Author: jae

you know i’m actually working my ass off when i go this long without posting anything.

having trouble with a table. i did however make a really freakin’ SWANK looking new chrome border graphic for the new europa skin. it looks all corroded around the corners, and is generally pretty realistic-looking.

i’ll have a total of TWELVE themes, not ten, by this weekend. mark my words.

so yeah… SW Ohio regional organisms in the house? show of hands? anyone? Bueller? …Bueller?

it’s pretty much official now. i’ve done most of the work to clean up the code and fix the little things that i didn’t like so much.

all i have to do now is rewrite the docs, change a little bit of the transmothra-version’s contents, and make the new skins.

i’ve decided that i’ll change the packages a little bit. there will be a core system that has only two utterly basic, color-themed skins (no graphics or funky, bleeding-edge CSS). they’ll be DIRT cheap. i’d make it free, but the beta is already free, and besides, i want to make a couple bucks SOMEwhere. i know nothing else is going to sell, so i got to have something that somebody somewhere might actually consider buying.

this is, of course, assuming i even have any time.

see? i can’t do a fucking thing without slappin’ some kind of funky-assed code on it.

your special lucky number today is:
93

well, it was a lot easier than i thought to make the “donate” and “validated” box things stay put in Mozilla and still look good in MSIE. thanks, Pax! i really do appreciate the input of my peers.

all i really have left to do now is make the code look prettier. some of the CSS (style) files are a little messy in spots. i want it to look really nice, so people know that they’re getting their money’s worth.

then i need to go ahead and make the new themes.

and then i need to finish the download page and make PayPal links.

then i need to sort through my files and put back together the transmothra version with the updated files i made for the commercial, genericized version.

then i need to upload the whole mess.

and then i’m rolling!

this could all be done tonight, actually, if it weren’t for that damn bradfitz, with his accursed LiveJournal site. i am hopelessly addicted to my friends page. i am so addicted, in fact, that i saw everything you wrote before you remembered to filter it all away from me. i need help.

UTTER NONSENSE:
just added a settings file that will allow a default theme to be easily set, rather than defaulting to the “mars surface” theme. also made the drop-down theme selector pre-select to whatever the current theme is, even if no cookie is set (thanks to the default setting).

now i will take scenequeen‘s suggestion and try to fix how the “donate” and “valid XHTML” things scroll up past the menu in Mozilla and browsers that abide by the position:fixed style rule. unfortunately, MSIE tends to get confused and screw everything up horribly, which is why i initially abandoned trying to make it nicer.

translation:

i’m doing some last minute cleaning of the style files on the you-know-what*.

only a couple people have looked at the thing or given feedback.

i am getting more and more pessimistic about the things that i do and pretend are accomplishments.

i put all my time and energy into things that make me feel like i am contributing in some small way to the world; when i am finished, i always see the same thing when i look back: people going about their business as if nothing had ever happened. it is painfully obvious that i am wasting my time, and yet i cannot stop.

no wonder why i quit making visual art.
no wonder why i quit making music.
no wonder why i quit writing stories.
no wonder why i quit writing poetry.
no wonder why i quit athletics.
no wonder why i quit.

the fact is that nobody cares, and they sure shouldn’t be expected to anyway.

indisputable:
i am a mean and heartless yet overly sensitive person.
i’m not particularly good at any of the things that i do.
i’m not a very interesting or enjoyable person.
i am vain and self-centered.

* i can’t use the word “mars” or most people will automatically skip the entire entry, apparently

it would be a crime not to pass on this link.

the more i actually discuss this thing with people, the more i learn that other people just aren’t huge dorks like me who haven’t seen sunlight in weeks.

thank you for that.

a clarification, without any pseudo-techie crap-talk or gimp-mouthing about nonsensical garbage:

the mars s.t.s. is a website.

that’s it. it’s a pre-made website-in-a-box. all you do is add words and stuff to it. it’s already designed and built.

the reason why i talk about themes and skins and templates is because if you look up to the top of the screen you’ll see a drop-down box. that box lets a surfer pick what your website looks like from a variety of pre-made styles.

it’s just a website.

here it is: this is a mars s.t.s. website in action.

hope that helps.

sorry!

