:: theMediaman journal ::

:: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 ::

Okay, I get email from I AM CANADIAN because there's sometimes some good offers. However, I get this email asking me

"We know you've got Canadian Pride. But how much exactly?"

The whole promotion is pushing a MasterCard with the I AM CANADIAN labelling all over it. At first I was truly tempted. However, I looked in the fine-print for the bank that was financing the card.

Well, to start... I have enough Canadian Pride not to get a credit card from MBNA, which is an American-based bank.

We have five banks based in Canada... so even though there's a Canadian flag on it, I find it more Canadian to give my money to a Canadian institution, than pay an American to label me as a Canadian.

:: Stephen 5:58 PM [+] ::

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Late last night (around 2:00 AM) I made some changes to the site. The most important would have to be the main page, which has been changed to use an adapted version of my Geek Manifesto I wrote a few years back. Creating text links has been shown to be one of the most effective methods of navigation for several years now (Note to self: include link to that book I read a few years ago).

Additionally, I seem to have a real soft-spot in my heart for "retro-coding". All this XML crap is getting out of hand. Even the 5K Challenge competition is rewarding overly complex toys using plugins like Flash, rather than rewarding compatibility.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Flash Geek, and love doing these cool animations exclusively through code, but there are times when I long for the days of 1995 when all links were  blue  or  purple,  Times New Roman was the default font, and all your text and images were on #CCCCCC  because Netscape 1.0 didn't support background colours.

That's probably why I kept the new Dark City HEPC page so simple... well, that and the fact that it was already 1:50 AM and I wanted to get SOMETHING up.

Currently, theMediaman.com is a collection of mini-sites... some of which are only one page long. *sigh* I'm going to deconstruct the site and rebuild it with some sort of universal nav system. If I do that, then I'd be better than the Ryerson Image Arts site, where they teach New Media, but don't bother demonstrating basic usability on their own site. (Just try to find the link back to the Image Arts homepage from the New Media mini-site... *hint* there isn't one)

At least we can stop hating frames. The message seems to have gotten across that they were a good idea in principle, but a disaster in execution. For the most part, the only place where you still see them is 100% frames that mask the URL.

Finally, I've said it many times before, but I don't think I've ever written it here.

The Blink Tag Rule

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" - Comes from the excessive use of <BLINK> in early HTML sites. Some pages had lime-green, blinking paragraphs on purple backgrounds. Besides being difficult to read and just plain ugly, the Blink Tag Rule still applies today to things like web site splash pages (usually minute-long Flash animations with Trance music)

:: Stephen 12:26 PM [+] ::

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Sorry, things got really busy and complicated for me over the last few weeks, and - no excuse - it was more a choice not to update my Blog rather than laziness/procrastination/absentmindedness. Now everything is back on track, so I can finally start updating again.

I've been uncharacteristically busy at work as of late. Last week I only worked a little over 40 hours, but logged close to 60. There were a lot of times when I was working on two projects at once. The biggest thing I'm working on is a DVD Video Livewire is putting together for one of our clients. This is my first real-world project in DVD Video production. The software I'm using isn't very complete (and has won the award for The World's Most Annoying Splashscreen), but if this turns into a money-maker for Livewire, we'll probably buy something decent.

For now, I'm damn happy to have several simultaneous projects. This is when I work most efficiently. Just think about it... we spend fourteen years in school, and another several years in Post-Secondary with several projects all running at the same time. Then we enter the workforce and are expected to "Focus on this...". Personally, I'm three-times the worker when I have two projects running, and five-point-four times more efficient when I have three or more projects running.

If you can figure out a formula for what I just said, let me know. I'm too busy to sort it out right now.

On Saturday, I helped paint John & Seiko's new place. After, M&D and I went to the Eldest Brother's house to have dinner. I haven't seen Erin and Freddy in a few weeks, so it was fun to once again fill them with sugar and get them wound up before leaving.

The house is just about done, and will be getting new carpeting on Wednesday. After that, I have to help them move in. At about the same time, I have to move Paul's stuff. My stuff will probably migrate over to the new apartment during the first half of December.

Simone asked me if I was going to move my computer and bed before I started sleeping over at the new place. I had to remind her that "Home Is Where The Hard Drive Is". Once my computer moves... I'm moved.

