I am in NYC tonight. The flights from Edm-Mpls and Mpls-La Guardia were uneventful and on time, early even. Had a nice ride into Manhattan on a shuttle, comparing notes with other passengers. One of them was running in the NYC Marathon on Sunday. I arrived at Anthony and Barbara's place around 6:15 pm, visited briefly, and walked to 6th Ave and 21st St to see the Halloween Parade. The crowd was 2-3 deep by the time I made it, so my viewpoint wasn't great. Some nice people around me however, which made it more enjoyable. Many of the costumes were run-of-the-mill, but there were a few gems, some of them puppets controlled by sticks handled by the person walking underneath the skeleton, etc. There was a marching band playing Rock Lobster! Afterwards, I wandered 21st Street and took a photos of a few of the costumed participants. Sorry that I can't share them with you while I'm here, but will do so when I return.

Off to New Haven tomorrow afternoon. Love to all.

Tomorrow I'm off to NYC for my 11th visit to the area since 1990. I'm also visiting friends in New Haven on the weekend. I'm looking forward to a break from reality in New York, a city I've grown to admire considerably since my first visit. Confirmed plans include seeing the Hallowe'en Parade, the play Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune, starring Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci, and a return visit to the WTC area. I will hang with friends, walk a lot, see Jessica, see new movies, visit The Strand, and whatever else happens, happens. I hope to take many pictures, digital and film.

I'm planning to post comments here while I'm away, so please check back when you can. There's a nifty 'net cafe on 42nd Street that I'll frequent while in Manhattan.

The subject of overload be it pop culture overload, media overload, information overload, whatever, is a topic of regular discussion among friends and family. Each year I swear I will limit, drastically, the number of television shows I will watch, in order to free up more time (to do other pop culture stuff?) Anyway, this fall I decided to continue to watch the 3 Law and Orders, West Wing, SNL, MAD-TV, Ebert & Roper, 24, and The Sopranos, and Sports Centre, as well as various sporting shows, bits of late night talk shows like Charlie Rose, The Daily Show, etc. (Aside: I lament the demise of the shows of Dennis Miller, Bill Maher and Tom Snyder (warning: bubble machine sounds), but life goes on.)

New shows I'd give a shot would be Robbery Homicide Division, Without A Trace, CSI: Miami, Presidio Med, Boomtown. Now, totalling up these shows w/o adding in the sports and talk shows, and you've got 13 hours of television. OK, add in more, and it's probably up to 20 hours. I realized this, and immediately dumped Boomtown, CSI: Miami, and reluctantly, Presidio Med (I have an immense crush on Julianne Nicholson).

Still...that's a lot of tv. Life is short. And I'm about to take another trip to NYC. Historically, I would leave and program my two VCRs to tape 12 shows while I was away. Now I'm thinking, what does it matter? So I'm setting up to tape The Sopranos, 24, and a few Law and Orders. Will pass on everthing else.

But this is just a small sample of the larger issue of total and complete pop culture overload.

Up till the mid-70s, if you were interested in one aspect of said pop culture, be it one genre of music, movies, fiction, drama, television, whatever, you could follow it, with a concerted effort at best. In the past 25-30 years, everything in the media has exploded geometrically. We've gone from a few tv stations to hundreds. Same with music, movies, pop culture in general. Pick a genre of music and try to keep tabs on more than a handful of bands and artists - it's not easy. Pick a genre of fiction (for me, it used to be sf), and the challenge is to try to stay abreast of the field for year. Unless you can speed read and don't have to work, I doubt you can do it.

Add to that equation All Things Internet, and your brain shuts down unless you filter. The only unchanging factor in the equation is the number of hours in the day: it's still 24. I try to balance my pop culture interests, and at different times, some overtake others. My balancing equation also includes musicianship, which as some of you, has been backburning now for a few months.

