blog.laylaness.com

Frustration abound!

I know this has been blogged about endlessly, but I'm going to throw another whiny diatribe on the pile.

I'm creating rounded corners for all of the boxes on the website I manage in my day job. Firefox works brilliantly. Internet Explorer 7, interestingly enough, is working. But wherefore, IE6? Where. Fore.

I'm not trying anything new and kamakaze. I'm using the simple 4-image and 4-divs formula. Every browser except IE6 likes it. No problems. It's cleaner and less poke-me-in-the-eye looking. But IE6 only works on 3 of 5 boxes. One of the boxes that it screws up displays one rounded corner. The fifth does nothing at all. Nothing!

Does anyone still use IE6? Does anyone still use IE? Why? Why do you want to torture web designers? IE isn't W3 compliant with JavaScript, let alone CSS. If I get one more ActiveX warning, I'm going to, I don't know, get really annoyed and blog about it.

Anyway, I've narrowed this problem down. IE6 isn't displaying my corner images. No dimensions have changed. It's a fixed-width box. Bottom-left is the only corner that's displaying the rounded image. For now, I'm off to quadruple check my code and see if I get any errors with the Firefox error log.

If you know what this bug is and have a fix, please don't hesitate to give me the answer.

It'd be my career if it actually made me money.

Well, I've done it. Finally. I always say I'm going to, but then I chicken out at the last minute.

I've gone back to school.

I'm going back for an A.A. in Digital Media with an emphasis in Web Design. Best of all, I am getting tuition reimbursement from my company because it directly relates to my job.

The downside is, I also have to take classes in fundamentals that I use daily. My first class is WWW Publishing with HTML, which I start this week - a little late, but I'll be able to catch up almost immediately. It'll be an easy A, at least. I have to create my own website (...), but it has to be within the guidelines that the instructor gives us, using provided graphic files and specific tags. I can do it; I'm just dreading bad clip-art and tables.

I do get to take awesome, geektastic classes like Color Theory, Typography, and Flash Interactivity. I'm especially excited for Typography. I'll learn how to create my own fonts, and I'll get to throw around cool terms like "kern" and casually discuss what's on my lightbox.

I actually like going to school, despite my complaints during every semester. It's predictable; I know how to play the game of giving the professor what he wants in an assignment. With every new degree, I get increased bragging rights. Oh yeah, and I learn stuff.

Cube dwelling

There is a shuffling about at my office, as we are adding a few new employees. My two favorite co-workers get to share an office. I will be stuck at the same Cube-upon-Aisle --  their semi-private cubes will be given away to the new recruits.

Since I will not inherit a semi-private cube, I have decided that I need to secure a bit more privacy. I grow fatigued at discussions taking place directly outside of my humble abode as I attempt to work.

The only solution, obviously, are swinging saloon doors attached to the entrance of my cubeffice. These doors will be equipped with a motion sensor that will activate a recording of Ennio Morricone's theme for Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo.

Now if only I could figure out how to do this...

Overhaul!

I decided it was finally time to review the ol' website. I do like a clean design, but it occurred to me that the old style sheet was pretty drab and predictable.

The new home image is one I took at a friend's band's show of miscellaneous equipment and gear. I think it's more interesting than a picture of mini-me. I also discovered that Arial Narrow is a horrible font, and hard to read on certain monitors, so I went with trusty, universal Verdana.

The photo album has been updated. Gone are ancient pictures of Diego, and I've introduced the first images I shot with the Canon S3 IS that I got for Christmas. Check back for a whole new set I took at Spoontonic Lounge.

Ye olde bloge also got an update, with a style sheet that now matches my main site. Yay for consistency!

It's all in the details...

What dress code?

When I rode BART to University every day, I would typically leave for class during the morning rush hour. I would see suburban professionals get on the train, all commuting to their offices in San Francisco's Financial District. More often than not, there was a sea of khaki and blue hues laid out before me. In the fall and winter, the ocean laid out before me might take a turn in variation to blacks and chocolate-browns. This is the new-millennium business casual phenomena, accompanied by Casual Fridays as chronicled (and parodied) in Office Space. On Casual Friday, you might see the odd pair of black Chuck Taylors with jeans and a button-down shirt... wait for it... untucked.

I am lucky enough to work in a laid-back company with virtually no dress code, excepting the unspoken "Please don't show up in your pajamas or looking like a hooker" rule. In fact, I work in a building dominated by a very corporate entity, and we, in software development, are the lone techie floor. The nineties phenomena of business casual also netted what I call Dot-Com Couture.  Employees bound only to the "no pajamas, no hooker" rule. Jeans every day, not just Casual Friday. And... wait for it... flip-flops whenever you damn well felt like it.

While we are not bound by a dress code, we generally try to show up looking like adults during the week. This looks something like Corporate Drone Casual Friday, except if J.H. has a meeting with executives; then we see the semi-shocking sight of business casual. The girls - K. and G.S. - and I
like to wear cute shoes and sweaters; carry some fantastic accessories. 

Last week, my co-workers G.S. (not to be confused with my Fairy Godstylist, G.), K., J.H., J.M. and I all showed up to work in jeans and sneakers with t-shirts layered over long-sleeved white shirts. We jokingly called this the Friday Uniform. Then we concocted a uniform for every day of the week: Monday we wear poo-brown; Tuesday, baby-puke green; Wednesday, maybe mix it up with some black or grey to reflect the drudgery of the middle of the week; Thursday, it's time to get into the weekend mood with jeans and sweaters; and, of course, the Friday uniform. "HAHA!" we all said, "THIS IS TEH FUNNEH!"

Today is Friday. J.H., K. and I all showed up in jeans, sneakers, and white long-sleeved shirts under brown t-shirts. The only variety is J.H.'s Snoopy-s, K.'s orange couch, and my "Pale is the new tan".

I guess no matter what the dress code, we all look the same.