Dayna.me

This is going to be my first post in 7 months so please pardon me if I’m shooting randomly. I’m pretty sure no one’s going to be reading this but just for my own references in the future: As some might know, the past year had been a very difficult year for me and I just wanted to thank all the angels in my life who has see me through these times. I really appreciate how you guys are here for me, picking up my calls at 2am and simply just listening to me. Without your support, I might still be on Titanic sinking… fast.

That aside, I am getting back on my feet and getting my blog back on track! This layout has been hovering around for the past 3 – 4 months and I have finally managed to sit down and work on it. Minimalistic – not my usual style but it really hits close to home. Life is as simple it can gets – friends, family, food, tea & just simply enjoying myself, what’s more in life to ask for?

While I was away, so much has happened AKA lots of upgrades were required both to WordPress and plugins. I am still fiddling with what’s new on the latest version though I highly doubt I will be needing any of the new features (if any). Meanwhile, I got most of the bugs floating around fixed. I did not carry out cross browsers testing so shoot if you noticed anything quirky!

There are so many things I wanted to blog about, to remember in the future and this will be the first. 2011 was the most valuable lesson in my life thus far and I can now tell the world, I’m a better and happier person and most importantly, I am myself.

WordPress love or hate?

My blog¹ has been powered by WordPress since 2005 which makes this the 5th year I have been using WordPress. As WordPress evolved into a larger and more complex blogging platform with 1001 features² and plugins, the number of problems it’s been giving me has also increased.

I’m not known to be an adventurous person hence I stick to WordPress for fear that any changes might screw up the entire blog. Tweeps following me³ would have known that I am rather famous for screwing up my blog this year⁴. During the course of my unfortunate experiences, I had written some notes to remind myself what to do/not to do on WordPress. This will help serve as a constant reminder to myself and hopefully minimise any form of disasters on Amour Chaleur in the future.

1. Do not upload an image with the same name as any of the page/posts slugs. It might screw up the URL. I lost an entire page together with 60 over comments recently.
2. Check the support forum to see if there’s any major issues with the newest upgrade before deciding whether to upgrade or not.
3. Backup WordPress database before upgrading to a newer version.
4. Deactivate all plugins before upgrading especially if the site is running many plugins. This will reduce any issues or problems with upgrading. When I upgraded from 2.8.6 to 2.9, I got a memory limit error and it was fixed when I deactivated all my plugins.
5. When there’s anything wrong with WordPress permalinks, go to the settings page and “save changes” to refresh the permalinks. This usually works for me.
6. If you have edited any of the core/plugin files, remember to note down which file/line of code you have edited before upgrading. It’s best to backup the files before upgrading just in case you cannot remember which file had been amended.
7. If it’s possible to avoid using plugins – avoid. The website loads faster when there are lesser plugins running. This is a fantastic tutorial to output Flickr RSS feed without the use of a plugin.
8. When things go wrong with a plugin and no changes were made recently⁵, leave it alone for a while, even plugins need a break sometimes. It may just works again later.
9. If there’s a page template with the same name as a page, the page will automatically use that page template. In this case, it is not possible to switch to the default template.
10. When posting “fake” comments⁶ to test the commenting system, published a new private post for it if the comments subscription plugin is running. This prevents spamming⁷ those who have subscribe to your posts with emails.

1. Confession (2005), Liberta (2005 – early 2008) and Amour Chaleur (December 2008 – present) [«]
2. I’m exaggerating this but it does have a lot of features! [«]
3. If you have not, you really should. I’m nice (kidding)! [«]
4. I have messed up my WordPress platform at least 4 times during 2010 and it’s only February now [«]
5. There are no plugins/WordPress upgrades and the settings had not been changed. [«]
6. Sometimes I do this to make sure that the commenting system is working correctly after I made changes to the comments template or activated some new comments plugins [«]
7. I am so sorry to Cherlynn and whoever received the emails with all the “tests” contents [«]

I have finally managed to finish this new layout. Bim Bim shall be missed but I hope you would like the new one as well. This layout was named as “Dear Diary”, the reason is pretty obvious I guess. This layout was designed into a notebook/diary. The merry-go-round was actually a separate illustration that wasn’t meant for this layout but since I like it a lot, I thought why not just put it in as well. This diary has a bit of a scrapbook style as well. I love lace! The little tabs on the right are the navigation. The photo strips on the left are those taken during my 21st birthday. Check out my flickr for more photos.

I know this layout is very pinkish but it’s in my favourite colour. With all the ribbons and lace, I doubt any guys will like this layout but it screams “Dayna” on the entire layout. Dear Diary is the Nth version of the new layout. I have been having a serious case of layout block since the end of my UOL exams so I kept redoing it. It was until 3 days ago I suddenly of this idea of having my online journal looking like a real life diary.

Version N - 1

Continue reading "Goodbye Bim Bim, Hello to me!"