Frequently Asked Questions (2011 or earlier)
More old stuff! Deleting the former page, turning it into a blog post. Things got to change if they’re to improve!
Affiliations
- What do you have to do with the Web Standards Project? Are you active in that group now?
- I wrote the first version of the Baseline Proposal / Manifesto when the WSP was being formed. I am no longer a part of the leadership of that group. I support their work enthusiastically though!
- What is WebSanDiego?
- WebSanDiego was a mailing list and community for San Diego web developers. I founded it in 1999. I no longer participate in it.
Projects
- Can I hire you to do my web site?
- Yes. Drop me a line.
- How can I make a WordPress theme?
- A wordpress theme must have 2 files. style.css and index.php. That’s all you need. If you can put all your html into index.php and all your css into style.css you’re, I swear, 50% there in developing your theme. Once there, implement the loop, and you’re on your way. As you go on, and have to implement other things, you will encounter other portions of theme development. The details on what different other files in a theme can do are well documented here: Theme Development.
Don’t hack on an existing theme if you are getting clean html. Hacking an existing theme is a road to extreme frustration. For years that’s how I worked on sites, and when I finally started doing it from scratch I had much better luck.
This is excellent: Theme Development Checklist. While you only really need 2 files to make a valid theme, this will force you to do all the extras that make sure things work and function flexibly and correctly.
I’ve done this several times successfully. For a larger and more robust Q&A site for WordPress the WordPress Stack Exchange is excellent.
About Words
- Why “ArtLung?”
- Artist + Respiratory Therapist = ArtLung
- But you do web stuff? Why leave in the word “lung” – you don’t practice that!
- Yes, I am a web designer, web programmer, web developer. I do all these, none of them is complete. I do a lot of different things.
- Shouldn’t you remove the “lung” from your nickname?
- No.
Fan Stuff
- Where can I buy Voltes V Merchandise such as toys and videos?
- Unfortunately there’s no reliable source other than eBay. If you hear of one, please let me know.
Joe’s Many Errors
- Your site is broken, loser! I found a problem with your site! To whom do I complain?
- Me.
- Smorgasborg is misspelled! You messed up!
- It’s on purpose and I prefer it. The correct spelling is Smörgåsbord. Nyeah.
- Who does your hosting?
- pair Networks, they’re located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. They’re great.
Obituary: Jennifer Simpson
I don’t think I saw this obituary for Jennifer back in December 2020. It’s a lovely tribute to a person I miss a great deal. A person who encouraged me to write and gave positive feedback at every turn. A good friend to me.
Talk Story Publishing founder, Jennifer Simpson, passed away unexpectedly—December 2020
Jennifer Simpson, MFA, August 1964 – December 2020
Jennifer was a talented artist, writer, content strategist, and marketing consultant. From creative non-fiction to poetry, she believed in the power of stories to change the world. COO & Online Marketing Director of Plume, a Writer’s Companion, Executive Director of Dime Stories International, and an active community builder in Albuquerque, she connected people with stories that are shaping our world in a multitude of ways. She is survived by her sister, Debby Simpson, of San Diego.
Donations to honor Jennifer’s legacy can be made to the Children’s Grief Center in Albuquerque where she was a volunteer; Stand Up to Cancer in honor of her sister’s twenty-year battle with cancer; Plume: a Writer’s Companion by becoming a Patron; or the University of New Mexico Fund for Indigenous Education Research to support opportunities for people of indigenous ancestry and their cultures, which she honored and advocated for in ways large and small.
A Zoom Celebration of Life will be held in January. Details to be announced in early January. Please check this site frequently as it will be updated with additional information.
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Kelly and I at SDCCSE! Looking forward with hope and trepidation to July!
Religion!
Last week I did some work importing the Words section of my site into WordPress.
I pulled all that ephemera in as pages.
It was fun.
I like working with WordPress.
I also found a stub of an essay I never finished.
The preamble on the page said:
People keep asking me about my evolving spirituality. This page is for that. Expect it to be unfinished for a long time.
I didn’t do anything with it for 18 years. I forgot it was there. I didn’t link to it from anywhere. A little truffle buried in the dirt.
I may have shared it with people in email. But I can’t remember.
It’s startling to read my own writing about my mother in the present tense. She is now in the past.
grandmother (father’s side) converted to catholicism, 1950/60s.
grandparents on mother’s side relatively religious.born 1970.
mother very strong catholic. many stages to her life. often refers to prayer
in conversation, but manages to not be a jerk about it. caring, giving person.father very strong vietnam veteran. cynical about human motives and thinking.
most people are sheep, going along for the ride.
he simply sees himself as realistic. nevertheless, he is convinced of a grand
design of universe. is not an athiest.baptized 1970. san diego.
catholic school 1976-1987 (minus 1982 approx).
devoted catholic kid.confirmed 1982. san diego. catholic.
st. benedict, patron saint of artisans. he was a monk
who lived in a cave. i liked that idea.1983-1987. embraces catholic mysticism, cloud of unknowing, meditation.
zen buddhism.1980s. learn about Deists from my father.
1980s. arguments with grandmother about evolution and social justice.
strongly believe that the role of the church is to promote change.1980s. father points out to me something along the lines of “well the catholic
church is not perfect, but when there’s a fight for justice, as in the civil
rights movement, you see priests out there. they must be getting at least some
of it right.”1990s. worked in healthcare. waited for the miraculous.
human beings are mortal.
no infinite promise.
the body dies and there is no magic.1991. instructor calls me his “zen brother” – unexpectedly.
1993. learn of “jefferson bible” – the new testament, stripped of all
trappings of religious life.1995. learn more about the many mistakes, rewrites, apocrypha in the bible.
alarmed by it all.1993-5. basically give up on organized religion. along with it, faith.
mid-late 1990s. more reading makes more skepticism. embracing atheism.
atheism does not explain it all. worse, athiests i meet are as evangelical
as the christian evangelicals i meet.conviced otherwise that athiests are slightly braver, for embracing the
inherent injustice and uncertainty of life. human beings can rely on themselves
and themselves alone. this is our great power, this is our great curse.late 1990s. embrace agnosticism.
1999. married. non-traditional, and non catholic marriage.
2002-2003. appreciating the things that are not reproducible and measurable.
love. friendship. trust. these are not scientific. but i believe in these.2002. aunt says to me “despite your beliefs, i can see very well the light
coming through you.”2003. divorce.
2003. begin seeing counselor. 4 areas to watch for happy life:
intellectual
physical
emotional
spiritual
(note: spiritual)2003. wrestle with possibility of being a godfather. understand that i do not
meet the criteria.2003. godfather to zachary.
2003. onward.
These years later I appreciate the role of religion when it is positive in people’s lives, and also that we choose all sorts of things to serve in a religious ways. I know for me going to the beach is not unlike going to Church. I’d also say that being in 12-step groups over the years the utility of the notion of a higher power is a good exercise. And a higher power can be nearly anything.
I’m not sure this is much of a post, but I’ll leave it there.
Swarm Checkins
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Comic Con Special Edition was a new, different, interesting thing. I had fun.
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The first swag I picked up on this day of Comic Con Special Edition was pretty special.
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It was glassy. Caught some rights. #stoke
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I got photobombed by the charming @robertbroski, actor and Lincoln-lookalike on the way to @comic_con #CCSE #SDCCSE
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