Blog: Ramblings and Rants

Remembering Fred Rogers

Mourning a television icon, a candle burns at the star of Mister Rogers on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame”. The legendary children’s show host lost his battle with cancer this morning.

What the fuck is wrong with people!

CNN.com - Second arrest in snowball fight shooting - Feb. 25, 2003

The wife of a man who allegedly opened fire on children after his daughter was hit with a snowball has been charged in the drive-by shooting that left a 10-year-old girl in critical condition.

Please help.

Please tell ten friends to tell ten friends today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to goto their site and click on “donating a mammogram” for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10 TODAY

How evil are you?

CNN.com - At least 96 killed in nightclub inferno - Feb. 21, 2003

I just want to weep.

Cowbell Chronicles: Top 5 Tuesday XXV - Pull No Punches

Top 5 Albums of All Time. I hate doing one of these “…of all time” things, especially with music, since my response is entirely subjective to my mood of the moment. Ok. Here’s how I feel at this moment:

1. The Who - The Who By Numbers

2. The Doors - The Doors In Concert

3. Guns N’ Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

4. Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree

5. Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions

This-or-That: February 18, 2003: Potpourri

1. Black or white? Black, it’s the new black. White almost as frequently.

2. Plaid or stripes? Stripes

3. Paperback or hardcover books? Hardcovers for those I intend to keep; paperback for novels and manuals.

4. Color or B&W printer? B&W is just fine by me.

5. Golden oldies or the newest tunes? Ugh. You mean my music is already referred to as “Golden Oldies”?

6. Ice cream: in a cone or a dish? Waffle cone.

7. Bath or shower? Shower… I should take more baths.

8. Are you outgoing or shy? Shy.

9. Answer the phone when it rings, or screen calls? Screen calls.

10. VCR or TiVO? VCR.

I just saw the Daredevil movie. Here’s my review.

WARNING: There are spoilers below! Read at your own risk!

This-or-That: February 11, 2003: Breakfast!

1. Bacon or sausage? It depends on my mood. Bacon, if I must choose.

2. Eggs: scrambled or not? Scrambled, with cheddar. I’m not a fan of egg flavor, so anything to take the edge off it.

3. French toast or regular toast? French toast. It makes me feel happy.

4. Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes, four, stacked, lots of butter.

5. Mufins or bagels? Bagel, Lender’s egg variety, butter or cream cheese.

6. Coffee or tea? Coffee. Constantly.

7. Juice: orange or grapefruit? Coffee. Constantly.

8. Hot or cold cereal? Hot. Maple and brown sugar.

9. To put in cereal: bananas or strawberries (or some other fruit)? Raspberries.

10. Eat breakfast at home or at a restaurant? Restaurant or company cafeteria.

In Portland’s SOHO-esque Hawtorne District is an ominous house. It is foreboding and frightening not for some spooky, half-imagined tale of supernatural haunting or past patricidal mayhem. No, this house is all too real, and all too chilling on its own, bereft of any terrible backstory.

I have dubbed this dwelling The Apocalypse House.

Friday was busy: Two hours of meetings, a couple of hours of beating people, an hour and a half writing reports, and just the usual zaniness. In the broadest of strokes, that was my ten hour day.

While my day was exciting and (happily) challenging, my night was a lot more fun.

This-or-That: February 4, 2003: While You Were Sleeping

1. Morning or night person? Night, definitely.

2. Heavy or light sleeper? I’m tempted to say heavy, but that’s only when I know other people/sounds are around. I wake up quickly if there’s an out of place noise or presence.

3. Remember your dreams or not? Not usually, no.

4. Do you need a lot of sleep, or just a little? Define a lot. 6-7 hours.

5. Do you need something like a nightlight or TV to sleep, or do you prefer complete darkness? I prefer TV (for the sound, I often cover my eyes with yet another pillow), but then I never seem to feel as rested in the morning.

6. Flannel sheets or some other kind? Satin or cotton.

7. One pillow, or more? One pillow? Gosh. I need at least one for beneath my head (I have a full-motion waterbed, so usually two), one between my knees, and one to hold (when I’m alone). So, two to four.

8. Bedroom door opened or closed at night? Opened.

9. Wrap yourself into blankets like a cocoon, or just cover yourself with them? Definitely wrapped up in a cozy cocoon.

10. Alarm clock: wake to music or buzzer? Music. Classic rock.

I’m really getting annoyed with the fucking Opera browser… And I’m going to exercise my W3C-given right to bitch about it.

I’ve spent the majority of the past three days building a DHTML menu for my top level horizontal navigation menu at the top and bottom of the page. I started by trying to write it from scratch, but I couldn’t get the placement correct. Because the main table of the site is centered horizontally, not flush left, absolute placement of DHTML items is not possible. I learned I have to set first a relative placeholder, then find an absolute placeholder off of that. Ok. No sweat.

I searched every site I could think of and downloaded…