As per request, this message is intended to wish Ms. Katy Micek a safe and healthy remaining intership at Goddard Space Flight Thingy. May all of her days be filled with joy, happiness, laughter, sun, CSS, HTML, and fun. Not many weeks left, hang in there sis’!
Additionally, may your teeth not be struck by anything hard enough to break them.
Finally, I hope your recovery is rapid and complete. I look forward to seeing you with all of your pearly whites in place and ready to shine for your Senior year at college! Yay my sister!
I was playing Solitaire for the first time in some time, and it happened to be on WinXP. I love these deck options! And the game isn’t bad either. This deck option is my favorite:
I had to make it a Bitmap, I am sorry Web Standards Gods. Either way, I have no idea why this image matters to me, but it brightened my day. Hope it does the same for yours.
Well, today was the last day in Maryland. Flying back tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it. It was good to visit Katy. But before I re-cap the day, I’d like to note two things. First, I have been counting Nissan Altimas, and there is a disproportionate amount of them on the road here. It is the most strange thing. Every time we go somewhere, let’s say for about 2 miles, I’ll see about 5 to 10 Altimas. Who would have thought? It’s not just the new ones either, there are Altima’s of all model year driving around out here. Plus, no road salt so much less rust. And the other thing worth mentioning, I learned a term called “Kiss and Ride.” It means “drop-off.” See? I didn’t get it either. We were at the Metro terminal and they had a sign pointing to the “Kiss and Ride” area. I guess that’s the terminology for ya. Moooving on. We had a lovely breakfast together and then went to church. It was only 40 minutes long so that was good. We actually got the whole family there. That went well. Then I went with Katy to the University of Maryland College Park and we worked on the websites she’s creating. Nothing like the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer to make a website about. Anyways, we tweaked some CSS and worked with the links. It was successful despite the incredibly old computers that were hooked up to the internet. Why would you have to access the A: drive off of the command line? Those are some serious network administrator restrictions. That’s when I found out that my website looks like crap in IE 5.00something. Crap! I thought it would work reasonably well, but something in the top nav is conflicting with the layout and causing things to actually move around when you roll over the top links. I think IE interprets the nav code as a bastardization of CSS and messes things around accordingly. Perhaps a couple more pixels of space would help the other problem of column’s pushing one another around. After all, my thin right column is stuck at the bottom of the page in that browser. At least the design is standards compatible, as I know from testing in Mozilla and visiting the W3C site. However, I fear my accessibility is not what it could be. Shame on me. Seriously, I just don’t know about this design. Is it original enough? I spent so much time on it, why do I feel like I am fighting with it? Late one night when I couldn’t sleep I did think what that background image up top would be. Obviously since I used the SX-850 colors, I’ll take one of the hi-res E-Bay photos I got and use that for the background - preferably the radio tuning dial which would scale horizontally quite nicely. Off track again. We finished up at the lab and went to Ruby Tuesday’s. It was quite possibly the nicest dinner that we have all shared together in sometime. Which is also true of the vacation. We’ve visited our sites, taken our pictures, eaten out food, lifted our loads, enjoyed our time together, soaked up our sun; now it’s time to resume the rigmarole of daily life. We go back home to pick up the load again, our ability to bear it reinforced by the time and meditation our vacation has given to us. In a way, it’s back to the real world. Tomorrow I have a plan, a schedule, a task-list. This past week I didn’t. Tomorrow I have people to see, chores to finish, orientation to prepare for. Yesterday I didn’t. But still I’ll go to bed now, looking forward to the adventure that is tomorrow.
Well, we went to the Goddard Space Flight visitor center today. It was worth the AAA gem that it got. Saw some videos, saw the Gemini mock-up. Got the work-out done with early in the day. It actually wasn’t the last leg day of the trip - that’s coming up here on Saturday. Anyways. The center, although small, informed us about the various NASA installations throughout the nation. We then went outside and saw some rocket mock-ups which were alright. A little disrepair. Finally, we went to the gift shop and got my dad a birthday present shirt and astronaut ice-cream. Man, that stuff is good. I guess another pretty slow day. That’s mostly because it has been raining. No laying-out-in-the-sun today. I’m peeling anyways, so I might as well take care of it and sit inside. Movie night again tonight. Who knows whats in store. I wanted to order Anger Management on the hotel service thing but it isn’t offered in our area. Fer shame LodgeNet! More tomorrow, which will be the Fourth of July, 2003. Enjoy your fireworks and be safe. Don’t get hurt.
