Archive for October 2001

I gave blood today. If you donated after September 11 and have not donated since, you are eligible to give blood again. The supply doesn’t keep for longer than 50 days, so give again and again. Make the banks vampire-happy! Red Cross Donation Information Page helps you determine if you’re eligible to donate and find a place nearest you. I almost never take one hour from the time I walk in to happily drinking and eating all the free treats they give you afterwards.

How I miss the good ol’ days of Saturday night TV of cuddling with the TV while it took me on away on the ocean to places like Mazatlan and Acupulco followed by a fantasy on a tropical isle of magic. If you’re thinking Love Cruise or Temptation Island, you must be under 20. I’m talking the classics… life before reality TV… Love Boat and Fantasy Island. No, it wasn’t that I couldn’t get a date on Saturday night. I was TOO YOUNG at the time, but old enough to enjoy the shows. I even enjoyed the return of Fantasy Island with Malcolm McDowell and Fyvush Finkel. Alas, it didn’t last. No, I didn’t watch the Love Boat: the Next Wave.

It is coming back… but with a twist. NextDraft points to EOnline, which reports the new series will have real life people with fantasies that come true. Hmm… if I get on the show, I fantasize being the “good” Bill Gates. OK, that’s enough M$ references for today. I’d be lovingly surrounded by gadgets, books, and the time to create three new beautiful Web sites with new domain names and get to keep ‘em all! Oh yeah, plus a whole new room added on to my home to hold it all in a very organized manner to satisfy my obsession with neatness. No, I am not seeing a psychologist.

Oh man, just what I need… another fabulous font place to drool over. First came P22, now Fontlover, which earned a Blog of Note yesterday. Get links to font sites everywhere and never go home again.

Checked this place on Blogdex based on Christine’s mentioning it. That’s sad. I tied for #4867 along with Micro$oft, donate a buck to Bill Gates, and Missouri Trailer Trash.

So what does this mean? I need to add greed and sex?

Christine, again, gave me another link ( stop it with the goodies already, Christine!! ) to a marvelous collaborative project called 5000 I’s. I am working on a picture for it, but I don’t want to see 482 people beating me to it. Save my spot! Got Halloween bizness to attend to.

I am gonna register for sxsw as soon as I get a few details figured out. You goin’?

Howl at the moon. Tonight we’ll have the first Halloween full moon in 46 years. Next one is in 2020. Wow… I’ll be 50 years old. Have a safe one!

You know they say we have a twin out there in the world. I’ve had one lady tell me that I look like her sister, but I’ve never seen her. The lady was from DC, so I doubt I’ll ever see her again especially since I hardly remember the face now – just the story. Can’t imagine someone out there looking like me especially with this Roman nose stuck to the rest of me. Although, I did discover that someone shares the same first and last name (my maiden – her married) in Virginia. That was freaky. Christine, the way cool gal behind Blah Blah Blog and I are finding a bunch in common and practically emailed back and forth within 30 minutes of my sending her our first email connection. OK, I admit I’ve had email conversations with many people, but not like this on the first meeting. What caught my eye was her reference to Red, White and Blueout at A&M and got me readin’ more on her coolio Web site. Jaw kept dropping as I read more details about her in the me me me section. Just call us children of the ’70s. I’ll be hanging out there more often as this is the kind of Web site slash blog I wish I had, but too busy and creatively uninspired to do it.

Another follow up to "Site Search Madness: A Roundup:" Atomz is available as a Dreamweaver extension, which makes it easy to install. Thanks to Suzanne Stephens for the tip.

Nothing to do with Minnesota. You can go to Viking and answer a few questions to find out your Viking Name. Mine? Móeiðr Björnsdottir. Does that mean I am related to Bjorn Borg? Thanks for mumbling the link, Steve. Here’s what it says about me and my comments are in Italics:

Your Viking Personality: The tougher Vikings might let you on the boat, but generally only when they need ballast.You are strong and tireless, frequently shouldering burdens that would tire lesser women. Ha, yeah right. That’s me, Ms. On the go who hates driving places. You might be able to hold your own on the battlefield, but you’re no “berserker”. Instead, I am just plain berserk.

You would have a very tough time making a long sea voyage in a Viking longboat. True, too true. Car trips? Let’s say my face is the color of Kermit the Frog even on a short car trip. Vikings make fun of you all the time. Not always behind your back, either. Easy to get away with making fun of a deaf person behind, in the same room, and even in front of me with mouth covered, etc. etc.

When I suggested an article on site search tools, little did I know I was in for it. It turned out to be one of the most challenging articles I’ve written to date. After I finished it, I was glad I did it and I hope it helps someone avoid the frustration it takes to find the right tool for a Web site. Without further ado, I present, "Site Search Madness: A Roundup" at Webreview. I like the cover graphic especially with the rope for the Texan in me… it’s coincidental.

Marc emailed me and mentioned another search technology: "if you program with ColdFusion, you already have Verity built in. It’s just as powerful as most of the solutions listed in the article."

Hot off the presses! Microsoft tells Opera users they need to upgrade a MS-based browser to access MSN. Didn’t last long, of course. Get the lowdown from Brainstorms and Raves.

I meant to comment on Bruce Mau’s item numero tres last week when it was posted on Textism’s "Annotated Manifesto for Growth", but alas I got snowed under (OK, bad idiom when you’re from Texas, but you know what I mean). It says, "Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there."

Textism’s response went way over my head. No doubt that whatever he said was a counterpoint since he argued against everything Mau said in his own unique way. I had to re-read Mau’s process statement a few times to get what he was saying through his PhD style writing (in other words, show off). Let me put it in English as I understand it:

Picture a cup on the table. You want to pick up the cup. The cup is the outcome of the process.

