What do I do to kill time? Well, I:
I noted this Will Jessup post entitled Creating a Style-Guide for your site in my Google Notebook some time ago and then — organizationally challenged twit that I am — I couldn't find it again until now, and that was by accident.
Now I'm not only posting here to recommend it to all CSS devotees, noob and vet alike, but I'll also tag it at del.icio.us so I should always be able to find it again!
Hey, you! Working on your CSS! Have you read that post? Seriously, take a look!
Post to Del.icio.usMy next subject is still to be identified. I guess most famous folks are too busy with their fame to blog coherently.
Or perhaps I'm being too picky.
Maybe kevo can help.
And I do, as ever, remain open to suggestions.
Look for a new look, coming soon to a blog near you (this blog, that is).
I guess I'm a Ravenclaw:
As has been mentioned elsewhere, I've been busy helping Rob developing his multimedia products, so I've been a tad busy lately. Yesterday (Tuesday) & today, for instance, I've been inserting screen captures (from one of his DVDs we're producing) into the companion ebook.
None of which has anything to do with the title of this post, it's just an explanation about the lack of posts to this blog.
What the title is about is Monday.
On Monday I had to take our Honda Accord in for service, so I called the dealer and made an appointment with them to bring it in.
Then I checked online at the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory to see if there was a free wi-fi hotspot nearby. I was pleased to see that there was free wi-fi at the mall nearby (Burnsville Center).
I took the laptop as well as the Accord to the appointment, and asked the service department for a shuttle ride over to the mall.
When I got there, I hoisted out the laptop, turned it on, scanned for nearby networks, and there it was! A free, open connection, courtesy of Caribou Coffee. So I dragged my laptop to the food court, almost exactly under Caribou's kiosk, and tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect . . .
And called Caribou's help line, spending nine minutes and sixteen seconds on the phone with them (according to my cellphone's call log) and then waited for a call back.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Then I called the dealer and got a ride back to spend the remaining time in their waiting area.
However, not all was lost.
The waiting area at the dealer had the latest copy (December 2006) of Popular Science
Oh, yeah, and guess who called just as I was getting back to the dealer?
That's right—customer support at Caribou.
Here's the finalized list for this project:
How could I, in my previous post, suggest Slaughterhouse-Five
Miscellanea.
In the immortal words of the not-so-immortal Stan Lee: 'nuff said!
For my final project in the Photoshop class I'm taking, I have to create an animated gif file.
After a bit of deliberation, I've decided that I might want to create a banner for my Love All Books blog.
My plan (at the moment) is:
(I've read the comic book mini-series as it was published; I might replace this one)
(I haven't read this one yet; I'd rather find another I have read!)
UPDATE:I've picked the following extra titles already (one more to go!):
(in place of V for Vendetta)
(in place of The Big Sleep)As I said, using FORM, the O stands for Occupation.
Occupations I've had:
I just finished reading WWdN:ix for October. I enjoyed three of the posts immensely:
I thought I'd learned from my mistakes, but I guess not. At least this time the problem was an offline error. I had a really nice entry being edited yesterday for this blog, and got my machine hung before I saved a copy (I just saved what I've written in this post so far!)
So, now I'll try to re-invent what I wrote once already, and you can bet I'll be saving this puppy often as I do.
Before we get started with the back story that is the raison d'etre for this blog, I'm going to explain how I'm going to proceed with giving you some idea "what I'm about" in the most useful fashion.
I tend to be someone who likes my route well thought out before beginning a trip, and a plan of action before beginning any venture. As such, I'm going to lay out my plan so that you know what to expect.
My intent is to concurrently implement two techniques that I've been familiar with for many years:
And yet, even being a slow, "hopelessly outnumbered by authors" type of reader, I have still more books to add to my to be read list!
I searched "in tags" at Technorati for Stand on Zanzibar
And I still have to read Robert Fagles' translation of Homer's The Odyssey
(BTW: Fagles' translation of The Iliad
(Further BTW: I just discovered he has done The Aeneid
So, like an idiot — an idiot with already too much to read that is, and hardly enough time to read it — what do I do? I stopped by the library this morning while picking up the pies for Thanksgiving and picked up not one, not two, but three books:
by Michael Michalko
by Lemony Snicket
by Martha Moody (in all fairness, this one is for my wife (she participates in the neighborhood book club)
(and yes, I'm talking about myself here):You're an idiot babe.
it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe
Well, life's been keeping me busy, and I've hardly had time to read Wil lately, but here's a quick recap on thoughts triggered by specific entries:
as well as I'd like, but what I remember most was (a) I loved it, and (b) it may quite possibly been the first "cyberpunk" book I ever read (at least, the first that flew under that flag).
