panamaquono

Social Networking

2009-04-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

A while back I went through a spell where I signed up for every new thing ever, just to see what I could get off the internet, it's been fun so far but I don't always remember what all my different usernames and passwords are!

Learning Color Correction...

2009-01-30T08:12:00.001-08:00

This is a before and after image, I used all the color correction techniques I picked up this past week to get this image to go from red color-cast on the left to the almost normal picture on the right.
I will admit that I jumped ahead of myself a bit and tried to smooth out the skin because of that .jpg Artifact thing, the image was really posterized - not surprising since I downloaded it from my wife's facebook profile.

Learning XML...

2009-01-19T10:50:00.001-08:00

just spent a few hours learning how to display xml data using CSS2 only to find out IE doesn't support CSS2... Next Chapter... just spent a few hours picking up the wonders of xml "Data Islands" only to find out they only work in Internet Explorer... Next Chapter...

Let it Sn...

2009-01-05T08:27:00.001-08:00

I was following the car in front of me this morning and listening to the radio when I heard it would be snowing in the next few days, thinking of having to drive in it, I immediately assumed that originally there was no word for the phenomenon and it was referred to as "sleet and ice" - only a long time ago some newscaster was given a report to read and said something like "Tomorrow there's a 90% chance of getting Sn-Nooooo!!!! " and thus we have our word snow.

on the voice in my head...

2009-01-02T12:24:00.001-08:00

There's a little voice in my head, or there used to be, I remember it now because I was reading something and realized that I cannot speed read probably because there's an almost audible voice in my head like a narrator when I read, but this voice is different from that voice I used to hear when I thought, the one who answered back when I had a question, now I don't hear a voice I hear something more like buttons on a calculator, and I see solutions. How did I rid myself of that voice? I think it was raptured when I became transparent. Honesty is always a good thing even if you do something embarrasing or regrettable. Be true to yourself, get to know yourself, and there's no other voice in your head just you.

V for Vendetta

2009-01-02T11:00:00.001-08:00

Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you...

Discourse on method...

2008-12-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

My mind is no better than another's, but I have been lucky enough to chance on certain ways, which have led me to a certain method by means of which it seems to me that I may by degrees augment my knowledge to the modest measure of my intellect and my length of days. I shall be very glad to make plain in this Discourse the paths I have followed, and to picture my life so that all may judge of it, and by the setting forth of their opinions may furnish me with yet other means of improvement.

-
René Descartes

Identity Theft...

2008-12-11T17:58:00.001-08:00

The Magic Number is 7. The average human can hold 7 random digits (plus or minus two). Any more than two and do you wanna know what happens?

A stanford professor held an experiment, people were given a random combination of numbers in one room, and told to memorize them, and then move to another room and recite the numbers. It was found that a 2 digit number was easy to remember, and every digit after that was more difficult (obviously) but the interesting part is in the hallway between the rooms they were asked if they wanted a piece of fruit to snack on, or a piece of chocolate cake.

Everyone who had a 7 digit number to memorize or longer went for the chocolate cake, and everyone who had fewer numbers to memorize went for the fruit.

The fruit was a smart choice because the brain tells the body to be healthy, but when your analytical mind is being occupied by memorizing a 7 digit number, your own primal nature has more influence, and so the chocolate cake becomes the best choice.

what's weird is that the experiment sheds light on my current situation. and it explains a lot.

You will continue to read...

2008-12-11T13:12:00.001-08:00

You will continue to read to the end, you will read quicker and scan to find the point, if you did not read a line you might guess that the explanation or punchline was hidden in that few lines you glanced over and you'll be faced with a choice. "Do I go back and read to find out what I missed or do I browse on in hopes that I haven't found it yet?" You don't. You start to think about how long the article is that you're reading, how long it would take you to re-read the stuff you just read, and while you think about that - you forget why you were reading, and either abandon your search altogether or if you really really need to know you start from the begining again, only to get as far as you did the first time and start the process over.

Outlined Links?

