Well I couldn’t wait for .Text to come out with their new release, so I just decided to do a new skin now and worry about the new functionality later. I really like this new design and I hope you do too. There are still some things I need to work out, as funky HTML will mess up the alignment sometimes. I had to ditch my earlier post with the HTML table that had specs for my new PC on it because it was screwing stuff up. But for the most part I’m pretty happy with this.
I’m not really talented enough from a graphic design standpoint to have come up with this design myself. I modified one of the skins from the newly re-designed Blogger - a free service which some of you should sign up for, by the way, so I can read your blog for a change - called No. 897. I thought it was pretty cool so I started with it and I modified it. I basically changed the white border to black and used primary colors instead of the pastels. I also used a cool font that I downloaded a few months ago to make my new logo. I call this skin “Grand Theft Blizzog” because it reminds me of the mod art used in the Grand Theft Auto game series.
Look around and kick the tires and let me know what you think. I’ve tested this on IE 6 and the latest release of Firefox. For some reason the fonts render a size smaller in Firefox and I couldn’t get the two to match up, but you can rock some Ctrl-+ action to get the font size up a notch until I figure it out. I have changed the way that comments are laid out on the post pages because I was getting sick of that table. AG has already told me that she doesn’t like the new comments layout because I ditched the alternating colors. She thought it made them easier to read. I like it how it is now, but if you guys tell me you hate it too then I’ll change it.
I also added a place holder in the little light-blue thinger up there to put a sub-title for the site. .Text supports it but I didn’t use it in my old skin. Eventually I’ll probably replace it with a quote-of-the-day module or something, but for right now I have to enter the text in by hand on the .Text admin module. I’ll change it around when I feel like it until then.
That’s it from here for now. I need to go to bed. Please let me know what you think. I spent a lot of time on this over the past few days and would appreciate any feedback - positive or negative - that you might have.
Thanks!
We haven’t had a Random House post in some time so I thought it was about time….
So the yard is looking pretty sweet after a long hard day of work and about 17 trips to Home Depot because we grossly underestimated the number of pine straw bales it would take to cover 1800 square feet of ground. If you were ever wondering how many bales of pine straw you can cram into the back of a Lexus RX300, the answer is 12. I bet KenJen knew that.
We saw “Anchorman” yesterday as a reward for our labor on Saturday. We should’ve seen “The Bournce Supremacy” instead.
Does the Gigli-esque performance of Catwoman at the box office mean that we’ve finally seen the end of the Sharon Stone era? I don’t think NASCAR drivers get as much mileage out of their tires as Stone has gotten out of her last good performance in “Basic Instinct” 14 years ago. For someone who is so irrelevant these days she sure manages to show up everywhere, doesn’t she?
I’m working on a new rule. It goes something like this: “If your license plate in any way hints at the brand of car it is on, you are probably an asshole. (Bonus asshole points if the plate also includes a possessive pronoun or your name, as in “MY BMW” or “ANN’S BENZ”)” The only exception to this rule: Chapel Hill-area favorite “BLACKURA” that some dude had on his black Acura. That’s good times right there.
Don’t you hate it when you’re out and about in London and have to take a dump, but you’re not sure where the nearest, cleanest public restroom is? Well, your pain and suffering is over, my friend.
Future Reality TV: “The Simple Life XXII”, where Paris’ ho daughter and Nichole Richie’s ho daughter go to live with old and busted Britney, her skeevy fifth husband and their six kids in a trailer in Louisiana. I’d watch it.
Oh well…. I’m flaming out. I need to bail here before it gets any worse. More later, hopefully better.
Let’s face it. When it comes to doing manual labor type tasks, I’m somewhat of a little bitch.
It’s true. I’ll be the first to admit it. I’ve always had these guy friends that just know stuff about typical guy things building stuff, fixing stuff, tools, landscaping, repairing cars, etc. It amazes me how they know so much. It also make me feel like an idiot and wonder why I don’t know all these things either. Was there a “how to be a man’s man” class that everyone boy got to go to in elementary school but me?
If anything, you can’t lay this one on my dad. He knows all about this stuff and gave me plenty of opportunity to learn it too, but I just never really invested in it. Sure, I would help to do fix-it chores around the house when I was younger, but it was mostly me doing one specific task in a series of larger tasks: “Hold this here while I nail this in.” “Okay.” I never took the time to ask many questions about what we were doing or why we were doing it. And if I did, I certainly don’t remember any of it now.
Flash forward to present day, and now I own a house with stuff in it that needs to be fixed from time to time and a yard that needs a lot of landscaping attention. Sure, we moved in a year ago, but I’ve been able to avoid doing any serious maintenance or improvement work by hiding behind my consulting work all the time. Nothing really serious got done unless Ashley did it or she yelled at me at least seven times to do it. (The seventh time it seems to sink in for me, you know.)
