This is a very basic site for the Jackson State University academic journal called, The Researcher. It only has limited content management, but will be hosted on JSU's website which will give it an instant boost in the search engine rankings with a .edu domain name.

I went with a professional bookworm design with straightforward content. I wanted to keep it clean. Check out the site in it's development area, click here.

]]> http://www.stopandwonder.com/2007/11/new_site_jsu_researcher.html http://www.stopandwonder.com/2007/11/new_site_jsu_researcher.html Web sites Sun, 04 Nov 2007 11:08:08 -0600 If you've ever run into the problem of floating an image or div and the having it stick out of it's containing div then you know frustration as well as the next guy(or gal). I used to just declare a static height but that's really not the way to go and it might even be impossible if the content in that div is updated regularly.

In order to make the div recognize the height of the floated element you need to place an empty div inside the container div, but beneath the floated element. Then you simply need to style that div to "clear: both". It's really that easy.

I have no idea how many countless hours I spent trying to figure that out. Too many to say the least. It's especially handy when you've got multiple horizontal sections such as on my page here.

For instance, Comcast payed to have our apartment wired. So I call Comcast and ask for their internet service, they say that my apartment isn't in the database even though the apartment next to me is. Apparently this is because it's a brand new apartment and didn't exist before, yet somehow I feel they should know I exist since they installed the wiring.

So they say they have to send someone out to make sure I exist, I say sure, they say call back in a week, I sigh and say ok. One week passes. I call back they say, who are you?, and I say you don't know yet. They say they'll send someone else to make sure I exist and to call back in another week. A week passes. They now know I exist and that my money is real. They setup a time for someone to come out. More time passes. Then Tao has internet.

It's amazing that having the internet can really make a house feel like a home. I don't know how it does that, but it does. Maybe a home is anywhere as long as you can chat with your friends and family. Home is where the wireless hotspot is.

Anyway, long story short. I hope to be posting more now that I don't have to leave the apartment and walk 4 blocks down to the student center to get connected.

Really it's not so bad. It's nice to have a dependable income and not have to worry about all the taxes, even though I'll have to worry about that anyway for the freelance work I've already done. I'm also getting to see what it's like to work as a team on a site. I've already learned how to work with SVN, which is this code repository software that lets multiple people work on the same files and then merges them together.

They actually hired me to do design work with some CSS. I don't think they understand that I know a lot more than that but I think they're figuring it out pretty quick. It's been a little weird being thrown into the middle of one of their big projects but I've dealt with it gracefully and hopefully impressed them with how quickly I've come up to speed on everything.

Another aspect of working for someone is that I get some actual human contact. Christine is gone most of the day in law school now so it would be pretty lonely around the house. The people at New Village are nice and I feel really welcome there. Of course I spend most of my time zoned in on the computer there's always intermittent breaks to discuss something or another. It keeps life interesting.

I'll still be posting about web development issues. They may even be more interesting now. I'll probably be running into different dilemmas with more involved solutions. Stay tuned.

The height: 100% attribute only means 100% of the initial display of the page. When you try to scroll down it cuts off the below what you can first see on the page when it loads. Essentially your div is only 768px or whatever 100% of your screen height is. I was surprised at the lack of solutions to this problem, but I've recently seen people espousing the same fix I came up with as well.

For example, perhaps I want a center aligned page with drop shadows on the left and right. I believe the rational way to approach this would be making three divs and floating them all left inside a center aligned container and putting the shadow graphics in the outside divs with a background repeated in the y axis for 100%.

Instead what I do now is actually somewhat simpler. I make one graphic thats one pixel tall(if it doesn't have a repeating texture) and then making it say 760 pixels wide and leaving a space in between the two drop shadows for my content. I then center align that background and repeat it down and make a container div to make sure that my content stays within the two drop shadows.

Of course you can make the the graphic fatter in order to incorporate a texture. I've also used absolutely position graphics to make a gradient at the top that fades into the repeating background for added effect. You just have to make sure they're not longer than 100% the height of the minimum screen resolution you're designing for.

I'm sure that future versions of browsers will change this to give the desired effect or possibly CSS3 will add it as a feature. We'll just have to wait and see.

Christine told me I needed to move away from blue since it's been a staple color in my last couple of Stop and Wonder so I decided to compromise and incorporate red into my design this time and move blue down in prominence. I had no real design scheme apart from showing off a little and making everything shiny and professional. I think I succeeded.

