Mom's Tweaking Again

If I say that I'm a "tweaker", does that tell you what decade I went to highschool?

Seriously, though, a lot of times I just can't seem to leave well-enough alone. My daughter, Sarah, says I'm a bit perfectionistic. I say, "A bit? Ya think?"

I've just been hopping around so many absolutely beautiful blogs lately, mine has begun to seem...well...dated. And a little frumpy. And maybe hokey.

And then that little voice in the back of my mind says, "Be content with such things as you have..."

Sigh. So, I'm trying to not compare all these beautiful, sleek and sophisticated blogs I'm visiting to my wanna-be site. I did, however click over to favorite everything-you-need-to-know-about-tweaking-your-blog site and discovered how to put tabs on my blog .

Click on image to visit the site!

I think I like. Do you like?

I may not have the sleekest blog on the block. That's OK.

Lord, help me to be satisfied with what I do have!

Remodeling

WARNING: Construction Zone!

This website is receiving a facelift, so things are liable to look a discombobulated for the next couple of days. Most everything that was here last time you visited is still here...I hope. I did save my template, and I'll be working to make everything all neat and tidy just as soon as I have some free time. Hmmm. Maybe I'd better schedule it in. Free time doesn't happen often around here!!!

I just got tired of fighting with the html in the old template, so I decided to start fresh. At least now it looks the same no matter which browser you're using. je je

How do you like the new header???

Firefox Glitches

Yeah, I know. No one will notice but me. It bugs me, though. My margins are off...again. They look fine in Explorer. Problem is that I'm not using Explorer.

And then there's the little box thingy on the right margin. It's supposed to be white with gray writing. Instead, it's transparent with gray writing. That's a problem when the page background is brick. Sigh. Have I mentioned that I really don't like computers? I used to like Appleworks. I felt high-tech then. Now I just feel old and a bit obsolete. Deeper sigh.

I could just go back to Explorer and try to forget that my margins are tweakered and the right column is not readable. But I probably won't.

Have I mentioned that I'm CDO? That's like OCD, except that the letters are in the correct alphabetical order, as they should be.

Making Progress

Just wanted to share a small victory...

Over the past two years, I've learned quite a bit of basic html and have managed to successfully tweak my blog to make it look like I want it (for the most part). Once in a while I'll see something in the html that bugs me -- a margin that's not quite right, or a column width that isn't balanced -- and I'll spend literally hours trying to fix it.

This morning I was posting and realized that I just wasn't happy with the column width of the main post (my OCD was acting up). So, I got into the html of the blog and started to tweak.

Here's the exciting part: I managed to widen the columns, eliminate the out-of-place borders and re-center the header in less than an hour. Ooo RAH!

There is hope for me yet. We must share those small victories when they come, right??? Happy Friday everyone!

Techie Kudos!

Once in a while you find something online that just makes you happy and you just have to share.

I was be-boppin' around the internet a couple of weeks ago and ended up on the Cottrill Compass. Jim and his family are missionaries in Mexico and Jim working on helping create a missionary blogger "hub" of sorts. You can read more about it here or about the blog carnival he's hosting here.

Anyway, one of my greatest frustrations (lately) has been the lack of disk space I have left on my computer. Reason? Photos. Over 3 years of photos. Really big, high resolution photos. I have Irfanview and have been "fixin' to" resize these 2350x4600 mammoths, but do you have any idea how long it takes? Each photo has to be opened in Irfanview, resized and saved individually. Ugh. I take more photos faster than I can resize them and my available disk space shrinks and shrinks.

But I digress...so I'm reading a great post about resizing photos (great post, BTW) and I see a comment from a missionary in South Africa who recommends that people desiring to resize multiple photos at one time check out Microsoft Power Toys.

I'm game. I check out the site. I download a program that takes 2 minutes to load (even on my neanderthal internet connection) and install it.

I am now a happy blogger, busily opening file folder after folder, clicking "edit, select all, resize" and POOF!!! I have disk space! I resized two months of pictures yesterday and gained 2 GB. WaHOOO!

It's the simple things of life...

Special thanks to Dean at Adventures with God for making my laptop more user-friendly!

Round TUIT Round-Up Button Codes

Welcome to the Round TUIT Round-Up blog carnival! Read all about it here and then come back and get your button codes.

I've made 3 buttons for this carnival. Feel free to use any or all of them on your blog! Simply copy and paste the text in the scroll box to your sidebar or in your Round-Up post. Enjoy!

***Even though the Round TUIT Round-Up is over, I still like the button, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Who doesn't need another cool button with motivational properties on their blog? So, feel free to copy the button code below and get a Round TUIT of your very own!

One request: if you put a TUIT on your blog, leave a comment here with a link to your blog so I can come visit! We don't want any homesick TUITs out there!!! ***

<a href="http://whatbeautifulfeetyouhave.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-anniversary-carnival.html" target="blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee269/allcreationsings/Buttons%20and%20Graphics/RoundTuitCircle3.gif" alt="Click here to finally get around to it" border="0" /></a>

<a href="http://whatbeautifulfeetyouhave.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-anniversary-carnival.html" target="blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee269/allcreationsings/Buttons%20and%20Graphics/RoundTUITdenim.gif" alt="Click here to finally get around to it" border="0" /></a>

<a href="http://whatbeautifulfeetyouhave.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-anniversary-carnival.html" target="blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee269/allcreationsings/Buttons%20and%20Graphics/RoundTUITbrick2.gif" alt="Click here to finally get around to it" border="0" /></a>

More Techie Stuff

Have you ever gone to someone else's computer to show them your blog only to find that it doesn't look quite as cool as it looked on your 'puter? Well, I did that a few days ago. "You've gotta check out my blog! You'll love my header. I worked really hard on it." What header picture? You mean the little half-inch sliver that has your blog title on it? Ooo. Impressive.

