First off, I just wanna thank  everyone for appreciating this new theme. After what felt like hours and weeks spent on finding, testing, finding again and more testing and modifying more than a dozen themes, I believe all that effort was worth it leading up to this one. Now I know what to look out for in a new theme if I ever feel the need to change again but at this point, not anytime soon. Who knows, maybe Evidens is the very theme I was looking for to never find the need to change again. Only time will tell on this one.
I understand not all is currently happy with the new change and I knew in advance this will happen. It’s all about user preferences in the end of what like to see in a particular format or structure but please bare with it because once you see the features I can apply with this theme, you wouldn’t want to look back. ^^
Once again, credit goes to Design Disease as without Evidens, I doubt I could make this happen. ^^d

Back on topic, after much feedback from the Back in action post, it has come to my understanding many are still using the 1280px width resolution. Weather it’s 1280 x 1024 or 1280 x 800 your using, you will experience horizontal scrolling. Readers using anything higher than 1280px  width wouldn’t notice the difference.
The thing is, I manually added in a code on the stylesheet to make the fix width because by default, Evidens is a full-width theme hence no matter what resolution you are using, the page will completely fit your resolution. Readers using 1280px width or lower wouldn’t notice the difference in change but for widescreen readers, the content will get stretched depending what resolution you have. So if your using 1680 x 1050 (like me) the content will get stretched all the way to the left hand side of the monitor making it uncomfortable to read and it’s not neat at all.

Now the problem is solved for all readers. I re-edit the width size without affecting the sidebars and image sizes, where nearly every reader can view the site properly. I say ‘nearly’ because if you are using anything lower than 1280px width, then the horizontal scrolling will still exist. Still, it’s not as bad if you prefer using anything lower than 1280px width because 3/4 of the site is still visible without the need to horizontal scroll and the important part is the main content is viewable clearly.

Secondly, I managed to get CommentLuv working again. My most loved plugin is BACK!!!
Credit goes to Andy Bailey, the Original Concept and coder of CommentLuv. I’m kinda grateful he managed to take the time and read my post to help me out.
Big thanks to you. ^^d

And last but not least, blogroll exchange. I think this the first time I actually made a post about this because usually I make the effort and ask on your blog and check back later if you replied or added me on your blogroll without replying.
I know I already have many, especially the regulars who come back for more but if your one of my new readers or one of the regulars who don’t often comment until now, please add you request in this post and I will add you. There’s only one thing I want in return and that’s you returning the favor. Share the love I would say. xD

Well that’s it. I’m done talking talking about this site and it’s new features. If you see anything new in the future, you know I’m trialing something different and it may not be useful to you but it could be for someone else. ^^

I’m calling the end of my ‘Timeout’ period early even though it’s a few days before the end of the month. I just wanna thank everyone for being so supportive during this time and I thank you for all of your supportive comments. One of the reasons why I’ve decided to come back early is because of your supportive comments. Reading through them has got me itching to get back in doing what I love and also while I was roaming through the blogsphere world, I kinda miss the fun and excitement about blogging. I guess reading through your posts made me think I was missing out on something fun. xD

In addition, I wanted to come back early to announce the new theme I have installed. ^^

As you can already see, it’s a brand new white theme called Evidens, brought to you by Design Disease. It’s currently the latest theme from their showcase and it’s available either in white or black. As for me, it was natural to choose white because I’ve always liked white themes no matter what design they had. White themes has always been easy on the eyes and it just makes the theme look clean overall.

Before I chose Evidens, I gave many other themes from different designers a go. Considering my last theme was from same designer, I thought it was best to look at others and see what they have to offer. While I was impressed with many of them, especially their functionality and design, implementing the structure I wanted was difficult. Basically many didn’t go the way I wanted and they either failed at the beginning or halfway through the process. Considering I’m not a pro at javascripts and .php, I literally gave up and moved on to the next one.

