March 26, 2001
9:05A
FUNDAY SUNDAY

There's only so much a person can worry about—job hunting, friends in the hospital, money, family—before it begins to shrivel the soul. I yearned to run away this weekend.

Saturday I went to San Bruno to see the girrls. We all used to work at Talk City and all but one has since scattered to places like Yahoo, Palm, and G.E. The giggles, the discussions of what color to paint toenails, the Mimosas with a strawberry floating on top, the sharing of beauty products, just makes me want to sing "I feel pretty".

Sunday Honey and I headed up 130 to the Lick Observatory. The view was soul-filling. We got to look inside the the observatory at the telescope and learned that James Lick was buried right below the pier in the middle.

Afterwards, we took 130 East winding down the other side of the hills. Stopped at The Junction for corndogs and beer. Felt so at home. We looped through Livermore stopping at Chevys for a beer and a quesadilla and then headed back to Sunnyvale with one curious stop at The Roadhouse.

We ended the day feasting on cheese dip and watching episodes 5 and 6 of the The Sopranos before seeing the new episode of the Sopranos. This is the best show. I find myself saying things like, 'you goombah' (?) and 'forget about it' and have discovered my growing penchant for men in Italian slacks.

This morning, with my soul satiated, my diet back on track, and my workout with Richard completed, I can now turn my attention back to the World Wide Web:

1. Todd Fahrner's CSS notes
2. Yale Web Style Guide
3. Typofile: Techniques and Technology
4. W3C's discussion on fonts and relative units
5. CSS Pointers Group
6. Building Webmonkey's DHTML Toolbar
7. Webreview: CSS2 and Tables: Caption Control
8. Webreview: CSS2 and Tables: The Display Property
9. Webreview: Controlling Table Layout with CSS2

March 20, 2001
9:03A
NO CONTROL

It seems lately I have little control over anything. So I've been attempting to control the things that I can control. One of the things I want control of is the way my web pages look. I've gone back to HTML 4.0.1 instead of XHTML 1.0. My attempt at it was premature as I still have designs in my head that require tables. And truth be told, I didn't like the way my page looked as much as with tables.

JOB HUNTING FINE GRIND: Rechecked Craig's List, Brassring, and the state's job listings. Other urls the Unemployment Office recommends: Valleyjobs.com, Nationjobs.com, and Vault.com.

FREELANCING: With the evaporation of permanent Web Designer positions, freelancing is always another temporary option. Here's some places I've checked:

ICplanet.com: People, Projects, Matches
Do A Project
Women on the Web: Effective Networking: Per Janet, "Networking requires going past your comfort zone." See some of her tips.
Guru.com: "Power for the independent professionals."
Freeagent.com
Smarterwork.com
Contract Job Hunter
Net-Temps
Getjobs.com
Bullhorn.com
For writers, editors, copywriters:
Sunoasis.com
Word Associates

CLINGING TO THE LIFE RAFT: I checked Sunday's Merc for *any* job openings for Web Designers. None. But under the Employers Index, they listed 36 companies has having some "web" positions. I went to all 36 sites and found only one Web Designer position.

The lead story for the Careers section is "Layoff survivors offer their tips on job hunting and lifestyles". One url they provide is Corporate Refugees: A Safe Haven for Downsized, Disillusioned, and Displaced Workers. I see they list iVillage for "emotional support and work-family balance". [iVillage to Buy Women.com: "slow growth of revenue underscored the need for the merger..."].

Speaking of the Merc, Merc publisher quits rather than cut more.

"Citing the prospect of layoffs, proposed changes to news coverage and possible cutbacks in the paper's financial support of community groups, Harris said in his letter of resignation that he feared the corporation was placing too much emphasis on economic concerns at the expense of the newspaper's role as a public trust."

I stifle a scream at the thought of having to go back to clerical work in order to get by. That possibility is still a couple of months away. Scottie reminds me that I'm not defined by my job.

On an entirely different note...found this link at Johnman's ID, one guy's sex blog. Oh, and here's another sex blog.

Thanks for the laugh, Mr. Flatbush Escapee: If the MIR hits the Taco Bell target, everyone in the US gets a free taco.

Rolling blackouts have already started in block 13. I'm in 7 and so should be okay for today.