Monday 5 May 2008

Tracking Pop Culture References about the Web

As many readers are aware, I’m one of the old ladies of the Web, having started in 1993 back when the Web was text-based, accessible and not at all a part of culture much less popular culture.

It surely has been a fascinating experience watching the Web, and the online world in general, infiltrate society in different forms. From the first time I saw a URL advertised on television (1996, I believe, for Subway Sandwiches); read about Web sites in books (”Mary went downstairs to Google for an answer to her lonely heart”); and more recently, references to Twitter on shows such as CSI, I have been in awe of how the Web has become a part of the fabric of our lives.

Sitting here last night watching an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun from 1999, I was tickled beyond pink to hear the character of Dick Solomon quip “I was going to order it off the Internet until I realized there was no such thing as Amazon Dot Crap.” It got me thinking that tracking such references to the Web and Internet in popular culture could be a really fun and revealing adventure.

Got a favorite reference about the online world from a film, book, lyric or other relevant media? Share below!

Filed under:   music, pop culture, film, society, molly asks you, community
Posted by:   Molly | 12:29 pm | Comments (19)

Tuesday 8 April 2008

My Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

You know you have one. Or twenty.

Admit it.

Unless you live in a rural area, never travel, see few people, and even then . . . many humans have signs of OCD.

Some years ago at SXSW a fantastic group of friends had lunch at P.F. Chang’s and talked about our unique Obsessive Compulsive Disorders.

It was such a funny and enlightening conversation, I’d like to jump-start it here.

Mine? Pillowcase openings must point to the left; I can’t leave an empty cardboard toilet paper roll on whatever that thing is (the roll?) that we put it on. I have to either replace it or leave it empty.

Other than that I’ve only a few inconsistent quirks.

How about you?

Filed under:   humor, pop culture, society, creativity, molly asks you
Posted by:   Molly | 6:50 pm | Comments (56)

Monday 7 April 2008

Design Coding: Rap for The Rest of Us

The very awesome iJustine posted this like ten days ago, but I can’t stop watching it, it’s just that yummy.

Just(in)e case you haven’t seen it, I’m re-sharing it here and hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

BTW, who did this bit of brilliance? Where was it filmed?

Comments are open, I want to know.

Enjoy:

Design Coding

Your site design is the first thing people see
it should be reflective of you and the industry
easy to look at with a nice navigation
when you can’t find what you want it causes frustration

a clear Call to action to increase the temptation
use appealing graphics they create motivation
if you have animation
use with moderation
cause search engines can’t index the information

display the logos of all your associations
highlight your contact info that’s an obligation
create a clean design you can use some decoration
but to try to prevent any client hesitation

every page that they click should provide and explanation
should be easy to understand like having a conversation
when you design the style go ahead and use your imagination

but make sure you use correct color combinations
do some investigation, look at other organizations
but don’t duplicate or you might face a litigation
design done, congratulations but it’s time to start construction

follow these instructions when you move into production
your photoshop functions then slice that design
do your layout with divs make sure that it’s aligned
please don’t use tables even though they work fine
when it come to indexing they give searches a hard time

make it easy for the spiders to crawl what you provide
remove font type, font color and font size
no background colors, keep your coding real neat

tag your look and feel on a separate style sheet
better results with xml and css
now you making progress, a lil closer to success
describe your doctype so the browser can relate
make sure you do it great or it won’t validate

check in all browsers, I do it directly
gotta make sure that it renders correctly
some use IE, some others use Flock
some use AOL, I use Firefox

title everything including links and images
don’t use italics, use emphasis
don’t use bold, please use strong
if you use bold that’s old and wrong

when you use CSS, you page will load quicker
client satisfied like they eating on a snicker
they stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
and then they convert now that’s the real kicker
make you a lil richer, your site a lil slicker

design and code right man I hope you get the picture
what I’m telling you is true man it should be a scripture
if it’s built right you’ll be the pick of the litter
everyone will want to follow you like twitter
competition will get bitter and you’ll shine like glitter

if you trying to grow your company will get bigger
design and code right man can you get with it

Filed under:   humor, standards, music, pop culture, software, web design and development, society, creativity, browsers, innovation
Posted by:   Molly | 7:27 pm | Comments (17)

Monday 24 March 2008

For the Love of Maps (where to go from here)

Since childhood, maps have captured me. It’s not a unique conquest - many of us love to study maps.

