Carleen and Mike

Oh wait, Ben just said this was “all about her sweet booty anyway…”. Oh well folks, it looks like the wedding is off.

-M

i just want to tell everybody–we are now the Official Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez News Site of America. And the verdict is….they’re staying together.

Do you think they’ll get a Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream flavor named after them? Ben & Jen Surprise? You never know what flavor it’ll be? It changes week to week, day to day?

-M

taken from the Onion

U.S. Invades Non-Oil-Rich Nation To Dispel Criticism LUXEMBOURG VILLE, LUXEMBOURG?In an effort to quiet criticism of U.S. military policy, 50,000 U.S. troops invaded and soundly defeated the non-oil-rich Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Monday. “Once again, the U.S. claims victory over a rogue nation,” said President Bush after the 45-minute war. “The people of Luxembourg, although prosperous and living in peace, have suffered under the tyranny of a monarchy for centuries. And allow me to point out that Luxembourg has not one drop of crude oil.” Troops will return home Friday, following the public hanging of Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg.

Revised Patriot Act Will Make It Illegal To Read Patriot Act
WASHINGTON, DC?President Bush spoke out Monday in support of a revised version of the 2001 USA Patriot Act that would make it illegal to read the USA Patriot Act. “Under current federal law, there are unreasonable obstacles to investigating and prosecuting acts of terrorism, including the public’s access to information about how the federal police will investigate and prosecute acts of terrorism,” Bush said at a press conference Monday. “For the sake of the American people, I call on Congress to pass this important law prohibiting access to itself.” Bush also proposed extending the rights of states to impose the death penalty “in the wake of Sept. 11 and stuff.”

~C

Had a quick and dirty lesson in DNS today after calling BartNet.net to troubleshoot a problem. I was trying to FTP a site i’ve been working on for a friend of Carleens when I got a login error. Well the lady on the other line asks me several questions before asking me, “Have you set the DNS numbers?” The answer came in the form of, “Uh………” Wherupon she took it upon herself to semi-explain what it was she was talking about and what I needed to do. I picked up the rest just from doing it.

Felt a bit silly since I had tried to make myself sound all professional saying “I’m working on a site for a client…” She got me. Oh well, that’s two lessons in one day:

1. DNS
2. Never try and act like you know what your doing when it’s blatently obvious you don’t

-M

Thanks for all the links mitch! i’ve been looking at monster.com and typing in “web designer” into the search field and taking a look at the requirements and i noticed Flash on one of them. So I downloaded the demo version of Flash (95Mb, and that’s the demo version!) so I can get familiar with that. I’ve been hesitant about learning Flash, since even the creators of Flash think it’s been over-used and abused. But it’s probably a good thing to learn. I haven’t opened it up yet but I’m excited to do so.

Hit a snag with MySQL– I can’t find it! I’ll have to check out their website, I find that kind of weird.

It’s so funny how depending on my mood my whole outlook on the technology can change, where I was overwhelmed last week, I now find excitement at all the different things I have yet to learn. It’s really true–the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

-M

Ouch. very rough night last night. Just could not run my machine worth a damn. i was very close to walking out and never coming back. I feel like a coward for not doing it, but then i’m also glad i didn’t because it would worry me that i wouldn’t be able to find another job that paid as well. If I was just a little bit further in web design studies this wouldn’t be a problem. And unfortunately I keep having to work overtime and so I can’t work on web design. You hear about those single moms who work full-time and go to school part-time, I don’t know how they do it. And i respect them all the more for it.

-M

You know what really bugs me…no….what truly bugs me? What terrifies me beyond comprehension? What annoys me to no end?

Disembodied heads.

And i keep finding them on websites. Everywhere I click, someone has posted a disembodied headshot of themselves. I mean, not even shoulders, just big floating (sometimes dancing) heads! Just include a little bit of your shoulder and you’d be fine, but no, just the head.

It’s wrong people. Not even good looking people make good disembodied heads, so just imagine how it is for ugly people.

I now begin the campaign against disembodied heads. Now all i need is a really cool acronym.

