Front Page Rumblings for June

Keeryst. June snuck up on me fast. The year's almost half over. That sucks. Well, I sort of like June. In high school, June was the month that ended in Freedom. In University, June was where you just got into your Summer Stride. Now, June is a clear indication of summer days, fun, and adventure. Maybe. Hope you enjoy it too!

Imagine my surprise when I am surfing around today, and I come upon FlabJab, a writing ezine I read once in a while. I was pointed to it today, because something mighty familiar was over there. Before you hop over, if you haven't seen the design I use on my second level pages, take a look. Now, take a look at their Join Page.

Now I have several problems with this. First of all, Flabjab is more of a "pro" site, definitely not in the "personal page" category. They should know better. Second, most of their site seems to me to be adequately and professionally designed - some borrowed elements, but it seemed original to me. To use *my* design the way they did really ruins that thought for me.

But the things that really piss me off is that the code is mine. I mean this in the sense that the code was lifted from my page, and used, pretty much unaltered, except for a few color changes, and a few font changes. How do I know this? Let's just say I put my own hooks into my code - my own little spacing things and the like, that help me identify which code is mine. And the code they have on that page at FlabJab is definitely mine. And the kicker is a little quote at the bottom saying how proud the so-called designer of that page is "proud" of it. Nice.....

You know, I have no problems with people borrowing my code to enhance their personal sites. I have no problems with people even using my code on their pages. There is a but in there. If you're going to use my code, then at the very least, tell me about it, and, if the code is almost identical except for the content, some sort of credit would be nice, but not necessary. To turn around and "claim" you did the work and are proud of it is wrong. And I'm really pissed off about this.

I'm the one who spent 10+ hours hacking out that code. I saw similar effects over at Stephanie's site, liked them, so I decided to try my hand at it. I didn't even look at Stephanie's code. I hacked it from scratch - and I added my own changes to it. I enhanced it for what I wanted to do - provide links and some descriptive text on the same page. I went out of my way to make my table effects look different from Stephanie's and in the end, I still spewed out creditory notes to her, as my inspiration. And this is only a fucking personal page we're dealing with here.

Flabjab is supposed to be original, supposed to be unique. This is their freaking means in life, like any other writing site. Now I'm not as mad as I would be if a designer who was paid money used my code intact, but this still pisses me off. And for this Joanna person to use my code, intact, but not give me any credit whatsoever, and to give the general impression she designed the page, well, that's plain wrong.

I'll tell you what I like, and what I really appreciate. A few days ago, this guy in Norway, Jarle, wrote me a nice and eloquent e-mail saying he really liked my site, and he actually asked me permission to use my table codes. Now that is cool. I wrote him back and said no problem, thanks for asking, really appreciate it. And he used them. And I have absolutely no problems with this process. Even if the guy never mentions me at his site, I know he took the time and effort to ask permission, and that's pretty decent.

I present, right on my main page, links to both my stories page and my sports page, and invite people to check out the code, to borrow it, to use it, to modify it. This is not an invitation to people to steal the code and then claim the work as their own. This is not an invitation to designers who get paid to do original, creative stuff, to steal the code and then get paid for it. In fact, I put the code up for public viewing, and put extensive commentary in it for the sole purpose of helping web newbies to learn. When a site like Flabjab uses my code, not even recreated code, but my own, I expect credit for it. Plain and simple.

It's been a busy / weird / hectic week for me, what with web operas and the like. I am in a "surge" mode in my business right now, and I have to take all of the work I can, because those "lax" modes sure do last a while sometimes. When I'm in surge mode, I'm happy because a) I'm making money, and b) I don't have to grovel to idiot cheapskates for a few bucks worth of work. There's one here in Vancouver that has to be the most difficult client I've ever dealt with - and it sure was nice to tell him I didn't have time to do his $300 (he expects to pay $75) job.

Oh and here was a shocker for me. Apparently, I was featured on MSNBC's the Site program on Tuesday - I only found out about it on Thursday when OlioJen told me about it. You see, we don't get MSNBC up here in Canada. They featured my little secret lives page, and Andy Gems, the Yahoo guy who did the show, wanted to show off my BabyPics, but they didn't get around to it (thank god). I didn't notice a huge upsurge in hits, but there's two reasons for this - first, my fucking jumppoint email was down all week, and second, they only featured my ultra personal page, which I don't generate stats for. I found this out by checking the Site's TV URL page.

Anyway, Andy told me it might be rerun this weekend - there is a new show every day, airing at 7pm, 1am and 4am (one new, two repeats), so if anyone catches the show, can you tape it, and if they show a segment called Homepage Heroes, can you send me a copy!!! Please!! e-mail me if this happens.

For those of you who followed my stuff waaaaay back about the old Tony Little Gazelle thing, well, we shipped the damned thing back to the Shopping Channel three weeks ago, and got our money back just under the 2 month wire. And I'm happy we did for several reasons - first, while it was good in the beginning (I lost about 20 lbs through my fruit diet and my exercise) the machine was a piece of shit, and was making so much noise after a month, I didn't like using it anymore. The other reason I'm happy we shipped it back is why I'm writing about it today - We paid $300 plus taxes for it (got it back), meantime, in this week's TV Guide, I see it advertised at the Bay for $179!! I feel real bad for those who didn't send the thing back!

Meanwhile, with all the work I'm doing lately, I getting more sedentary, not hitting the bike or anything, and the weight is coming back (sigh). We ended up not playing organized volleyball this year because Jeanette doesn't want to chance hurting her fingers (sigh) so the only exercise I get is when I go for my walks with Mitzy, or when I do my extended tours of Kitsilano. I gotta start getting on my bike more. In fact, it's due for a big tune up. Oh well, maybe this weekend.

In other news, I had several projects on the go ready to bring up on the Net, but work intervened. One of them is Mitzy's long awaited web page - she even has her own email address! I have the space reserved for her, but she's too busy sleeping most of the day, and by the time she gets around to consulting on the content, I'm way too busy to do stuff for her! But soon, I hope! Other projects I had ready to go were a few more stories for this site, and a gentle reworking of all the third level pages, making the graphics over, changing the text, and the like. But, clients call, personal stuff waits.

Holy Shit! I'm reading back now, and this is a fucking diary! Stop! Stoppit!

Wait - I have to do a few more diary things - On Wednesday, Jean and I rented Beavis and Butthead do America. Now before you roll your eyes - I just don't get people who take an intellectual air and say - "it's so lame!" etc. I take my entertainment for what it's worth - if it's an insightful web piece, I digest it - if it's Beavis and Butthead, I go into brain dead mode and go along for the ride. Anyway, the movie was mildly funny, but for some reason, one thing has stuck with Jean - the two times Beavis got juiced up on caffeine pills and other assorted old age medications, and went berzerk, into his "Cornholio" character, Jeanette lost it.

Now for the rest of the week, at intermittent times, Jean takes her tee-shirt, pulls it partway over her head (like Beavis did), and goes around with a slight mexican accent, shouting "I AM CORNHOLIO!!!! YOU MUST FEED MY BUNGHOLIO!" and then goes into a series of epileptic fits. Just like Beavis. Then she keels over laughing. When her sister was here on Thursday, I tried to get Jean to do it - but as soon as she gets the back of her shirt over her head (like a nun's habit, sort of), she busts a gut and can't go on.

It's been that kind of week....

It seems that Jumppoint, my ISP, hasn't paid it's internic fees, or wasn't notified they were coming due, or whatever. Blame is being tossed around our local newsgroup. But the point is, because the world's richest company without any consequence, Network Solutions, can't do proper notification of billing when due, and because Jumppoint didn't monitor when they had to pay their new $50 fee, everyone on this domain, 1000+ people, all get screwed over. A lousy $50 fee has "forced" Internic to put our domain on "hold", meaning that you cannot visit any www.jumppoint.com hosted page, and you cannot write any person with @jumppoint.com address.

If you want to write to me, I have several email addresses to chose from. You can write to me (permanently if you want) to mark@webmotif.com, or at markp@mortimer.com. And if you wrote me in the last little while and had the mail bounced back, please, by all means, re-send it to one of the two addresses above. Or, if you want to wait, supposedly the "hold" status will be lifted in 36 hours or so. And lastly, if you filled out the quiz, survey or even pressed the buttons below, chances are I didn't get them and never will. So, if you recently filled out one of these forms, go back in a few days and fill it out again. Thanks!

Which brings me to the subject of Internic. I've never liked Internic, and I think the payment of $100 US for a domain name is bullshit. Network Solutions is now one of the richest companies in the world because of this fee. They do basically nothing but bookkeep their income. This company doesn't even have any pro active stance on copyright infringements (all the stuff they have in place is reactive, not pro active), and they purposely "wash their hands" of pretty much any responsibility when it comes to names, mistakes and billing wrongs. Curt, the admin for my ISP, says that he got his notice of "hold" status and payment due AFTER the domain name was put on hold. That's absolute bullshit. Now, I think Curt should have had this date marked on his calendar so that the bill could have been paid, but the fact is, what the hell are we paying Internic fees for, if they have this kind of sloppy accounting.

