For the past several months, I've been working intermittently, between projects, on making this site's design completely CSS-based, and doing away with tables completely. All the sites I've been building for clients have been CSS-based, and all the while mine has remained woefully filled with tables, and I've begun to feel jealous of this fact. Until now. Friday I started using a new style sheet and display template. I still use a few tables on the photo gallery pages, but for the rest of the site (the blogs, etc.) it's all CSS. A few pages are still displaying kind of oddly and I'm trying to resolve those issues as I come across them. IE, for instance, still has a few quirks (of course). But since this is my personal site and not a client's, I'm going to ignore them for now. I'm sure I'll fix them eventually.

For those of you who are saying Table what? CSS who?, I'll just put it this way: I've done a little modernizing here at nicolasix. Upgraded the plumbing. Switched out the electrical outlets. Installed new wiring. It looks the same, but it's actually quite different and works much better than it did just a couple of days ago.

So, now that changing the design is a simple matter of switching out a style sheet, my plan is to put up a new look and feel every so often. Eventually, there may be several designs available which people will be able to choose from. But given my current workload, and my tendency to be a perfectionist about things like this, I'm betting this won't begin to happen until late Summer or Fall.

Oh. I almost forgot: I've also changed this site's URL structure. Instead of the long, unpleasant URL's I had before, I now have much shorter, easily digestible URLs that look something like this: www.nicolasix.com/257/. A minor thing, yes, but one that gives me great pleasure as it will lead to better security and better search engine indexing.

Now, back to other coding projects . . .

link to this | comments (6) | File:  CSS  Tech  Web_Design 

DCist finds the Google center of DC's little universe. Though, according to this guy, it's all wrong. I like his version a little better because it's closer to my house and I like being the center of things.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Tech  DC 

When you wake up in a freezing apartment to the sound of somebody outside your bedroom window using a sanding drill to scrape dirt and particles from your concrete window ledge, then it's the kind of morning that calls for a tall pint of Guinness. And a shot of Bushmills.

The men that were outside my bathroom window a couple of weeks ago are now working in the section of building right outside my bedroom. And today they're using tools that whir and buzz and grind. And it's not even 8 am yet.

To add insult to injury, our heat has been off for most of the week due to a broken thermostat on our building's boiler. Most people in our building are unfazed by having no heat because our building is an older construction (think 20's-era) with really thick walls, so it tends to trap heat very well. People in efficiencies with only a few windows don't normally have a problem. But for people with corner apartments, like me, it can get pretty damn chilly. To give perspective, I have a one-bedroom (not exactly 'huge') apartment with a total of 8 large windows. That's a lot of windows for a relatively small space. And here's an engineering tip: Glass does not make for good insulation. Right now I have on two pairs of socks, and my fingers are blue. If I lean too close to my monitor, my breath fogs up the screen, and I have to stop to wipe off the condensation with my sweater sleeve. There is a frozen icicle of snot hanging from my nostril. It's not pretty. Thankfully, the sun is out today, so it will warm up this afternoon. The weekend should be interesting, as it's going to dip back down into the low 20's on Sunday. I guess this is all good practice for the annual all-man fishing trip coming up at the beginning of April in the mountains of New Mexico.

In other 'building' news, I'm no longer the condo association president. What I've discovered is that in Washington, people have become so used to cover-ups and scandals, that they automatically assume any person in a position of leadership has a hidden agenda and is trying to keep them down. To them, instead of being the person who volunteered to 'represent them' and help manage the daily minutia that crops up in the building, I was simply 'the man.' Here are a few of the questionable actions I took while on the board:

• Tried to expand our storage so that everybody in our building could have free storage, instead of only a few people having it for a fee
• Helped resolve multiple issues involving our boiler and hot water heater so that people (including myself) could have heat
• Unclogged drains for people using a complicated plumbing technique called 'Drano Max' when people would complain to me that their sink was backing up and it wasn't their fault.
• Made a unilateral decision ok'ing the installation of air-fresheners in hallways.

As you can see, I was a friggin' tyrant.

