Chocolate, disk space woes and CSS

Above: Jeff and Ray and an Unknown Dog.

Thanks to Julie for pointing me to this BBC story about a guy who ended up in the hospital after spending two hours trapped in a vat of chocolate.

At least it was dark chocolate.

And thanks to Tom Smith for pointing me to CSS Zen Garden. Holy cow, some of these designs are gorgeous! Check out some of these amazing examples: in each, the HTML for was exactly the same; the graphic artists just changed the CSS. I SO WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO THIS! Easier site maintenance plus I can't resist the creative flexibility factor.

Thanks to David Barker for the W3Schools CSS tutorial link...looks like a useful resource. I've also signed up again for a monthly subscription at Lynda.com. I used Lynda.com a while back to learn more about Corel Painter; the online video tutorials are excellent, and the site keeps updating with new tutorials. I notice they have some CSS and Javascript tutorials as well as other things I'd like to learn, so I've decided to renew my membership. Right now, I'm going through "CSS For Designers" and learning a great deal, not just about CSS but about the history of Web design.

Does anyone know of other sites like Lynda.com? Ones that offer other subject tutorials? I think these are a brilliant idea. You can watch the tutorial videos at your own convenience as often as you'd like, and I've been impressed by the quality of instruction on Lynda.com.

I'm also trying out Google Analytics. It's a free stats service (thanks to Jeff for the heads-up), and I'm curious about how well it works. More on this in an upcoming Blathering. So far, I've found stats analysis especially useful in helping me find resources related to my work as well as showing me where my sites need improvement.

Apologies for wonkiness on Inkygirl recently. I've been running out of hard disk space, and page rebuilds have suffered. I've been paranoid about one of these "not enough hard disk space" glitches causing major devastation, so I've removed the UBB message boards and am going through my other sites and files to see what else I can get rid of. :-( Hopefully this Blathering post will get added safely. I've been moving some sites to another server in hopes that this will help. Thank heavens for Flickr, else I wouldn't be able to post as many images on Blatherings these days.

Meanwhile, I've continued to work on DebbieOhi.com, this time adding some more samples and adding a personal page that includes a new list of my recording projects (speaking of recording, Ken Lalonde is coming over tomorrow night to record my flute for a track on Judith Hayman's upcoming CD).

So far, I've learned enough about CSS to strip out the stylesheet from my Wordpress version of My Life In A Nutshell. Yay, now I can play around with creating my own stylesheet from scratch.

We'll see what happens...

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CSS, Wordpress and Irish tunes

To kiss or not to kiss?

Thanks to everyone who has sent me feedback thus far to my spankin' new DebbieOhi.com by post and e-mail. I have shrunk some of the graphic elements and will be shrinking more to avoid overwhelming monitors and dial-up connections out there. Also need to remember to always add ALT tags to image links.

Thanks also for the feedback to the Wordpress-ified My Life In A Nutshell. I've come to the conclusion that it's about time I learned a bit about CSS. I dabbled a bit in CSS years ago when it first came out, but at that time not enough browsers supported it to keep me hooked. Now, all the major browsers seem to support CSS. I like the idea of being able to change the style of my sites with only a few lines rather than having to modify every page.

Though I admit that the term "Cascading Style Sheets" has always brought the following image to mind:



Fortunately I have some technonerdboy friends who have offered to help me if I run into trouble (thanks Parki!). :-)


Scott Schumacher offered some useful resource links like CSSEdit and Dissection of a Wordpress Theme. He also pointed me to a huge archive of Wordpress themes called ThemeViewer where a user can enter search terms. Holy toledo. I feel like a chocolate addict in a Scharffen Berger store.

I wasn't happy with the way most theme pages list archives, though: most don't seem to have a single archive link from the main page which would allow users to access archives on a separate page. But then I found this page in the Wordpress documentation and this list of Wordpress Archive-related plug-ins. I especially like the plug-in used to generate this archive page.

Anyway, my goal is to learn enough CSS to be able to customise Wordpress themes for my own projects, and perhaps come up with my own from scratch. I've also decided I need to learn some Javascript.

Now if only I could find one of those magic watches that Hermione used to give her more time...


I've started reviewing Irish tunes on my whistle so I don't forget them, keeping my Burke whistle near my computer so I can play a tune every now and then. I'm trying a new method this time: using flash cards with a batch of old business cards. On one side, I write the name of the tune. On the other side, I've taped a scrap of music manuscript paper with the first few bars of the tune. I was inspired when I started reading The New Policeman by Kate Thompson...I'm about halfway through this book for young people, and thoroughly enjoying it. The story revolves around Irish music, Faerie mythology, time and magic. I can clearly "hear" the author's Irish brogue throughout, which greatly adds to the atmosphere of the book.

