A Bloy and his Blog

It may not look much different, but this site has now been re-tooled with XHTML. In addition to the changes under the hood, I also took one of the better dynamic javascript menus on the net and modified it for use on this site (look for it in the upper right hand corner of most of the interior pages). Many thanks to Peter-Paul Koch for his excellent web site QwirksMode and his outstanding DHTML menu which he makes available.

And if you’re not interested in web design stuff, take a look at my about me page. There you’ll find some interesting info on the origin of the Bloy name which I posted recently.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I tend to lean toward the left politically and consider myself a progressive. Those of you who have similar views will enjoy WhiteHouse.org. There you can read why President Bush replaced the traditional Easter Egg Hunt with a scavenger hunt for 10W-40 motor oil, find out how to sponsor a reactionary ideologue for only $20,000 a month, read the Ten Commandments of Patriotism and much more.

And for those of you who lean more toward the conservative side of politics, lighten up and visit the site. It’s April Fool’s Day!

Spring is officially here. Today (about a week after the Spring Equinox) I finally got to experience a full day of sunshine and warm temperatures in the mid 40’s. I know what you’re thinking, but after a week or so of 20 degree, windy weather in Wisconsin, 45 really IS warm. The best sign of Spring I saw today happened when I decided to take the long way home from work and go through the park. As I was driving along I saw this big flock of robins. There must’ve been at least 30 of them. All I could think when I saw this whole flock of robins just hanging out together in the park was, what a great thing to do on such a nice day.

I’ve always been fascinated by my dreams and what my unconscious mind comes up with while I’m sleeping. Sometimes I have dreams that are so interesting it’s like watching a really good movie. Then of course, I’m disappointed when the show’s over and I wake up. Last night I had this dream about someone I used to work with, but haven’t seen, spoken to, or even thought of in at least 10 years. Where did that come from? We were in some kind of scavenger hunt and not being very successful. I’ll leave it to you to interpret what that means…

Several years ago I used to keep a dream diary. Maybe it’s time to start that again. Pleasant dreams!

Today I discovered the local Baskin Robbins ice cream shop (where I had my very first job, way back when I was 16) is no longer there. It made me a little sad to find out a place that I spent a few years at, no longer exists. It also made me wonder a little about my own mortality and what will be left on this planet to show I was here. I suppose I should go out and plant some trees or something. Until then, I guess there’s always the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Last week I unveiled a redesign of the web site for the Oak Creek Public Library.

It’s my first site design using XHTML and it also features a layout done completely with cascading style sheets. In this age of information, it’s especially important for public libraries to have web sites which are accessible to anyone, including those with disabilities. Using these two technologies allowed me to create such a site (plus it gave me a good excuse to really delve into XHTML).

Last night I went to hear the author Sherman Alexie speak. He’s of Native American descent and has written several books of contemporary native fiction, short stories and poetry. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie Smoke Signals.

What a great speaker! He was funny, poignant and very thought provoking. I really enjoyed his take on American culture, current events and just life in general. I also liked his philosophy that a great deal of the world’s problems can be traced to the fact that people think their way is the only way, what they believe is right and people who believe otherwise are wrong. Wars, religious conflicts, political conflicts, discrimination and so forth can all be traced to the fact that somebody thinks they are right. Near the end of his talk, Sherman (I can call him that, he autographed a book for me!) asked the audience to think about one thing in the next 24 hours. “You might be wrong.”