Welcome to Sky, a design I've been working on and off on since May 2013. I was let go last week because of cost cutting from my job and decided that I needed to get serious about completing the design since I view my web site as my business card. I'm using the original sky graphic from the first version of my web site, artifacts and all as a tribute to my original design.

After looking at Jeffrey Zeldman's efforts on his design where he went to a single column, I thought I'd try that too. In my case though the font size and width increase for large monitors, tablets, and phones. That's if the media queries work correctly. Since the design is single column I decided not to do a specific design for mobile devices, other than increasing the font size. That means that there isn't a meta element for mobile. We'll see how that works out. I also decided to not do a print style sheet for the first time since 2003. I hope the website is readable and easy to use with a unified experience on all devices.

One of the items I struggled with was search, since I believe search is important for a website. I didn't want a large search field in the header. In this case I'm using the focus pseudo class to expand the search field. Otherwise the search field looks like a flat button.

When creating a comment you now have the ability to use strike through and block quotes in addition to bold, italic, and create a URL.

I have a couple of javascript articles in the queue and hope to publish them soon.

I graduated high school a year early in 1973. Because of a mix up with my classes they didn't send me my diploma until August 1973. After graduating high school I went to the Academy of Automobile Design in Los Angeles. I went there a year and after Detroit laid off about 70 percent of the Automobile Stylists, I thought that maybe I should pursue a different career. I sometimes wish that I had stayed with it and graduated as an Automobile designer. When going through junk today that has been in the garage since I moved to our home in October 2005, I found a design I drew, I believe in 1974 when I was 18. I thought it had been lost many years ago.

I based it off the front wheel drive of the Saab Sonnet III. Looking at it now, I think I should have moved the windshield just behind the front wheel and given the mid section a little bit more length. After all these years, I still like it.

Eating breakfast this morning, Jane and I thought we'd take a picture of the front porch as viewed from the kitchen through the dining room. Listening to Christmas music and enjoying each other's company. May you have peace this month and enjoy your Christmas time.

Last Thursday, I bought a 1971 MGB GT, British racing green with overdrive and Rostyle steel wheels.

I drove the MGB GT from the seller's house to my house, then my wife Jane drove it back. She told me that I'd like driving her Taurus to work. It was strange driving back home in my Toyota Solara as the only thing we could hear were the tires. There seems to be a lot of mechanical noise produced by the MGB GT. On Saturday, we took a nice drive to Oxnard, then down Highway 1. We ate at a nice little place called the Malibu Seafood Fresh Fish Market and Patio Cafe. The prices are good and the fish is fresh and the ocean was a deeper blue than usual.

The car does need some work but it has been fun for my wife and I these last few days. Chuck said that I'd get to be very close with All Car Parts Ltd in Canoga Park, CA and I'm already getting to know them. The MG mechanic Darrin that I'd like to bring the car to was on vacation but will be back Monday. Since the car sat for a long time, I think it should get a major maintenance. We did discover that the floorboard can get very warm after driving a while. I may buy a MGB heat shield which is supposed to lower the temperature of the floorboard by about 30°F, making the car more comfortable to drive.

When a co-worker asked why I'd buy a car that leaks oil, with lights that only work in daylight and windshield wipers that don't work when it rains, I told her, “It's my mid-life crisis”, which seemed to satisfy her curiosity. I'm not sure why that explained it just as when people ask me about my name and I tell them that my mom is an artist. They go okay, and don't ask for more information, it just seems to explain it.

Last month my family and I took a vacation. We visited my wife's sister and brother in law. My son picked us up from the Atlanta airport and with my Garmin GPS for directions, we drove to our sister and brother in law's new house in Alabama. As we came up the driveway we glimpsed their new home.

The house is big, much bigger than they thought it would be from looking at the plans. It is a beautiful home and they are gracious hosts. They live on a small hill right next to the lake.

Continue Reading "I Finally Took a Vacation in 2008..."

My wife and I extend our condolences and prayers to the victims and family of yesterday's senseless shootings at Virginia Tech. May the Lord quicken your physical and emotional healing.

I've recently been tagged by Eric Mack. So here are five things you may not know about me.

1. I was Co-inventor of MailScout an email rule server.

   In 1993 I was hired by Eric Mack and Bailey Williams to implement Eric's dream of an information gateway. This started out with pager gateways. As with many things I do that lead to a product, I was playing around with something that interested me. The cc:Mail email program had rules, but they were client based rules which meant if your computer wasn't turned on your rules would not run. I experimented creating the start of a scripting language for email. This enabled me to create an out of office rule that I could run while on vacation. After I got back from vacation, Eric and I got together and eventually created MailScout that had over 560,000 users.