Sheet music for different traditional Irish tunes is included between chapters; I feel compelled to play the tunes on my whistle as I come to them, of course! :-) Anyway, so far I'm finding The New Policeman a delightful book.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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DebbieOhi.com!

Okay, after a few days of intensive HTML wrangling, I have a preliminary work site up at debbieohi.com. Yes, I know this is supposed to be the URL of "My Life In A Nutshell," but it seemed like the logical choice for a business site. I've moved MLIAN to http://www.debbieohi.com/nutshell/.

Both of these sites are now on a new server. I've converted My Life In A Nutshell from Movabletype to Wordpress because (1) the new server provides a one-click Wordpress installation, (2) I've been considering switching Blatherings from Movabletype to Wordpress but want to try it with a smaller project first and (3) I'd really like to enable comments for my comic, and Wordpress supposedly has a good spam control system. So please do feel free to post comments on my Wordpress version of My Life In A Nutshell so I can see how everything works. I'll be replacing the old comic site with a URL pointer.

I used one of the built-in templates for now, but am going to customize this page eventually once I've had a chance to check out the Wordpress documentation. I also need to add a "want to be notified" link.

Anyway, please do visit debbieohi.com. I'm going to be tweaking the graphics (I'm going to get rid of some of the clouds in the image at the top of the page, for instance) and will add more info. I've also been very bad at keeping track of my publications, so I know my list is missing a bunch of writing credits. This is one of the reasons I've been procrastinating about posting a portfolio type of site ... but also a good reason to finally get one online. I'm going to gradually go through paperwork and boxes to fill out the list, and will also be adding more illustration samples. I need to add ALT tags.

Feel free to post or e-mail any comments about what you like and don't like about the site; I'm especially interested in any browser incompatibilities. Please don't be offended if I choose to put your suggestions on the backburner; I may leave major changes for the next site update...right now, I'm focusing on getting something online. I may also choose to completely ignore your suggestion for illogical reasons.

For those who are curious, I created the entire site in three days using TextMate with raw HTML. Yes, I'm a Neanderthal.

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Google-izing, face-to-face, and judging books by their covers

According to an article in yesterday's Washington Post, the word "google" has been officially added to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. You can see the online entry here. I'll bet they threw quite the party at Google in celebration. :-)

Please note that this term should not be confused with the mathematical term "googol", which is the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros. I remember first learning this term as a child and using it effectively in one-upmanship interactions e.g. "Yeah? Well I like Norm Brown a GOOGOL times more than you do!").

Writing's going well. I'm finding the "read out loud" method of proofreading is great, though slow. I've also been tightening up prose a bit as I go along.



I met one of my illustration clients in person yesterday; she's from Washington, but was visiting Toronto and wanted to take me out for lunch. Turns out she may hire me to do some writing as well! I love the Internet with its online communities, chat rooms, e-mail and other virtual interaction possibilities...but y'know, nothing can beat meeting someone face-to-face to get a clearer sense of what they're really like and for certain types of communication.

After the whole Inkspot thing, I was happy to be finally able to meet some of my Inkspot helpers in person, people with whom I had worked for years through e-mail...like Moira Allen (was my managing editor, now runs Writing-World.com), Sal Towse (markets editor, now has a great list of links of writers), Diane Turnshek (moderator for the SF writing for young people forum, is now actively involved with Alpha, an sf/fantasy/horror workshop for young writers) and Devorah Stone (now moderates the historical fiction forum on Writer's BBS).

Ever since an Unfortunate Incident some years back about which I will never Blather, I've grown leery about judging what people are like solely on the basis of their e-mails and blogs. I've found that some people are more obnoxious, submissive, or insecure in person that they come across online. I've also found that some are meeker in person that I would have expected after reading their blogs or read their e-mails, obviously much more comfortable behind a computer screen where they can say things that they would never say face-to-face.

It's one reason I could never develop a close friendship with someone I've never met in person. I'm not saying friendships like this can't exist, especially friendships that both parties know will always stay "virtual." For me, however, I'd first want to find out what my correspondent is really like face-to-face and get to know THAT person.

Thanks to those who responded to my book buying survey! I'm glad I'm not the only one who judges a book by its cover. :-) I also confess I'm influenced by paper quality, size of margins and the font.



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My very first Web page

No squirrel sounds since yesterday's adventure.

