I'm testing a new layout, if anyone is of a mind to take a gander. Is strict HTML 4.01 and CSS-2, so if you don't have a standards-compliant browser, don't bother... if you find anything majorly funky, let me know

GFA/CS d-(d++) s:++ a C++$ US P+ L E-- W+++$ N+ o-- K- w(w+) O- M+ V PS PE- Y+ PGP t@ 5- X R tv b+++ DI++ D G

What's yours?

Go visit my friend Carey's site and put her to work!

Summer is here in full swing and I am hating every second of it. I never noticed summer all that much when I was a kid and neither did I mind it. It was a time of riding my bike to the beach, soaking in a tub of cool water for as long as I wanted and adventures in the backyard with my friend, Diane. If I got too hot, all I had to do was fill up the plastic pool in the yard and dive in. It was the time of the year that we would go to visit my mother's family in Florida (and maybe Disney or Sea World while we were there.) I was out of school and care free.

That was then...

Now that I am an adult and have to work through the summer, sit in traffic in blazing heat and wonder to myself, "When, oh when will football season start again?" (Because, really... let's face it - football is one of the few sports that as exciting to watch on TV as it is in person. And football = cold. I like cold...)

I probably wouldn't be complaining quite so much if the dress code here at work were a little more casual. No shorts. No sandals. No T-shirts... that's 80% of my wardrobe, out the window. I wouldn't mind so much if it just weren't so damn hot out.

Well, I've finally gotten around to putting up a way for people to once again sign up for my (Mr. T. enhanced) mailing list... It seems though that all of the error functionality in the canned script provided by my wonderful host doesn't seem to be working.

Yikes! I lost 14 people from my long-neglected mailing list. I actually do have a notify list for this site that I hardly ever use. And since this is going to (probably) be the final incarnation of this site, I thought I'd send a message to the mailing list that there was once again fresh content being served up on a semi-regular basis. When I sent the message there were 60 people on the list. Shortly after the message went out, I got 13 "Undeliverable - User not found" type of messages and 1 unsubscribe request in my mailbox.

Go me!

In other news...

The cold lingers. Eight days and going strong. Maybe Brenda will get her wish after all for my rough deep voice...

That's it!

I'm never going to shake hands with anyone here at work, ever again! Every time I go into the bathroom, I see someone from my company use the toilet, flush and walk out the door... Everyone! From the CEO, down... no one washes their hands after fiddling with their junk - and it grosses me out to no end.

Actually, it isn't everyone. The geeks - the programmers and development and QA people I trust. But people from marketing, sales, etc. just stay away from me, please!

I went to see the Mets play last night - it's a good thing I'm not a fan... They got trounced. I wouldn't normally go see them play, but one of the companies who charges our company (through the nose probably) for their services hosted us. The day I turn down a free trip to go see a ball game, dinner included, is the day that I'm ready to be put in the ground.

Even with the Met's dismal performance (they were losing 9-3 when we left in the 7th) and the dismal weather (rained all day off and on, right up until game time) it was a nice time. The food was excellent, we got free balls and they even got a few players up into the skybox to sign them! That was pretty cool...

When I came home last night, my wife heard my voice and purred, "ooo... I wish you could have that voice all the time"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you don't sound quite so wimpy"

Gee! thanks, honey!

The cold persists. I am feeling a bit better even though my voice is almost and octave lower and feels like sandpaper & glue...

I have got a wicked head cold and should probably be in bed, sleeping - not here at work being miserable, drinking coffee and downing Dayquil™. But i've taken a lot of sick time already, used up all my personal days and don't want to touch my holiday or vacation time.

My voice is really, really rough sounding at the moment - like I've smoked cigars for 20 years and my throat feels like someone's taken sandpaper to it.

[groan, groan groan...]

I really am nothing but a big baby when I get sick. In spite of this fact, I've actually been rather productive here at work. Added a new section to the Intranet, finished the formatting for the soon to be launched extranet, made some changes to the site... But as the afternoon drags on I feel less and less productive.

But out my lethargic state came a pretty good idea for a new kind of site. I am thinking of asking two other people (designers, webby type people) to join me in a free-flowing kind of thing. A basic k10K rip-off with a scrolling news section, desktops, brief bios of the three of us, cams maybe... But the choice of people is what would make it interesting. You see sites run by like-minded people all the time - why not one where the people involved are very, very different from each other.

I wonder if these two people would be interested...

My duaghter graduated from junior high school today, thus making me officially old. I am now the proud parent of a high school student.

new desktop

So...

I am an idiot...

I was (like the idiot I am) playing on my computer during a thunderstorm. I know better than this. I should have shut down, unplugged everything and read a book. But no, I was in the grip of playing Panzer General II, giving the Brits and Americans hell when everything went black. When the lights came back on I was minus 1 CD Drive and 1 modem. I was able to get the CD working again, but my modem is fried.

...I am an idoit.

Happy birthday, Josh Davis!

10 ways to improve life...

Do each of these at least once a week, repeat as needed:

1. Go to the library. You're never so old that you can't be more informed or more well read.


2. Take a walk in the woods.


3. Take the long way home when you drive - repetition is a bad, bad thing


4. Go to church, sing, pray. Repeat the the former two each day.


5. Turn off your TV/computer/stereo/console game/etc. for a while - be analog (good time to crack open that book from the library, no?)


6. Cook, if you don't normally do the cooking at home or let someone else cook for you if you normally do the cooking


7. Pick wild flowers and give them to someone sweet.


8. Resist the urge. Doesn't matter what it is, resist it.


9. Skip wearing a watch for the day. (I never wear one...)


10. Write your own damn list...

I could go on... if you have some good ones, let me know.

Monday morning and the only persistent thought in my head is that funky, day-old, heated in microwave coffe at home tastes better than "fresh brewed" coffee at work.

I think my dentist hates me.

I've been having me treat me for a root canal and seems to be taking an eternity to finish. Every time I go in for more work it's always a temporary filling, a post, cleaning out more nerve material... It seems like it will never end. All of the nerve material is out of the tooth, so he no longer uses novacaine on me. It's a weird sensation - to feel him drilling and be aware of the vibration of it without being numb. All I can think of is that movie with Dustin Hoffman and Lawrence Olivier where he's drilling away and Dustin Hoffman is in agony...

Active Adults - A Visual Compendium updated daily - bookmark this one...

I'm 100% sure why I am starting this all over again, but I want a place to organize and record my thought and this seems as good a way to do it as any. I've been giving a lot of thought recently to being a web designer and what I do and the role I play in the company for which it works and have come to the conclusion that I am terribly unhappy. It's not that I dislike what I do - I went into web design because I love making things for the web. It's not often that a hobby is also a profession, so when the chance to do this as a living came along, I jumped.

The reason that I am unhappy is because I am not challenged at work. I'm never really presented with anything new or exciting - and I think that this is the fate of a designer who doesn't work in an agency or as a freelancer. Day in and day out looking at the (I really have to admit) butt-ugly site that someone else designed and I am stuck doing what boils down to maintainence work. It's extremely disheartening.

nothing here yet - check back later.