2008-11-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

I found this annoying little thing when I was working on a navigation (not the navigation shown), I had used image replacement which means using css to put a background image in a block-level element, and the adding text to that element with a negative indent of like -9999px - it would look like this:

#nav-button {
background: url('some-image.png') top left no-repeat;
text-indent: -9999px;
}

Using this bit of css allows me to use an image and use text at the same time, if css gets turned off because of a screen reader or text-browser, my text shows up, but as long as css is on, my image shows up and the text gets pushed off the page.

The drawback has been that an outline appears in firefox much like the one in the example above.
and with my method of image replacement that outline goes 9999px off to the left side of the page,
and really kinda looks like a malfunction. So to fix it, I add the following to my css:

a { outline: none; }

As far as I can tell, it only works in firefox, but I looked it up for IE7 and found nothing, at least in firefox it can be fixed, and anyone who uses IE isn't really concerned with quality anyway.

Laundry

2008-11-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

Laundry is one of those things that can really bring a person back to reality, if you're a hard working individual who finds themselves repeatedly waking up in the morning and realizing (as if for the first time) that you have no clean clothes to wear - perhaps you're working too hard on too many things. Having clean clothes is more than just good hygiene, it means that you have taking at least a little time out of your week to do something for yourself, indicative of organization and proper planning. Everyone finds themselves a work-horse from time to time, but the reality is that your employers and clients don't do your laundry, you do. If it seems like you haven't had enough time to do your laundry, then something is definitely wrong with the way you handle your clients or job. For me, I find that if I let it happen, my clients will work my fingers to the bone, and I won't have clean clothes for weeks. What's the use in making a lot of money at something if it means you walk around in dirty clothes and have no time for yourself?

On Construction

2008-11-17T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, if you're looking for a house and you think "Oh I can just get any house and we can rehab it to make it just how we want... think again. Undergo no task or development without first weighing your options. Plan as much beforehand as possible and save ever nickel and dime. Keep track of ever penny you spend during your ordeal, after a while it becomes like every time you tap a nail in you think "15 cents" bam! "15 cents" bam! "15 cents" bam!!

We (my wife and I) just moved into a house that needed nothing but work done. We've been working almost non-stop for the past 6 weeks or so, it's done enough for us to have moved in, but there's still plenty left to do. We had my wife's whole family and some friends to help us work, but whenever that's the situation - whenever you're getting a lot of help on remodeling from people who aren't professionals, it's anyone's best guess.

Make sure you appreciate everything the people you work with are doing even though you think it'll never end. Take time to learn about every aspect of what they're doing in case it goes faulty later you have the right vocabulary to call a professional in for help.

Don't play with wires, don't slap up drywall in small pieces with the intent of mudding it later. Don't repeat in your head over and over "Oh well, that's what mud and sanding is for" Whatever you do, buy new construction whenever possible, and if you really can't - try to make do without rehab-ing the entire house!!!

Humanism

2008-11-14T11:32:00.001-08:00

noun

1. an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.

2. a system of thought critisized as being centered on the notion of the rational, autonomous self and ignoring the unintegrated and conditional nature of the individual.

Interesting.

My Favorite Piece of Software for Mac...

2008-11-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

I used to use Dreamweaver for web development, but I was just starting out and learning HTML, and found that because Dreamweaver was so advanced in features, I was losing the attention to detail that comes with 'hand-coding' websites. While I still use Dreamweaver from time to time (nothing beats a site-wide find and replace) My favorite text editor is TextWrangler because it has color syntax highlighting and well, that's it!! It has some other features but my point is that the darn thing is simple - open a new file and type away, while enjoying the color syntax highlighting and learning all you can from experience instead of clicking some auto-insert spry dataset button. It includes a little drawer that comes out the side to keep multiple files open, and it integrates with CyberDuck, which is my favorite FTP client also for it's simplicity.
If you're in need of a wysiwyg web editor that does most of the work for you, try Dreamweaver, if you want to Learn HTML, XHTML, Javascript, PHP, CSS and how to debug them and be able to read them, I suggest TextWrangler - a web editor without the crippling effect of someone doing it for you.