Maybe it was my father beside me, driving along and asking where next? I was always the best at maps, and my dad liked me for it.

It could be that travel is so important to me for my love of maps, but I know so many other people who’ve expressed this same passion.

For the Love of Maps!

Now we should figure out where we go from here.

Filed under:   faith(less), pop culture, poetry & fiction, nmby
Posted by:   Molly | 3:32 pm | Comments (36)

Saturday 15 March 2008

Your Best Pop, Your Worst

NEEDING TO GET AWAY FROM STANDARDS and browsers and conferences, I’m interested in a conversation about the best and worst pop culture right now.

Whether journalism, fiction, television, film, photography, illustration, diaries or mixes thereof, I really need your help expanding my horizons.

It can only help!

I’ve been watching “Ashes to Ashes” and waiting for a new episode of the “Big Bang Theory.”

What are you following? Reading? Watching? Doing?

Share your worst, your best!

Filed under:   faith(less), humor, blogging, pop culture, poetry & fiction, society, creativity, molly asks you, community, nmby
Posted by:   Molly | 7:23 pm | Comments (71)

Monday 18 February 2008

Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History

Guess I’m going down in those history books, because I am scandalous!

What fun! I love the fact that Matt (the fellow whose shirt I unbuttoned the top two buttons of) used to “smuggle” my books into class. In the sixth form, no less! Oh, the irony.

Filed under:   humor, blogging, pop culture, web design and development, travel, blog slut, food and drink, society, conferences
Posted by:   Molly | 7:25 pm | Comments (19)

Sunday 17 February 2008

Happiness is Sexy

As a depressive, I’ve always found the people I get involved with during the dark times end up being my worst mistakes.

But happiness, I’m sure, is sexy. I see a plain person frown, and that’s just a plain person frowning. I see any person, no matter their physical being, alive with happiness, and that is very appealing.

Happiness is sexy. I may not always be able to be happy, or sexy, but damned if I don’t love being both.

What do you think?

Filed under:   blogging, pop culture, blog slut, society, molly asks you, community
Posted by:   Molly | 3:23 am | Comments (40)

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Travelblog: The Missing Day

As I write this I’m sitting on Tumon Bay, Tamuning, Guam, in Micronesia. Tumon Bay is an important ecological environment, most especially due to the coral reefs that are, as just about everywhere, being destroyed all too quickly.

I started my journey on what was my Monday, with a short flight to Houston. There, I met up with the always effervescent Erica O’Grady and wonderfully witty Kelsey Ruger, who joined me along with a fellow traveler just met named Bruce. We drank good wine, talked about social networking, bringing more women to the stage, and the advantages of theater training for speakers, in this case with Kelsey focusing on stand-up comedy to help build his presentation skills. My guess is he’ll find that web design wasn’t his calling after all .

After that it was an early flight the next morning to Honolulu, where I made a brief “lei-over” (I know, I amuse myself far too much, but someone has to!). Flying over Oahu I got a clear shot of the inside of Diamond Head:

After a refreshing bit of delicious pineapple, it was back on the plane for another 8 hour leg, this time flying into Micronesia, specifically Guam, for one day here. Guam’s always been a bit elusive to me because I know so many U.S. military folks who have been stationed here over the years. Guam is the westernmost U.S. territory and is far more beautiful than I’d imagined.