Bottom's up!

link to this | comments (4) | File:  Ho_Hum  Building 

We walked by this the other day and wondered what the hell it was. It definitely made you stop and notice. Of course we still didn't go in, but . . . we stopped and noticed none the less.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  DC 

Man, we decide to get a Mac, and all hell breaks loose.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Tech 

I think I'd be okay with having Google host my email under my own domain name.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Tech 

I went to see Ana Marie Cox (AMC) read at the National Press Club tonight with Mat. For those who don't know, AMC was the original voice behind Wonkette. Her book Dog Days was recently published and the event at NPC was a promotion for it. While she has stopped doing Wonkette full time, she does maintain this blog. Also, in case anybody is interested in more background, I found this Q&A session to be a good read.

The reading at the NPC began sort of strangely. The host introduced AMC and when she got up to speak, she opened things up to questions right off the bat. Of course, nobody had any questions because we were all in the same uncomfortable position: nobody wanted to be the one to break the odd tension in the air that always exists during the first few minutes of any presentation. Nobody, it seems, including the guest of honor herself. I definitely sympathized: the first few minutes of a presentation are always the hardest. Everybody is sort of getting acclimated to the 'feel' of the room and it's filled with a weird vibe. But it definitely added to the strangeness for her to open with a call for questions, but now I know why she did it: AMC is at her best when fielding questions. That became obvious later in the evening, after she read from her book and people finally got up the nerve to speak. AMC's casual, witty personality really comes out when she has the crowd to play off of.

But she was very different when she was reading from her book. She was downright timid and shy, which was sort of charming, actually. In a lot of ways, AMC is a delightful contradiction. You expect to find her 'Wonkette' persona - this sort of self-confident 'blogger diva,' who is sharp-tongued, clever, and witty. But instead, you find this sort of vulnerable, very human person who becomes visibly nervous when reading from her book. It was sort of refreshing to see that kind of honesty.

Anyway, I definitely felt inspired by her, which surprised me a little. I think for a long time I sort of just pegged her as a 'gossip columnist,' without much depth, which wasn't really fair. She has good insight and perspective on a lot of issues, from writing to politics, and I like that she's so down to earth. And I think it's really cool that she's made a successful segue in her career to 'novelist.' (There need to be more 'blogger-turn-novelists' out there.) She talked about how hard it was to write the book and how she virtually had to 'hold a gun to her head' to do it every day. I could definitely relate to this. It's hard stuff, writing novels. And it doesn't seem to get easier the more you do it, or the more you get published. Of the authors I've heard speak, even the ones who have published numerous books, most say the same thing. Frankly, I'm suspicious of the ones who pretend it's easy. What are they hiding, anyway?

I feel a little bad that I didn't show my support by purchasing a book. Sorry, AMC, But I usually prefer to read paperbacks because they're so much easier to hold and carry around with me. (And okay, they're cheaper.) I promise I'll buy the paperback!

Oh, and I wish I had been less shy myself and told her that I enjoyed watching the SOTU with her commentary as a backdrop. Catherine was out of town that night, and it's no fun watching something like that alone.

link to this | comments (2) | File:  Writing  Reviews  Blog 

Last year, Catherine and I took a trip to Costa Rica. It was an incredible time, full of relaxing, and sunshine, and the occasional white-faced monkey or lazy iguana, and an overall sense of Pura Vida. Yes, it was a wonderful escape from the fast-paced world back in DC. In Costa Rica, time creeps along, not unlike a Sloth, an animal that is prevalent in the area.

One of the things I did while I was there was take some surfing lessons. Well, I'm happy to report that I'm now a surfing sensation in Costa Rica. That's right, the school where I took the lessons, has my mug plastered all over their Web site. If you watch the rotating photo banner at the top of the home page long enough, you'll see me, looking all cool in sunglasses. I'm also in the group shot on the homepage where the whole class is posing with their surf boards. I'm also in a few shots in their gallery which, oddly, contains a few mildly erotic shots like this one that have nothing to do with surfing. What's also funny about their gallery is that I'm in photo sets from January, 2005, and February, 2005, but I was only there once, and it was in April.