In any event, it's a challenge to maintain multiple interests. We have more to choose from, and even when Sturgeon's Law applies, and you can weed out that 90%, you're still left with an enormous bounty of new pleasures to be discovered. How can we ever be bored? Maybe never, and when we appear to be, it's probably our systems trying to shut down and reboot.

Then again that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. (Nod to Dennis Miller.)

It seems headlines from The Onion are being taken seriously, once again. (You might have heard about the Beijing Evening News in China reporting an Onion headline as real?)

Now the Branch County Michigan sherrif's department has advised its residents that Al-Qaeda in involved in telemarketing schemes. Apparently they were responding to recent complaints of telemarketing scams in the area, especially targeting the elderly. During the course of their investigations they found the link to the Onion article which described members of Al-Qaeda involved in telemarketing to raise money, thought magazine subscriptions, vacation home rentals, etc.

The detective involved said he wasn't aware that The Onion was a humor publication, but that he believes a link to the Onion's web site was available on the Michigan Attorney General's web site, which of course, was denied by that office.

This certainly increases my confidence in local law enforcement.

I've spent the last 30 minutes browsing through NYC Bloggers, as I'm in a New York state of mind. There are a few gems out there. Check out Jay L Zilber's Mind Over What Matters, "commentary on political, social and cultural fringe matters." Within he offers a list of pundit sites, including Bitch Pundit, Music-Pundit, and more. There's even Punditwatch.

In one of the few negative reviews of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's brilliant and disturbing new documentary on American gun culture, Desson Howe of the Washington Post writes: "A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. But what does it all add up to?" I'm not sure Moore knows the answer himself, but I don't see that as a reason to slag this movie. After the Columbine massacre in 1999, Moore went to Littleton CO to learn more about life there and to meet some of the surviving students. Along the way, he introduces us to a number of individuals, displays statistics, and shares graphic images, some at times incredibly disturbing. For me, this is where the power of the film lies.

In the most startling and unnerving sequence, Moore splits the screen into a quad, and in each section plays video from one of four surveillance cameras at Columbine High. Sitting in a packed theatre, no one could move in their seats. I could barely breathe. Thinking about it now, I'm at a loss for words to describe how I felt.

Moore likes to get in the face of some of his subjects, including Dick Clark (who slams a van door on him) and Charlton Heston, leader of the NRA. Heston walks away from Moore in mid-interview, when Moore (foolishly in my estimation) asks Heston if he'd apologize to residents of Littleton and Flint MI (also Moore's hometown) for staging NRA rallies in those cities after school shootings. In Flint's case, a 6-year old boy killed a 6-year old girl. I think Moore could do better, but he is relentless in his drive, and I admire him for that. Moore also interviews Marilyn Manson, and James Nichols, the brother of Terry Nichols, who with Timothy McVeigh, conspired to bomb the building in Oklahoma City in April 1995.

The film leaves you with the unanswered question: why do Americans kill so frequently with guns. I don't know if we'll ever learn the answer(s). ****1/2

One of my (many) annoyances is the trend that began, oh, who knows, in the early 80s perhaps, of parents naming their kids last names that are less than conventional. (Meaning names that are traditionally last names only, unlike my own, Randall, or my brother, Christopher, etc - names that function as first or last names). Or just strange and bizarre names. Or changing one letter to make the name look "cool" (usually means replacing an "i" with a "y", like Madyson or something equally childish.) Contractions of two names. Whatever. Have you even been shopping somewhere, and you hear a yuppie mom yell something like, "Tyler, Tyson, Mckenzie, we're leaving now!". When that happens, I want to slap the parent upside the head and ask them why they decided to inflict such cruelty on their children. (If your name is Tyler, Tyson or Mckenzie, no offense!) I was in Costco once, and the woman behind me had two beautiful little girls - their names were Kennedy and McKinley, after dead presidents or something.