) he was about 14 and I was 30.)
)Here is a link to my Technorati Profile; I'm posting it to claim this blog.
Okay, it turns out what I'm doing for my friend Rob is more graphic artist and video post production than I thought I'd be doing, and less web development, but I'm still going to use this blog to discuss what's going on in my professional life. That will include what's going on with the above endeavors, plus my own journey to become a better web developer (self-study, classes, projects personal & professional, etc).
So, who is this Rob guy and what are you doing for him then, you ask? Well, for starters, Rob is a personal trainer. Rob also loves helping people, especially where it comes to personal fitness. As such, he has under development a number of projects (videos, ebooks, a membership site, et cetera) that I will be linking to when it goes live later this year. I've been doing some web work for him, but mostly lately I've been doing video production (using Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD, and Adobe Photoshop), and have been working with him on the companion ebook for this product.
Since this product has to do with improving your posture (a problem that most people that sit in front of a computer for any length of time have — whether they're aware of it or not — that can cause a number of other problems for them), but is still under wraps, I'll refer to it for now as Project Quasimodo.
So, what are am I doing for myself then?
Well, I am still very interested in becoming a full-fledged web developer.
I did this kind of work for a brief time for my former employer but, as was typical at this company — in a very Dilbert kind of way — I was given training, put to work on a project, and then once that project was over (long before I could really master the skills) I was put to work on something completely unrelated to web development. Shortly after that project ended, I was laid off and have done very little with my own website since (being busy with "stay-at-home dad-hood" will do that to you!)
If I could master the skills I"d like to master, I'd be a wiz in the following areas:
because, as I said, I'm really rusty at web stuff, and I've never done all that much with either css or xhtml, and I'd like to (one look at my blogs and you'll see why!)This has to be one of my favorite quotes ever: Follow your bliss (Joseph Campbell). The fact that it has been run up as the rallying cry for more than one generation by now (not to mention "t-shirtized" out the wazoo!) does nothing to diminish what it stands for.
But, like most of us, I suck at figuring out what my bliss is. I thought I wanted to be a published writer when I grew up, and now, thanks to blogger, I am. This does feel blissful to me, so I'll continue with it for a bit (like for the rest of my life, if I have anything to say about it, which I think I do!)
The fifth element in my journey to blog overload was launched on Monday, November 13th. It's a little thing called Love All Books (and I do love all books, for the most part, though I'll admit that I find some books by certain parties of political extremism do induce strong feelings of anxiety!)
If I'm going to provide "back story" on my life, I guess I need to post soon about just what my life is like at the moment. That is my plan for the next post (or the post after, no later than that!)
Do you have books you simply must try to read almost annually?
I have several, but one stands out amongst them: Stand on Zanzibar
As Joe Haldeman says on the cover, "It's time for a new generation to read it".
Another book (or, in this case, set of books) I try to read every year or so is The Lord of the Rings
So, I ask again: Do you have books you simply must try to read almost annually?
Update 11/15/2006 (Happy Birthday Jeff!): I just found this link, which mentions both Zanzibar & LotR.
The sad part about this blog is that I'm a very slow reader, so please bear with me. I tend to be reading at least one or two fictional books at any given time (I just finished reading The Miserable Mill
This is in addition to reading my Photoshop textbook, and the one or more nonfiction books I'm typically working on at any given time (at the moment, that's Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs by Biz Stone, and PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice by Matt Zandstra.
It is also sad that I'm hopelessly outnumbered by the authors out there. I can really relate to Henry Bemis, the character played by Burgess Meredith in the "Time Enough at Last" episode of The Twilight Zone (and yet, not even I want time to read that badly!)
I hope Riley, my soon-to-be six-year-old kindergartener, is a faster reader than I when he grows up or I will feel somewhat awful that I'm turning him on to books; I'd hate for him to have to deal with the frustration I endure! But I gotta admit, it is great watching him learn to read! He read—almost completely on his own—Hop on Pop (by Doctor Seuss) to me last night (imagine: he had trouble with "Constantinople" and "Timbuktu"!)
Stumble it!
