Sorry for not updating here recently. It’s finals week at my school, and the quarter is wrapping up! I had to cram for all of my core subjects and I’m happy to say that my worst final grade was in Chemistry, and I got an 86%. Not bad, not bad. Is your school’s third quarter wrapping up? Y’know, I’ve heard some schools don’t even run on “quarters”, I heard some ran only on semesters. That would confuse me… Anyway, as you may have noticed, the button contest didn’t really launch off to a good start. I pretty much ignored the fact that I had a contest running, so I’ll probably just retry it sometime over Spring Break. Sorry for those of you that entered. If you’d like, you can save those buttons and re-enter them into the button contest that I’ll be hosting again soon.

Well, that’s about all I had to say… My birthday’s coming up on the sixteenth. If you loved me, you’d send me Left 4 Dead 2 and Bayonetta for Xbox 360.

Button contest is up and running, so please feel free to enter! I also re-did the bullets page. The bullets I offered weren’t really that great, so I made some newer ones with more fun colors. Hope someone puts them to good use. I also created two new Color Palettes, in case you’re having a color scheme block!

At school today, my English teacher exploded on my friend because she asked her a question. The teacher, who we’ll call Mrs. F for the sake of identity, ranted about how my friend (who we’ll call “M”) should have raised her hand and politely waited for a response. M said “Well, Mrs. F, you were looking at your desk, so I didn’t think you would have been able to see my hand from that position.” Mrs. F was furious and called M an ill-mannered young woman. I know raising your hand and waiting for a response is what you’re supposed to do, but I don’t think you should do it if the teacher’s not even paying attention to her class. Are you supposed to just keep your hand up there for the entire class period until it’s most convenient for the instructor to notice raised hands?! It may sound like I’m making a huge deal out of this, but Mrs. F has done some really bad things in my opinion…

She also does not take a noted grade on homework. Isn’t that ridiculous?! She still gives us homework, and we’re expected to do it, but no grade is actually recorded for the assignments. So basically, the only grades you receive in that class are from quizzes and tests. May I also add that her quizzes are five questions each, with each question being worth three points. So basically, if you miss two questions, you have a D. And since that’s pretty much the only grade you get in her class, it’s extremely easy to fail. Isn’t that outrageous?!

Answer Me!
~ Do you have a teacher you can’t stand? Why can’t you tolerate him/her?
~ What are your plans for the weekend? :D

This weekend I plan on getting the button contest set up. If all goes well, the contest will be ready by late Saturday or right the next day. I’ll also have to check through the site database to see if this person did anything to the site that could ruin it in any way. Hopefully nothing’s wrong. I don’t want my entire weekend to be eaten up by sitting in front of a monitor, desperately trying to restore part of the site!

Hello everyone, it’s me again! I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m in love with this band called “Dance Gavin Dance”. They are the definition of music I love. If you’re bored, look them up and listen to some of their stuff. I’d recommend “Carl Barker” or “Tree Village”. Both are a couple of their best songs. They do have a bit o’ profanity, just in case you were weary of that kind of thing.

Well, anyway, onto the site: it seems sometime today, the “graphics” page was removed from the site database, causing inaccessibility to the graphic content I have to offer. I’ve received a few emails from people pointing this out to me. I don’t really know how this happened, but thank god for the “just in case” attitude I have, and I had all files backed up in My Documents. Of course, everyone probably does that, anyway. ._. Either way, the problem is resolved. I’ve change my cPanel login information in case it was someone being violent, but I don’t think so. I don’t think they’d just delete on tiny page if they were wanting to harm the site.

New content has also been added to the site. A new welcome sign, and a bunch of glitters. I’m also going to apply with some sites for affiliation, to try and get this site up and noticed by the general public again, plus it should be fun to meet some new website owners since my absence. I think I’ll be starting a button contest soon, as well. Nothing’s more fun than staring at a monitor for ages trying to get an animation right, eh?