From Rebecca's site I found "Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing - A Primer on Parent Cruelty" (Bow towards Chris Issak.) Here you will find not lists of names, but "naming questions and suggestions posted on two different baby naming bulletin boards going back as far as early 2001" Read it, and you will cringe. Would you name your child Denver Kade Lional, Xev Chiana Louise, Vashara Rashea, Kakinston? Speaking of contractions, one woman wants to name her girl Thazel, which is a contraction of Thelma and Hazel. AAGHHHHH! But wait, there's more.

Derryl recently moved back to Canadaland from Logan, Utah. He found this site many moons ago, and I share it with you now. It's called The Utah Baby Namer, and it is really scary. Cut to the chase and examine "The Cream of the Crop". Read it, wince, cringe again, and give thanks for your name, whatever it might be. After all, you could be named LaVoice, Nazhalena, Crayon, Pictorianna, D'Asia, L'orL, Thermos, Dianarea, Jennyfivetina, NaLa'DeLuhRay, Vyquetoriya (changing the letters again, get it?), and yes - wait for it - Clitoris.

BTW, what names would I like to give my kids? Laura, Katie (Kate and all variations of Catherine/Katherine), Annie, Erin, Sara, Rachel, Loren, Michael, Daniel...and so it goes. Call me old fashioned. Just don't call me late for dinner.

I saw The Ring last night, and was generally disappointed. The film stars Naomi Watts (from Mulholland Drive) as a reporter for the Seattle Times-Intelligence, whose 16-year old niece passes away from heart failure. Watts' sister, her niece's mother, cannot find any record of a 16-year old girl dying this way, and asks Watts to investigate. She learns that her niece had watched a videotape with three other teenagers at a cabin, and soon discovers that all four of them died at the same hour on the same night. The word is, you watch the tape, you have seven days to live.

The film is marketed as a psychological thriller, and it works in parts, but not in others. I confess that I went to the film hoping to be scared sh*tless, and it didn't happen, not even close. Dozens of giggling teenagers in the theatre, however, were scared as such. I kept waiting for the movie to kick into second gear, with heightened tension, keeping you on the edge of your seat, but this never happens. Watts gets her ex-husband involved, after she watches the tape. He also watches it (of course), and comes to believe in her fear. They begin tracking down the origin of the tape, which leads them to ... never mind!

Watts is credible in her role, as are the supporting cast, featuring solid cameos from Jane Alexander and Brian "I Was The Original Hannibal Lecter" Cox. But the movie never takes off in a logical direction. Watts' son, Aidan, seems to be possessed with a sixth sense (hmm, sound familiar?), and of course, he too sees the videotape. His connection to the solution, and why he has a telepathic power of sorts, is never explained. I'd say more, but I'd be going into serious spoiler territory. **1/2

Just finished lunch at work, and am busy compiling a table of research topics of mechanical engineering professors. Anyway, it appears the blurring has been solved. A kind soul in the Moveable Type forums suggested that it might have something to do with the line height vs font size. So I increased the line height by 1 pixel, and it worked.

So it's Thursday night, and I haven't solved the blurring problem (as you no doubt can tell yourselves.) Argh. As well, I discovered when I went to pay for some groceries and photos at Costco that my AMEX card is missing. Wonderful. And a week from tonight I'll be in NYC. I called AMEX and they put a "hold" on my card while I look for it (and they verified that no additional charges have appeared on it since I last used it, which suggests I've misplaced it somewhere.)

I've looked around the house, the car, checked my wallet and pants and jacket pockets a zillion times, even emptied parts of a bookcase, thinking it might have fallen off the top stairs out of a pants pocket. *sigh*

Life is grand. I bumped into Kel at work today. She seemed to be all energy, but said she was tired. I will look for an "I Heart NY" shirt for her next week when I'm there. As for me, I was impatient today. Now I'm annoyed at having lost my credit card, and not being able to solve the blurring problem. Blurred...perhaps it's a metaphor for my life tonight.

More blog coding headaches, albeit minor ones. I (thought I) solved a problem Geoff mentioned regarding how my site looks in different resolutions. However, now when I move the page up and down, parts of various entries are blurring. It's all weird, a test of patience and character building, right? You have probably noticed this already. I've sent e-mails and posted to Moveable Type discussion lists, hoping to get help on this one.