Proper procedures, especially by a company that was built by the computer and the net, should be to send out some automated notice of payment due a month ago, and then, if payment isn't made in a month, put the domain name on hold. But no. Internic doesn't care. 1,000 plus people are seriously inconvenienced by a missing $50 payment. Does Internic and Network Solutions care? Not in the least. Very typical of companies who don't give a shit about anything other than the bottom line.

You know, I've been self employed for a while now, and I know that my care, trust and understanding of both my clients and my subcontractors have cost me money, time, and a lot of sweat. I've lost a lot of billable hours because I like to go the extra mile for most of my clients, and I also have lost a lot of money because I tended to trust people a lot. Sure, if I ran my business like Internic does, or like some businesses I've known in the past (Internet Direct comes to mind - not anymore, but in the past they were like this) I would make more money, and be a hell of a lot more secure right now.

But you know what? I wouldn't feel good at all. The truth of the matter is, other than the fact that some people have blatantly taken advantage of my trust and my efforts, ripping me off by stiffing me on my bills, I actually like going that extra mile for most of my customers, putting in a few extra unbilled hours, tweaking things to get them right, and giving my customers the best possible service I can. This may sound like some PR bullshit to you, but it isn't. I can't run my business as some kind of cold, unfeeling, strictly by the rules thing. Every client I deal with is a person with emotions, with feelings, with considerations to be taken into account. Some are friends, and the last thing I would do is screw them over if they didn't pay every single cent owed.

Some of you reading this will probably disagree with me, saying "that's business". Look. I know what business is. I am starting up a new venture, and I had to hurt one friend because I know that working together would strain our friendship. I do try to separated business from friendship, but the fact is, in my business dealings, I treat my clients with respect and consideration. As a client myself, I expect no less from the businesses I deal with.

That's why monopolies, like the one Internic and Network Solutions currently has, suck. When you have a monopoly, you don't have to give one shit about how your customers feel about you. You don't have to worry about treating people right - they'll all come to you and pay you your rates, regardless. Whenever there is competition, you get better service - I tend to gravitate to businesses that treat me with respect as a customer. There's a lot of businesses here in Vancouver I will never frequent again, and it's all due to the way I was treated, as a client / customer. There are other businesses, while being a bit more expensive, that I continue to frequent, because they know how to treat people right. And I'm not talking about your typical Safeway-CEO ordered "Have a nice day" type of superficial niceness. I'm talking about independent entrepreneurs who are genuinely happy to be "of service" to you, and appreciate your trust, your choice in their store or service.

So the moral of this rant is that if you want real service, real interaction, and genuine satisfaction (on both sides), there's only one answer. Do you think that Nike or Internic cares one whiff about you as an individual? Of course not. But Joe, the guy down at the corner that runs a drycleaning shop - he cares. Bill, the guy who runs that little independant cafe two blocks away - he cares. Heck, I care about you, your concerns, and your wants when you come to me as a client. So whenever possible, take your money to your local independent entrepreneur. You'll be a lot more satisfied, and you'll feel like you are getting your money's worth and more.

On a completely different note, I saw that Maggy issued an apology to Jen yesterday. A small touch of class, I thought. Still doesn't fix her hurtful words, still doesn't completely assuage one's feelings, but it takes a big person to apologize, and I recognize that. Maggy has gone up a bit, respect-wize, in my eyes, because of this.

And one final note. I think I just got majorly dissed today on a diary page. I'm not happy about it. Apparently, I was supposed to know about something that was going on when I didn't. All I can say is, people who really know me know that it doesn't matter if I'm pissed at my friends for some reason - if they've got a serious problem, I'm there. The one thing I can't do is read minds.

I got myself involved in another web opera last night. It involves a person who's writing and sense of design I admired much, but not anymore (more on that below) and an online friend of mine. At least I didn't start this one.

It seems that Maggy Donea, the aforementioned writer and designer, has it out for my friend OlioJen. She wrote a scathing little piece on her web site about net thievery, which, ironically, is very similar to my own rants from a few weeks ago (and more on this below). Jen is pretty hurt by it (I'm guessing, based on her latest writing - I haven't actually talked to her yet, because of our time difference), and Maggy seems in a resigned, yet smug mood. Again, very reminiscent of my own ranterys several days ago.

You see, Maggy frequents what I term the "angst" pages of the net - the Fray, AfterDinner, and the like. She also hangs in the circle of this community of writers. I know some of them and like them, such as Alexis, Lance, and Adam, but I won't say I "hang" with them - I simply admire their work, their style, and I chat with them from time to time. I probably chat with Lance the most, and I don't think it's fair of me to put him in the "angst" category... at least not all the time - Lance has made me bust a gut many times, both in private email and with his site, GlassDog. Just one visit to GlassDog Laboratories, and you'll see why.

Oh yeah - about angst. Lookit. I like the quality these writers exude, and I'm in no way putting angst writing down - I like it, it makes me think, makes me reflect, makes me remember. My Friends piece is a perfect example of an idea I thought up after reading various things at the Fray. But when it comes to angst, I can only read so much, then I have to go away... it gets to me at times.

Now, those of you with intimate knowledge of this webopera are probably going, "what the fuck has Mark been smoking? Maggy didn't mention anything about angst". No she didn't. But that's my point - she simply doesn't get it. To accuse Jen of "stealing" things from the Fray et al is a joke - Jen's entire concept, delivery, and atmosphere is different. Her site has it's angst stuff (in fact, Jen often laments to me on the volume of angst pieces vs. happy shiny pieces or debate pieces), but she also has light hearted affairs, funny stories, and quirky observations. I visit Jen's site about every two days, not because she's my friend, but because her site entertains me.

Maggy raised specific things about Jen's apparent webtheft, both on her "grumble" (hey, for the longest time, about 2 years worth, I called my rants "rumbles" ...what the fuck?) and in email. She mentions the live feedback areas on all the OLIO pages. She mentions that most of the stories at OLIO have a definite "fray" look to them. She says that the air in the stories is similar. She mentions specifics, like Jen's Windows piece being similar to Adam Rakunas' home site. I'll dissect each one of these to the best of my ability:

• For anyone to claim ownership of feedback on a web site is ridiculous. What the heck is those stupid send me mail buttons you see on everyone's site, including my own? More specifically, to claim ownership of live, interactive feedback on a writing-based site is also ludicrous. To me, this entire genre of writing that has been created by the web (and it involves literally thousands of web sites folks - not just 4 or 5 within a circle) owns the concept of live interactive feedback. Just as plays have their own format for writing and acting out, just as novels follow a certain formula, and just like haikus follow strict rules or writing, I believe that interactive feedback is an integral part of this new phenomenon - this new genre of writing.
  
  
• About stories looking like the Fray stories. Yes some of them do. But you know what? Obviously Maggy doesn't know this - most of the people who write stuff for OLIO design their own pages. I designed mine, and I'll be honest - my Friends story was inspired in part by the Fray, so I designed it sort of like a Fray story. I Hate is the same deal. Anyway, Jen didn't do this "design borrowing" - her contributors did - because maybe they feel the style the Fray relies on represents their own writing well. To accuse Jen of ripping the Fray's look is plain wrong, and it really shows ignorance, IMO.
  
  
• About the "air" of the stories being similar - that's because Jen has fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) attracted many of the same writers and many of the same fans of the Fray. therefore, the writing style within OLIO reflects the same style found at the Fray. Again, Jen really has very little influence on this matter other than her role as an editor - and as you should well know, the role of an editor is not to change the style of a story, but to make sure it can be read and that it meets certain guidelines.
  
  
• About Jen's Window piece. Yah - it does resemble Adam's theme. But not for long - it takes a widely different direction from Adam's work. It's a photo essay, for god's sakes. And you know what? It was probably meant to do that (lightly mimic Adam's site) - after all, Adam was one of the original contributors to that collaboration, and probably played a big part in it's design. Kind of like accusing Pete Townsend of ripping off The Who, isn't it.
  
  

The fact is, obviously Maggy has made some very wrong and naive accusations. And worst of all, she missed the point entirely - A site is not simply code and table and frame effects. A good site has it's own personality within it's content, and for most people, that's the most important thing. Jen's site, complete with it's coffee in the kitchen motif, swapping tales in a relaxed, light hearted manner, and cutesy design - it's all unique. Jen's frequent updates, showing her quirky, irrelevant side is the jewel of this site. Jen is completely down to earth and extremely approachable, both in her writing and in her style, and that comes across. I can't say I felt that way about the Fray, or even AfterDinner. Jen's a person you immediately like because of the stuff she writes, and IMO, she's an excellent ambassador of all things Maritimes, because most maritime people I have met in my lifetime are just as friendly and inviting.

