Metaplanar Babel

As you have most likely noticed, I’ve changed the design around here again. I’ve been poking around with various layouts and color schemes for quite a while, but I couldn’t ever settle on something that felt right. Oddly enough, I started this one yesterday and liked it so much that I actually got it mostly finished. I think I’ve marked out the things that still aren’t working, so you can’t get to those (searching, for example), but if you happen upon something that looks a little off, please feel free to let me know. As per usual, the design looks pretty hideous in IE (though it does seem to be functional, at least), but I’ll be ironing out the wrinkles there before too long, hopefully.

I really wanted something different. I like my old design well enough, I guess, but it’s been up for so long that it was really starting to wear thin for me. I’m starting to clean that one up to make available, on the odd chance anyone else likes it enough to use it. I’ve seen a number of neato themes out there (Brenden is using one in his redesign), but I just couldn’t seem to get into anything. I’m not sure why, but something in me rebels at the thought of using someone else’s theme. It’s unfortunate, but I guess it’s ultimately good for the learning process. I’m hardly an expert designer/coder/whatever, but I think I have learned a lot.

The new design (which I’m calling Vespers) lacks the swanky plastic finish and pretty drop shadows that are so trendy right now (largely because I lack the graphic design capabilities to create those), and there are no rounded corners to be found here. However, it comes very close to validating (the errors all seem to relate to the Feed Digest script that I’m using to display my latest del.icio.us links), and I hope it’s easily readable. Please tell me what you like/hate/don’t get about the design, so I can improve.

The layout is somewhat similar to what I’ve been using here, so that shouldn’t be too confusing. The navigation is actually down at the bottom - inspired by an article about utilizing the space “below the fold” a little more. Since I’m only displaying a single long post on the front page, hopefully the navigation won’t be too hard to find. I’m curious to see what people think about the less-bloglike layout, so let me know!

One of the things I’ve been somewhat struggling with is that I really wanted to give my short posts enough screen space, because I tend to post those more often than long ones. However, when I do that, I almost inevitably have to shift the navigation down to the bottom, or go for a wider, three-column layout. Now, I’m not overly fond of super-wide layouts, because I usually have my browser sized a little bigger than 800×600, so I elected to go for the extra stuff at the bottom approach. Anyway, it’s hardly anything innovative, but I think I like it pretty well.

Best of all, it’s purple, and how can you go wrong with that?

Found another interesting article that might be worth reading. This one’s via del.icio.us’s popular links. Basically, it’s an essay about why people blog and why people should blog. Definitely a “do your own thing” kind of philosophy, which I really like.

Bryan Veloso, who has a neat blog, wrote a post recently that sort of underscored my growing ill-content with people in general. Apparently, someone left Bryan a comment demanding that he “make” them like his blog again. This kind of self-centered, self-important bullshit is at the heart of half our problems these days. This “I deserve whatever I want” mentality. This “The world should work how I think it does” mindset. It’s blind, it’s foolish, and it’s so far beyond arrogant that I’m appalled to think I might have fallen into that mindset on occassion. I originally started to comment on Bryan’s post, but after my comment got longer and longer, I decided I’d do better to just write here.

I’ve never understood why people get like that. I see it happen in every MMO that I play - there are always players who take every change personally and proceed to flame away on the forums because the server maintenance cut 2 hours off their playing time. Or because their class changed and wasn’t wtfuber any more. It’s like some people just expect their every whim to be answered, and if they come across anything that doesn’t fit into their narrow view of what it should be, then they cry up a storm. Oh you suck now, WoW, make me like you again!

It’s especially frustrating to see that on a personal site, though. What exactly does this reader give Bryan that justifies his courting their approval? (Besides an interesting subject to write about, anyway.) The MMO example at least has money changing hands - Blizzard benefits from its fans liking its games, since they continue to pay for the privilege of playing. But on a blog? Who are they to demand that the blogger deviate from his own mindset to suit theirs? A blog needs its readership, surely, but that doesn’t make the blogger subject to every whim of its readers. You’d never get anything written if you tried to cater to everyone. Bah, it just makes me angry, and I don’t even have to deal with it.

