AtomicMrX

Well, I went and upgraded the WordPress blogging software to 2.6 (the latest). I use a plug-in that does it “automatically” (with a lot of prompting but still - much easier than the manual way)! 

I really like the changes they made to WordPress 2.6 but unfortunately they are only visible while in the administrative areas of the blog. It’s much easier to get around and everything looks sharp!

I’m trying out a few new plug-ins to see if I like them. The Who’s Online and Tags. I don’t know much about the Tags one so I’ll have to get use to using it.

I have been working hard on two other web sites so I have neglected the AtomicMrX Blog badly. One is a make over site and the other I’m just trying to incorporate the blogging software into it to make updates much easier to do (especially the photo albums!).

Work is starting to pick up as we approach the election. We will be doing a lot more overtime in the next few months. 

Well, I’ve been busy and neglected the blogging. Sorry everyone!

Shannon is doing great on his diet. He has lost 35 pounds in a little over a month. My diet? not bad but nothing like the great looser Shannon (whoops, that doesn’t sound right). I have lost (in 7 weeks) 10.1 pounds. Not bad, and at least I’ve lost each week and haven’t gained (yet). I’m on Weight Watchers and Shannon is on a modified Atkins diet.

Last weekend was crazy busy on the computer. I spent the entire weekend working on a friends web site to finish it up. He had paid me some more money and I thought it was time I stopped dragging my feet and just dig in and get it done. Take a look at it if you want. Bense (the owner of the web site) did all of his own layouts for each page and I did the code/HTML to make it work online.

I changed doctors and went for a physical this past week. It had been almost 10 years since I had a good physical. I’ve gone to the doctor plenty of times - just not for a physical. Since I’m well over 40 I should have my prostate checked every year. I got that done and a ton of blood work. I have to get up every night at least 3 times to go to the bathroom and I have recently had a sudden outbreak of boils (fun! aint it?) both of which are warning signs of diabetes. So they will check that out and let me know. I just had the blood drawn this morning, since I forgot that is usually done during a physical and I ate the day of the physical.

Jaki is doing great. No more weird behavior that we could not explain (stroke? siezures?) and she is letting me work my finger around on her teeth in prep for teeth brushing!

Have a great Easter Weekend everyone!

Saturday I spent the entire day (okay 80% of the day) trying to find out why Internet Explorer (IE) was breaking my layout. You can see it in the picture below; circled in red.

It worked fine in FireFox (XP, Vista, and Mac) and Safari (XP, Vista, and Mac); but once I tried Internet Explorer (XP and Vista) it broke the layout. I was going down the crazy train and it wasn’t stopping for nothing! Did I mention this page was a copy (with some slight modifications) of the Home page - which works fine. That is what was crazy; they both should have broke the layout.

I finally had to make a copy of my HTML page I had the break on and slowly pick it to death. I looked at both pages and tried to find what was different so I could delete the different parts, one by one, and upload the page and check to see if the problem was still there or if the last deleted part was the culprit. What fun we are having now!

Thanks goodness, I have Parallels so I can quickly check in Windows XP Home or Vista Ultimate to see if the problem was gone or still there. So right now on my Mac I have three OS’s: Mac 10.5 Leopard, Vista Ultimate, and XP Home. I can also boot up in Vista and get all the cool UI effects which are slightly diminished in Parallels but don’t hinder my web content checking abilities.

After about five deletions and uploads I found out that IE apparently doesn’t like Image Maps or the way Image Maps are created using Dreamweaver CS3. Once I deleted the image maps on the title the break across the top was gone. Now the tricky part. I can’t delete the Image Maps on all the little squares (the only other area using Image Maps) because that is the navigation for the larger detail on the right of them. Basically, click on a little thumbnail and get a larger image to the right.

I suppose there is an easy way to do this all in Flash to ovoid the Image Map and IE problem but I don’t know Flash very well.

To fix the small square Image Map; I just made the image of the squares twenty pixels smaller on the right and bottom so there was more room in the table for the image and apparently IE’s need for space.

What a headache! I feel like I didn’t get anything accomplished Saturday! Two web pages are completed - whoo hoo! Only seven more to go! Yippie!

I will be getting organized and working on a new web site project today for Monarch View Property Owners Association. I’ve already put a lot of preliminary work into it but today it “make it work” day. I’ll be putting a test page up on a secure area of my web space and getting layout details hammered out. I’m excited and looking forward to it. I’m such a geek!

I got my car washed yesterday (for it to downpour today) and as soon as I pulled away from the car wash area my fan in the dash board stopped blowing out of the vents. It’s working, I can hear it blowing away in the dash area… just not coming out of the vents. So I’ll have Honda look at it hopefully Tuesday. It’s time for a oil change anyway and I’m due for my 15,000 mile stuff. Might as well get it all taken care of now. I’m sure the dashboard/fan work will be covered by my warranty so I’m not too worried about cost.

I got my check from the Credit Union Xmas Fund. I’ve also already bought my first Xmas gifts (for co-workers). So I’ve checked them off the list.

It’s getting close to the release of Apple’s OS 10.5! I need to get an external Hard Drive so I can make backups! I have one already in use by my old computer and could pull it over to the new one except it is way too small and would not hold all the content of the new computer. So I might as well get one that will surpass the new computers hard drive space.

Work is going well. Our over time is finally letting up. I took off a half day on Friday just to get some errands done. First stop was Velvet Creme Popcorn. Oh my God is there popcorn good. A co-worker brought some in for a birthday celebration and I could not get enough of it. I bought some Cheese Popcorn (for me) and some Cinnamon Popcorn (for Shannon) plus two popcorn balls. Then I came home and cut my hair (finally) and by the time I was done with that Shannon was home from his running around.

We went to eat at Longhorn Steak House. Everything I ate was fried! UGH! I gained three pounds this past week!

Okay! I’m freaking out with all the thunder and rain coming down! Here I sit at the nice new computer and it could be taken out at any second with a lightning bolt! But I have to get some work done today and they say the rain won’t stop till late afternoon. There goes another lightning bolt! Save, save, save! We have flash flood warnings all over the place now!

I’m looking for a new digital camera. The one I have is very old, chunky, and extremely slow shutter speed. You have to take the picture then stay there in that position for a few seconds longer without moving so you give the camera time to take the image and save it. The one I want is a Fuji FinePix F50 fd in Black! Everyone has the Silver but not the Black. Well, okay, I could get it from the UK or Japan in Black but come on! I’ll keep looking and maybe a show around here will order one for me.