In the end, I came back using a different theme for the same designer. To be honest, I don’t regret it because the setup process and the customization works. At first I was a bit skeptical about the layout and the design features but that feeling went away immediately when I got things working from start to finish.

A few things my readers should take note of in future posts thanks to Evidens.

• Youtube Videos
  Now all in their respective sizes in HQ. Considering the content size in my last theme was small, most HQ videos was slightly compressed.
• Image resolution
  From now on I will NOT be resizing my photos anymore. All photos will be in the default size of 640 x 480 and 480 x 640 respectively. Not only will I won’t need to waste time resizing all of my photos, we now all can enjoy high quality photos as they should be.

Here’s an example

Here’s another example

If you want to have a better look in one of my reviews, please revisit Nyantype Vol. 2 Impression review. I changed all the images back to it’s default size and I’m already impressed in what I’m seeing.

• CommentLuv
  Apparently with this new theme, I can’t get it to work. Not sure if the theme supports it or not as the older versions doesn’t work as well compared to my last theme. This could be one of the drawbacks I must accept even though I reckon commentluv is a MUST for all blogs. I find it’s one of the best feature ever made.

Last but not least, I finally have my own banner. YES, at last. This was one of the things I must have when choosing a new theme considering it was impossible to add one in my last theme.

I hope you like it even though it’s simple looking. It describes what this blog is all about and what I intend to keep giving as long as you all keep loving what I give. :D

Any bugs, please report them to me asap or just mention it here. It’s user-friendly on all browsers including IE6 surprisingly.

Load time is pretty quick as well but please do report if it’s not as fast as before. The last thing I want is losing you thanks to  shitty load times.

Just giving you guys and gals a heads up, I’m taking ‘timeout’ from the blogsphere world till the end of the month. If I’m not back by then I’ve decided to take a bit longer than that. ^_^

The first question many people will ask is “why!?” or “how come?” or “what’s going on?” or something similar along those lines.
Basically, I just want some time off away from the blogsphere world. Rest assure this is not worked related or real life event related at all. It’s more of me taking a break from this side of my life and enjoying more of the other side if you think about it that way. xD

Another reason is because blogging is starting to become more like work than a hobby of mine. There are times where my ideas weren’t flowing out as normal and I had to think twice as hard in how to deliver this post in it’s best quality to meet my satisfaction. As most of you already realised, I deliver all my post in it’s best quality hence, you don’t really see a filler post at all. Even my loot post and “Music Monday” post, I don’t consider them a filler considering I put the time and effort into them. If you bother to read them, you can almost identity the  5 W’s (who, what, when, where and why) and the 1 H (how). Heck, all quality post should have the 5 W’s and the 1 H to be deemed a quality post don’t you agree?

Anyway, this is not point I’m trying to make. The main point is, I’m calling ‘Timeout!”

Don’t be surprised if I drop by your blog during my “timeout” period. It’s  not a sign of me being back to the blogsphere world so soon but a sign of me being bored at work. :)

This week is kind of a special week for my blog. It’s not often I talk about the successes I achieve from my blog because that’s not my primary aim to begin with. My aim is (and always has been) delivering quality content to the best of my ability for my readers and ensuring they come back for more. In addition, finding new ways to attract new readers so we can all enjoy as a community.

So for this week, my blog has been featured on AnimeBlips “Featured blog of the Week”. You can read the full report here which even includes a little interview with Robyn Lass, the editor of AnimeBlips did. I just can’t help but smile everytime I read it. lol

So what is AnimeBlips. To save me the time from explaining, I’ve quoted the “About info” from their About page.

AnimeBlips was created for otaku crazy about anime and manga, and the news, events, books, movies, and conferences that emerge from the anime and manga worlds. By combining robust technology with spirited editorial, AnimeBlips brings you inside the creative, obsessive world of the most popular anime and manga, removing the hassle of information overload, and providing one-stop access to all the hottest breaking news, rumors, and commentary from expert sources around the Web. If it’s hot, if people are whispering, shouting, searching for, or sounding off on it—you’ll always find it at AnimeBlips.