Well I’m happy to report that all that is slowly changing, albeit slowly. Since my “Jerry Maguire” moment a few months ago, I’ve slowly been re-introducing myself into the real world and taking an interest in things like sprucing up my house. I figured that since this is a journey for me I’d chronicle my experiences gaining new manly knowledge here on the blizzog.
The Planting Beds.
Since the house is new there’s really nothing to repair. It’s the yard that’s busted right now. We have an acre lot and almost 95% of it is grass. The lot slopes downward to boot, so it takes a LONNNGGGG time to mow. AG and I decided that our first priority would be to introduce a bunch of planting beds into the yard to cut down on the amount of grass we had to mow.
Great! I was excited. We were going to create some planting beds……now what? Like any good computer dork faced with something he didn’t know how to do, I hit Google, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. I got a book from Black & Decker called “The Complete Guide To Creative Landscapes” and another one from Better Homes and Gardens called the “New Complete Guide to Landscaping”. The Black & Decker book taught me about all the things we needed to do to prepare the beds properly. The Better Homes and Gardens book is teaching me all about the right kind of plants and stuff to grow once we have the beds prepared.
Using some advice from the first book, we got some rope and landscaping chalk a few weeks ago and cordoned off the areas of the yard that we wanted to turn into beds. Next, we needed something to kill the grass so it wouldn’t grow back under the beds. One of the benefits of being somewhat out in the country is quick access to a local feed & seed store and the knowledge of the local good ol’ boys that run the place. I’m like a fish out of water every time I walk in there but they are always great to me and set me straight if I have any questions.
The guy helping me a few weeks ago took me past the usual suspects like Round-Up and the Ortho stuff to another aisle in the back. It was filled with creepy brownish bottles with labels on them that looked like they were printed up at Kinko’s and had names like Eraser and Kill-Zone. I bought a non-descript bottle of something whose name I don’t remember after the guy held it up to me and said, “Now this stuff right here…it will kill you some shit.”
Who can argue with that?
So after killing me some shit a few weeks ago and mostly likely altering my DNA in the process, we let the beds rest so the volatile chemicals could dissapate. We’re back at it this weekend. I’ve rented a tiller and a landscaping trencher from today until Monday to help complete the task. We’re going to till up the soil and mix in some soil conditioner, edge the beds with the trencher and then put pine straw over everything. We’re going to wait and do most of our planting in the fall, but this gets the tough stuff out of the way for now.
All in all I must say that I’m pretty pleased with myself. They dropped the tiller and trencher off this afternoon with absolutely no instructions. Despite never using one before I figured out how to get it started and actually tilled a few beds this evening. Though I’m living in mortal fear that I will be tilling my foot off sometime this weekend, I’m getting better with each bed I’m doing. We’ll see how things go with the trencher too. I may be a few years late to the party, but I’m glad that I’m taking the bull by the horns and learning how to do this stuff on my own.
Though this should go without saying for any of you that know us, don’t think that Ashley has been the poor helpless woman in all of this just waiting for me to take care of things. AG has been instrumental in the planning and execution of this whole operation. Truth be told, if Ashley was in charge we’d probably be done by now. She would’ve just gone out and done it without any stinking books and we’d be going to the movies this weekend instead of tilling dirt. But thankfully Ashley has been kind enough to indulge my Type-A need to get books about this and make sure that we are doing it absolutely the correct way, and I appreciate that.
So that’s the end of my first step towards being more mannish. After we put the beds to bed - heh - my next project is to build some utility shelves in our garage to help get rid of all the clutter in there. Stay tuned.
I came across this little tidbit yesterday about Dook giving iPods to its incoming freshmen.
Not only is this a well-written piece, but I think it should put to rest any concerns JT.net has over an N&O Chapel Hill bias. 
Sorry there hasn’t been much posting lately. When your friends’ dads tell you that you need to update your web site - ahem, Tim - you know you’re doing something wrong. I’ve been a bit busier of late doing some work around the house and preparing for AG’s birthday, which is this coming Monday. I’ll be picking things up here again soon.
Also, many of you have told me that the blizzog isn’t rendering very well for you since the upgrade to blizzog 2.0. Whether your resolution is lower than the 1600 x 1200 that I designed this skin on - isn’t that what everyone uses? - our you are using a new-fangled browser, I have heard you and will be addressing this soon. I have been waiting to customize the code in .Text until they come out with the next point release, which is supposed to be sometime this month.
In the interim I may start working on a new skin. The blizzog could use a good facelift anyway. Much like Joan Rivers, the site should really be getting some work done every few months. We’ve essentially had the same look for almost a year and a half now. It’s time for something new. Any suggestions on color or layout? For the blizzog, not Joan.
The blizzog mourns yesterday’s passing of TV legend Isabel “Weezie” Sanford at age 86.