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN BECOMING CO-OWNER OF SKYLINE-DESIGNS.NET…
[x] You must know adequate HTML & CSS, obviously
[x] You must have knowledge in editing a site via FTP or control panel
[x] You must have the ability to create quality graphics/resources
[x] You must be active. Dropping by to post a blog every few weeks is NOT enough to qualify you as a co-owner. I don’t have any room to talk, but that will be changing very soon.
[x] You have to be literate and mechanically correct. This is especially important when posting an update or when you write guides and tutorials for the site. Profanity anywhere on the site will not be tolerated, mkay?

If you want to apply, please feel free to email me an application at lucas[at]skyline-designs.net. I’ll leave it up to you to make your own application. Include previous experience, a link to some graphics or a portfolio you may have, the more the better!

And on a site note, I am working on a new GIMP tutorial for the Angelic Effect. Expect it up soon! :D

Well anyways, now that I’ve returned, this site will no longer be gathering dust. I probably won’t be very active as of now, because the computer is sitting on a dining room table in a room we don’t even use, but it will be taken back downstairs to the living room when we get this all working properly. What’s even more amazing about this whole ordeal is that the store we got the computer from had discovered that I was a web-designer (somewhat) and asked if he wanted me to move all of my Web Pages, pictures, and documents to this computer for free. How rad is that? I need to get GIMP back so I can start making content for the site and such, so until then!

I’m at my grandmother’s house again, so I decided to give the site a quick update, just checking how things are going. When I come back, I think I’ll be making another site skin. I’m getting kind of bored of them. Maybe an abstract one! I loves me the abstract art.

I’m also addicted to this game called Mabinogi. I’ve only got to play it for a whole five minutes, but in that time, I became pretty much addicted. Awesome game. Play it. Now. Okaybye.

Well regardless, I’m getting a computer. And I desperately need one. A laptop is even better because obviously it’s portable. What’s not to like about that?! So if everything goes well, I will be seeing you in the spring.

I’ve also been seeing a few new commentors. It’s kind of strange how all of these new people are showing up at my site even though is barren and basically unused. Heh heh, well thank you guys for being loyal and welcome to those of you new people. :] See you around!

Well, no use crying over spilled milk. I didn’t get it and the only way I’ll be able to check up on the site is by going to my grandmother’s house or the library in town. I wish I could update the site with my phone. D:

I’m going to do some code-checks on the layouts since I’m here at my grandmother’s house for a while and update the layout. I’ve been advertising some websites for waaay over two weeks and some of my affiliates need to be removed due to their sites closing.

GOOD NEWS: My birthday is March 16^th. My parents had better buy me that blasted thing or I will freakin’ spank.

Lucas out.

So guess what I’m asking for Christmas? A brand spankin’ new computer. My parents approved the plan and I’m ready to go.

Expect me to be alive and connected to the interwebs by Christmas day. :D G’bye, world!

Anyway, I’m still with lack of internet, so I won’t be able to work on the site just yet. I’m at my friend James’ house using his laptop. The good news is that my mom finally told me that she’ll be sending my computer to the shop to have a new modem dropped in it. The problem is that she didn’t tell me when, where, and how long it will take to get fixed… I hate vague-ness… I suppose good things come to those who wait, though.

I’ve also noticed that some of my affiliates have removed me from their list and informed me that as soon as my site becomes active again, they would re-add me to their active affiliates list. I’d just like to let you know that it’s perfectly okay. In fact, that’s a really good idea. To all of my affiliates who’ve kept me up, I suggest you remove me until I become active again, it’s just wasting space on your list, basically!

Please don’t forget about Skyline and come visit at least once a month or so. I don’t want this site to completely die while I’m gone. I’m really attached to this site, and I’ve put loads of work into it. (Plus it’s $18 a year…) It’d be a right well waste to just let it all die off and rot online.

Thank you to everyone that’s remained loyal to the site and continued to support me during my indefinite period of inactivity, you guys keep me going! … Wow, this blog looks kind of like a “thank-you” speech for accepting a grammy or something! XD

Welp, that’s about it. Please stop by once in a while and feel free to text me. Just follow me on Twitter (@loocuss) and I’ll eventually shout out my number for people to text me when I’m bored. Ciao!

My modem was fried. :|

So my computer is… not functional when it comes to getting online. Which means the only time I’ll ever get to check my site is when I’m anywhere with internet access besides my house.