Here are some photos I took during my traditional walk at dawn. This is the sun rising over Tumon Bay:

Also along my walk I came upon some strange creatures. What kinds of pods are these? I surely don’t know:

And a pretty but perhaps not so strange creature, too! This is Fuji, and he had a lot to tell me. But he must have been speaking the local language of Chamorro, because while he was clearly befriending me, I had no idea what he was going on about:

Finally, there is nothing quite so wonderful as coming along those spots on the planet where there is nothing but peace. Here’s the hidden cove I found:

Sitting there overlooking the gorgeous day come to bear made me not only happy to be alive, but gave me much-needed respite from the trials and tribulations of a very busy and often challenging life. Somehow, I started this adventure on Monday. And now it’s Thursday. There’s definitely a day in there I lost, but I’m reassured it’ll be given back to me upon my return.

Onward to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!

Filed under:   photos, travel, food and drink, society
Posted by:   Molly | 10:07 pm | Comments (21)

Saturday 5 January 2008

Twitter Sucked the Blogging Out of Me

I often post pictures and words about weather. Bits of me here and there. Then, somehow, Twitter sucked the blogging out of me. Made me write in 140 characters less.

People ask “why don’t you blog so much anymore, Molly? Is it your work?”

Nah, it’s Twitter. Sucked the blog out of me in 2007.

I’m almost ready to make 2008 Twitter-free.

Close to making it IM-free too.

How about you?

Filed under:   policies, pop culture, software, society, molly asks you, community
Posted by:   Molly | 4:18 pm | Comments (58)

Sunday 30 December 2007

Strangest Dream: End to Browser Wars?

(original lyrics by Ed McCurdy and known to most because of Paul Simon, thx guys)

Strangest Dream (Web version)

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’ve ever dreamt before
I dreamed we had all agreed
To put an end to browser war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
Filled with women (but mostly men)
And the papers they were signing said
They’d not do specs wrong again

And when the specs all were signed
And a million copies made
Some joined hands and thought they’d have a prayer
About the specifications, made

And the people on the Web below
Were running up and down
While markup and scripting and browser wars
Were scattered all around

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’ve ever dreamt before
I dreamed that we had all agreed
To put an end to browser wars.

Filed under:   professional, humor, music, pop culture, software, web design and development, creativity, browsers, community
Posted by:   Molly | 7:55 am | Comments (31)

Murder Tales

Have you taken the Death Test? I have. I am apparently meant to be murdered. Here’s how I see it:

I’m falling to sleep, so deep and sweet. I stretch and turn, pull the pillow over my head. I’m ready for serious rest.

Not more than ten minutes after I fall to sleep, I begin to dream. My dream colors are very noir, black, grey, lots of shadows.

Think of dramatic violins and long dark hallways.

Next step is the squeaky one. The one you step on and it squeaks and you hold your breath.

Your Mom or Dad or wife or whoever hears that squeak. They can count it. As you can. One, two, eleven.

What do you do now? Do you fall to sleep, so deep and sweet? Will you stretch and turn and pull the pillow over your head?

I am convinced I will die by murder.

Please don’t blame the poor guy.

I’d have killed me too.

Filed under:   humor, blog slut, society, creativity
Posted by:   Molly | 2:29 am | Comments (38)

Saturday 1 December 2007

Clouds Over Catskills

Playing around with black and white settings in my little digital elf. I liked the results and textures of this photo, taken from a jet flying over the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

Filed under:   photos, travel
Posted by:   Molly | 12:10 pm | Comments (52)

Thursday 8 November 2007

mathematical integral equation for web versioning

A bit of levity during the W3C TPAC from the wonderful T.V. Raman, presenting the closing panel of the day, Cracks & Mortars.

Filed under:   humor, standards, web design and development, photos, w3c, conferences, nmby
Posted by:   Molly | 12:53 pm | Comments (26)

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Self Portrait: Witchy Woman

How about yours?

Filed under:   pop culture, photos, blog slut, creativity, molly asks you, nmby, costume play
Posted by:   Molly | 1:11 am | Comments (12)

Tuesday 28 August 2007

Tucson Monsoon

Just in case anyone wonders why Tucson.

I had a perfect, clear view of the entirety of the lunar eclipse last night but unfortunately not a good enough camera. Talk about awesome. Emphasis on awe.

Filed under:   photos, creativity
Posted by:   Molly | 1:18 pm | Comments (19)