Coming up next: Daleri Document - a multi-layout template in the same simple style, but with the possibility to use 1, 2 or 3 columns in the layout. To be released in a few days.

First of all, the 1024px, Daleri Selection and Daleri Mega templates have been ported into Drupal themes by Nick Young. Since I don't use Drupal myself I haven't been able to try the ports myself, but the live demos look very interesting. For one example among others, the 1024px theme includes the left/right sidebar option that is included in the original template. Nick also writes that he has got requests for more ports of my templates, and that more Drupal themes are underway - including one theme that will include all andreasXX (00 to 09) designs in one theme package using subthemes. I'm looking forward to see that!

Second, I've released a new template called Daleri Single. It is a simple one-column design, made with simple code that is easy to understand and easy to work with. It is currently only available on GetFreeWebDesigns.com, but I will add it to my own template gallery soon.

And finally, the 1024px theme for WordPress is moving into an interesting direction! It has been adopted by Matt Martz, who has given it a massive and very promising update with numerous new features. More about this soon!

Regarding the Daleri templates, I have got updated versions of the templates from Jason Cole, who fixed an error that broke the layout when the template was viewed in IE6. I will upload the updated templates soon, along with updated versions of the other templates. Jason has also made a range of alternate versions of the templates. Those can be found .

Other priorities now is redesigning this site, updating all WordPress themes to work with the new comment system in WP 2.7 and releasing new templates. I will try to get a public WordPress theme version of the Daleri Selection template released as well, but I need to find a way of getting the main menu (which is based on a definition list) to work with WordPress. The menu on Johannas site is currently managed manually, and while that works well for a custom theme it is not a good solution for a public theme. We'll see about that. Regarding this site, I've been ashamed over the lack of updates for a long time. But Johannas great redesign effort has given me a boost of inspiration and motivation, so I'm in for another attempt to get it all done. I will also upload my updated templates to a new template site called GetFreeWebDesigns, which keeps up the spirit of the free CSS template community.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has contributed with donations. The donations in January actually covered the hosting cost for February, and I appreciate that a lot. It is also inspiring to know that my work is appreciated even with the lack of updates that this site has had for a long time.

I also have a couple of small and public sites that don't have any actual purpose. One such site was andreasviklund.se where I made an attempt at writing a Swedish blog some time ago, only to give up on that plan after a few days. Instead, I ended up using the site to promote a couple of Swedish WordPress themes and a free MP3 album with 12 short and instrumental songs that could be used as ringtones on mobile phones.

My .se site had about 50 visitors per day in average over the last 6 months, despite the lack of updates. The themes (which are hosted by the official Swedish WordPress portal WP-Support.se) were downloaded in 1.800 copies in the same period, while the ringtomes were downloaded in approximately 7.000 copies. Those are actually surprisingly high numbers. But compared to the stats of this website and the amount of maintenance that every WordPress-based website needs over time, it was a lot of work for a very limited effect.

With the Swedish blog idea abandoned, the Swedish themes hosted successfully by WP-Support (where I used to provide free theme support during last summer - something I will need to take up again) and the ringtones soon being included in the big music collection I mentioned in my previous post, I could not come up with any good reason to keep the WordPress site online. I decided to take it down and replace it with a single template-based website with contact information and links to my high-priority websites. I decided to go with my andreas07 template.

Setting up the template site

The process was really simple. I used andreas07 in its original form, changed the language to Swedish, removed everything that I wouldn't need (including the navigation menu) and added my own content. I also changed the default link color fron red to blue, and added a photo in the left sidebar. It took me only 10 minutes to create the page from the template. I know it doesn't look very pretty, but it will definitely do the job for now. I can always improve the design at some later point.

Adjusting the new site to work with the history of the old site took a little bit longer since I wanted to do it in a proper way. Before I deleted the WordPress site, I made sure to copy the generated XML sitemap. I created a custom .htaccess file where I made manual 301 redirects for the URLs in the sitemap, to make sure that people who try to reach the deleted pages of the WordPress site are automatically redirected to index.html instead of seeing an error message. I also created a separate "Error 404" file which I made into the default 404 document in the .htaccess file. And finally I added a rewrite feature that removes the "www." from the address if a visitor has entered it.

With the template-based site and the .htaccess adjustments ready, I uploaded the new site and tested it live. It worked as intended and validated without any errors, and after saving a last backup copy of the WordPress site I deleted it. The new andreasviklund.se is now live. Feel free to take a look and comment on my first own andreas07-based website!

The re-organization continues tonight with an upgrade of andreasviklund.com and the two Swedish humor blogs Tjuvlyssnat and Tjuvtittat to WordPress v2.7. There is still a lot of work left to do, but I'm on it and it feels very good since it has been needed for quite some time now..

It will be an almost complete collection of the music I have created - or been involved in creating. The collection will include almost all Lagoona releases, along with a large number of remixes, co-productions and maybe even a few live tracks. It will be my way of finally putting an end to the amazing music adventures of my past, and let me move on to the next adventure in the world of melodies.

Expect the release and a longer post about this topic in a few days.

However, the upgrade was made on December 3rd, so the renewal date was changed. The four last days of my previous hosting solution (the Elite VPS service from SiteGround) had been lost along with the money I had already paid for those days. Now, I don't really care about that. It was just not what I expected.