So it all boils down to this… Skyline Designs is on another open hiatus. For how long? No idea, whenever I get internet back., I’m straight back to working on the site. I know this is a crappy situation, and putting this site on hiatus is dumb if I don’t even know if I’ll get internet again. But I want to do everything in my power to keep this site up since it’s my first like… real site. :/ Plus I’m paying $18 a year for this domain, so it’d be quite a waste to dump it without even having it for a full year, eh?

To all of my affiliates: Since this hiatus doesn’t have a set re-opening date, I understand if you’d like to remove me from your list of affiliated websites. This is perfectly fine. Please contact me telling me that I will be removed from your list so I can take you off of my list as well. Thank you so much!

Yeah, I was smack-dab in the middle of quite a thunderstorm, and lightning struck the field constantly. Which in turn, means that the phone lines are fried.

So… no internet for me. I’m staying over at a friend’s house right now, so I decided while I was in a place with internet access, I’d let everyone know what’s going on. :/

Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon. If not, I’ll be exchanging some words with whoever should be fixing the mess. Seriously, it’s been two days. Everyone else’s phonesc work but mine and my neighbor’s. Gah, I hate living in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, er, see you all… whenever.

So I was on Neopets last night and it seemed that I was getting graphic requests left and right when all I was doing was asking how well my graphics were on my portfolio. Apparently, the need for Neo-related graphics is on the rise, so it got me thinking. What if Skyline Designs offered Neopets content? Not only graphics, but guides and tutorials, too. Do you think it’d be a good idea, or no? :D When I first made this site, I told myself that I was quitting Neopets and making content that had nothing to do with that site. Now I’m kind of getting back into it and I’m wondering if it’ll be a good idea.

Oh, and the SOTM is going fantastically. I never expected my first SOTM to get so many entries so soon. So far I have 6 entrants, which is really quite a big number in my eyes. I’m looking for at least ten, though, so be sure to join! Click the little button at the bottom of this blog to head on over to the SOTM section of the site. Remember that this SOTM is different: it’s actually fair! Big site or small site, everyone has an equal chance of placing in the competition.

I’m thinking about making a new site skin, as well. I have three, which is good, but a fourth is always better. I need some inspiration, though… Any ideas? I have two dark— well, basically colorless ones, and then I have one super-bright colorful one. Maybe I should make one that meets in between?

Answer Me!
~ Should Skyline Designs offer Neopets content? Yes or no?
~ What do you think Skyline’s new skin should be like? Colors, images, etc.
~ What skin do you use when you’re on Skyline Designs? v1, v2, or v3?

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful independence day and independence day weekend. I went across state and stayed at a timeshare condo we have that’s right by Moonshine Beach on Table Rock lake. Watching the fireworks’ reflections on the water from across the cove was absolutely beautiful and I really wish that I hadn’t had lost my camera or I would’ve shared some of those amazing things I saw the day before yesterday! Aside from that, I also got to see the new Transformers movie on an IMAX screen. In other words, the screen is literally ten times the normal theater screen size. :o It was sold out. Which meant that there were 536 people in there including myself. Talk about crowded~.

I also went to Silver Dollar City. It’s this really cool theme park that’s themed around the western 1800’s. It’s got some fun rides and attractions and such, so it was a good time. They had a Banana-Split eating contest and I got to watch random people stuff their faces full of soft-serve, so I had my fill of laughter for this weekend, too.

Ah, back to the site! I noticed that S.D. is losing loads of site hits. I went from #38 on Ice Caves’ topsites to number 58. That’s really sad. Pathetic, actually. I want to kick this site back into gear and what better way to do that than a fantastic SOTM? The prizes will be amazing, and the competition will be fierce, because not only will I judge on site hits, but also content quality and overall update activity as well as site appeal and a number of other factors. So this won’t be just some contest where sites enter and people vote. That kind of thing is just a popularity contest, so don’t expect to lose like that! You’ll all each have an equal amount of winning, so don’t be shy and feel free to join! The contest will be up and running later today. Just go to Miscellaneous > SOTM on the navigation. :D Great to be back, guys!

Answer Me!
~ What did you do for Independence Day? (If you celebrate it)
~ Any suggestions or ideas for S.D.’s SOTM?