-M

Well the site is back to it’s original design after having screwed it up over the weekend. Luckily Mitch had a backup of the CSS file and all was not lost. It did however take me for a serious doubt-trip. I can’t even modify a simple CSS file without fucking it up. I’ve been feeling like that quite a bit lately. Especially at work, trying to learn this new machine–and failing miserably. I’ve gotten 3 reprints so far, and it’s just got me discouraged. I feel like my intelligence has been slipping ever since I’ve gotten out of high school, and if there is one thing that pisses me off it’s something that makes me feel stupid–which machines are notorious for.

Which i think is why it’s so important for me to learn anything and everything about web design, I feel like if i can just learn this, I can feel not so stupid. But everytime I get a handle on one thing, two more step up to intimidate me. I learn HTML, i find out about CSS, i get a handle on CSS, I find out about JavaScript and PHP and MySQL and ColdFusion and DNS and FTP and it’s quite mind boggling wading through the veritable alphabet soup. And it’s all for nought really, since I could learn every single one of those silly acronyms–be certified genius with every one of them–but it doesn’t mean I can design a good looking website. ::Sigh::

Carleen asked me one morning why I never have any problems, my reaction to that was quite strong at the time, though i didn’t say anything, because it hit in such a way that I didn’t know how to respond. My response to that is two-fold. I do have problems but I tend to either hide them or suppress them. Which I don’t find to be too bad since most usually just go away on their own. Problems I do that with are generally problems at work. Work is work, when I’m at home I’m not at work and work problems stay at work. I try not to let home problems and work problems move from their respective worlds. If I allowed that to happen I would come home from work a steaming, fuming, cursing, asshole who nobody would want to be around. I have problems running ANY machine at work, does that mean I should bring that frustration home? No. At home I want to be away from those problems–home is my oasis from the world.

But also, I tend to have a care-free attiude towards life, which I feel is sort of a double-edged sword. I don’t feel i care enough. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a cold fish, seperate from the world, detached from any sense of belonging. With a very few exceptions, I could do without most other humanity. Hopefully those exceptions know who they are, if they don’t I have failed yet again.

If I meet you on the street I will give a bright smile and say “Hello” politely, but does that mean I’ll remember what you look like in 5 minutes? No. Even if you’re an exceptionally beautiful woman, by the time my mind registers your looks, it will be off on another tangent, thinking about one of the infinite projects I am constantly engaged in.

The plus to this is, I feel, the people I care about, the people I really care about, I care about with all the fiber of my being. Sometimes I may get too busy and might not show it as often as i should, but i do. And I think it’s a sincere friendship, nothing false, no facade, you get me, cause that’s all I have to give.

Anyway…my rant for the day.

-M

Hey all, I found a couple of hilarious websites while surfing the wee hours of the morning. One is a blog done by a couple of girls right here in Oklahoma. The other…well you just need to see it. Enjoy

Muffin Films
Mad Pony

-M

Stone’s book is getting better and better. Informative, witty and easy to read, he’s made some very intelligent observations in his section on blog design, some of which you can read here in his essay from his blog.

I better get back to doing something that resembles work. I’ve been highly unmotivated this weekend. I’m going to blame this on the nearly lethal head injury I sustained on Thursday. Come Monday I promise to stop using it as an excuse and I’ll really buckle down. I promise.
~C

I just found this on Beth’s website. They have the cutest cartoon dogs. I’ll have to admitt, the westies are cuter than the beagles (Beth has Westie named Jack), but that’s ok cause nothings cuter than our little Chani.
~C

Sorry anyone who views this site for the next few days (hopefully not too much longer) been playing with the CSS file and I seem to have messed it up. It seems our blog looks right in Safari, but is completly wrong in Internet Explorer, hopefully we’ll get things sorted out very shortly.
-M

I just spent about the past 3 hours, eating nothing but Wheat Thins and water, reworking my personal web site. It’s a site I’ve created which will mainly focus on my past photography, however I plan on having links to other sites I am in the midst of creating that focus on “fun” stuff. I’m trying to make it look as professional as possible, but I’m not succeeding in that attempt. Just for curiousity, you can see the wasteland of a site it is now, (though you won’t see a whole lot) it was destroyed after a very bad accident involving CSS. But the new and improved site is on it’s way, for now, here is the old one:

Old Page

Oh, here’s another one I’m in the process of working on, (sorry this shows my dork colors really well):
D&D Site
I’m also working on really neat idea, I want to start up a web design company that caters to small businesses someday. I want to create many different styles for the website and post them all, so that when the client views the site and clicks on a link, they can view my site in all the different designs so they can get a feel for what a particular design will look like. I think I’m coming up with some very cool ideas, I’m working on one now using circles, which you don’t see too often on websites; should be fun. I got the idea from CSS Zen Garden.
Well even I can’t work on this stuff much longer, it’s getting late and my head gets a bit foggy arond this time, so it’s probably about time for some Runescape.