Anyway, that's just a technicality. The main point is this: I sell surf lessons because I'm so damn famous . . . and HOT! Even the guys like me. Especially the guys like me. Who knew this white boy from DC would hit such a level of fame? I'm thinking next year I might shoot for the Triple Crown of Surfing. Andy Irons who?

Incidentally, if you ever do go to Costa Rica, make sure to take surfing lessons at the Manuel Antonio Surf School. They're great teachers, and are sure to get you up on that board. They may even make you famous, like me. And I'm not just saying that because of my million dollar advertising deal. . .

link to this | comments (4) | File:  Travel  Surfing  Sports  Ho_Hum 

I've been going to these Sunday evening jazz jam sessions at Twins on U street, thanks to David R, who turned me on to them. For now, I'm just going to listen. Maybe someday I'll play, but I'm going to need to practice quite a bit first.

To me, these sessions embody the spirit of jazz music, the raw energy, the dizzying improvisation and play. Here's a typical scenario: Five guys on stage - piano, guitar, bass, drums, sax. They've never met each other. Most of the time, they don't even know each other's names. One guy calls out a tune. Another nods. Somebody counts off. And, like that, they're playing together as if they had rehearsed the song a hundred times. And it sounds incredible. This is jazz: an improvised conversation where the players are all fluent in the same language. Their understanding of the rules and conventions of that language is what keeps the conversation going. But it's the way they break those same rules and conventions that keeps the conversation interesting. They follow certain chord structures. They repeat certain themes. But then they take those and turn them upside down in order to bring the whole exchange to a new level.

In my last post, I talked about communication without words. What better example of this than music? And the thing I love about this sort of communication is that it occurs on so many levels and is based on reciprocity: player to player, players to audience, and audience to players (in the form of shouts and applause.) Several layers of exchange. Several layers of meaning.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Music 

Last weekend, Catherine and I went to Montreal to celebrate her grandfather, known by the family as 'Papapol,' turning 90 years old. What's amazing about him is that, at 90, he is still so full of energy and curiosity. His mind is sharp. Sure, he gets physically tired, but when he does, he takes a nap. He never seems to be burdened by his age. When I am 90, I hope I will be just like him.

Anyway, in the 7 or 8 years I've known Papapol, I've actually had very few one-on-one conversations with him. This is because his first language is French, and while we're able to talk about some things with my very broken French and his broken English, these conversations often break down eventually as we begin to not be able to find the words to express what we're wanting to say. At that point, we usually bring in Catherine or her mom to serve as an interpreter.

But you can tell a lot about a person without necessarily speaking the same language. That has always fascinated me - how people can still convey meaning to one another without the construct of language. Just by observing Papapol, just by listening to the inflection of his voice, watching how he interacts with others, and how they interact with him, this tells me a lot. It tells me he is warm and kind, that he is a man of strong moral and ethical principal who loves his family and places that above everything else. It tells me that he has a strong, dynamic personality and that he is smart and witty. It tells me that he's the kind of person you feel lucky to know.

link to this | comments (5) | File:  Family 

There are all these patterns my brain falls into every day and their endless repetition sometimes make me feel crazy. Okay, strike 'sometimes.'

One of them goes like this: Almost every day I walk by a 'Firehose' sign. It's in the stairs at the YMCA where I swim. I come down the stairs from the locker room and there on the wall is this sign: Firehose.

And every time I walk by that sign, the lyrics to Good Time Boys from the Chili Peppers' Mother's Milk, pop into my head.

Tell you 'bout a band called Fire-hose!

I don't remember much of the rest of the song, but that one line will be in my head for most of the walk home. It's so predictable . . . and so annoying.

link to this | comments (5) | File:  Ho_Hum 

I'm not sure how many of you have been following the 'cartoon affair.' It's pretty strange stuff. There's a pretty good article about it here, with a good history of the whole thing and an update on some of the more recent developments.