This guy is awesome...

2008-11-11T13:25:00.001-08:00

I just posted about it but check out more of his stuff here:
http://mattahan.deviantart.com/

Graphics and Icons

2008-11-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

I've been able to find all kinds of graphics and Icons for free online, this one here to the left is from an impressive collection called merely 'buuf' - I hope that's not an acronym for something vile as it would appear that it could be judging by the file names of these icons. I kept looking to see if one would be named "If the funds are low the guns will blow, looking for the one that owe, make him run that dough.jpg" or other. I already recognized some lines from Wu-Tang off their good album, and Dr. Dre.
"Zipped up in bags when it happens thats it.png" Who started this icon sh--? and this the mutha-f---ing thanks i get?? Anyway really great icon set!

Furl...

2008-11-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

Like, omg I totally just signed up for furl. I don't really know why, it appears that it's the same exact thing as StumbleUpon, but now I get to use this really great Icon I found. The internet, ah the internet.

Blogger Widget Mac...

2008-11-11T10:38:00.001-08:00

The problem I'm having with the blogger widget for mac is that I cannot upload images to my blogs. This is a problem, because I myself do not like to read blogs that have no pictures, I guess it's not that I don't like them without pictures, I just like the ones with pictures better.

StumbleUpon

2008-11-10T12:46:00.001-08:00

Ok so I stumbled upon (haha) this site that was pretty cool a long, really long time ago like more than a year, and I never really used it but now I'm trying to integrate it into everything else, using their toolbars and surfing the web through the site etc.. it's a cool site really

Blogger Widget

2008-11-03T14:03:00.001-08:00

Ah, Sweet! another new toy!!! now I have a blogger dashboard widget, I can use the iwdget to post to my blogger account, which will then send the blog post to all my other accounts. Wonderful

Case of the mondays...

2008-11-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for this election to be done and over with. We're at this point now similar to when Hillary and Barak were fighting for the nomination when there was nothing but solid slander going on. I heard McCain on the radio saying how he was going to win because "America wants freedom" and how america "Never Quits"-As if a democratic president would be the end of free america, a true sign that we've "given up". It's the ultimate sore loser move, where the kid picks up the checker board and scatters the pieces to the wind so nobody can ever play the game again. After the election is when the real work begins, and it's not going to go very well with little johnny crying in the corner because he lost.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

When I was a little kid my mother didn't allow us to celebrate halloween because she said it was a celebration of the devil.

It's all the same...

2008-10-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hey, cool. No more anxiety about which social network to signup for, now I can blog from my homepage and subscribe through all other social networking sites. Facebook,Virb,Blogger etc... Neato!

Web Design - HTML emails

2008-10-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

If you happen to stumble upon this post, and you have experience with creating HTML emails, I need to know... What are some of the big hangups you're running into? I myself have been pretty successful getting my designs to look similar if not exactly the same in any browser and any email client, I think I'm running over 90% - if it weren't for Outlook, and the fact that for some reason there's people who (no joke) still use IE6!!!

By the way, if you have IE6 perhaps you don't know, an upgrade to IE7 is free! and on top of that there's IE8 which also came out, but seriously, if you are still using IE6 you should be aware that IE7 wasn't just a fancy new browser, it was a security update which means that using IE6 may be harmful to your computer. I think IE8 is fresh out of Beta, so if you're still using IE7 I guess I don't blame you, but if you're using IE6 please consider an upgrade.

First Time Home Owner

2008-10-29T09:17:00.001-07:00

I don't intend to update this blog on a regular basis like every other friday or something, I can promise that I'll post to it, I don't have any idea how frequently.
It's easy for people to say they're going to post new info every 14 days because they read in a book about SEO how posting new content on a site every two weeks would improve search rankings, and then whenever I visit the site the post is like "Sorry I haven't posted in a while" or "Will return to posting in 2 weeks" or something. I can't blame them I guess, it's really hard to get your search rankings up at least I think it is. maybe, maybe not.