I contacted SiteGround immediately when I discovered the changed date and asked if I could make the renewal on Monday the 5th instead, while keeping the site online in the meantime. With the lost days in mind - and given the fact that the customer support is usually great - I don't think there will be any downtime this weekend. But just in case the site would go down for some time, please be aware that it is only temporary.

Updated January 3rd: There will be no downtime. The excellent tech support at SiteGround moved the renewal date to January 7th. Problem solved, and I can move on with the suiting up!

There will still be plenty of work around, and I will also provide a bit more insight on what motivates me to do what I do - and to keep my templates free. Anyone interested in the human behind the code will be able to find out a lot of useless and boring information, but I'll make it easy to filter out interesting and relevant content through categories and tags. Once again, as soon as I have cleaned out the dust.

I will also need to refresh the design a bit, since it is currently very static and non-personal. Having recently starting to watch "How I Met Your Mother", I'm adopting the lovely catchphrase "Suit up!" to get that work done - although in the simple and useful way that makes me who I am. Expect no dramatic changes, but atleast (hopefully) some improvement.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement through e-mails and comments (both on the site and offline), it has removed some of the hesitation. I hope that you will be around during 2009 as well, and that this silly idea will make me spend more time on working with the site - and the material on it. It has been needed for years, really, so you are actually helping me help others.

Now, let a new year begin, and may new adventures come with it!

Updated a few hours later: Ok, that didn't take as long as I had expected. The upgrade has been made already, andreasviklund.com is now running on a dedicated server from SiteGround! It is a major upgrade in terms of features and performance, which at the same time reduces my hosting costs with $20 per month. I am typically wary about making changes to my hosting, but this was a fairly easy decision to make. And thanks to the great support team at SiteGround, the switch has been completely pain-free.

The upgrade is perfectly in line with my ideas, plans and priorities for 2009. I am planning to bring this site to life again, now that we (Johanna and I) have got a good start with our company and it looks like our idea will actually work very well. While I have not written anything special for a long time, I am actually planning to start blogging again. Both about templates, CSS and other topics that may be interesting to the typical visitor of this site - and less interesting everyday posts about my life in general, and the many adventures and challenges that makes life worth living.

I already know that most people will find a personal blog boring. But it will be fun to write, because I love writing, especially documenting my life and sharing my experiences with others. And I have stories to tell, if there is someone out there who care to read it all. But I'm writing mostly for myself, atleast to start with. I have learned a lot from reading my old diaries. Besides, it is a good way to practice my English, while at the same time giving you a face and a story behind all the HTML and CSS code. And this is a personal website after all!

But don't worry, I will also post tutorials, how-to:s, tips, bonus materials, site reviews, software reviews, photos (which will be released as an own image bank of stock photos, free for everyone to use just like my templates) and music. And I'll listen to requests, feedback and ideas. If you would want to see something special, then let me know. For example, I've been asked to show the post comments under each post, not have them hidden as I have now. I will definitely change that back soon.

I have not set any official launch date for this restart. I tend to miss those kinds of dates, and I have several times lost track and inspiration when not being ready by my own deadline. So I'm not setting any date. I'll just start right away, without making it complicated or dramatic. Now that I have the hosting upgrade done, the next step is cleaning out old and outdated posts and re-structuring the site content. Basically, most of my old blog will disappear. A fresh start can be worth a lot, but it will happen gradually to make sure I don't lose the inspiration this time. An upgrade to WordPress v2.7 is also planned, as well as upgrading my themes…

Good plan or lousy plan? Think I'll manage to make this happen? Feel free to share your opinions and feedback!

…one and one still is one…

A line from one of my all-time favorite songs. Coming soon to an editor near you.

Speaking of themes, I have just found out through this post that WP-Andreas01 has reached 25.000 downloads on the official WordPress themes directory, making it the 2nd most downloaded WordPress theme on the site after the Tarski theme. With thousands of bloggers using the theme live today, it is a shame that I don't have any other info about it than the short presentation on the themes page. The template pages update turned out to work really well, so I'll do something similar for the themes.

Another detail is the music pages. I haven't hosted any music on this site in a while, except for the TSEC album "Dreams". The Lagoona collection and all my own songs from way back in time, has been online on an external server but the files have not been linked from here. The plan was to move the songs to a regular music site, but I never found the inspiration to get it done. Instead, I gathered the best of my own material into two albums and published it through a torrent linked from The PirateBay. I'm planning to organize the albums in some better way as well to keep the old tracks alive for those of you who enjoy the old tunes, but when it comes to music today I would rather look forward into the project I have joined this year, the Leeloo Project. I will write more about that during the winter, although probably on the official band site (once it is launched) instead of here.

This site will remain my own hiding place, my "online home" as I once defined it. And I will probably put most of the work into free website templates, with two toes placed in the WordPress community through my theme design. Again, this is easy to write. I don't know how well it will work out in reality, but I know one thing for sure: I will not leave any old stuff floating around. And I will not get any more logo design offers because of the 3 year old logo design request that is just collecting digital dust in the archives…

"This is Andreas, and as far as you know, this will be attempt number seventyfour…"