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Monday - 03 December 2001

December? It's December already? Sheesh. I'm working on a revised format for this page. You can see the working preview here. It may change a little between now and the end of the month but it's pretty close to final. Any comments, good, bad, or ugly are welcome.

Kamen Rider. Here IT is (the website is segway.com. But the site is so busy I haven't been able to get to it yet). Code named "Ginger" and "IT", now named the Segway by inventor Dean Kamen (see his company's site here), what IT is, is described as a scooter. A scooter? Not having seen it I can't say much about it but a scooter? For this everyone is excited? It's not exactly the cure for cancer now is it?

Get Connected. If you're in the market for Internet, long distance, handhelds, wireless, local phone, or TV cable/satellite services you may want to check out www.getconnected.com. The site provides comparisons, based on where you live, of the various services listed above. Disclaimer: Obviously, only the major players in each field will be represented at the site and only if they've signed-up to be part of the getconnected service. But with those warnings, it's at least a place to start...YMMV.

Lot's of reading to do for class tonight so I gotta' go - Aloha!

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Tuesday - 04 December 2001

Better Never Late. Sorry this is posted later than usual. I've been swamped with work, work for school, and giving some advice to someone who will be doing her first marathon (the Honolulu Marathon is this Sunday).

Speaking of Marathons. Here are some practical tips I gave to her. These are over and above the usual ones like make sure you've done enough training and are in fit shape before you even think about going 26.2 miles (~42km). Be aware that some of this includes facts of life kinds of stuff so if you are offended by such things, feel free to skip on down to the next item.

For what its worth, just a few tips from someone who should have prepared more when I did the marathon. Use at your own risk. The check is in the mail. Objects appear bigger than they are. See Disclaimer. YMMV.

Begin drinking water around two hours before the start of the race. Yes, it may mean you will need to use one of the porta-potties along the route but your body will not tell you that you need water until it's already too late. So start early and take at least a sip at each aid station.

Also, before the start, if it's raining, remember to bring a big garbage bag, cutout to act as a poncho. It will keep you dry and warm [in Hawai'i anyway - ed.] while you wait for the start. Just before the start, dispose of the bag as you will quickly overheat if you leave it on while walking/jogging.

Speaking of what you wear, I assume you have jogging shorts made of something like CoolMax or the equivalent. Such high tech materials help to wick moisture away from your body keeping you as cool as possible. They also allow your skin to breath. What you wear, or don't wear, on top seems to be more a personal choice than anything. Some women wear just a sports bra, some cover that with a tank top or t-shirt. But it's up to you, whatever you feel comfortable with in Hawai'i's high humidity and heat.

Further, use petroleum jelly under your arms and perhaps down to your elbows if you are the kind that keeps you arms close to your body when you jog/walk. Also spread some on your inner thighs up to your, ummm, crotch. Yes, it may make your clothes a little oily but it's either that or you will literally rub your skin off. Some people also keep a little behind the ear so that as the jelly on your arms or thighs wears out, you can add more. If you want to do that you can, but usually the aid stations have some...

And of course, place a band-aid on each nipple (this applies regardless of whether or not you wear a bra). Even the best sports bras, allow some bounce and that little amount, over 26.2 miles, will cause your nipples all kinds of pain later on.

On an even more delicate matter, if you are having your period during the race, and if you have to use the bathroom or for any reason have to change your tampon, remember to take a couple with you. Some women wear fanny packs so you could store them in there. I also understand some women just tape a couple to the back of their race numbers but I don't know if you would feel comfortable doing that (imagine if the tape didn't hold and they fell out!).

Remember also to wear a hat of some kind. Once the sun comes up, it may get a bit warm. So cover your head and also spread some sunscreen on your nose, arms, and legs (and shoulders if they are bare). Of course, if the forecast is for heavy rain you can forget the sunscreen, but keep the hat.

Once the race begins, the biggest mistake is go out too fast. Yes, you will be very excited, as will everyone around you. But calm yourself and stick to a pace that works for you. As the number of marathoners spreads out, you will find people going at your pace. Stick with them because having someone to share the pain (just kidding) helps the miles to pass that much quicker. In fact, if you can fall in just behind someone you can sort of let the wind hit them first while you get a free ride.

As you begin to fatigue, try to vary the length of your stride a bit. This helps to break the monotony as well as helps to avoid leg cramps. If you do begin to cramp, try to stretch things out. It will be painful, but if you don't stretch, it will only get worse as other muscles take over and then fatigue and cramp themselves (it may be helpful to take a couple of Tylenol, assuming you are not allergic, before the race and to carry a couple with you to take when needed).

Finally, only you can decide whether to drop out or not. Remember, it's only a race. People will not brand you a quitter if things don't work out and you need to stop. Not to be alarmist or anything, but the year I ran, someone died of a heart attack. So, listen to your body because doing this long a race can literally threaten your life.

Having said all of the above, have fun! It is an incredible accomplishment to even begin a marathon. If you keep a pace that is right for you, I'm sure you will finish. Good luck.

Bad Colors and Other Browsers. Thank you to Don Armstrong and Sjon for their feedback on my draft layout for these pages (see it here). Don feels the the shade of brown chosen reminds him of the presents his kids left in their diapers when they were young. I'd, ahem, not made that connection but I will take a look at changing some of the colors. The reason I changed to the yellows and browns were two-fold: First, while blue is my favorite color, I was getting tired of looking at the same old thing for so long; And secondly, the colors match the Opera.com color scheme!