I have no idea how it happened, but after an hour staring at html gibberish and doing the ol' "trial and error and error and error" method of code repair, I think I fixed the problem. Know what it was? Two lines of code said " _height" instead of " height". Come on! Do we have to be that picky? I guess so. Anyway, now hopefully I can show my blog off to the world and people won't be thinking, "Huh. I wonder what that photo is supposed to be?"

If you ever notice something really tweaked on my blog, will you tell me? Please? Don't know why it looked fine on my computer. Probably the same concept as a bathroom mirror that makes your make-up look great at home but when you get to town you really look like Cyndi Lauper!

Have a great day everyone!!!

What???

Technorati Profile

Doh! The Technorati Monster escaped again.
We're currently experiencing backend issues and are working to resolve them as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

What does that mean? What exactly are "backend issues" anyway? Do I really want to know? Honestly, we've been experiencing "backend issues" lately at our house, but I'm not sure they have anything to do with monsters. Well, maybe they do, but that's beside the point. I'm pretty-much a newbie at this, but IMO folks oughtta jist speak plain English, don't'cha think? Well, at least they're polite about it!!! ;^)

(Sorry, that just struck me as incredibly funny! "Backend issues". Hah! It's late. I should just go to bed...)

Rebecca the Web-Master...NOT!

Well, here's a Tackle it Tuesday which doesn't involve housework. I'm beginning to think that I prefer the housework!!! Generally speaking I like projects, but this was a project which just kept growing everytime I turned around!!!

First, a bit of history...

Last November Doug and I began to talk seriously about building a website for our ministry. I searched all over the web looking for domains we could afford (read that: free), but couldn't find anything I thought we would be happy with. Then I ran across a really great Christian web host called Christian Web Host (original, eh?). Their service looked like it would be just what we were searching for. But it was out of our price range. Anyway, I sent a note to the webmaster and he replied that they would be willing to gift us 6 months of webhosting and waive the start-up fee because we were a non-profit ministry. Woo-hoo! Then began the fun of webpage construction. That is also about the time that I discovered how much I DIDN'T know about HTML, HTM, WWW and WYSIWYG. Reading through various web tutorials left my head swimming!

Then I stumbled upon Blogger and immediately fell in love. Point and click! No initials! I love it! So I began to build this blog. It was going pretty well and Doug suggested that I build one for the ministry, too. Still...in the back of my mind...I was missing something...there's just something about having your very own domain name! ;^)

Just after Christmas, I started teaching myself HTML. Well, I couldn't teach myself, so I went surfing and found a couple of great sites. Dave's site was/is a great way to learn basic HTML (hyper text mark-up language...I DID learn something!). The kids are even going through the tutorial and Caleb is having a blast playing with his blog! You just have to ignore all the advertising...at least there weren't any naked ladies! Robert over at self-promotion was another fount of information. [and I might also add that his site is the first web site I have EVER visited where I didn't find a single typo, misspelled word or incorrect verb usage. I'm sure his 8th grade English teacher would be proud!]

Well, the long and the short of it is this: I finally uploaded a working webpage on Tuesday, April 29...2 days before my May 1 deadline! Believe me, it was quite a tackle. I fought and fought with this *site* (bless its heart!) for the better part of Tuesday and to be totally honest it's been a 3 month battle. My biggest problem has just been ignorance (mine!), but at least I can learn! There's hope for me yet!

This blog and our ministry blog have been SUCH blessings because they actually WORK. I've even been able to get creative, thanks to Dave and Robert! I will for sure be keeping the blogs -- I know when I have a good thing! But now I can say that I have built a webpage...and I REALLY appreciate a good webpage when I see one now. Never again will I take those cool graphics and smooth layouts for granted!!!

SOOOO...
I have a favor to ask --
If you're bored and feel like spending a few minutes looking at more photos of red-headed missionary kids, would you go check out our site and search through it for broken links, typos, errors or things that could be better. For example, looking at it last night I noticed that a photo on the Las Glorias page was doubled. How did I do that? I don't know. I also noticed that our Oregon mailing address on the contact page is the same as our Mexican mailing address. I do know how I did that. I'll fix those on Saturday. Just post a comment here if you find any other oopseys. I've looked at it so much that I no longer see anything. It's all a blur.

My other problem has been our connection speed. We have dial-up. We have dial-up like what we had in Po-dunk, Oregon, 15 years ago. So, getting websites with lots of photos or graphics to load in anything like a reasonable time is a challenge. I finally got our site small enough that it at least loads here...slowly. For most of the world, that isn't an issue, but if it is sluggish to load for anyone else but me, I'd like to know that, too.

Thanks ahead of time to those valientes who will dare to check us out on the world wide web! FLOW international

All comments and constructive criticisms welcome!!!