danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I added a contact form to the website today, so now you can send me messages easily.

Why not do that right now?

Filed under: Website on July 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

I have made some improvements to the Rock! page, integrating my lists of favorite albums and favorite songs into the new WordPress format. Steve clued me in to the parent/child concept vis-à-vis WordPress, and it all makes sense now.

What’s best of all, however, is a little plug-in that places a sound player directly in the page, so now, instead of clicking on text that prompts you to either open or download, you simply click play, and the selection plays. I intend to use this extensively in the future to better illustrate musical concepts that I find intriguing.

Filed under: Website on July 8th, 2007 | No Comments »

So I am wrapping up the finer details of the new web page, and I guess I’m satisfied.  Sure, I would love it if it was the best looking site in the world, and if it had all manner of pretty things to look at, but what’re you going to do?  I’m just one man.

I am about to put a message up on the old site that will forward visitors to the new one.  I haven’t decided if I’ll migrate all the old archives over to the new site.  It might take a lot of work, and still wouldn’t look as I’d like.  I’d need some help, probably, to even create the appropriate page structure to have it work.  So, for the time being, if it’s the past you’re interested in–and I’m with you there–then seek ye the old Archives.

Filed under: Website on June 22nd, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Today is the first day of summer, and of my new, I hope improved, web site. This is significant because my old web page had become so cumbersome, and because of that I seldom updated it. When each update, no matter how minor, took up to an hour to create, it began to seem like a chore. With this new interface, I ought to be able to quickly, and easily update my site, and my goal is to do so everyday. That seems like a big commitment, but, really, I have lots of things each day that, under ideal circumstances, I’d write about. Given the apparently easy nature of this new software, I may be able to more completely express my ideas.

One of my ideas today has been about how this is the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere). This is a time of year I have always enjoyed, even since I was a child. That may have something to do with the fact that by this time of year I was always on vacation, and life was carefree. Anymore, of course, life isn’t as carefree as it was when I was a kid. Nothing beats summer vacation when you’re young, not even Christmas vacation. Summer was the time when I had no obligations, no constraints on my time. Naturally, when you’re an adult, and you lead a workaday existence, summertime can seem like little more than a parade of boiling hot days sitting in traffic on the way to and from a thankless job. But I am making a conscious effort now to overcome that feeling, and recapture a bit of the magic of summer.

To that end I am looking forward to making a couple trips this season, visiting friends and family. And with my second favorite holiday of the year on the horizon, I am filled with anticipation at seeing fireworks and hearing some Sousa marches. Really, I don’t know how you can top Independence Day: it’s a federal holiday, so I always have it off from work; the cuisine of choice is hamburgers and hot dogs; and fireworks–the second greatest form of entertainment–are free and omnipresent. If the city lifts the mandatory burn ban in time, this will be a good Fourth of July.

Meanwhile, I am glad you’re reading my musings, and hope you enjoy them.

Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, Website on June 21st, 2007 | 3 Comments »

I just added the new Links page. This is really more of a resource for me. I decided that I needed easy remote access to the websites I like. This way, if I am on a public computer, or one where I cannot save bookmarks, I can just go to my own links page, and visit sites I enjoy. You are welcome to use it if you’d like.

Sandi is in town now, and staying at our place. We all played a game called “Briscas” which uses a special deck of cards. It is apparently a very old game, dating from the fifteenth century. I don’t understand it very well, but managed to win for the first time, even though I have played Miriam many times before. We watched Wet, Hot American Summer later on. That movie’s great.

Whoa! Look at this eBay auction. This disc was part of a Decca cycle which Herbert Blomstedt recorded with the SFSO in the mid-1990s. Classical CDs are often taken out of print quickly, and many are not released in the USA at all. When that happens, these rare discs can become quite valuable in the used market. I don’t wish to disclose here how much I have spent for some hard-to-find CDs, but let’s just say it was nothing as high as $288. That is just over-the-top. Then again, if I had the money….

Update: I have to scale back on food, because these ice cream cones are making my clothes not fit. I just cannot help myself. They are so good. Last night I bought some mint flavored ice cream, so we’ll see how that is in a cone. I see Publix has also added a new line of super-premium ice cream. I’ll wait for a sale to try that. $3.99 for a quart is kind of steep.

We did go to St. Augustine Sunday, July 10. It was less than ideal, however, as it rained. Oh, and Anastasia State Park is a filthy hell hole. Clean up after yourselves, people!

Filed under: Food, Friends, Travel, Website on July 26th, 2004 | No Comments »