More changes.

June 2, 2003, by No comments yet

I’ve transferred this to a template I got off the net, but it’s written in CSS rather than pure HTML like the last one, so I’m a bit at sea trying to tweak the code to get rid of the lines above each interactive link on the right-hand menus. I can get it to work for certain links and not for others, but I don’t know how I did it…the code looks the same for lined and unlined links on my template. It’s maddening. But it is a gorgeous interface, much more subtle than the last one I came up with. (I still want to learn HTML, though, so I can design my own site from scratch and change it when the mood hits me…like when I need to practice creative avoidance.)

I also managed to relocate this onto my free server space to get rid of that Blogspot banner ad on the top. The difficult there mainly involved downloading and learning to use Fetch, and once I fumbled my way through the instructions and accomplished my first upload to my site’s new home I figured it out. Read on, Macduff…

Baby steps.

May 31, 2003, by No comments yet

I’ve now added some links–choosing which is the hardest part–and changed font size, style and color. I think the result is a little more readable and easier on the eyes. (I’m having WAY too much fun with this.)

Three fox kits decided to come by and play beyond our patio doors yesterday. They were teenage foxes, not quite full-grown, lanky and awkward, but unlike real teens totally unselfconscious. They acted like teens at a mall, too, getting in each other’s way, separating and then running to catch up, stopping to check things out or grab a bite to eat (in this case, a mouse), and finally vanishing into the woods up the hill.

I hope they stay off the streets and out of trouble.

I’m going to search for more bells and whistles for this site, and maybe attempt putting together a home page later this week. If things work out I may include a link to this site, as well. Or maybe not–there are advantages to anonymity.

Oops.

May 30, 2003, by No comments yet

File this under “And you want to do WHAT for a living?“

My Significant Other just pointed out that I had misspelled the title of my blog. I’ve corrected it. Oh the humiliation….

(…just had to run and doublecheck the spelling of ‘misspelled.’ One can never be too careful.)

Dumpster chic!

September 20, 2002, by No comments yet

Although the days when I was a svelte 110 pounds are long gone, I still like to read the fashion magazines while I stand in line at the grocery checkout, and imagine what new styles I would wear if I still had the body to carry them off.

So I had to laugh when I read about the latest in fall fashions.

The fashionistas, in an apparent belated nod to the 9/11 disasters, are selling the idea of a “sartorial safety net,” according to Globe fashion maven Tina Cassidy. The new trend is to dress as if your dotcom fortune tanked and terrorists destroyed your apartment, and you had to make do with stuff from the attic and the nearest Salvation Army bin. Clothes as camoflage. The brittle, all-in-black-all-the-time “Sex in the City” look is out. Logo-splashed accessories are out. “I have more money than God” separates made from the collected silk of endangered spiders handwoven by indigenous artisans dwelling in photogenic mountain ranges are out. Intimidation is out. Comfort (physical and spiritual) is in.
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Of jerks and knee-jerks

February 19, 2002, by No comments yet

I’ve been thinking a lot about Thomas Junta lately.

He’s the hockey dad who was recently convicted of beating another hockey dad to death in full view of a rink full of horrified kids, including his own and that of his victim, Michael Costin.

Mr. Junta is a man that some reporters described as “hulking,” a 270-pound truck driver with a jutting jaw and, by all accounts, a serious anger-management problem. Is anyone out there surprised to hear that this so-called “gentle giant” had a record of arrests for previous assaults? That Junta’s own wife had sought a restraining order after he struck her in front of their kids?

Mr. Junta described the altercation that led to Mr. Costin’s death as “a stupid guy thing” that simply got out of hand. His attorney characterized Junta’s actions as self-defense. The prosecution scoffed at this description, noting the testimony of witnesses that placed Mr. Junta at the end of the fight sitting atop Mr. Costin’s chest, slamming his opponent’s head against the concrete rink floor, while bystanders screamed at him to stop.

How does a shouting match escalate into violence and death? How could anyone lose control that completely over something so trivial?

I was mulling this over as I drove home the other day. It was snowing and it looked like it was going to be a fairly substantial accumulation. The wind whipped huge white flakes around my windshield. I was more than a little anxious; our house is at the top of a continuous two-mile incline that rapidly becomes too slick to negotiate in icy weather.
Continued…

All things must pass.

December 3, 2001, by No comments yet

I woke up late on Friday morning, so I had to race out the door without turning on the radio, which is why I didn’t hear about George Harrison’s passing until I was halfway to class. It was hard to pay attention to the road after that. Maybe it was late-semester stress or sleep deprivation, but the news hit me hard. It helped that almost every station on my car radio, including NPR, played his music in tribute. It was both painful and comforting to be reminded in such a direct way of whom we’d lost.

I remember the night when the Beatles made their network TV debut. I came to school that morning to find everyone in the playground buzzing about that new singing group from England. Only I didn’t know that it was a singing group – no one bothered to mention that part to me, so for most of that morning I wondered why Ed Sullivan would want to show a bunch of insects on his show.
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