2020 Hindsight

testing blo.gs

The old div

Lord of the CSS

Cool Computer Battlefield All about how they did the computer imaging for Helm's Deep battle in The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings 2).

More LOTR Lore Lord of the Peeps [via usr/bin/girl]

converting sites to CSS Working on converting some sites to CSS table-less layouts. So I'm posting all my cheetsheet links here...and on a page dedicated to CSS links .

Guides, Information, Pertinent Goodies

• WebSiteTips.com's definitive CSS Link Page. Solid Gold.
• Noodle Incident: CSS Panic Guide
• Style Sheet Reference Guide
• CSS Tutorial Site has explanations and then a try-it-yourself pop-up window where you can change code and see results
• Eric Meyer on CSS: Tricking Browsers and Hiding Styles
• NYPL Style Guide: CSS Guidelines
• Accessibility: Relative Font Sizes
• BrainJar.com: CSS Positioning
• SODA: links to sites designed using CSS
• Scriptygoddess CSS page
• Centricle CSS Filters
• SelectORacle Put in the CSS code, or url. Oracle interprets CSS for you.

CSS Templates

• Layout Reservoir by Blue Robot
• Saila.com CSS Layouts
• Glish.com CSS Layout Techniques
• BenMeadowcroft.com Templates
• Project 7 3box layout
• Noodle Incident: Little Boxes
• WebSiteTips.com on CSS, css templates section

Any that I missed?

Doo Dah 2002

Doo Dah 2002 Yesterday was the Doo Dah parade. This year was especially wonderful because:

It saw the return of my wooden rocking chair along the sidewalk of Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena (hooray for access to a pickup truck!), something which has not taken place for 10 or 13 years or so.

Three Doo Dah virgins saw the parade for the first time.

One of them brought the Amazing Zylophone Helmet Hat, part of his Whimsey Sculpture Collection (This former Doo Dah virgin is a Doo Dah natural if ever there was one!)

I led our portion of sidewalk in the Doo Dah cheer (our side of street yells "Doo!" and across the street they respond "Dah!")

I completely filled two 64 MB flash memory cards with pictures.

I signed a petition urging George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein to settle this whole conflict by means of a duel.

The parade is much better when you're on the sideline with a bunch of mardi gras beads that you throw TO people in the parade. (It's great to see them bend over to pick up beads from the street and then carry on with the parade.

Star News gets the DooDah UFO Read the article. Longest parade ever. See the picture of the UFO that makes Doo Dah resemble Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

In the best doo dah tradition Looking at the LA Times site for doo dah revealed this article about the Villa Park Annual Boat Parade

(Villa Park is 20 miles from water, so it's a spoof!). They're thumbing their noses at Newport Beach. (where I grew up). So I get the joke. I've been in the boat parades, my younger brother, the one with the great sense of humor, was born during the character boat parade. Spoof is good. Well, for parades. For IP addresses and false email addresses and headers stuff like that, Spoof is not good.

Playback Time found: Playback Time, a blog by Charles Wiltgen on many things digital media. Wiltgen used to be part of the Apple QuickTime team a while back. Found some good stuff there. [via WayNu (who fisks the Fox CEO's comdex keynote), via Doc]

I learned today that HD is not only 'hard disk' but High Definition(?) or the super cool video format that George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez shoot their movies in. Better'n film. The Rodriguez interview fascinates on several levels, but especially this: the filmmaker as do-it-all-yourself person. Having recently culled through 10 years of experience in order to put together a resume, I realize that that's how I operate.

Also, courtesy of Wiltgen, this link to a story that shows The Madness that is Hillary. When the Mexical Supreme Court moves to a quieter location, it's proof of only one thing: outta control mujsic piracy.

Hu's on first?

I got this in email. It (what's below, not the email) is written by James Sherman. Playwright from Chicago) The Abbot and Costello original (thanks to the Dull Men's Club)

According to to IMFO, Sherman wrote this when Hu Jintao was named head of the Chinese Communist Party. Confirmation from the Washington Times, which even got a quote from Sherman about it: He was showering when the idea struck. "I raced to the computer and knocked it out."

Hu's on First

by James Sherman

(We take you now to the Oval Office. George W. Bush and Condoleezza

Rice are just coming in.)

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.

George: That's what I want to know.

Condi: That's what I'm telling you.

George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow's name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The Chinaman!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya' asking me for?

Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That's the man's name.

George: That's who's name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader

of China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the

Middle East.

Condi: That's correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of

China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don't want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk.

And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China.

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the

U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.

(Condi picks up the phone.)

Condi: Rice, here.

George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we

should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you

get Chinese food in the Middle East?

Gulf Wars

Browser Stats Browser News is a site devoted to information about web browser usage, trends, and stats on which ones are currently in use.

Gulf Wars MAD (as in the Magazine) has a movie poster for Gulf Wars Episode II Clone of the Attack. Do not pause. Click now. Yes, this means you.

