this entry looks cool in NS 4.7 (but it might not validate)

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On February 12, 2001

In Tech

By request: So you want a website? There are tons of ways to get started. Resources include everything from free server space on GeoCities and numerous others, with pre-coded templates (useful for beginners — little to no HTML!), to WebReference and WDVL and c|net’s Builder.com, to… well, you get the point.

As most people probably did (?), I started learning HTML by simply looking at existing code and mimicking it; and then learned by doing, by example, by asking, and using various reference materials like the ones above (though, for the record, I only used GeoCities for the space, and that was long before Yahoo! bought them out). [I can hardly believe that link is still good. – gohlkus, 2/21/07 … and again 8/4/10!]

* * *

From the former news section: I took a few days off of gohlkusmaximus. I needed to—I was obsessed for about 3 days with simply getting it to a point I felt okay about uploading.

I actually told someone about this site—hi, Matthew—who asked for the aforementioned HTML reference links.

Back to work—I’m redesigning a rather popular on-line application (the Recreation Compass) right now—I think it’s turning out pretty well. I’ll post a link when it’s available, and it’ll probably end up in the portfolio.

Anyone know what the laws are on using work that belongs to an employer (present or otherwise) in your portfolio? Most people do it, so I assume it’s okay, but it’s worth checking. Contact me if you know for sure.

Know what else? Netscape 4.72 for Windows sucks. [Ed. To be fair, so do many other earlier and later versions of Netscape and IE. In fact, all browsers suck. There. I’ve said it.] I had to put line breaks before all my <p> tags to get the default paragraph style to work. Seems that, for some reason, if you butt a </p> right up next to a <p> (as I do when I’m handcoding and it’s not for work), it makes the text size of the second paragraph 75% of the size of the previous paragraph’s text, not of the default text size. This translates to “bad.”

This is an example of the “diminishing returns” effect…

…if you have an old version of Netscape…

I’M SHRINKING!

The above 3 paragraphs look much more dramatic in Netscape 4.something.

Whew, much better. If you don’t know HTML, sorry about that little rant. It makes me feel better to get it out.

The Big Launch

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On February 8, 2001

In anti-blog

This is it—the first day of the rest of my anti-blog. The Big Launch.

The truth is that this so-called “anti-blog” is a completely designed-and-produced-by-hand weblog with a catchy name (on the order of antihero, Anti-Counter, etc.). Read the rationale behind it.

Incidentally, this blog is an Aquarius.

And I’d forgotten completely about this kind of stuff.

a cautionary tale

By

On February 7, 2001

In Life, Minnesota

I fell on the ice today walking from the $17/mo “Blue Lot” to the DNR building. The building I fell in front of is rumored to be owned by the 3M Corporation, but may be currently for sale to the county (who plans to office cops there, I am told). The results:

  • 5 nasty cuts and one blood blister on my hands, including two on the tips of my touch-typist’s (now “ouch-typist’s”) fingers.
  • A sore shoulder, and wounded pride.
  • An hour and a half of nearly fruitless phone calling (and being forwarded, of course). I gave up in disgust when the 10th person I talked to gave me someone else’s number to call in her office. I still have a couple leads.
  • Extra driving to an after-hours clinic in St. Paul during a stressful snowstorm.
  • A tetanus shot in the already sore shoulder.
  • Most importantly, something to put in this spot on the website.

My advice, based on today’s events: Don’t slip on the ice, but if you do, make sure you’re wearing your gloves.

I think I hate Google

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On December 11, 2000

In anti-blog

Okay, I think I hate Google. It’s too good.

For example: today is my first ex-girlfriend’s 25th birthday. It happened to occur to me to put her name into Google. Sure enough, there were pictures and stuff that brought back all kinds of buried memories. Uncomfortable. Worse, Google somehow got a hold of some stuff I wrote in 1996 I completely forgot about. Overall, not too shameful, but not fun, either. It’s my fault for searching, I admit, but their fault for finding too much.

beginnings are a struggle

By

On December 4, 2000

In anti-blog

A quick entry as I struggle to get this thing started. I spent a couple hours on Atom Films today. It offers independent short films and, though heavy on the bandwidth, it’s fun to watch and submit critiques—instant gratification all around! [My friend Will, a filmmaker himself, says it sucks, though, and you should go to ifilm instead. I’ve never been there though.]

first post

By

On November 22, 2000

In anti-blog

I am starting a weblog. Today. As of this very moment, 3 pm on Wednesday, November 22, Year 2000. Why? I think it could be useful.

I’m unhappy this week about the almost total decline of my intellectual development. It’s up to me to do something about it, and I think starting this will help me whip my mind back into fighting shape.

I want to experience more good, contemporary design. If I’m going to claim to be a “designer,” I must pull myself out of the muck of mediocrity. Most state websites—the system in which I currently toil—strike me as the worst of the web circa 1996. For the record, I now work at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR). The current web site is an artifact of the previous regime. My stated goal is to redesign it by November 2001.

My hope is that, if I surround myself with excellence, or at least stuff that impresses me somehow, my ability to design will improve. Stuff that makes me say “Wow — I wish I’d done that.”

Not to mention really nice stuff that friends from college have done. Pinkey Suthers has been my favorite comic for years, and “Dr. Agonize” (clever pun!) taught me almost everything I knew about the web before I worked at HBG.

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