Fellow Daynoter Sjon Svenson noted the downside of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Namely, different browsers, or even different versions of the same browser display results that vary wildly. While it is possible to code around some of the differences, it comes down to using a browser that is compliant with the W3C recommendations (which is why I ran the HTML and CSS through their validators before I put them up on my site). For the record, I used Opera 5/6, IE 5.5, and Mozilla 0.9.5 in creating the pages and all are close enough to see what I intended. As there are "free" versions of all of these browsers, I would encourage you to download the one of your choice.

While I could fall back to using tables, the W3C seems to be heading in the opposite direction. Both because of the added control of CSS, but also because it it potentially more compact and therefore faster to download. So if there are any expert CSS writers out there, let me know how I could change it to work around the problems noted. If I don't hear back from anyone, I may need to recode the whole to use tables. We shall see.

This is what it's supposed to look like (note that this is a 100K file):

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And this is what Sjon is seeing, first in an older version of Opera and also an older version of Netscape (4.6):

Believe me when I say, to coin a phrase, I feel your pain. So, while I like to think one of the roles of this site is as a testing ground for cutting edge technology, I also realize that you have the freedom to choose to bypass this page if you aren't able to view the page in the first place. Thus, I may to switch to tables for the next six months, with the proviso that within that time, you will need to update your browsers to at least the ones listed above. After which, I will switch back to CSS (knowing that what you are seeing right now is already in CSS) and you will either have to upgrade, or move on. Your choice. Ye have been warned.

Aloha!

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Hump Day Wednesday - 05 December 2001

Table This. This will have to be a short post because I've got a ton of stuff to do and not so much time to do it. Being that as it may, I will try to get a revised draft of my HTML page up by weeks end. However, please remember that the problem is with your browser, not the CSS coding in the page, so update your f#@!*$% browser, will 'ya? Thanks.

On the Home Front. Absolutely nothing has been done by the contractor since last week. They were supposed to start laying the roofing material on the roof of our garage on Monday. But Monday came and went. Then Tuesday. We'll see what today brings. This is one of the most frustrating things about working with the construction industry, their word is completely worthless. What's worst is that I don't necessarily care whether they were going to start on Monday or today. That's almost irrelevant. But I expect that if they give me a date certain, then they better darned well show up, or contact me and tell me why they can't make it. Not just don't show up and don't call.

And finally. Hi. How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. So please click on this worm program so I can spread this to all the other clueless people who will click on anything. Have a nice day!

Aloha!

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Thursday - 06 December 2001

School Daze. I'm not even finished with this semester and I already have to register and pay for next. At least I'm only going to sign up for one class so the cost is only about $600 USD, not including books and fees. This semester I paid about $1,200 for the two classes I'm taking and last year I paid about $1,400 per semester. From what I understand, for a public university, this is pretty cheap. But when I think about the fact that I'm burning up the equivalent of a new PC every three to four months, I start to wonder whether it's worth the time and money...Sigh. Oh well, it's only money [quick, call the mental health workers while I hold him - ed.]

Sports Round-up. The University of Hawai'i Wahine volleyball team won both of their matches against Washington state teams, in Washington state over the past weekend. Today, the Wahine continue NCAA tournament play in California against UCLA. This will probably be a close and hard fought match. Go 'Bows!

On the college football scene, the UH Warriors play rival Bringham Young University Saturday morning (HST). Hawai'i and BYU have a long history of making this the biggest game of the year. Being that this is the last game of the regular season, and being that BYU, up to now, is 12 and 0, I think this will be another high scoring game with the lead going back and forth. Who will win? Why UH, of course. Go Warriors!

I have to finish my project for class on Monday so I gotta' go - Aloha!

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Aloha Friday - 07 December, 2001 - Pearl Harbor Day

Lest We Forget, Remember Pearl Harbor

The Way We Were. The MorningPaper(tm) has some excerpts from a diary kept by a woman (one of the first Daynoters?) in 1941 to 1942 (see the story here). It gives a small glimpse in to what it was like to live here during the war. If you have a few minutes, give it a read, lest we forget.

Sir Peter Blake. The yachting world was shocked yesterday by the death of Kiwi, and two-time America's Cup winner, Sir Peter Blake. Blake, age 53, was on an expedition to the upper reaches of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers in Brazil. According to reports, while waiting to clear customs after successfully completing the expedition, armed pirates came aboard. Blake apparently tried to repel the attack and was killed in the process.

My condolences to his wife and two children. He lived well, and died bravely.

Wahine Spiked. My condolences also to the UH Wahine volleyball players who lost to UCLA yesterday. They put up a good fight, but the Bruins were just better. Congratulations to UCLA for a well played match.

Version Two. Follow this link here to version two of my Daynotes page. I'm using tables to hold the text and CSS-2 to format the text. I hope this allows more legacy browsers to view the page closer to what I intended it to be. Note that even though tables have been around longer than CSS, different browsers (and different versions of the same browser) can and do display tables differently. However, as far as I can see, the differences are small enough that the page is still readable. And at this point, I'm willing to settle for that.

But as noted earlier, six months from now, the page will switch back to all CSS. So if you get any value out of this page, I suggest you upgrade your "nice, civilized procreating browser" (thanks Sjon) to at least Opera 5/6, I.E. 5.5, or Mozilla 0.9.5. And Don Armstrong, if you still don't like the colors, wait six months and there will be a new set!

Have a great weekend everyone - Aloha!

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