You may (or may not) have noticed, but I changed the blog theme. I’d say “again!” but changes haven’t been excessive considering I started blogging in 2006—really, check out the archives, it’s… scary!
WordPress changed, I changed, the world changed… and I wanted a theme that would load faster, with more emphasis on the pictures and the articles. Sahifa, the theme I installed in March, didn’t really deliver. There were too many bugs and I have too little spare time to waste on fixing them. It was best to start again from scratch (if only life was as easy!).
I usually pick a theme and customize it myself using all kinds of tricks that invariably involve a good dose of Googling and mucho hair-pulling. This time, I decided to aim for functionality rather than “look at me, I’m so pretty and different!”
Maybe this blog is coming out of its teenage years. Gosh, remember the stupid things we used to do as teens? I dyed my hair with henna paste (leaving my hair and the bathtub bright red), wore platform shoes, had my navel and nose pierced and then my ears pierced eight times (still wear all those piercings, though) and I rolled my own cigarettes (very badly).
You make the same kinds of mistakes when you start blogging, actually. I used to pile up widgets in the sidebar just because… you know, widgets are fun and free. Everybody displayed this little world map where you could see who on planet earth was reading (or more likely, stumbling upon) your blog. Link exchanges were popular—nowadays I only recommend blogs I truly love, not some random guys who want to swap http:// as if we were exchanging phone numbers in a pub late at night. I used to track my stats religiously—oh my God, two visits today! Ah non, these are from my own IP address. An easy mistake to make.
I don’t care much about stats anymore—not that I ever cared about numbers. Numbers are too goddamn hard to read anyway. I leave that to the Asian half of the household (I’m perfectly entitled to stereotype).
What I care about is the faces behind the numbers. The people who reach out by email asking questions, sharing their experience, thanking me or just saying “hi.” I’m still amazed by the number of readers who, at some point during their busy day, spare a few minutes to read words that, at some point during my busy day, typed before hitting the “publish” button.
I’m a nobody but it makes me feel like someone.
Thank you.
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Hello Zhu!
I do read your blog almost every day. I take a few minutes of my time without regretting it every time. I never left any comment, though. Sorry. This is my first one just to tell you: keep writing!
I have read your blog for more than a year now, I think. I landed here searching information for migrating to Canada (like a lot of us, I think!). It was a perfect blog for me to follow your adventure as I am French and we wanted to come and live in Ottawa too! We’ve been here since February and I keep reading blog and I’m thinking about writing my own blog too.
A big thank you!
Hi Marion,
Thank you so much for your kind comment! See, these are the kinds of messages that impress me, because I feel… useful?
So you’re in Ottawa now? How do you like it? I have to interview you for my immigrant series! Let me know if you’d like to participate 🙂
Yes, my boyfriend and I have lived in Gatineau and working in Ottawa for the past 9 months now. We like it very much as we easily found friends and everything we need! Now, let’s see if we can survive a whole winter! 🙂
I’d be honored to participate at your immigrant series!
Oh cool! I’m going to send you an email tonight 🙂
Wow, I like this outfit a lot!
Did you intentionally hide the comments button so well? But I found it, anyway! 😀
Does it feel hidden? Mmmm… I don’t comment on the blog (obviously) and I reply from the admin dashboard, so I hadn’t noticed.
Nah, I was kidding. It’s just less evident than it was, but I do not think it could go unnoticed if you’re looking for it 🙂 (btw, I’, glad you kept these smileys, they’re so cute! :D)
I like funky smileys 🙂
Yay! I like this new design!
Thank you! You were an inspiration actually, I love your new clean design.
Hi, i do like this new theme as it loads up faster,i follow and read every update since a year now, i also read lota of old posts as i get to know a lot of info about canada.
Please keep it up.
Glad to hear it loads faster!
I like it! I really do!
Thank you!
I like it! I really need to update my blog theme too, but it usually turns into such a hassle since I’m sure something won’t work correctly and I don’t have time right now to devote to it. Maybe after I submit my thesis.
I love your blog because I can still feel like I have a connection to North America, and who knows – I may end up working in Canada someday. 🙂
P.S. The Latest Tweets widget in the sidebar has an error.
Eek, damn Twitter…!
I can see you working pretty much anywhere! But you’d fit right in in our bilingual country 🙂
One time I sprayed my hair pink and left a pink tint everywhere in the bathroom. My mom thought she was seeing things.
😆 Pink hair… that must have looked cool!
Like the new format 🙂
Thank you! I was looking for something more modern that would load faster!
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