Well I just got a call from my job shop, work has been cancelled again. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that now I am part of the rat race, I get tossed about like so much limp lettuce. Yesterday I turned up for work only to be told my shift had been cancelled, and five minutes after being told (after having travelling an hour across town) I get a text from the job shop saying ‘oh by the way, works cancelled’. Great.
I was going to write a blog today complaining about how unproductive my last few days have been, but it’s really not been that bad. However, the unpredictability of temporary work contracts has got my neck hair up and I feel like beating my chest about it. I mean, I’m not special in any respect and there are a million other people who have to put up with exactly the same as me, that’s not what is bothering me, it’s how little my time is worth to others.
It makes you wonder when you are working a £6.50/hr shift that may or may not happen, whether there is something you forgot to do earlier in life or you’re on the receiving end of a karmic smack down from some unhappy God. I mean I know I stood on top of storm swept hills waving copper pipes back and forth, cursing your name and denying your existence, but come on Dude, give me a break!
Unfortunately I know the honest truth of the situation is that I am gonna be my own salvation, if I can pull my finger out. I need to start transcribing notes about my book before I start to ebb again. It’s just hard to get a grips on something like this, I can turn my hand to most things but when I look at the totality of my project it is extremely intimidating. I think I need to read up on how other authors get their books off the ground.
Now onto another matter, that of one of my favourite websites, lifehacker.com. Yesterday they launched the new design, and it’s dreadful. I am not the most charitable person so go and take a look for yourself. Compare it to the old lifehacker to give yourself an idea of the difference. Admittedly the old lifehacker suffered from some clichés such as scanlines, ‘horrible generic stock art woman hostess lady’ background and a severe fixed width design but it was eminently readable and enjoyable for its simplicity.
The one most commented factor that disturbs the design of the new LH is the placement of the left hand adverts. Among other things as some have commented it’s more normal to place skyscraper style adverts on the right hand side of the screen, and while LH are trying to be edgy and go that extra inch to get you to pay attention to the ads they just end up being incredibly intrusive. They are on par with pop over flash adverts, or those unfurling pages which you see in the corner of your browser window which ‘turn the page’ when you mouse over them.
I don’t want to complain too much about the overhaul, as I think it could be fixed with a few tweaks.
If you hadn’t noticed it’s a simple two column layout, and that’s just fine for this kind of site. However there is a massive transgression with the adverts pushing out into the second column, from the left. Simply put they need to be horizontally centred in the left hand column.
Secondly, the main content is under a 728px banner advert, but not center aligned to it, this looks absolutely hideous. Either move the banner or move the content.
These are the two biggest faux pas in my estimation, and of course in the end this is just my preference. Some people have expressed their support, but I almost get the impression it’s simply because everyone else has been so negative. Check out the thread and add your opinion, either way.
I think I will get down and dirty with the FF extension stylish this evening and see what can be done to redeem this mess.