And that's where her site shines. That's where it stands out from the Fray, from AfterDinner, and from all of the other sites Maggy seems to admire. Jen's site has a style and flair all of it's own and it permeates the entire site, including the so-called Fray rips.

Stopping right here, some of you might be reading this, and thinking, "How the hell can this guy be such a hypocrite" after the rants I wrote a few weeks ago. But I'm not being hypocritical. Jen has never ever claimed that she created the design for the "Fray-esque" pages, and I remember her profuse thanks to Alexis from AfterDinner - in fact, when the new design came online, that "credit where credit is due" thing was up front and center for a week. (incidentally, Alexis is one of the design contributors for the Fray).

The difference between Maggy's off base accusations and my own is that the person I was mad at was claiming publicly that the pages she designed and laid out were her own inspiration and creation, when it clearly was not. Also, the person I ranted against did not have others contributing to her site. And this person ripped copyrights and even ripped straight code from others, and then went on to claim otherwise. That's wrong folks. That's net thievery.

But in no way is Jen guilty of this. Jen's site is my favorite writing site on the net, bar none, and simply because she shares a few common concepts does not make her any less original. It's because her site is so different from the dozen or so writing sites I read that I like it so much. And if Jen wasn't a friend of mine, I'd say exactly the same thing.

Now to cover some of my commentary above. You may have noticed that I made some references to the similarity between my rants from a few weeks ago, and Maggy's rant. You may have also noticed a veiled accusation of stealing my old "rant column" name. Well, I'm not accusing Maggy of anything. They were simply inserted to show how similar concepts, similar thoughts can happen... I don't think for one minute that Maggy "stole" either of my concepts. I'm just proving a point that, when it comes to similar things - be it two different writing sites, or two different "rant" pages - similarities and common design ideas happen.

And I should quantify the statement I made in the first paragraph - I lost a lot of respect for Maggy, as an individual because she wrongly attacked a friend, but also as a designer, because, simply, she should have known better. Real designers, be them print, photo, web or whatever media, know damned well that most "original" works are in part rips from other projects, other designs. The trick of the good designer is to alter, massage, and intertwine the previous works with their own creative stuff, mashing them all together enough to make it original again. Jen has done this. Maggy missed it entirely.

And hrmmm. Gets me thinking. For a while now (maybe two months or more), I was formulating an idea in my mind for a business. I talked to a lot of people about it. I'm implementing it as we speak. But here's the strange and unique twist. After mentioning the idea to one net friend, I was pointed to a site that Maggy's part of. And that site comprises many of the ideas I had for my own business. I suppose when I launch, I'll get accused of the same things, even though, now, as I type, I'm working feverishly to make the business idea different from the one Maggy is involved in. The shitty thing is, I'm only making these changes because, even though I thought the idea up months ago, Someone else had a similar train of thought and implemented it before I did.

And as a final note - Jen has said that, after Maggy's harsh words, she might just pack up and say "fuck it" (well, those are my words, not hers). I certainly hope she doesn't. And if she does, Maggy, you'll have an awful lot to answer to. Jen is one of the web's shining individual stars - very little ego, lotsa great quirks, and a fun place to visit, and if she shuts it down, it will be a great loss. If I could ask you to do one thing today, I would ask you to visit Jen's site, give it a read (unfortunately, Coffee's On, my fave part, is very blue, thanks to Maggy) and then write Jen and say, good job, keep it up.

Lately, I've gotten a few emails from lexicon fans who pointed out to me that the OED describes gruntle as being "disgruntled, only less so". I looked up the word gruntled in my own tome, the Tormont Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary, and the definition I got was "extremely pleased; in a good mood". But then TW quantifies it by ending: [Back-formation from disgruntled]. Oh well. I still think it means tramping through the daisies...

I got a fair amount of work done since Thursday, mainly because I tuned out ICQ, and I hunkered myself down to doing both creative and constructive work. Part of my problem last week was being in the middle of a dispute of sorts between two programmers I know. What is it about programmers that you can't stick two of them in the same room? You'd think they were accountants or something. Anyway, one person said one thing, another misinterpreted it and said another, and I was the middleman, passing messages back and forth, and not having a clue as to what the contents of the messages were about. Here's an important lesson: Put more than 5 acronyms in an email, and you'll lose me. Stuff like SLQ, ASP, SMX, CGI, IDL, WTF, SYAD and even CIA (how did that get in there?) were flying around faster than I could read. The good news is, things are much smoothed over, and now harmony rules the land.

I finally got Jeanette to get off her procrastinating ass and actually build some more pages for her site. Last night we went through my Microsoft Publisher's clip art (a surprisingly high quality collection on the CD!) and we picked about two dozen possible images to use for her site - stuff she liked. She wrote the content for two pages, Family and Quirks, and promised that today, she would build more.

Today, I got up, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed it down nice and neat (you see, when Jean cleans, she merely puts stuff in the dishwasher and then stacks everything else on the counters - when I clean, it gets cleaned - as my Dad used to say, "a place for everything, and everything in it's place) <snicker> Then I watched my IndyCar race, which was actually quite entertaining - it was at Portland on a permanent race course (no stinkin' ovals) and it was in the rain for most of the race. Lots of slipping and sliding, lots of fun, and a very close near photo finish at the end, with Brit Mark Blundell winning by .02 seconds. (Simon, you should be happy!). Greg Moore, local lad, proved his mettle once again, surging through the field on his rain tires. And, most amazingly, he gained over 25 seconds on the leader in the last 5 laps, coming from 31 seconds behind to just 4.5. At that pace, 2 more laps would have given him the victory. If you want to find out more about the race, or if you want to just see what an open wheeled race car looks like (Jen!), check out ESPN's coverage of the race, or CBS Sportsline's coverage.

I won't have much time to write rants for the next few days. In fact, with recent developments in my personal and business life, I'm pretty much drained, design-wize. I'm currently developing two web sites. I'm also working on a few print jobs. I have also done two estimates, which takes time and effort, and I'm working on a third one. I have a new story up at OLIO, called PC Police, which took up quite a bit of my time.

Basically, what I'm saying is, I feel drained. My mind is in such tune with the projects I'm working on, that I can't actually "spare" any real time and consideration for most other things, like this web site. This isn't a little rant setting up a scenario whereby I won't be updating as often - no - instead, it's just a rant saying why I haven't been updating as much... by the weekend, things will be back to normal.

I'm finding ICQ a real nuisance these days, but for a twisted reason. I really, really enjoy chatting and messaging real time with my net friends, and I can't resist the little "oh oh!" sound that ICQ makes everytime someone pages me... but as a result, it's screwing my productivity big time. So as a result, I'm apt to put up an "away" sign more often, or just log on to it invisible, and hope for the best. It's a real conundrum for me because a) I like the program so much, and chatting with my netfriends, but b) I feel I have to hide sometimes. Anyone else going through this? Maybe I should just unload the thing completely when I need to get work done. It's like candy.... out of sight, it's out of mind for me.

Well, not much of a rant today, but, well, I think I explained why. All my creative juices these days are stretched out among a lot of other projects. Check back every day, I don't mind at all, but There probably won't be another update till the weekend. Then again, there probably will be one tomorrow - who knows! I sure don't! And don't fret too much - this is only a temporary blip. I take too much pride in my personal web site to let it "stagnate". <g>

In the meantime, pop over the Jeanette's site. She's been working very hard to update her spew often... and I know it's a real chore for her because staring at a html coded screen in notepad is a major job for her (that's right - she don't use no stinkin' wysiwyg editor - she codes the CODE!) So take a visit, give it a read, and send her some mail! I'm sure she would love hearing from you.

Today, I have a new story up at OLIO. It's the result of a few columns I wrote here on this rant page last week - about PC Police - check it out even if you did read my rants, because it's been edited, and a few new things were added.

Well my secret project is fully underway, and I've already had my first "creative" differences" over the logo we're trying to come up with. So today's space will relate to you folks what it takes to create a logo. Hope you all don't fall asleep.

There are basically two ways to make a logo - create one from scratch, or modify an existing one. In the case of my secret project, everything's being created from scratch, to that's the route I'm taking. The first thing I do is come up with a name for the company, which we've done. Then I usually look up the name(s) in the dictionary, to get a solid feel for what the words mean. In my case, the key word is motif.

I was surprised by the definition. Websters pegs it as "1. a recurrent thematic element used in the development of an artistic or literary work. 2. A repeated figure or design in architecture or decoration. 3. A dominant theme.". So now I had this, I had something to work with. Motif suggests strong lines, a strong statement to me. The dictionary definition also echoes this - sort of. So I started on a few drawings. My first one was based on a scorched and rough hewn box with the capital letters and a globe inside. My partner Stephanie didn't like that one, simply because she doesn't like "boxes".

