Making plans, the kind that go awry

[vovat]

Wow, the weekend seemed to go by even more quickly than usual. I didn't really do much worth mentioning, either. bethje and I went to the Olive Garden on Friday (I just finished the food about an hour and a half ago) and watched the original Karate Kid. I also had a dream that I feel is worth mentioning, so I'll do so in my next paragraph.

In this dream, I was playing a game that was a combination of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Final Fantasy IV. I got up to a part in the first game where Toad answered a phone, and it turned out to be someone asking one of the enemies a trivia question. Then, after something about the Moon falling apart, it switched to FF4. After seeing the beginning (which was nothing like the beginning of the real game; I think it had something to do with Cid introducing a new invention) and trying to equip Cecil with some armor, I realized that I was playing someone else's saved game. (I guess this version must have had a New Game + feature.) So I tried to reset it, but then I couldn't get back into the game again. At one point, I ended up playing Metroid instead. I (well, Samus, not really "I," but you know what I mean) was in Mother Brain's lair, but there was a break in the wall above her jar, so I could just go right past her. At one point I even jumped right INSIDE the jar, but that drained my energy really quickly. I woke up before I could get FF4 up and running again. That always seems to happen right when my video game dreams are getting interesting.

For several years now, I've been writing lists, sometimes accompanied by brief descriptions, of characters and locations from apocryphal Oz books. I'd like to come up with some database or something that includes all of these things, but I'm not sure of the best way to do it. Another Oz project that I'd like to do is a map showing all of these new locations, but since I can't draw worth crap, I'd almost certainly need help with that.

Speaking of my lack of artistic ability, I've tried to change the colors on my journal, and once again come up with something too loud and gaudy. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can make it a little more readable?

Comments

[aliste.livejournal.com]

As far as journal design, I always just start with the LJ-provided themes. There are hundreds of them—every layout has a different set of possible color schemes, so you might be able to find something you like without having to adjust it manually. It's true that some of the pre-made ones are gaudy too—I usually tweak them so they use fewer different colors—but it gives you a start with a set of colors that are intended to go together.

Your Oz apocrypha project sounds like something you could build a wiki around, especially if you wanted help from others I have no idea how to start a wiki, though. So that wasn't very helpful. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've used LJ-provided themes before, but there don't seem to be that many of them (maybe I'm just not looking in the right place?), and there's often something about them I don't really like.

I actually signed up for an Oz wiki on Wikia last year, but I never had the time or the inclination to do anything with it. I guess a better idea might be to get the information all sorted first, and THEN try to find a way for people to access it.

[aliste.livejournal.com]

Hm, well, I guess the number of styles available depends on your account type; I know paid users get more choices. And there might be fewer S1 styles than S2, but I'm not sure about that. If you do switch from one to the other, the site remembers your previous settings, so if you wanted to try something new and then didn't like it, you can go back to the old style without having to re-do everything.