Blog @ Melilyn.com

11 of my Favorite Designs

Now, I should clarify… every last one of these is mine. A bit narcissistic I’m sure, but for a good cause. I’ve been trying to break through this mental block and come up with a new, magical design for this blog here. Once I get this block out of the way I feel like I’ll be able to tackle this forum that’s been giving me more problems than anything (but that’s another story for another day).

I remember being so much more creative, back before I started worrying about making everything standards compliant and all that, so I decided to dip back into my old archive folders for a little bit of inspirations. I came across some layouts that were absolutely horrendous… I can’t figure out how I ever passed some of these off! But some, I’m still proud of, months and years later, so I thought I’d share eleven of them with you.

01: Anachronism (Unwritten)

Back in the day, when I had a subdomain on someone else’s site, this was probably the first worthwhile layout I ever created. It’s horrendously coded and probably held together with prayers and e-duct tape, but man I was proud of it at the time! The coolest thing about this layout is that it sparked a friendship (yes, I’m looking at you, LB) that lasts to this day, even if we’re both busy ALLTHETIME. It’s not even really my style, but I love it. Read the rest of this entry »

Medical Adventures

This is probably going to be pretty gross. Sorry. In advance.

So, just under a month ago, I was at work when I noticed that my left leg was a little swollen. It was a little red, and I had a bug bite that was bothering me, but it was nothing really unusual. Except for the fact that it did hurt to put weight on it. A lot.

Through the next week, it just kept getting redder and redder, until I was worrying about it. I thought the bite on my leg was a spider bite, but it didn’t act like a spider bite. It started getting better. Benadryl kept the swelling down (even if I didn’t wake up in the morning… man, that stuff, knocks me out!). I noticed that where it had first turned red, there was a bruise. I should have known then that something was up, because I never bruise. Ever.

Two weeks ago, I woke up and the bruise had swollen up and had… I don’t know, come open or something. It was this oozy black nasty sore thing. I got scared and went straight to the doctor. She took one look at it and sent me straight to the emergency room.

After poking and prodding and taking blood and IV-ing me (I hate needles. I hate needles.), they decided that I had a staph infection of my skin. Cellulitis (be warned of nastiness if you try and google that). They pumped me full of antibiotics, gave me two weeks worth of pills, and then delivered the kicker.

Oh. I’m also diabetic.

So the past two weeks have been lots of pills, bandage changing, and watching everything I eat. Thankfully, the diabetes is pretty easy to get under control. My leg got pretty nasty and now it’s starting to get better… the infection, I think, is gone, but that big open sore thing has to heal up. It’s kind of gooey and gross. Thankfully it’s now scabbing over… so pretty soon this should all be one big ugly scar and happy memories.

Sorry for grossing anyone out. I just wanted to give you an update on what’s been going on. Moral of the story: go to the doctor anyway. Just go. Before you have a big nasty oozy… well, you get the point.

Wow, remember Xanga?

I was talking to James yesterday and he told me that he had rediscovered xanga. I kind of mentally rolled my eyes at him; who needs that pre-myspace site when we (okay, so I) can have amazing and epic blogs of awesomeness? And Facebook??

I went back over there, just now. Yes, to xanga. To see what it’s like over there. And well, they’ve overhauled the main site quite a bit, and added lots of layout-y goodness. Hey, wonder if my account is still on there?

Oh yes. Both of them are. And I started rereading a few entries (I quit xanga right after camp 2005) and was really amazed how conversational I was back then.

I feel so formal on my amazing and epic blog of awesomeness. I want to rant and ramble about anything like I did back in the heyday of all the t-staters rampaging around xanga. Therefore I must, before I get sucked back into the world before Facebook.

Thank you, Hulu

Hulu recently added a desktop client, and it’s been my constant companion since the day it was announced. You may know that we don’t have TV in my house (well, we have three actual TV’s, one of which is in my room, but no cable or satellite or whatnot… just DVD players and such), and so I’ve gotten pretty good at following large numbers of shows online.

Lots and lots of downloads of sometimes questionable legality. YouTube and Limewire become your closest allies.

But anyhow, I’ve been really enjoying Hulu lately, and while they don’t always have the shows I want to watch RIGHT.THIS.SECOND (Lost, Doctor Who, Robin Hood…), I’ve been watching a few new ones.

Legend of the Seeker: Fantasy in the vein of Lord of the Rings or Eragon. I have to admit I snorted at the overly dramatic editing for the first couple of episodes, but then it started getting good. The thing I like about this is that it’s fantasy, but completely independant of some of the fantasy cliches. For example, there are no elves. No dragons. No dwarves. THANK GOODNESS.

The Listener: In walks this totally good-looking Canadian paramedic with piercing blue eyes and an impish grin. Oh, and he can read minds. Hello? Mel’s hooked. It’s not exactly Lost or Fringe, but the last episode I saw had a pretty good plot twist I never saw coming, and that’s getting pretty hard to come by.

Royal Pains: Yeah, so this is pretty much a fun, easygoing show that Tegan and I find pretty entertaining. It’s about a doctor who starts doing house calls in the Hamptons for the rich and the famous. My favorite character is actually Divya, his snarky Indian assistant.

So yes, thank you Hulu for getting me through until all of my favorites start up again. I’m becoming a TV addict!

Full Name or Nickname

I was talking to a girl I work with today; we’ll call her Cassandra. She was telling me that someone we worked with had just called her “Cassie” instead of Cassandra.

“It wouldn’t be so weird if it was someone who I knew better,” she said. “Most everyone calls me Cassandra; it was just strange that he called me Cassie because nobody uses it. It feels too familiar.”

“That’s odd,” I replied. “I’m the exact opposite.”

Which is true. Most everyone calls me “Mel” or even “Meli.” Very few people use my full name, Melanie, unless I’m in serious trouble. It’s strange to me when people use my full name, especially strangers, because it seems weirdly personal.

Which are you? Would you rather people use a full name when they speak to you, or a nickname?