So here it is folks. After fighting with Netscape for awhile, and waiting breathlessly for an opportunity for blogger not to be down, Version 3.0 is up.
The whole fun thing about this redesign is that i’ve designed a few different layouts (5 so far), that are set to load randomly. So hit reload a few times and see all the different styles. Also this means i can update colors and layouts whenever i find a new font or decide that today i like green and purple together.
I started this redesign way back in july, but it got pushed back like unpaid redesigns so often do. Keep in mind that the Archives and Riffraff sections are still in the works. Yeah, and also that, like, everything’s a work in progress, ok.
And props to les for writing the sooper-dooper randomizer script.
“I think you’re like, overreacting.”
I forgot how i got here, but it’s like hysterical.
AH HA! I have found the problem! In case anyone is wondering: Netscape 4.7 reads file paths differently than everyone else. If you have a path to a file in your CSS document, one would think that it should be relative to that document. It is, except on netscape 4.7 (NN6 has fixed it). Netscape 4.7 makes it relative to the html document that the style sheet defines. Lame.
So i sucked it up and spent Saturday at the Louvre. It wasn’t as bad as i feared because, one, i had a free entrance ticket, and two, i know about a secret side entrance which never has a line. If you are planning a visit here and are intending to go, drop me a note and i’ll tell you where it is. The main line outside the pyramids is like a mile long cause there is only one metal detector for the entire thing. Anyway, i only really wanted to see the Rembrandt room which was, of course, closed for no apparent reason. So i had my rio and i just hung out in the sculpture garden watching people and statues for nearly 2 hours. Twice, suspicious-seeming security people came and stood next to me. I’m not sure why, but they left after a few minutes a piece. I like hanging out in sculpture gardens, there’s something sort of surreal about it. Like all the kids running through naked marble men pierced with arrows, weird, no?
Oh and on Friday night i horrified myself by saying, “I’ll ask him to explain me how to do that”. In case you don’t know, this grammatical error is the quintessential mistake that a french person speaking english makes. So great, my french is barely improving, but my english is hurrying along down the toilet.
Sunday, i worked on the overly-talked about redesign of this site. It’s just about done. Except that i am having trouble getting my background image to load on netscape 4.x browsers. I am doing it through a style sheet – and it just will not work, and i have no idea why the fuck not. This is the the code:
body {
background:#EF7752 url(img3/pomp_bck.gif);
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}
Can anyone help me? So once i get that sorted out, or once i decide to screw netscape, i’ll just need to do all the transferring, and then there you’ll have it.
Hype du jour : AOL Wireless
As i am always on the cutting edge of wireless technology these days, i’ve of course been researching mobile phone instant messaging. It seems all the service providers are scrambling to find a messaging partner. I’ve already dedicated myself to AOL, so that’s the link i posted. All this is great news for us AIM addicts, or as dori aptly calls it, digicrack. You know who you are, missing meetings from an engrossing chat, having 5 messaging sessions at a time, getting all glowy after a sweet aim with that certain dude…
I can say officially that the year has started off great! Let me tell you why. Today at lunch, i went to the bank. Now i haven’t chronicled my adventures with the bank (Fortis Banque for the curious cats among us). It has been an experiment in torture. Until today. It’s been so excruciating, in fact, that i can’t write about. I can’t even think about it without getting knots in my stomach and my knuckles clenching and the tendonitis in my right hand flaring up like a thread of fire. No kidding. It’s been that bad.
But on monday i managed to get my bank card, a mere 5 months since i first requested it. Anyway, now that i could get to my money i went to deposit some checks in another branch at lunch today. Miraculously all the words came to me, the tellers pleasantly fulfilled my requests, even helping me fill out the deposit slip which i had never done before. And then the really great part: Next to me i notice a man struggling with another teller. I stood quietly for a moment, listening. The guy was American. He wanted to withdraw money. He hadn’t a bank card yet and this was not the branch where he opened his account. I knew instantly he was SOL. He did not. He couldn’t understand the teller, and the teller could only vaguely understand him. But i understood. Oh lawd, did i understand. I turned to him and explained the situation. His face lit up at my perfect command of english and my wealth of knowledge about french personal banking. In fact i really don’t know much, but i do know about this bank card thing. Do i ever. I explained to him how he’d have to go back the branch where he opened the account, ask for a bank card, sign a bunch of papers and pray for it to arrive before another change in currency. At the original branch he may even be able to withdraw money if the planets are aligned just so. He thanked me profusely and went off on his aggravated way. And then, get this, the bank teller smiled at me and thanked me. She smiled and thanked me. She actually smiled and then thanked me! Wow. I was practically skipping back to work. And i am *so* not kidding.
The New York Times – The Year in Pictures
Especially nice is Margaret O’Connor’s narration which i instinctively stopped when the page loaded. But then later i turned the sound back on and quite liked it.
A new post for the new year. I’m a such a sucker for this new year reflection crap. And it’s easy to think of all the stupid things and bad luck that top the last year. And it’s also easy to think of all the good luck and beauty. But when you want to sum it all neatly it’s hard to think of it all just sort of put together. All of it is messy. And boring too. And then it marches on like that indefinitely.
When i was here in Paris with my grandfather at about 11 or 12 years old, he took me up to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. There are all these sketch artists who do these drawings for tourists. Some of them are caricatures, some of them are landscapes, fruit, and a lot of parisian cityscapes. At least that is what i remember from it, as i haven’t been back since i’ve been here this time. I remember the whole place depressing me a lot. I liked to draw a lot then, and i thought all these poor artists trying to sell their wares to dull tourists were the saddest lot of humanity ever. Obviously enough i hadn’t yet had a day job. When i think of it now, i don’t think them sad at all anymore. You take what you can get, and a lot of the time it’s pretty damn decent.
New Angeles Monthly, June 2008
Weekend America, March 30, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2008
Nil by Mouth is written by Neille Ilel. Neille is a writer, reporter and user interface specialist in Los Angeles. If you think that's a lot, she's also got a host of meandering sidelines including improv comedy, tennis, cooking, drawing and thinking about learning to play the guitar.
Nil is her given name. It's a long story.
E-mail her here:
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