On a different tack altogether, two non-Zambia questions for the audience:
- F.O.Z. (Friend of Zambiastories.com) Kim has pointed out that the red-links-on-green-background motif of this site gives her a headache. I agree — while I was trying to match the color scheme of the Zambian flag, the red is largely a holdover from the crabwalk.com code I so ruthlessly stole when setting up this site. So, any HTMLers who have a better idea than the current red are encouraged to speak up.
- My iBook’s power supply is rated for both American voltage and European (220V, which is what Zambia has — along with those freaky S&M U.K. three-prong plugs). But when I charge my laptop, it gets freaky hot. As in, no longer tolerable on my lap and hotter than what I’m used to from standard charging and use in the States. (Most of the heat comes from the hard drive, not the battery.) Is this problematic? Should I be using a voltage converter even if it’s technically unnecessary? Will my laptop self-destruct in 30 seconds? All advice welcome.
Just to add to the freakiness, I bought a new battery for this thing a week before I left D.C., and it’s about a millimeter too thick. It fits in the battery slot, but when it’s in, I can’t press the right side of the trackpad button.
(One plus of 220V: the battery recharges from empty in barely 90 minutes. It takes well over two hours in America.)
The red has got to go.
What about Zambian sky blue? Something which is lighter in value than the Zambian flag green would be much easier on the eyes.
The problem is that the flag's red and green are not only complementaries but also the same intensity, which make the colors vibrate together. Great for a flag, less great for a website.
I'm sure there are F.O.Z.'s out there with a better grasp of this stuff, but here's my take in case nobody else weighs in.
Maybe try bold white (FFFFFF), bold gray (CCCCCC) or even a bold light green (CCFFCC?) for the links. Then you could change the bold date heds to the red, keeping your color scheme somewhat intact. In larger type and used mostly to accent, the red should be more palatable. Or palette-able.
Okay, I just looked at your site on my Mac (IE) and then looked at your stylesheet and saw that your main text color isn't really black, as it appears to be on Netscape and IE for PC. Given that, you might want to try a lighter bold variation of your regular body color. Or tell me to go away and mind my business.
You really have to lose the red - I didn't want to be the first one to say it ;-)
Why not keep it all black and use a change of background colour when you hover on a link?
I thought ALL laptops got hot when you charged them up?
Light gray it is. Let me know what you think, FOZs.
I like. The links--how you say?--pop. No more eye twitchin'.
Thanks so much for getting the red out.
The blog is great. Greetings from everyone in Metro.
The links are SO much better.
Doesn't stuff just get hotter at that voltage? But what the heck do I know? This sounds like science to me.
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