new layout

[helenic]

Finally, something new at art-fag.net, although not what I was expecting. I got back from Catriona's at 3am and somehow this happened (the images are for a livejournal layout I never got round to using) and I didn't get to bed until 7am. I woke up three hours later and now have an essay to write, a tailcoat and dress shirt to hire for Girton Ball tonight, and various errands to run before I have to stay up until 7am tonight as well.

I think that a power nap is probably in order at some point before this evening. That and lots of caffeine and other additives. Still, it feels so damn good to be making things again.

Comments

[olithered.livejournal.com]

I like it! And I must send you a postcard sometine :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thankyou! and what else is the UMS for? :)

[starrybeaten.livejournal.com]

I think it looks wonderful. -Kristal (pixielust)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

rah! thankyou! xx

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

Yay for caffinated substances.

*potters to order taxi*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

woo! I was considering trying to get hold of other additives for tonight, but given current state of sleep-deprivation would probably not be wise...

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

Taxi ordered.

I wouldn't go with the extra substances if I were you, Aslan won't approve ;) Plus caffine will be everywhere tonight, so you might as well make use of it.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

no. it's ALL about the free red bull and double vodkas.

They didn't have ANY frock coats smaller than a 36" chest at EITHER of the cambridge branches! so I am in a dj. it won't stop me wearing a top hat though.

[mostlyacat.livejournal.com]

I always start comments with "yay", so this one is going to be different. ;-)

Your site is beautiful.

I am intrigued: What do you use to make it? Where do you get your pictures and how do you do it? What do you use to make the layout of the page? Does it make the HTML for you or do you work out the layout and then hand code it?

My really old shite site is here (http://www.salokin.demon.co.uk/) (it's really a very dull site). I should improve evil_nick (http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/evil_nick/) some day.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The graphics are made with stock images from photonica (http://www.photonica.com) and my own paraphernalia - for the main layout, I edited a photo of a woman on a bridge to make it look like an old polaroid using my own photoshop brushes, and then added brushes made from scanned buttons, old envelopes, and my loeb of the Iliad (among other things). It's all done in photoshop, mostly with brushes I've made myself from scans and my own photos.

I code it by hand, using CuteHTML for convenience (it doesn't give me any help with code - the html is all out of my head). Usually I make the graphic first, then work out the divs and things afterwards.

I'm glad you like it :) It's more of a filler-page than anything else - I'm working on something big to come over easter.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Wow - just, wow.

I'm haunted by "When I sailed the ship of stars" for some reason. But there's so much there that captures the imagination.

Wow. :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

eep! you've been like, reading it all ....

thankyou, though :)

[inslowmotion.livejournal.com]

Your sites are always great.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

rah. thanks :)

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

Oh Helen. You're too beautiful for me to bear.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thankyou. *hugs*

what was it about it that resonated with you, particularly? imagery? words? I didn't think it was beautiful at all - it was only intended to adequately replace the woefully out of date previous version. I'm glad this touched you so deeply, but I'm also curious why, if you don't mind saying...

[sisuphos.livejournal.com]

waaaaaaaah!!!

and other adolescent squeeing.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*raises eyebrow, frantically trying to control giggles and thereby maintain look of disinterested amusement*

you have to stop doing that.

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

No he doesn't! Because I find it immensely amusing, and not a tiny bit meta-flattering! :D

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

It's very pretty; p'raps you can teach me some shiny HTML and Java magic sometime, or point me to a Compsci genius...:)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

there are plenty of free tutorials online if you look. I taught myself, originally ... it's just a matter of practice :)

[taimatsu]

What sort of postcards, by the way?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

pretty, arty ones! I have about three hundred, and have a complex term/vacation rotation system for which are on my walls at any one time ... they include a large stack of art ones, including an art nouveau set, a Giger set, an Escher set, and lots of individual postcards of paintings I particularly like; an anti-consumerist set with satirical adverts (including the famous Prozac washing up powder one) a fantasy series; two of the earliest papyri of John's gospel (from karajanks) various ones which have been sent to me, including Amelie, the Cat in the Hat, Emily Strange etc, some Tori ones, some Cocteau Twins ones, about fifty collected free from bars which are arty advertisements for things or simply free postcard modern art, my new set of Tolkein ones, and, erm. a lot more :)

will you be able to make the Bacchae readthrough on Mon 29th/Tues 30th? (not sure which yet). Elly's hosting it and I was particularly hoping you could make it because I thought you were very good in Peter Pan.

[taimatsu]

Errrr. I don't know that I've been invited to it; I am not free Monday evenings, though I am free on Tuesdays. I would like to come if it's a Tuesday, I'm welcome, and I can manage transport and getting home not-too-late (I will have to get trains as Robert is playing bridge that night). But yes.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

well, I'm organising it - Elly offered to host because it was the only way she'd be able to attend. And if you could read his entry, you're invited.

