Hard to believe, but it’s been one year today since the husband and I were married (and even longer still since this very patient and mellow man took me by surprise, embracing my messy life when the little man was still wee). To celebrate we’ve got a hot date lined up. The in-laws are taking the little man…and we’re partaking of mini-golf at the Science Museum, followed by a movie of the husband’s choosing, then regrouping for dinner with the whole family. Photos to come.
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Delia Jane has come to a decision. Just as she was going into her third round of interviews for the Congo gig…she was offered the teaching job in Chicago. She chose Chicago. While I’m relieved that she’ll be staying relatively nearby, it’s all happening so fast. As in she’s leaving tomorrow, and has to have lesson plans ready for Monday. So last night we gave her a hastily organized send-off at Galactic Pizza (just try to keep the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic from getting stuck in your head while eating there). I’d been hearing good things about the place, and there was the almost embarrassingly favorable City Pages review, but last night was my first time experiencing the magic for myself. And oh my. The vegan cheese actually melts, and tastes good. Our little group ordered two of their gourmet pizzas, The Alamo and The Paul Bunyan. Who knew wild rice on pizza could taste so good?
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Thursday, August 12, 2004
When the little man was still wee I made the unwise decision to purchase some Richard Scarry videos…based on hazy memories of loving the books when I was kid. So I figured the videos would be all right. The husband still glares at me and shakes his head whenever one is playing (he’d had the good sense to hide them some time ago, but the little man wheedled and whined until I retrieved them. I’m such a sucker). Naturally the boy loves whatever gets on our nerves the most. The videos are dreadful. Really poorly done, jerky animation, with about 5 frames per second, if that. And who the heck dresses lowly worm? Without arms or legs it’s gotta be awfully difficult for him to wriggle his way into pants, shirt, tie, shoe (singular) and hat. And why is Hilda the Hippo on stage singing a song about a circus seal and a zebra in the zoo? In Hilda’s sick world who is it that decides bunnies, owls, cats, mice, and even worms make the cut to live as “people” but that other animals are relegated to second class citizen status? All right, maybe it would be best for me to take a few deep breaths and slowly walk away. Or, better yet, get us out of the house and into the unseasonably cool outdoors. When I did that last night we were treated to the sight of a rainbow over the Mississippi River…which I half-assedly photographed.
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Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve finally made myself a new portfolio site. Now for the disclaimers. While it might look nice, I hope, in most browsers…I pulled it together from a template I created for another project, nearly two years ago. So behind the scenes the code is a bastard hybridization of best practices and bad habits. But the first part is acknowledging the problem. The second part is harder. Starting over, bottom up, with clean, standards-compliant code. At least I know now what’s wrong, and why. After the overhaul the changes should be transparent to most end users, aside from faster download time. In the mean time, to any who click through it, please let me know if you encounter anything buggy. Or if my wording is, like, way weird. Totally. Thanks a million.
p.s. I know the contact form is currently broken. I’m on it.
p.p.s. While I’m selling myself as a front end web developer (which is what I’ve been up to professionally for the past decade or so) the photos are my favorite part. For long time readers of this site that section might be like a “best of” flashback. Cheers.
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When the little man barged into my room this morning I’d been dreaming…that I had given birth to a kitten and named him James. And, along with the husband, the lot of us lived in the house I grew up in. Weird. All I want to do at the moment is crawl back into my warm, cozy bed. But I’m afraid I’d just revert to dreaming about James the fluffy kitten boy. And man, was breastfeeding ever a bitch.
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This evening finds me salivating over Sticky Fingers all-vegan baked goods, and about to curl up with the sexxxy-hott Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm. Seriously, though, I’ve been meaning to pick up a copy since reading this review:
Web Standards Solutions is the perfect book for those who are interested in developing standards-compliant web sites, have written a little CSS, have a pretty decent handle on the differences between HTML and XHTML, but have difficulty explaining why one style of markup is semantically, and technically, superior to another.
That describes me fairly well. But this bit was the best selling point:
Armed with both the how and the why, any web developer who picks up the book will learn how to create structurally sound, standards-compliant markup, and also be able to explain why it’s better.
I’m hoping to finally break myself of a decade of bad habits. But can I do so by mid-week? I’ve landed a short-term stint…with a favorite former co-worker, who is also freelancing these days. And the gig is at a standards compliant web shop. Sweet and sour…I’m excited and scared at the same time.
