Word!
Last week, I died and went to hell! Or hell exploded into the GTA! I stayed inside, barely clothed. Even with the AC on, it was hot in here.
I have to keep cool and hydrated, so vertigo doesn’t get too bad and leave me vomiting into a garbage can that I’m clutching to my chest while praying for the world to stop spinning.
Notice anything different? Yesterday, I activated about four themes before reaching this one. Even though they give you a preview, it’s hard to tell if I’ll love it on my site until it’s actually live.
I was using CGPT to help me find something with good reviews, regularly updated and ready-made. The first one looked like shit, too many words, and when I opened a post, it was tiny, which doesn’t work for my comics, digital art or when I mix poems with images.
The third one looked great; I was feeling the mood, but the page was split in half, and the left half never went away, even when viewing the full post. By then, I just said, “Fuck it! Let’s go full customizable mode.”
I was tired of adjusting page layouts, posts (every theme treats Gutenberg block differently), menus, troubleshooting and viewing shit on different screens, because the little preview they give you of desktop, phone and tablet never looks the same on the actual device.
I want all my work to be front and center, and now it is. š„³ I had to rebuild the menu again for this one because it wasn’t accepting the old one.
Before deciding to change my theme, I received terrific feedback from Dee. She said, “If someone comes to your site, sees something they like and wants to see more of it, you have to make it easy to find.”
Thank you, Mama!
Having a graphic designer with UX and CSS knowledge is better than having a nurse or doctor in the house. And having Dre, my jobless, always on Webtoons, YouTube, Insta and TikTok, soon-to-be-homeless 22-year-old, giving me feedback on my comics and digital art is priceless.
Thank you, baby!
I love the simplicity by design look, and all the word noise I had on my homepage is gone; I’ve republished the ‘About Me’ section. As much as I love words, I have to be strategic with their placement. I’m learning more and more how to do that better.
Years ago, when I first joined Toastmasters and we had to give talks and presentations, one of the first things I learned was that you want to speak to the slide, not have everything you’re going to say on it, because then people are reading instead of listening to you. The details should be included in your leave-behind content.
Over time, I plan to create everything you see on the site, including feature photos.
Anyway, back to the creative grind, which, gratefully, is mentally stimulating and emotionally rewarding, unlike my thankless project management grind.
As I learn, I promise to improve for the better.
it’s me, sam
I hope you didn’t lose anyone to heatstroke. And if you didn’t, that means you had a week of goodness.
Word up! Or … is it down?
Sun Jul 20
Ā© 2025 Samantha Williams. All Rights Reserved.
