So, I’ve upgraded to 2.7. I mostly see cosmetic changes, so I can’t really say it’s better or anything.

As for East Asian language support, I still had a problem getting the characters to properly display, even after I installed the necessary .mo files. The .mo files “localize” your WordPress installation, and will change your sidebar text and date headers to whichever language you have selected. Beyond that, I don’t know what they do. They appear to have no effect on the text of the posts themselves.

In order to get East Asian text to display properly, I still find the easiest solution is to remove the following lines of code from your wp-config file:

define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);

It defines the character set your WP will use to create the database. I don’t know how this affects material from the DB displays, but it does.

After having removed it, I see no ill effects, and I’ve done this since version 2.6.3!

So the essential layout is now completed. I thought a 3-Column design would look better, instead of having that ultra long single menu. I’ve also changed the colors from the previous page to something a lot brighter and orange.

I feel like getting a twitter account just so I can stick a box into the right column, but we’ll see.

I’ll prolly be tweaking the fonts, and other small aspects of the page. Feel free to give me any suggestions or critiques.

http://en.gravatar.com/

Some of you will notice that there are spots for pictures next to the comments. They are linked to a Gravatar account, which you can create for free. It is a universal avatar system that links an image to your email addy. Nifty. If you post on other blogs that use the Gravatar system, it’ll automatically carry over the avatar to the comment. Check it out if you get a chance.

Yes. I have ads on my site now.

My ads are through Project Wonderful. They have an interesting system for ad payments, utilizing an cost per day model determined by an infinite auction. I don’t have to worry about clicks, as my earnings depend purely on what advertisers deem appropriate. I’m not seeking to earn money, but I’ve decided to see if having ads displayed on my website could offset my hosting costs, which aren’t terrible.

I figure, if I could maybe get 5 cents per day, I’d make about 18 dollars in a year, and cover about a third of my hosting costs. It’s just something I’m testing out. And maybe this will give me more of an incentive to develop this site and give you all more of a reason to visit everyday, which is always nice, no?

It looks like ComicPress 3.0 (the wordpress theme I’m using) is prolly gonna be released relatively soon. This means I prolly should upgrade my base wordpress install to the current version before that happens. I’m still using 2.9 and it’s prolly likely I’m wide open to some security flaws.

I’m prolly gonna upgrade soon, meaning it’s possible and Likely that I’ll ruin everything and lose a ton of data.

Maybe this is a good time for some site revamping. If the current color scheme is disagreeable, please let me know. Otherwise, if my current layout doesn’t work, I plan to create a new one with similar colors.