Jeff and I went out for dinner with our friends Luisa and Reid last night, to an Italian restaurant we like called La Vecchia (2405 Yonge Street, 416-489-0630). Interesting to go to a place like this after our trip to Italy; I saw dishes on the menu that I had in Italy like Pizza Margherita (pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil). The wine menu also had at least one of the Brunellos that we tried in Montalcino. I ordered my favourite, Zuppa di Pesce Superiore, which consists of lobster mussels, shrimp, clams and calamari in a garlic white wine tomato broth, garnished with toasted calabrese bread. Yum!

Allison and Jodi have kindly agreed to come over and be my barbecue guinea pigs this evening, letting me try out my new grilling skills on them. I think I'm going to try swordfish! My friend Rand grilled swordfish for me years ago, and I've loved swordfish ever since. I attempted salmon a couple days ago but it fell apart; I discovered later that I shouldn't be turning the fish so often.

Got an illustration job recently from someone who came across drawings I've been posting on Flickr. Looks like a fun project though the deadline is pretty tight; I'll post the URL of the site when it's been officially launched.

Jeff was looking at my stats a couple days ago and said that I've had a million visits (visits, not just hits) since Christmas, and that I get about 7,000 visits a day. When I say "I," I refer to sites on our server, like Blatherings, Waiting For Frodo, and Inkygirl. This traffic does not include sites on Dreamhost like PoetryFAQ.com and Tranzacsession.org, and of course doesn't include Will Write For Chocolate, which is on someone else's server.

Anyway, I confess to being surprised at these numbers since they're comparable to Inkspot's stats and most of the sites are relatively young. Nothing compared to the Big Guys, of course, but not bad for projects that are basically run by one person. Where did this traffic come from?! I knew I had a higher "online profile" when I was working on Inkspot, but that was on purpose; I was actively seeking advertising income.

I suspect that a large part of it is simply because I've had a Web presence for so long. My very first homepage was highlighted in the first edition of HTML & CGI UNLEASHED by John December & Mark Ginsberg (Sam's Publishing, 1995):

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What they wrote about me:

"Figure 2.10 shows Debbie Ridpath Ohi's home page. Her page is typical in that she creates a 'personal information space' that links to personal and professional information. She links to resources that she maintains or develops, including a list of Children's Writer's Resources, 'INKSPOT' (http://interlog.com/~ohi/dmo-pages/writers.html), a page of the WWW Virtual Library, 'Writers' Resources On The Web' (http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/www/writesource.html), and her other activities, including her music group, an electronic magazine (E-zine) that she's developing, and personal and 'fun' links.

Hoo boy, that sounds SO ancient now, doesn't it? So many people now have a 'personal information space' that no one considers it unusual.

Here's what my first Web page looked like:



According to Jeff, here is a list of the top 100 search phrases from which people find my pages.

lotr
japanese schoolgirl
guitar
legolas
writing jobs
butterfly cakes
livejournal user pics
japanese peso
natto
sean bean
freelance writing jobs
blatherings
inkygirl
barbie song
pencil sketches
lord of the rings musical review
chinese menu
stacking firewood
filking
user pics
dock spider
chocolate covered grasshoppers
alisa scott
debbie
appetizers
harp
cat cartoon
schoolgirl
ice hotels
livejournal userpics
ugly food
old letters
telecommuting jobs
frodo
young writers
cartoon cats
krampus
graffiti cartoons
nahanni
inkspot
ice bath
ear staple
watergun
anabuki
happy birthday michelle
santa comic
outdoor shower
children's illustrator
jobs for writers
food movies
wasaga beach
toronto earthquake
armenian kitchen
japanese bath
inky girl
turkey cartoons
happy birthday comic
tearjerker movies
la crema pinot noir
ttc strike
spice girls naked
pants off
fortune teller
cheap liposuction
tess
naked women
gangster girl
ruth ohi
penguins
tightjeans
orkut scrapbook
nahanni river
tamagotchi
dandelion
harp history
japanese pesos
face paint
elvish tattoo
canoe lake
northern virginia magazine
telecommuting writing jobs
active surplus
pillow fight
lj user pics
toronto snow
gardening cartoons
sick cartoons
tamagotchis
how to make a harp
asian eyes
homoseksualiteit
canoe lake ice out
lord of the rings musical reviews
freelance writing
electric penguin
personal homepage
web
metallica figures
ugly frog
schoolgirl japanese

Some scary phrases in there, I must say. I agree with Jeff, though...my vote for the scariest goes to "cheap liposuction"!

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