Brooke and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary today by running together in the Run For The Cure 5K. We did pretty well. Later, we’re going out for a romantic dinner. Running and marriage have a lot in common. Most of my metaphors are failing me right now, but I’m thinking about our first anniversary being like passing the Mile 1 marker in a marathon. Sure, we’re smiling now, but the important part is to be smiling at the finish line!
Hullo T’Jane
I’ve just found out that my brilliant journalist cousin Jane in London has a blog. She’s been keeping it since May, but since she works as an assistant editor for Web User magazine, I thought she would have been hip to the whole blog thing for much longer. Never mind. Welcome, Cousin Jane, to the sidebar!
A laurel wreath and a bag of salted peanuts to the first person who can figure out the reference in this post’s title.
A Dose Of Joy
Last night, I met up with Josie and Carla and we saw The Polyphonic Spree.
It’s not too often you get to experience a shot of joy. And that’s quite hard to describe in words, actually. The concert was great. A highlight was the cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years” and the harp lullaby at the end of the show. Another cover I fully expect to hear next time is “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension. I’m actually surprised I haven’t heard more comparisons between the two bands. And since I’m mentioning a song from Hair, how about a Broadway revival starring the Spree?
Openers The Starlight Mints were also very good, though we arrived halfway through their set.
Govanuh Ahnuld?
I surfed around this morning looking for reactions from some of my California friends to last night’s debate among gubernatorial candidates, but found none. I have to wonder if they’ll even vote. Even though I’m far from the action, I had to tune in to watch, since it’s Arnold’s only scheduled faceoff with his opponents. For the most part, it wasn’t much of a real debate.
The only fireworks were between Arianna Huffington and Arnold. She rightly went after him from the beginning, sensing that he’s really just an empty suit. He was unimpressive. He carped on and on about the current government, and spouted a few generic platitudes (“we need to fix the economy”, “we need to attract more business”, “we need to take care of kids”) but had absolutely no solutions. I hope I’m not the only one who can see that.
I was most impressed with Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who never even got to talk about environmental issues. Far from being a one-issue, “hippy” party, the Greens actually had some sensible positions on most issues. Only his lack of government experience would really hold him back. And although I disagree with almost all of his positions, Republican Tom McClintock was equally impressive. He held clear positions and articulated them carefully, without attacking anyone. I think he’s in the race because he’s annoyed that Arnold isn’t a “real” candidate. I respect his integrity.
So, although Gary Coleman wasn’t there, I found the debate interesting, though a real debate format would have been better (ie. no foreknowledge of the questions, letting each candidate state his/her position and then face rebuttals from the other candidates). Good luck, Californians!
Wine Site Whines
In the course of my research for work, I’ve visited a lot of web sites of winemakers and importers. Quite a few of them really stink. Lots of them are ugly, and some of them just don’t work well, especially if you use a Mac.
On the site for Michele Chiarlo, who make very fine wines, the left navigation menu is built with Java (no, not Javascript, but Java). Though it works in Windows, on a Mac using Safari it shows up with a large red X.
Elena Walch, another great winemaker, has a system of Javascript menus that wreak havoc. Again using Safari (and Firebird), I can roll over the menus, but as soon as the submenus appear (under Wines, for instance), they disappear if you try to select something. I was able to use Opera to navigate to them, but it was still awkward (I had to click on Wines, which seemed to make the menus remain on screen long enough to be clicked).
What gives, webfolk? The site I’m designing will not work this way. I was actually intending to avoid Javascript entirely, but it is in use for the tasting notes (which are pop-ups). I almost don’t care if the site is ugly, as long as it works correctly in every browser.