My other sketches were based on a drawing style I have, very similar to Image Club's Sketches series. I sketched out all sorts of things - an artist's palette, brushes, a globe, a mouse, the corner of a program window, a computer terminal, and several other images. I really like the way they look, but haven't found a way to make them into a "logo", because there's a few other steps I need to follow first.

When creating a logo, you have to be aware of where it will end up. Designing a logo solely for a web page will involve different steps and components than one designed for a business card. And if you're designing for both electronic and print media, there are even more concerns to think about. Since my logo will be used on the web, on business cards, stationary, etc., I have to take printing costs, colors, resolutions, image sizes and much more into consideration. And the primary colors on our website won't necessarily match the colors of our printed stock - the web can be full color, while our ID system will probably be two color at best.

Once the colors and output choices are nailed down, I think about the tools I'll use. If I'm simply doing an image for the web, I use PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro. But if it's for print media, I'll use Corel Draw to ensure I can reproduce the image at any size need for various print jobs, without loss of image quality. Because our logo will be used everywhere, I'll do it and finish it in Corel Draw, then export it to PhotoShop for some enhanced web effects - which means we will actually have two logos - one web based and one print based - they will look different, but will still be very similar.

At least that's my decision this time - many times though, you want to have the exact same image represented everywhere. But because our printing budget is low, we can't go full color on printing. But we can (and will) with the web images.

Once I've decided on the tools, I go back to my hand drawn images and either scan them into Photoshop, or if it's line art (which my current job is), I'll scan it and open it in Adobe Streamline, a program that "traces" bitmapped (scanned) images, and gives you a reasonable facsimile of the drawing in vector art form. vector art is what CorelDraw uses - instead of dots on a page, everything is an object - with lines, shapes, filled containers and the like. So after I have my images converted to vector art, I go to work tightening, tweaking, and modifying them in Corel, till I'm happy with them. Then I usually add some text effects (though sometimes I do this in PSP or PhotoShop), and I make up several different styles of my logo.

Then comes crunch stage - if you're doing the logo for a client, it's time to get their input. If you're doing it for yourself, then you need to find a few friends to act as a judge - do they like where you're going? any changes? Any tweaks they would like to see? Is it all wrong? At this stage, it's vitally important to get feedback, and to be able to use it wisely. This is the stage I'm at right now with my friend Stephanie - and she doesn't like boxes... so it's back to the drawing board!

Kind of a boring rant today, I know... but I've been thinking about my super secret project for several days now, and it's all I can think to write about. I'll finish it up when I'm done the logo, but hopefully tomorrow, I'll be back to more interesting things. Or do you find my rant on logos intriguing?

Sometimes, the Net and it's people are beyond cool. I'm plowing through my mail yesterday, and I see one note from Nick Heinle. The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't place it at the time. It turns out its the same Nick from the Javascript Tip of the Week site. A genuine net.deity! So I open the email, and Nick tells me how much he liked my site, especially my Awardie page. Because he was entertained, he said he wanted to bestow his own type of award on me - a new, much more compact javascript for doing my little "last modified on" thing that's at the bottom of every page except for the main one. So he did it, and he pointed me to a url where I could find it.

Now, you're perfectly free to use this script if you want. It's especially handy for those of us who like to update our sites frequently, but forget to change the last updated text on a page. But please, Nick didn't put any credits or copyrights in it, so if you do use it, snag the one from my source code, and alter the copyright message a bit so it suits you and still points back to Nick.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty damned decent of the guy, and it shows you that there are a lot of very cool, very friendly, and very helpful people on the net. Kind of makes the experience that much more enjoyable, doesn't it!

I do have one more thing to say about corporal punishment, so I'll get that out of the way fast: I was talking to my Dad by phone yesterday, saying Happy Fathers day and all that, and I told him about the last few rants I've written. You remember how I talked about kids holding their parents hostage with threats of "telling the teacher" if they get punished, physically or not? Well here's proof of that:

I have a 9 year old cousin, Shane, who's a terror - he's mean to his sisters and his mom constantly. My Dad was over visiting, and Shane called Susan (my aunt) a "bitch" and taunted her, all while my Dad was there. My Dad said to Shane that he better apologize to his mother, and that if he uttered that word again, he'd go over my Dad's knee (Susan is divorced - father's gone). Shane in turn told my Dad that if he did that, he would "tell his teachers that he was beaten". My Dad simply laughed and told him he's welcome to do that, but nothing would stop the spanking. Shane did his bravado act, and tried to run away - my Dad grabbed him and made him apologize, which he finally did.

THEN, my aunt Susan was pissed at my Dad for threatening a spanking!!!! She said "I do not do that with my children, Gary!" Now that is fucked up, I say. I bet that if Shane grows up to be a murderer or an arsonist or something, he'll blame his "defects" on the fact that he didn't have a father figure or something. But the truth of the matter is, if he does turn out that way, it's his fault, and the fault of his mother for not disciplining him properly.

On other news, I'm pretty happy with the way my super secret project is going. I can't go into too many details yet, but I got my new domain name registered, I got my partners ready and willing to go, and we're working on the basics right now. Stay tuned for more info on this soon.

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon surfing the net looking for ways to buy a monkey. At first I wanted one of those "Ross from Friends" kind of monkeys (you know, Marcel), but I found out that that breed (capuchins) are a pain in the ass to keep and maintain. I visited Heather's Wide World which is an excellent resource, and it made me lean toward getting a squirrel monkey or a marmoset. If anyone knows any details about where to buy them (especially in Canada), let me know!

One other little thing I wanted to write about. Lately, I've been e-mailing another webdev in New Jersey, Kevin Jarrett. Well, I have to point you to his personal page today, but before I point you to it, you have to check out his "preview" screen animation. It's very long, and the byte size is big, but it's the best and most original intro to a site that I've ever seen, bar none. Just let it load, and then sit back and relax while you go through the 4+ minutes of Jeff's preview. Anyway, here it is.

Well, I can write about a few things. First, my rant yesterday, on corporal punishment, drew more new email to me than anything I've ever done on this site. I got about 30 emails yesterday, and some of the responses were quite, uhm vocal, in disagreement with my opinions. But, I'm happy to say that most of the people who wrote were either civil in their disagreement, or in agreement with me. 22 of the emails were in support of my argument, which shows that people are getting pissed off with the PC police out there, which is cool. Fuck the PC'ers I say. Just let people live.

You see, I've been called politically correct, and I resent it. No, I don't tolerate racism, bigotry, or homophobia. But I don't go out of my way to call mentally handicapped people "mentally challenged". I don't call a black person a "person of color". In fact, I rarely label people by their skin color in the first place. Skin don't mean shit to me. You're either a cool person, a normal person, a stranger, or an asshole to me.

This brings up something that happened in the van.general newsgroup a while back. Tricky Trevor, he of Idiot Driver's Fame, wrote an article entitled, The difference between acceptance and tolerance. He said he tolerated gays, but didn't accept them. I argued the point that it wasn't his right to accept them or not. They weren't seeking his approval. And why the hell should he even be concerned with someone's sexual preference? My argument was simple - when people actually stop giving a damn about people's perfectly legal sexual choices in life, there'd be a lot less homophobia around.

So because of my arguments, I was put in the politically correct cateogory. Me, who sometimes calls a homosexual a fag, queer, or whathaveyou. I have a friend who I've always known was gay, but he sort of lived half in the closet. So one day, while we're having a pint, I say, "so Jay, what's it like being a fag?" And it broke the ice. Jay knew I didn't care less about what he did, other than asking a question to "get things out in the open". So to him, the use of the word "fag" by me wasn't offensive, because it wasn't meant to be. And who says that queers have a lock on the word "fag" or "gay" anyway? My aussie and Brit friends smoke fags, and that ain't gay bashing.

Which brings me back to the politically correct bullshit. Words that are never meant to offend, like fag, queer, gay, black, chinese, italian, mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, he, she, him, her, businessman, etc etc., have been hijacked by the politically correct goon squads (oops, that should be positive reinforcement groups) and turned into "hate" phrases. Well... in plain english, Fuck them. I don't consider my use of these words offensive. If I have to describe someone's origins, I'll say Chinese, not "Asian-Canadian" and when I'm describing my aunt, I'll say she's mentally and physically handicapped... fuck this "mentally and physically challenged" crap. If people's minds are so fragile, are so easily hurt by these kinds of words, well, I say, get help.