i guess the reason why i use made-up words and stuff is because i really would like to feel like i actually know about something of which i really, honestly, know nothing whatsoever about. sometimes i think i just like to pretend that i’m smart or something. maybe that’s because people used to think that i was, and expected me to be, but i really wasn’t. maybe i think i can still fool people like that; i don’t know. if you ask anybody who makes websites for a living, they will tell you that all that crap i’ve been saying simply makes no sense. it’s all just made up. i have inferiority or superiority issues or whatever, and that is the “Bob”‘s honest Truth, as plainly as i can relate it to you. i will now try hard to stop trying to blow people’s minds with my petty pretensions about intelligence. because in the end, that’s really rather pathetic, isn’t it?

sometimes it sucks having your own website. i really should just go ahead and take down the old submitted poems page. people still send me stuff, and it almost NEVER is anything good. consider the following… i assume that the writer actually thinks that this is a poem. and before you start judging me about my snottiness, read until the end. i emailed them back about it.

whatever. i never know what to say to cutters. half the girls i know online are or used to be cutters. i used to cut myself, too. but what can a person say? no one knows anything. Self is destiny. Self is a person’s only Power, but until people start to learn how to use and control their Selfs, they will continue to let life damage their Souls and will honestly suffer for it.

i wish i could help. i do. but only the Self can help a broken spirit such as this.

with HTML’s content reciprocator verified almost to PHP website standardization anomalies, CSS specs generally seem to use default themesets until hypertext transmits the NRBQ protocol to the browser. this means, essentially, that any time a user queries the stripslash() algorhythm, the system’s vending mechanism gets stuck in reverse.

nothing above this line makes any sense for a reason. i just wanted to see if anyone reads anything past the acronyms (or, hell, past the word “mars” for that matter). show of hands?

which raises the question, does substandard transfer ratios utilize hypertext in the proper direction, or is the charset increased by one each time? XML entities use properties normally associated with ambivalent -BUT- retroactive whitespace. and that almost ALWAYS seems to cause the engine to simplify raw data beyond sourcing limitations! there is a way around this, however, and i believe that i need to try using modularization of infostrata to achieve bipolarity within the output, but before it hits the scanning sensor’s anti-flux storage receptacle.

i have looked and i have looked, but the answers just do not seem to be forthcoming.

right now i’m replacing all the content files with default content that doesn’t promote or explain the mars system. just placeholder text and stuff like that to get people started. there are plenty of comments for the HTML newbie.

in other words, all that text that you see on the mars site won’t be necessary to people who download and use the system, obviously, so i’m replacing it all with “welcome to my new site!”-type junk, just to get folks going.

i had a LOT of content files. you can see all or most of them with Mozilla, if you have the Site Navigation Toolbar on. go to “chapters,” under “document,” and you’ll see all the content files that the system detected on the server. there’s like a dozen or something. i’m going to reduce that to just three i think.

should i make them all the same? or should i make them into something simple and stupid like “my homepage” and “my pictures” and “my links” for people to get started with? i’m just not sure. i really don’t want it to be cheesy like that, but sometimes you have to hold people’s hands a little.

i think i’ll do one last enhancement to it though… a settings file that will toggle automatic line breaking on or off. that way, it will actually be possible to write content files with ZERO HTML. i don’t know how feasible this actually will be though. i know how to replace a newline or linebreak with the HTML tag for a break, but i’m not actually sure where or how this would be called into action. we’ll see. it’s no big deal, since it only reduces the amount of HTML one must know from a single tag to none.

oh, and just so we’re clear on the concept:
the content of the site only actually needs about as much HTML as you would put into your livejournal textarea when creating a new post, assuming you had “don’t auto-format” checked. and like i said, i may be able to auto-format line breaks soon, too.

okay, it’s a website-maker thingy.

feedback will be appreciated.

(for more infoze)

i have the worst time opening up those 20-oz bottles of soda-pop. just when i think i’ve got one opened, i look under the cap and see a message that says, “try again.”

