Month: April 2002

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I’m sited in this paper

I’m sited in this paper about women and IT careers (as is Tom, fascinatingly enough) – scroll down to “Why Women Choose Information Technology Careers: Educational, Social, and Familial Influences”

cleaning Opera bookmarks:

…12 things no one tells you about having a weblog…
…the world’s smallest digital camera…
…Has Grammar Lost Its Technological Edge (or, why the Word monopoly might be bad for writing)
…not only does time machine suck, it sucks accessibly, too! (Joe Clark rocks my world.)
…online lit journal to which I must send stuff…

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Did it actually publish? the

Did it actually publish? the ISP cut out rather abruptly in the middle of “generating pages” – dial up just chaps my hide. we got one of those “we want you back” cards in the mail, offering three months of cable internet for $19.95 a month. so I imagine we’ll go for it. why the hell not? 🙂

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So exciting! Today I went

So exciting! Today I went to the NetPrep Gyrls group at the Boys & Girls Club, talked about being a Web Manager, how I got into Web design, that sort of thing…and then helped the girls write their first Web pages. Not quite as overwhelming an experience as the Summer Camp thing last year, but still quite challenging. I learn a lot from trying to explain to others.

And I wrote a nifty little guide (which I didn’t bring copies of, of course), cribbed pretty strongly from the tutorials that got me going back in the day – the Webmonkey guides and the old Fat Free Guide. But I finally did what I’ve been wanting to do and wrote a guide for beginners that innately teaches how to create fully valid XHTML and CSS. (I did, however, forget to include the meta language tag and the XML namespace, but those should be easy enough to correct.) I think it’s a good start, but I have some more ideas about how to make it more useful, just from the things that came up in class.

One of the trickiest things, oddly enough, is working with Notepad and opening the pages in IE, and I want to write a better step-by-step of that process, along with more information about naming conventions, folder structure, etc. There are so many little things that one just takes for granted, until you have to explain it!

So that was very cool, and very energizing. Just as energizing was talking to Laura, who runs the program, about other networking (people, not computers) activities for women, girls and technology – there’s a forum coming up, and collaboration with a group called Ignite, which wants to start a chapter down in this neck of the woods. The prospect of all this activity is energizing – and just talking to Laura…she’s very enthusistic, and a positive influence on me, since I tend to be rather sedentary & morose, myself.

The epersonae site is coming back, slowly. I’m working on converting the existing html pages to PHP (arg – your-site.com only runs 3.0.15!), finishing up the companion site to the Simple Guide, rewriting the haiku randomizer, and thinking about some more interesting colors. Or not…I haven’t made up my mind yet. (oh, it’s so simple-looking now…I just haven’t had the energy to come up with a gorgeous design.)

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the life of this ‘blog

the life of this ‘blog is quite short – I’m going to consolidate everything once my domain name propagates to the new address. although I’m having ridiculous trouble getting a jpg uploaded. hrm.

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I still haven’t heard anything

I still haven’t heard anything from my (alleged) new web host. grumble…. check that – I probably won’t hear from them until Monday, since it’s 8-20 business hours. ah well. (edited 5:08 pm, PDT)

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okay, I busted out of

okay, I busted out of that story a little quickly so that Chad could use the phone. then again, that’s all there really is to it.

the use of type in historical movies – I think I saw this first on Joe Clark’s site, but didn’t look at it until it popped up today on DE. fun for font geeks!

a new CPU for my computer is wending its way in my general direction. I’ve finally broken down, and am working on upgrading my system.

I suppose I should write something about this, but maybe later. and maybe not ever here. great quote from another entry: “I am living proof of the old adage that two wrongs don’t make a right, but that three do.” indeed.

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went down to Oly last

went down to Oly last night to see Chad’s friend Keith’s band – Who Cares – play at the 4th Ave. A very odd experience.

We got there early and went for ‘za at Old School – yum. I would not have thought that broccoli would’ve been good on pizza, and yet I’ve been proven wrong. Dashed out to catch the guys (and Paul – the singer’s – gf) bringing their stuff in. Snuck in the back door, because paying cover sucks.

So here’s the scene: the 4th Ave is a gritty, gritty bar. As in: pool tables, chicks with BIG HAIR, and guys with cowboy hats. The back room/stage is a big open zone with a low stage on one side (very dusty red backdrop curtains), rows of tables, an upper zone with a long counter, and lots and lots of the same metal/naugahyde chairs. Fairly dim smoky light.

We thought they were going to be playing at 9 – turns out 9:30 or 10, depending on how many other bands – sound guy says two other bands, then comes up with this young gal, both looking surprisingly officious. Apparently there’s been a mix-up, and the other band thought they were going first. Paul says, rather definitively: “we suck after a rock band” (they play acoustic), and that seems to be that.

Aside about Paul: he definitely has the same kind of energy as Franz’s dad: a libertine, masculine energy – both seem to take Bukowski as some kind of guiding influence. It’s a compelling but unnerving aura. (He’s a really nice guy, though, for all that.)

Except that the guys from the other band (who all look like late 70s – early 80s metal grits, very skinny with long ratty hair) come in & start setting their stuff on the stage. D’oh! For a minute it looks like there’s going to be some kind of rumble over the order of play – but they all smooth it out, and eventually Who Cares takes the stage.

Oh, but before that, this most obviously schizophrenic (and possibly drunk) woman – late middle aged, wearing a sweater and a soft knit hat in a soft shade of pink – wanders in. She tries talking – yipes! Jesus talk! – but we pull away. She spends the whole show waving her arms and giving little shout-outs. It would be entertaining if it wasn’t so damn distracting.

I don’t think the sound was set quite correctly, either – it seemed really hard & tinny throughout the show.

But I enjoyed their playing immensely. Here’s the deal: they only have one song which is “radio-safe” – a tune called No One. Everything else is insanely rauncy & totally obscene. And yet funny…absurdist and sing-able. Paul joked around a lot with the other singer, Dave (also the guitarist), while the bongo guy kept to his bongos and Keith looked totally deadpan. They rock, but man, I would’ve loved to have seen them in a better situation.

We snuck back out the back door and left as soon as they were done. Chad’s coming down with a cold & was feeling not so great. 🙁