My Date With Drew - 30 days - $1,100 - 1 date

This guy is one of Trisha's (Cybil's sister's) co-workers. Trisha has seen the flick but won't tell us if he got the date.

IEBlog : Standards and CSS in IE

this is more encouraging than what i've been hearing about ie7 beta 1. sometimes you start to think since ie has been so static for so long that they must be living in some sort of software development vacume, but then you see PositionIsEverything and Quirksmode mentioned, along with the web developer names for all these delightful bugs (Peekaboo, Guillotine) and you get a glimmer of hope.

One thing though that could become very clear when ie7 comes out with these bugs fixed is that those who haven't been using conditional comments to fix IE problems are going to be sorry. That is, if you use some hacked selector (like * HTML) to serve something to IE, and IE doesn't fix the selector problem but they do fix the CSS rendering problem, pages are going to break.

Flat Fuck Fell - On Accidental Plagiarism

I just received an IM from somebody I didn't know. The conversation began like this:

Ok, sorry to be a random jackass, but you're the first Google result for "flat fuck fell," and I think it's insane. It's one thing to mimic a writer, but it's entirely different to gank a phenomenal phrase like that, and adopt and adapt the next line too, without giving any credit to Tim O'Brien. That's just my opinion though. Cheers.

He was referring to the #1 rank in Google that my bit of short prose Slipper Ice holds for the query "flat fuck fell". Once I explained what had happened he was totally cool, it's an entertaining story so I'll start at the beginning...

I had this awesome teacher for my American History class junior year in high school. He had us read O'Brien. I went on to read a couple more of his novels outside of class. That was in '96 or '97. A couple years later, first year of college, I wrote this bit of prose about a friend of mine, and an O'Brien fan (which I didn't learn until later). A year later we hooked up. 5 years later we are still together, this piece of prose is still kicking around on my website (albeit still in the old template), and I get this IM from somebody I don't know accusing me of stealing the phrase.

Now you'll have to trust me that my conscious memory of phrases like that just isn't good enough to pull something up from two years ago to deliberately use in a piece of prose. But now I understand how people can accidentally plagiarize, and why many writers avoid reading anything in their own genre while working.

So now this post will probably take the #1 slot on Google, since the phrase is now in the header and it's reinforced by the high rank of the other page. And so the vicious cycle of plagiarism continues, but at least this time it will be explained along with a bit of advice, "Let this be a warning to you, young writer, do not read. Ummmm, well at least don't read and then write in the style of your favorite authors. Wait, that's no go either. Fuck it. I don't have any advice, and it wouldn't be of any merit if I did. Don't do drugs."

T-Mobile

wow, honesty from a cell phone carier. how rare is that? it would kick ass if some other companies did this too, and a third party held them responsible.

Constructing Excellence, A to Z Information: Pareto Voting

Why the hell am I linking to some random UK construction website? Because I've been dabbling in thoughts of search engine optimization of course. Here follows a number of un-proven (by me) observations about how to achieve good Google ranking, to be concluded with the new idea generated by the above link. Good Google ranking might be obtained via:

1. clean code. reduce the signal vs. noise using semantic markup. it will make your keywords a higher percentage of the total contents of the page. for search engines that stop reading a page after a given number of characters it will guarantee that your content is among those characters.
2. links. this is why blogs often jump to the top, they link to each other. but more than that, link to each other in a meaningful way, using descriptive link text and often following them up with commentary.
3. content freshness. a regularly updated site will do better than a static site, if for no other reason than that a page's value is calculated in the context of the site as a whole, and regular updates means that the site as a whole is generally better fleshed out and more relevant than one that was just built and left to rot.
4. focused content. a page devoted to the keywords entered in a search will rank higher than a page that mentions those keywords in passing. this is why i think definition pages like the above link will do so well in Google. a page that can answer, "what the hell is ____?" is a useful page, and therefore deserves high rank.

New Scientist Breaking News - Why cats prefer meats to sweets

Scientific proof that Fritz (our younger cat) is a freak cat. He's got a crazy sweet tooth, just last night attacked me for my rootbeer float.

Lussumo Vanilla - The sweetest forum on the web

I'll have to play around with this free forum application for than next freelance gig where they've "just gotta have a forum."

