Current: The month of June, Two Thousand and Eight
Yes, this monthly update is very, very late (posted on the 19th of June!). Last month was a little chat about 'Grand Casino' which was meant to have gone live sometime this month. Whilst I have made solid progress on it, I'm very busy and unfortunately the redesign has been put on hold. So when can you actually expect it to go live? I won't pin down a month, but sometime this summer. I really want it to go live, so I'll do my best and see what I can do.
I suppose the only change that there has been arounds these parts has been the new look of the City In The Clouds Blog which is now using a modified version of the Prologue theme. I hope this makes the blog more relevant and dynamic, with hopefully more frequent updates. There have also been numerous little tweaks and improvements to the Los Havros blog, which is ongoing. That's all for now!
I'll embarrass myself here. I didn't have the foresight to make a note OR backups of any of the previous site updates, so there's not much left of 2007. However, there might be the odd update available on one of my backups. Fortunately, at least two previous updates have turned up. I'll add more as I find them.
The month of May, Two Thousand and Eight
Traffic trends for both City In The Clouds and Los Havros? In short: solid growth. Traffic doesn't particularly mean too much to me, as I don't make any revenue, however it is nice to know that some people are reading my stuff and hopefully enjoying it? Share some love though, leave a comment and make the world a brighter place.
Let's talk 'Grand Casino' (the absolutely-fantastic new site design) for this month, shall we? Firstly, you're not getting it till June as I have way too much work to do for most of this month to even attempt such a feat. Secondly, I can reveal that Grand Casino will use the excellent LastRSS to parse feeds for the site, and maybe utilise Lightbox for some cool effects, if I can upload enough pictures to make it worth it in the first place, anyway. Thirdly, I am indeed aware that converting the whole site to the new format will be a pain, but I am almost convinced that this will be the last redesign I'll ever have to do as I'm trying to code it so that I can make a number of changes on-the-fly without any hassle. Famous last words. Soo... hopefully there'll be plenty of treats in store this June.
The month of April, Two Thousand and Eight
Right, you’ll find no April fools shenanigans here, no Sir. Apparently Los Havros is listed as being in beta on the main site, so I’ll remove that tag and officially announce that it is ready for prime time. It’s not purely my personal blog, but includes all PS3 and PSP stuff that I find interesting as well. Over the past 3-4 months of Los Havros’ existence I’ve added numerous things (ongoing) such as a film reviews section, featuring certain posts on the blog and I have also been tweaking the theme to make it look gorgeous, but with that hand-crafted feel.
To reflect some changes, the blog is now officially called ‘City In The Clouds Blog’ and has a different banner now to better distinguish it. I’ve been told that it looks slightly childish, so I might change it. What I haven’t considered though, is changing the blog’s theme. Should I? As for content, I’m still working on that one.
What of the new foundation code for my website(s)? Well, due to all the work I have on at the moment, that particular project is suspended. When it’s back on the road again I hope to document some things that I’ve learned along the way. To sum it up- exciting things will be happening this summer, but as I am coding on my own, and only really fitting it all in part time, these things do take time. I reckon I’ll have some exciting things to say in the June update.
The month of March, Two Thousand and Eight
I kind of didn't write this in advance, but I've managed to get it within the first hour of March anyway, so I'm pleased. There are a couple of things I do want to mention. The first is my personal blog, Los Havros. It has slowly but surely been gaining in popularity- which is nice. If you're wondering where all the PS3, PSP and general interesting news has moved to, you'll find it at Los Havros. Also, everything on Los Havros will be written by just one person- me.
So where does that leave City In The Clouds and the blog? Well, I'm going to try and incorporate some content from Los Havros into the main site. The blog will hopefully still have a few writers including myself, but MaSh has spun out Northern Labs as a separate blog, so things are a bit uncertain at the moment. I definitely want the main site to branch out a bit though; focusing on it's role as a hub and a promoter of great content, as there is more than just the City blog.
On top of that, I'm currently working on a new foundation on which to build all my next generation of websites off, which will include a major overhaul of City. When/if it's finished, it'll totally kick ass!
Anyhow, I hope that sums up the state of things. This month ahead will be... interesting.
The month of February, Two Thousand and Eight
Well, this is a new low- writing an update for February... on the 6th. I offer my apologies to all those affected by my (in)actions. Maybe I should write these things in advance like editors of magazines do? I'll try it next month. Nothing much to report here with regards to updates this month. In a way it's a relief, as these monthly updates have been getting steadily bigger. Not so with this issue/edition(?), no sir.
It has been quite tricky maintaining all the various aspects of both City In The Clouds and my other sites due to my workload at University. Yet I give you my word that I will try my best to keep things fresh and interesting. Now, onto writing my update for March... You stay classy, San Diego
The month of January, Two Thousand and Eight
New Year- woohoo. In about May I think, it will mark 2 years since I started City In The Clouds in one form or another. In its current shape- probably just under a year. Anyhow, I must say it has been a rather mild Christmas this year, yet still a magical time of the year. I've been working on some crazy project in the background. One of them was testing a complete overhaul of City In The Clouds onto a new backend system but I'm a student, and I have no time for that!
Has my crazy project gone to waste then? Nay, it has spawned a new, yet different blog- Los Havros. It'll mainly be about me and the PS3, to give it such a short summery. Whereas City In The Clouds will focus on alsorts really, with a variety of writers- nothing's changing there.
I decided to go ahead with putting the feeds on the homepage, I think it's worked very well. And yup- these updates have their own page here. Best place for them really. More updates in the pipeline, I'm sure. Have a great 2008!
The month of December, Two Thousand and Seven
Ah, the winter season is upon us. As I write this (Dec 1st) there has been quite a fierce storm with hailstones. There's been a fair amount of pages added (in the background of course), and some ideas tested out. Some things haven't worked out, like the forums which soon became spam-infested and too time consuming to manage. Mince pies all round I should say.
So, what shall December bring for City In The Clouds? I'm still toying with the idea of having a short latest feeds summary on the homepage and removing these updates off the homepage and giving them their own page. Expect the site to get a bit festive in the next couple of weeks or so.
The month of September, Two Thousand and Seven
The site has been constantly expanding over the past month or so, with PSP Central as the biggest addition. The site has gained in popularity and a lot of work has been done to the back-end to improve user experience
The month of July, Two Thousand and Seven
We have new writers on the blog- MaSh and Elle, and I'm actually revealed to be the infamous Los Havros (edit: now just Adam) after all muwahaha! Because of new writers joining the blogging team we will be letting you know exactly who is posting what round these parts.
Hope you enjoy the new design by the way. It is a gift to our loyal readers (you know who you are) and travellers who have stumbled upon our humble establishment. It took best part of a month to design and optimise... and we shall never speak of it again.