Because we are pompous enough to think it might be possible, the blizzog hopes that we have not started a Sports Illustrated-like jinx where people whose picture we feature tragically die the next month. We’re pretty sure that that’s a bunch of poppycock, but just in case…… we provide the world with this nice picture of Osama.
And just in case it is the lethal combination of the blizzog and George Jefferson…….
See you next month, Osama. 
The following exchange took place last night between a Blockbuster Video employee - a kid we’ll call Sparky - and a lady customer while I was in line with about six other people picking up a few flicks for the evening.
Lady, making small talk: “So, have you seen Spiderman 2 yet?“.
Sparky, enthusiastically: “Oh yeah! I saw it first thing on Wednesday! It was great!”
Lady: “Oh, I know. We just saw it today and we loved it.”
Sparky: “The ending was great, wasn’t it?”
Lady: “Yes, very interesting.”
Sparky: “They really set it up for a sequel when (HERE IS WHERE SPARKY EXPLAINS THE WHOLE END OF THE FREAKING MOVIE IN ABOUT TWO SENTENCES).”
All of us in line: “GASP!!!!”
Lady and other chick working with Sparky: “Ssssshhh! Not everone has seen it yet.”
Sparky, clearly not caring at all: “What?! Like everybody doesn’t know about it already.”
No Sparky, we don’t. Not everyone is in high school and works at Blockbuster for the summer and has the time to be the first dork in line to go see movies that we really want to see. Thanks for completely ruining any feeling of suspense I’d have about the outcome of this movie for me. Ass.
Sparky has violated what I like to call “The Two Month Rule” of movies. Simply stated, “The Two Month Rule” is that you should give friends, family, and total strangers (read: everyone) a two month grace period to see a new release film before you openly discuss the film’s plot - especially the ending - in a public forum. This of course doesn’t mean that you can’t discuss the film at all with others who have seen it, but it does mean that you should be sensitive to those around you when you do.
“Two Month Rule” sensitivity includes things like:
1.) Asking friends around you if they plan to see the film before givng away plot points.
2.) Speaking in a normal to low voice when discussing the film around strangers.
3.) Not giving away the ending to people that you don’t know, especially when you WORK IN A FREAKING MOVIE RENTAL STORE and should be sensitive to these things in the first place, you stupid jackass!!!!!
(Whew. Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.)
If it should ever be legal for you to kick someone’s ass it should be for violating “The Two Month Rule”. I firmly belive this. You can kick someone’s ass for tresspassing on your property and stealing your TV. Violating “The Two Month Rule” is actually worse than someone stealing your TV. Why? Because you can get your TV back, that’s why. Unless you have one of those memory-eraser thingers from Men in Black or a naked picture of Bea Arthur handy, there’s no way to block that moment of violation from your mind. The damage is done. Your future enjoyment of the movie is at least lessened if not destroyed, and there’s no way for you to get it back.
And so, dear blizzog reader, my message is simple. When it comes to movies, please honor the “Two Month Rule”.
Remember, nobody likes a Sparky.
Mitch Kupchak is on the cusp of becoming the greatest Tar Heel of all time. :) If Coach K decides to accept the Lakers head coaching position that has been offered to him, there will certainly be much rejoicing amongst Carolina fans. I’m not sure how I’d feel about it though. On the one hand, it would be cool because Dook would certainly not be as good for a stretch of time, and I’d love to see them go through what we’ve been through for the past few years. On the other hand, it would not be cool because Dook would certainly not be as good for a stretch of time, and where’s the fun in that now that UNC is finally starting to stock the shelves again with talent on the bench and on the court?
I personally would love to see the K/Roy matchup play itself out over the next nine or ten years. And while I won’t shed too many tears if K does decide to leave, there will still be an empty feeling knowing how much better the rivalry would be if he’d stay. There’s no question that they have whupped us soundly over the past 5 or so years. It would be nice to have the chance for some payback now that the ship seems to be righted. K leaving now would be like the guy at the poker table leaving after he’s taken everybody’s money. On the one hand, you’re glad he’s gone, but you sure would like a chance to win your money back.
The Carolina-Duke rivarly was intense before K got there, and I’m sure it will still be great when he’s gone. But I’d be lying - and all Carolina fans would be kidding themselves - to say that the rivalry will be better without him. It won’t. While it would be good times to watch the Lakers lead the league in charges and see Kobe slap the floor to play defense (yeah, right) while the Lakers miss the playoffs each year, it wouldn’t be nearly as cool as watching Rashad McCants rip the hearts out of the Crazies on a last second 3 at Cameron while Coach K screams, “That’s f**king BULLS**T!!!!!! You f**ked my f**king program, you $*$@*@!!!! ” Isn’t that what it’s really all about?
So at the risk of losing my wine and cheese privleges at the Dean Dome ;), here’s one Heels fan that hopes you stay, Coach K.
Stay and get what’s coming to you.
Ratface.
