I finally broke down and redid the main page of my site.

It works in IE, but you’re missing out on the menus if you aren’t using a standards compliant browser.

It was in some ways a painfully long weekend, and in other ways the weekend was entirely too short.

I’m still having issues with my depression. Destroying my cell phone on Saturday didn’t help matters, not did having to plunk down $400 to replace it. But. That’s why we have savings–so when things break (for whatever reason) they can be replaced. So it’s just no new computer for me anytime soon.

The depression was incredibly frustrating. Just one of those days where I can’t stand being inside my own skin, and nothing I did really allowed me to escape myself, although I did managed to distract myself.

I kept busy by doing a fair amount of web design over the weekend, rebuilding the WordPress template for my book blog and then recreating the same style for the book pages of my website. I’m overdue a rebuild of my main page, but I don’t have a clue what I want to do with it, and abandoning the color scheme means having to create a new set of images. Since I’ve got probably 30 or so images that randomly appear, that idea is rather unappealing right now.

Speaking of images, I test drove Adobe Elements over the weekend. I have Photoshop at work, but there is no way I am going to pay that much money for a software package, and I’m one of those weirdos that refuses to pirate software or music, to Elements seemed the logical choice.

Having played with it, it seems precisely what I need, so at some point I’m going to have to cough up the money for that. But it’ll be worth it, because it’ll be nice to do image work at home (and goodbye to Corel Photopaint 10).

The predicted storms never came, so Saturday afternoon was sunny, as was today, so I got to get out and enjoy the flowers, just a little bit. And posted the requisite Sunday Flower Pr0n.

I also finally finished my review for A Short History of Myth.

Here’s to hoping this week goes smoothly.

I’ve been working on the graphics for my book blog, and also added the new design to the rest of the books portion of my site (which is not WordPress).

So there should be a mostly seamless transition between the WordPress portion of the site and the pages I created. The only issue is that there is a small margin/padding issue I cannot for the life of me work out, so the side border is just a teeny bit off. Humph.

ADDENDUM the First:
I also changed the color schemes to match the images.

ADDENDUM the Second:
And IE 6 or lower doens’t render png images correctly, so the header image will look wonky. Too bad. It works fine in all my other browsers, so you’ll just have to live with it.

I finally got around to creating a new theme for my book blog, Random Reading.

I’m still tweaking a few things, but most of the heavy lifting is finished.

So wha’da’ya think?

So, despite the fact that IE sucks, otherwise the new theme seems to be working well.

If you’re curious how it worked, what you’re looking at is something like this:

Here’s what goes in the index page:

<div id="wrap">
<div id="content">

Posts go here

<div id="bottom">
<p>This is text at the bottom of the page. Maybe. Maybe not.</p>
</div>

</div> <!– content? –>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?><!– opens two separate include files, sidebar 1 and sidebar 2 –>

</div> <!– wrap? –>

And here’s that part of the style sheet:

/* This division contains the remaining divisions in the design */
#wrap {
width:100%;
text-align:left;
min-width:75em;
}

/* This division contains the main content, including the posts */
#content {
float:left;
left: 0;
top: 185px;
width: 71%;
min-width: 33em;
max-width:58em;
padding: 2em;
min-height: 225em;
}

#sidebar_1 {
float:left;
width:15em;
padding:.75em;
}

#sidebar_2 {
float:left;
width:15em;
padding:.75em;
}

What I need to do is place both sidebars in another container, so that the second slidebar doesn’t slip under the content when viewing a single, short post.

What worked was placing a min-height in the content area.

Please let me know if you’re having trouble with this format in any browser besides IE6.

Oh, and that bottom section will eventually have something in it. Once I figure out what wants to go there. (I wanted something that stretched 100% like the top image, but no luck with that yet.

I’ve created a theme switcher on the sidebar. If you’re using Internet Explorer 6–and can see through the mangled mess–switching to IE Safe Random Black will clean up the formatting issues.

I was planning on adding a theme switcher after I created a white theme (for those who complain about my black theme) but I realized I needed the switcher sooner rather than later.

I told you I didn’t give up (Nathan)!

I’ve implemented part one of the new format.

You’ll only notice a difference on a wider screen, at which point the bottom half of the sidebar should slide up to the right of the top half of the sidebar.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been cleaning up the code. I initially created this template off another one, and did only what I needed to get the look I wanted. I’m now cleaning up the code and leaving myself comments so I don’t have to wonder, “what the hell is this shit?”

For now, all other changes should be subtle and not make much of a difference.

I did make a couple changes to the width of the content window, changing the max and min. If you think the content potion of the page is too small no matter what you do, let me know and I’ll play some more.

I’m also willing to take suggestions, however, before you ask, I can’t place the archives in a drop down menu like the categories. Unfortunately, my oldest archives could not be brought into Word Press, so they won’t appear in the drop down menu.

Well, I suppose I could do two drop down menus……

I’m going to work on the layout for the website.

