I won’t be responding to any email or IMs (or comments in moderation - the threshold is pretty high, so if you comment and it doesn’t show up, it’s probably waiting for me to get back) for the next several days, as I’ll be out of town and without computer access.  Joy, I didn’t get a chance to take care of that site issue I emailed you about; I haven’t noticed any problems, so we’re probably okay anyway, but if you want to deal with it while I’m away, that’s okay too.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Oh, all right, Dr. Seuss I ain’t

Anyway, last night I decided to show my dad the trailer for the new Batman movie; my boss had showed me at work, and I’d written down the URL so I could find it again later. Unfortunately, I wrote it down wrong. It wasn’t ATasteOfTheTheatrical.com, it was www.ATasteFORTheTheatrical.com, which is much more entertaining and less frustrating.
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As you may be aware, I follow a few writing websites and newsletters, and I generally take a look at the freelance job postings, because 1) I am very good at writing, and 2) making money in my spare time is an appealing thought.  Anyway, today I came across a job posting that sounded mildly interesting, if only because they’re looking for multiple writers for projects they didn’t bother to describe in detail.  Out of curiosity, I checked their webpage.

Holy Wall-O-Text, Batman!

I debated sending them an email advising changes in their web design, but I’ve found that most people don’t want to hear it.  Their web designer is quite possibly related to the publishing company, based on the fact that the web designer’s page includes an affiliate link to a web business book on the publisher’s site.  They are (still) attempting to make horribly-out-of-style reciprocal linking work for them, they have cute-but-tacky images everywhere, and for some reason they insist on linking every possible category at the top AND left of the page.  Worse, the top links are rainbow file tabs, with the remaining links that wouldn’t fit in tabs lined up under them in a row that won’t fit neatly in my 1024×768 screen.  Last I saw, the majority of web surfers were still sticking with 800×600, though 1024×768 is gaining in popularity with the growth of higher resolution video cards.  My current card won’t go lower than 1024×768, and I don’t want to go higher, because I’m already nearsighted enough.

I don’t know what they’re using for a cart system, but it’s…well, ugly.  I’m much happier with what I’ve managed to do with OSCommerce for CDLauryl.com (not that you can see it yet; I’m still working on it - maybe after New Year’s I’ll be ready to bring it live).  I think they’d be better off using OSCommerce, too, if they’re able to handle CSS at all.

Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to apply.  If I wanted to write How To Get a Job guides (and comparably mundane non-fiction), I could publish them myself and skip the middleman.

Ever have one of those days when nothing works?  Yeah, I’m about at “call a massive EMP to wipe out all computerized technology in the city” level of frustration.  Sigh.  Stupid machines.