2. I am sometimes asked for my autograph.

   Some think that I am Richard Dreyfus the actor. I personally don't see it, but many do.

3. I went to the Academy of Automobile design to learn automobile styling.

   When I graduated high school in 1973 (a year early) I moved back to California to go to the Academy of Automobile design which was run by Bruce Bollinger the creator of the Chevrolet Nomad. I wanted to be an automotive stylist, but in 1974 we had a gas crisis. There were long lines to get gas and you could only get gas every other day based on the last digit of your car's license plate. In the U.S. I was told that around 70 percent of all automobile stylists lost their jobs. With this information I decided that since I was just starting to draw that it might be better to pursue another career.

4. I used to stutter.

   When I first started going to the Church on the Way in 1977, I stuttered. After about three months I stopped stuttering. Nobody prayed for me that I know of, but there was a lot of hugging. I believe that I was hugged out of stuttering.

5. I used to be skinny and have hair.

   In 1977 I weighed 128 pounds and not only had a full head of hair but it went past my shoulders. When my oldest son discovered that I haven't always been bald in a picture (which I can't find), he exclaimed; you had hair!

Let's start a new meme. What are five things you think people know about you?

My grandma Ethel contracted breast cancer in the 1970's. She decided that she wanted to use natural healing methods to cure the cancer and went to Mexico to get Laitril treatments. When she finally came home it was too late because the cancer had spread throughout her body. I visited her three weeks before she died. She faded in and out of consciousness while I talked with her. The problem is that she could have lived longer if she had surgery instead of going to Mexico.

With that in mind, I'm taking Natalie Jost's encouragement to go Pink for October. In October this site will be very pink. I decided that I wanted to retain the current theme, but change the color to pink.

Continue Reading "Pink for October 2006..."

Last week two journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, were forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam. I was thinking about this today and wondered, "if I were in the same situation, what would I do?"

Several years ago I had an experience with an ex co-worker. He said:

Jews are pigs and monkeys and drink the blood of Muslim children. America deserves what it gets because it sticks its nose in everyone's business.

My ex co-worker is a Shiite Muslim from India. He was primarily raised in England and New York City and is an educated young man. I believe both his parents are doctors and he has a college degree. He is well liked. Despite the heinousness of what he said, I said nothing.

If I was in the same situation as Centani and Wiig, would I do as Peter (John 18:15-27) and deny Christ or would I do as Stephan (Acts 7:54-60)?

What would you do?

And God will raise our bodies from the dead by His marvelous power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead. 1 Corinthians 6:14 (NLT)

Happy Easter!

John Stossel has an interesting article called Life is getting worse and other myths in which he lists his "top 10 list of foolish myths". John Stossel's take on "Money buys happiness".

A few of these myths have some truth behind them. For two or three billion people in the world trying to eke out a living on a dollar or two a day, money would buy some happiness. If you can't feed your family, money makes a big difference. But in America, research suggests that once your income reaches $50,000, more money won't make you happier. People say they'd be happier if they "just made 20 percent more," but "happiness researchers" tell me that such happiness quickly fades. A survey of 49 of the Forbes richest found they weren't any happier than the rest of us. One expert put it this way: "Even though no one can be blessedly happy without external goods" -- such as money and the things it can buy -- "we must not think that to be happy we will need many large goods." It was Aristotle who said that, and he was right.

But what I really like is his take on marriage and what you do with your life.

What does bring happiness? Marriage (not always, obviously, but on average, married people rate themselves happier than singles), deep friendships, belief in God, and purposeful work. Aristotle was right again: So long as you have the resources you need to take care of yourself and do good deeds, it's your own actions, and particularly the noble ones, that make you happy.

I can say that my marriage to Jane has definitely made my life happier. What do you believe?

On October 27^th of this year my car was broken into in front of my home. The thief left a beer bottle and took the leather jacket my wife gave to me as a Christmas present last year, my digital camera, iPod, Motorola Blue Tooth headset, and my check book. My check book contained a few checks, department store credit cards, health insurance cards and my Social Security card.

I called my credit union and put a stop payment on the checks but I had forgotten about the store credit cards. They charged a bunch of stuff at Robinsons-May including gift cards. Then they had Robinsons-May pay for the bill with an electronic check from my checking account. Robinsons-May has not been very helpful. I did get my card canceled but they did not return the funds to my checking account. I contacted my Credit Union who was very helpful and at least they are investigating the unauthorized transaction and the funds have been returned to my checking account.