Anyway, please feel free to comment and use what little content I have to offer. The site will remain open, of course, but don’t expect any immediate replies to requests or direct emails. Again, I apologize for this all, but I don’t think my site is the top of my priority list to be honest. My life comes first!

Thanks for your time.

Warning: Long blog, get yourself a soda and a comfy chair.

This past weekend has been an absolute disaster for me. On Friday, my parents informed me that the whole family would be going camping for the entire weekend to celebrate Father’s Day. Well, I absolutely hate camping, but since it was for my dad, I’d go without any complaints. While both of my parents were at work on Friday, I was the one who had to get all of the groceries and things.

My dad’s old car needed the tire changed on it because it only had the temporary one, right? Well he told me to take it into town and have it changed. I pulled out of the driveway and was going down the gravel road to the highway when my sister screamed “Wasp!” and pointed at me. I looked to my left and this yellow and black thing was right in my face. It was so nice, it even stung me right under the eye! I slammed on the brake and screamed like a little girl. It hurt a lot! When I look back up, I see a tree coming towards me… Awesome.

So naturally with my luck, I hit it. Before I could even flinch or even comprehend the crash, I heard the loudest bang ever and then my face went numb. The airbag went off, too. My sister’s airbag didn’t go off, even though the front of the car on her side was the side that got hit. I’d say that was unsafe but lucky her! Airbags hurt! I stumbled out of the car after turning it off and helped my sister out, but she kept staring at me like I was a ghost. I asked her what was wrong and she pointed out that blood was just pouring out of my mouth. Great! We walked a few hundred yards back to the house and called up my mom, she wasn’t mad or anything, just a little irked. She hated that car and I think she was happy that someone finally ended the thing. My dad was a little mad, but he was planning on getting a new car very soon, anyway. Both of us were perfectly fine, except that my sister has a big bruise that matches where the seat-belt was on her body and I busted my lip pretty good from that airbag.

We went on with our camping trip, nothing was going to ruin it for Father’s Day! We packed up the boat, the two jet-skis, and the camper, and then headed off to the lake for a weekend of fun… Hopefully.

We got to the campground and set everything up, then my brother and I decided to take the jet-skis out for a run since it was so bloody hot. Aaron shot off and I followed behind, zig-zagging to catch his waves… He turned a corner around a cove and I sped up a little to catch up with him, then a water patrol boat flashed its lights and me and I froze, letting go of the throttle completely. The whole thing came to a jerky stop and I got soaked, but I didn’t even notice, all I could see was a big blue and white boat coming straight for me. I was going to be in so much trouble!

The reason that he pulled me over is because he thought that my Sea-Doo didn’t have any license on it, because the license sticker is cherry red just like the jet-ski, so it kind of blends in. After verifying that I had it, he told me I could go. THANK GOD. So I start it back up and give it a little gas so I could turn and go back. Upon trying to go, I bumped his boat and he shouted for me to come back. Fantastic, more trouble… He told me that I need to be idle speed at ALL times when I’m within fifty feet of another watercraft.
Please note that you can’t turn a jet-ski at all unless you’re giving it a little gas, otherwise you’ll just be making a little knob underwater go back and forth, so how could I possibly just let it idle away? He had the nose of my jet-ski facing the side of his boat, so I can’t just “idle” my way through his boat magically. He wrote a warning for me, and had to “escort” me back to the dock. How embarrassing… I drove the jet-ski back to the dock, with a police watercraft following right behind me, people staring, and it seemed like my parents’ faces were already turning beet red from the dock after they spotted the cop behind me… Luckily my parents knew that it’s nearly impossible to just idle away from another boat unless you’re facing the exact direction that you want to go already, so I didn’t get into any trouble.

The rest of the weekend went by okay, mom drove the jet-ski and attached the tube to it, so my sister and I went tubing while my mom’s insane driving took us through every large wave on the lake. She’d follow these huge yachts and hit every single wave at like fifty miles an hour, so Amelia and I got pretty bruised up. After we were done tubing and got back to shore, I noticed that I had forgotten to take my phone out of my pocket… So now I’m phoneless, unless a water-logged cell phone case is good enough to use? I can even see the condensation on the inside of the front screen and everything. Ugh…

I also got like the worst sunburn possible, everywhere, so it hurts to walk, and bumping into something is like touching a red-hot piece of metal for me, so I think I may need to be hospitalized or something. Jaykay, but it does hurt a lot.

