Sunday 9 March 2008

Adventures in CSS

Not as much fun as adventures with CSS, I'd reckon.

Or indeed the Go! Team, who I saw this week and are still so. much. fun live. It's like being in an unusually kawaii school assembly run by Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem: all splitting the crowd down the middle for a singalong and prescribing the appropriate timing of one's pogo. Gig was much enhanced by the doorman asking me for ID (and being hilariously floored when I told him my age), a bloke on the way out telling me I had 'the best hair I've seen in ages. Well, six months', and a random after-gig club with a playlist from Grandmaster Flash to the theme from Neighbours. Anyway, here's Ladyflash for the uninitiated.



An interesting piece in the Times about how internet nerds are all girls these days, except in the world of programming. I'm depressed by the 12-year-old who thinks that girls only like the communicative fun bits and should leave the techie business to the boys (especially the day after International Women's Day): maybe our schools need to be wallpapered again with the IT equivalent of those cheerfully grimy girls in boiler suits waving spanners to encourage us to become mechanics. (And let's ignore the fact that I've been living up to my gender stereotype all weekend, harassing Wordpress templates into minimal degrees of submission and wishing it was all laid out a bit more visually.) Then again, is content really a lesser species than code? Web 2.0 isn't just about the back end being Open Source so we can fiddle with it: it's about simple elegant interfaces which let you get on with writing. Bet that 12-year-old grows up to be a journalist...

Not a lot of B&L writing due to the aforementioned Wordpress harassment (more on that soon, once there's anything worth looking at), and scribbling some Big Woo promotional material. Imminent publication: it's like having a proper job or something.

Watching Wales v Ireland and actually getting a bit teary (I am so proud of the boys, bless them, and now I've heard about the gouging I feel less cross about us earning 2 sin bins); finding out that someone very lovely is getting married, hurrah; eating pearl barley; moaning about Ashes to Ashes Alex Drake's bra strap.

9 comments:

MG said...

Drat Blogger ate my comment!

Izi returned Big Woo today, so now I can finish it.

"Really good, funny and easy to read because that's how people actually talk. And I really liked the ending."

Which by Izi's standards of book-comments, is an epic poem.

I have finished drafting my plot. Now to get into the writing mood. Am scared; haven't written new Josh for over 12 months. Except that one extra chapter that Editor asked for in book 1...

rocrastinator said...

Yay! That's really kind of her - and I'm especially pleased that the ending worked for her.

'Scared' is an accurate description of me right now too. I think I've forgotten how to do this writing thing. (You will breeze back into it, though, I'm sure: I keep having to do little snippets of serafina-speak and it comes back like a fingerclick.) Are you going to be able to keep that chapter as is, or will that have to be fiddled with now? (Though hang on, you're on Bk 3 now, though? *is confused*)

Anyway, we should have coffee this week. It might motivate me to stop sleeping on my keyboard...

MG said...

Just been reading serafina whilst lying in bed this aft, now have to abandon to go to school governor committee meeting, boo.

Really loving it! Clever clever ickle you slipping in all the themes about who-we-really-are and private-vs-public persona and confessional narratives into an apparently squee-ful tale...

Must go, agenda beckons, more later.

Angry Kid With A Lot Of Views said...

TA-DA as in
i accidentally pushed the send button before i'd typed anything.
i do that fairly often, but usually delte the post before continuing.

MG said...

Yay! Finished Big Woo and also really LOVED the end. No spoilerings here, so must meet up to tell you how clever you are.

rocrastinator said...

Angry Kid: that's all right then! Thought maybe you were having a bloggy strop and declaring your resignation from the universe or something.

MG: yay! So glad you liked it. Tomorrow's not good but let's get together soon: I want to hear all about your superstar daughter...

Jess said...

Well, am also conforming to gender stereotype by throwing in the towel with wordpress - it needs a mix of php and css knowledge I just don't have, and definitely don't have time to develop right now.

Am depressed, also by the fact that the two pieces of work I'm currently supposed to be doing are both now two weeks late. So that's two weeks' childcare with no paid work to show for it, and the deadlines haven't moved. The joy of freelancing.

Hope you're having better luck.

MG said...

Ths secret to happy Wordpress use for thickos - imo - is using a template which is widget-ready and actually works. Aside from that - so long as you are happy with FTP and know how to change permissions (chmod) - it's easy. I had to change ONE thing in the css, which I did by hackery. Susie - if my v basic level is higher than yours, let me know and I'll help if I can.

rocrastinator said...

Jess: *hugs* And curses, was all set to hit you up for tips...

MG: my problem is that I like to fiddle and be picky and make it look Just So. I've done some nice mods on the theme I picked, but getting it compatible with different screen resolutions etc are the bits I suck at. Have a plot to recruit some help, though, so once that's done and I've cobbled together a bit more content, it should be good to go. But ta!