Daleri.com

Tjohoo!

The snowball is rolling, I’m back at work and feeling great. And I am actually getting things done which is a relief. Thanks for your patience and for all encouraging and friendly comments! It has been a great support…

Right now I am working on fixing a lot of things that are not really broken - just not very good. I’m working with template updates, site updates, layout re-structuring, advertisement management, music management, writing the FAQ… It is a whole lot of stuff to do, but I am actually moving forward now. I’m planning to make a major site reboot on January 1st, and then get back into doing good things again. If something on this site would not work or be missing or looking strange at some point, then it is probably only because I am turning the code upside-down as a part of this work.

There will be a few changes to the general site structure, some that I have written about before and some that are new ideas. For example, you will be able to download latest template release and the latest song directly from the frontpage - and then click into either the templates section or the music section where you will find more material - well categorized and organized unlike the mess I have today. The blog will be cleaned up and completely outdated information will either be updated, marked or removed. Categories will be refreshed, tags will be added and it will be easier to post comments on older posts.

On top of the wishlist: A site sponsor!

I will also add one or two new advertising options where a highlighted advertiser will finally be able to put a well-placed advertisement banner on all pages of this site. The interest from advertisers has been huge over the last year, and now that I will take the step into being a full-time template designer I will need the support of advertisers and sponsors in order to keep this site online and updated with new content in the future. With this post, I would like to ask anyone who may be interested in becoming a sponsor or advertising on this site to contact me - and do it as soon as possible since the interest will be high. And also, to be honest, since I would want to have everything set up before the holidays…

New wild number - new inspiration boost

Just for the fun of it, I went through the download statistics for my templates just to see what the numbers were. I found out that on OSWD.org, OWD, Open Designs and on my own free website templates page, I now have more than 1,5 million template downloads (wp-themes and modified blog/cms templates are not included). Now, I have stopped keeping track of all the wild numbers long ago, but the numbers are still a huge source of inspiration at times. I’m writing it here just to have the number documented…

And finally…

While I’m writing about the future, I would like to ask for some directions. I’ve started writing and recording music again, and I have noticed that the interest for older songs is getting higher. “Riders, Unite!” is getting attention from the Pump It Up PRO feature, and I may even be able to make one or two guest appearences at a eurodance party tour in southern Sweden soon. More about that later, I’ll skip to the point for now.

I would want to make a music video for “Riders, Unite!” and possibly also for some other song. It doesn’t need to be special, but it must be a bit better than the boring auto-generated photo slideshows that my limited skills would let me do. I have no video editing skills, but I do have some nice material from old musical adventures that could be used.If there is anyone out there who would be interested in giving me a push in the right direction (or maybe even help creating a video), then let me know! I would be happy to learn more, but I have no idea where to start and what tools to get. It is just a huge world of interesting possibilities - and knowing how long it took me to learn how to make music, I am almost ready to give up before I have even tried… Any help or tips would be great!

During the last two weeks, I have felt much better than I have in a long time. I’ve been able to do much more, to be more creative and actually get things done. All in a way that has reminded me about how I used to work years ago. I have felt that the energy has slowly started to return, and it has been a great feeling.

Today, I called my doctor to get an update on the latest blood tests that was made last week. Even before I explained why I called, he could tell that I should probably feel better than in a long time. The tests revealed that the anemia treatment has been very effective: The blood is completely restored to a perfectly healthy level. I still don’t know what was causing it from the start, so I need to continue the treatment for yet a while to keep the levels up. But some clues have been found and I’ve been told that I should not worry too much about it.

In other words, the boosts of inspiration and the ability to spend all night long working on some crazy idea that I got from nowhere, was not a co-incidence. I have been slow, tired and lazy for years, all for a reason. Having found the error and a way to restore it, I should be able to do a lot of exciting things that I’ve avoided for a long time. Perhaps it is time to bring back the music again?

Local newspaper Norrbottens-Kuriren has an article about my work today, following up the current interest for website templates and for my ideas about making a living from giving away things for free.

The article is written in Swedish, but I recommend everyone to take a look at it anyway since there is a pretty photo of me, Johanna and little Elven in it! Johanna has done a lot of invisible work by helping and supporting me in many ways since we first met more than seven years ago. She is an amazing person and naturally a big part of everything I do, and the fact that she is getting into template design as well makes our project a lot more fun to work with. I am a lucky man…

Edit: The other local newspaper (NSD) runs a similar story today. It is a bit longer and more detailed, and since the interview was made more than a week before the NK interview I still have hair on my head. Summaries in English will be posted here in a day or two.

NK: ”Snällhet lönar sig”
NSD: Webbdesign från lilla Jokkmokk

Many months ago, I was contacted about having a couple of my songs included in a new release of a popular arcade/console dance game, In The Groove 3. It sounded really interesting since it would be a way of getting my music out to new listeners, a promo opportunity that I didn’t even knew existed.

I agreed without thinking very much about it. Months passed without any news, until I suddenly learned that the game project had been closed down. It was sad news, but appearently another project would be launched and the team wanted to include my music there instead. Once again, I agreed. But this time I didn’t have any special expectations about it. In fact, after a while I almost forgot about it all since I didn’t expect anything to happen.