-M

I think I’m finally getting the hang of the blog thing. You see, my trouble with it in the beginning was that so many people have used their blog to discuss really important topics like politics and current events. So I thought that’s what they were for. But I’m beginning to realize they they are simply websites used to display news, articles and links, however mundane. And so, I will now be adding a new section to this blog to discuss my trials and errors getting into the field of web design. Maybe someone, somewhere will be able to benefit from my posts.
A great thing as well, is the fact that Carleen is getting into this blogging thing and as such is being slowly introduced to HTML, perhaps one day she won’t have to smile and nod politely as i tell her all my web design exploits. Maybe one day we’ll be speaking the same language.

-M

An interesting topic was debated today on an NPR program called Justice Talking. I’ll have to comment on it later. My brain is still hurting and I need to spend time with my husband. Here’s a link: Civics Education: Patriotism or Scepticism?.
I highly recommend listening to the broadcast.
~C

My car door attacked me this morning. It was raining and I was trying to get into the car as quickly as possible. By the time I got to work I realized I was bleeding. Luckily it wasn’t a very deep cut, however, I’ve been gradually feeling loopier and loopier as the day goes on. I’m working in the local and family history section of the library right now, covering for Anne while she’s at supper. I really hope nobody asks me any questions because I’m afraid I’d be rather useless (acually, I’ve been rather useless all day. I haven’t accomplished much except for updating our roladex). I’ll be homeward bound in less than an hour. I shall make it for I am a warrior.
-C

Bensenville Community Public Library in Illinois have found a unique way to commemorate the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. They have been open since midnight last night and will remain so until midnight tonight. Several other libraries have chosen to participate.

“Libraries represent the sum of all human knowledge, and they represent equal access to that knowledge. Libraries represent freedom of expression, celebration of diversity, a playing field that is level, preservation of heritage, and commitment to the future. The Bensenville Community Public Library believes, therefore, that there could be no more fitting tribute, no more appropriate commemoration of September 11, than for libraries all across the United States to simply be there.”
www.bensenville.lib.il.us/911
-C

Our local newspaper, Examiner Enterprise, often runs Hamilton’s column in the Opinion section. It was a pretty funny one yesterday. I found a link to it online here.
-C

Some time some day when I have time I will study the rromani people and their history. I found some air to breath tonight so I read some from the following websites:
romani.org
unionromani.org
Patrin Web Journal

I’m trying to remain as faithful as a can to my blog but it’s been difficult this past week. Last weekend was our anniversary and we celebrated with an expensive dinner and a movie.
I’m reading more books, I’m up to four at a time again. I’ve been working on Children of Dune for months but keep getting side tracked. I miss Paul Atreidis, can’t seem to get into it otherwise. I suggest that anyone interested in the Dune series read the first two, Dune and Dune Messiah, stop and then make up the rest. Trust me, I’m saving you a lot of frustration, you’ll be more satisfied this way.
I’m also reading A Cousins War, a book on the English revolution, American revolution and American Civil war and how they all related to eachother. A Fool’s Journey is one I just checked out and haven’t started yet. I admitt it, I got it cause I judged the cover. It’s cool looking. My final book is on blogging, suggested to me by Beth. So far, I’m frustrated with it because all the instructions seem to be for blogging.com. But I haven’t even gotten half way through it yet.
-C

I’ve been trying to figure out who this George Paine guy is. He operates the website known as warblogging.com. Independent weekly describes him as “one of the most calm and intelligent antiwar voices on the net”.
Here’s another blog I came accross today, operated by independent journalist, Christopher Allbritton.
-C