New/Old Layout
It’s been a while since I’ve changed the layout, but I haven’t had time to create a new one. So I decided to bring back an old favorite. Enjoy! If you want to check out the other layouts, just go to the sidebar.
What Layout Are You Using?
In the next couple months, I’m going to be making some BIG changes to this blog. Which is kinda funny considering that I have zero free time, but I’m getting antsy with this site and I won’t be able to rest until I fix some things up.
So, since I care about all of you, I want to make sure that you’re YWIM reading experience is minimally affected by my tweakings, which will involve the layouts available. There’ll be some spring cleaning done on the available layouts, so I wanted to make sure that I didn’t delete and of the ones you’re using.
So which layout are you all using? Are you using the default layout, or one of the ones listed on the sidebar?
I don’t even know who’s out there anymore! I know readership has gone down, but that’s my fault for having sub-par posts and not enough time to update this darn thing! I do appreciate all of you who’ve stuck out this hard time with me…you rock!
New Bears Layout!
I know it’s not my best, and it may even be an eyesore, but I had to change my layout for the Superbowl! My Bears have made it to the Superbowl and its still hard for me to believe it. It’s so weird to see my boys out in Miami on shows like Access Hollywood. Here’s my little tribute to them, and from Marlon a nice little comparison of what life was like 21 years ago - the last time the Bears were in the Superbowl.
In honor of the Chicago Bears going to Super Bowl 41. Here are 41 things that have changed from the last time the Chicago Bears played in the
Super Bowl (which was Super Bowl 20 in 1986):
- Brian Urlacher was in 2nd grade.
- Rex Grossman was in kindergarten.
- Peyton Manning was 10 years old.
- Eli Manning was 5 years old.
- Their dad, Archie, had just retired from the NFL two years earlier.
- Lovie Smith was in his first college coaching job at University of Tulsa .
- Ronald Reagan was the President, and Harold Washington was the Mayor.
- James R. Thompson was the Governor running for re-election and his office was in the new State of Illinois Center, which is now called the James R. Thompson Center .
- George W. Bush was 39 years old and still drinking. His father would run for President two years later.
- Rod Blagojevich was just out of law school and was a low-level prosecutor working for the Cook County State ’s Attorney, Richard M. Daley.
- Barack Obama had just moved to Illinois, and Osama bin Laden was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan .
- Red Grange and Sid Luckman were still alive.
- The Colts had just moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore and were the doormat of the AFC EAST. The Bears were the champions of the NFC CENTRAL.
- Property in Wicker Park and Bucktown was cheap because they were really bad neighborhoods.
- CD players, cellular phones and fax machines were expensive, cutting edge technology and only a few people used them.
- “Surfing the net” meant a volleyball game at the beach, and virtually no one used the “@” key on their TYPEWRITER.
- Sam Walton was still alive and was wealthier than Bill Gates. Windows were panes of glass…not a computer operating system that was a pain in something that rhymes with glass.
- The Soviet Union was our main enemy, and Saddam Hussein was our ally.
- There were no lights at Wrigley Field, and the oldest park in baseball belonged to the White Sox.
- Michael Jordan and Ozzie Guillen had just finished their “Rookie of the Year” seasons. Jordan’s coach was Stan Albeck and Guillen’s manager was Tony LaRussa. (Three out of four of those guys are now wearing championship rings, but what ever happened to Stan Albeck???)
- Soldier Field had AstroTurf. The Houston Oilers played in the AstroDome.
- The Fox TV Network didn’t exist, and ESPN had yet to air a single live pro football, baseball, or basketball game.
- MTV played music and so did some AM radio stations.
- Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff weren’t born yet; Jackie Gleason and Richard Nixon were still alive.
- Hillary Clinton had dark hair and was the First Lady……of Arkansas!
- “The Love Boat” and “Diff’rent Strokes” were still on network TV every week.
- Martin Luther King Day was about to be celebrated as a National Holiday for the first time.
- “9-11″ was a phone number many cities were just adopting for emergency calls - not a date of terror.
- I-88 was called “Illinois Rt. 5″ and I-355 hadn’t been built yet.
- What the CTA now calls “The Blue Line” had just been extended to O’Hare, and the Orange Line to Midway hadn’t been built yet.
- Q101 played adult contemporary music and most teenagers listened to WLS.
- Music from the 70s and 80s wasn’t “retro” yet.
- Tiger Woods hadn’t won an amateur golf tournament yet.
- Most people knew Seattle just as a city in the Northwest U.S. - not the home of grunge or Starbucks.
- Only Southerners went to NASCAR races and only Northerners went to NHL games.
- The Chicago area had no Wal-Marts, Targets or Home Depots, and Walgreen’s was only in the Midwest .
- Depending on your bank, your ATM card was good at only “Cash Station” machines or only at “Money Network” machines, but there were no fees.
- “The Phone Company” was Illinois Bell.
