Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 1:08 a.m.

Here are the old templates that I still have on my computer. A few early versions (including a X'mas version with falling snow i.e. falling asterisks* on screen...) were missed and exist only in my brain now...

If you have used Diaryland before, you would note that it's hopelessly primitive - so primitive that in the early years, I had to type the html code for paragraph in order to open a new paragraph. There is nowhere you can upload a picture, insert a hyperlink or change the colour of the font without knowing the html code either unless you upgrade to gold membership. Obviously there is also no comment box provided unless you pay the extra. The fact that it's so basic had taught me a lot of things though. Starting with p, I began to know how to use br, img, a href etc., and I had to write the template for myself if I wasn't happy with the very ugly free templates they provided. These are all good training on web design and this blog (as well as my website) are where I can test ideas and play around with new techniques.

One reason I didn't move to xanga was that I couldn't understand how its template worked. Diaryland gave me a blank box where I could simply paste the code of the already tested design from Dreamweaver, while xanga tried to look helpful and divided the page into numerous sections which I could customize. It's too user-friendly or too sophisticated that I couldn't bother to try to understand its mechanism. Just give me blankness to fill in please! Another thing is that xanga is more designed for people who like to be linked together while diaryland with its poor features (no comment allowed!) does not allow for this kind of user interaction, but this also means that you get more privacy in a way. It is no longer a popular blog provider so you can keep that indie feel to your blog.

2003. Einmal ist Keinmal... The influence by The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is very obvious. Haha. I must have read the book around 2003. I remember discussing it with Mimi in great excitement.

2003 or 2004. At that time I had begun to build my own website (Yahoo Geocities! OMG.) and it had a 飛行棋 themed layout. I used one of the combaters for the layout here.

2004 or 2005. I really liked these words from 《莊子嚙�大宗師篇》. I was hopelessly pretentious. Haha.

That's 2006 for sure. Daikon and I spent a very lovely day in Bamburgh, a village by the coast of Northumberland.

2007? I did that illustration based on Matisse's painting. I quite like this template.

2008. I took that photo after finishing a sketch of a church in Liverpool. I was sitting in the dock area.

2009. A variation.

2010. Returned to simplicity and included links I had on the website.

NOW! Incorporation of a couple of new tricks I learnt earlier when designing Hiro's website.