Archive for January, 2005

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For adults only

Filed under Personal49 views

I haven’t had time with the online dating scene for a while, but because I started this blog I felt obligated to do something dating related and did a google search to see if there were some new free dating sites around. I did find one where I could browse the profiles without registering and I thought that was really good… I could check it out without registering, which suits me so well now when I don’t have that much time available.

The first thing I noticed was that some of the ads didn’t show a photo, but instead there were a default picture with the text adult on it. I clicked on one of the normal profiles with a photo showing and it looked like any of the ads on any of the other dating sites I have visited. Out of curiosity I also clicked on one ad with the text adult on… hmm… well…

When I tell one of my girlfriends that I email or chat with a guy I’ve met on the Net they usually ask: “Have you seen a picture? Is he cute?”… I don’t know what I would tell them after emailing one of these guys… should I say: “Well, he’s one of those average looking guys, soft and mushy!”… “Oh, he’s tall, dark and handsome!”… “He’s quite short, but cute anyway!”… “He’s so big I’m not sure what to do with him!”… I don’t know… I guess it’s better I don’t use that site at all.

I used to work at a hospital when I was young and living in Sweden. You see many things at a hospital and I guess I’ve already seen them all in many different sizes,shapes and ages and all that. I just can’t get that excited over those pictures; I really do prefer a picture of a guy with a big smile on his face.


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| Susie | January 31st, 2005 | 5 Comments |

Cross browser and cross platform design

Filed under Templates, Tutorials60 views

Before we start working on the design in detail it’s good to get some information on how different browsers and platforms work. I use Firefox at home and Internet Explorer at work and both my blogs look pretty decent in these browsers. In Explorer you have to have text size set to medium to be able to read it though. My operating system is Windows XP on my desktop computer and Windows 2000 on my laptop. I downloaded Opera today and discovered some problems in the layout, so my design isn’t ok even though I thought so. I know only about 1-2% of my visitors’ uses Opera, but I still would like to have a design that works. So I guess I have to get into this part a little deeper and I’m going to do that by looking at this website first:

Css-discuss Wiki

Fonts and font size

A blog is about writing and of course reading, so one of the most important things to consider is what kind of font and font size to use. Because of all the different browsers and different operating systems around it isn’t easy to get it right and good-looking for everyone. I have some problems on this part myself and have to try to get something that is readable for both my blogs on all the different systems we have out there. I can’t test my site on a Linux or Mac computer, I only have to trust people to tell me if there are problems, but I will test my site in different browsers and different screen resolutions.

On the above site I found a couple of articles discussing font sizing and would suggest you to look into it before we continue working on the style sheet for this template.

How Do I Size Fonts?
Can I Force Text to Stay a Certain Size?
LineHeight
UsingFontSize


| Susie | January 31st, 2005 | 2 Comments |

Insert Blogger Tags

Filed under Templates, Tutorials57 views

Open the layout xhtml file in your web page editor and start inserting the blogger tags. The easiest way to insert them is to copy and paste them from Blogger’s help page. Locate the<head></head> tags in your xhtml file and insert the tags that goes there.

<title><$BlogPageTitle$></title>
<$BlogMetaData$>

Locate the <body></body> tags in your template file and the header column. If you have used CSS Creator for your layout the header column will be the one with the text Head in it. Copy and paste the tags <$BlogTitle$> and <$BlogDescription$> to insert your blog title and description. You don’t have to worry about formatting at this point. We are going to do that later.

Locate the left column and insert the tags for your profile, previous posts and archive pages.

Locate the main column and insert the tags for your date header, posts and comments.

When you have inserted all the tags into your template it’s time to test it. If you are using your original blog for testing, make sure you have a backup of your original template to go back to. I would recommend though that you create a new blog for testing purposes; you can always delete that blog when your template is ready. Remember to either paste your style sheet into the template file or link to the style sheet file. If you link the file you have to upload it to another server and use the complete URL to that site. Use one of the tutorials for more information on how to use style sheets.

Copy your code from the editor and paste into the template editor on the Blogger site and republish your site.

Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Edit: I have uploaded a new version of the layout file with the most important tags inserted and also the style sheet file. You can examine the file by clicking here. You can also check out how the template look like when added to a blog and with some posts inserted by clicking here.


| Susie | January 30th, 2005 | No Comments |

Wysiwyg editors

Filed under Software69 views

It’s easier to create a template if you have an xhtml and style sheet wysiwyg editor. I use FrontPage 2003 which isn’t the best tool for creating a template, but that is what I’m stuck with from school. FrontPage doesn’t have any specific xhtml features, but it does support xhtml. You have to makes sure though that you have all the settings right and Microsoft provides some instructions on their website for that.

I have found a couple of free editors on the web, but haven’t had time to test them. If you know of a good xhtml or style sheet freeware editor, please leave a comment and I will look at it.

| Susie | January 30th, 2005 | No Comments |

CSS and XHTML tutorials, Blogger Tags

Filed under Templates, Tutorials69 views

You need to know something about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to be able to create the look of your template. The easiest way is to have one of the tutorials open in a separate window while you work.

