Vive la feed!

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been devoting a good deal of my non-working time to updating my website to version 6. Today, on a whim, I decided to break my routine of doing a page (or section) in order according to the new and improved sidebar–and instead, I created an RSS feed for my site.

I’m sure glad that I did too. I’ve been planning to create one for quite some time now, but figured I could wait until I had v.6 up and running. Good thing I didn’t follow that figuring. It just so happens that creating a feed requires inserting certain bits of text in the header and sidebar of every page of my site–making it very worthwhile to put it in before the site grows huge. This way, I only had to modify the 7 pages I already have done in version 6–and I can just copy my template and write my pages as normal for the rest of them.

So, to all my dedicated readers (all 3 or so of you ;-)) and to Aunt Rachel (who would read if I had an RSS feed), I offer: the bekahcubed feed.

Click on the above link to access the feed–or click on the “RSS feed” button on the sidebar of version 6 pages–or use your web browser’s (or rss aggregator’s) automatic detection system.

Vive la feed!


Goal Crazy

I’ve been working fervently behind the scenes to upgrade my website to version 6. My first order of business was redoing the About Me segment. Version 5 included selected items from my list of life goals–so I thought I’d expand that in version 6.

I’ve always known I had a lot of goals. I just didn’t quite get how many until I started recording them on a website–and discovered that I definitely couldn’t put them all on one page. Three pages still includes much too much scrolling. And those are only the easily categorized goals: Arts and Crafts, Educational, and Travel. That doesn’t include spiritual goals, health goals, homemaking goals–and the myriads of hard-to-classify goals.

I’ve removed the goals that I’ve categorized from my “master list” that I have been keeping for years on my computer. With those gone, my “master list” is ONLY 51 pages long. Amazing!

Are you a goal setter? Do we have any of the same goals? I’d love to work on them together! ;-)


bekahcubed v.6

It’s been a while since I last updated my site. The current version (v.5) was created in early 2006. But even that is a bit deceptive. While I have made changes to the organization and content of the site in progressive updates, I have not updated the layout since v.3–in 2002.

So, a bit has changed since 2002 when I was last doing layouts. Using tables for formatting was standard then–and CSS was new. Now CSS is the only way to go. I learned rudimentary CSS for v.3–and used it for font attributes, backgrounds, etc.–but I still have a lot to learn. CSS Layouts require a special attention to nesting and organization of elements that I wasn’t used to in my earlier days.

And then there’s the browser problem. None of the popular web browsers are completely compliant with the W3C standards for CSS. So I created my template testing against Firefox (the most standards compliant web browser–you should consider switching to it if you haven’t already). Once I had the look I wanted in Firefox, I opened it in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7–and got a page with layout elements stacked on top of each other every which way. IE7 ignored my directions for specifying “heading” headers and “body” headers and instead stacked all of my headers in absolute position at the top of the screen–not exactly what I was going for. So I had to tweak my code to work around IE7’s issues.

You can take a look at my template page (with a little text pulled from my “pregnancy” file. Don’t freak out–I’m very interested in midwifery and doulas and the like–but I am certainly not about to become an unwed mother.) I’m not even bothering with tweaking for earlier versions of IE or other less common web browsers–unless a reader points out a difficulty. So let me know via comments or e-mail if you have problems viewing the template.

I have not started using v.6 yet because I’m doing more than just a layout change–I’m updating my offerings a bit, and working to make my code generally more compliant and user-friendly. For example, I have been “blogging” in one long paragraph that fills the entire page–using breaks for divisions between paragraphs you read and bold formatting for headers. Version 6 will use headers and paragraph code as they’re supposed to be used–hopefully making bot catalogueing and regular browsing a bit easier. I’ll also be translating all my code into XHTML compliant code. So I have to do a bit of copying and pasting and tweaking code for individual pages.

So, for now, enjoy the sneak preview, prepare for v.6 to launch within a month or so, and thank God that you didn’t decide to prepare your website manually!


The Cyber-Stalker Speaks

I’ve been a cyber-stalker for much of my online life–reading blogs but never commenting, visiting sites and never leaving any sign of my existence. Even when logging on to a forum is required to read it–I log on, read it, and leave. I never post.

For the last six months or so, I’ve been following the Bergeron family daily. I’ve delighted in reading about their lives and enjoyed the blissful escape into large family life–a life so familiar compared to the mundane oddity of the lives of those who surround me. Reading regular books and blogs, hearing about “normal” people’s lives–I love all of that, but most of it is an alien landscape for me. I don’t know the trials and delights of carpooling to school–unless you count squishing a tenth or eleventh into the family van for a trip to church. I don’t understand “boredom” or “playdates”. So, Renee’s family gives me a touch of home.