Basically my blog was automatically added after the success of a few posts. I was delighted yet confused at the same time in what AnimeBlips was many months ago. I was advised to claim my blog as mine so I signed up and did that. They even had a little ranking system which I thought was pretty cool as well.

Click for Higher Resolution

Now with the success I’ve been having, I’m glad I’ve joined. I’ve noticed an increase in page views ever since I joined and that could only be one thing, more readers enjoying my content. In addition, it seems they are coming back for more as it has continued staying this way.
Even though I am proud of the way it is going so far, I’m surprised my blog has has gotten this successful and well recognized to my readers and commentators because  I haven’t changed in what bring out (content wise) and I’ve always remained the same, honest and fun-fill because that’s just me. :D

It’s not too late to join up the fun and share your interesting content. Signing up is easy and already I can see many blogs I know who are already automatically added in. All they need to do is sign up and claim it. ^^

Thanks again to Robyn Lass for featuring my blog this week and to all of my readers and commentators who still drop by and see what this figma otaku (I still love them ^^) is still doing weekly. ^^

THE DIS-JOINTEDZONE IS 1 YEAR OLD!!!!!!!

One year ago, I decided to start my own blog called OpticZone. It was a blog to showcase my figure collection and reviews, talk about anime in general and give you an insight about my otaku and real life. On November 7th, 08, I made the move over to my own self-hosted wordpress site called The Dis-Jointedzone thanks to the help of my good friend, Koshiko. This wouldn’t have been possible without your assistant so I thank you again. ^^

When I first started my own blog, I wasn’t expecting anything too high other than the fact to make a stepping  ground on the blogging community. I wanted people to notice me more about my love in anime, figures and my otaku life in general and one of the ways in helping me do that was to have my own blog. In addition, I wanted to blend in more with their little community by putting my thoughts into their content and letting them know I want to be a part of their little world.
To my surprise, I have achieved more than that in over a year. Not only am I well known in many blogging communities, many readers are enjoying the contents from my site. Many of my posts are mainly for myself as a personal diary of my fun filled otaku life and if I get comments about them then clearly I’m doing something right in attracting these readers and making them stay.

Another achievement is making real life comrades locally. I never thought having a blog can make this possible but seeing it for myself is possible. Just to name a few, they are M12, Adun, Koshiko, Reijin and Snark. (I have yet to met Snack in real life but hopefully I will be able to at this upcoming convention. Despite his hatred of moe, I know we will get along. xD)

Finally to all my readers and commentors, THANK YOU for you continued support. This zone would’ve been dead for a long time if it wasn’t for your support. Even though I try to maintain this blog as a more personal blog, I can see it growing and evolving into a more community base blog and that’s exactly what I want to see in the near future.

As you may already noticed, there are a few layout changes on my site. While they are not anything big, the aim of these changes is the improve the usability of my site and to fill in some of those white spaces hanging around.
While it may not look any different for my regular commentors  and readers, these changes are ideally aimed for the non-regular readers and/or first time readers of my site. ^^

Originally, my initial plan was to completely changeover to a new theme and build the layout I wanted from the ground up. After a few setbacks, I’ve decided to scrap that idea and add in the changes on my existing theme.

Here are the changes so far:

• Change of font type and sizes for the blog title and single post title
• Banners created for Communities and Recommended Sites groups (Long overdue but it’s finally done)
• Added in Review pages for my popular reviews (more to come soon)
• Increase my support for my affiliates

There will be a few more changes on the way in the coming weeks as I start testing a few plugins. While they may improve the functionality of my site and for my readers in general, it may not work to suit my preference  so don’t be surprise if nothing looks changed.

Last by not least, your suggestions matters to me so if you would like to make  suggestion and/or give me  ideas to improve the usabilty of my site, please feel free and make a comment here.

I appreciate all comments even though lately I’ve been finding less time trying to reply to all of them.  ^^