Yesterday brought a nice moment: on Tue morning, I taught a research skills class to third year chemical engineering design students. Yesterday I spotted about 20 of them in the library working on the first assignment based on my lecture. Not only was it rewarding to see them working on it, in discussions with some of them I could sense they realized the assignment was a stepping stone to developing said research skills to help them with their group design projects. In other words, they realized the assignment wasn't a waste of their time.

This may sound boring, right? To me, here is a group of students learning new skills, and understanding why the skills are important to them now and in the future. It doesn't get any better than that.

OK, maybe that was boring. But there was a great sunset, I'm one week away from going to NYC for a break, and things in Calgary may be improving for my brother, who is looking for work. All in all, a good day.

No, not a comment on Viktor Frankel's book, which I haven't read. Someday, maybe. It was a good day, a long day. I was up at 6:00, because I had to teach a research skills and library resources class to a group of third year chemical engineering design students. Less than half the class showed (25 out of 65, their loss, frankly), and the lecture went well. I spent the remainder of the day in a semi-daze, refueling on black coffee, spinach salad, and fruit.

During the day I had an interesting conversation with a colleague about blogging. She couldn't see a reason to spend time blogging other than for something subject-specific, related to our profession, most likely. I accept her take on the activity - it's not for everyone. And subject-specific blogs can be of great use to those who require a quick way to check on the latest developments or news in their areas of interests. A subject-specific blog, such as this one on nanotechnology, almost function as a slow-motion crawl or ticker (the name given to the line of news that crawls across the bottom of the screens of tv networks like CNN). Of course, news there changes every few seconds - an active subject blog might change only a few times a day. But the purpose is similar.

The nanotech blog mentioned above neatly indentifies the subject of each entry with a small graphic, each with a different subject name: nanomaterial, nanopeople, nanoevents, nanobiomed, etc. (These serve the same purpose as "category" in Moveable Type.) The challenge for my colleagues and I perhaps is to try to develop a useful blog for the library system.

My good pal and colleague Geoff Harder has created BlogEd, a webring of Edmonton bloggers. The Taz Man has joined, and so have I. So if yer a local blogger, sign up today.

Geoff, I bow in your general direction for your patience and encouragement and help with coding as I continue to immerse myself into the world of MT blogging. It is much fun, and you deserve some of the credit.

1. How many TVs do you have in your home? - two, but one is unplugged and in storage
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? - my guess: 20-25 hrs, way too much
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? - not if it's turned off
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken? - mmm...Sopranos, L&O (all three), OZ, Six Feet Under, West Wing (though it's fading fast). I don't fret over missing an tv episode like I used to do. Life is short, get over it.
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? - shows with creativity, ones that would survive w/o having to worry about ratings. Past examples: My so-called Life, EZ Streets, Gideon's Crossing, Big Apple, Max Headroom...shows that were interesting but died too soon because ratings didn't impress The Suits. Mix in some educational PBS-type stuff, bring back Tom Snyder to do a Late, Late Show, hire Charlie Rose away from PBS, bring back Dennis Miller and Bill Maher. Feature Michael Moore. Comedy with an edge, like MAD-TV, SNL (for old time's sake), Monty Python, SCTV. Some baseball. Live music.

Then go turn off the tv and read a book or go for a bike ride or have coffee with friends.

The world of search engines is ever-changing. Check out KartOO SA, a meta-search engine that returns results graphically, presenting a map of links to the user. It reminds me a bit of WebBrain. I don't know much about KartOO, so don't know how its coverage compares to the Big Engines, like Google or AltaVista.

Common Dreams "is a national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America's future. Founded in 1997, we are committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the internet as a political organizing tool - and creating new models for internet activism." Lots of stuff here applicable to us in Canada too.