Great day! Got up late, slept well. Then, proceeded to the pool deck and lay under the sun for four hours. Came back to the room, good supper of oatmeal - then watched Anger Management with my family. All in all a very satisfying day. With the notable exception of me burning the crap outta myself. I mean, we’re talking serious redness here. Hopefully things won’t hurt too badly.
Oh man. Went to work out for the last time today. Felt not-as-great-as-it-usually-does. Strange. Came back and ate some Frosted Flakes. They really are grrreat when you’re hungry. That means for breakfast this trip there has been Rice Crispies, Special K, Frosted Flakes, Shredded Mini-Wheats, French Toast, and Oatmeal. Variety is the spice of life. Hmm, after breakfast we all went to Mount Vernon in Virginia, the home of George Washington. It was really fun. I felt like I was gonna pass out (the sunburn caused a fever) but my foot felt great. Then, Katy accidently ordered How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. It was good. It made me think a lot. Now Stuart Little is on. I’m getting my fix of movies for about the next 2 years. Seriously. Regardless, I’ll go try and sleep. Last night I had strange dreams from the burn fever (not joking) and then I ended up sleeping on the floor. I thought about a girl a lot; I didn’t like the dreams I had. Also, I was looking through my archives and realized that on the test site, I’m causing the program to count all entries from a month, regardless of the year. Gotta fix that first thing when I get back. One day left!
Shortly you will see the results of the past 14 days of work on this website. The CSS has been completely overhauled as has the design, and I am in the process (slow and laborious I might add) of converting the inspirations and past updates to be compatible not as much with the new site design but with standards compliant HTML. The site is now fully standards compliant; an accomplishment that will make it work both now and in the future. Thank goodness!
As for the design, there are some things worth noting. The triple colon up top is a nod to Jeffrey Zeldman and is not a blatant act of thievery. Continuing on: I agnoized over whether or not to go fixed width; IE 6.0’s royal screwing upage of the box model (notably its incorrect application of margins) is what finally made me decide that it wasn’t worth the hassle of coming up with some other weird application of the two column float method and I made the columns fixed width as well. Perhaps someday I will change over to a more liquid layout; thankfully the standards compliant frontend and my new-found awareness of uniform tagging will make whatever switch that occurs in the future relatively painless.
Another thing I’d like to share: the colors and in some part the design of this website were inspired by my old Pioneer SX-850. Both a search for a color scheme and my complete satisfaction with this amp made me decide to use these colors. I predict CSS themes will be added in the future; but first I need to make everything on this site work. If you are not seeing the new design now, you will in the next couple of days.
Next, I have not written one formatting tag in this update yet. Thanks to some advice from d. at waferbaby, I decided to use PHP to detec line breaks and spaces and then accurately render them upfront here. This is a great way to do things because the database stores more of what it was meant to: PLAINTEXT. These are realizations I should have come to long ago, but the last version of this website was my first database driven site, and I realize that learning these things by experience takes time.
Therefore, this is alex’s website, version 9.0 beta renamed ajmicek’s. There were, I must add, 8 other versions of this website - honestly! Thus, what you see is truly the product of the evolution of my virtual home online. I look forward to talking to you all through this medium in the years to come.
Friends, relatives, distinguished guests, and the class of 2003:
We are gathered here today to honor the passing on of a time in our lives called “high school.” This ceremony marks its final passing from our lives. Now, we all have had vastly different experiences in high school, but one thing we have all been exposed to is CliffsNotes. Yeeup, CliffsNotes, those handy reader guides that summarize the characters, plot, symbolism, and important details of a book or play. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a guide that you haven’t heard of: the CliffsNotes guide to high school. Please remember, that all CliffsNotes take time to say “Opinions expressed in these Notes aren’t rigid dogma meant to discourage intellectual exploration” and the same is true here; take what you want. This is a summary of high school on its own terms.
