Domain
echodrift.com has been around since 2003 though there was one year that I slipped and didn’t get it renewed in time. I was able to register in in March of 2006 and have kept it ever since. It started out as a design/portfolio site. Then it sat for a while with no purpose because I was too busy with college to maintain it. Now that I have more time (and interest) I’ve brought it back as a blog/personal site/network type thing. Better than just having a ‘splash’ page that just has links to my other sites, right?
The blog and content are managed with WordPress.
Plugins used:
- Akismet – for all of the spam.
- Recent Posts – A self-modified version of it, anyway.
- Twitter Tools – to put my most recent ‘tweet’ on my site.
- Ajax Comment Preview – to enable comment previews.
- Different Posts Per Page – Really, one would think WordPress would have this built in.
- Exec-PHP – to be able to use PHP inside WordPress posts and pages.
- WP Pagenavi – for more advanced paging navigation.
Current Design
Released 01/02/09
This theme is actually a mash up of two themes I had worked on a while ago but then abandoned because I didn’t like either of them. I finally had the idea to combine the elements that I did like and this was the result. Resources used for this layout are listed below.
- ki-cek @ Deviantart – swirl brushes.
- Bittbox – paper texture
- Design Revivier – worn edges.
- Brainstorms & Raves – category and tag icons.
- Famfam – silk icons.
Fall leaves
Used from 10.19.08 – 01.02.08
The current design features one of my own photos. I started with the layout of the content before I decided on what the header would look like, which is rather unusual for me. I ended up being stuck on what to do with it until I decided to do a triptych. The content was laid out using the 960 Grid System as a basis. It is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1! (though there are a few things that don’t, like those pesky forms. I’ll fix those later!) Firefox 3 and IE7 seem to like it. I think there is an issue with Firefox 2 and my footer, though. I haven’t checked any other browsers yet so if you see something wrong let me know. Credit to Vikiworks for my social website icons and to Brainstorms & Raves for my category and tag icons.
Renewal
Used from 6.25.08 – 10.19.08
This design was mocked up in Photoshop (and some in Paint; don’t ask) and then coded mostly by hand in Dreamweaver 8. I find the auto complete function very handy sometimes when it isn’t closing tags that don’t need to be closed yet. To my knowledge it validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict and valid CSS 2.1. I’ve tested it in Firefox2, Firefox 3, and IE7. IE7 is a little iffy with my comment form but otherwise displays equally. The color scheme came from a previous version of echodrift that I really didn’t use that much.