Yep, that was when I first learned how to program for the web, learning HTML 3 (soon after, HTML 4), and using advanced tools like HTMLDog, Microsoft Image Creator and Frontpage 3 - and liked it.  It was the salad days of web design - you were designing for competing browsers, which had different standards, and fighting to ensure that all of the newest technologies worked with those browsers and the web in general.  Of course, then it was newcomer Internet Explorer vs. giant Netscape, and the ‘new technologies’ were things like JavaScript 1.0, CGI scripts and that new .jpg format thing (ask Van about that one sometime).

What was Writer’s World?

Writer’s World was an attempt by my buddy Mike E. and I to take over the world of writing and writing help on the web.  It was a noble attempt - we put up articles, offered links to others, accepted short story and article submissions, and more.  We were ahead of our time - but also very much out of our minds.  It was a lot of work to run a website back then, particularly one that you offered a subscription to.  Taking payments was a very manual process and I think it probably cost us more to take them than we were charging (okay, maybe it just seemed that way).  And it was a LOT of work to write all of the articles we were coming up with on a monthly basis.  Sure, we got some help at the end, but we were trying to do it mostly ourselves on top of working real jobs that were bringing in the money.  So, it was a noble effort, as I said, but one that was struggling before I came back east.  After that, it was pretty much doomed - the internet was in no way the quick communicator it was then, and trying to send large files back and forth was a nightmare.

Admire that (lack of) Design

Look closely at this prime example of 1999 programming (especially using FrontPage - although I think it was increasing frustration with this site that started me hand-coding nearly everything). The elegant use of tables (AND borders), the exquisite combination of ridiculous font colors (with their associated <font> tags), and that wonderful use of images to create a multitude of banner-like calls-to-action throughout the site. Marvel at the overwhelming use of banners at the base of the page - one of the hallmarks of 1999 programming, including all of those awards for being such a cool site at the time — never mind that we were probably 1 of 1,307 sites on the web of more than one, long scrolling page.

But all was not bad design. There were some nice features on the site (which I hope to resurrect, if for nothing else but it’s amusement value) - we had some pretty nice biographies (Samuel Beckett here, Philip K. Dick and Edgar Allen Poe other months), and if you notice, you’ll see a link for an interview with Hard Sci-Fi master Greg Bear. We also had a feature - “Interview from the Grave” - which was our take of an interview from a long-dead author brought to the modern day. Okay, Richard Pryor we were not, but we thought it amusing at the time.

Still, I have fond memories of it - writing, editing, learning how to do HTML and work with the new image software (instead of pen, pencil and paper). Looking back, those tools were … well, they weren’t very good, as the backlash on Frontpage would later reveal. But it was an eye-opening experience, and one that started me on the long and winding path to where I am today.

Daily Links

• Simpsons Star Wars intro - pretty funny spoof
• 7 Wonders of the Modern World - Indexed.com - one of her better ones in a while. I’m going to go around talking about DF all the time…
• Police dash-cam of meteorite (video) - very cool video.
• Uproar over federal drilling leases next to national parks - Good ol’ Bush just can’t stop screwing the environment, can he?
• For Tasmanian Devils, Hope Against a Wily Cancer

And then it happened. I was sitting there stroking his head when suddenly my body went numb. Well, not numb - more of like a full head-to-toe head rush, with my entire body buzzing uncontrollably, and I was unable to move my hands or legs. Shari asked me to help with Miles, and suddenly all I could say was, “I don’t feel well… I, I, I, I, I…” I couldn’t finish the sentence - my whole head was buzzing, I was having trouble focusing my eyes, and I literally couldn’t speak. My mouth was full of marbles and my brain was too focused on the the “wah-wah-wah” sound that it couldn’t make the rest of my body do anything.

Shari panicked - she had a dog having a seizure and a husband that appeared to be following suit. For my part, I could hear her talking but I literally couldn’t respond. I tried - my mouth opened and I couldn’t form words. Eventually, I was able to say “I think I need a hospital” and “I can’t move”. She tried to get me to move my hands, and I could only barely lift them. I couldn’t get up - the best I could do was slump over onto the floor. My breathing was erratic, and I suddenly had broken out in a huge sweat. She ran to get the phone.

Meanwhile, Miles had recovered somewhat and was out in the yard but he started shaking again. I was finally able to get my feet under me and walk, although I was very wobbly and my hands were buzzing terribly - like I had been holding a weed whacker for hours and hours. I came outside where Shari said he was having another seizure - or maybe a continuation of the previous one. I went back inside and sat down and she came back in. Miles seemed better, and we called the ambulance for me.