But wouldn't you know it, someone tried to pin some PC bullshit on me just recently. There's this idiot in some Canadian newsgroups, going by the name Karen Gordon, along with a few other aliases. This idiot is a guy, someone basically proved that last year, and this idiot is a BIG time racist who wishes that all asians coming to Canada get tossed back in the ocean. And if it had it's way, all asians living in Canada would get tossed to the sharks too. Because "it" continues to use the name Karen Gordon, everytime I address it by name, I call it "Karen SheMale Gordon". So guess what? After my little arguments against Trev's stuff about queers, I get some flack from some politically correct anal retentive loser about how my use of the term "shemale" is patently offensive to "trans-gendered" peoples. He means, transvestites, transexuals and hermaphrodites, folks.

Well, I lost it. Anyone who think's I'm biased towards people with different sexual preferences than mine, simply because I use a word to describe Karen Gordon, is a complete idiot. But i was a good boy at first. I told the guy that he's wrong to try to put words in my mouth after reading, incorrectly, between the lines of my post. But the dickhead kept coming. Kept calling me "intolerant" and the like. No matter what I said, this idiot couldn't see past the black and white of his world (oops that should be non-gender referencing positive shades and less than positive shades). So I gave up and killfiled the dummy.

I hate the PC Police, and I think they should all stick their heads up their anal retentive asses and sing the blues. And please, if you're one, start worrying about your own pathetic little life, and stop worrying about the intentions you fantasize others have in their minds - things that don't even exist.

In Vancouver, and I suspect in most other parts of the world, teenage crime is way up. That means more shoplifting, more theft, more violent and non-violent crime, and especially, it means more joyriding and other car theft. The other day, two cops fired on a jeep full of teenagers, seriously injuring two of them. This may be normal for some US cities, but it certainly isn't for Vancouver - but the cops had no choice - the teenagers, in a vehicle they stole, were about to run down the two cops on foot. They had no fear because they felt they could get away with anything. And I think the rash of overzealous politically correct idiots out there are responsible for this kind of thing. Confused? Read on then.

I went to a Catholic School when I was growing up (in Ottawa, we had the Ottawa Catholic School Board, with dozens of public-type schools, but Catholic in nature, because of the large Catholic population). Catholic schools back then practiced corporal punishment - the strap. I figure that, between grade 3 and 8, I got the strap at least 3 dozen times. I think I deserved maybe 60% of them (about 40% of the time I got the strap for biased and religious issues - which I don't think was deserving). Now today, I don't think it's right for a school to dish out physical punishment, but I feel this way because I believe it's the parents' responsibility alone to dish it out - not some third party.

I probably got a lot less spankings from my Dad than I deserved. My Dad practiced the three strikes you're out rule. The first time you did something wrong, you lost your allowance (a meagre $5 per two weeks) and you got a stern talking. The second time you did the same wrong, you lost your allowance, and privileges like TV etc for a while, and got grounded for a week or more. The third time you were stupid enough to commit the same wrong, you got a licking. I was put over my Dad's knee, and given whacks on my butt from his hand. I can honestly say several things about these episodes.

1. I deserved them all
2. My mom didn't like it because she came from an abusive house
3. My Dad never enjoyed it.
4. My Dad always used his hand, which caused him some pain too (no belts).
5. My Dad often had welled up eyes after finishing.

I believe that corporal punishment should only be used in rare and extreme cases of bad child behaviour, like stealing, repeated lying, abusive language toward parents, beating up your siblings (boy did I get a lot for that one!) and the like. I also feel that the only form of corporal punishment that should be accepted and practiced is a spank on the butt. It's the most padded area, and trust me... it burns for a while, but you get over it quick. I also feel that if you do this, only your hand should be used - not belts or "switches"... you should feel exactly how much pain it causes, so you don't go overboard.

But you know what? The PC police started their act in the mid 80s, and all of a sudden, you cannot physically discipline your children when necessary. Parents are genuinely concerned that if they spank their undisciplined children, that teachers, neighbors and family friends will run to the cops or Children's Services, and cry abuse. Not only that, but kids are aware of this at an early age too and some of them actually hold their parents "hostage" in a sense, threatening to tell teachers that they are abused if their parents try to practice any kind of discipline, physical or not. The PC police have done this to our society, thereby taking the job (and the right) of raising responsible kids away from many parents. And its these kids, who grew up in this environment, who now joyride, steal, etc.. They threaten their parents, teachers and the like, and generally get away with it. It's simply wrong.

Getting back to the Jeep incident mentioned at the top of this rant, I watched the newscasts, and BCTV interviewed some of these dilinquents' friends at the hospital. They were mostly girls in their mid teens, and the stuff they spewed out was absolutely amazing. They said there was going to be a "war" against the cops for this. They said they'd steal more cars, actually try to hurt cops, and the like. Sure, it was mostly stupid bravado, but the fact is, they feel they are invincible and protected against any kind of punishment because they grew up in an environment where their parents couldn't discipline them properly. I bet they even hold the threat of "reporting abuse" over their parents' heads whenever they do get disciplined, even in a non-physical way.

If and when I have kids, I will practice what my Dad did - proper punishment for the crime. I would never take joy out of hitting my kids - I can't even fathom that. I'll probably be just like my Dad, feeling great sorrow at having to actually hurt my children - probably even more... heck, just this past week, I intentionally hurt a person I barely knew, and I felt sad about it. I will not let a school discipline my children with physical force (that's simply wrong), but I will not let PC zealots tell me how to bring my kids up. I'm pretty adamant about this issue, and I'd go to jail for it. There's no way in hell that my kids will ever exercise the power to eliminate ANY kind of punishment from their parents, and thereby live a life of wanton disregard for the consequences of their actions. That's what I see happening today, and I won't be a participant in it.

Oh and as an afterthought, you know what really makes me sick? How some loser will steal, kill someone, commit other violent crimes, or beat his kids, and then claim "I came from an abused home" when all his parents did was spank his bottom. These assholes feed PC'ers their ammo, and that's wrong. It's time for people to take (or be given) responsibility for their own actions, and not blame others. The same goes for people who really abuse their kids, and blame their actions on the fact that they too were abused as kids. My Mom was truly abused by my grandfather, but she never raised a hand against us my entire life. She took responsibility for her actions, and didn't follow in her father's footsteps.

I have, at last count, 8 different contraptions and machines dedicated to making coffee. There's my espresso machine, my coffee maker (10 cup), my large Bodum for french press, my small Bodum for solitary press (nyuk nyuk, coffee humor), My neato burr grinder for my beans, my Melita travel set, my little camp espresso machine for roughing it, and then there's my little plastic one cup melita drip filter thingie. I won't even go into my collection of bean jars, specialty cups and the like. I LOVE COFFEE!

But I really hate $tarbucks. I hate they way they trendify drinks, give them hipster doofus names, and pretentiously label their servers as barristas. Folks, I've been to Italy, and REAL barristas do it as a career - not as some McJob. They truly make coffee an art, not just a factory dishout service. But you know, $tarbucks wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for their burnt beans and their outrageous prices.

As you can probably tell, I avoid $tarbucks like the plague, and it's easy to do in my neighborhood, Kits, because there's a wealth of excellent, independant coffee houses. No, I'm not a coffee snob - try drinking the dredge I choke down at Benny's regularly, and I dare you to call me a snob - But I'm expert enough with coffee that I can tell a good cuppa from a bad one. And at $2.75 for a grande, $tarbuck's coffee ain't so hot. I'll take Benny's $1.25 mug-o-sledge any day - and besides, you're paying for the natural atmosphere at Benny's, not the coffee.

But there is one $tarbucks creation I lust after. I must have on a regular basis. It's the coolio refreshio Frappacino (Mocha please!). But damn you $tarbucks, you got greedy with your ice! Thou'st chargeth me $4.35 (incl tax) for a semi-large mug o' the frothy elixir! Curses be upon you $tarbucks! Why dost thou tempt me with thine wares, then jack up thine prices?? A plague be cursed upon.... upon....

Ahem. Sorry. Willy Shakespeare invaded for a bit. Anyway, I really am going somewhere with this. You see, I love Frappacinos (Mocha please!), or did you not figure that out yet? Well, I searched high and low for a facsimile. I used my favorite tool (easy... you minds-in-the-gutter types!), the Net, to search out possible recipes. I posted to all known coffee newsgroups (which, surprisingly get a LOT of messages every day), but no one offered the cure. I tried my own home made concoctions over the past year and a half, but never quite succeeded.... until last week.

Wandering through my local $afeway store, I spotted a 1 litre container of Iced Cappuccino, made by Lucerne, the $afeway company that supplies all it's milk products. It was $1.38 for the litre (about $0.20 more than normal milk at the same size), so I bought one, brought it home and tried it over ice. Hrmm. it was.... okay.... sorta.... but wait, it tastes familiar... hrmmm lets blend it up! So I did. I have a great bar-quality blender (my ninth coffee contraption?) that pulses ice cubes to mush, so I did it, and added some Hershey's ChocoSyrup (not too much), and tasted it.........