Behind the Beat is an online magazine (no, not a "zine", dammit!) that provides links to musicians talking about their latest works. They call it "audio portraits". You can hear Steve Earle talk about his controversial tune, John Walker's Blues.

Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is currently leading a constitutional challenge of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which when passed, extended existing and future copyrights in the USA by 20 years. The campaign is called Free the Mouse, after Mickey Mouse - Disney's original copyright on Mickey Mouse expires in 2003. Lessig is arguing against the continual extension of copyright in the USA, which has happened 11 times in the past 40 years. The argument is that it prevents the flow of creative material into the public domain. There is much more to it, and the essential details are here.

Lessig has lost this case twice, and is now presenting to the US Supreme Court. The October 10th Economist features an update on Lessig's fight to reduce copyright protection.

The copyright issue is a tough one - as a librarian and musician, I can see both sides. When I copy an article 135 times for a class I'm teaching, I complete a log so that proper payment gets made (often not to the author, however). As a musician, I support downloading of music, but not for resale. I don't believe this makes me a hypocrite - musicians like Metallica's Lars Ulrich, who led the charge that brought down Napster, have not suffered greatly from downloading. Those that have suffered need to look in the mirror, and question the quality of their product before blaming the web.

For me, the issue is that through the Internet and downloading, I am exposed to more artists than would be humanly possible otherwise. In many cases, downloading of music has led me to purchase indie CDs I would have never heard of otherwise. The same applies to popular music of late. I borrow music from the public library, and if I like it enough, I'll buy it. If I don't like it enough, I might download one or two songs, and that's it. Why should I fork over hard-earned cash for a product that's subpar at best? I think this is the larger issue facing creators of artistic works.

Janis Ian wrote a convincing essay in favour of downloading, and followed it up with a second piece, on the fallout from her first writing. It's worth your while to read them. She notes, in her second piece, that there are "three operative issues that explain the entertainment industry's heavy-handed response to the concept of downloading music from the Internet". Let me share with you her first issue:

"1. Control. The music industry is no different from any other huge corporation, be it Mobil Oil or the Catholic church. When faced with a new technology or a new product that will revolutionize their business, their response is predictable:

a. Destroy it. And if they cannot,
b. Control it. And if they cannot,
c. Control the consumer who wishes to use it, and the legislators and laws that are supposed to protect that consumer." - Janis Ian

Thanks to Jennifer (a Scriptygoddess) and Zuchris for continued encouragement and suggestions on implimenting the collapse and expand code. What I did in the end was this: I rebuilt the Main Index from the BLOG template, carefully inserted Jennifer's code, and it's working. So far. Now I need to rid myself of the "More... " link, so that the "continued >>" one remains only.

The Minnesota Twins, my original favorite team when I was a kid in Winnipeg in the 60s, collapsed this afternoon, losing the ALCS to Anaheim. Such is life. I will now cheer for Anaheim to win the World Series, which I think would be wonderful. Love to see underdog teams in the MLB playoffs this year, rather than the Yankees, Braves, etc. Makes it more interesting. Good luck Anaheim. As for the Twins, thanks for a great season, and for making the MLB Commissioner look like the ass that he is for suggesting your team be contracted.

Please forgive the look of the entries at this time. I'm working towards adding code from the Scriptygoddess site that allows for expansion and collapsing comments and additional text. When I input the code and rebuild the index page, it looks like what you are seeing. What's weird is that I also input the code into my test site, podbaydoor.com/test1, and it seems to work there fine. So the main site will look like this for a little while until this problem is solved.

In Canada, it is Thanksgiving today. Earlier this summer, I read Dennis Prager's book, Happiness is a Serious Problem. Gratitude is discussed in some detail, and he suggests taking an inventory of the things for which you are grateful, and can give thanks. Here is my list: great family and fantastic friends, food on my table, kindness and smiles from others, a great job with great colleagues, good health, the laughter and love of children, love of music and movies, kind and loving parents, living in a great city in a great country, the opportunity to travel in my job and to meet new and interesting people and see new cities, living in a democratic country, a great boss, freedom to move about without fear, freedom to change and to ask questions without fear of reprisal, the ability to play guitar, having had good teachers, a brother who is kind and a caring friend, a good health care system, neighbours who are decent and responsible, the deep satisfaction felt on my job when I help students with their research, my Mom's butterscotch pie...