In the end, everything checked out - my blood pressure was a little low (but it always is), and I was a bit shaky, but I have to wonder how much of that had to do with the incident rather than any real side effect. We’re all pretty shaken up, and I’m really, really tired but it seems that the worst is over - whatever it was. We decided to not go to the hospital, but I will be making a doctor’s appointment. Now, we’re wondering if it might have been a combination of being half-awake dealing with Miles’ situation and maybe a panic attack, although I have never had a panic attack or anything even remotely like what I experienced. Hopefully, it’s nothing - just a one-time thing that came out of nowhere, scared the hell out of me and now is gone. Because it’s not something that I ever want to experience again.

It was a less productive weekend than it was supposed to be, and I blame the miserable weather. It really rained all of Saturday, and today was a windstorm that prevented me from doing most of the stuff that I wanted to outside. I did, however, spend a good amount of time picking up, sweeping, scooping and vacuuming dog hair out of every corner of our house. I swear that they are dropping a pound of hair every time they move.

On a lighter note, I did get some good stuff done that I had been putting off. Now that we have our finances more organized, I was able to get some computer hardware that I needed - a new Seagate 1TB internal hard drive, and a new scanner to scan images from my grandfather’s collection. I can’t wait to play with them.

Phillies: a month later

I also finally went through my pictures from the Phillies World Series Championship parade. You can check out the whole set here (or click on the image to go to the set). It was fun going back through the pictures, although I’m still a little bummed that a) I was shooting through glass when I had my D200 and b) that my D200 ran out of battery just before the Phillies went by (hence the iPhone shots). Oh well.

* = there is no scientific proof this fact is true.

Weekender Links

• Amazing animal pictures - I wish I was getting shots like these.
• Man creates sculptures that fit inside eye of a needle - amazing stuff.
• New Watchmen trailer - wow, I really want to see this movie.

Part of it was probably the depression over Penn State’s loss to Iowa - I’m still a bit in shock that they allowed their national championship hopes to be dashed like that. It was Minnesota (2001?) all over again. Part of it was probably sheer exhaustion from the endless work I’ve been doing it. Part of it was that my body needed to stop.

I did get out to bird last weekend for a short while, although the birding was less than exciting - the wind and wetness really kept the birds away, for the most part. But I did get a chance to see this young snapping turtle crossing the road at FDR Park (go ahead, make the joke):

I worked around the house some this weekend, too, trying to straighten up with Shari being at a shoot on Sunday (see some of her pix here, here and here), and a photography seminar with Cliff Mautner all week (that is, Cliff Mautner - voted one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world. Not a bad teacher, I must say). With her away, it gave me a chance to catch up on some reading and movies that she wouldn’t sit through.

Watchin’

I watched “Stargate: Continuum” on Sunday, which wasn’t half-bad. It wasn’t great and there wasn’t nearly the action in it that I would have expected but it was a heck of a site better than the really boring and trite “Stargate: Ark of Truth”, which was really an insult to most fans. I also watched M. Night Shamalyan’s “Signs” again, as I had only seen it once. I still like it, despite most people putting it down, although I can definitely see some of the shortcomings of it compared to his opus, “The Sixth Sense”.

Readin’

I started reading “The Kite Runner” after a long traipse in the shallow end with a trio of Star Wars books: the first two books of the Coruscant Nights trilogy (“Jedi Twilight” and “Street of Shadows”), and the new “Millenium Falcon”. Michael Reeves, author of the trilogy, really irks me with his writing style - he tries too hard to prove how smart he is by a) making 1,001 references back to the movies and his other books, and b) creating parallels cliches, metaphors and sayings to our own. Example, “You know what they say, ‘Don’t count the bantha cubs before they’re born’.”. C’mon, really? The stories themselves aren’t that great, either - trapped between being for an adolescent reader and an adult, they fail at the latter level.

“Millenium Falcon”, by James Luceno, was better. The story idea is pretty cool - two owners of the famous ship, one from the past and Han Solo, are tracking the history to find the secret to a lost treasure. Jadak, a former owner is following the trail of who had the ship after he ‘died’ nearly 70 years ago. Han, on the other hand, is investigating the trail backward before he got the ship from Lando Calrissian. Getting the back-story of the ship was very interesting, but the rest of the surrounding story was a bit weaker. The payoff for the ‘treasure’ was really weak and actually brought the whole book down, making it feel like little more than a filler novel that will lead into the upcoming “Fate of the Jedi” series in 2009.

Linkin’

And now, because I’m tired, are some simple links.