Sunday, I had a total Geek Day. Andrew's sister was having trouble with her computer, so she brought it over for me to take a look at. While troubleshooting and replacing the CPU fan, I watched LotR: The Two Towers. I even worked a trip to the computer store into the mix.

Gawd, I'm a geek - and I love it.

:: Stephen 12:55 PM [+] ::

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:: Stephen 4:04 PM [+] ::

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$87 billion more has been approved to be spent on Iraq and Afghanistan... even though more than half of Americans disagree with the way Bush is handling Iraq. Although this isn't a big surprise coming from an Administration that had less than half of the popular vote, and even less than the other guys.

American soldiers are still dying. Widows are being produced in the US at the rate of about a dozen per week. Now they're even discussing the possibility of bringing back the Draft.

This isn't Gulf War II.... this is Vietnam II

...and on the topic of East Asian countries, what am I supposed to say to my children a couple of decades from now, when they ask me why it took us and the Americans so long to do something about North Korea?

Wow... what a depressing entry so far. How about some good news?

Paul and I have found an apartment at Bathurst and Major Mackenzie. It's about five minutes from my current apartment, but make that fifteen to twenty minutes during rush hours.

We're paying $1000/mo., which split two ways works out to about the same savings as my car payments plus insurance cost. Basically, I'm back to Square One last May, before all my monthly expenses raised to just outside my income level. Still, with a raise due at the end of the year - and another week of vacation time from Livewire - this coming year should be a little more financially bearable than 2003 has been.

:: Stephen 2:23 PM [+] ::

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By the way... "Open Window Fresh" Swiffer Wet cloths only smell "Open Window Fresh" if you happen to live downwind from a cherry-flavoured Jell-O factory.

:: Stephen 2:23 PM [+] ::

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I don't want to spend too much time on political stuffs here, but Ernie Eves announced that the deficit he left behind was no greater than $1.7 billion and the Fraser Institute also disagrees with Dalton's numbers, saying it's only a mere $4.7 billion deficit. I'm particularly upset by how the Fraser Institute phrases the above article like it's the Liberals fault.

Eves claimed that they were planning to implement many more cuts, and selling off more Ontario assets - but how could they claim to have balanced books, offer a tax cut to the rich through private-school tax breaks and more money-for-nothing for the aging Baby Boomers, who have had a free-run long enough? I have to say that the only thing I'll miss when Ernie is gone (within one year, by his own words) is making fun of his nasally voice.

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to a CD by a local Indie band, The Hellz Kitchen Show. The lead singer has a very "Jonathan Davis" sound. While the bands sound is also very "KoRN-y" (bad pun, but I had to do it), the music isn't as disturbed... it's more Gothic in theme. Even though it may not be as twisted, the Gothic sound is something refreshing... there's too much crap out there that trys to use disturbing imagery as a product, or just generate noise in a microphone as a Death Metal Boy-Band*. THKS is a good balance of that.

*I was going to include a link to some Limp Bizkit site, but I couldn't find one - official nor fansite - that didn't fuck my monitor full of popup ads... perhaps that's a comment in itself about the commercialization of that band.

I saw THKS at Club 279 on Halloween night with Simone and one of her friends whose name I won't write... just to peeve her. ,^_^ We originally went in order to see Clark Nova in what is apparently their last performance ever. We didn't stay for long after they hit the stage... the evening seemed to peak with THKS, who opened.

Both Simone and The One Whose Name Must Not Be Written ("TOWNMNBW") are working on an article for a local Youth newspaper. The column is named "Next Door Noise" and is intended to showcase North York bands... but the primary purpose is to get press passes for the two of them. They both listen to music like I watch movies. Admittingly, I would love to go to movies for free, but not if I have to write about them... bleah. For every "Pirates of the Caribbean" that I get to watch for free, there's another "Legally Blonde" sequel that I would have to watch, and lose 90 minutes of my life in order to review. I think it was Gene Siskel who said something similar to that once.

I'm helping them work on a web-based element of the project. NextDoorNoise.ca will have upcoming concert dates, a bulletin board, and stuff useful to Indie music fans in the North part of the GTA... but first I must learn MySQL!

Well, there are more important things to worry about right now, like the Matrix: Revolutions debut in 20 hours.

:: Stephen 12:43 PM [+] ::

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