Normal America

Ugh, it took me from around 10pm to 2am but, I have installed Moveable Type. You know for those that say this whole process is easy, WHATEVER. Ok, ok, one or two of the mistakes were pretty simple. So yeah I am tired I'd figure I'd make this the first post. I am gonna try to change the header soon, and replace it with the Normal America image. Ok, tired I am.

I will probably post something tommorrow. Hasta

This is a test

Ok so it's around 9:10 am and I am a little more rested (though I can tell you groggy I was this morning around 8am). Right now I am trying to figure out how to change templates on this thing. I am guessing that with Moveable type, they just give you one basic template with the free version of it, otherwise I got no clue where you can switch templates in this thing. If anybody is even reading this, and has any clue on how to change up the templates, comment on here and let me know.

Ok, well I tried to install the StyleCatcher plugin, and all I gotta say is the heck with that. The installation instructions on it sucked and pretty much after a point your just doing a whole trial and error thing, I might go back to trying to using StyleCatcher later but, that's iffy. I think I am just gonna have to create my own templates which I guess means I am gonna have to learn some CSS, I knew I was gonna have to know it sometime, so I guess that time is now. Well at the very least I got the site updated with Moveable Type. It's not as artistic as the old site but, I figure, give it awhile and maybe as time goes on that'll change. Well lunch hour so hasta.

Let's try this again

Well I sketched out a design or two for the comicoverload.com site. So far it looks pretty good. I will probably start actually building it this weekend. None of it will be up officially though until I get the cash for hosting, although I think the web hosting company I am with currently will upgrade their systems to fit what I need, and enable me not to have to pay more for the hosting of another site. Right now it's all kinda preliminary. In truth I need to get the colors right, and get a couple of comic geeks' opinion on which site design is better looking.

Ok so awhile back you may have noticed the webcam module I added to this site, and the whole, " Webcam 1" caption. Well you can't really have Webcam 1 unless you have a Webcam 2, otherwise why even call it that. Pretty much I am gonna set up a second webcam here in a couple of weeks. Webcam 2, I was originally thinking of installing here at work but, there are WAY to many possible issues that could come up and policy wise it just doesn't seem all that safe or smart. I pretty much know where I want to install the other webcam in my apartment but, the issue comes in running wires for it to get connected to the internet. I think I might have it figured out, using some wireless technology. I'll probably have it on for a couple of weeks and then shut it off, if only to test it out and what I can do with it via the web & my webhosting. As far as comicoverload.com is going I have had the sketches done for awhile now, I just need to take the time to recreate them in Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, add some color and get a sort of real, web representation, of what I want the actual site to look like. I am not gonna put a time frame on it though. Webcams are easy to set up, websites take time, sometimes. I really wanna put some cool flash effects on comicoverload but, I am struggling with whether or not I should. One of the key things in building websites is compatiability, and believe it or not, not everybody has Macromedia Flash Player plug-ins for their browsers. Also certain flash animations might slow down load times, which is even more important. Anything that takes longer then 3 or 4 seconds to come up as a webpage, a normal user won't look at. Websurfers have little patience when it comes to webpage loading, and I can agree with this being a websurfer.3 or 4 seconds seem like minutes in "web time".

Ok so I have been mentioning comicoverload.com a lot but, what is it? Essentially its gonna be a repository of scanned images/reviews/thoughts/etc. about comics. I tend to forget some comic stuff sometimes and it'd just be a good way for me to keep track of things. About Heroes does sorta the same thing, though they include toys in the mix. Also at About Heroes they are very analytical in their reviews to where I just am overly blunt with little analysis, aka I write somewhat simplistic reviews, a good way to think of it, is if the Incredible Hulk wrote a comic review. "HULK LIKE ACTION COMICS ISSUE. IT GOOD. COLORS PRETTY. SUPERMAN SMASH STUFF. GOOD"....ok maybe not that simplistic but, you get the idea. Well I better wrap this up but, that's what's going on for now.

Started working on that other website at around 5pm. The site thus far isn't looking too bad, I am gonna have to dig a little deeper in trying to understand CSS to figure out how to create txt boxes that'll have the background img, show through, sort of a semi-transparent box storing the text. So far there are about 3 or so ways to do it but, they are a bit involved, I am gonna see if I can find a simplier solution before I go to those other solutions. Haven't been updating this site too much, and to be honest until I figure all of this CSS out well, there probably won't be a whole lot of site updates to here for awhile. I am gonna try to get some books ordered down at the library on CSS, then check them out, try to get read up on whatever I can't find via the web. If anybody knows of any good tutorial sites for those beginning to work in CSS let me know. Well it's getting late and I gotta get up for work tommorrow, hasta.