There are so many more entries I can make for such a list. Even having the chance to write about this in my blog is a gift. Someone out there (the Trotts in this case) wrote code that I use to write this - amazing. And to you reading this: Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving to you, and my sincere thanks for reading my entry! :-)

And what's this? Additional test to test the "More" functionality of the code I'm trying to get to work! Thank YOU!

It's a long weekend in Canada, and I've moved through today as fast as if I was walking through that proverbial tar. I was up late last night, arriving home after seeing the incredible Ann Vriend perform again in Edmonton. (Aside: it is a great thrill watching Ann, with so much talent, when she performs locally, developing her many talents before your eyes. When her first album appears, watch for more accolades from me).

So where was I? After arriving home, I watched Law & Order: SUV (sic), and then played on the computer before realizing it was 2:00 am - the kiss of sleep death for me. I didn't really get moving this morning until noon. I did get 30 mins on the Y cross-trainer, then dragged my sorry ass to Red Dragon, which was engaging but a bit long for me. I returned home, and damn it if I didn't fall back into bed again.

I've been attempting to load code from the Scriptygoddess site that allows for expanding and collapsing of entries, but I cannot get it to work, so I've raising the white flag on that one. I copy code like the next person, but sometimes I don't do it well, I guess.

Where have all the flowers gone? How high the moon? How long has this been going on? What shall we do with the drunken sailor? The answers to these questions, and more, are here. Not good enough? Once and again, you could buy different things in vending machines.

And here's a very cool site if you are interested in music from many decades past. Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine "is devoted to vintage music from the early decades of the 20th Century." Songs from original 78 rpm discs have been transcribed into streaming Real Audio. This is a great resource for listening to music from the first few decades of the 20th century.

I'm running on fumes, or so it seems, so like it feels. Thank God a long weekend is forthcoming.

There are more changes tonight. Check out the Comedy page; what you see is the look I am after, for now anyway. I couldn't get the code to work, specifically to make the fonts smaller. With my limited knowledge of CSS, I created two more div classes, or something(!), and now it's working. This involved some cutting and pasting, but I like the page now. All I'm after is some base functionality (as defined by me - don't ask, OK?)

Also, you are seeing subtle changes that are being implemented after mulling over suggestions from Keith and Geoff. My thanks to them both. Expect further changes, colour for example. Keith is feeding me information that is helping with presentation. Regardless, I'm liking what I see so far. I may make it to bed tonight before 2330 hrs.

If you're in town and you want to see a great local singer/songwriter, please check out Ann Vriend on Friday night at Bonnie Doon Hall. I'll be there, and yes, she's worth it - an amazing talent who can craft great songs and deliver them with a great voice.

Mike sent this apology and retraction from The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at Wazoo. What's interesting is this is another example of cribbing information from a web site without evaluating the site first. Somehow the reporter believed that "Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza" translated into English as "The Big Ass Spanish Boat" (it really means "Our Lady of Good Hope"; what, no one speaks Spanish on the editorial staff??)

The web site that published the article from which this was cribbed, PinoyLife.com, has already responded to TDE's embarrassing error, with a funny, chronological explanation of the gritty details.

Two stories from The Onion recently have been reprinted or reported in daily newspapers, including one in Bejing. If the media can't distinguish between authentic and bogus web sites, then what can we expect from students? My answer: better than that! There really are simple rules to consider when evaluating a web site.

