Burningbird

One of the benefits to manually going through old weblog postings and other articles—to see which to keep and which to 410—is re-reading old work. When you haven't looked at the material in several years, reading your old stuff is like reading something someone else wrote.

It's surprising what you can learn about yourself when you read your old writings. For instance, among my older works, some of it is still good, even among the technical work, which typically has a short shelf life. All of the keepers are being moved to RealTech.

Most of the Missouri-related writings are decent, and I've managed to stuff MissouriGreen with both photos and stories about places I've been. Other of my work, such as reviews of books, and readings of poetry are timeless, and they've gone to Just Shelley; same with my movie reviews, which have gone to Secret of Signals. Too much of my old stuff, though, is just plain dated, with inside jokes even I can no longer remember. We all took ourselves way too seriously at one time.

The work I've enjoyed re-reading the most, though, is what I call "writing just to write". I haven't done enough of this type of writing in the last several years. Too busy fussing about things that, when you look back, don't make no matter, as my grandmother would say.

Now that I've got my site where I want it to be, hopefully I'll have more time for "writing just to write". Now that I've also seen what a silly ass I've been in the past, I'll spend less time on the "don't make no matter".

In the meantime, I'm pulling a few of the older stories out, and pushing them in front of you, one more time. Maybe you'll like them. Maybe you won't. If you do like them, good. If you don't, well, it don't make no matter.

Now, I don't know if I was an overly bright child but I was shrewd, the shrewdness that comes with just being a kid and trying to survive childhood. It dawned on me that he wasn't scared of me because I could hurt him — he was scared because he realized at that moment there was a possibility I could beat him. And I was a girl. Being beaten by another boy would be bad, but to be beaten by a girl…well, that would ruin the bully for sure.

Continue reading Marbles at Just Shelley.

I spent several happy and restful hours at the Missouri Botanical Gardens yesterday. We're in a period of cool weather, and the day was overcast up until getting ready to leave.

Overcast skies make prettier flower photos, especially when the sprinklers are still going, dusting the petals with plenteous fairy tears.

Yesterday, the day lilies and gladiolas were in peak bloom, and I managed to catch the tail end of the Lotus blossoms in the Japanese Garden.

I call this one, "Eat, and be Eaten". Poor little bee didn't have a chance.

View more of the photos in the MissouriGreen Missouri Botanical Gardens Photo Gallery.

I did continue with my effort on the HTML WG, but I no longer feel either comfortable or welcome in the email list, so not sure what I'll be doing with HTML 5 from this point.

Chances are, I'll just focus on preparing a couple of Formal Objections, which don't require any email communication, other than posting a link. I hate pulling out, as I am concerned about the lack of diversity among those making the decisions about HTML5. I'm still concerned, because there is little diversity, and even less empathy, but I'm a chorus of one: it's not fun to fight battles when no one is covering your back.

On to other things...

I have a new book contract with O'Reilly. I'll have more on the subject and title at a later time. Both I and my editor, Simon St. Laurent, think it will be a kick ass book. It really has a great table of contents.

I'm still working on my own self-publishing book, but more slowly, to free up time for the O'Reilly book. I also have an article to write for a popular web design site, which I hope to get finished in a few weeks. All this on top of the work I'm still doing at this site, and my books site. Freeing up time is a silver lining for decreasing HTML5 involvement--though Formal Objections can take a considerable amount of time to create. Less time, though, then reading emails about how mean I am to the HTML 5 guys.

I am a bad, bad girl.

To US folks, Happy 4th of July. To everyone else, Happy 4th of July. Maybe some new photos over at MissouriGreen for you all later.

I have mixed feelings on this news.

On the one hand, I think it's a good idea to focus on one X/HTML path.

On the other, I've been a part of the HTML WG for a little while now, and I don't feel entirely happy, or comfortable with many of the decisions for X/HTML5, or for the fact that it is, for all intents and purposes, authored by one person. One person who works for Google, a company that can be aggressively competitive.

Car repair is not a linear progression, with incidents sweetly spaced so as to remind us, gently, that nothing lasts forever. It is an aggregation of aggravation, where one failure begets another...

Continue reading at Just Shelley.

Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals?

Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.

Continue reading Offered with no Commentary at MissouriGreen to find out why Keith Olbermann has named Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis, Worst Person in the World.

Drupal also allows you to have fine control over what does, or does not, show in a web page via the Configure Permission pages.

Unfortunately, I typically forget to set permissions when I add a new page element. The "Comment on this story" link for the recent MissouriGreen, Just Shelley, and RealTech stories should now be showing for everyone.

What breadcrumb could I use to tease you all into leaving the safety of your syndication feeds, to venture into the raw and wooly lands of actual web pages? With that one sentence I've managed to exceed 140 characters, so I've already broken the rhythm of the web. Now, I seek to further fracture Web Flow by luring you directly to my lair.

If I write about Drupal, SVG, HTML 5, and RDFa in one writing, would that suffice? Or would that chase you further and faster away? I also explain how my new commenting system works—did that make your eyes perk up?

I've finished the re-organization of my web site, though I have odds and ends to finish up. I still have two major changes featuring SVG and RDFa that I need to incorporate, but the structure and web site designs are finished.

Thanks to Drupal's non-aggressive use of .htaccess, I've been able to create a top-level Drupal installation to act as "feeder" to all of the sub-sites. Also thanks to Drupal modules, I've been able to integrate stories, graphics, and comments across all of my sites.

For a detailed discussion of the new design, continue reading the story at Bb's Realtech: A Major Site Redesign.

By accident and restless choice I am the ultimate stone that gathers no moss and have lived all over this country. In each location, I've hiked whatever wilderness the area boasts, and one doesn't truly know how beautiful this country is until you've walked the fields and forests, beaches and rivers.

Continue reading at Just Shelley: Forests I have Loved

Even before Summer officially starts on Sunday, we've had heat alerts the last two days. Combined heat and humidity has led to effective temperatures of 105 degrees. As these two Grévy's zebras demonstrate, the only way to handle weather like this is to stay in the shade, or in air conditioning.

Continue reading at MissouriGreen: Too Hot.