Speak Up (07:31PM)

Please leave criticism, constructive and otherwise, about the proposed new design in the comments.

It's still rather a work in progress, but it's close.

Thank you.

:: Comments left behind ::

This is a test comment. Were this an actual comment, you would be thinking to yourself, "how profound" instead of "how lame".

:: Ted April 11, 2006 07:37 PM

I'm likin' it. A lot.

:: dogette April 11, 2006 07:52 PM

Looks pretty much go for launch to me.

Nice job.

:: Stephen Macklin April 11, 2006 07:52 PM

Are you going to be changing the headers with this design? If so, ignore my next comment.

If you are going to keep this header, I think it would look better if the colors matched the rest of the design or visa versa. It looks out of place.

I really love the star background design. But the yellow gives it a fufu look and you don't seem like a fufu guy. What if the background was a reverse of the blue stars? Dark blue with light blue stars.

I like how you keep the background from scrolling.

Looking good!!!! And I am talking about the blog design at this point....

:: Amy April 11, 2006 09:11 PM

I adore this design, great work!!

:: BLUE April 12, 2006 01:02 PM

You're probably one of the .0001% of the world population I know that can get away with making me like that retro-50's starburst pattern wallpaper... ;-)

Looks good, hon. Is this gonna be a mirror site, or a full-out move?

--TwoDragons

:: Denita TwoDragons April 12, 2006 01:35 PM

Skunkworks is my "lab" site on Mu.Nu where I test out crazy html and css ideas.

:: Ted April 12, 2006 03:30 PM

Love the retro look.I especially like the pattern in the banners.Reminds me of the chrome edge kitchen table look......which is really cool IMO.

:: Russ April 13, 2006 11:47 AM

Testing Tables (10:15AM)

First off, a table sans formatting.

cell 1,1	cell 1,2	cell 1,3	cell 1,4	cell 1,5	cell 1,6	cell 1,7
cell 2,1	cell 2,2	cell 2,3	cell 2,4	cell 2,5	cell 2,6	cell 2,7
cell 3,1	cell 3,2	cell 3,3	cell 3,4	cell 3,5	cell 3,6	cell 3,7
cell 4,1	cell 4,2	cell 4,3	cell 4,4	cell 4,5	cell 4,6	cell 4,7
cell 5,1	cell 5,2	cell 5,3	cell 5,4	cell 5,5	cell 5,6	cell 5,7
cell 6,1	cell 6,2	cell 6,3	cell 6,4	cell 6,5	cell 6,6	cell 6,7
cell 7,1	cell 7,2	cell 7,3	cell 7,4	cell 7,5	cell 7,6	cell 7,7
cell 8,1	cell 8,2	cell 8,3	cell 8,4	cell 8,5	cell 8,6	cell 8,7
cell 9,1	cell 9,2	cell 9,3	cell 9,4	cell 9,5	cell 9,6	cell 9,7
cell 10,1	cell 10,2	cell 10,3	cell 10,4	cell 10,5	cell 10,6	cell 10,7
cell 11,1	cell 11,2	cell 11,3	cell 11,4	cell 11,5	cell 11,6	cell 11,7

Moving right along, lets add some column headers.

Col 1 "th"	Col 2 "th"	Col 3 "th"	Col 4 "th"	Col 5 "th"	Col 6 "th"	Col 7 "th"
cell 1,1	cell 1,2	cell 1,3	cell 1,4	cell 1,5	cell 1,6	cell 1,7
cell 2,1	cell 2,2	cell 2,3	cell 2,4	cell 2,5	cell 2,6	cell 2,7
cell 3,1	cell 3,2	cell 3,3	cell 3,4	cell 3,5	cell 3,6	cell 3,7
cell 4,1	cell 4,2	cell 4,3	cell 4,4	cell 4,5	cell 4,6	cell 4,7
cell 5,1	cell 5,2	cell 5,3	cell 5,4	cell 5,5	cell 5,6	cell 5,7
cell 6,1	cell 6,2	cell 6,3	cell 6,4	cell 6,5	cell 6,6	cell 6,7
cell 7,1	cell 7,2	cell 7,3	cell 7,4	cell 7,5	cell 7,6	cell 7,7
cell 8,1	cell 8,2	cell 8,3	cell 8,4	cell 8,5	cell 8,6	cell 8,7
cell 9,1	cell 9,2	cell 9,3	cell 9,4	cell 9,5	cell 9,6	cell 9,7
cell 10,1	cell 10,2	cell 10,3	cell 10,4	cell 10,5	cell 10,6	cell 10,7
cell 11,1	cell 11,2	cell 11,3	cell 11,4	cell 11,5	cell 11,6	cell 11,7