If things are horribly broken, never fear, I’m already cursing at the problem.

For now, you shouldn’t notice much of a difference when I’m done. Most of what I’m doing is behind the scenes.

ADDENDUM the First:
That is IT. I have HAD it with dealing with this, especially on this computer.

Chances I’ll be offline most of the day. Not because I’m doing anything exciting, but because I still need a break, and maybe I can read two books again.

I’ve got a post scheduled for 8AM, but otherwise don’t expect to hear from me until Sunday.

As you may have noted over the past couple months, I’ve been writing a fair amount of php code. Although this was partially to learn a new language, it was also so I could make my book database do what I wanted.

Although I’m not entirely there, I’m getting close.

Yes, a lot of work I did was on the back end, that you can’t see. Too bad. But I’ve also done so work on the front end, especially implementing some of the stuff I did on the back end.

So what I’m asking is for you to go poke around the database, and see if you have any suggestions for making it better. I’m considering making an author search that only brings up names, instead of every book written by every author with a similar name, but I’m not sure if that’d be useful.

Please note: not all books have been linked to their reviews, but many have, so if there’s a book lacking a review, there’s a 50% chances I haven’t read that book. Additionally, about 25% of author pages link to pages elsewhere on my site. The other 75% jump back to the current page. I’m trying to figure out how to fix this. And the status is available for books I’ve gotten rid of. I’ll get to that bit later as well.

So please, go visit my book database, poke around, and tell me how I could make improvements.

And while you’re there, if you think there’s an author or book I should own or should have read, feel free to let me know.

This weekend Michael and I both got new monitors for our desktop computers!

Best Buy has 18 months same as cash is you spent $500, and we both needed new monitors and I also needed an external hard drive, so, YAY!

I got a 22″ monitor. Michael got a 20″ monitor. Why, you’re asking, did I get a larger monitor? Because I use my desktop computer on a regular basis. Michael rarely uses his. Though he swears that now he has a new monitor he’ll use his desktop more often.

Yes dear.

As far as details in the picture, I’d like to point out the two best fortunes *ever* that are taped to the desk.

The first says, “The skills you have gathered will one day come in handy.”

The second (which is my favorite) says, “There is no substitute for good manners except maybe fast reflexes.”

Any questions about the crap on my desk, just ask. You should be able to just see three references to DS9 on my computer desk, two obvious, one not.

But still not, like, fiction writing.

// function to add/update reviews

function update_reviews($book_ID, $Review)
{
$query_review = “UPDATE books
SET Review = ‘$Review’, Status = ‘$Status’
WHERE book_ID = ‘$book_ID'”;
$result_review = mysql_query($query_review);
}

// create the query to add the review web address

$a = 1;
WHILE ($a <= $r) { $book_ID = $_POST['book_ID'.$a]; $Review = $_POST['Review'.$a]; $Status = $_POST['Status'.$a]; $Review_updated = update_reviews($book_ID, $Review, $Status); $a++; } $a = $a - 1;

Of course after two days of fighting with it, Michael fixed my concatenation: $book_ID = $_POST[‘book_ID’.$a];. I tried everything under the sun but that.

However, it all works now, which is all that’s important.

And of course this is all for the back end/management of my book database. You all don’t get to play around in the back end–no offense, but I don’t need anyone else adding or editing books.

Apropos of nothing…

Was staring at my keyboard, and noticed that I have worn off about a quarter of the C sticker on the C key.

Nothing else is worn away on this keyboard, but the A S E R T N and spacebar keys are shinier than the other keys.

Looking at my laptop, which ancient in technology terms, I’ve worn away the C and S and C stickers, and the A E R T H I L N and spacebar keys are very shiny.

So I’m curious, is this wear normal on all keyboards, or is it a function of how I type (which is NOT to touch type, as I never learned.)

Just not in English, not really.

Here:

<table border=”0″ padding=”5″>
<tr>
<td><strong>Book ID</strong></td>
<td><strong>Author</strong></td>
<td><strong>Title</strong></td>
<td><strong>Review</strong></td>
</tr>

<?php
// display results

$b = 1;
$r = 1;
WHILE ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
?>
<tr>
<td><input type=”text” name=”book_ID<?php echo “$r”; ?>” maxlength=”5″ size=”5″ value=”<?php echo ($row[‘book_ID’]); ?>” /></td>
<td><?php echo ($row[‘FirstName’]); ?> 
<?php echo ($row[‘LastName’]); ?>  </td>
<td><?php echo ($row[‘Title’]); ?> </td>
<td><input type=”text” name=”Review<?php echo “$r”; ?>” maxlength=”155″ size=”40″ value=”<?php echo ($row[‘Review’]); ?>” /></td>
</tr>
<?php
$r++;
}
?>
</table>

Is that a thing of beauty or what?

Even better, it works perfectly.

Now I just need to write the update queries for it.