Staticfree Blog

I've got a new site theme. I got tired of the old clashing blue-and-brown and decided to make it a bit lighter. I think this better represents me as I am now: bolder, a bit more refined, and a bit more cheerful. It's still lacking a certain something, but I don't know what just yet. Perhaps another color to compliment all the blue.

Additionally, I wanted to try out a new technique for theming the site: I have basic XHTML documents that live on the server and are transformed using AXKit and an XSLT stylesheet to add in the necessary content for navigation bars and hooks for the CSS. Then I've got CSS for all the actual themey bits. This should give me much more flexibility in content creation. I don't need any hooks whatsoever in the XHTML documents now (before, I used server-side includes to add in navigation) and can mungle/merge content. This makes things like my new javascript color clock work in the theme, as well as stand-alone without any extra effort.

I'm back in Newton for the summer and will be living in my dad's new place. Tina and I will be living in our own little room in the basement (much bigger than my room in Rochester) for the summer. We'll be working at our jobs at Charlesbridge Publishing and France Telecom R&D, respectively.

The new place is in Chestnut Hill and has quite a bit of old-house character to it - aka. "quirk". The main source of quirk in the house is its seemingly excessive amount of cupboards and assorted small-panels-embedded-in-walls. These panels cover anything from electrical panels to absolutely nothing (see inset). Most of them make sense though, like the ones that cover ugly technology that may need to be serviced. There are just a great deal of them overall. Many years back, a hinge salesman was smiling gleefully.

David and I have discovered a few entropy switches - that is, switches whose sole purpose appears to simply increase the universe's entropy; any other function of such a switch has been lost to time and poor rewiring. I'm hoping to acquire one of those little electrical things that beep obnoxiously in order to trace them someday.

So, again, I'm back for the summer. There will be much much hanging out going on. If you're reading this, are in Boston, and aren't some creepy stalker person, then I want to hang out with you. Tina and I will be working day jobs, so that leaves plenty of nights and weekends to engage in various recreational activities. Don't just leave messages here (even though I get them) contact me or I'll have to contact you.