Easier to read with some space formatting.

span 2 "th"		Col 3 "th"	Col 4 "th"	span 2 "th"		Col 7 "th"
cell 1,1	cell 1,2	cell 1,3	cell 1,4	cell 1,5	cell 1,6	cell 1,7
cell 2,1	cell 2,2	cell 2,3	cell 2,4	cell 2,5	cell 2,6	cell 2,7
cell 3,1	cell 3,2	cell 3,3	cell 3,4	cell 3,5	cell 3,6	cell 3,7
cell 4,1	cell 4,2	cell 4,3	cell 4,4	cell 4,5	cell 4,6	cell 4,7
This cell is two rows tall	cell 5,2	cell 5,3	cell 5,4	cell 5,5	cell 5,6	cell 5,7
	cell 6,2	cell 6,3	cell 6,4	cell 6,5	cell 6,6	cell 6,7
This cell spans the entire table
cell 8,1	cell 8,2	cell 8,3	cell 8,4	cell 8,5	cell 8,6	cell 8,7
cell 9,1	cell 9,2	cell 9,3	cell 9,4	cell 9,5	cell 9,6	cell 9,7
cell 10,1	cell 10,2	cell 10,3	cell 10,4	cell 10,5	cell 10,6	cell 10,7
cell 11,1	cell 11,2	cell 11,3	cell 11,4	cell 11,5	cell 11,6	cell 11,7

Finally, let's play with some color. Default overall is silver.

span 2 "th"		Col 3 "th"	Col 4 "th"	span 2 "th"		Col 7 "th"
cell 1,1	cell 1,2	white	cell 1,4	cell 1,5	cell 1,6	cell 1,7
cell 2,1	cell 2,2	cell 2,3	red	cell 2,5	cell 2,6	cell 2,7
cell 3,1	cell 3,2	cell 3,3	bold	cell 3,5	cell 3,6	cell 3,7
cell 4,1	cell 4,2	cell 4,3	italics	cell 4,5	default text	cell 4,7
This cell is two rows tall and yellow	cell 5,2	cell 5,3	cell 5,4	cell 5,5	cell 5,6	cell 5,7
	cell 6,2	cell 6,3	cell 6,4	cell 6,5	cell 6,6	cell 6,7
This cell spans the entire table
cell 8,1	cell 8,2	cell 8,3	cell 8,4	cell 8,5	cell 8,6	cell 8,7
cell 9,1	cell 9,2	cell 9,3	cell 9,4	cell 9,5	cell 9,6	cell 9,7
cell 10,1	cell 10,2	cell 10,3	cell 10,4	cell 10,5	cell 10,6	cell 10,7
cell 11,1	cell 11,2	cell 11,3	cell 11,4	cell 11,5	cell 11,6	cell 11,7

Let's see how that comes across via Avant Go, eh?

:: Comments left behind ::

About the background picture (11:59PM)

That's Dr. Robert Goddard, and the image came from NASA's GRIN (Great Images In Nasa) site, an amazing resource for historical photos about aerospace and space.

Each image is available for downloading in several sizes and resolutions, and also have additional information about the photos.

