Hari's Corner

Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and then

The power of CSS and other stuff

Filed under: Bits and Bytes by Hari
Posted on Sat, Dec 8, 2007 at 21:16 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 21:20 IST)

You know, the power of CSS is unbelievable when you really tap into its latent power. From the earlier theme, I was able to completely change the look of this site without touching a single tag of XHTML. Every layout change was made within the CSS file. This means the site looks exactly to web robots and other scripts. The changes are purely visual.

I still plan to use the older theme on and off as it's just one click away. But I just wanted to use this theme just as a variation and to get feedback from my readers. If you think this theme is too plain, just let me know.

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The ICL tournament is really getting my interest now. I think Twenty20 is here to stay. It's interesting to watch some of the international veterans like Lance Klusener and Craig McMillan still playing such competitive cricket. The intensity has definitely been higher than I expected at first. It's better than the current India vs. Pakistan Test Series which is going nowhere with such dead flat batting wickets. The fielding standards have been quite good too.

P.S. There seems to be (at least) a couple of other "Indian Cricket League" websites out there (and one of it claims to be an "official" website) which is bound to create some confusion. The site I linked to above *is* the official website of Zee TV's ICL.

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I am casually attempting to write a parody of Harry Potter. After all, I do write parody articles, so I thought I should try to attempt to parody a full-length novel. I've already fleshed out a first chapter and it seems to be quite easy since J.K.Rowling provides such excellent "parodyable" content to work with. I just hope this one comes good. Maybe if I really put in some effort into it, I might get it published. :p

It's not easy to sustain humour over several chapters and I'm trying to avoid the pitfalls of most parodies. Here I'll just try to write down a few rules to keep in mind for myself:
  1. Don't resort to silly jokes. It just takes away from the "parody" aspect.
  2. Be subtle to a degree. But not too subtle that the joke is lost on the reader.
  3. Stick as closely to the original storyline to keep the comparitive value alive, but don't mimic the original too closely. Add variations to the theme to make it interesting.
  4. Try and look for "clever" points to exaggerate and improvise.
  5. Take a serious concept and twist it to a level where it becomes ridiculously funny.
Now, that's a handful. :D

9 comment(s)

  1. Yeah, I do like CSS from the traditional way of things. I started doing websites around the time CSS just wasn't used at all, you had a bunch of tables and getting them to all look right in different browsers was a task in itself.

    Although I don't really do much website stuff nowadays like I use to since my own hasn't changed in over 2 years since I've been happy with it, I have been thinking about updating the top image I have but I'm just too lazy to care most days. But CSS does make things easier to move around and manipulate on a site.

    Comment by drew (visitor) on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 @ 04:21 IST #
  2. Yes, Drew. CSS indeed makes web design much easier than it used to be earlier. In fact, I think CSS is the driving force that has popularized Content Management Systems - because they've become so easy to theme.

    The whole concept of "themed" web design is based on CSS design.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 @ 08:06 IST #
  3. This theme will take a little getting used to, but that's all.

    A parody novel. Now that I'd like to read.

    Comment by (visitor) on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 @ 08:47 IST #
  4. RT, I'll send you the chapters as I write them. I posted my chapters on LiteraryForums.org but you need to be logged in as a forum member to read them. So if you don't want to create a forum account, I can send you my chapters by e-mail instead.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sun, Dec 9, 2007 @ 08:54 IST #
  5. I got the email, but I still haven't had a chance to read it. That reminds me to download it from gmail now because I can't when the DSL goes wonky.

    Comment by (visitor) on Wed, Dec 12, 2007 @ 01:10 IST #
  6. RT, sorry for the late comment. Wasn't online today. I'll send up more updated chapters later.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Wed, Dec 12, 2007 @ 16:28 IST #
  7. I truly feel that there are few things in life more enjoyable than a good parody.

    Comment by Ernie (visitor) on Thu, Dec 13, 2007 @ 22:33 IST #
  8. Thanks Ernie. My parody is coming along well. Without sounding too immodest, I must say that my parody is much better than some of the other stuff that I've read on the internet.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Fri, Dec 14, 2007 @ 08:13 IST #
  9. css is a key tool, definitely making things a little nicer online.

    Comment by Jogos Online (visitor) on Mon, Jan 21, 2008 @ 04:56 IST #

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