It's going to be the usual afternoon readthrough evening-party format, I imagine, so you wouldn't need to stay the night :) I don't know how easy Elly's house is to get to - have you ever been there?

it would be lovely to see you, anyway :) (http://www.livejournal.com/users/libellum/44998.html)

[taimatsu]

I have been to Elly's a number of times, and it's not so far from mine. I could manage, we'd just have to work out timings so's I could leave by about 9.30pm. I probably wouldn't arrive till after 7, too. I also can't afford to take leave :(

If I *can* make it, I have some rusty Biblical Greek, so might manage the bilingualism.

I totally missed your entry about readthroughs! I am very much up for RHPS, though I am most disappointed to have missed the casting. I must come, anyway, in order to see Robert being the Narrator.

Am fairly familiar with RHPS the video (but not at all with the audience bits), not at all with Bacchae or Secret History.

And thank you for being approving of my tragic motherliness :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I think we were considering having it as an afternoon readthrough. It depends on what Yves and Catriona can manage, though. Would Robert not be able to come also?

[taimatsu]

We both have day-jobs, so afternoons are basically out, unless he is overwhelmed enough by the prospect to want to take leave. I only have 12 leave days left before October and need to save as many as possible for potential familial emergencies, so I'm not available in the afternoon.

[taimatsu]

Oh yes, and I have, at various times, collected postcards of portraits of people- - mostly paintings, but some photographs. When I lived at home with my parents I had them all arranged above my bed. I haven't for ages now, though, and really miss having them out :(

[tunneldweller.livejournal.com]

I do something similar with calendar pictures. If you catch the sales in late January, you can easily rack up quite a collection. I have Escher, two Amy Brown's, a guy who draw wizards, old Japanese prints, black and white kittens in odd places, those brillantly colored under-sea type, castles of England, a bizarre b/w photographer, and one of various local artists. This year I added "Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky" and "Photo Art 2004" which is full of bright colors and odd shapes at equally odd angles. There is the problem of taking time to cut them out...perhaps post cards are superior in this way. But in an ugly dormitory room like this one, they make great wall paper.

[taimatsu]

So if I wanted to send you postcards, where would I send them?

[whatifoundthere.livejournal.com]

I love your marginalia icons. Do you know what works they're from?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I really can't remember. I believe the first one was written by Bach on a manuscript of St John's gospel, but I could be wrong.

[karajanks.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's lovely! I particularly like the intrat and the first page of the addendum. It's wonderful how unexpected good stuff can come out of being desperately busy-- it's like your body goes into overdrive getting everything done and then overproduces by mistake. 'S nice. :)

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

It's gorgeous. The text on the poetry is extremely small and hard to read though, I had to copy and paste it into Notepad to read it. Otherwise, lovely!

[entangledbank.livejournal.com]

Yes, elegance and beauty in spades, but the text on those poems is almost too hard to bother with. Gissa bit more of your screen, m'dear.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

yes; I realised this when I put it up but didn't have time to change it all. I've done it now.

[bassista.livejournal.com]

you rock. you must teach me to use photoshop. or i should sit down and figure out the german on mine... hrm... and yeah. absofuckinglutely gorgeous. :)

[oranges.livejournal.com]

i enjoyed your bio. maybe it's just the anglophile in me, but something about the writing of you british students seems more pleasingly precise than that of your american peers. anyhow, i suspect i'd like you more for your indiscretions.

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

It's just beautiful, Helen. I prefer it to your last one, which I took against for no real reason although it also was stunning.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thankyou! the last one was very trite. Although it was a lot better done (I'd hope) than the usual "stars and faeries" teenage sites, it was still a bit cliche. I mean I don't like avoiding cliche for the sake of it, not if it's something meaningful, but I can see why you took against it.

I'm still waiting for things to happen at brightyoungthings, but I imagine it's one of those cases of not having time until you've finished this essay - and got a first - and done an mPhil ... with which I can sympathise, and why this layout happened in 4 hours :)

[verte.livejournal.com]

Wow, yes, pretty, although not as (what I might readily term as being) 'you' as some of your others. The 'intrat' is glorious. Where's the BDSM stuff going?

How was the ball??

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Rah, thanks :)

what I always say when someone says something isn't "me": unless I'm actively imitating someone else (and I wasn't) anything I create is always going to be "me" because that's where it's coming from. For websites, I tend to go for "slices" rather than a summary - I like being unpredictable, and if I tried to do something which fitted people's idea of me every time, it would get monotonous. I like variation, and a lot of designs (especially quick ones like this one), while unexpected (it surprised me too), aren't "not me", they're just unfamiliar corners. I mean I can't go for rich dark autumnal faeryish layouts every time...

anyway yes. It's only a filler really until I get the art nouveau one painted and scanned. I liked the intrat too - I find stuff works best when written straight into the html rather than agonised over. The bdsm stuff is going to be at art-fag.net/fetish and there'll be a link to it - I'm revamping the domain content over easter, if I have time.

The ball was amazing. Will write entry later. Good weekend?

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

Wish I'd gone to the ball...Liz told me all about it. Thanks to you I've now gone all Compsci and am trying to master HTML, Java and Photoshop to make my site prettier.

I look forward to this site.