You can find some tutorials here:
HTML Goodies basic css tutorial
HTML Goodies Classes and Id tutorial
CSS Tutorial

You also need some knowledge about XHTML and can find tutorials here:
Xhtml tutorial
A three part XHTML tutorial

Information about the required blogger tags can be found on the Blogger help page.
If you use another blogging host or software you need to find the right tags from your provider’s website.

| Susie | January 30th, 2005 | 2 Comments |

Other ways to create color schemes for your template

Filed under Templates, Tutorials70 views

If you don’t have a picture to create your color scheme around you can use one of these online tools instead:

Color Schemer Online
Color Blender
Color schemes generator 2

| Susie | January 29th, 2005 | 3 Comments |

Color scheming and page layout

Filed under Templates, Tutorials84 views

To be able to use your own pictures on a layout you need to get a host to store those images for you. I have a free Yahoo!Geocities account and use that for storing all the images and files I use here.

The first thing I did when creating the template for this blog was choosing a photo. I liked the colors on my photo of the galley M/Aux Marita a rainy winter day. I edited the picture in Adobe Photoshop a bit and used the color picker to create a color scheme for my template. You can see the colors I picked and used in the table below.

colorpicker.jpg

#7C9D82 #D9D4B7
#FAFFFF #B5582C
#695838 #DEA64E
#6E8F7E #020704

I wanted to create a table-less design, but haven’t had time to get into the coding part myself, so I used an online CSS layout creator for the layout. There are a couple around but I really liked this CSS Creator.

layoutcreator.jpg

Here is a link to the XHTML file the CSS Creator generated [layout1.html].

Here is a link to the style sheet the CSS Creator generated [layout1.css].

| Susie | January 29th, 2005 | 4 Comments |

Winter

Filed under Personal48 views
Winter


My daughter have been planning her wedding in Florida and also been looking forward to moving to a warmer climate. Her fiancé wants to move to Finland because he liked it here. He’s from Louisiana, currently living in Florida and has only seen snow a couple of times in his life, never as much as we have here though. We sent him this picture to make him change his mind, but it didn’t help, the wedding is going to be in Finland and he’s going to move here in May. He played American football here last summer and is going to do it again this year while he learns the language and tries to get a job for the winter too. Seems we are going to be an American/Swedish-Finnish family soon… I’m looking forward to that!


| Susie | January 27th, 2005 | 6 Comments |

What does it mean to be kind or intelligent? Should I keep a list? Or not!

Filed under Personal170 views

When someone asks me what kind of man I want I have big trouble answering. Of course I could make a list of traits and go with that, but what does those traits really mean. What does it mean to be kind? Taking out the garbage? Fixing my car? My kids take out the garbage and I don’t have a car for the moment… I want a man in my life, not a janitor. Does kind mean that he won’t hit or verbally abuse me? I assume that the norm is we don’t hit others, so I don’t consider people who doesn’t hit or say mean things to others as exceptionally kind, they are just normal.

Intelligent? I guess that is something I could put on my list; I want the guy to understand what I’m talking about… but, on the other hand… I don’t want a guy that is so intelligent that I don’t know what HE is talking about. I have never been able to be that cute little girl gazing at a man with big, soulful eyes, admiring every word he says. Even though I’m quite short I have had some trouble being a cute, little girl in the presence of a man. It’s easier for me to be either a bad girl or one of the guys than a girly and cute girl.

Powerful? Rich? I do believe that both too much power and too much money corrupt. Of course I want the guy to be able to pay for the food he eats and buy the stuff he thinks he need, but too much is always too much. Even if I haven’t had much money, I have been able to take care of my family for many years and expect to be able to do that in the future too.

A list is good to put up when we need to make up our minds of something. If there were a man in my life that I liked, but some of the things in him made me crazy, then I would put up a list to decide whether to continue seeing that man or not. I’m just fishing around now and a list would just make it more difficult for me to examine the catch. I expect men to see me as the unique woman I am and to respect me for that, it’s only fair that I give guys the same chance. Unfortunately it seems they are more into the list thing than I am and some of them have quite long lists too, but that’s another story…


| Susie | January 26th, 2005 | 3 Comments |

Don’t try to debate with a geeky artist

Filed under Personal55 views

Elliot’s comment to my last post made me remember all the times an intellectual man have tried to have an intellectual debate with me. Well, you can’t win a debate with a geeky artist with kids.
When you are using logic, I’m going to talk about what I feel.
When you’re trying to reason with me, I’m going to tell you a story about the time when my kids were little. I’m using my life as an example to prove I’m right and you’re using the words by great men you read in books.
Since I’m a single mother and used to doing all the chores in my home, I do understand how the dishwasher, computer and the vacuum cleaner work, I also know how to use the hammer and a nail. So when you say I’m irrational and don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m going to explain the floating point algorithm and install a hard drive.
When you get frustrated about not getting anywhere with me, I’m saying: “Whatever, honey… who’s going to clean the table?”
When you’ve had enough and decide to go home to your place, I’m saying: “If you love something, set it free… If it comes back, it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was yours….”
As a small side note, I think I have never mentioned that English is only my third language, so there might be some expressions or words used the wrong way in what I write.


| Susie | January 23rd, 2005 | 5 Comments |
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