It’s really sad how I can get extremely excited about tiny little things.

See, while I’m a geek, I’m still very much a Linux n00b … so finally getting a cronjob set up to update my Feed on Feeds install, well, I get more excited than I should.

What can I say? I’m a geek, and the small victories over recalcitrant stupidity excite me.

You gotta love the first day with new shoes—sore feet, sore ankles, and general confusion from your body.

It’s even more amusing when you’re like me and don’t buy many pairs of shoes. What’s the point? I can only wear one pair of them at a time.

As I was buying shoes last night—my old boots had finally seen their last good days; yes, nerd herd, the really funky-smelling boots are dead—I realized that I only owned two pair of good shoes that I’d wear in public, counting my Birkenstocks. The pair of saddle oxfords that I have are more than a bit worn, largely thanks to my mother’s dog. With the aforementioned boots deader than a doornail, the only shoes I really liked that looked good were … sandals.

Of course, they are the most expensive pair of shoes that I’ve ever owned, seeing as I was willing to dump a goodly portion of last year’s tax refund on a really nice pair of Birks. I’ve not regretted that purchase an iota, because those things are unbelievably comfortable. However, they aren’t very useful at work.

With that in mind, I went shoe-shopping solo for the second time in my life and came home with … a pair of steel-toed, s**t-kicking work boots.

Don’t mess with me. I’ll kick you in the head.

Peter and I were just talking about RMFO-Blogs, since I just finished working up a layout for Trey. He asked if I was happy that I’d started the project, and I replied that I certainly am. I enjoy getting people to write. Some people are going to be bad Webloggers, and frankly, that’s okay.

I would actually consider myself to be a bad Weblogger. There is very little focus to what you read here and on my biolog. The latter is more focused than this site is, primarily because I try to focus on longer work there. [Of course, given my writing trends of late, I'm finding myself wanting to put a halt to everything, go through all 1400+ entries, re-sort everything, and start over. On the day that I have that much free time, I should be shot on sight.]

That said …

Me: I typically suck, and I break the doldrums with something worthwhile every once in a while
Me: But I write for me, not for my audience, really.
Peter: Yeah, yours is different that way
Peter: it almost seems like a personal archive, of sorts

That’s exactly what my sites are for me—a way to remember.

I just let you read. Why? Maybe I’ll find something that interests you. [If I find a lot of stuff that interests you, we need to talk ... you're clearly deranged, and I need to be the one to tell you that.]

I’ll keep on keeping on … maybe this is what some folks meant by being more accessible …

The old saw goes that there are two certainties in life: death and taxes.

My retort usually went, “The third certainty is that I’ll never file my taxes before April 1.”

I’ve actually done my federal income tax filing by using TeleFile here today. I’ll do my state returns tonight after dropping by the Post Office to get the form [and drop some stuff off to be mailed, too].

This is progress; the last few years, I’ve filed on 4/15 or 4/14. I assume this will be the last year that I file my own taxes; next year, especially if I have bought a house, I’ll pay someone else to do it.

Dunstan uses Javascript to sniff for browser width, take scope of the browser’s window dimensions, check for the amount of screenspace, and determine whether to use a one-column list [with the width of the list items allowed to flow across the width of the parent container] or a two-column list [with the width of the list items fixed to allow the columns to float nicely].

I can think of some interesting tangential applications to that. If you got really anal about this and had a few design elements that you wanted to appear one way in a large browser window but another way in a smaller one, you could certainly do it. Differentiation by browser screenspace may not be easy, but it’s slick.

[Dunstan has since updated the script based upon reader input ... and once again for good measure.]

1. I find out that my brother is now engaged via his Weblog.
2. I find out that my friend Jeremy is engaged via IM.

Both of these things are wonderful.

They are also amusing.

[Actually, I found out about Doug's engagement from my grandmother when I talked to her this morning. Secondhand. I feel like elbowing Doug in the ribs a couple times. :lol:]

Last night, I was told that my writing, of late, had become more “accessible” to the crowd of folks I was near.

:scratches chin: Really? I hadn’t noticed a difference.

Perhaps y’all who feel this way can give me some greater feedback. I started to ask for it last night, but we all know that trying to have one coherent conversation in that large of a crowd of us is well nigh impossible.

Those seeking to participate in online debate should read Charles’s Rules of Argument.

I used to violate every single one of these … often. I probably still do so from time to time. That’s probably my time in student government coming home to roost—I would restate my point after rebutting every question. I know it drove people nuts. Heck, it drove me nuts. It also won me a lot of debates back in the time when debate-winning in SGA was very important to me and, I altruistically believe, to the student body.

That said, this is why I tend to shy away from doctrinal discourse online. Most people hold their religious doctrines so close to the vest that assailing the doctrine ends up assailing the believer. Some say that attacking what you consider to be false doctrine is good—”iron sharpening iron”—and while I might agree, I’m not out to make folks cry.

Not anymore, anyway.