Let’s open up and begin at page seven, a quick synopsis of the story. Sophomore year. Students find themselves adjusting to waking up earlier, running to classes, struggling at pep fests, and testing the limits of their underclassmanship. Chaos ensues as everyone gets their license. Most come through the ordeal uninjured and everybody has an agreeable time. Junior year. A year of firsts. First time at prom, first college acceptance, first car accident. Most everyone decides senior year will be like this only more fun. Final year. Everyone looks forward to their future for the entire Senior year until they realize the year is gone. Nobody really knows where the time went. Sentimentality and reminiscing abounds. Final chapter: most everyone graduates and they are then unleashed on the unsuspecting world. So this summary sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, a quick synopsis never did anything justice, so lets look at some other aspects of our high school experience.
Page nine, characters. Our class is full of so many amazing, fine, and talented individuals that there are too many characters to list here. I’m loathe to put names to any character types because we all know so many different astounding individuals. Nevertheless, I know you’ll have somebody in mind when I mention the comedian, the artist, the singer, the actor, the athlete, and the undervalued kid who’s nice to everyone. Take a moment or two to think of who these characters are and how they have affected your time in high school. Although characters appear different to everyone, I believe we all have helped one another make it through. Personally, you have all helped me grow more than I would have thought possible. Therefore, during our three years here, characters in this story have complemented and enhanced each other.
Page 62, similes. High school is like a box of chocolates: an eclectic collection of diverse candy, each with its own merits, crowded into a dark rectangular box. When the box gets opened to the real world, someone gets eaten! Maybe that’s not the best simile. This one might be better: high school is like a marathon, its long, sometimes you want to throw up, you don’t get much sleep, but you learn about yourself and come out stronger in the end. Then there is always this simile: High school fits like your favorite shirt, its comfy, it has a couple of holes, and you like it a lot, but there is a time when you need to throw out your old shirt and get a new wardrobe for a new time in your life. In the end, high school is a lot like a library - you only learn things if you seek them out and put energy into them. Both high school and life are how you imagine them - you create them yourself.
Page 64, symbolism. There is no symbolism in high school.
Page 65 of the CliffsNotes of high school includes lessons learned that can be used for the rest of our lives. Lesson one: Be an optimist: there are too many pessimists, too many naysayers, too many bitter, disgruntled, unhappy people. Nothing makes things work like a positive outlook. Lesson two: hindsight is 20-20; learn from it. Lesson three: Be nice to your future roommate; angry people in close quarters are dangerous. Lesson four: don’t use obscene gestures while you are driving, you look stupid. Lesson five: eat. As Bill Cosby said “I like fat, I like butter, I like salt, I like ice cream, I like cake.” In addition to a resounding “eat”, he was telling us to embrace life, to enjoy ourselves, and to sometimes throw caution to the wind. High school lesson six: reach out to people around you. Remember that awkward situation where you were walking down the hall at Woodbury and there was someone far off and you thought “Oh no, we’re gonna have to stare at each other forever as we get closer and closer.” And you walked along thinking “they’re getting closer”. And you looked away, and then looked at them again, looked away acting as if you didn’t see them - it was no good. In high school, we learned that its best to just yell to that person “Hey, looks like we’re in the same hall, nice to see you around.” And suddenly, the ice is broken and the awkwardness evaporates. We learned to reach out. Lesson seven: value the simple things. Savor every sunrise and sunset. Find your favorite flavor of toothpaste and stick with it. Realize that if you don’t value the simple things, you won’t be able to value anything. Final lesson: love one another. It isn’t idealistic or ridiculous, its pragmatic, its necessary to succeed in life. That is the most important lesson.