From the site description of this photo:

Dr. Robert H. Goddard at a blackboard at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1924. Goddard began teaching physics in 1914 at Clark and in 1923 was named the Director of the Physical Laboratory. In 1920 the Smithsonian Institution published his seminal paper A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes where he asserted that rockets could be used to send payloads to the Moon. Declaring the absurdity of rockets ever reaching the Moon, the press mocked Goddard and his paper, calling him "Moon Man." To avoid further scrutiny Goddard eventually moved to New Mexico where he could conduct his research in private. Dr. Goddard, died in 1945, but was probably as responsible for the dawning of the Space Age as the Wrights were for the beginning of the Air Age. Yet his work attracted little serious attention during his lifetime. However, when the United States began to prepare for the conquest of space in the 1950's, American rocket scientists began to recognize the debt owed to the New England professor. They discovered that it was virtually impossible to construct a rocket or launch a satellite without acknowledging the work of Dr. Goddard.

Check it out, tons of history and pictures.

:: Comments left behind ::

Playing with HTML and CSS (09:40AM)

As if you couldn't tell...

:: Comments left behind ::

It took about ten days for the background image to load on dial-up, but it's cool. I'd like to see how you did the transparency. (Hint, hint, e-mail your stylesheet, hint, hint.)

:: Jennifer January 6, 2005 03:40 PM

Schedule - Hockey Whoopass Jamboree (11:59PM)
I'll use this entry to post a week or so's worth of entries. Even if your team has a game scheduled, if it's not against someone else in the Jamboree, it won't be listed here. See the official AHL website for complete team and league schedules.

Date	Home	Visitors
Sun, Oct 24	Dr Funk	Tuning Spork
	Victor	Catt
Fri, Oct 29	Catt	Victor
	Gir	GEBIV
	Brian J and Frinklin	Jenn
Sat, Oct 30	Gir	Dr. Funk
	GEBIV	Derek
	Jenn	Brian J and Frinklin
	Tuning Spork	Catt
	Kin	Heather
Sun, Oct 31	Gir	Cindy
	Dr. Funk	Catt

This post is dated so that it'll stay on top during the season. I'll also just update this post so if you want to link to the current schedule, you won't have to keep changing your links.

:: Comments left behind ::

XML test post #1 (08:21PM)

Saturn V

10/31/04 - a whole buncha words go here eventually
11/31/04 - more words will go here
12/31/04 - even more words would be here

:: Comments left behind ::

Smoke, Fire, Noise, what's not to love? (01:33PM)

Boy howdy.

Now this one was called the Invader Zim Song of Doom, and if you don't know what that's referring to, then you don't watch enough cartoons. It eventually crashed.

This one was called the Higher Calling (note the past tense). A two-stage rocket, she folded nearly in half just above the fins on her first full-up flight. Estimated speed was 300mph. I repaired her and she made many more single-stage flights before being lost in a farmer's field.

This is my youngest daughter, Rachael, five years ago, holding the rocket she won as a prize for the Rocket Design Contest. We built it from a kit, and she still flies it.

That's me a few years ago, holding a semi-scale model of the Phoenix air-to-air missile. I still fly this one too.

Although we fly some rather large rockets, ours our actually on the smallish side when in comes to high power rocketry. This, for example, is a scale model of a Nike-Hercules, with four motors in the first stage, and a single motor in the second stage. More power in one flight than we do all day long.

Now here is where my wife would make a joke about overcompensating. Me? I'm just jealous.

This kind of launch is what keeps me loving the hobby.

:: Comments left behind ::

I love the Zim rocket!!

:: Gir September 2, 2004 06:15 PM

She's half naked in that picture. I made decals that were very Zim-like and stuck them all over, including one that had the lyrics to "The Doom Song" that wrapped all around the rocket from top to bottom.

doom doom doom... doom, doom... doom doom doom doom, doom...

:: Ted September 8, 2004 08:32 AM

Love the photos, especially the last one.

:: dawn October 24, 2004 01:09 AM

For the sake of completeness, here's the PDA post (10:16AM)

If you don't recognize the term, PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant, and refers to that group of handheld devices like the Palm Pilot, the iPAQ Pocket PC, Blackberry and many others. Basically, they're PC's that fit into your pocket. I recently got one, and love it to death.