3-day waiting period of CD-RW drives RIAA Wants Background Checks on CD-RW Buyers Old (Oct 29) but worth reading. via Someone (I don't recall).

Healing Brush suit Adobe Photoshop sued over trade secrets. [via garret] This week marks 10 years in the software industry. KPT 1.0 launched at Comdex this week in 1992. How strange that this suit (brought by principal engineer behind KPT and subsequent stuff) shows up this week of all weeks.

Blog Meetup Tonight, sort of Tonight is the Blog Meetup. Alas, Wednesday eves are otherwise occupied this fall, so I can't make it. Even so, the get-to-know-bloggers-in-your-geographical area concept is working. I got a nice email from Kiril (who liked my Jerry Fallwell thang; it's the only feedback I've gotten, glad it's positive!) who's the proprietor of Sneakeasy's Joint. Just went and visited; he riffs on whiney kids in line at Target and their future careers as lobbyists.

Zing-zing-zing...Oh, the bright night sky

Successfully watching the Leonids is an exercise in overcoming disbelief.

Disbelief that after a sunny November SoCal day (it was over 80°), you gotta change out of that sleeveless summer dress into silk thermal underwear, jeans, heavy turtleneck, big heavy cloak, fuzzy gloves. Antelope Valley, part of the high desert an hour north of L.A. was forecast to be clear, but cold: low 30s/high 20s. The big fluffy load of picnic blankets and down comforter and sleeping bag hauled to the trunk of the car seemed to be sheer excess: "How could we possibly be cold with all of this?"

The drive was gorgeous, though the brilliant moonlight on the San Gabriels caused doubt: How much will we be able to see with all this light? Well, it's a beautiful night to be out playing all-night hookey, if we don't see anything we've already had a good experience.

Pity the poor driver, who had to keep his eyes on the road, while my nose was pressed to the window. I looked for signs that it'd gonna be a good meteor night. Oh! There's one! A cosmic bottle rocket with sparkly tail. Yes, it'll be a good viewing. I kept looking. Over the next half an hour I saw maybe two or three more.

Okay, here's the turnoff. A little further: Here's that street in the middle of nowhere. We'll find a place to pull over. Yes, after the pavement ends, near the end. The exterior temperature gauge reads 34°, 33°, 32° (Once in the 30s, it adds a little snowflake icon. Cute.)

We pile out. We won't be using those red night-vision flashlights we brought. Won't need to. Set up chairs, folded picnic blankets on the back of chairs to insulate from cold behind. Before I get on my fuzzy gloves, the cold bites. That fluff doesn't seem excessive now, more like "just right." Sat down, arranged cloak. Fussed with hood, fussed with hat. Both shield the moon above from view, but neither takes away the sting on my ears. Oh, that wool scarf would have been nice.

It's a little after 1am; the Leonids don't peak until 2:40. I feel like a 5-year old, fidgeting, fidgeting. Rustling under the down comforter, pulling one cloak flap while cold finds its way in through the other side. Rustle, rustle, fidget, fidget. And though it's hot and comforting, drinking hot thermos coffee involves unwrapping myself from comforter and cloak. By the time the cup is empty, I'm cold again.

What do we see, as we sit fidgeting under blankets? (Okay, *I* fidgeted more; my boyfriend was better enclosed in his sleeping bag and ensleeved in his down jacket.) Stars, planet, a lighter horizon. And after a few minutes of fruitless looking, a bright streak. Another one. Then waiting.

My boyfriend, "They're coming in twos, one streak, followed by another one." I wonder if meters come in twos."

I say, "No, it's because of the human capacity to create meaning and patterns out of anything."

"Well, there's some scientific validity to it; the particles are breaking up as they hit the atmosphere so two streaks could be from same meteor."

Speaking of humans attempting to create meaning out of anything and everything, I wonder if I must be quiet in order to more meteors to appear, as if they need me to be quiet and paying close attention? No, they'll show up if I'm noisy, too. So I'll sing to the sky.

We three kings of Orient are

Watching streaks that travel afar.

Field and fountain, blond California mountain,

following yonder star.

Oh! meteors of wonder,

meteors of light,

won't more of you come

and visit us tonight.

Then, having recently watched "O brother, where art thou?" we try to do something with the lyrics to The Big Rock Candy Mountain.

In the big eye candy mountain,

you have plenty of socks.

And the blanket you have

keeps you toasty warm

while you watch those streaking rocks

And you can see the faint ones

Even when the moon does shine

And the wind don't blow

And there ain't no cold

And the meteors fly

Across the sky

I'll see you all in the coming fall

In the big eye candy mountain.

This year's bright night and cold makes for a different reaction to the meters. Last year when we saw longer streaks, we said long "eeeeeeees" and "oooooohs" in response. This year, we see only the brightest streaks. They're shorter than last year. Likewise the response: The "oh" and "ope" are clipped punctuation compared to the eeeeeee of last year.

