Decorative Flower
Her Realm, Personal website and blog of Cole
May 26

In Demand

My lack of posting her lately has had much to do with my increase in writing elsewhere. I took up a few projects at Elance and Freelancer.com, only to move on to greener pastures. Currently, I am writing for Demand Studios which pays better, has better work and is immensely more interesting (less of a grind-fest) than the writing I’d been doing on other freelance sites.

However, as I am wont to do, I tend to multitask in a way that takes up more time rather than using it wisely so, by the time I finish my work, I just wanna chill and ignore you folks.

Just like I’m going to do now. d=


May 08

The New Google Layout Sucks

I know I’m late with this one, especially considering that I had a sneak preview a few weeks ago but the new Google layout sucks (These people all agree). You may not have stumbled across it yet. It seems like it hasn’t completely been rolled out yet. Truth be told, you may not even have noticed it but I have and every single change is ridiculous.

Permanent search options in the left sidebar
I guess you could turn on these options before but I never did because they are useless. The options are supposed to be relevant to your search term but they already existed at the top of the page. The left sidebar just takes up room and when ads also display on the right, the content space is minuscule.
Different search bar and button styles.
The new style is very angular and stylized in such a way that it blends in awkwardly, even though the search bars are larger than they were before. It took me a while to even realize there still is a search bar on the bottom.
New logo
The new logo has some subtle colour alterations as well as a more muted bevel and drop shadow effect. It’s supposed to look smoother but instead looks like something someone thought would look good 15 years ago. This is especially odd because Google’s old logo certainly wasn’t “modern.”
Rearranged results
Maybe I’d be okay with every other change if the results appeared the same but they don’t. If you’re the type of person who skipped over the ads above your actual results, you could be missing the most relevant links. Plus,media (video, images, Twitter) and news content is not featured like it used to me. This forces you to click a link on the left (or top). Adding extra clicks is frustrating to me.
No division between search and results
There used to be a horizontal, blue bar which ran right under the search bar to separate the content. I don’t know why is feels so crucial to have the bar there but, without it, Google seems like a half-assed attempt at design from a middle schooler.

I’m also not entirely sure, but it seems as though the results are displayed in a much smaller font, too.

But I’d like to leave you with this comment I stumbled upon because it’s so very fitting:

I think it looks good and it’s very efficient. I’m a big fan of whitespace and the new sidebar provides plenty of it! I also like duplication so if a meteor ever smashes into my house and takes out the top of my monitor, I’ll still have this sweet sidebar with the exact same links ready to go. And did you see those bright, blazing, colorful icons next to the links? Wow…now that’s some eye candy! I’m hoping in future releases, they’ll expand the sidebar further to the right and give the user an option of hiding the search results to show more sidebar. That would be awesome.


May 02

This Just In: Marriage Doesn’t Kill You

So I’m doing my first-turned-on-the-computer routine which includes checking e-mail and going through the featured articles on AIM today (otherwise, you know, I’d never read any news) and I come across this post about the pros and cons for marriage between men and women. Essentially, statistics show that marriage has some health advantages and disadvantages for either gender.

Now, I’m not going to get into the “men have a shorter lifespan than women because women suck the life out of them” thing for two reasons. 1) We all know men have shorter lifespans because they don’t take care of themselves. It’s true. 2) Read number 1. But it’s interesting that married women tend to have less stress but gain more weight. And men? Are less likely to have strokes. Marriage offers an anecdote against depression and high blood pressure, too. But an unhappy marriage basically turns the tables and wreaks havoc on your health.

Still, the article is very hetero-normative so I wonder if any of these benefits or risks apply to marriage (including gay marriage) in general or if some of these are particular to straight relationships alone.


Apr 12

Actually, I quite like Mondays

It’s true. I am no Garfield. The internet really slows on the weekends and I totally forget about the concept of “business hours” so I am more than happy to see everyone and everything come back to life on Monday morning. Prompt e-mails make me happy. Website updates always bring a smile to my face. New activity in my e-mails and on the forums I visit gives me something to think about, to talk about and generally keep me busy. And mail is no longer stuck in the land of the lost known as Sunday. So I’ll keep Mondays to myself if you don’t mind.


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