I have come to the conclusion that the Firefox internet browser rules and the Internet Explorer browser blows. Mind you Firefox isn't without an issue or two (i.e plug-ins) but, design wise it actually understands the code better then Internet Explorer. This website is best viewed with Firefox. In short if you haven't started using Firefox yet, click on the Get Firefox link I have near the upper-right corner there and download that sucker. Ditch IE, what good has it done you lately...other then maybe crashing. To put a Firefox button on your site go to:

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates/homepage

Got a part-time job in edition to my full-time job, so updates are gonna be even less for the next month or two. The part-time job will mostly be nights and weekends, really I just got it for a lot of financial reasons (pay off car quicker, be able to buy computer books/hardware/software/hosting/etc.).

Eventually when I get enough money from my part-time job the first thing I am buying is a new laptop. The laptop I just need for practical reasons, as my old one is pretty kaputt as is...I mean when you can't actually run it decently with or without a battery that's a problem. Still debating about what type of laptop to get though as it is so far the contenders are: Dell, Alienware, and Apple. Normally I would never consider getting an Apple laptop but, for what I need a laptop for an Apple would be fine, plus with the recent innovation of the BootCamp project, if worse came to worse I could always run Windows on a Macbook.

So that's what pretty much is going on at the moment, not a whole lot else to report. Oh if you see X-Men: The Last Stand stay till the very end of the credits....NOT just to the Magneto scene.

So not much has happened really. I have been working my butt off with both my full-time & part-time job. I never thought I could spend five hours straight pulling stuff up to the edge of shelves. Apparently "fronting" merchandise is an art not to be taken likely, lol. Last night really wasn't too bad despite working till 11pm. I am still gonna look for a better part-time job, 30 hrs a week is just too much when I could work 16 hrs elsewhere and likely get the same amount of pay, who knows, I guess whatever happens, happens. Trying to write down a couple of ideas, and thoughts for new CSS designs. I have been reading some stuff on the net and in a book or two, it's still not enough for my taste. I want a book where a person just builds a CSS website from the ground up. They draw out a concept for the site then go, ok here's how to do it; something like that. Been trying to read Prestige when I can, so far it's starting out alright, though mind you I haven't even finished Chapter 1 yet. Finished the Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore, last week, if you haven't had a chance and you like the occasional comic book, read it. Alan Moore is just one of those authors that is hard to peg down. I am not gonna say V for Vendetta was great nor will I say it was horrible it was in that weird purgatory of sorts, it's not bad or great it's so so. The Watchmen was better then V for Vendetta, that I can say for sure, though the ending was a tad bittersweet; I won't spoil the ending though. Well that's about all for now, like I said site updates are gonna be in small amounts, least til I manage my time a little better and get a little more motivated with certain things. Hasta

For the next couple of months web updates are gonna be even sparser then usual, there are alot of reasons for this, most of which I can't get into right now, needless to say, the site will still be up and everyonce and awhile you might see it change in appearance. Tell then hasta.

Ok so I upgraded to MT 3.3 and but, of course some things got changed around. Tommorrow if I have time I will work on putting some of the code back to the way it was, (javascript effects will work, modules will be added back in, etc.) So far this new upgrade, I don't notice any real changes, other then the fact that the user interface on the admin side looks a little bit different.

EDIT: Wow, I just tried using StyleCatcher and apparently it works now, SWEET.

Ok, so I got the site modules back to kinda where they were before. The javascript drop down effect seems to be working fine on the main page, it's just when you get into the archives that it seems to break down, same is true for the lightbox app. I know it has something to do with the file pathways, otherwise the scripts would be working fine. Really liking this new template style I have up, I will probably tweak it later on, maybe mess with some of the images.

UPDATE: Ok, ok, yeah I know the site is starting to look a bit cluttered, right now I am just playing around with some different MT plug-ins. When I get home I am gonna try and see if I can find a way to compact everything a little better, maybe attaching the drop down javascript effect to the arrow image in each module header, I don't know, right now it's just a thought.

So apparently I am at the top of Google's search for "normalamerica" or normal america. Oh yeah that's right I'm bad. In general it doesn't mean much cause how many people are gonna type in normal america in their google searches; not many. Still I think it's neat I am at the top. Still trying to weasel my way into a VOX invite code...what? It could happen. So lets see what's the blog count up to three blogs so far (I don't count myspace, blegh).

So here's what I have updated....the Recent Posts module. Basically before, the Recent Posts module to the right wasn't working right and was referencing posts for almost a month or ago, so I fixed it. Lately I have been getting a lot of spam comments, apparently I didn't have something set up, and they were getting posted to the site; after looking around in the setting some though, I figured out how to turn back on the approve comments function, so in short if you comment and don't see it right away it's because I haven't looked at my email just yet and approved the comments. This is kind of a pain in the butt for people that like immediate commenting/posting but, it's either this or I allow all comments which basically means spam as well.

A neat little program I found while surfing the web is something called AM-DeadLink, now for those that don't have a lot of bookmarks this is kind of useless for you but, for the rest of us that have over 10 (I have 203) this little tool checks all the bookmarks for you letting you know which links can no longer be accessed. It's really handy if you got a lot of bookmarks so, if you do, check it out.

AM-DeadLink

http://www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm