I did some tinkering with the stylesheet over the weekend. Inspired by Virusdoc and Radical Congruency, I think I’m planning to move to a three collumn layout. I’ll then have the ‘dynamic’ links (recent entries, categories, etc. Stuff that changes) on the right, and the ‘static’ links (the links, subscribe, email me, etc. Stuff that doesn’t change) on the left. I’ve got a bunch more links I want to put up, but I don’t want to until I get this done. Then I can put all the static stuff in one file and use server side includes to put it in all the other files. It’ll make it easier to add stuff to it later, too.
So in preparation, I revised the callender to make it slimmer so I could then make the left menu slimmer. I also made room for the nonexistant right menu.
So far so good, this CSS stuff is a bit mind boggling. It doesn’t seems as rational and clear as my engineer’s brain would like it to be, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. While this is going on, you may visit and find things in disarray. Wait a few minutes and hit refresh and it should come back in order.

Well, an unexpected morning at home with a sick child meant I got a little time to do some site updates I’ve been meaning to do while she slept. I added the right side menu to the individual pages, the monthly archives and the category archives.
Of course this just means that I’ll be at work until midnight tonight to make up for the missed morning….. Oh well.

Activity around these parts is likely to be light for around a month or so. The big project I’ve been working on is due June 2. I’ve been told to expect 50-60+ hour weeks to get it done on time. Late is not an option. There’s 200 some injection molded parts involved in this product and the molder has given our customer a commitment on cost and delivery of the production units based on getting data released on that date. If we miss it, that opens the door wide for the molder to ask for more money and time. If that happens, it can’t be our fault.

In response to Virusdoc’s question today about whether a blog is public or private, I decided to Google myself. You know, go to Google and type in your name and see what you get. Much to my surprise, a check on ‘salguod‘ and ‘Doug Schaefer‘ brought up this very web site as item #1. That’s both pretty cool and a little scary. I, like my friend at Virusdoc, like to think of this blog as a sort of private journal of my own thoughts and musings. Yes, people I know come here and read my ramblings, but if you don’t know about it you won’t likely find it. Well, it seems much more public now.
So it may seem private as I type away, alone in my home office or at my desk on lunch break, but the whole world has access to my words. Better choose them carefully.

You may have noticed that my left side menu is gone. I changed two characters in my main index last night and the file got corrupted. And this is the one time I didn’t back it up first. Argh! I’ll work on it this weekend.

Made a couple of minor chagnes to the site recently. Revised how the main page displays to hopefully make it a little shorter. The last 3 posts display in full while the next 7 older posts only display the excerpt.
I also added a ‘subscribe’ link in case you’re dying to know when new stuff is posted here. Yeah, right.

It’s been quiet ’round these parts lately. I have had many thoughts of late that I want to share, but I’m trying to get a handle on how to present them. I guess I’m trying to figure out what my thoughts actually are. Stay tuned.

The family is heading off on vacation tomorrow. Leaving at lunch and we’ll be back late on Sunday. We’re heading off to visit our best friends who moved to Wisconsin in December. I don’t think I’ll have much opportunity to post while I’m gone. Normal blog activity (such that it is) will resume when I return.

Well, I finally got my quiet time entries caught up. You might notice that they’ve been sporadic the last couple of weeks. I so easily get distracted and fail to read. I want to do better.
Anyway, if you’d like, go back and read my notes and comment.

Back when I started reading blogs, I somehow came across the Thinklings. I honestly don’t remember how, but I’ve visited frequently (but never posted any comments!) because they often have good, thought provoking articles there. The best I can gather, the Thinklings are a group of guys who used to live in close proximity and developed a good friendship. They’ve since been scattered and maintain their friendship partially through their weblog. I could have that entirely wrong, if so I invite one of them to correct me.
You’ll find a new link to their site in the list.