I’m too lazy to provide all of the links that backup this post, but I during my Web crawling at work today, I jumped on some forums and read a bunch of rumors that an investor stepped in to buy PC Club before it filed Chapter 7. Those posts were then swallowed by follow-up posts full of hand-wringing and uncertainty of sources.
Tonight, unable to sleep, I whimsically clicked on my bookmark for PC Club and lo and behold! The site is back up! Not a lot of parts are in stock and they have a very big ad for new employees (at all locations) in their frontpage array. Guess the old employees who lost their jobs with no notice are screwed.
Lets just hope that whoever replaces them are of the same caliber.
Living without television has kind of put me out of touch with pop-culture. More than a year ago, I’d watch my favorite programs and catch blips of movie trailers during the commercials I’d fast forward through. If I saw some skin or someone getting punched or shot, I’d rewind to see what it was all about. These days I’m forced to crawl the Internet to see what’s new and advertising on the Web is so eclectic, my subconscious just isn’t bombarded enough to get me to check something out. This regrettable state of affairs also includes movies that I should want to see, but totally forget to because I never saw the trailer. Fortunately, I Stumbled! on a site featuring the new Indiana Jones teaser trailer. Here it is, if you haven’t seen it yet:
I don’t know how you all feel about it - and it’s hard to tell from the small YouTube video - but it does look a tad cartoonier than the rest of the series. I think it’s those moving pillar thingies that just scream CGI to me. Regardless, it still looks cool and I think of all the returns to successful intellectual properties (Die Hard, Rambo) Indy 4 will probably be the closest to capturing its old feel. Plus, Harrison Ford looks pretty good, too.
I chose to be an old fuddy duddy and stayed in (again) this year. However, that gave me ample time to work on my new layout. I’ll say it’s about 95% of the way done. Still working out some kinks, so bear with me. If you notice anything that breaks the site, please let me know. Thanks!
I hope everyone in the States has recovered nicely from Thanksgiving and detoxed all of the tryptophan out of your systems. As for everyone else, I hope your Fridays were quick and you enjoyed your evenings. As you can see, I’ve made some major changes to WORKING AUTHOR. Now that I’m starting to get a decent amount of hits a day, I’m paying more attention to my Web reports. Seems like the majority of visitors are browsing at 1024×768. My last layout catered to an 800×600 resolution as a kind of catch all. Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator has to be catered to when it comes to Web development. On the other hand, sometimes that group is in such the minority that it becomes more beneficial to say, “Oh well for them.” That’s why I’ve maximized my layout for the larger resolution. This way I get to add new features without visitors having to scroll for days just to see what’s available.
On the third hand (if you’re a mutant), I think there’s a way to have the best of both worlds. The way it works is like this: People running resolutions at 1024×768 obviously get the full experience, however, 800×600 resolution people can still have a nice display when they arrive without feeling like the short guy at the back of the crowd. When an 8×6er comes to my page, what they get are the left sidebar, the wide column in the middle and the middle-right sidebar. It’s all of the necessary stuff before the horizontal fold. I think it’s a pretty cool idea.
Anyway, as with all things Web, it’s a pain in the butt to code for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. I’m no professional, mind you, so I’m running into walls trying to get the IE version to behave. If you’re rocking IE, you’re probably seeing some extra fat on the width of my blog. I have no idea why that’s happening. Woe to the Internet Explorer 6 user for whom my layout completely breaks. The best bet is to switch over to Firefox 2. It’s a free download, safer than Internet Explorer and gives you access to a bunch of cool addons.
Just wanted to wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all get to where your going safely. More importantly, here’s to wishing that you and your family can repress the inner hatred you feel for each other for a few hours. I know I’m definitely going to try.
For your information: WORKING AUTHOR will be undergoing a few changes, but it shouldn’t affect the site’s uptime. Hopefully I’ll get it done by the end of the long weekend, but between some work I had to take home for my day job and putting up my parent’s Christmas decorations, Web development is going to touch and go.
Wish me luck and don’t eat too much!
PS. For my readers abroad who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving: You’re missing out.
René Garcia, Jr. is a professional writer living and working in Southern California. He has been published in a handful of regional and national publications, including bello, Valley Scene, Inland Empire Weekly and 944 (Orange County). René is currently the copywriter for Cal Spas in Pomona, Calif. In his spare time, he maintains this site. It contains his published, college and personal work. Enjoy your stay and come back often.
A small donation ($1) will go a long way to paying down bandwidth costs, domain renewals and server lease payments. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