I also spent a day making the flash slideshow of some of my work on the homepage. I hope you like that, I plan on upgrading and updating it. I also have plans to make my portfolio a flash file as well, but that's going to have to wait a little while. I can only dedicate so much of my time to Stop and Wonder's own site.

Anyway, I'm curious to know what you think of the renovation so drop me some comments. Also, if you're looking for my more "interesting" posts go over to Tao's 2 Cents and get your fix. Talk to you later.

In a way I've been freelancing for the last year and a half. I liked to think I was practicing for when I got back to the states and started working full time. There wasn't much pressure on me since the cost of living in El Salvador is almost laughable compared to American standards. Now that I've got actual serious bills to pay on a regular basis there's a little butterfly in my stomach hatching more every day.

My main problem is getting more business. I have the skills and the talent I just have to bring the marketing. Advertising on-line to do on-line advertising has more than a little competition. I have some good ideas for the real world that I think might be effective. I've also started to build a base of satisfied clients who are recommending me to people. Once I have enough people doing that I should be able to dumpster my flyers and other mundane marketing.

There's definitely an uncomfortable feeling of not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from. I know that comes with the territory and all of the freedoms that come with freelancing. I've been preparing for the actual work aspect of this for sometime, but I haven't done a whole lot of preparing for the business administrative part. I started reading a book called "Working For Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independant Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants" and it's been really informative so far. I've already gotten my business license straightened out but all of the tax stuff is a nightmare.

Like the title of this post says, I really feel like I'm testing myself here. It's like I've built this flying machine in my garage and only tested it in my garage(El Salvador). Now I've actually pushed myself off a real cliff and I'm falling. I've only really begun to peddle so who knows if this thing will actually kick in. Once I get a few more jobs and figure out my taxes I'll have caught my first updraft.

Once I finish reading this tax book I'll post a good summary for others trying to fly their own contraptions. I wasn't able to find a whole lot of in-depth information about everything I would need to do so I hope it can be useful to someone else.

The new site is called www.Taos2Cents.com, catchy huh? I'm still fine tuning it an adding new features, but it's up and running good enough to handle my posts. I truly hope you'll stop by and check out my new digs. I plan on posting a lot about more political things and posting video and pictures from the protests and events I'm going to start attending now that I'm back in the states. See you over there.

I arrived in Houston yesterday around 11am. My trip was significantly less hassle filled than the time I brought my cat, Mr. Pink, back with me. However it still had its little quirks. For instance, I had my corkscrew wine opener confiscated passing through security in El Salvador. I could tell the El Salvadoran guys saw something unusual in my bags as it went through the x-ray machine. They all gathered around the monitor and were making jokes. I can only imagine what they thought it was.

On the flight I was seated next to an extremely old woman who was clearly very Salvadoran. She was even wearing the typical aprons that I rarely saw women over 25 not wearing. I had to help her put her seat belt on and put her tray table down etc. The people sitting across the aisle from me also decided that they needed to take two giant boxes of Pollo Campero fried chicken. It's Central America's answer to KFC, only nastier and more processed. So I got to enjoy the sickening smell of deep fried chicken on the entire flight.

The most interesting thing that happened was that at one point the stewardess got on the PA system and asked if anyone had any Benadryll. They asked a second time and then started asking if there was a doctor on-board. Everyone was looking around to see what was going on, but I happened to be at the first row of coach so I could see into first class. The person having the allergic reaction was our pilot.

This would have made me nervous but I knew there's always two pilots. Plus I could see that his reaction wasn't very bad. He was just red and his eyes were a little puffy. You'd think he'd know if he were allergic to the airplane food. I mean how big can that menu be. I was also surprised that they didn't have Benadryll in a medical kit somewhere.

I've actually felt more of a culture shock this time even though I was in the states only 6 months ago as compared with a year last time. I never knew I could walk around a quickie mart or a grocery store so engrossed in looking at the products. The packaging on certain things are different, there are new flavors of things. By the way, what is up with all the beers having a new "chelada" mix. I've seen it for Budweiser, Bud Light, and Miller so far. I think the Bud ones have some kind of tomato cocktail mixed in. Sounds gimmicky to me, but I always like to put lime or lemon in just about any kind of beer when it's around. It makes them all better, not just Corona.

