A Day In My Life

Nope, I haven’t fallen off the planet. I’ve been updating other blogs, and working on HC, and doing a few other things to clear items off my to-do list. After staring at it for two or three weeks, I’ve finally decided to start working on making categories for this blog, since it’s the largest I have. Major changes seem to occur here first; the other blogs sometimes get the same changes later. I’m not sure why I do it this way; maybe it’s because, once the change occurs here, it feels official. It would probably be easier to implement changes on the other blogs first….but I prefer doing it this way.) I opened my tutorial and put the actual steps for creating categories on my to-do list for easy reference (with the tutorial still availabe for detailed help in another file). I’ve begun the process by going back to put tags on my old posts, so at least I’ve got a start. It’s one of those times when a project just looks too huge and complicated to ever complete; cutting it into manageable steps has seemed to help, if only to get me moving on it.

For the past few days, I’ve been assisting Doug with The Handicapped Computerist. I’ve tweaked the template and helped with editing. I must say, it’s a bit different than working on my own blogs; the sense of responsibility is different, if something doesn’t work right. Once again Blogger Forum has been an invaluable resource. If you haven’t yet checked out HC, please pop over and have a look, and leave a comment or e mail us with questions.

This week has been crazy, and I have to go to work in a few minutes, so I’ll post more later.

Jay was on his way to pick me up from work today. As he was about to pull the car out of our parking space at home, a woman driving a truck was across the parking lot, and pulled her vehicle out without checking behind her for other vehicles. The truck bumped into our car, denting the fender. Thank goodness she’s insured. We have insurance, so we’re going to be ok, but it was stupid. Jay is irate, but unhurt. Just about the last thing I needed.

Part of the fun of blogging, for me, is sharing. I have shared tips and information with other bloggers, and have gotten assistance from some, as well. A case in point is my favicon. I got this tip from Kate’s tutorial, and was able to impliment it with an assist from Blogger Forum and D-Drive (which is fast becoming indispensable).

THe Favicon is simple to use, and it is an attractive way to help your blog or website stand out in a list of bookmarks or tabs full of those little blue ‘e’s that Microsoft is so fond of putting on links. You can also use the same Favicon on more than one site, as I have done for some of my blogs. This helps increase recognition on the part of readers.

It’s been quite a week. I’ve begun keeping a to-do list on my desktop to help me make the most of the time I have to tinker with the computer, my blogs and other projects on weekends. It’s satisfying to be able to tick the old items off and yes, even add new ones. This is something I usually do a few minutes per day throughout the week, with a final recap on Friday to ensure that anything I’ve overlooked gets included. Since I’ve always been fairly good at staying organized, this in not a difficult routine.

I have the template up, and pictures of Dylan are posted. Now, I just have a few score more photos to upload. I’m not hosting these on Blogger because there are so many. It feels wonderful to have launched this project; it’s one I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I was speaking with a friend of mine yesterday and happened to mention my blogging. He has decided to do a blog also, and it’s going to be full of good information. Drop by to visit Doug if you have a chance. He is very knowledgeable about many facets of computing, and has a wonderful sense of humor as well.

A wonderful online, octogenarian friend of mine named Flo posted this list and gave me permission to borrow it. Thanks, Flo!

Engineers’ Most Interesting Findings
Conversion Factors for your Digestion:

1. Ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2. 2000 pounds of Chinese Soup = Won ton

3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

5. Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

6. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong

As you can see, my bit of tweaking was highly successful! What I did was to use Compactible Headers Script from Dynamic Drive to condense my sidebar content into clickable headings. Most everything that was in the sidebars before is still present; it’s just tucked out of the way. I love the feeling of having elbow room. Now, I just need to resolve an issue with my G Mail Button, and I’ll be in clover.

Yeah, I know…so what else is new??? I will be working on my sidebar content for the next day or two…but the results will be worth it. Please bear with me, and don’t forget to wear a hard hat to protect yourself from falling links! I’ll post more about this tweak when I’m finished.

It’s official. Work on my Firefox blog is underway. Rather than having a mishmash of tips and all sorts of information with no real design behind it as was true with my first effort, I decided to do what I did in college when I was faced with any major assignment: Make a plan, an outline. That single decision has already begun to bear fruit. I opened my trusty NoteTab Pro, and made a list. Just a list of what I wanted to include in the sidebars, and in what order the items would appear. I put the list away when I had finished that piece. I took it out again later, and decided as long as I now had my sidebar planned, I could just code a few of the links in. Then I listed my favorite extensions. Ooops. Wouldn’t you know, the list of extensions became longer…and longer. To help keep things cleaner and save space in the sidebar, I decided I needed to detour to find a way to make a drop down menu for the list. I was able to do that on my own, much to my surprise, thanks to this site that helped me by autogenerating the code. I also listed topics I want to explore. It’s going to be a treat to work on this project. Just as I found it to be true in college that with a thorough outline, a major paper almost wrote itself, so will the lists I have made help me with this new Firefox project.