Blog

A theme you hear is how parents want to make sure their kids have all the things they didn’t. I don’t get that. I had everything; my parents gave us lots of toys and good food and everything. Maybe it was being a child of the 70s/80s, when things were pretty plentiful.

Today I was proud to see my kid Grif riding his bike with his helmet on, while his friends went bare-brained. Growing up, I never wore a helmet, and I rode my bike everywhere. Most of what my kids have I had too, but at least they’re a little wiser.

I’ve taught Web Design for many years now. I started out teaching students how to use the now defunct Adobe GoLive. I realized quickly that wysiwyg editors such as GoLive and Dreamweaver were effectively bad ways to teach students how to build websites, and moved into html and css.

I”m seeing a new trend in web design that may make me rethink how I teach it. It seems that the big open source CMS packages, drupal and wordpress, are taking over high-end website design. If your site isn’t built on one of these two platforms (OK, maybe there are one or two others), it ain’t cutting edge.

This summer I’m undertaking two major site designs, one in drupal and one in wordpress. The drupal one is finished: http://www.msja.org (assuming they’ve launched it). The wordpress one is under construction.

My hope is to gain a deeper understanding of how to build within these two environments, and begin to shift the focus of my classes from building sites from scratch, to starting with basic CMS templates. This fall, I’m teaching Intro to Web Design again, and my summer projects will definitely bear some weight on the material.

The size of a pixel is relative to its output device, aka screen resolution.

Some screens are 72 dpi. Some are 300 dpi. So if you specify your font size to be 12px, it should rightly appear legible on the 72 dpi screen, and tiny on the 300 dpi screen.

Instead, use point, or pt. A point is 1/72 of an inch. 12pt will appear legible on any screen, regardless of its dpi.

I’ll post my favorite quick and easy recipes as I think of them.

I’ve had enough with long winded, 3 dozen ingredient jpbs-I never make them right. Either I’m too lazy or not a very talented cook (probably co-dependent factors there), but I’ve wasted too much time and money on busted meals.

This one is easy as pie and it passes the kid test:

• 1 Pizza pie crust, dough ball, whatever you like form the grocery store
• 1lb Boneless Chicken Breast, cut up as you like and sauteed till done in a little olive oil/butter concoction
• Frank’s Red Hot
• Blue Cheese Dressing (I like Ken’s: http://www.kensfoods.com/kf/products/productView.servlet?consumerProductId=27)

Throw the ingredients on the pie crust to taste (maybe cut the franks with tomato paste or something for something milder), and bake at preheated 425ºf oven for 15-20 minutes.

Quick summary of the trip:

The conference:

The location:

Weather: was awesome

Family: Loved seeing my Mom, Dad, Clare and Bob, walking around and learning the neighborhood

The Barnes Museum was too crowded. But this made it all ok.

Food: Spice End was the best thing I ate on the trip. Second best was Tir Na Nog because it was pretty good and my folks were there. Woulda been first except for the Papyrus logo. Worst was the disappointing cheese steak at some place I can’t remember. I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t know how you could possibly beat Jim’s Steakout’s Diablo.

Travel: American Airlines came through nicely  My first experience with Uber was bad. I downloaded the app and had to put in my CC info. Being a typical traveler, screw that wallet noise. Especially after seeing a 40-60$ estimate to get me to the hotel, and the long line of GOF taxis waiting to bring me there, and especially the quote of $25 from the guy in the front. My last experience with Uber was good. A bunch of west coast dudes had an Uber XL reserved with an extra spot. They were all over 7′ tall but there was room for me. One of them (from Arizona, didn’t catch his name) paid for it and wouldn’t take my $, so thank you AZ dude.

 

Went up to Canada with Nancy and her friend. Stopped at the grocery, got the guac stuff and some burger meat.Chased a few house wrens away. Cleaned the cottage up while the girls made guac. Went surfing at Pleasant, watched Nan and her bud get sweet rides. Got a ticket there and almost towed but that’s fine. My fault. Back to the cottage, ate some Mabel’s pizza, made some burgers. Checked in with the neighbors. Came home to a wide open Peace Bridge, no wait, no hassle. Sky was epic with clouds and light all day. Home now and idling until Twin Peaks. Let’s hope Audrey Horne finally shows up.