Hopes and Dreams

Approximately half of me, I believe, is attached to Suburban KID.

As James Bond rightly puts it, “everyone needs a hobby”. But Suburban KID is more than a hobby. It’s a passion, a pouring of my time and energy for no immediate gain.

Perhaps, if I look at it in a pessimistic passion, it’s because I’m not really good at anything else. No, I’m serious; deep inside, I know I’m not a talented person. What I can do relatively well is within the realms of writing and speaking. In everything else, I am, at best, mediocre.

I admit to having a bit of an inferiority complex. But it isn’t easy, seeing how everyone around you so chock-full with skills and talent, and you feeling unworthy being even near them. And before anyone says this is related to being in Singapore, it isn’t: everyday on Facebook I am reminded of the many, many high-flying people I leave behind, with them winning competition after competition, and generally going places. I feel bad for not being up to them. And I feel bad for feeling that way.

If there’s any good to come out of that, it means that my dedication to Suburban KID is stronger than ever. Over the past few months, the team here has worked hard to give this site the design and feel it deserves. And if I may say so myself, I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t perfect; while we have done some extensive testing, you may or may not experience a few bugs or flaws here and there. However, it packs quite a few extra features, and (subjectively) looks more keeping with the times.

Here’s the changelog:

-Revamped UI, focusing on a simple light theme
-Changed blog header
-High(er) social media integration, through the use of social media icons and Facebook/Google+ followings
-New content slider to showcase latest posts
-New ‘Recommended for You’ slider when viewing posts
-New ‘Featured Posts’ widget
-Removed Blogger ‘Following’ widget (please use either the Facebook/Google+ widgets instead, as Blogger is discontinuing support of the aforementioned widget)
-Removed ‘Subscribe to Blog/Blog Posts’ widget (it became redundant)
-Removed ‘Contact Us’ page
-Information from ‘The Team’ widget moved to its own page
-Rewritten FAQ
-Changed or tweaked font types and sizes

And that isn’t all. We have a whole series of articles coming up titled ‘Calling Home’, featuring some unique work from both myself and a number of guest writers. Stay tuned for that. If all goes to plan, I’ll also slip in some extra features before the start of the 2013 school period.

The playground is open. Time to go play.