Why in the world would you want to do a PDA-friendly version of your blog? Well, some of us out in the world are techno-junkies (not me) and some of us just don't have time to surf to all the places we'd like to each and every day (uh, that would be me). So by downloading your blog to our PDA's every day or two, we can benefit from your wisdom and insight whenever we have a moment or two to spare.

First I'll explain the steps to make your blog PDA friendly, then in part two I'll show those who have PDA's how to get this great blog content downloaded to your wee beastie. It's all in the extended entry.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1" />
<TITLE>Rocket Jones - PDA Version</TITLE>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
color:#333;
background-color:white;
margin:20px;
padding:0px;
font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
leftMargin=0
}
h1 {
font:bold 12px/12px verdana, arial, helvetica,
sans-serif;
margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding:0px;
}
p {
font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
color:#333333;
margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding:0px;
}
.Content>p {margin:0px;}
.Content>p+p {text-indent:0px;}
.tinyfont { font:8px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
.smallfont { font:9px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
.titlefont { font:14px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
a {
color:#000000;
font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration:none;
}
A:link { color: #09c; TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:visited { color: #07a; TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:active { TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:hover {
FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal
BACKGROUND: #eee;
}
#Header {
margin:50px 0px 10px 0px;
padding:17px 0px 0px 20px;
/* For IE5/Win's benefit height = [correct height] +
[top padding] + [top and bottom border widths] */
height:33px; /* 14px + 17px + 2px = 33px */
border-style:solid;
border-color:black;
border-width:1px 0px; /* top and bottom borders: 1px;
left and right borders: 0px */
line-height:11px;
background-color:#eee;
/* Here is the ugly brilliant hack that protects IE5/Win
from its own stupidity. Thanks to Tantek Celik for the
hack and to Eric Costello for publicizing it. IE5/Win
incorrectly parses the "\"}"" value, prematurely
closing the style declaration. The incorrect IE5/Win
value is above, while the correct value is below. See
http://glish.com/css/hacks.asp for details. */
voice-family: "\"}\"";
voice-family:inherit;
height:14px; /* the correct height */
}
/* I've heard this called the "be nice to Opera 5" rule.
Basically, it feeds correct length values to user agents
that exhibit the parsing error exploited above yet get
the CSS box model right and understand the CSS2
parent-child selector. ALWAYS include a "be nice to
Opera 5" rule every time you use the Tantek Celik
hack (above). */
body>#Header {height:14px;}
.Content {
margin:5px 5px 5px 5px;
padding:2px;
}
.dateheader {
position:relative;
width:auto;
min-width:120px;
margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding:5px;
z-index:3;
}
-->
</style>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id=Header>Rocket Jones - PDA Version</DIV>
<div align="left">
<MTEntries lastn="15">
<MTDateHeader>
<div class="dateheader"><H1><$MTEntryDate format="%A, %B %e,
%Y"$></H1></DIV>
</MTDateHeader>
<br>
<DIV class="content">
<span class="titlefont"><i><$MTEntryTitle$></i>
(<$MTEntryDate format="%I:%M%p"$>)<br /></span>
<$MTEntryBody$>
<MTEntryIfExtended>
<p><$MTEntryMore$></p>
</MTEntryIfExtended>
<MTEntryIfAllowComments>
<p>
<p>:: Comments left behind ::</p>
<MTComments>
<$MTCommentBody$>
<span class="smallfont">:: <$MTCommentAuthorLink$>
<$MTCommentDate$></span><br /><br />
</MTComments>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>
</div>
</MTEntries>
</div>
<HR width="75%">
<P CLASS="tinyfont" align="center">
<a href="http://www.movabletype.org">Powered by MovableType</a></P>
</body>
</html>

(end copy here)

5. Save the template.

6. Rebuild the template.

7. Go to your web site and view the results.

8. Tweak until satisifed.

9. Post a link to it on your main web site. I put mine in the sidebar.

10. Announce it. Put the word out. Let the world know that it's there so we can take advantage of it. There will be much rejoicing amongst us geekish types, because, you know, according to the Dilbert author, we're getting all the chicks and we don't have all day to be sitting at the keyboard anymore.