Why is it that so many people cannot accept anything that flies in the face of their own personal wants? I want my character to be badass, and these changes bring me back down to the same level as everyone else, so I’m going to bitch and moan about it until they fix it. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It sounds an awful lot like my nephew-in-law, who’s 4 years old, when he can’t play with the toy he wants. I want the whole world to be just like me, so I’m going to go bully anyone who’s different into being just like me! Who cares if they don’t think the way I do, I’m making them better, cause *I* know best! Is the world so plastic-coated and instantly-gratifying that we don’t have to grow up anymore? Maybe that’s what’s really happening in America. It’s not that we’re really dumbing down, it’s that we’re not growing up.

I read an interesting article that makes some strong points about the dumbing down of America. Jon says, “it really is Rome 2.0″, which I find absolutely hilarious. d(-_^)

Looks like Rails may be here to stay. It’s really just the 1.0 beta, since that’s the Web 2.0 stereotype, of course.

Things have been really busy at work lately, so I haven’t had much time to write. We’ve hit the year-end holiday rush, which has once again driven home why I hate the month of December. There’s just something about the end of the year that makes so many people think they have to finish everything, even if they haven’t thought about it in months. Add to that the joys (:eyeroll:) of the ever-more-commercial Christmas holiday season, cold weather, and traveling in said cold/snowy/icy weather, and we have all the makings of a month that is anything but joyful.

I’m a Scrooge, I’ll admit it. Fortunately, Jon is too, so we can commiserate together and roll our eyes every time we hear another bad rendition of a Christmas song. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting to see the family and spend time catching up with them, but I really dislike that obligation that our friendly marketers have fostered to buy awesome gifts for everyone that I love. Or like. Or just, y’know, sort of know, or work with, or met at a diner three years ago. I know these gifts are supposed to be “gifts of the heart”, and we’re supposed to give them because we genuinely want to brighten our loved one/friend/acquaintance’s day (and for many of my loved ones, I do want to give them something), but after the gift-giving message gets rammed down my throat every damn time I turn on the radio, or walk into a store, or go out to eat, I’m finding myself feeling just a wee bit contrary.

And that’s ignoring the fact that the local stores are one and all swarmed with friendly holiday shoppers, fighting over the last Super-trendy-gotta-have-to-be-cool Toy or clothing item, or whatever (where’s my friendly Protoss Zeaot when I need him, anyway). The parking lots are filled with massive SUVs, freely guzzling their gas and nearly running over the crowds of suckers gift-givers; the scene is overlaid with the sweet music of screeching tires, screaming children, and cell-phones tinging out a midi rendition of Deck the Halls. Hallelujah!

And the fun becomes even more joyful when we add in that other mainstay of December, cold, snowy (or better yet, icy) weather! Then we have even more crazy drivers, sliding about on slushy roads, backing up traffic even farther and blocking intersections in their zeal to get that one perfect gift.

Honestly though, December just makes me tired. The thought of competing with all those people, filled with the joy of Christmas, makes me think longingly of my (semi) isolated townhouse, where I can barricade the door, ban all Christmas music, and huddle in a blanket, free from the yearning masses. The cold weather saps the energy from my limbs, until I just numbly drive home after work, trudge up the stairs (narrowly avoiding a slip on the ice), and collapse in my computer chair, wanting nothing more than to go to sleep until spring. My creativity is shot, my mental faculties are verging on nonexistent, and my already deficient motivation for anything has fallen through the floor.

I think I just need to hibernate; someone wake me up when it’s spring again, okay? I’ll be in a den somewhere, tucked away out of the cold. Just be careful, I might be a little cranky.

Oh neat! A huge list of Japanese style emoticons. v(^o^)

Wow. I only wish I had this much free time.

That’s what I want to wake up to tomorrow morning. Weather is currently calling for 4-8 inches of snow by morning; I suspect we’ll only get the low end of that, but I really would love to get the full 8 inches. Granted, I mostly just want a day off from work, but having snow really makes it feel like Christmas time.

I having a weird problem with a newish design I’m working on. There’s a box near the bottom of the page with a pair of lists floated in opposite directions that will not render right in IE. Only half of the surrounding div’s background/border are rendering and it moves strangely as you scroll. I don’t even know what to call this kind of bug(?), so I’m not sure where to look for a solution. Anyone have any possible solutions or seen something like this before or anything? It doesn’t appear to quite match anything I’ve seen on Position is Everything. *boggle*