The World of Stuff .com

Merry Christmas Eve!

‘Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the house, you could hear me actually trying to work on the new design for The World of Stuff. I didn’t think I would get around to it after I came up with it a few days ago, but I’m really plugging along, I guess. When I get the idea to redesign the site, I work on it right away, and I can’t stop until I’ve finished. But don’t let you think that it’s easy work. It’s not easy for me. Designing cool sites that use XHTML and CSS and work the same in multiple browsers requires a lot of planning, guesswork, research, and trial and error. (If the words “box model hack” send a chill down your spine, you know what I mean.)

I’ve got the header done already (I just finished it today) and now I’m starting to work on the body. That’s where I have to decide how the fonts will be, along with the line spacing and all that. I might as well tease you with some meaningless little facts. The header will still be fun, and the color scheme will be different and more varied.

Christmas is a magical time when lots of people are actually nice. But what exactly is the Christmas spirit?

One night a few years ago, during the Christmas season, we were in the van, which was stopped at a red light. That year, my parents were constantly playing a radio station that was constantly playing Christmas music. At the moment the radio station was playing a dance mix of just about every Christmas song you could possibly think of, and perhaps more. Not a single one was left out by whatever artist decided to undertake that project. The beat went on and on and on as the light failed to turn green. I started getting a headache and complained. My dad turned it down a little, but my throbbing head and ears didn’t fare any better. I had to hear something else. I complained again. So he got out of the car, which was still stopped, opened the hatch in the back of the van, and disconnected the bass cabinet. He got back into the driver’s seat, and eventually we started along, with the infernally annoying song still beating my head.

That is the Christmas spirit.

Over 500 colo(u)rs with names and numbers.

Here’s how to analyze people’s eye movements to see whether they’re lying or telling the truth. I imagine that, if this actually works, it could be tremendously useful to know.

One year ago: “The toaster oven died this morning.”