I took my first hot shower in a long time yesterday and I thought I would just sit in there and soak it up but I found myself washing quickly and getting out. I think it's just a habit from trying to get in and out of so many cold showers. I was feeling the cleanest I'd felt in a long time, with no small thanks to having some Dr. Bronner's soap. If you don't know what it is, its magic soap. Get some, try it, and I guarantee you'll be a fan for life. Anyway, upon getting out of the shower I grabbed the towel my mom gave me and dried my face only to have it covered it animal hair, most likely dog hair. That put an abrupt end to my super clean feeling to say the least.

I spent all day packing and digging through all my boxes of crap in the garage here. I managed to either throw away, pack, or set aside for a garage sale just about all of my stuff. Everything I wanted to take also seemed to miraculously fit in my newly tuned Honda Civic. I had my doubts since I'll be taking both cats and my Mom got me an enormous carrier so I could take a litter box inside the car. Smelly.

So tomorrow I leave following my Mom and Gary to Mississippi and then on to Orange Beach, Florida for the Weill family gathering. I'm going to leave the cats at my lovingly generous Aunt Kathy's basement room for a couple days. Then I'll pick them up on the way to Jackson and then on to Baltimore.

I have one last sort of etymological (<- big fancy word) observation to make. It came to me while my friend Alejandro was driving me to the airport the other day. I never really studied grammar very hard in my English classes I had a pretty good sense of whether or not something sounded right or not. I just knew what proper English sounded like, from hearing people speak properly and from reading.

I realized that I've slowly developed an ear of sorts for Spanish. I don't always know the best way to say something but I can just feel when it's wrong and when it's right. A lot of times I don't even know why it should be said that way but it just sounds right. Of course I'm only guessing that it was right, because no one El Salvadoran ever correct my Spanish even though I asked them to, but my ear seemed to have developed mainly from listening to them speak.

I guess that's really just how people learn a language. They develop an ear for it by hearing it so much. I'm sure it's far easier for babies, but it's good to know that I can still develop it at my age.

I haven't watched all of the other videos yet, but I think mine holds its own pretty good. Especially for not having any actual video footage in it. The song itself isn't really just about global warming, it's about all of the issues going and how people aren't aware or aren't touched by the problems.

I'm also surprised they decided to call it "Climate Change" rather than global warming. "Climate change" is one of those neo-conservative buzz words to distract people, as if it could be getting colder or maybe our climate is simply changing for the better. Heck, wouldn't it be cool to have summer instead of winter? The only problem is, what does summer become?

Our Peace Corps friends came a few days ago and we basically partied for 3 days with them. It was a good time and I'll remember it forever, assuming I dodge the Alzheimer's bullet but in that case someone please use a real one on me.

I suppose that somewhat gruesomely brings me to setting a place for me when I'm gone. On the 2nd night we had a good group at our house and talked and played card games until late. One of the said card games was Texas hold 'em which we played with chips tournament style where people were out once they ran out of chips. Leah went out at some point and was dealt in the next round at which point I related that to setting a place at a table for a loved one in the hopes that they might come home for dinner.

It was a pretty good joke, but Leah had to step in and top me. While giggling on the verge of hysterics she said "stop looking at me, swan". A sweeter non sequitur may never have been spoken. Apparently she was repeating an obscure Billy Madison quote, however I leave you to judge its relevance. To me its lack of relevance was what truly made it shine.

The next day Matt, Darren, and I hiked all the way from Berlin to the laguna in Alegria. I'd made it to the rim of the crater that holds the laguna before where the soldiers guarding the radio tower told me a path went down into it. This time we took the hike down to the laguna which was essentially a path all along the rim of the crater which made for fantastic views of each side of the ledge.

It wasn't a hike for the elderly or unathletic to be sure, but I think it could be a real draw for tourism in Berlin. It would give people a reason to stay in Berlin to see the laguna instead of in Santiago or Alegria. I'll definitely be writing about it on Berlin's web page that I'm making.

Today Christine and I made the rounds at the schools and with our friends in the city to say goodbye. It wasn't too sad until Christine broke down saying goodbye to our landlord's wife, one of the school teachers we're close with. I had a feeling it was coming, I've always been a pretty empathetic person even when I don't seem to be very emotional myself. A lot of them told us they'd always remember us. I don't know that they'll be setting a place for us when we're gone but there might be two empty chairs at the table.