Soft Launch of csolyn.com

Here it goes, Cybil's Skin Fitness Expert esthetician website and blog: csolyn.com. I'll update this post as exciting new features are added.

Update August 2nd, 7:23am No bald pussy yet, but the blog launched last night. The first couple entries are kinda background pieces, next week things will really get rolling with an article on sunburns. And don't worry, the waxing & photos are being scheduled within the next two weeks.

Behaviour : Using CSS selectors to apply Javascript behaviours

jfred showed me script.aculo.us, and I was like, that's cool, I'm sure the drag and drop stuff will come in handy at some point, but I'm not sure if I like the animation, it feels too much like the stupid transition effects in windows that are too slow so I turn them off immediately after installing. Now Jon just pointed out one of the libraries used by script.aculo.us, which jfred may have as well, but my attention was obviously elsewhere at the time because this is really cool shit. The DOM can be a pain to traverse just to add your events. It's not actually that hard, but adding events directly is just so easy, when up against a deadline ideals have a way of slipping. But CSS selectors, if not the easiest thing to learn (do you remember the first time you had to wrap your head around precedence?) are used on a more day to day basis (at least at my gig) so they are totally painless. I'd rather use CSS than the DOM to apply events any day.

One last thing. Take a look at the very bottom of behaviour.js, they've actually documented a regular expression using ASCII. Regex is a twistedly powerful tool, but it's such a bitch to reverse engineer, documenting it like this could prove to be a very useful technique.

Wish List

I'm writing this to myself two months from now. That's all the warning that you're gonna get that this will be a long boring-ass post and not worth reading.

I enjoy wanting things, electronic gadgets and the like. In fact, I may enjoy wanting things as much as having them, since most things that I do actually get wind up either lost, broken, or never used. So, now that Cybil and I have begun the year long process of paying off our share of this vacation club, I have the perfect opportunity to want stuff without the possibility of having the cash to actually buy anything.

This post is about the various things on my wish list (which no longer resides in the Links menu above) that I want to buy, but will have to wait until my birthday or Christmas to acquire. In a couple of months when I do have the opportunity to get anything I will check back here and see if my reasons and intended uses for the following are sill valid.

Here's one I've been considering off and on for a while: a bike. Yes, the most immediate motivation is that Doug has been riding on the trails around his new home, and jfred also recently picked up a bike as well. Last time I rode was about 4 years ago. It was just a test drive of a low-end mountain bike. Let me tell you, a cheap bike these days is above and beyond what I rode as a kid. Light aluminum frames, suspension, it was a blast. But the problem has always been, where the hell am I gonna store the thing? Not in the apartment (it's a 1 bedroom with a ping pong table already squeezed in), not in front of my parking space (theft / freaky management). But I finally did come up with a solution: stash it in the back of my hatchback. The seats are always down, it's already being used as hiking gear storage, why not?

My only remaining questions for myself are, will I use it often enough to justify hauling it around at all time, will I have any luck getting the guys to ride between golf appointments, and how will I decide whether to hike or to bike a trail? When the days get shorter nature will take care of the last question, probably not a good idea to go biking in the mountains after dark.

Next item up on my wish list is a GPS, one with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) for geocaching precision. I'm excited by all the forays technology is taking into the real world. Since this is new technology to me (I was a map and compass guy growing up) I've got a number of questions I'll have to look up. How many geocaches are there around this area? How can I make my own geocaches, and how brutal am I allowed to be (is miles from any road access fair game)? What are the possibilities combining google maps/earth with a GPS? Anyway, much potential geeking out in the out-of-doors, and if I continue hiking after work 2 days a week (after this heat wave passes, or in October, whichever comes first) it will certainly see plenty of use.

Lastly, I've been looking at portable MP3 players. Just a little bit of research shows that Apple, while obviously having the best designed player, has some serious competition when it comes to features. Creative Labs has a nifty little flash drive player that as well as playing MP3s also has an FM tuner and a built in mic for audio recording (as well a line-in for direct dubbing).

With these three major features it could have so many uses. The speakers in my car have been acting up (not to mention the CD player broke 2 years ago) and it would probably cost as much to fix as it would be to buy one of these. That, and I'm never in my car Sunday afternoon for the chamber music concerts they've been playing on KUSC, or Saturday morning for the Met.

I'd also like to get back into listening to books on tape/CD. With a portable player I could borrow CDs (from anywhere in LA through the online library exchange system), rip them to MP3, and play them whenever. With the line-in I could even dub old cassette books.

It would be nice to just be able to listen to the small handful of CDs I've gotten over the last couple years. I can't listen to music while working on the computer (too distracting), so I haven't listened to much music outside of the weekday commute for some time.

For several years now I've been planning on making digital recordings of those various poems and speeches that I used to have memorized back in the days of frequent campfires. With odeo.com finally launched (and presumably their "create" feature will be launched someday soon as well) I'll have ready means of publishing audio recorded on this device. It will also be an excellent source of audio content to listen too. In fact, I'm going to bring this post to an abrupt end so that I can install OdeoSyncer and try it out.

Line56.com: Death of a Blockbuster

rock on! only better news would be a walmart closing (but not the one where my brother works).

Line56.com: Death of a Blockbuster

rock on! only better news would be a walmart closing (but not the one where my brother works).

kiss my bitter ass

kottke is right, this is frakin' lame. totally violating to take a person's name off their credit card and post it on the internet. and since when is 15% not the industry standard? it's a minimum mind you, i tip more if the service was good (water remained full), or i was especially cheap ass in what i ordered for a meal (just because i ordered cheap food doesn't mean the waiter should get shafted). but i mean really, isn't this illegal? one step shy of stealing my credit card number and buying something on ebay.

On having layout

One of the more insightful articles I've read this year, and it's only a working draft. Pre-requisite reading: Explorer Exposed!. link via Anne.

I've been trying to see if setting hasLayout to "true" fixes the non-clickable padding bug in IE5, but for some reason I've been having trouble re-creating the bug.

The Collection

...cards for that other significant other. heard about these a few months ago. thought they would be more playful/cartoony, but looks like they took them seriously. Just don't change them on a credit card, wouldn't want "Secret Lover, Inc." to show up on a statement.

The Cartoons of Mr. Fish: a Selection (Harpers.org)

Mr. Fish's political cartoons. Disturbing, and funny, from Jesus to Darth Vadar. via glassdog.

los angeles bicycles classifieds and want ads - craigslist

it'll probably be september (birthday) before i can scrape together the cash for a bike, but when I do I'll probably just grab something cheap off craig's list. that way I might be able to get a GPS too.

los angeles bicycles classifieds and want ads - craigslist

it'll probably be september (birthday) before i can scrape together the cash for a bike, but when I do I'll probably just grab something cheap off craig's list. that way I might be able to get a GPS too.

History According to Harry

I think perhaps that Rowling has realized that Those Who Forget History are Doomed to Repeat It, but that future generations are not learning history from school, and so she has injected at least the morals if not the facts into her books to supliment the fact that most kids don't care about history.

Optimus keyboard

My next keyboard.

lifehack.org >> Over 100 Quick and Easy Healthy Foods

Since 15 minutes is about the longest I will bother to take to make a meal (and I don't eat out) my meal choices have been rather limited, especially with the new braces. The only thing this collection of recipies is missing is a random recipe selector. Yes, I am so lazy when it comes to food that deciding what to eat is as annoying as taking the time to cook it.

Backbone Trail

Last Sunday I finally took that Backbone Trail hike that I've been gearing up to (the one where you hike one way, and then take the Park Link Shuttle back to your car). Given the limit of three photo sets with my free flickr account I've tagged the photos as backbonetrail.

Hike Stats:

Distance

12 miles one way

Time

5 1/2 hours

Depart/Return

9:00am / 2:30pm

Elevation Gain

lots (for the Santa Monica Mountains anyway)

Location

Santa Monica Mountains Backbone Trail, from Tapia Park to Kanan Road.

Misadventure

Encountered a female bobcat and what could have been a coral snake but might have just been an imitator (digital camera wasn't fast enough to catch it). Got a bit of a late start so I took the hard direction, from low elevation along the road to Malibu to high elevation up on Kanan Dume Road. By the end I had sweat dripping down my hands, and boy did my legs ache Tuesday morning.

Paper Says Edible Meat Can be Grown in a Lab on Industrial Scale :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

Now my question is, would vegetarians eat it? And what about vegans? via glassdog.

