EYEHEARTZOMBIES

12:45pm
OK, I’ve been here since around 10:30am. We left last night at about 6:30pm or so. When I left, all I had to do was the page 2s. When I got here, I still had the page 2s (obviously) but I had a few edits, too. No biggie. Well, I’m here and I still have page 2s, although fewer of them than I had.

Let me break this down for you. I work for a newspaper publisher. We produce 6 monthly newspapers. All six come out at once. This month, they have 32 pages apiece. Of those 32 pages, pages 1, 2, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 32 are different to each paper. So the rest are the same. Each different page, even if it’s not different (content’s the same, just a different name on the top) has to be built on it’s own. That’s 72 pages total to build. Right now, 3 are finished completely. One perfect, two finished with changes. I would be working right this second, but this slow-ass computer can’t handle me working on a page while it’s printing another one. Well, it can, but not well enough for me to do it. Everything moves way too slowly.

Just as I say that, the queue ends. I’ll be back with more today, so keep checking…if you care, that is.

1:39pm
Again I’m waiting on the queue. Done a few pages in the meantime, but I don’t think any are finished yet. Would have done a couple more but the computer crashed. It apparently equates opening a picture in photoshop with faulting the finder. What a fun machine.

Had the fun news of something happening to the server. Manny happened to see that his site (which is on the same server) wasn’t showing up; nil for eyeheartzombies and nil for gigantuan and I only assume nil for the august. But everything seems to be working now, so I’ll hope it was just from Manny messing around with his site. Probably was.

2:16pm
Well, another page, another print, another wait. The wait has been exciting this time. We’ve gotten in a few ads and a few approvals. Those are the best; the approvals. And I managed to get into a fight with Manny over images.

The catalyst was the images on his site. His new design is pretty nice, but the bottom border doesn’t show up. When I was looking at the code to see why, I discovered that he’s putting the borders on with images, instead of using CSS’s border property. Now, there’s technically nothing wrong with this method. It works (for the most part) and it keeps any nasty box-model problems from creeping up. It does, however, add a bit of size onto your images. I know, I know; and extra 10 pixels of solid color data can’t be that big…and it’s not. The size, however, isn’t really the issue. Now for those of us with slow connections (I boast a 56k modem at home), those extra k do add up, but not very quickly. We probably would never even notice the slight lag as the images load. Do it enough on a page (as Manny doesn’t) and it will show up, though. Still, do it sparingly and you’ll be fine as far as lag and bandwidth go.

We do pay for our bandwidth, but I don’t think Manny’s indulgence will cost us. If it does, I’ll just add to the money he already owes me ;). The problem, for me, is the principle of it. Manny and I are working on creating a site to teach people who do do good, compliant web design. We want to teach people to use XHTML and CSS to create useful, accessible pages that look good everywhere and don’t rely on browser-specific hacks. So, it kind of irks me that his site boasts something that’s very…old-thinking…from web design’s past. Something of the same age as table-based layouts and font tags.

I realize that it’s his personal site and he should be allowed to do what he wants (and he is. I can’t and wouldn’t make him change it). But…I don’t know…if people can hate Bill Clinton for the “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” thing, I can be a little peeved at Manny for using images where he could have used CSS.

Well, the queue has ended again…

2:49pm
I sound like such an ass in the last addition to this post. Well, I’m not. At least I try not to be. My only complaint with Manny’s method is that it makes changing the site harder. Case in point, when I pointed out to him that he should have used border instead of the images, he said “It’ll take too long to change them so I’ll do it some other time.” That’s what I’m getting at. By doing it with CSS he could change the size, the style, the color, whatever…whenver he wanted to. There wouldn’t be anything to it more than changing a few values in a text file.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I have to say for that. I still sound like an ass, but at least I’m an explained ass.

I think we’re going to take lunch soon. That’s right, lunch at 3pm. We do this every day. Our schedules and bodies are so out of whack it’s unreal. Get to work at 10, lunch at 3, home at 5/6, bed at midnight or so. We should be set back about an hour or two. We need Kenneth and Elaine Savings Time. Well, I suppose we’ll be normal some day…right?

4:24pm
So, back from lunch, already finished another page, letting it print. Takes forever. Oh well, gives me a sec to write here.

Well, Manny and I worked it out. Actually, he changed it while I was at lunch. I really do like his site. It’ll be top-notch when he gets that readability issue sorted out. That should be soon, though. Then no one will be able to stop him! Mwaahahaha! Or maybe they can. I don’t know.

5:06pm
Well, all the pages I have are finished. Just edits and the two pages that aren’t finished left. That’s good. That’s very good. Edits go a lot faster than building pages does.

7:05pm
I swear I’m not making this up. Now we have a tornado warning. I know. a warning’s nothing. We have hail, though. This is one screwed up day. I went out to see how the clouds were a bit ago, wasn’t raining much. As soon as I got to the other side of the parking lot, it starts raining hard and hailing (pea-sized, no matter what the radio says). I was trapped! It finally slacked a bit and I ran for it. Now I’m all wet. That’s not fun at all.

Well, we’re working on edits, but I think we should just quit for the night and start again tomorrow. The weather’s getting worse and I don’t want to be in this strip mall building if something bad does hit. Not to mention we want to be with our animals if it gets stormy there or something.

This is one screwy day.