          Nirvana.

I felt like I'd just climbed the Alps. I was in heaven! I found my perfect copy of a Frappacino (Mocha, please!) and the best part was, it cost me a fraction of what $tarbucks was extorting from me! I actually started doing a little jig in my kitchen - you know the kind people do when the find gold? Oh, did I mention I obsess about coffee?

So there you have it. If you want your own $tarbucks Frappacino (Mocha, please!) drink for about 1/5th or less the price they want you to pay, here's what you do - in a blender, put in 1/3 a litre (quart) of the Lucerne Iced Coffee Cappuccino drink, about 5-7 icecubes (yours may vary depending on the size) and pulse the sukka till mush forms. If it stops spinning, add more iced coffee - if it spins too much, add more ice. Then add some chocolate syrup to top it off. Delicious!

I fired of a lot of snail mail yesterday. Three of the letters I wrote were to a magazine's subscription department, with CC:'s to the accounting and publisher's office. I won't go into the beef I was writing about - suffice to say, they've been negligent with the almost 1/2 dozen requests I've sent in to have my address changed from my old place to my current home. But it got me thinking. I'm getting on now in years (and I bet OlioJen winces when I say things like that), so I remember the days of actually learning the proper way to write a business letter. Using the proper form, the proper syntax, etc. I know it by heart, so I took it for granted. But you know what? I was talking about this with a net friend yesterday (I'll hide his identity to save his embarrassment!), and he doesn't know the proper business forms, proper personal forms for letter writing. He told me, "why do I have to worry about that shit? Word does it for me automatically - it's got wizards".

Harumph. Wizards. Templates. You know, you know you're getting to be like your Dad when you start saying things like I'm about to say - these wizards and templates are making people lazy. Yep... just like my dad. And you know what's funny? He told me exactly the same thing about calculators in the early 80s. "Learn to do your math in your mind Mark, you'll regret it if you don't". Of course I didn't listen, and now my brain is basically mush when it comes to math skills.

So all you young whippersnappers out there, take note - learn the basic communication skills that go with proper letter writing. Even in this day and age, a snail mailed letter gets heaps more attention than e-mail does, and a properly written letter gets even more attention. If you want some satisfaction from some big corporation, it's the only way to go.

Well, now I have another net friend, my best online friend, pissed at me, but for an entirely different reason. It's my fault. I told the truth about something, which should never be wrong, but I guess it's my thoughts that were my truth that are wrong? Confused? So am I. I guess I shouldn't be having doubts, be having the opinions I have, but I can't help it. Oh, and to toss a really monkey into the barrel, it involves a potential business deal. <groan> you just can't win some days.

But yesterday wasn't all so bad. I got to chat with Glenn Davis of ProjectCool, which was neat, and I think that talk lead to the possibility of someone I know being featured on some MSNBC show next week called The Site, which would be very cool for the person... getting that kind of feature leads to a jaw dropping 20,000+ visits in a day, according to Glenn.

And yes, for two days now, this page has definitely fit the diary mode. Grrr. I hate myself. <grin> I'm full of angst, and I'm in hypocrite mode, I know. Oh well. Ho Hum. Hrmmm. Time to shake it, I guess.

Jeanette wrote about me in her semi regular rant the other day. In fact, she quoted me. I said this to her:

With the way I coasted through that school, being proud of my two degrees from Carleton University is like being proud of the fact that you can wake up in the morning and have a shit.

But that's not the case any more, it seems - at least as far as Arts degrees go. Not with me, and not with my friends. Maybe science and engineering degrees still get examined closely, but I wouldn't know... 'geers and science geeks are my mortal enemies <snicker>.

The last time I actually had an interview for a salaried position was with the BC Tourism department of the provincial government. It was a contract job, but I had to go through the interview process. I was taking my Masters in Anthropology at the time from UBC, but at the interview, I was not asked to supply documentation from my current education, or my previous one. The same was true for my previous jobs. I've talked to friends about this, and they all say the same thing - no one asks to see that diploma you so proudly brag about on your CV.

Which leads me to theorize: employees don't ask for their info anymore because everyone has a degree of some sort these days, so they don't bother, or they aren't allowed to, or they simply don't care, because they prefer experience over education. I think it's the last one. I think the market is so glutted with PoliSci, History, Fine Arts etc. etc. degrees, that employers don't even consider those things - they go by vibes, they go by experience, and they go by testing. Which does kind of make that arts degree useless, dontcha think?

It was something I felt I had to do, something I felt was very necessary, but it's not something I'm particularly proud of. I will not divulge names or specifics here, but I think it's important for me to rant about this.

You see, for the last little while, I was witness to some events on the Net that made me more and more frustrated. I was a victim of it, and friends of mine were victims of it. For a long time, I wanted to directly write the people involved and tell them, hey, I see what you're doing, and what you're doing is wrong. I did this with one individual, but with another, I didn't. And to know me is to know that goes against what I believe in. It goes against the way I normally interact with people.

I have a character trait, or flaw, depending on who you ask., and that trait is that I always prefer to have things up front and in the open. When someone asks me my opinion on something, I'm not going to tell them what I think they may want to hear, I'm going to tell them my opinion, whether it's good or bad. I gave up playing little games a long time ago in my life, these little mind games people play, where you say one thing to the person's face, and another behind their back. For a long time, I have practiced a lifestyle choice - never say anything about a person you can't say to their face.

But, because of the wishes of a friend, I had to hold my tongue for a long time over one particular instance. I was getting more and more frustrated by what I saw taking place, but I had to hold my tongue. Then, when I heard different and more frustrating things, I couldn't keep it in for much longer. So I basically set up a scenario where I knew, eventually, the individual would write to me, and I would be able to respond in kind.

When I first wrote my e-mail response to this person, I felt like, finally, someone gets to tell this person the facts, someone gets to lay down the fact that a wrong thing was going on, and it was being perpetrated and worsened by further falsehoods. So I felt justified in sending the e-mail, and at the time I pressed the "Queue" button, I felt quite satisfied and content.

But after many hours have passed, I don't feel so satisfied, and nor do I feel content.

I don't all of a sudden wish that I hadn't sent the mail. It was something that had to be done, since others were turning the other cheek, and out and out ignoring what I thought was a pretty big wrong. So do I regret what I did? No I don't. Do I regret the way I wrote certain things? No, I don't, mainly because I felt I had to be as forceful as possible to get the point across.

Do I regret hurting someone's feelings? Yes, I think I do. I don't know this person very well, so I don't know how they will react to my mail. But I imagine they will feel hurt by my choice of words. And, even though my belief in "telling it like it is" is stronger, I still don't like intentionally hurting people. If I could have handled this confusing and difficult situation in a sterile and un-emotional manner, I would have, but I really don't think I had a choice. In the end, I think I did the right thing, but my only regret is that maybe there could have been a different and better way to handle it.

Well, what would you have done?

I'd be willing to bet the boat that the person I'm talking about is reading this today. My message directly to you is, sorry but someone had to do it. I've played the bad guy / bad cop role before, I don't relish it much, but it had to be done. I only hope what I said made you think, instead of simply react. Who knows - if you're able to actually learn from this and right your wrong, I'll be the first to stand up and applaud.

Woo, so much for my rant yesterday about not dealing with personal, emotional issues in this non-diary, eh?

But I took offense from his statement, and I'm pretty sure Stephanie would too. I don't think of myself as a diarist, and I don't think she does either. I just like to update my site every day - and sorry, I don't think that qualifies this as a journal or diary.

But doesn't this daylie rant page make me a diarist? I don't think so, and the fact I didn't update yesterday is part of my explanation. See, I think of most diary web sites as being places full of introspection - they are touchy-feely, angst ridden sites. Well, not always angst ridden, but definitely full of "this is how I feel today" stuff. I usually like reading other diary sites around the net belonging to people I know, but even they can cause my yawn factor to go up sometimes.

So it's rare that I go into my personal feelings etc on this page. I think of my page as a soap box page - where I can spew out my observations and opinions. So you can call it speaker's corner if you want (like the one in Hyde Park in London), but please don't think of my daylie ranties page as a diary - it isn't. IF it was, I'd tell you I woke up this morning with a bad back (again), with Jeanette telling me to wake up, with the dumb dog licking my hand, making me run to the bathroom before I wet my underwear, and so forth.

Ain't that kind of shit boring as heck? Well, maybe not to some, but it sure would be to me. I think this page is boring enough without putting in my mundane day to day experiences. Which brings me back to the fact there was no rant yesterday. I didn't write one because I didn't have many observations to write. Should I have written about getting up, watching Greg Moore win his second race, and watching my secret vice on PPV yesterday afternoon? Naw. So I left it blank.