The other day, I heard on an NPR radio spot that a bestselling newspaper in Iran is now running a contest to find the best cartoon about the holocaust. It's a sort of 'retaliation' to the European newspapers. They say they're running the contest to 'test the boundaries of free speech' which is a similar response given by European papers that had published the offending cartoons.

Um . . . here's the thing: This can not end well. Let's just put aside the whole 'free speech' thing for a minute. It seems this is just a distraction to the larger issue here. And that is this: There is something seriously wrong when people come to throws over cartoons. On the other hand, what could be a more appropriate development in this insane cultural/religious/political tension that has been going on, east vs. west, for years? This pent up anger and frustration. This 'us' vs. 'them' mentality that will not go away.

Personally, I think blaming this on religion, politics, culture, or even 'free speech' - it's all just an excuse. I think some people just want to be angry. It's another symptom of modern isolationism and angst. People feel cut off. People feel 'outside' and disenfranchised. Islamic fundamentalists are mad at Europeans, Americans and 'Western influence' in general. Western nations are angry back. Lob, volley, lob, volley. There's not a whole lot of understanding going on, on either side. It's all about people being angry, and ultimately I think their anger has more to do with themselves than anything else. Only they can't accept that. It's hard to be angry with yourself. It leads to feelings of doubt, which are hard to deal with. So why not look for other people to be angry with? It's much easier that way, more clear-cut. It's definitely easier than questioning yourself.

Sit anywhere near a busy intersection during rush-hour in Washington DC, NYC, Chicago, SF . . . any big city, and count the horns. Road-rage at it's finest. The streets are filled with angry people. Sometimes I'll sit in my apartment and I'll hear somebody lay on their horn for (no kidding) 25 to 30 solid seconds. And I realize that this kind of irrational honking, this futile noise-making in the face of traffic that won't budge, isn't about the traffic at all. It's about being angry, pure and simple. And who better to be angry at then that guy who has his tail-end jutting out into the intersection? I mean, he's probably a fucking liberal, anyway, right? Only fucking liberals are so stupid as to block an intersection like that!

Here's the thing: Ultimately, that horn isn't saying, Get out of my way, you liberal/conservative/(insert favorite person to hate here) idiot! That horn is saying, I just got fired for gambling online at work, you asshole! Now listen to me! That horn is saying, My husband is having an affair with a 23-year old slut! Listen to how angry I am! That horn is saying, My wife will no longer have sex with me and I haven't come in weeks! Can you hear me? That horn is saying, My mother, who was everything to me, died last week, and there was nothing I could do to stop it! The common denominator, the sentiment that pervades, is this: LISTEN TO ME!! I'M A HUMAN BEING ON THIS EARTH AND I FEEL ALONE AND POWERLESS!

But that horn - the kind that lasts 30 seconds - it's not about the traffic. Definitely not. There's something else behind that kind of display.

And this 'cartoon affair' is not about the cartoon. It's about years of frustration and a sense of disempowerment. And it's easy to make things worse by making other angry remarks.

A Washington Post article quotes Condi Rice as saying:

"I have no doubt that Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and have used this for their own purposes . . . The world ought to call them on it."

Maybe what she says is true. Maybe Iran and Syriah are blowing their horns loud for everybody to hear. But does it make sense to honk ours back? Does it really help anything to 'call them' on what amounts to a bunch of angry fist waving? I have no doubt that the United States can puff their chests bigger than anybody. But does that do any good?

There's a great line in this Ani DiFranco song, Your Next Bold Move:

You want to track each trickle back to it's source
Then scream over the faucet 'til your face gets horse
Cuz you're surrounded by a world's worth of things you just can't excuse . . .

So go ahead make your next bold move . . .
tell us, what's the next thing you need to prove to yourself?

Isn't the problem that we all feel helpless to identify and fix the root of the problems we face, whether they're in our personal lives or global in scale. Fixing the core problem just gets too messy. It means turning inward and questioning our beliefs, questioning our values. It's much easier to make these bold shouts at the symptoms and hope they'll go away, hope they'll back down.

