Ugh...

Been very depressed and unproductive lately. I did upload some stuff to my deviantArt page today though.

New Jewelry Catalog content added

I've added 4 new items to my Jewelry Catalog. One pin in the "Animals" section and and 3 pairs of earrings in the "Human" section. Here are the thumbnails:

location... location... location...

Riddle me this, Batman -
Why is the link to a person's Blog page at the very bottom of their profile? Sure, I can just hit the end key to get to the link, but wouldn't it make more sense for the blog link on the blogger's profile page on the Blogger site be at the top since it's all about the blog?! Blog blogblog, blog blog-blog blog. Above the "Contact" section of the sidebar seems like a fitting locale, not where it is presently. Can I get an "Amen, brutha"?

Finally!

I got the jewelry catalog finished. It got tedious at the end because I had to tinker with the HTML on all the item pages to get the shopping cart buttons working, test them all (at least twice), and proof-read everything for the hundredth time. Then I had a little fiasco with moving and renaming a directory and letting Dreamweaver update all the links when I really didn't mean for it to. Oops! I had to backtrack a bit later and figure out how to fix it without taking hours. Anyway... The not-ready-for-prime-time is now ready and open for business. Step right this way... (Be forewarned; if you are on dialup, it may take a half minute or so to load. Once the main frameset, graphics, tables, and frames are up it'll go much smoother since you'll only be pulling down a few images at a time and the framework will remain in place.)

Oh...

And an updated screenshot of how the catalog is coming along:

Aaagghh!

I've missed my self-imposed deadline to have a servicable online jewelry catalog by the end of the 15th. :-( I keep futzing with the thing trying to get it perfect. Not all wasted time, here though. I think it's going to look great; my only worry is how big a hit it'll be for folks on dialup. It's pretty heavy with frames and tables, let alone all the graphics. Still, I think it's going to be worth it. All the late nights redesigning the layup and trying to figure out stylesheets, spending a day with my camera under a sheet with two 250watt halogen floodlamps toasting me while I try to get good pictures of my work, getting steamed as Dreamweaver crashes time and time again when I tried to change a certain value in a table (never figured out the problem), etc. All worth it - you'll see! Just a couple more days... Thing is, as soon as I'm done I know I'm going to be rethinking the whole thing as I learn to use Flash and stuff. Sigh... Here's the sauna / Photo-Tent o' Doom:

Dreamweaver

I got bogged down in my web site progress by switching from Frontpage to Dreamweaver in mid stream. As I'm learning Dreamweaver I can definately see it will suit my style better. Here's a shot of what the Jewelry Catalog is looking like so far:

I'm still thinking I can go live with online ordering by the end of the 15th this month. Just two days to go... Yikes!

Obviously

I need to do more work on my blog template/style sheet. This page looks like crap. That may be my next project after I get my jewelry catalog on my web site fully functional.

I-24 Closed Due to Gunfire

I don't know the details yet, but I just found out that I-24 was closed in the Harding Road area while police persued a gunman... Even as I type, it looks like they may have caught him with a K-9 unit. Apparently he was fleeing after an attempted home invasion. Here are a couple of traffic cam shots I captured during the event:

Good timing

Looks like I picked a good time to come back to Blogger. Lots o' nice, new features. :-)

I'll be damned...

Another (not-so-)little bugger showed up! I woke up in the middle of the night to hear a buzzing which demanded investigation. I hit the "all lights on" button on one of my X-10 remotes and started looking. By this time the buzzing abruptly stopped, but I thought I had a heading and ventured out into the living room. after several minutes of searching I was about to give up, but then I heard it again coming from the kitchen. Sure enough, scooting across the floor toward the computer room (aka dining room) was another caterpillar hunter. This guy, though smaller than the other, was no less swift. He picked a handy spot to be found though as I was able to grab an old Cool Whip container to scoop him up in. Another half-step and I was in reach of my camera to snap a now familiar subject. Hopefully this was a mate to the other and they somehow piggybacked in on my art show displays from last weekend; otherwise, I might be looking at a peculiar (albeit pretty) infestation as I discovered here, UA Arthropod Museum, that these beetles can be found in bunches. Not really a pleasing prospect when I think about rolling over one in bed and getting chomped and sprayed with stinky stuff. Anyway, due to the hour, this one was unceremoniously tossed out from my balcony instead of escorted to a bush like its partner in crime. Not a problem apparently since this one likes to fly more than this species usually does. Here's beetle number two's portrait:

A Visitor

I'm a loner. Maybe by choice, maybe by circumstance. Either way; I'm not very close with my family, I have practically no friends, and there are no romantic prospects anywhere on the horizon. I am very alone. But, today I had a visitor. Resplendent in metallic green and copper, this visitor scuttled across my bathroom floor like a tumbling gemstone. The caterpillar hunter is a fast and feisty critter and getting a photo was tough. Here it is, a solitary hunter out of its element - sort of like me:

This is a test to determine if I should use Blogger for my site news...