The steps you take to reach the cup is the process.

Mau says that the "walking" (process) drives the "picking up of the cup" (outcome). Now, pretend you don’t know what is the outcome. You’re walking and walking and walking and pick up a plate. Nope, that’s not the outcome. But if you don’t know what is the outcome, then how will you get there? Mau says we’ll know what we want to be there. How? By twitching your nose and conjuring magic?

On the other hand, when you know the outcome, you design the process to get there in the most efficient way possible. Thus, you’ll find the shortest route with the fewest obstacles to get to the cup. If the family dog manages to steal the cup and move it to a new location, then you can adjust the process to get to the cup in its new spot.

It’s like saying a company will hire staff, buy equipment, and get to work on something without knowing its business goals. If you don’t know what you’re targeting, then you more apt to miss by taking a blind shot.

Conclusion: The outcome drives the process.

The Economist has an inspiring article, "God meets Mammon: the profit of turning thugs into programmers" about a Jesuit who gives up his millions and instead of saying his vows, vows to work with gangs. Brother Holub recruits the gangsters from one of Milwaukee’s South Side and starts with a drug treatment program since 90% of the gangbangers are drug addicts. Next comes getting a job and studying to get a high school diploma. Roughly 80 make it through the program and 25 of those enter programming. The programmer wanna-bes attend Homeboyz Interactive (HBI) to receive technical training and after completing the training, they switch to the HBI Consulting side to gain experience.

Doubt its success? Of the 150 who entered the HBI program, ZERO have left! HBI Consulting is expected to earn US$1 million profit based on $2.3 million revenues. Let’s hear it for the boys! This is the kind of program we could use throughout the country.

Thank you, Steve, for giving me the motivation to update these notes. I still have to clean up the CSS file, which is a mess from all the tinkering. I got too tired once I was almost satisfied with the new look. What do I mean by “almost?” I am NEVER satisfied with anything I do. The mark of a perfectionist will never fade away.

Steve mumbled and grumbled about the invisible yellow links on this page. I had forgotten to change the CSS file name when I redesigned the main page. I’ve changed the CSS link and a few others things in hopes to make things more readable. What do you think? Be honest.

The WFAA.com – High Tech Texas Video is online so you can see and hear the tape. It’s a big file, but we’re at the beginning of the show. Don’t take what the lady in purple says seriously.

Most blogs are quiet on Sunday, but not Shirley’s. She’s put together a tutorial on Converting Existing Content to CSS from WebsiteTips.com. Page 1 gets you started with a basic HTML page, style tags, and colors. Page 2 is fontyful. Move to page 3 to get the lowdown on links and CSS. Then learn how to make life easier with external style sheets. It concludes with a quick note on how you should convert an existing site to CSS and plenty of resources.

If you haven’t played with CSS much, this is a good place to start. No, I’m not trying to get on Shirley’s good side (Hi, Shirley! How ya doin’? You’re terrific!). I felt threatened by some of the well known and strongly recommended CSS articles when I first started learning CSS. This one didn’t frighten me because it provides you with the code to copy and paste, shows you how it should look (both the code and the results), and explains each of the commands. Also, another good place to begin learning about CSS is Climb to the Stars.

If you already know CSS, this is too easy for you. You may find some valuable CSS resources at Websitetips. Here’s a list of resources I posted at webdesign-l:

CSS Software Bradsoft’s TopStyle got the most recommendations. Close behind is WestCiv’s Stylemaster.

Also, a good reference to have at your computer is Visibone’s HTML Card or Foldout. If you decide you like the Visibone and don’t know which to go (foldout vs. card), you can view the old notes on Foldouts and HTML Card.

• Webmonkey’s CSS Stuff
• Webreference
• Builder.com CSS Reference
• W3C CSS School
• Webreview Overview of CSS Specs by Eric Meyer
• Web Nouveau
• CSS Real World – Web2001 Presentation from Zeldman
• Fear of Style Sheet Series – from Zeldman
• WebSite Tips – CSS

When I did my first attempt to create this Web site in tableless format, I started with the box templates like the ones you’ll find at glish, noodleincident, and bluerobot. Find the template that closely matches your Web site’s layout and slowly move your content into the template. Play with the CSS sheet and figure out what each property and attribute does.

J.R.R. Tolkien is “in” again especially with the Lord of the Rings movie coming out soon. I had never read any of the books despite hearing good things about them while growing up. I found a chance to sneak it in between books and finally met the Baggins of the Shire. I haven’t quite formed an opinion of the book yet because it’s only a third of the story. Eventually, I’ll get around to reading the other two. For those of you who can’t get enough of the Hobbits, check out the long Wired article that Steve mumbled.

Ben gave me something to think about. He mentioned one of my fave songs and then he wonders what Billy Joel would say if he were to add more verses. So, I start thinking of my own as I try to recall the major events that have happened since 1989 when the song was released. Of course, the only thing that came to mind is September 11 and it blocked out everything else.

Murphy’s Law threw me for a little loop. On Tuesday, a friend asked if I would go to Race for the Cure with her and I agreed. Tuesday AND Wednesday night… I forgot how to sleep. So, I am figuring that I’ll never get up in time to meet her at 6:30am. Called her last night and told her not to wait up for me. I managed to go to bed early and woke up on my own at 5:00am. No alarm, no nothing. I went as promised. I spent time with friends. I walked and squeezed in jogging when I didn’t think I would run over a walker. I finished the race. All’s well that ends well.