OK, so sue me for being a baseball fan. Yes, sports. Anyway, what's cool about the MLB playoffs for me is this: of the eight teams that began the series, the four which I hoped would win their series did. I follow these rules when baseball season hits the playoffs. If any of my three favorite teams are in, I cheer for them first: Minnesota, Toronto or Montreal. After that, I cheer for the Red Sox if they make it. Barring that from happening, I cheer for any team other than Atlanta, or the Yankees (I hate the Braves, I'm tired of the Yankees winning all the time).

The next rule is: cheer for the team(s) which have not won the World Series for the longest time. So, approaching the four playoffs I hoped for: Minnesota to beat Oakland, Anaheim to beat New York Yankees, San Francisco to beat Atlanta, and St Louis to beat Arizona. And I'll be damned if it didn't happen.

Meanwhile, I continue to tweak the blog (which I understand can be painful at times). I don't know how long the blue colours will survive. I've added code on Zuchris's suggestion, to allow for additional text to extend within the same page, but it isn't working yet. Hopefully we can sort that out soon.

Yes, indeed, progress was made over the weekend. Thanks to Keith for some invaluable input into font sizes. I hope to be back to regular blogging later this week. The site will continue to be tweaked, of course, and I hope to begin redirecting from the old site soon. In addition, I will make an attempt at migrating the posts from the original blog.

"If whatever, then whatever." - R Reichardt, October 2002.

The title's double entendre is intended, I suppose. Everything is blue here, almost, isn't it? I've been mucking through cascading style sheet code for hours, most of last night, until L&O:SUV (sic) came on, followed by Robbery Homicide Division. Then I went to bed, slept poorly as usual, woke up to snowfall (yes), then went to the U of A for the annual LISSA Breakfast, which is held the same day as the U of Alberta's Open House. I met my godson, Kellen, and his parents there, and gave him a short tour of the scitech library and some of the electronic resources available there.

There is still more I'd like to do. I'm impatient, it's my nature. Small things frustrate me. For example, the index.html file seems to be working so far, at least on screens with 1024 x 768 resolution. It looks like shyte on 800 x 600 screens. Also, when I copy and paste the index.html file into NoteTab Pro, then look at it in IE6, it looks like triple shyte - completely out of whack with how it looks to you now. Can't figure that one out. I ran the code through CSE HTML Validator Lite, and cleaned up the errors (other than the MT codes, which the Validator doesn't recognize). Ran it through NoteTab again, looks no different. WHY? I want my Mommy!

Bottom line is I must like doing this or else I wouldn't subject myself to such geek torture.

There is some frustration tonight. I've been examining my index files and comparing them against Geoff's, trying to determine how to make the file work from within NoteTab. What I mean is, when I copy Geoff's source file into NoteTab, I can open it as a temporary html file within Explorer, and see exactly how it looks. I'm thinking I should be able to do the same with my index files. However, when I try "view in browser" all I see is a lame template version.

I'm now experimenting with the pod bay door gif (and versions thereof), trying to move it into the banner portion of the page. It doesn't get much more exciting.

(Sidebar: apologies to any of you wishing I might comment on Real Life Stuff, rather than the headaches of editing Moveable Type indexes. But I need to vent my frustrations somewhere).

Thanks to Jen, I discovered another site with different MT templates. I really like this one, and may move in that direction. I'm partial to three columns for some reason. There is still more I want to do, there is more to learn, and these damn late nights are killing me.

So I was checking the log of referencing IP addresses to my site, and noticed this weird URL at the top of the page. It is a Google cache: "G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web". It is the archive of my blog for the week of July 27th. Wild, wacky stuff.

A few minor changes added tonight. You can see the blog list to the right, and I added an "about" and a link to the original page. I'm beginning to understand, at a base level, what style sheets do. Sort of, kinda, a little bit. Thanks to Zuchris and Geoff for continued words of encouragement.

What is happening out in the world? I was happy to see the Twins win the first game of their series against Oakland. I've been a Twins fan since I was a widdo kid.

This additional text feature is rather cool. Instead of filling up space on the main page, you can hide text down here. Peekaboo. (Did I write that?)