I've noticed a lot of members here have been observing an early chill in the air, particualrly our neighbors to the north (for those of us in the US). I suppose an early fall is on the way, but that's not all bad, I love the fall season, there's so much wrapped up in it, so many good times I've had were in the fall. My best moments and memories surround things that I did when leaves were turning colors and drifting offthe trees one by one. Watching nature get herself ready for a time of rest usually inspires me to take a look at myself, ready my mind and body for a rest, and take the time to do it. It's in this slight chill air that many of my stories were born, on the way to school, going home from school, or just enjoying the day sitting on the back porch. Tea goes from iced to hot, with lemon and honey, winter clothes come out, and heaters get checked for use in the coming cooler months. This is good hot cider weather, and it's a time of great peace in my heart. It's also time I got out the camera and started chasing those brilliant leaves so I can share them with the rest of you.
Normally I don't get all senitmental, but here's something to think about. What are your fondest memories of the fall season? Me, I just enjoyed being out in the chilly air, even when I was so sick with allergies, just to have fun. That was ages ago (maybe 10 years or more). I enjoyed soaking in the cool dampness of the woods, the crisp blue of the sky, and the dreams of youthful fancy.
Comments:
Yensid
I enjoy cooking, especially for people who enjoy eating what I make. The people my sister's friend has these cookouts for suffer from things like anxiety or depression, so I'll do what I can to help them have a great time for a change, if that means staying up all night to make ten plus pounds of potato salad, I'll do it in a heartbeat. It's not volunteering in the traditional sense, I don't go out there and actually help with the main part of the cookout or anything, but I'm willing to contribute what I can.
Thank you very much for the offer. All I have right now are the barely discernable rough outs, so it's not ready for a critique just yet. As long as my Photoshop Elements 2 (I can't afford a full version of Photoshop) opens normal Photoshop documents, I'll take you up on that, when it's ready for evaluation. My teacher taught us critique over criticism my first year in theatre class, and I've kept it in mind all this time. I also use that same mindset when I read comments about my art, to see who's offering help, and who's just venting after a bad day. I can try to find one of the evaluations we used in Theatre and adapt it for use here, I do that in my head now, but I can't write it out from memory.
Back in early August 2003 when I clicked the "post" button to submit my question on how to learn to draw animé style to a message board, I told myself that I would always, always accept helpful information, and use it to the best of my ability to improve my art. Three years later, I'm still accepting tips, and suggestions, and I'm more aware of what area I need to improve in my art, and I know I need to practice a whole lot more. I'm not here on MyO to do everything, know everyone, and be at the top of the list, I'm here because this is where I can talk to others about animé art, and other things in ways that other communities shy away from. I don't need a number to tell me that I belong somewhere, the experience with other members tells me that, and I know I belong here.
I know I came off a bit grouchy with the HTML stuff, sorry for that tone, I was having issues on my end and well, that's no excuse for taking it out on others. Please pardon a stubborn, young, inexperienced, and impatient dragon his faults of temper. Rudeness is never intentional. Word does have the ability to make Web pages, in File ([ALT] > F) you have three save options (After clicking that little double arrow at the bottom that's hiding half the menu - I hate that thing): Save ([ALT] > F > S), Save As ([ALT] > F > A), and Save As Web Page ([ALT] > F> G). Saving as a web page though is what generates bad coding. Actually all of the word processing programs I've tried do bad code saving that way, OpenOffice.Org Writer, Word, and Works Word Processor. For some reason, none of them seem to know how to do the simple things the right way. I do the same thing, I have the code I use drafted up and I just insert the new material where it needs to go, then copy([CTRL] + A > [CTRL] + C) and paste ([CTRL] + V) the finished post into the text box in the backroom here or whereever (Except for Geocities, their software is buggy about doing things right) and I'm done. If it's there to simplify creating a document type, then it's a template in my book.
Word does have a way to do text conversion, but I like the Old School myself, I just save the document in text format: [ALT] > F > A. Choose a name, then click the dropdown with all the different file types listed and find "Plain Text" and save it. It should then open in Notepad by default, but could be opened in Word as well (Check MRUD list or Open [CTRL] + O, browse for the file and open it from there). Inserting pictures into a text body is hard. The only way I know how to do an image with a nice wordwrap around it (so there's no gaps in text content) is to "nest" tables which is frowned upon by the newer HTML standards, and just really complicated to keep track of with all the coding involved, not to mention a lot of it is on the "depreciated" list of the W3C. It also doesn't quite render correctly, you'll note it's not flush to the margin because of the table border to cushion the text a little. There are CSS ways to do it too, which are supposed to be cleaner and easier to use, but I don't know enough about it to suggest anything in that area. Do a search on "wrap text around embedded images", and you'll find some resources that show the CSS code for "floating" an image on a page. It's supposed to wrap text and do some other things too, but I won't know till I learn CSS and do some testing on my own. For now though, if you want, go ahead and copy my code for the table right up there and use it till you find something better, and more efficient.
I can't figure out why links work without the quotes (test) when they're not really supposed to, and don't when you do them right. I wouldn't doubt Word is doing something weird on you. I did some testing and found out that the Arial font doesn't render smart quotes on the web, that's why my last post (which I fixed now by changing my page font, it's now Times New Roman) didn't show them correctly. I also found out that by default, Word AutoCorrects typed URLs, and turns them into hyperlinks. Here's how to stop if from doing that, select the Tools menu. Now, you may have click the double down arrow at the bottom of the menu to make the whole menu visible, then find AutoCorrect Options. You'll get a pop up that has several tabs on it, find the tab "Auto Format As You Type" and select it. From there, find the heading "Replace as you type" (should be the first one if you're using Word 2002) and look for "Internet and Network paths with hyperlinks" Uncheck that, click okay and see if doing that fixes things. If it does, let me know, if it doesn't, let me know as well so I can look at other things that might be at issue. I don't always get things right the first time. If that alone doesn't help, repeat the steps, but uncheck " "straight quotes" with “smart quotes”" and see if that helps too.
Again I really apologize for my tone with the whole HTML thing. I won't excuse it, it wasn't appropriate. I didn't mean for it to come out accusatory or even remotely implicative, but I posted before proofreading and sometimes, no, all the time, that's not good to do. HTML was hard for me at first too, now I can do the basic stuff okay, but I really need to get cracking on CSS if I want to be standards compliant. There's a lot of stuff I've seen people do with CSS that I would love to be able to do myself. I'm the same way sometimes with things I want to know and don't, I get really frustrated when I can't do something, or when a problem comes my way that I can't figure out in less than a few minutes.
I always like to joke with people about this: Never say "good luck" to a theatre man, that bad luck. We say "Break a leg" instead. Anyway, I put my heart into everything I do, and try my best, that's all the luck I need, I make it myself in the process.
alphonse13
That's all right, I was a bit long winded anyway. If you really want to read all that, Here you go.
Anime Dreams!