Here the CliffsNotes end. Why? Because this book, the book of high school, is over. The notes about it are dog-eared, careworn, written all over, and bulging with our own experiences. They have served their purpose. There is no final test on high school except life. Many people would say [flatly] “This isn’t the end it’s a new beginning” but that sounds so rehearsed, so cliche. It is true, but there is a better way to say it: we had some great times, made some wonderful memories, and its time to leave our old stomping grounds and expand our sphere to something more wordly. Winston Churchill had the most wonderful commencement address I have ever heard of. He got up to the podium and said “Never, ever, ever, give up.” And that is all he said. It is a wonderfully simple but challenging message, encouraging all those listening to just keep at it. I wish I had thought of it. Regardless, I would like to leave you all with a different quote with a similar message. It tells us all that deciding to do something is the toughest part, that once you decide on something, things start to inexplicably go your way. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “…the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents … and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” Class of 2003, be bold and live your lives with purpose as you go out into the world. Don’t forget your CliffsNotes. Remember all that high school has taught you. It has been a privilege, an honor, and simply wonderful experience to grow with you all. Thank you.
1.) Learn CSS and implement.
2.) While doing this, finish color scheme work, and decorative images. Nav bar will be text - the best dang text you have ever seen! Also, need to track down and re-familiarize myself with my database. We have not kept in touch.
3.) Use the text-align: justify; for CSS paragraph stuff so things look more neat.
4.) Simplify, simplify, simplify.
5.) Keep sections inspiration, log, quotes, & pictures. Put the pictures section on hold for now because I need to figure out a better way to manage pictures. Thus, make the pictures backend not-suck.
6.) Be compliant with webstandards for the first time ever. Thank you Mr. Zeldman for inspiring me - I just might purchase your book.
7.) Eliminate messy CSS hacks that push away from the purpose of organization based on content prioritization tags such as the “paragraphquote” div class I am using right now.
8.) Pat myself on the back for using mySQL and PHP. You rock Justin!
9.) Re-write the admin file.
But before all this swings into high gear I suppose I should find a job, but before that I need to finish this speech and make it good because guess what, Alex needs to address his Senior class. It has been fun!
Jckirby82: the ice cream bucket is calling my name
Jckirby82: JJJooooohhhnnnn, Joooohhhnnn, come eat me damnit!!!
Jckirby82: im getting to ur weirdness.. lol.. if that makes any sense
Jckirby82: it probably should cuz
Jckirby82: we weird ones must unite
Jckirby82: under one chat box
Jckirby82: excuse my rather disturbed nature
Jckirby82: mental nature that is
Jckirby82: ok
Jckirby82: i need ice cream
Jckirby82: i’ll be back
drogetserp: bill and ted’s excellent adventure was on today
Bt saber: aha!
drogetserp: totally excellent!
drogetserp: music plays
drogetserp: matt’s head bangs
Bt saber: hmmm
Bt saber: not good for matt’s head
Bt saber: you will fall over when you see my paper bag tomorrow
drogetserp: it’s that bad?
drogetserp: lol
jrcorps2: i love living on a hill
jrcorps2: everything hits me
Bt saber: like wind
Bt saber: rain
Bt saber: cows
Bt saber: trucks
Bt saber: trains
Bt saber: trees
jrcorps2: COWS
Bt saber: know what?
jrcorps2: i should go watch TWISTER
jrcorps2: see flying cows
jrcorps2: “we have cows”
jrcorps2: no i dont know what
jrcorps2: never have
jrcorps2: never will
Bt saber: cows backwards spells the sound they makes “Swoc!”
jrcorps2: SWOC
jrcorps2: MOO
jrcorps2: wait a secon
jrcorps2: cows go moo
jrcorps2: not SWOC
jrcorps2: unless they are flying
jrcorps2: in which case
jrcorps2: they may go SWOC
This is the most exciting thing that has happened here in some time. Wow! Take a look at the Goolge Page Rank on this site! Go here: Google and search for ‘alex’s website’ -> we’re ranked second! Thanks to all of you out there for making this thing run! I’m inspired to update more now wow.
Hi there all. I would like your opinion. I’ve been working on this prelim design for sometime so here’s an example:
Logos?
I really would appreciate your feedback. I mean, I’ll probably ending up doing something completely different - but if you imagination is sparked by all means please tell me. Cya around.
