[EDIT: (Thursday 19th February) Installed the WordPress Mobile plugin and now my code is all broken.  Have removed the buttons that proclaim my xhmtl and CSS to be standards compliant until I figure it out.]

People read this blog in some weird and wonderful ways (Facebook notes and news feed I’m looking at you) but unless you’re reading this post at scribbleboy.co.uk it’s not going to make any sense (it’s okay, just click the link).

There haven’t been many posts recently and I haven’t made much progress with the challenges, however, there have been a lot of changes, some of them you will have spotted and others that are more subtle.

The most obvious is the giant header at the top of the page that Antonio Roberts created, thanks, I promise to finish writing Deadline for you.  Have a look at his website HelloCatFood.com.  (If you have a WordPress blog, have Redoable 1.2 as your theme and want a large header then the fourth comment on this page explains how).

Running parallel to the header are half a dozen links that are now the primary way of navigating this website.

Home - Just in case you hadn’t realised you could return home at any time by clicking the header, or your heels together three times, I’ve created this helpful link.  (If you want to do the same on your WordPress page you’re going to need the Template Redirect plugin because nothing is as simple as it seems.  Make sure you deactivate the ShareThis plugin if you have it because these two seem to be incompatible).

Archive – There used to be an ugly calendar in the sidebar and everytime I made a post the date would turn red.  This meant that each month either looked like an acne riddled teen or drew attention to my lack of posts.  This has been replaced by the much more attractive archive page. (If you want to do the same on your WordPress blog I recommend the DateArchives plugin).  As well as being sorted by date my posts are also sorted by category and these can be seen in the sidebar to your right under the heading Challenges.

Author - According to Jakob Nielsen’s Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes most blogs lack an author biography and photo.  Soon that won’t be the case at scribbleboy.co.uk.  Click the author page in the next week and you’ll learn a bit more about me, my favourite parts of this blog and see my not-so-photogenic face.  Four of Jakob’s top ten have never been met on this blog and probably never will be.

Links - Visit the links page to see a small list of my friends’ websites and blogs.  Over the coming months I shall be expanding this page, so if you think your link should be there let me know.

Feed - This gives you the chance to subscribe to my RSS Feed and read all my posts somewhere you feel more comfortable, whether that be on Google, Yahoo or your own feedreader. This is complemented by the orange feed button in the sidebar that is (metaphorically) screaming “Click me!  Click me!” (All handled by the good people at FeedBurner, which like most things on this earth is now owned by Google).

Contact – This pretty little form was generated using the Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form plugin which does exactly what it says on the tin; lets you email me and keeps my inbox free from spam.  Eddie Izzard fans might appreciate the question I’ve chosen to make sure you’re human and not some kind of evil spambot.

There have also been some changes in the sidebar.  Out with the standard issue search, in with the customised Google search.  If you can’t find a post on the archive page or in the challenges section this should help.

In the challenges section you’ll notice two shiny new buttons.  Clicking these will prove that all the code on my blog is correct and standards compliant.  This means that if my blog looks broken to you it’s not my fault, upgrade your browser (unless you’re using Internet Explorer in which case upgrading could actually make it worse, don’t ask).

Right at the bottom of the sidebar are my Google ads.  This post summarises some of the key things you’re not allowed to do with them, although the Terms of Service are strict I think I’m still allowed to mention them.  So far they’ve been content to puke some of the weirdest little adverts onto the bottom of my page and raise me 64 American cents (when that figure reaches US $100 Google AdSense will pop the cheque in the post).

This concludes a fairly comprehensive list of changes to my blog (I also have drop caps and a customised 404 page, though linking to it would defeat its purpose).  If you’ve made it this far you either have your own WordPress blog and are looking for tips or are really bored.  Either way here’s a cartoon about a serial killer.