• Functioning Form - Web Form Design: Goodreads Review - hey, that’s my review!
• Early Star Wars Storyboards Flickr set - there are some real treasures in here.
• Facebox - a Facebook-style lightbox script
• Haboob Sandstorm - someone took this video with their cellphone.

But, the pain was assuaged by two things. One, found on Gizmodo:

And the other, which brings out my Star Wars geek — I’ve officially asked for this for my birthday, now that they are back on sale:

That said, I’m hoping that I’m coming down the home stretch for a bit. I’ve launched one of my two side projects (and finished most of what I need to do on the other one - or at least I hope I have…). We’ve launched 3 major projects recently (see below), as well as a number of smaller updates. And we’ve kicked off a double-handful of new work with ridiculously aggressive timelines that it seems like we’ve actgually managed to meet (or have at least done so for my part of it).

Recent Projects

PulmicortRespules.com :: the new brand website which we tore apart and put together to increase its usability and user-appeal. It was especially fun because we were able to do 3 rounds of user studies to nail down what people really wanted.
AKC Pro :: A new tool for physicians to send their patients information about pediatric asthma and Pulmicort.
FacingBipolar.com :: An unbranded website dealing with bipolar disorder/bipolar depression.

Going Forward

So, another week or so of some intense work and then I hope to take some of the time I’ve accrued and saved up for a couple of extra days off. Shari’s going to be busy with a bunch of photography stuff for much of the week, but maybe I’ll get a chance to steal away to Forsythe NWR to see some waterfowl. AND I’m hoping to have some time to catch up on this blog, read the long-neglected blogs of others, catch up on some ia/ux-related articles and blogs, do some photography and basically relax.

And who knows, maybe start planning for a trip to the Orange Bowl in January?

Less than Normal

• The Hypocrisy of the World Wildlife Fund’s Eco Tour (Wired.com)
• I Hate Nature
• Urban Golf (video) - this looks like fun.
• Star Wars Comes to Business - Real-Life Holograms - more impressive was CNN’s election night version. Amazing stuff.
• Earth From Above - looks like an amazing exhibit.

• The Flyers beat the Devils TWICE in a home-and-home series
• The Eagles win
• Penn State beat Ohio State at the Horseshoe for the first time in 30 years.
• And (for me) finally saw Dallas win another game.
• And in the coup de grace, the Phillies win Games 3 & 4 of the World Series on the way to their 50-hour Game 5 victory to win the World Series

I can’t wait to head down to the parade today. I’m taking my camera although I’m not entirely sure that I’ll use it in the crowd. But who cares - the Phils won the World Series!!

We had gotten the word from my aunt that he was going downhill again, and so I left work to try to get to see him. My father was coming back from North Carolina to see him. It seemed evident that the end was near and that he would not likely make it to election day. Unfortunately, by the time I made it home from work, I realized that by the time I got through traffic, he would be sleeping. So I made my plans to go see him Saturday morning. My father did the same.

I was just about to get in the shower when the call came - he had died that night. There would be no visit that day, or ever again.

Saturday was a blur. I made my way to my parents while we waited for plans to be made. I called my sister to let her know and to see if she would be coming up. Shari was hosting a photography seminar, and was committed to a dozen photogs, so had to give moral support via phone. I remember eating at my parents, talking to them, listening to the usual drama that surrounds most conversations about my family. But when I got home that night to Shari’s arms, it was tough to really tell her what had transpired throughout the day. The only thing that resonated was the simple fact that my grandfather - that old curmudgeon - wouldn’t be there to give me shit, to lambaste the liberals, decry the failings of the government and to talk of the past, all with a twinkle in his eye.

Strangely, I didn’t have any guilt about not making it down threw night before, for would have been his last night on earth. No, the last time I had seen him was how I wanted to remember him - more mentally together than he had been in years, and offering up wisdom that lacked his usual edge. His final words to me were his dying thoughts, his legacy; I can’t imagine any better way to picture him in my mind.

The final goodbye

Now we begin our days without our patriarch, the man who - for better or worse - was the head of the family. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad blood in my family that is rearing its ugly head now, and I can only hope that people can be civil to each other until well after the funeral on Thursday. For me, I just want to say my final goodbyes, to remember a man who did so much for me and who I know loved me although he would never say the words.

Goodbye, Ol’ Curmudgeon, and I will see you on the other side. Until then, don’t harass those liberals up there too much.

But what to do when you’re wife doesn’t want to watch the entire Game 1? When she wants to watch that episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” on the DVR? Well, you stand up in all of your masculinity, put your foot down and tell her firmly, “Well, then … I’m going to have to go upstairs to watch it.”

That’ll learn ‘er.