We now park our cars in the driveway. Even in a nice neighborhood bad things can happen, so don't leave anything out in the open in your car as it may be too much for some people to ignore. When I was a child (not that long ago, I'm only 49), we never locked the doors to our home. Now it sometimes seems that we have to live in a fortress.

We've moved into our home and it is very nice. It cost a lot more than I thought with the termite damage and the additional plumbing to the guest room attached to the garage, but it was well worth it. I'm very happy with the result. We have a beautiful home that is warm and comfortable. We love having company and we're looking forward to the new year and all the changes it will bring.

As soon as I get another camera, I'll post some pictures.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and give you wisdom.

I received a Treo 650 as soon as it was made available. The only problem I've had besides the low volume for headsets is that I have dropped the phone at least four or five times a week. My good friend, Eric Mack, sent me a FlexiSkin by Boxwave. Since I have received the skin I have yet to drop my phone. The only problem I've had with the skin is that is sometimes difficult to press the "P" key. I highly recommend having a case but didn't want a bulky case so I went for a skin.

Please join me in wishing Tanny well!

Update: My good friend and brother in the Lord, Eric Mack hijacked my blog! Thank you Eric.

I must thank my wonderful wife for the love, affection, and generosity that she gives me. I love you Jane!

After my wife and I got married last August, we decided to move into a rental property that we owned. It has been rented for at least 15 years, the last ten years to the tenants who just left. They are out of the house but still have property in the garage and back yard and we hope that it'll be gone soon.

We have now started the process of remodeling. The architect and contractor have been to the house, a design is being worked on and we should start pretty soon. As you can see the front of the house has a lot of foliage in front of it, so much that you can't even see the front of the house from the street.

I took this picture from the front yard moving back as far as I could, it's pretty overgrown.

There's a lot of work to be done. The house is going to be gutted, doors are going to be moved, wood floors are going to be put in, and lot and lots of paint. The adventure begins and we hope to move in by mid-July 2005.

I'm excited and happy. For those of you coming to the wedding, Jane and I are registered at Bed Bath & Beyond. Another alternative is to dontate to World Vision International. Donate or support a child. If you do please tell us.

Thank you,

Tanny...

A few weeks ago I went to the doctor to look at my ear. There had been a sore the size of a small freckle on the back of my ear. The reason I went is because it had been there for over three months. At first the doctor wasn't going to send me to see a Dermatologist, but I insisted because it had been there three months. When I went to the Dermatologist, he took a punch biopsy. It seemed more like a core sample to me. Last week the results came in and it was skin cancer. The doctor said it is 100% curable and the best type of skin cancer to get. They are sending me to a plastic surgeon so that the ear can be rebuilt to look normal. I'm glad my ear will look normal, but I'm still a little nervous.

Learn why there had to be a Passion.

The Church on the Way

It was December 18, 1974. I was 18 and lived in a small cottage in Ventura, California. This may seem to be an odd way to start the story, but I was in bed with my girlfriend. I told her about a dream I had the previous year where a cartoon bull was killing everyone of my friends who were also cartoons in a type of Roman coliseum. It really frightened me. She that said that she had a dream about the end of the world. I asked her about it but she didn't give me much information, so I thought the thing to do would be to hug her.

At that moment in the corner there appeared a round object about three feet in diameter that was parchment colored with a black fuzzy border and a red mist covered the room. I felt fear and she sat up and started to pray in the name of Jesus (she was a back-slidden Christian). The apparition disappeared but the fear stayed. We drove to Oxnard where she knew of an Episcopalian church that kept its doors open as it was around 11:00 PM. I felt like I was looking through my body and my eyes grated as if there was sand in them.

When we got to the church, she prayed and started to read a prayer book. I didn't know what to do, so I kneeled and ask God what to do. I had a compulsion to look up and on the cross there was a shadow of the figure of Jesus, but not a shadow, but the purest, brightest, whitest light I had ever seen. I then felt I should go and touch the cross. I went up and on my toes touched the bottom of the cross. Instantly I felt as if someone had put a sponge down my throat and washed me clean. I felt whole, my eyes were clear and I did not feel fear. At that point I got back down on my knees and told God that whatever he had for me, that's what I wanted.

BTW, I've never done drugs and I never went to that Episcopalian church. After accepting the Lord Jesus as my Savior, I began attending the First Baptist Church of Oxnard.

Though I didn't know it, I needed and received a Savior. My life changed and so can yours.