But they don't go away and they don't back down. Instead, one person's cause is the next person's excuse. And so on and so forth. Forever and ever. Amen.

link to this | comments (3) | File:  Politics  News  Chewing 

I've always used Outlook to view and manage my email, not necessarily because I wanted to, but because it was simply the best all-in-one tool for email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. If you're a power-user like Catherine, Outlook is invaluable for keeping up with all that stuff. But for me, it's always been a bit of an overkill. I basically need something to manage email and contacts, but having 'tasks' and an integrated calendar, while nice, is not really necessary. My schedule just doesn't get that filled with meetings, etc. For this reason, I've been toying with the idea of switching to Thunderbird. Since I use Firefox religiously (unless I'm testing browser compatibility), I've always thought it would be nice to use it's sibling for email. I started to make this switch about 3 years ago, actually. But at that time, the Mozilla email client was nowhere near as good as it is now. There have been some subtle, yet important, improvements to the GUI over the last several years, and some additional features, like the integrated RSS reader, which make it really attractive to me. (You can get RSS add-ons for Outlook, but I've never really been impressed by any of them.)

So I've been on the fence about a switch. But the final straw occurred late last week. I started having trouble downloading mail from my POP3 server. At first I thought it was a problem with the server, so I emailed my tech support. After doing some research with them, I realized the problem was with my Outlook profile, or possibly a corrupt .pst file. I tried using some tools to fix the problem, but no luck. So then I had a choice: I could spend several more hours rebuilding my Outlook profile, which might also necessitate a re-install of Outlook itself, or I could download the latest version of Thunderbird, import my contacts and email, and be up in running in about an hour. I opted for the second choice. I'm now completely on Thunderbird and I'm really glad I switched. The integrated RSS reader is really handy. The only thing I really miss from Outlook is the automatic way it would segment messages in the inbox based on when they came in (today, yesterday, last week, two weeks ago.)

But other than that really minor thing, I'm pretty happy using Thunderbird. One thing that's nice is that, who knows, someday I may completely switch to a Mac. When and if that day comes, I can now do so with a pretty painless transfer of not only my browser settings, but also my rss feeds, email, contacts, and yes, even a calendar, thanks to this extension. Hooray for open source.

link to this | comments (2) | File:  Tech 

I've just put up three new galleries for your viewing pleasure over the weekend:

• Christmas in Canada
• New Year's Eve at E&M's
• Matt H's 30th B-Day Party

Last night was Matt H's 30th at The Reef. There seems to be a lot of those happening recently, including Catherine's, which will happen on Sunday. I guess turning 30 is better than the alternative. Anyway, I met a lot of great people last night, had some stimulating conversations, including a now hazy chat with Lisa about U2, and drank a surprising amount of alcohol, thanks to a generous bartender. Then I headed over to Pharaoh's to watch The Jones play the open mic there (sans moi).

This coming Monday is my first call to jury duty since moving to the District. It will be interesting. I'm happy to do my civic duty, but I hope I don't get put on a long case, because I've got a lot of stuff to do next week.

Finally, since I won't be able to cheer for my favorite team this year in the Super Bowl, I will have to go with my second favorite. So, Go Steelers! I forgive you for romping over the Broncos two weeks ago. They definitely deserved it, the way they were playing.

Have a nice weekend, everybody.

link to this | comments (1) | File:  Friends  Family 

And today the soundtrack is Rilo Kiley, The Execution of all Things. I have a thing for female vocalists with a penchant towards dark, confessional lyrics. I confess: they disarm me. They make me feel good, in a bad sort of way.

So I just bought Rilo Kiley's two other albums with an Amazon gift certificate. I also got this, as it came recommended.

And while I'm on the subject of buying music . . . until iTunes increases the quality of it's AAC files, I think I'm through buying entire albums from there. I might download the occasional song or two, but if I care enough to get the entire album, then I'm going to get the CD. I've been kind of disappointd with the quality of the iTunes recordings lately. The thing about iTunes - the thing that sucks me in - is that if I really like something, I can download it and listen to it right then, no waiting for mail, no trips to the store. And that's important for restless Internet junkies like myself.

link to this | comments (5) | File:  Music  Ho_Hum