- They still sold leaded gasoline and you couldn’t pay for your gas at the pump.
- Discover Card hadn’t been discovered yet, and Miller Genuine Draft hadn’t been brewed yet.
- Stereo TVs were the rage that HDTVs are now.
- 8-track tapes were still being made.
- All of the Blockbuster Video stores that are now closing hadn’t openedyet. Betamax was still competing with VHS.
- You paid cash for your groceries and fast food, and you used a travel agent to book airline flights.
- Bowl games didn’t have corporate sponsors, and if the #1 ranked team was in a conference that played in one bowl game and the #2 ranked team was in a conference that played in another bowl game, then so be it! They let the sportswriters vote on the national champion. (and no college football games were played after New Year’s Day)
- The Baltimore Ravens were the Cleveland Browns. The Tennessee Titans were the Houston Oilers. The Oakland Raiders were the Los Angeles Raiders that had just left Oakland . The Arizona Cardinals (the former Phoenix Cardinals) were the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Rams were the Los Angeles Rams. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans, and the Cleveland Browns (not to be confused with the Cleveland Browns that are now the Baltimore Ravens) didn’t exist. The Seattle Seahawks (last year’s NFC Champions) played in the AFC.
- Number 9 on the Bears was their Punky QB…not their perky field goal kicker.
- There were no iPods - just Sony Walkmen - so if you said something about a “shuffle” on your Walkman, they assumed you were listening to “The Super Bowl Shuffle”
and one thing that will be the same from the Chicago Bears last Super Bowl appearance…..
THEY WILL WIN!!!! GO BEARS!!!!!!
If you don’t like the layout, feel free to change it using the “Pick a Style!” option on the sidebar!
Go Bears!
New Layout (Beta)
I was getting really tired of ol’ Rudolph, so I’m throwing this layout up. It’s still a work in progress (the links at the top don’t work yet) but you should be able to read the blog and comment, so that’s what really matters right now.
As I said in my previous post, I’m out of town, but hopefully I’ll have some time to work on this!
Let me know if you have any comments or find anything quirky…
Layout Ideas?
The holidays are over so I need a new layout. Any ideas? I might just end up putting up a valentine’s themed layout, but I don’t want anything cutesy like hearts and cupids, or anything that is slightly depressing like my hole in the heart theme from a couple years ago.
So give me some inspiration!
Also, I’m planning on retiring several of the layouts that are available (see the sidebar for styles), just to make room for new ones. Are there any that you definitely want me to save?
Not So New Layout…
My eyes were starting to scream after looking at my last layout for so long, so I needed a quick change. Here’s my summer layout from last year, nice, breezy and it makes me want a pina colada. Enjoy!
Comments Back Up Again…
Well, I’ve tried something new with the comments to see if I can combat the spam. What was overloading my server was not the amount of new comments that the spammers were making, but just the volume of times they were accessing the comments pages. It brought down the server, which I share with several other sites, and I was given a slap on the wrist to never do it again.
I’ll be monitoring my site over the next couple weeks to see if the spammers figure out what I did, so you may see the comments appearing and disappearing every now and then!
Here’s a cute picture of Bendito for you to test your commenting on:
Grr….Account Problems!
Sorry if you YWIM addicts clicked on my site this morning and got a nice “page does not exist” error. My web provider turned off my account for a reason they didn’t tell me about. I logged into the admin for the site and it said plain and simple that my account was disabled for violating the user agreement. I have no idea what I did in the last 24 hours since I haven’t even done anything to my site…
Then again, it could be that it was the damn spammers again, access the comments. However, I don’t know if it could be that because I routinely turn off comments of old posts and I’ve got a blacklist going on that prevents people from posting smutty website addresses.
I called customer service and this awesome lady named Tammy helped me out and got some tech support for me ASAP. Though they didn’t have the access to really go into my account (since he wasn’t assigned to my ticket and Tammy didn’t have rights) Tammy was able to at least turn my site back on for me, as long as I turned off the comments. The tech guy had told her it was probably the comments script being overused once again. The only way he’d re-activate my site was if I would let him rename the comments file. I really don’t want to turn off the comments, but hey, anything to get the site back up and running, right?
So I’m still going to contact support about this - to prevent this from happening again. If anyone out there knows how I can have comments for my users yet prevent spammers from accessing the page, I’d love to have some help! I want to turn on comments again, eventually, and I don’t want to turn this into a password protected site…
Hmph!
Comments? Use the tagboard on the sidebar…let me know you’re still there and you haven’t abandoned me and my commentless site!
New Layout!
Since I’m not longer pregnant, I think it’s about time I’ve changed the layout. Actually, I’ve had this done for about several weeks now, I just haven’t had the chance to do some testing. The graphic I’m using is once again the fantastic Dodeskaden. I’ve chosen the yoga design because it’s a good reminder to me to calm down and also to GET IN SHAPE!
I’m still debating if the stripes make the design too busy or not. What do you think?