But it sure did. A couple of months ago I got an e-mail asking me why I had not posted anything on my blog about having my music included in “the new Pump”, and a quick Google search helped me find the name of the new game: Pump It Up PRO. After a quick read-up, I learned that three songs from my music collection were selected for the game - which was going through extensive live testing in arcade halls already. The songs are:

• Andreas Viklund - Riders, unite!
• Lagoona - Into my dream (Kaveh Azizi remix)
• Lagoona - Be my friend (2001 edit)

Right now, the music download links on both my own music page and the Lagoona page have been removed since I am re-organizing the music pages. Once the site update is complete and the new music pages are online I will update this post with download links to the songs. Until then you can go to my artist page on purevolume.com where you can download “Riders, unite!” and other songs by me, along with some of the most popular Lagoona songs. For free, of course (no registration required).

Getting into the world of videos

While learning more about Pump It Up PRO, I found a lot of dance step videos on different video sites, including several that include my music. For example, check out this clip showing “Riders, unite!” on the “Crazy” level, or this one that shows “Into my dream” being cleared on the 10-pad Nightmare level. I was happy to see that the songs often get nice feedback in the video comments, it was a happy surprise. I also discovered several artists that I had never heard of before when I looked at other Pump It Up PRO videos, so it is definitely a working platform for music promotion…

This is a new world for me so I don’t know much about dance games yet. But I’m hoping to learn more about it through the music and through the people who dance to it. Just days ago, Lagoona classic “The promised land” appeared on the frontpage of StepMania.com as an entry in the StepMix 3 Contest - giving me even more good reasons to learn more about dance games, and even try the freeware game StepMania myself.

I will return to this topic in future posts for sure. This project is already giving me lots of inspiration for making new music, and with some luck it may perhaps also give me the inspiration to make that music video for “Riders, unite!” that I have wanted to do for years now. It would be a really fun project to do. If anyone out there would be interested in taking part of a music video project based, just let me know!

A couple of months ago I jumped into a co-operation with an old friend, music producer and internet star Marcus “Perrra” Persson. I wrote the lyrics for his entry to Melodifestivalen, the Swedish qualifying competitions for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the first music writing project I took part of in several years, and it may possibly a sign of a soon-to-be return into the the world of music.

The song was not among the 28 selected tracks that were chosen to participate the huge TV-shows, but now Perrra has released it as a free download on his website! He didn’t give any hint about me being involved in writing the lyrics, but I like the cute and happy track so I would want to recommend it here anyway.

The song is built around a style which is very common in Melodifestivalen, but as a completely free MP3 track it is well worth downloading and listening to if you like happy dance music. The lyrics are in Swedish, which should be extra fun for those of you who don’t understand the language. I have written a complete English translation as well, but I don’t know if it will ever be recorded…

You can find the song here: Perrra.se (look for Perrra feat. Ellen - Hela världen)

Yesterday I gave another interview, this time to Swedish technology news site IT24.se. The main topic was still templates and plans for the future, but the article also mentioned the new website that is launched within the Tjuvlyssnat network today: Tjuvtittat.se!

Tjuvtittat! is a simple photoblog where Damon and I will post funny and strange photos that are sent to us by the readers of Tjuvlyssnat. It will hopefully add another dimension of entertainment, a little bonus for everyone who enjoys the kind of humor that Tjuvlyssnat is based on. Damon explains more about it in this article (also from IT24.se).

Note: All links to sites in Swedish. But this photo on Tjuvtittat may work well in English as well…

She turns 23 years old today, so today will be a day of birthday celebrations and of course… Cake for friends and family who comes by!

Here is a recent photo of her with all our Papillon dogs: Elven, River and Theo:

Swedish TV channel TV4 made an interview with me a few days ago, and it was aired on friday night in the economy news. I talked about the templates and about the plan to launch a company together with Johanna where we would try to make a living from giving away work for free. I mentioned that this was a target for the nearby future, without explaining anything about the reason for waiting (the fact that I’m putting my energy right now on recovering from the anemia).

I also explained that the whole thing was possible thanks to the internet, that I was able to work from anywhere in the world and that we hope to bring in more designers into the project in the future.

The program can be seen on the Ekonominyheterna TV website. Look for the link that says “Ekonominyheterna fredag 18:33 (2007-10-26, 18:31)“. Please note that it is in Swedish and that it is my little computer corner in our kitchen you see. I miss my old studio and I really look forward to getting an own office again some day…

A quick message to Swedish readers, announcing the release of the second book from Tjuvlyssnat.se - the Swedish humor site which I have been a part of for almost a year now:

Ny bok från Tjuvlyssnat!

Tjuvlyssnat släpper snart sin andra bok, och inför releasen hålls en tävling där Tjuvlyssnats besökare kan vinna boken genom att svara på några frågor om sajten. Frågorna hittar du i Tjuvlyssnats “Bakom rubrikerna”-blogg.

Boken innehåller många av de bästa tjuvlyssningarna ifrån sajten och är precis lika rolig som den första boken som släpptes i början av året. Idag avslöjar jag hur bokens omslag ser ut, och jag kan ärligt (trots att jag är partisk) säga att det är en bok som de flesta sannolikt kommer att tycka om!

För sannolikt, det betyder väl något som är likt sanning, eller hur?