I'm just tired of living in it. I want to be somewhere where I can have some real influence. It's like how they talk about Earth avoiding an asteroid. If you can change the asteroid's course even the tiniest bit at the heart of the problem, the farther the better, that little change becomes a large change by the time it gets to Earth. So I'm looking at it that way. I'm going back to the states, but you better believe living in Baltimore I'm going to be demonstrating in D.C. every chance I get. If there's any rally that you want to go to and need a place to crash, you've got one. Just let me know.

One of the things I've come to recognize here is that people need a goal to strive for. Education gives them examples of goals they could achieve and a practical way to do it. I've often wondered how someone could be so content doing the same repetitive tasks every day until they die. I don't understand what they look forward to, but I think it has to do somewhat with the "ignorance is bliss" idea.

There's a guy in Darren's village named Tomas who is far more involved in just about everything in that village than I've ever seen anyone. His drive to be so involved started after one of the church groups brought him for a visit to the U.S. The trip made him believe that the churches should be giving more to them because of all the wealth he saw. It also gave him a goal, something to aim for. Unfortunately, he's turned that into a personal power struggle. He took his son out of school to work in the fields so he could go participate in more organizations and such. Clearly, he's missing the point and is more concerned with improving himself than his family, but if all of that zeal could be focused in a better way people here could really improve their situation a lot.

Basically it comes down to foreign aid from the 1st and 2nd world giving them enough to keep them placated, and the simple act of giving it to them without any effort on the people's part makes them believe that they shouldn't have to work for it. And so it is that paternalism and handout mentality set in.

In other news our friends threw us a going away party this evening and it put a few more things on the list of what I'll be missing. I love talking with educated people here, its really great comparing cultures and stories, etc. The problem is those people are few and far between. I'll miss them though and I'm sure I'll see them again.

We also climbed the hill of the cross today with a delegation from Iowa. It'll probably be our last time for a long while. Our neighbor and god-daughter climbed with us, all the god-daughter hitched more than a few rides on people's backs.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing long lost people in the U.S. Give me a call or an e-mail and I'll make an effort to stop by on my drive from Texas to Baltimore. I hope you don't mind a visit from two angry cats at the same time though.

By the way, I'm also going to be launching a separate blog for more political and news type posts. So get ready for www.Taos2Cents.com. It's not all the way working just yet, it'll be ready before I leave though.

I've argued for a long time that there has to be a way to make a biodegradable plastic substitute. My chemist friend said it was possible but cost prohibitive, but I just didn't believe that on a large scale production it would be. Now, for the first time it's here, it's really here!.

Three days ago we finished throwing away the mountain of plastic bottles we'd collected with our ecology group kids. We had to throw them away because they were "too dirty" to be recycled. We hand washed about 60 pounds of them before we realized how long it would have taken us and so we gave up. It was sad throwing them in the dump knowing they'd be there forever and all the time we'd put into trying to stop that from happening.

People in El Salvador and surely many places that are modernizing are so accustomed to just throwing down whatever banana or mango peel or pit and not have to worry about it being there FOREVER. In fact organic stuff is fantastic fertilizer, but plastic just traps rainwater and makes perfect little nests for mosquito larvae and thus dengue fever. Not to mention they're just plain ugly. It's extremely hard to change people's habits, so the best thing to do would be to build a product adapted to those habits and this is it!

The bottles break down when the temperature gets high and the humidity goes up, perfect for El Salvador. It takes something like 10 weeks inside a compost to break down so it should last plenty long for any use here, especially considering most people here can't afford to keep more than a couple weeks of inventory anyway. Even if a little breaks down before its not harmful, its really just a glorified corn starch anyway.

The way I had imagined it before was that the bottle would biodegrade by oxygen but only from the inside so it would only slowly start to happen after the bottle had been opened and drunk. The other possibility was a chemical released into the plastic to break it down once the top was twisted off. Those both involved chemicals that would almost undoubtedly have nasty biproducts. Just making something out of corn and having it degrade in the right conditions is simpler and really more idea. It's a good example of occam's razor in action.

I'm particularly fond of his immigration reference and the angel minute men, but he's right on about everything else too. I know I've been pretty disappointed in some presidential candidates trotting out their God race horses. I think the whole theme goes well with my previous post because I too don't want my God watered down by some human being. Anyway, here's "The FoxHole Manifesto" for your viewing pleasure.