MARS s.ite t.emplating s.ystem major announcement follows…

release date:
pending feedback, i think i have a release date set, or at least in mind: Friday the 13^th!

special request to LiveJournallers:
if you have not seen the mars s.t.s. yet, please do a brutha a flavor and go see the damn thing and give me feedback. and be as brutally honest as you can be, because you know i have put everything i have in me into this thing and i want it to go over as well as is possible.

selling points:

i just added a nifty little treat to the mars s.t.s. – it checks the contents of the “content” directory, strips away the “content_” prefix and “.php” suffix, and then makes a list of the chapters for use in the site navigation toolbar in modern browsers like Mozilla!

this thing may not look like much, but it’s getting to be fairly swank!

…and speaking of modern browsers, those of you still using Infernal Exploiter might like to know that Microsoft is no longer planning on releasing any more standalone browsers. from now on, you’ll need to upgrade your Operating System just to get the newer versions of the current most popular browser. this means that if you’re happy with your Operating System, and/or are not planning on buying the next flavor of Windows, you will not be seeing any version of Internet Explorer above v.6 SP1. that’s right – IE7 is not for you, cheapskate. so you might as well go ahead and get with the program and either spend some more money making Bill Gates an even richer bastard than he is… or head on over to Mozilla.org or Opera.com and grab up a browser that’s already been flying miles above the vastly outdated Internet Explorer 6 for a while now.

god, don’t you people ever slow down?! okay… everybody just go see _hellion and thee_kaos_child for all your controversial and Truly Patriotic linkage please. and add This Modern World, and creator Tom Tomorrow’s blog, to your syndication.
modrnwrld_blog
modrnwrld_comic

also, mistressxenobia is selling off her modeling/talent agency, and seanp could really use a couple bucks to help out his overworked mom and still appease his own landlord (he’s already going on three jobs, plus college!). don’t forget to watch for his forthcoming album, the wonderfully-titled Withstand the Whatnot – it’s gonna be the best, most original indie rock you’ve heard in years.

oh yeah… picked up the blues harp today, for the first time in literally centuries! was playing primo blues in zero seconds flat, which was a nice feeling indeed, to say the very least. it’s funny – sometimes if i go for months without playing the guitar, i’ll pick it up and actually have better chops somehow. which reminds me… it’s now been about 2 1/2 years since i’ve played any of my electrics (only one of which even works – the “Red Frankenstein” (it needs some hardcore work done to it though)).

gotta go. got some interesting new ideas to polish mars s.t.s. with… must also go get Orudis-KT for my badfinger, eat, and do some more dog training.

if i am just a little bit lucky, then my site templating system‘s engine is actually complete. complete! the backend seems to be done! finished! (it’s not uploaded yet, but you wouldn’t notice anything anyway, since it’s the guts of the thing that i just tore down and rebuilt.)

i was shocked by how simple the final little bits were. it wasn’t hard at all. not a bit. only took a few minutes to do, in fact.

i almost feel like having a wrap party! i would, except that i always hate it when not one single person shows up. i mean, shit maing!

now i just need to whip up a couple extra simple templates for it, and see how well it handles brand new untested themes.

then i gotta

• zip up different packages,
• make links for them (including PayPal links and download counters),
• redo some of the instructions,
• give the downloads page a better table,
• and that’s that.

and that’s that!

so, seriously… is it really that bad? has anyone seen it yet?

but at least the English-to-Chinese-to-English translation of my default content is amusing, if nothing else…

(although it does kind of smell like they’re going to be distributing it, which i don’t care for, considering i did it to make MYSELF a couple extra bucks. at least it’s just the beta, which was a little buggy anyway.)

seems to be some confusion about one of the links i posted yesterday. that was the first time i stumbled upon a copy of the mars s.t.s. being used on a site other than diziara‘s or my own. so it was kind of cool, like finding a speck of gold in 300 grains of dirt. or like walking down the street and hearing one of your songs coming from someone’s radio. not that any of those things have ever happened, but i guess that’s why it seemed so cool at first.

i do wish they had left the copyright notice intact, though. i stated in the license that additions are completely encouraged, but claiming credit for the system isn’t.

the vastly improved engine should be done in just a matter of days, i think. maybe even sooner.

sad as it is to have to report such a thing, sadder still is the actual pointing out: that happiness is not always relevant; it is only an ideal state. it is only ideal. Truth is by far more relevant, more important, in any circumstance; and that is a happy thing, even if the Truth be sad.

see also:
interesting fictional creation myth, along with my stupid quiz (??)

thank “Bob” for SiteMeter!