I enjoy reading bakersdozen so much that I also enjoy sharing Renee’s anecdotes with my friends. A friend and I will be quilting together and I’ll say “So, the lady whose blog I read…” and I’ll share a funny story from a recent post. My friends and family know all sorts of information about Renee’s children, her systems of organization, her scrapbooking.

But throughout all of this, I have never bothered to comment or e-mail, or otherwise let it be known that I am reading. What could I add anyway?

Well–the long silence has been broken–the cyber-stalker has spoken. I have decided to be polite and make my presence known. So I posted a comment.


I don’t know…You Choose…

The problem with blogging is that sometimes you don’t have anything truly spectacular to write about–and sometimes you have lots of ideas but aren’t sure which one is the real “stand out” idea. Or you have lots of ideas from yesterday–or a week ago–that you didn’t write about then because something else came up. But now they’re too old–nobody’ll be interested anymore, will they?

Take for instance, today’s options:
–Have a Happy Pill
–Football Saturdays: Flashback (or Forward?) to Fall
–Every morning when I make my oatmeal…
–How does my garden grow?
–I can’t tell whether to be excited or scared
–Makeshift car repair: a do-it-yourself manual

So, what would you like to hear about? E-mail me at my webmaster account (or my normal address if you happen to know it) and let me know. I’ll write about it next time I don’t have anything to write about ;-)


Disconnect

Technology is disconnecting our culture. Attached to one another by the endless cords of cell phones and wireless internet connection, we are rapidly losing contact.

People are talking but nobody’s listening–everyone’s on their cell phone. “Wish you were here,” we say tritely-but we don’t. If they were here, we couldn’t say good-bye because “I’m on my way to class.” Liars. And if they were here, we wouldn’t be able to surf the web while listening with half an ear. Or could we? A group of five at a table next to me bonds over something on the computer set prominently in the middle.

The telltale cords snaking down the sides of their faces tells me to be silent-they don’t want to talk. Lost in their own music, they have no need for others. They give in to the illusion that music can be made alone.

The internet has destroyed our last chance at interaction. I bare my soul to the void, and the void answers with nothing. Casually disinterested, my readers bite their lips and never call. After all, why should they? I’m not speaking to them. I’m speaking to no one, and no one answers back. We are all babbling heads with stopped ears, disconnected by the technology that binds us together.


Internet Stalker

I have a confession to make. I’m an internet stalker. Seriously. I have a bad habit of going on blog stalking kicks. Every so often, I get in the mood to hear about people’s lives so I check their blogs continuously-multiple times a day. The more frequently a person updates their blog, the more likely I am to stalk it. I lurk behind the scenes, checking the blog compulsively several times a day, never revealing my name or giving comments.

If people knew what I did, they might wonder why I stalk them of all people. Well, anyone unfortunate enough to have added me as a friend on Facebook is susceptible. And if that person has linked another person I know on their blog–I stalk them too. And if you happen to go to my church and have a blog–I’ve added you to my list too.

Because a list is what I have. On the link toolbar of my web browser, under F, then under Friends, is a list of links to weblogs. About once a month I run through them all–those that are updated frequently, I add to my mental list of sites to check frequently. Of those, the ones that disappoint me the least when I’m running through them, are the most likely to be stalked.

The video from CAPS we watched in Health Aide class mentioned that most people with psychological disorders think that they’re alone–that no one else experiences the same problem they do. Well, perhaps I have the reverse. I want to believe that I’m not too unusual–which is why I also compulsively check my website’s webstats. I have a log of every computer that has accessed my website–organized by IP address. I ping each computer so that I can discover the name of the computer–my website was visited x times this month by UNL computer lab computers. Look, I gave that person my web address three months ago and this is their first visit–at least I’m pretty sure that I know who that person is. Be careful what you name your computer for the sake of the network. It may give me clues as to who you are. Better to keep with a generic computer name if you want to avoid my detection.

But, alas, for all my attempts to discover that everyone is indeed a blog stalker like I am, I discover that they are not. Or if they are, they do not stalk my site. I am and am likely to remain the most avid visitor of my own website–even though no one else visits it, I keep the webstats page as the second most visited page after my home page.

It’s a tumor–benign or malignant I do not know. But it grows, preying upon my time. Sometimes it divides quickly, sometimes slowly, but it keeps growing. In a life that I have made too busy for real interaction, hearing of someone’s life second hand is the best I can do. I need to do something–and quickly. Because my busyness is a disease, taking over my life.


Working out bugs

Thanks to my brother and his different browsers, hopefully you should be able to access this website via Mozilla at
least. Please let me know if you find more bugs that need to be ironed out–I want this to be as accessible as
possible. (And, if you’re on a Mac and can read this just fine–shoot me an email at b3master(at)menterz.com It’d be
awesome to know if I’ve gotten my Mac problems worked out!) Thank you all for reading!