This was my design idea for $jark's contest to redesign his personal blog, green[alien]probe. More details on the contest can be found in his journal entry.

Though this is late and the finalists have already been chosen, I wanted to get this submitted since I spent so much time on it. I just wish I had more free time so I could've finished it before the conclusion of the contest.

Since this is truly a blog website, I based this new design off of a few other blog sites I frequent, along with the few $jark had mentioned in his journal. I went for bright contrast between the yellow and the green (after all, the yellow alien and green probe should be properly represented), but tried to keep the layout fairly simple. You'll notice the nice big butt in the upper left along with the yellow alien and his green probe. This is similar to $jark's avatar, the jark 0wns you one.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this since it probably won't get used. Give me the good, the bad, or whatever else you've got. I'm listening.

Update: 10/11/2004
Last update, I think.

Yes, this design is very similar to JustWatchTheSky. No, it isn't a copy. No, the code wasn't stolen. Yes, this design is very different from JWTS in many ways.

I've been catching a lot of slack on this topic. While I agree this design is heavily inspired by JWTS, it is in fact very different. $jark is also aware of the similarities and doesn't think it's a problem. There are many sites that use the same basic concept as JWTS from which I also gathered inspiration.

Lastly, I'm proud to announce this design won the green[alien]probe design contest held by the one and only $jark. Thanks so much for all of your support!

Update: 10/8/2004
This is my (hopefully) final edit of this piece. Due to some feedback in $ jark's direction about the somewhat explicit nature of the probing of the buttocks in the header, I was moved to change it to something else. Mount Fuji , a monument of Japan, is now the focus of the yellow alien's green probe. I preferred the anal probing myself (don't take that the wrong way), but rather than offend some people, it's been changed.

Update: 10/7/2004
After talking to $jark briefly, I began marking this layout up in XHTML/CSS. This process took a heck of a lot longer than I had expected. After all the layout issues and the problems with IE, I think I spent over 30 hours on this project, from concept to finalized design.

There are a few changes here. The text navigation is now part of the tab navigation, and the rollovers work in IE and Mozilla/Netscape/etc., which is tougher than you would think (CSS positioning is not easy). The font size switcher works wonderfully, using a bit of Javascript and 3 separate stylesheets for font sizes. Some new icons made their way into the design as well.

The final "live" version is now available for your viewing pleasure at:

http://patrickhaney.com/portfolio/web/gr eenprobe

Update: 10/4/2004
I want to mention a few things quickly to clear up some confusion.

First off, there would be more than 1 blog posting on the page. I just decided to condense the preview to 1 post to keep the filesize down and to make the image a little smaller. There are also a lot more things in the sidebar normally as well.

Secondly, the 3 buttons in the header with the T's are for font size. The idea is that clicking any of these would automatically change the stylesheet's font size, increasing or decreasing it to your liking.