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I’d heard about the Kentucky-based event before, but Lebowski Fest is hitting the big time, in New York City. If only. I’ve missed the Mermaid Parade every year, and now this. Sigh. But what is up with the word grok turning up in that article, and so many others lately? Are there a lot of Robert Heinlein fans out there, or what? In other news, the Batman Begins trailer is available. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but the sneak peek was promising. In other other news, fluorescent man hates neon man, and the MN State Fair’s got nothing on a food cart at the night market in Taiwan…from our friends’ travel photos. Wish we were there.
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All the news that’s fit to post. Well, the happier stuff, at any rate. The following tantalizing tidbits surfaced over the past week:
According to Whedonesque, the complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, seasons 1-7, will be released as a DVD box set in November. I’ve held out on buying any of the box sets released thus far, waiting for just such an eventuality. But one hundred and fifty pounds is too rich for my blood. Xmas present anyone?
Allegedly Jude Law is being considered for the role of Ian Curtis in an upcoming Joy Division biopic. One friend thinks the actor is too scruffy to play the part, but I know he cleans up real nice-like. Boy howdy.
I have tan lines on the tops of my feet from constantly wearing flip-flops.
Rarely do I miss anything about agency life, save for the foosball table, but my former employer is working on a project with Bruce Campbell, yes, THE Bruce Campbell, and it involves comic books. Guess I missed the boat with that one. Oh well.
The husband finally became a card-carrying member of the Free Software Foundation. The “card” in question is a cute little CD that contains a mini-distribution of GNU/Linux.
This Fall the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will be exhibiting political art made by local residents:
“Art of Democracy: Tools of Persuasion” is an open call for Minnesota artists to express their political opinions through original works of art in an exhibition coinciding with the 2004 presidential election.
Cathy, Chuck and Lorika, among others, are planning to contribute to it. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull something together by the deadline.
And lastly, my son surprised me the other day…by perfectly replicating Robert Smith’s signature squeal as I was listening to The Cure.
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In light of Wednesday’s snafus, yesterday was a low-technology day. The little man and I started things off with the last installment in Block E’s Children’s Film Festival. I have to admit, Scooby Doo 2 wasn’t nearly as vile as I’d expected, but, like Ebert, I viewed it with a sort of benign indifference…while the four to seven year-olds surrounding me were whooping it up, the little man included. Afterwards we popped by the Walker for a bit of artist-designed mini golf, where the little man continued his efforts at thwarting my own. For the first four and a half years he was a willing subject, always beaming and posing as soon as mama pulled out her camera. But now. Well, it’s the end of an era. He’s suddenly become camera shy and has, on occasion, expressly forbidden me from photographing him (must run in the family, on his paternal side) and frequently runs out of the frame. So sad. We continued our Minneapolitan adventures with a quick bite to eat at Evergreen followed by frolicking at Lake Calhoun, where we met up with the darling Delia…who was all worked up after having two phone interviews yesterday morning, for wildly different jobs. With one she would be working with ninth graders at a charter school in Chicago. With the other, child soldiers in Congo. I have a feeling she’ll be offered both positions. Making that monumental of a decision is one helluva real-life Choose Your Own Adventure. Craziness.
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Wednesday, August 4, 2004
This morning I awoke to find my web site was down. I was able to access my email from that server, so I knew it was some sort of Apache problem. But there was no one to call. My gracious web host (and by gracious, I mean that he has hosted this site for free for nearly three years now) is currently vacationing in Taiwan. I shot him off a panicked email, but it would be over half a day before I received a response. Someone came to the door not long after that auspicious start to the day. It was a representative from Xcel Energy…informing us that our power would be temporarily turned off, sometime between 10am and noon, as they needed to do some sort of maintenance to the power lines behind our house. All morning I dreaded this, and kept thinking of electricity-powered tasks to take care of before the inevitable shutoff. I vacuumed. I started some laundry. I fired up the oven (to thrice-cook tofu that had already been fried twice). I turned the computer back on, even though it was supposed to be my day away from it (I try to alternate, for the little man’s sake…and for my right wrist, which has been very cranky as of late). But 10am came and went.
Then 11am.
Then noon.
Then 1pm.
Finally they had at it, to the dismay of the little man, who was in the middle of watching Charlotte’s Web. That I wasn’t too troubled by. Man, I hate that movie…and I don’t even know where it came from. Perhaps I’ll have to make it disappear one of these days. At any rate, power was restored before too long, but it was hours until my web service was. And now I’m too tired to post anything terribly coherent. Better luck next time, I hope.
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