Plus, I don't want to talk too much. I finally fidgeted upon a way to keep my ears warm, pulling my turtleneck up around part of my head, covering my ears, covering my chin and just over my lower lip. Too much breath and I'll fog my glasses.

I look at the dome of the sky, bright streak here and there and try to imagine it in three dimensions. We're on this big ball hurtling through space, but not close to any of those bright dots that are way out there. That zinging streak, is that how fast we're travelling along our orbit? Are we passing through a cloud of dust that is itself stationary, or is this the combined speed of two bodies moving, the earth and the particles? I try to reassemble the image to allow for all of this, and to feel myself moving in space. But even before I can fully place us in the vast and fast dimensions of space, disbelief sets in. The illusion unravels, he three-dimensions disappear, and the sky is a flat dotted surface once again. We are not moving. We're staying right here. Something out there is causing these bottle rockets to sparkle here and there in the sky. The only moving I'm doing is a shiver tap dance to keep warm.

2:30. We're seeing multiple streaks. Here, there, and there.

Pause.

There. Oh, I missed it.

Pause.

There. Here.

Pause.

Oh, a bright one overhead.

They come on at a steadier pace for about a half and hour or so.

The occasional bright leaves a bright smoke trail. No loud poppers like last year.

By 3:15, the pauses grow longer. Surely it's gotten colder, I figure it has to be down to 28! Two or three wisps of clouds appear near the moon. We gather up our things, pack the trunk, look up one last time to see a streak. "Okay, that's the last one. Let's go!" I watch the temperature readout. Yes, it colder, but only from 32 to 31. The night sky has rotated, the moon has moved further west. We drive south, switching the radio from soporific music to NPR's morning edition to keep from swerving onto those lane-dots. Home and warm bed and sleep.

I write this while sitting in my robe, drinking the last of my hot thermos coffee. It's a clear warm day. It's gonna get up past 80 again. I'll probably wear shorts today. Who can believe that it was 50 degrees colder last night and the sky had streaks of light?

Leonid Meteorshower Tonight

Leonids tonight! 2-ish am Pacific. We'll be heading out of L.A. for parts north. Don't think I'll run into any AP science reporters this year. After some high-atmosphere cirrus, sky today is crystal clear. Now, about that full moon....

Spaceweather.com has lotsa good info-laden links

news.google.com's news stories on the Leonids

Comdex this week Not that I'm going, but Comdex is a milestone for me. Ten years ago I began my foray in the software industry there. Launching Kai's Power Tools 1.0. First trade show and all that. Wild scene, for a graphic designer high on learning curve adrenaline. Got hired as a product manager for KPT 1.0. I asked the other product manager at the then-fledgeling HSC Software, "What does a product manager do?" Reply, jovially: "I don't know!" I was told by the CEO, "Don't worry, I'll teach you what you need to know." Translation: "Sink or swim, baby, sink or swim." I did some of each, but mostly I swam.

blog is at the top At Number 1 of the Top 50 Internet Marketing Terms for 2002, that is. ("Blog" was number 40 in 2001)

Another good CSS resourcec W3Schools CSS. For each item description, the site has a pop-up example window where you can see the CSS side by side with result. Edit CSS and view result.

Stuff

Make a shorter link takes one of those impossibly long links and gives you a nice, neat, short one. I used it for the first time today. easy. cool.

And what was the shorter link? http://makeashorterlink.com/?K5B532472 goes to Amazon for my books, so that someone interested in the quality of my writing can read what my readers say. Nope, I don't solicit reviews; I'm proud of the ones that are there. : )

Googlelove Interview with Google's product manager over at GoodExperience.com.

12 November, 2002

Doo wop horse quartet A fun diversion. Go there for a little mental break! (requires Flash)

more on elections VNS Voter News Service, is the service that broke down last tuesday night. Found a coupla links on background info. A May 2000 interview with the head of VNS about how they do what they do. Sept 23 2002 article posing questions about how VNS allows for vote rigging? Something worth looking into.

Sunny Again

sun I feel like such a precipitation lightweight. Or maybe that's heaviweight. After 2.5 days of drizzle, downpour and rainy skies, it's GOOD to see the sun again. how do all those in the dour pacific northwest do it?

siren Went to a show last night, The Would be Gentleman, by The Pasadena Symphony. Strauss and acting. The actress/dancer who plays the countess is Musetta Vander. A read of the program notes reveals that she also was in the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou.... which happened to be in possession, thanks to Netflicks. Watched it today—she was one o' them sireeeens!

braut-zookas at doo dah Two weeks from today: DooDah. Doo Dah two years ago. I just got email from the co-founder of the BBQ and Hibachi Marching Grill Team—15 consecutive years at Doo Dah.

Besides general greetings and thanks for the pix, I know know the official terms for the various team members:

Grillmen: men from the "corps"

Condiment Girls: The gals delivering hot dogs

Braut-zookas: The hot-dog-shooters I talked about in the original posting of these pix.

Two more weeks for more folderol. Man, and I never posted last year's pix, either.