Details, frikkin' details!

I spent hours — 6? 8? more? — trying to get the Suckerfish dropdown menus work at the new Linn County Dems website. The sucker just refused, no matter what I did. I was frantic, just could not believe I was the only person incapable of making the damn things work.

As it turns out, I'm not. I got them to work (yay me) as soon as I read the javascript code carefully and realied the "slight" modification I'd made in my css hosed the script. As soon as I typed in 2 (2!) missing letters, the dropdowns worked perfectly.

Dreamhost hello

my original webhost sold the part of her business that i was using to a company that, without any announcement to customers, reduced services beyond a point that made them viable. no emails, nothing; just one day i'm trying to work on a site, and i discover: sorry, that's no longer allowed.

free wifi, at last (i mean truly free)

i've been going to cafes and such to get my wifi here in Seattle. that's sort of free: you need to buy something (ok, you can just go in and sit, but i'm not cool with that). not only is that costly, the music is almost always way too loud and there is usually someone who can't talk in normal tones. all in all, not the best working conditions (although early this morning at the Cafe on the Ave was nice).

Off to the Emerald City ... again

Time for the next stage in the big adventure that is life. It's been great here in Corvallis, and I was planning to move back to Portland this summer once my younger son graduated from high school. But with his decision to go to college in Seattle (pending their acceptance of his offer to attend) and my dad being in Port Townsend, and — this is no small point — the abundance of jobs and money; I've decided that Seattle is a better place to go at this time.

And I mean at this time. I plan to move by the end of the month. It's kind of sudden, and it's caught a number of people by surprise. Starting with me. But it seems like the righ thing to do. An improved professional environment (i.e., more potential clients) will help me in many ways. So I am in the process of getting ready to move to Seattle.

What will this mean to my loyal BTC clients? Not a lot. There are many of you I've never met in person, so this is no change. In fact, I hope it's an improvement. I'll have access to technical and artistic resources there that have not been available here. I'm excited about this move, and I know it will only mean good things for the BTC community of friends and clients.

Skype phone - We're all living in the future

(to quote John Prine)

My phone number (above) is not Qwest or cell; it's Skype. That's right; to call me, you have to call my iBook. I'm very excited about this. All calls are free for the rest of the year, which is cool; when they do charge, I think it's still less than Qwest would be. And it comes with voicemail. Of course, I'm using the Mac version (and as usual for me, the beta version because I always the latest & greatest whenever I can).

If you're a Skype user, you can call me via Skype — Skype-to-Skype is always free. Get a Skype account, because you can call your friends all over the world for free.

More words for "blogging" - WaPo with some good ideas

Leslie Walker of the WaPo takes us in the right direction: We need more words than merely "blogging"....

So let's stop leaning on "blog" as the only noun to describe every site published in the bloggy format -- with short entries displayed in reverse chronological order, in a narrow column running like a laundry chute straight down the home page.

The format is a great one for the web, compact and thorough, but to call all the different types of sites by the same is to do them all an injustice -- and confuse possible readers. It's a need that will be addressed in time, of course: no one invented the term "podcasting"; it simply appeared to fill a need.

I can do graphics work, too

I don't advertise myself as a designer, but sometimes I can do quality graphics work. I'm creative, and if I'm either inspired or concentrate on at a project properly, I can produce something good:

This logo began with the letters – in a small gif – and a poorly lit photo. I found a font that matched the original gif and then I went to work on the picture in Photoshop. I was tracing the band members to try and clean up the surrounding elements, but after I had finished tracing, I thought it looked good as it was.

New site completed (almost...)

I just finished coding a new site, Go Greenline. Greenline is a line of home and residential cabinets, custom-made by special order and built with earth-friendly products and processes. The site was designed by my good friend, Jeffrey Jane Flowers of 12Paws Design, and the text was written by the client. I took these elements and put them into a Drupal framework -- not the easiest thing, given the nature of the design. But the site is up and will soon be "live".

This site also involved dealing with one of the problems to be considered when designing any website: Microsoft Internet Explorer is full of bugs.

Basics are done

I have my four basic pages done. I had to remove one site from my list because the client not only decided to go another direction -- he did so without talking to me about it! This happens in business all the time, but it stinks when it's your business. I'm proud of the work I did for him, but sometimes good work isn't good enough. He did like the logo I created for him -- it was pretty slick -- and will pay me for that.

welcome

Well, as lame as "this site under construction" notices are -- this site is under construction. However, you have my contact info, which means we can get together and have a cuppa joe & I can tell you about what I can do for you. I can show you some of the other websites I've done:

Benton County Democrats (feel free to ignore my political affiliations -- or to celebrate them!)

Friends of the CHS Band, a new site for a new group

That's just two, but it gives you an idea. I also write ... anything & everything. I've done user manuals, tech guides, newsletters, brochures, web content galore. I can write a delicate letter, an editorial, an article for a trade magazine (my research skills are exceptional). If you need, I can even give you a lesson on how to use the Internet.