Ah-Hah!!

Having seen some nice examples of sites on the Lightwave CSS content management system, I was inspired to create some templates in Photoshop that I think will are probably pretty do-able converted to CSS (plus maybe-gulp-tables-that I'm told are "like so last year"). But I had a nagging problem...how does one make a DIV block of say text and images with a semi-transparent solid colored background? Something where you'd like to visitor to still see the background pattern or image of your site, but having a background under your DIV block would make text & images more readable in there or just set them apart?

I Googled some solutions but the coding I found when tested didn't work. It's designed for CSS 3 which isn't universally supported yet...but probably will be supported in time. So, much to my glee, we tested out tiling a semi-opaque png tile in the background-image CSS tag and voila..it worked! There are probably lots of cool applications I'll think of later.

The slide show at the left (My self portraits look terrible -it gives me that "just farted" look)is from my backpacking trip with the Sierra Club in July 2008. The trip was in Northern California, in the Marble Mountains, near Etna,CA, amongst an explosion of wildflowers, and smoke from the fires. It was a fantastic experience and I'm going again this summer to do another backpacking trip from Mt.Hood to the Columbia River along the Pacific Crest Trail. Last summers trip was also along the legendary Pacific Crest Trail. There are crazy people that take 4 months and backpack the entire thing starting at the Mexican border in April and ending at the Canadian border in August or September, some solo. Our group encountered some of these souls... some traveled in pairs and just looked really tanned and kind of dirty. Some solo ones looked really hairy and dirty and traveled über light, having barely anything with them. The men without exception had enormous beards. I saw a few women, one even hiking in a skirt (guess it keeps things ventilated) and they looked okay. Having backpacked and hiked only 4-11 miles per day, I bathed daily...I could not take the thought of not really washing, even outdoors in cold water. It was awesome.

Presidents Holiday

I had such an amazing day it's hard to describe. I discovered David Wilcock while looking for interesting podcasts to listen to while bored at my last job. He was a guest on a weekly show, and I heard him talk about 2012, and synthesize what is the true nature of life, science, spirituality, conciousness, conspiracy theory and how we are evolving on a positive path. From there I went to his web site and watched his videos about the nature of space time and time space, ETs, DNA and the science behind why love heals and about 8 hours of amazing video. I saw hime speak today at the Concious Life Expo. It's hard to describe all that went down in a four hour lecture in one post, but suffice ti say that it was life-altering.

Before my time

Im embarrassed to admit that Ive just discovered Heart. I was listening to a series of YouTube tangents while I worked... the tangents went like this: Cafe R and B ( favorite blues band from LA )>old blues finger picking>Debi Jordan (talented guitar player/singer)>Debi Jordan covers Heart>1970s Heart concert footage of Crazy. Wow Nancy Wilson can play the guitar... and that band is still going very strong now! They have all kinds of stuff happening on their web site...too bad I missed them at the Chumash. I'll have to check them out. They seem like the pinnacle enigma band that all kinds of female musicians try to imitate. (ie. Janet Robin, Debi Jordan)They became famous a little before my time...and I try not to follow trends, so sometimes I discover good stuff after the stampede has passed.
Heart

Skidmark Central

I'm pleased to announce that I extracted a blackhead from my stomach that was a quarter inch long. This in an infrequent occurrence; turning down an invitation to go to the Wildcat on a Saturday night in favor of chilling at home and catching up. So here I am on a Saturday night blogging....am I growing older? Maybe...I can predict the guilt and headache Ill be experiencing later on from staying up too late with a bunch of pretty and insecure people, regretting the money spent and the ringing in my ears. I'm turning down alcohol poisoning and overstim in favor of hiking Sunday morning with the Sierra Club, and having the presence of mind Sunday afternoon to digest code, which I'd rather avoid in favor of playing with Photoshop...thus CS111. The title of this post was my observation of my floor after having people come in and out of my apartment during the last two rainy days and leaving evidence behind.

the 2-2 post at 702

I am pleased to see that the Obama administration is already changing policies for the goal of having an open and accountable government...I found a site under construction that will reveal the budget and finances of the federal government after listening to David Wilcock's audio blog posted recently www.divinecosmos.com.
The Obama administration will probably uncover mountains of corruption in the process, which will be painful,but we will all benefit in the long run. I'll post the URL to that here eventually.
www.recovery.gov

I mentioned by fat calico cat in the last post. If you live in Santa Barbara, you've experienced some pretty strong rains about a week ago. If I were my cat, her blog would be like this: "I have a big fur coat and my belly hangs down a bit. I didn't notice that I'd picked up a slug in my fur and brought it into the house. I rubbed on my mom's leg and I asked for wetters [canned food]. As she pet me, she felt something cold and slimy but didn't know what it was. It fell off and she squealed when she stepped on it barefoot in the bedroom. I don't understand what the big deal is, I didn't feel a thing. I have my own myspace page that is very funny (Myspace is sooo last year...I want my own Facebook page now. I know mom has hours and hours to waste). I'm going to ask my mom to post the Myspace link here. When do I eat? Can we play string? I need to go nap now." -Nikkita

Nikkita's myspace page is very funny:
http://www.myspace.com/nikkita_mittata