I’m done camping for a while, I’m done driving around the world’s largest man-made lake, I’m done with safety restraint systems, and I’m done with nature in general. Specifically the sun. My weekend has been quite an adventure… I got a warning, a bloody face, practically third degree burns on every part of me, and I don’t have a phone. How is that many wrongdoings in one weekend even possible?! I sure hope everyone else’s Father’s Day weekend went well, because mine went to hell.

Answer Me
~ What’d you do on Father’s Day weekend?
~ What’d you get/do for your dad on Father’s Day?

I also made a tutorial on making mirrored text using GIMP. Mirrored text is like my best friend, so of course it had to become a tutorial on this site sooner or later. Let me know what you think?

Yesterday I got to ride around on our two new Jet-Skis. We bought a white one that can seat two people, and (my personal fave) a cherry red one that can seat three. The red one rides so smoothly. You can launch that thing off of a solid wall of a wave and be like “Oh, what? Sorry I was sleeping. It’s so comfy :D”

Too bad I bruised my forearms, though. I managed to catch a big wave directly from the side when I hit the water from another wave, and it flipped. I slammed both my arms against the handlebars and got flung off into the lake. Didja know that water feels like concrete and high speeds? Well I hope you never personally experience it. It felt like my face was getting ripped off.

ALL IN ALL though, it was great fun. I want to go ride them again this weekend! I certainly hope I can, it’s hard for me to just stare at them sitting outside on the trailer. My brother favors the white one, but that one is meant more for racing or something, I don’t know. All I do know is that that thing can fly. You barely nudge the throttle and the whole thing tilts back and shoots forward.

Answer Me
~ What sporty things do you like to do for fun?
~ Have you ever ridden on a jet-ski or boat? (if not, refer to the bullet below)
~ What do you think of the Mirrored Text tutorial?

• RIDE ONE

So anyway, it’s a new week, my parents ended up coming home early. A day early. I have to say, I was kind of relieved. After just one full day of running the house by myself, it was almost burnt down and just pieces of debris on the ground. Yeah, my parents would’ve never let me run the house again.

As for today, it was pretty normal. I was my lazy self and woke up at about 2 in the afternoon… I always pick my sister up from Summer School, so I have to be out the door and gone by 2:45. Well low-and-behold, the time comes around and as soon as I shut the door and turn back around towards the parking lot, the only car in the drive had a major flat tire. X_X Why can’t anything go right for me?!

I call my mom at work, which is a big no-no unless you’re dying or someone else around you is. So after getting yelled at for distracting her at work, I tell her that I can’t get Amelia because the car has a flat, and I can’t take the truck because my dad and brother took it with the two jet-skis to play around with them at the lake.

My mom blows up.
Yelling, profanity.
She tells me to call the school and hangs up.
… I don’t know the school’s number.

I run around the house for like five minutes, searching for anything that might help me find out the school’s telephone number, and come to find out: it was saved on my phone by my parents. Thanks for telling me!

In the end, Amelia does get a ride home with mom, and I changed the tire. I was covered in tire… grease, though. It was really slippery stuff, hah. xD

Tomorrow I have to take my grandmother to The Lake (it’s a city, not an actual “lake”…) for her therapy. She recently underwent heart surgery, and she’s taking physical therapy to get everything back in working order. She’s not fit to drive so I’m the man for the job! I’ll need to bring my DS Lite though, so I don’t get bored staring at the walls of a hospital.

Anyway, yeah, my life’s fantastic, eh? As for site updates, I added a new(ish) section: CSS Templates! I added two templates for your use. Hopefully they’ll prove to be handy for a few people, because I know when I ventured off into web-design for the first time, I needed templates left and right.

I also did a ton of button requests. It seems everyone needs buttons all of a sudden, and all flock to Lucas. Does no one offer custom buttons anymore? o.o Anyway, by all means go ahead and request some even though I’m complaining, it gives me something to do! xD