It’s been a hectic year and Dawn and I are sorely in need of some rest and relaxation, so we’re taking next week off. That means no posting until we return and I finish the installation of our new computer (it’s coming along nicely, but transferring data files from the old system has been problematic since some appear to be corrupted). Hopefully we’ll return refreshed and ready to tackle the myriad projects screaming for our attention.

Meanwhile, why not leaf through the Archives? There are bound to be posts you missed.

See you in about a week!

For those of you wondering why IM has been “quiet” the last few days, the reason is twofold: first, it’s been a hectic month with so much going on I haven’t had much time for blogging. It’s just as well, because my primary computer has been complaining that its drive is overloaded, it’s suffering from a software conflict, or worse. Since I don’t want to court disaster, blogging has been more or less suspended until I install a new iMac, hopefully by the middle of next week. So bear with me, gentile readers. IM will be up and running as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, here’s a quickie from Mike…

Two Iraqi spies met in a busy restaurant after successfully slipping into the U.S.

The first spy starts speaking in Arabic.

The second spy shushes him quickly and whispers, “Don’t blow our cover! You’re in America now! Speak Spanish!”

Enjoy the weekend! See you next week!

I finally got around to addressing the various technical hurdles (the server I use doesn’t host domain names) required to associate this blog with its proper domain, so now you can simply key in the actual domain name - inessentialmusings.com - to reach this blog. Makes it easier to remember and easier to tell all your friends!

I have to say that the process was easier than I had imagined. Had I realized how simple it would be, I would have done it long ago! But it’s done now, so bookmark it for easy access, and change it in your news readers. The old (temporary) domain - dougarrington.squarespace.com - will remain active for a while but will eventually be dropped.

I hope you find using the new domain name more convenient.

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time today - wasted time - clearing out crap comments. Spam and other just plain crap, probably from little kids who love to create effing messes on other people’s sites!

I had to suspend comments entirely while I went through all the garbage and weeded it out. If you tried to get in some legitimate comments today, I apologize. You know who to thank. If I inadvertently dumped your legitimate comments (I’m sure I did), sorry. Again, you know who to thank.

I’ve re-opened comments and filtered the effing pranksters. I’m hoping things will run smoothly now. If not, I’ll have to activate screening or close down comments indefinitely.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I really am.

It’s amazing how just one simple omission can screw up so many things on a web site!

Apparently, some time during the last week or so (I’m not sure exactly), I inadvertently omitted a closing tag (</span>) for the “Support Our Heroes” badge I’d added to the sidebar. One little omission, but it really made a mess of the way this site displayed using Internet Explorer. I didn’t notice it because I was posting all week from a Mac using Firefox which displayed it just fine. But today I was posting from a PC using IE7 and noticed all sorts of irregular rendering and behavior. I spent all afternoon trying to isolate the problem before seeking the help of Crista, my able service administrator, who identified the problem in just a few minutes!

Of course, I had altered so much code trying to fix the problem before Crista stepped in that it took me another 20 minutes just to put it all back together again! There are still a few things I need to tweak, but I’m happy to report that we’re again running on all cylinders.

Of course, should you discover anything that doesn’t work or look right, please let me know…

I’m doing some house cleaning on the website today. Although it’s not yet bug-free, I’ve added a “Photo Album” section in the Navigation bar (right side of site pages) and have changed the way images are viewed. In the past, portrait (vertical) images could not be viewed without scrolling, a less than desirable experience, and landscape (horizontal) images had to be reduced in size to fit the column width. So what I’ve done is allowed album images to be viewed in a “lightbox” screen requiring no scrolling.

Initially, this worked with Safari and Firefox on Macs, and with Firefox on PCs. However, it locked up in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) so I disabled it pending some reworking. Today, it appears to be working in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) but I’m not sure if it works in IE6 as I no longer have IE6 on my office PC. However, now I notice that, at least with Internet Explorer, portrait shaped images are being “squeezed.” That is, the aspect ratio is being rendered too narrow on vertical images.

So, I’d like readers’ help. Click on the albums, view the images and let me know if you experience any irregularities, whether with the portrait shaped images being squeezed or the whole thing not working with your browser. Then just let me know (Include your browser and platform. Thanks!

Well, I decided to take it off the site, at least for the time being. I’ve been coasting along as Sacramento’s #4 site (#3 for one voting period) but, unless my readership takes a sudden unexpected leap, it doesn’t look like I’ll overtake the top two or three sites for some time. Besides, I found it a little self-promoting; what started as a couple of friendly wagers (which I won, thank you very much) led to regularly “checking my stats,” something I abhor.

So it’s gone. Thanks to all of you who voted and helped catapult this site to its lofty heights, no easy feat when you consider there were 109 sites in the running. I’ll continue providing content that reflects my eclectic interests and, hopefully, those of my readers. And please feel free to comment. I enjoy the feedback.

Dawn and I are wrapping up a 4-day weekend, so regular posting should resume tomorrow. We’ve been in Las Vegas with friends to watch Sisko live out a fantasy - driving a Formula One race car! I took photos (don’t know how many of the track shots will come out) before and during the race; her best lap was 143 mph! I’ll post more about the trip and her experience when I get the images processed.

As you’ll notice just above the “Navigation” section on this site, I’ve added a “Search” function aimed at allowing you, as the title implies, to search this site for journal entries by any key word you deem relevant. For example, if you want to find a post you read some time ago but can’t recall the date or title, just enter a word or words you think are contained in the article, then key “enter” (or the little arrow to the right of your entry) and you’ll be presented with a list of entries containing that word or words.

For example, let’s say you remember an article about a sports car. Enter “sports car” or “sports” or “car Nash”, hit “enter” and shazzam, you have a list, with short excerpts, of every article I’ve posted referencing your word or words.

Simple? Give it a try. Experiment and then let me know how it’s working for you.

Oh, and yes, I realize the search box is larger than my column width and the arrow carries over to the next line. I’m working on fixing that. Meanwhile, it works fine so don’t be afraid to use it. Got the box fixed. Have fun!

And by the way, the “Archives” function still allows you to search the site by category or month…

A couple of you have suggested that I rescind editing comments so as to allow them to appear on the site sooner than they have been with me editing them (Okay, I’ll admit I fell a little behind while we’ve been involved in our home renovation project.)

The comment review process is to prevent “comment spamming” but so far (knock on wood) it hasn’t been a problem. So, at least for the time being, I’ve removed the editing requirement and comments will appear on the site as soon as you post them. See? I listen, I’m responsive…

If spamming or inappropriate comments become a problem, I’ll reinstate the editing requirement. So go crazy, comment away! Remember, though, keep it clean and short.