Update

Attention: as of this post we are–

not making any profit.

Thank you.

Must Read For Awhile

Back soon. Must read for awhile.

Expected time of return: 3-5 days with a 5 week tolerance.

Books to read (in random order):

• The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlante
• 42 Fallacies by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (started: 20% complete)
• You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You Are Deluding Yourself by David McRaney (started: 20% complete)
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (started: 44% complete)
• The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene (started: 48% complete)

 

 

To The Creators of The DePo Masthead Theme

Update: No response from these people. Not even an automated email. I was not able to post this issue in the wordpress forums. The thread would automatically close, I’m guessing because I said “fucking”. Anyhow I changed themes again.

(The following is an email sent to automattic.com in regards to an error in the theme design)

On the archive page in the “DePo Masthead” theme, the navigation links at the bottom of the page are incorrect. Please reference lostwhitemale archive page:

https://lostwhitemale.wordpress.com/2011/

Scroll to the end of the posts (10 total) and observe the navigation link to go to “newer entries”. This is not correct because upon clicking on the “newer entries” link I am, in fact, taken to older entries. Additionally the archives page is sorted by newest to oldest, making the “newer entries” button egregiously misplaced.

When you have the chance would you please correct this issue. I have grown most fond of this theme and wish not to provide an impetus for confusion amongst my dimwitted readers.

Additional comments:

–The default font for the header is fucking enormous. Not in a good way.

–Please consider making the three posts on the front page navigable (a nifty scrolling effect, if possible, would bring a sharp modern touch to the theme).

–When posts with embedded video are displayed on the home page, the video’s dimensions are distorted. Consider making the frames wider or auto sizing the video. Please see my current home page for an example (the post with the embedded TV On The Radio video):

https://lostwhitemale.wordpress.com

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ever Truly yours,

lostwhitemale

Sold My Soul For A Good Design

I’ve been had. I placed my wealth in the design of my blog. I had been sold the idea that true value is in gaining followers–followers lured in by aesthetics. Not aesthetics in a positive meaning, but cheap garish aesthetics. I suppose my subconcious was making this connection all along, and I have been oblivious until now.

I don’t want anybody seduced into reading my blog. I want the focus to be on the words; the communication with other humans. Good writing doesn’t appeal to flashy effects. Good writing simply appeals to the mind.

As a result of this insight, I will be experimenting with various truly minimalistic themes which place the focus of the design on readability.

 

How badly do you want to read the shit I write?

I was tired of the invectives being screamed by the buttons. I took a stand and said, “Fuck you, buttons.”

Found this minimalistic dark theme. I think it looks bad ass. But I am being sold something, I am being dangled shiny things. While the themes overall appearance is minimalistic and conjures feelings of,”Man the author must be a bad ass;” the font is too small. To mollify this issue I can simply purchase access to the custom design features for the low price of 30/year.

The font is too small, but it is free.

While I could pay 30/year to have access to the custom design features, I have rationalized accepting the theme’s default fonts. I propose: most would see the font as too small, I disagree. The font is just right because it is free–fuck you and your haughty aesthetics.

Look, Buttons

Last couple of days I have been consumed by buttons. In my attempt at redesigning the lostwhitemale, I decided to change the links in my feature widget. First I decided to try and make the goofy pictures, I originally had, look more–sophisticated. The sophistication of goofy pictures did not produce my desired results. I abandoned the goofy pictures on the advice of a friend. My friend said, “I don’t like the pictures,” this was his advice. I murdered my goofy pictures. They had become obsolete. I decided to try to make some dapper buttons.

Making buttons is exhausting and stupid. First I Google “button generator” several results were returned; I make my way through the first entries. Now I expect the first link I click on to meet all my requirements, and the service better be free. The free part is the main focus–I will sacrifice some of my needs not being met, for a substandard free product. But sometimes you get lucky and find a product that is professional in nature, and is given at no charge. Making buttons must be a high demand market because the available sites that offer free professional products are hard to find. If you want a well designed button for free, prepare to do some data mining. After sifting through several tools I found most will give you the sloppy buttons for free and require payment for the good stuff. Normal and expected behavior of a for profit site.

After uploading three or four different button designs generated from different sites, I finally setteled on some buttons generated on GRSites.com

GRSites offers several different designs all highly customizable. The rub is: you are only allowed to put up to ten characters on a button. Hence, anything that was over ten characters in my links I changed. Really I am not trying to be all trending with the acronyms, I’m just cheap.

I am also still not sure if I like my free buttons. The mirror effect either adds a subtle look or is garish. I am also having a hard time deciding on the size of the button.

Update:

Fuck the buttons.

Music: Kings Of Leon “Pyro”

You got those songs that sing to something deep within us all– a melody that has always been, just waiting to be sung. This song is one of those timeless pieces.

Added to Music/Rock page — here.