Google Maps Mania

"Webmaster shows site visitors on Google Maps"

One of many uses of the google maps API highlighted by this new blog. What I find really exciting are the connections between the real world and computer technology, especially where the technology encourages forays into the woods. Realizing that I've gotta get myself a GPS to take adantage of this new technology, but with our budget as tight as it is right now I'll have to wait a couple months for my birthday. Getting too hot to hike anyway.

Click (2006)

Filming here at work end of July through the beginning of August.

The Costco Challenge: An Alternative to Wal-Martization?

Hmmm, fancy that, by paying their workers a fair living wage Costco actually saves money by retaining more effecient workers, and not having to constantly recruit, interview, test and train new employees. Nice to see some positive numbers behind the benefits of actually conducting business with integrety and some sense of moral good. Or maybe there's no good intent, but they have figured out a more sustainable business model that benefits the employees as a side effect.

Shirky: Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags

Here we have another strength of links over categories:

When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them. - Zero Effect

That is, often when I am looking for something (a movie to watch, design inspiration) I don't actually know what I'm looking for. So if I'm drilling down deeper into categories, if I made a mistake early on I may just be getting further and further from what I'm looking for. But if I'm following links they may take me on a tangent that leads somewhere with little connection to where I started, but it might just be exactly where I didn't know I wanted to be.

Access Matters - Screen Readers and CSS Layout

"Today’s screen readers speak the content in the order it is written in the HTML."

It's great to have someone who actually has screen readers available verify this. This also means that fangs will be a reasonable approximation of most screenreaders. So the most important thing to consider with regards to standards based layouts and accessibility is source code order and appropriate use of "skip links". That doesn't sound so hard.

Type Directors Club : News : TDC2 2005 Results

While it's true that "Low-density scans cannot do complete justice to the high quality of the printed material." in a few cases they might have tried just a little harder in migrating the material to the web. That aside, what fun to see a fresh new collection of faces, and so varied.

csolyn.com redesign

http://www.csolyn.com/staging/

Having come up with three viable designs, Cybil and I are now stuck in the position of having to pick only one. Could you help by leaving your thoughts in the comments?

Here are the goals of the home page:

1. Give existing clients her schedule at all her locations.
2. Define the term "Skin Fitness Expert" which her PR campaign will be centered around.
3. Answer one of the most frequent questions she gets, "Where else do you work?"

As far as the look&feel are concerned the goal is to be, "more of a personal site than a spa site."

Google Toolbar for Firefox

yup, i couldn't resent using this to blog this. the tabbed browser integration is pretty nice. set the right options and there's no need to hit the new tab button before starting a search (especially since half the time i'm just using google as a spellchecker these days). and speaking of spellchecking, the integrated gmail/blogger style spellchecker is pretty kick ass. cheers. i do believe i'll replace the 3rd party extension with this one.

Skimboarding International - Source for Skimboarding Videos, Pictures and Related Media

fun collection of random movie clips. current highlights include boxing cats, banging stuffed anmials and drowning drivers.

Northern Lite

them germans, never know what they're gonna cook up next.

BBC NEWS | England | London | Eyewitnesses tell of travel hell

At least 33 people have been killed and hundreds injured after a series of explosions on the London Underground network and a bus in central London.

del.icio.us DVD Archive

http://del.icio.us/DevineSolynDVDs

We went through and catalogued all our DVDs while in the process of re-organizing our shelves to make room for inventory rescued from a dying spa. Cybil typed them into Excel, but that didn't let us do anything but alphabetize. I wanted so much more functionality and information: year, plot summaries, director, cast, but most of all tags. I wanted to be able to filter our collection based on the genre of movie that I'm in the mood to watch.

I've actually been thinking about this for a while, trying to decide if I could justify writing a little database app, or if there was something out there already that I could use for this purpose. And there is. By using del.icio.us to bookmark the imdb.com page for each of our movies not only do I automatically have easy access to lots of data on every movie, but I also have the ability to easily tag them all with multiple genres. I can then filter them by one or more tags, and search by title and plot summary.

Next I need to go back through and add tags that I've thought of since finishing the initial input. TV is one. "(TV)" appears in most of the television show titles, but it really needs to be a tag. I'm also thinking of tagging them with directors, producing, and maybe even actors. I've also got a few "Nils" labels, things that I'm often in the mood to watch. These new labels will be "kicking" and "nakedness." I might add some others if I think of it, but violence and nudity usually cover most of my movie watching desires.