11. That's what he says anyways.

Ok, so that part is pretty straightforward. For those who don't want or like to tweak, the default as given above seems to be fairly standard and works well.

The next part will be for the PDA-enabled. You know it's out there, how do you get at it via your PDA?

:: Comments left behind ::

Roster - Hockey Whoopass Jamboree (11:58PM)

Here's a list of all participants and the AHL teams they've decided to support. The official AHL home page is here, and you can find great pictures of the logos here.

Good luck everyone! Talk some trash and have fun!!!

Atlantic			East
Hartford Wolf Pack			Albany River Rats	Victor
Lowell Lock Monsters	Kin		Binghamton Senators	Dr Funk
Manchester Monarchs			Bridgeport Sound Tigers	Spork
Portland Pirates	Nic		Hershey Bears	Derek
Providence Bruins			Norfolk Admirals
Springfield Falcons			Philadelphia Phantoms
Worcester IceCats	Heather		Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	Catt
North			West
Cleveland Barons	Ted		Chicago Wolves
Edmonton RoadRunners			Cincinnati Mighty Ducks
Hamilton Bulldogs	Cindy		Grand Rapids Griffins
Manitoba Moose	Gir		Houston Aeros	Matt
Rochester Americans	GEBIV		Milwaukee Admirals	Brian J Frinklin
St. John's Maple Leafs			San Antonio Rampage
Syracuse Crunch			Utah Grizzlies	Jenn

PS. Why, yes, those *are* the team colors of my beloved San Jose Sharks Cleveland Barons, thanks for noticing!

:: Comments left behind ::

Logos (10:02PM)
For our Jamboree members using Blogspot, I've loaded up some small versions of the logos for everyone. You can link directly to these without having to load them on your site. Do a right click on the thumbnail you want, then copy the shortcut. Link to it from your blog just like you would any other link, and it should display the image when your page loads.

:: Comments left behind ::

Ooh, thanks for the logo :)

hln

:: hln October 15, 2004 05:12 PM

I mean it, don't do this (12:28PM)

Take a paint roller and some good contact cement adhesive and go to the park.

Lay down a nice sticky patch on the walk in front of a park bench.

Sit down, enjoy the day, and toss some bread crumbs or bird seed out to feed the pigeons.

:: Comments left behind ::

Wow! It's looking great Ted!

:: Cindy August 24, 2004 08:54 AM

Spiffy digs you've got here.

:: Jennifer August 25, 2004 09:26 PM

Looks really good, Ted.

:: Daniel August 25, 2004 09:39 PM

Looks good!... (on a side note, you'd need to get the pigeons feet covered in contact cement too before they would actually stick... Perhaps quick set epoxy would work better for your application...)

:: Tim August 26, 2004 07:23 PM

Content, we need content! (12:25PM)

3 Things You Didn't Want To Know About Me:

...

Can't think of any. I know you're fascinated.

:: Comments left behind ::

Favorite Frank Zappa Albums (12:23PM)

Yes, I'm old enough to still call them "albums". Snicker and I'll whack you with my cane.

ThingFish

You Are What You Is

Joe's Garage, Act I

:: Comments left behind ::

Sheik Yerbouti.

:: Doug Pratt August 24, 2004 02:39 PM

I call'em albums too.

:: Ptiza August 30, 2004 08:36 PM

testing some more (01:15PM)

Ok, this is the normal text, and this

should be the blockquoted text and here's a second line

I'm really curious to see if this works.

:: Comments left behind ::

Test Post 2 (10:50PM)

Killer Klowns From Outer Space
The Evil Dead
Army of Darkness
Sorority Sluts in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama
Nice Girls Don't Explode
Surf Nazi's Must Die
Hell Comes To Frogtown
Biker Chicks in Zombietown
Lair of the White Worm
Witchboard
The Pit & the Pendulum

:: Comments left behind ::

I think I know this one, Alex!

What are classic Bad Horror Movies?

:: Susie November 29, 2003 12:58 PM