And today? Well, I'm on my soap box again. In fact, I was on one yesterday, but in newsgroups - anyone ever hear of the vamp Tina Marie Holmboe? One of the nastiest people ever to write a line of usenet text - she regularly slams newbies in the various html newsgroups, who only want some help with their newbie pages. Don't know her? Go to DejaNews and do a search for her name. You'll see what I mean. Holmboe falls into the "purist" category of webdevs, thinking that the use of a font FACE tag is the ultimate in blasphemy. Well, I dug into her pretty good yesterday and it felt GOOD.

Oh and two closing notes. First, (sigh) all my regular voyeurs who haven't written yet still haven't written. So I'll ask one more time: if you're a semi regular reader of my site, but haven't contacted me yet, write me today! Let's dialogue, as my old snooty boss used to say. Oh and for those of you keeping score, the weasel hasn't written me yet. I doubt the person will, actually. Weasels like hiding in the background.

Also, I only received one example of net theft that I wasn't aware of. If you've seen someone, especially a commercial site, steal someone else's design, concept or code, let me know about it so I can build up a page about it.

I was very pissed off at around 4am last night. Why? I was frisked by cops.

See, I was ready to go to bed at around 2:30am, which is early for me, so I took the dog out for our nightly walk. She didn't seem to want to go. We walked for about a half hour, and then came back, and while climbing the stairs to our courtyard, Mitzy puked. I waited to see if she was ok, and then went back to the condo. Well, not for long. Mitzy was still feeling sick, and one thing sick dogs do, according to our vet, is eat grass to soothe their stomachs. So I took her back out, and sure enough her instincts made her eat grass.

So around 4am, I'm standing on a street off West Broadway, and Mitzy's eating grass and still dry heaving a bit. I see this white van come down one of the service lanes between streets, and slowly pull away. After a few minutes, Mitzy's settled down, and I'm ready to go back in when two cop cars pull up out of nowhere, and jump out of the car toward me. Understand, there's no one else around... it's 4am after all.

So they come up to me and ask me my name and what I'm doing outside. I tell them I'm Mark and my dog is sick, so I'm trying to get her some fresh air. They ask me for ID. I say I don't have any, and they ask why. At this point, I say, what's this all about, but they don't answer. They ask me again why I have no ID. Understand, that I'm a bit pissed off at this point because I wanted to go to bed hours ago, so I snapped at them, "What is this? Do I live in a Police State where I need my 'papers' at all times?"

With that statement, they tell me to assume the position. I stare blankly at them. So one guy grabs my arm and swivels me around hard into the wall of the building we were next too, and he frisks me. I don't like guys touching my dick. I'm not homophobic or anything, I just don't like that part of my body being touched, except by very few. So after searching me, the begin questioning me, where do I live, (in this building), what am I doing out so late (I told you my dog is sick), where's my ID (its in my wallet in my condo, you idiots), what's my address (look on the building, can you read?) and so forth. All the meantime, I'm asking them what the fuck is going on. They ignored my question, and kept repeating theirs. Well, one was, while the other was on the radio.

Then I can hear plain as day on their radio something to the effect of "suspect in white Ford van found at Broadway and Yew, in custody". So then they lay off. I say, "what the fuck?" and finally one of them tells me "you look like a suspect in a store break in we're looking for". I was flabbergasted. "You think all criminals take little toy poodles on all their break ins, do you?" The bastards didn't apologise, but suggested I "get off the street".

As they were getting back to their cars, I remembered I saw the van, and saw it turn in the direction of Yew. I said to the cops, "You know, I saw the van pull out of that lane over there, and turn down Broadway. All you had to do was ask and I would have gladly told you." The cop stared at me blankly, then his face twisted into a slightly embarrassed look, as he slammed the door and drove off.

Nice way to end the night. Oh well. It took me another hour to fall asleep after my little police-state experience.

Oh and on one other note, I was hoping my rant yesterday would generate other mail, but I guess some people prefer to only say things about others behind their backs. I've known weasels like that before.

Now part two of my rant today: Pretentious. I was called "pretentious" yesterday. Not to my electronic face of course, but behind my back. Go figure. I'm mildly upset about intellectual theft, and I get labeled as a pretentious person.

A friend of mine, Stephanie, suggested that I run a feature within these pages chronicling intellectual theft on the net. I'm thinking about it, but I only have about 6 examples myself, and I can't show some of them, either because they are now gone, or because I don't have permission to. So the call is going out: do you know of a case of someone stealing concepts, design, graphics, or code without due respect back to the original designer? Has someone lifted your design? Your graphics? Want to strike back at intellectual theft? If you do, tell me about it, and if I get enough examples, I'll build a section for it.

Well I was pretty much set to do all of my little exposure piece today, but out of deference to a a few individuals who are victims but don't want the hassle, I've decided to hold off on some of the examples I wanted to post. But, there's some juicy ones down below, so enjoy!

I said it before, and I'll say it again: intellectual theft is wrong. It may not be illegal (well, actually in most countries it is) but it sure as hell sucks. Lemme put it to you this way: How would you like it if you worked and sweated and suffered and paigned and tormented yourselves over a concept, design, or code problem, only to find that weeks or days later that someone else lifts it from you with no expended effort other than clicking ctrl-a, opening notepad, and pressing ctrl-v and saving the sucker. Nice feeling eh? It's happened to me, it's happened to people I know, and I see it happening almost every week on the net.

Here's two examples, provided to me by the CGI Guy, Terry Dye (and Terry, you haven't written lately!): New Releases Video and Churches dot Net (which changed a tiny bit recently... their old logo used to look a LOT more, uhm, familiar). Now do these sites remind you of anything else on the net, much more familiar, and much more established? If not, and what hole have you been hiding in if you don't recognize the design, here it is.

Those two sites are prime examples of thieves in action. But this isn't the worst example. Not by far. I could show what I consider the worst, but I won't. Instead, I'll show one that comes darn close. Derek Powazek and his friends at the Fray are master coders, without any real equals. And they prove it with this page, the most innovative use of frames I've ever seen. So guess what? A much more famous online e-zine, Salon Magazine, lifted Derek and Alexis' code for this page. You may notice that there's a notice about Alexis and Derek there, but it wasn't always there. Nope. I was told that Salon stole the code without permission, and gave no credit for this inventive, innovative use of frames. Only after much heated accusations and lawyer talk (so I've been told) did they give the "credit where credit is due". Nice. Even the big boys steal.

You may think I have a problem with lifting code, but actually, I don't. Heck, lifting code is the number 3 tip on my Tippy Turtle page. People borrow parts of my code occasionally, and I really don't mind. The reason I don't mind is because these people usually either ask my permission first, or they give me credit on their pages. That's all I want, and that's all I think most people who invent the concepts and labor over the code want - a nice e-mail asking permission, or some little notice on your site saying who inspired you.

There's been a few times in the past months that I've discovered, or been pointed to pages that have stolen my concepts, my graphics and my code. How do I know my code's being used on someone else's site? Let's just say I have my own coding quirks, and I can spot them pretty fast in the sourceview.

One person who lifted my code was an obvious newbie who didn't know any better, and she's a nice person to boot, not meaning any harm. Another person had the gall to lift my entire front page, and use the same graphics etc., just with changed text. I'd point to him, but his geocities page has disappeared, taken up by another.

The third person was a little bit more sneaky - the person ripped the javascripts from my pages and stripped the copyrights (many of which btw, don't point to me, but point to Stephan Bird, Jen Worden, and ProjectCool). They made the scripts look like their own, and that was wrong. I can't show that site either, because of a promise made to a third party <sigh> but I'm hoping those last two individuals are reading this, and they know what they did is skanky, evil, stupid, and supremely lame.

This is getting long, and I'm in serious lecture mode, so I'll wrap up. My mantra, as you may know, is that personal pages are works of art. All of them, be them original, or with borrowed (with permission or notice) code, concepts and graphics. It really doesn't matter to me how boring or tame they may seem to others - I for one can appreciate the effort, sometimes supreme, that a person has put into their personal page.

The only pages that make me angry are the pages belonging to people who lift code, concepts and images, and then claim them as their own. That's intellectual theft, it's wrong, it's evil, and it sucks.

Heynow! Wouldn't you know it, my pissy mood is gone! Just like that! Just writing and thinking about the previous paragraph did it! Amazing shit!

It seems that some of my net buddies, actually many of them, disagreed with yesterday's rant about counters. Oh well, that's their right, their prerogative. I was simply talking about me and my views, and I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. Zannah raised a few good points about who she codes for, and who her counters are for, and how she views them, and as I said to her then, they were all valid, sound points. I still think differently for my case, but that's life.

