few more fixes implemented, and generally, I am very satisfied! Visual design is exciting!~

Comment, and tell me how you feel about the new-ish design!

Hiatus & Changes

I have decided to stop writing stories. I will keep them online for now, but I will not do anything en-towards it.

It is, indeed, a lovely thing how time does not really apply in the world of the Internet. I have had quite a hiatus from blogging, due to the emotional crash of deciding to drop my literature workings, and expected to drop the blogging, as well. Surprisingly, I found myself time and again thinking about the blog in a more personal manner - disregarding the value of it as a tool to advance books.

My muse has been faltering.
Now, it has returned!

I shall remove the "Daily" part of the blog, but still use it often. Many ideas must be discussed, and many an experience should be told! :-)

Here's a little shiny I've made after recently joining a hobby team of MMORPG developers.

Imagine someone using my sword to kill!

 

Design Update #2

Today, celebrating our reaching beyond a thousand (1,000) viewers to my blog, I have decided to update - change really - its' design. Hooray! :)

The result is in front of you. I hope no bugs occur. I used a simple Blogger template, and spent the day editing and tweaking; aiming for something clean, clear, simple & pretty. I did my best on the title. Photoshoppin' is hard! Even if I use GIMP2.0. :P

Cheers!~

The GIMP 2.8.2 Experience

Does The Trick!

GNU Image Manipulation Program is how they call it. It is basically a Photoshop for Linux, but it works on Windows and other platforms as well. Also, it's completely free and awesome.

Never the less, I have been retouching my eBook covers and Facebook photos these days, and have discovered just how difficult it is to get the results one would like. Even, any result that would really feel satisfying. Hard work changing colors, fixing pixels, moving layers, fixing transparency, and generally getting a result that would not scare away blind people.

Feel free to comment on my eBook cover updates. ;-)

Update: Flame On!

It

Burns!

This is an update to my previous Olive Oil Lamp post. On your left you will see a simple photograph (webcam) of me holding one of my DIY olive oil glass jar lamps. :=D Daddy is so proud!

Basically, I use a rather wide thick-glass jar, cut some white cotton sock for a wick, and bend some steel wire to hold that wick in place above the oil. Beautiful. Utsukushii. I have this smaller one for my room - a lovely hand warmer and atmosphere setter, and another bigger one for my outdoors camp. The lid is used to kill the flame, while it also keeps the smoke inside as it dies.

Categories For Blog Posts

After considering the organisational methods of my blog, and seeing that navigating around this bundle of text may not be so easy, I have decided to categorize posts.

This means that every post will be tagged according to its' categories. This is rather flexible, and to my own division, so it is not expected to be purely logical. I have added a cute Tag Cloud on the <<-- left for your enjoyment. ;-)

This is the entire list of categories as of today:
review, opinion, thoughts, reflections, update, memoir, book, ebook, publish, zen, wilderness, lifestyle, inspiration, motivation, poetry, writing, author, blog, forum, media, help, action, fantasy, epic, drama, novel, series, anime, manga, comic, tv, life, advice, how to, howto, health, diet, nutrition, tech, technical, game, garden, gardening, plants, trees, herbs, diy, do it yourself, guide, experiment, finance, money, amazon, programming, coding.

My Third Book

I have started writing my third book. It is not a continuation of my past books, although I am planning to sequel "Robert The Fail" with another title ;-)

Hans Fallada at work.
I should be as keen!

This book is part of a series of notes I have taken regarding the meaning of life. I know all authors share their opinions regarding the meaning of life in their stories. Never the less, I intend to write a short book about taking chances, and promoting oneself within the social game of life. This is very specific, and will handle a very specific topic.

I plan on releasing it around mid-January. Be prepared to meet Mark Chandler in his new adventure titled "Future Value"!

Technical Update #2,504

I have updated some of the gadgets on your right. Among them is an image-link to my first published eBook and short story "Short Link, Quick Wink."

Please comment to recommend any gadgets you think should appear on my, or any, blog. :-)