so where’d he go?

I want things.

And I want them when I want them. Which is usually now.

My desire to live for the moment – for instant gratification – somehow keeps me from attaining my long-term goals, one of which was to organize this poorly tailored fat man of a blog.

See, I took this little test at work; the results showed me to be a creator. So of course, that’s what I am. Not an advancer, not a refiner, not an executor. I just get the ball moving; let someone else guide its path.

Children live for the moment, too. They’re just not into maintenance. They create, and they absorb; that’s their job, really. They build and draw, and then demolish and erase moments later. They see and hear everything, even when they appear to be asleep.

They soak in, and oh yes, they spit back out. Needless to say, I’ve had to curb my language more than a bit for fear of my son dropping an exclamatory “Goddammit!” during Sunday School.

Little sponges that attract sights, sounds, and...germs, too. Those who ascribe to the tabula rasa theory may be interested to find that it holds for the toddlerian immune system as well. Children catch – and transmit – all viruses and bacterial infections. In the last month, I have contracted – from my son and daughter – two colds, the stomach flu, and pinkeye. Remember pinkeye? During the night, your eyes become glued – snotted – shut, and during the day you simply appear to have smoked massive, bad geef.

Not well, and hence, no posts.

But on the comeback trail, I decided to do something about maintenance. The site was hard to read and navigate – poor leading among other things – and for the longest time, I could not get myself to read anything on cascading style sheets (CSS). But there is a point between sick and well at which your consciousness is best applied in reading. So I read a little here, and copied a little there. All the while, the voice of Stephen Coles (which I have never actually heard), who kindly suggested that I look into CSS, was spurring me on. And then I wrote a little external file, cleaned up the html a slight bit, and now we have leading as well as links to each post.

I feel some embarrassment in reporting that maintenance feels good. But I’d still rather have had someone just do it for me when I wasn’t looking...

09-December 2002