I finished the mock up for the Leigh Morgan web site in record time. I'm not super crazy about it, but I think the site suits the client - clean, conservative, bright and easy to navigate. And I was on both a limited budget and time frame, so I could only do so much. One thing I'll probably change ASAP if I get the job are those linkgraphics on the main page. I never got them to look good in my eye.

Yesterday was a day full of chatting, coding, meetings and the like. It was a hectic day, though I bet the people I had chat sessions with didn't have a clue about what I was doing. hehhe I love chat sessions because, unlike phone convos or face to face things, people don't know what you're doing, or even if you're paying attention all the time. I use ICQ, and though the chat window has a notification showing when you're using another window, I found out a way to get around that. I guess two visuals of what I did yesterday are the Leigh Morgan site listed above, and the new pages and sections on this site: Web Workings, which was created, and The Creation of Yet which got a big overhaul.

I'm planning a big rant soon on web theft. I thought I would fire up the page today, but I'm thinking I've got a few more changes to make. I'm still trying to decide if I'll actually expose some people or not. Hrmmm the implications.... do you think I should do it?

Still confused? OK, I'll lay it out. See, I think of personal pages as works of art... simply because they are a form of expression by the individual that creates them. That's why I really like every personal page I visit, no matter how mundane, garish or boring some may think them to be. Along with this, I think that personal pages should be free of most kinds of advertisements, including Link Exchange and the like. In fact, about a month ago, I had an email conversation with a guy from LE about this. He didn't like my comments much I guess, because I never heard from him again. So when someone puts advertisements, be it Link Exchange, Netscape Now buttons, MSIE animated buttons, and the like, it takes away from the "art" for me. It's like putting ad advertisement for Joe's Body Shop on the corner of the Mona Lisa or something.

Before I go on, I have to explain why I still have two "buttons" on my front page. I have to display the Geocities one, because Geocities hosts my site for free and they make that button a stipulation. Plus I really like and support Geocities and their philosophy on providing a web site to anyone who wants one, but maybe can't afford it (I couldn't when I first got this site!). I also display a HomeSite button, for 4 reasons: a) it's the best damned editor out there, bar none; b) Nick Bradbury, the program's creator, is a hell of a nice guy, c) it's dirt cheap at $40 and worth triple that amount, and d) Nick and his program are still very much small time, often ignored by the big time magazine reviews, etc, and need all the push they can get -I'm such a big fan of the program and his attitude that I happily display the button even though I don't need to.

So fine - pull the adverts, but why the counters? Well Paul Mew's rant got me thinking. Counters really do turn pages into a competition of sorts, and that takes away from the spirit of the pages - at least what they mean to me. I've found myself bragging "oh, I average 100 hits a day", or "I got over 2,000 visits on the day ProjectCool listed me" etc., and looking back, it really changed the focus of what I see a personal page to be. I was bragging now. I don't like that much. It takes away from the art that is a personal page, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The truth of the matter is, I really don't care if my pages get 2 hits a day or 200. Well, I care if my business pages get that, but that's another story. For my personal site, I was updating daily when I averaged 15 hits a day, and I continue today. For my vision of this page, hits aren't important. Feedback isn't even really important, though I do enjoy e-mail. If even one person other than myself has a good time while visiting this site, enjoys his or her visit, etc., then that's what satisfies me. And because of this, the counters will no longer be displayed.

Those of you savvy or sneaky enough to look at my code will see that yes indeed, I still have a counter in place somewhere. It's my stats generator. The reason I'm keeping it is because I find it interesting to see where my visitors are coming from, and I don't think keeping this stats generator is hypocritical. It satisfies my curiosity for seeing what domains, what parts of the world are visiting. My whole point of this rant is that I will no longer display my counter as some sort of trophy to establish bragging rights - so there's no discrepancy there.

And one final point. Just because I've done this, don't think I'll look down my nose at you if you keep your counters visible etc. This is my opinion about my site only, and I will not judge others who show their continued hits. I have my own philosophy about personal pages and others have theirs... and I don't think my ideals are necessarily better or worse than anyone else's. I just saw myself being a bit hypocritical about my philosophies, so today I took steps to remedy that.

Oh and one bonus point - not only has Lance Arthur been screwing with my head, but now he's on my case. Oh well. I asked for it. (snicker)

But enough of that. I saw something absolutely hilarious on George Michael's Sports Machine last night. I'm still laughing over it. Words won't do it justice here, but I'll try:

Stupid Mass Human Tricks
I saw footage on TV last night that displayed just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was a contest called Chase the Cheese. Words really can't describe it, but I'll try my best.

It seems that there is this contest in Britain somewhere. What it involves is this - a very large, steep hill, about 100 contestants, and a huge cheese ball - it's about a foot or more in diameter. What's supposed to happen is this: a judge throws the cheese so it starts rolling down this steep hill, and after 10 seconds, he barks the order starting the chase for it. The person who catches up with the cheeseball first is the winner. What does he win? The cheese of course!

Here's what really happened. The judge throws the cheese... and a few guys start chasing right away, not waiting the for order... others follow, and within about 3 seconds, everyone's after the cheese. But the hill is very steep... people start tripping up, falling, bouncing, and taking others down with them. Meanwhile, the mass of humanity has actually overtaken the cheese - the cheese ball is in the midst of the crowd, but no one can grab it because they are all falling way too fast down this steep hill.

One guy did the most amazing stunt I've ever seen. He tripped and bounced and landed on his back, bounced again way up into the air, and seemed to fly through the air for at least a dozen feet or more, bounced again on his butt, flew into the air again and hit his back again. He flew once more, and somehow, magically, landed on his feet and continued running. It was amazing... amazingly stupid.

So by this point, people are reaching the bottom, and there's no cheese... where is it? They can't find it... then finally, one guy comes rolling down the hill, and he's covered in cheese. So is another guy, and a third one. What happened is predictable - these guys hit the cheese and squashed it. It ended up being crusted on their clothes, hair and other assorted body parts. There was no cheese to be won this day. So sad, so sad.

I'll repeat what I said: this has to be the stupidest thing I've ever seen a bunch of humans do. It was a riot, and I look forward to next year's competition. What would be really cool is if I could find an .avi of it on the Net!

I've been very busy today with a few things, so that's why this update is very late. I've been working on a mock up site for a local clothing designer, and Tuesday, the owners check it out. If they like it, I make big bucks. If they don't, I make $200. Oh well. I have to admit, it's nowhere near my best work - I've been suffering major design-block all week and weekend, and it's probably because of the troubles I described yesterday.

As Jeanette said to me earlier today, it's been a good day for Canadian racers. First, Greg Moore, local BC lad (Maple Ridge) scored his first ever CART series victory at the Miller 200 today (CART is IndyCar racing for the uninitiated). He was ecstatic at the finish line, and as a true show of class, one of the first people to congratulate him was Jimmy Vasser, the third place finisher.

But, still proving that even though his father Mario has all the class in the world, he has none, Michael Andretti, who came in second, had these comments about Greg's win: "I can't believe he drove all that distance on that one tank - there's something wrong here." What a classy guy that Mike is.

And the other fast Canadian today was Donovan Bailey. I have to let all your Americans know something - see, Donovan is the world's fastest human. He won the 100 meters at the Atlanta Games, and holds the world record. He is the world's fastest person. Now, you might be confused because Michael Johnson, he of big mouth, has been spewing for months since the Atlanta Games that he in fact is the world's fastest man, but sorry, he isn't. Everyone knows and generally agrees (except for Johnson) that whoever holds the world record in the 100 meters track event is the fastest. For years, your buddy Carl Lewis claimed this, and we grugingly accepted it.

Anyway, to get to my point, because Canadians as a whole and Bailey in particular were getting tired of Johnson's big mouth, a challenge was issued to race. Johnson accepted with stipulations - the race would be 150 meters, halfway between Bailey's 100 specialty and Johnson's 200. The race had to go on a curved track, to Bailey's disadvantage. And Johnson drew the outer lane, the preferred one. Bailey agreed to it all.

Today was the big race. The testing ground. The show of mettle. But when it came time to show it, Johnson crapped out. Here's how the race unfolded. Out of the blocks, Bailey got a 2-3 foot lead within about 30 meters. By 60 meters, he was clearly out front. By 80 meters, Johnson saw he had no hope in hell of catching the world's fastest human, so, instead of taking defeat like a man, he grabs his leg muscle and pulls up, dropping out of the race. The leg muscle cramp was complete bullshit - Johnson saw he was losing, and instead of crossing the line like a man, he took the coward's way out. He couldn't admit that Bailey beat him fair and square, so he uses an injury as his excuse. It made me sick, but it also showed me, once again, that loudmouths often can't stand the heat when they lose.

Oh well, after that pleasant note, I have to say, as a racing fan, it's been a great day for me, and I can't wait to hear Johnson's "excuses" on the late night news!