I bought two new books to add to my ever growing computer application library. This purchase brings the total to, er, five. I’m working on it 
I bought Excel 2007: The Missing Manual for Starters and Wordpress for Dummies. I bought the Excel book because I want to expand what I know about the program, obviously. I know how to do a lot of basic functions, but I’ve only scratched the surface. I’d like to be able to do more complicated things. I bought the Wordpress book because I’m trying to learn how to create my own themes and I haven’t quite found anything online that I like. It’s also a nice resource just in case.
The other books I have are more web design oriented. Two are about PHP/MySQL and the other is CSS. I want to pick up a few more designed for XHTML, Search Engine Optimization and whatnot. It never hurts to do some research.
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I bought CSS: The Missing Manual the other day and started to read Chapter One tonight. It’s page 21 and already, I’m thinking of the way I’ve coded certain sites and the techniques I’ve used. I’m guilty of some pretty bad coding crimes.
I used tables for my layout. I think one or two of my fanlistings might still have iframes (in m defense, I’m working on getting rid of those). I still know nothing about doctypes and usually just leave whatever default Dreamweaver puts at the top of my page. (I think using Dreamweaver is a misdemeanor, really. I never use the design screen anymore–only the coding view and I don’t use any of the extra features except for CSS and file management, so maybe my punishment should be light.)
Maybe my New Year’s Resolution should have been learn more about XHTML and CSS instead of PHP/MySQL. Yikes.
Well, the holidays were all right, if you ignore the family drama that seemed to find itself in the middle of every conversation. My cousin came over and she and my aunt were arguing about whatever (as my uncle Gus said, “about the sun rising, the sun setting”) and I guess everyone’s really worried about Danielle, because she’s working her ass off and her boyfriend isn’t working — he got laid off the same time I lost my job–and Danielle’s eating diet pills like candy and drinking a lot. She looked like shit on Christmas, so I don’t know what’s going to happen there.
And the drama just got worse from there. My mother didn’t want to go to my father’s sister-in-law because she doesn’t like her. (Dude, my uncle is dead and his four-year-old daughter who is growing up without him should be everyone’s priority, but apparently the adults in my family are babies themselves). My aunt Bea decided to get into everyone’s business (shocker) and started in about Meg, my brother’s girlfriend who pretty much lives with us. She said Meg was rude and not saying hi, and I flipped on her. Of course Meg isn’t going to say anything — every time she opens her mouth, my aunt says something rude, inapproriate and it’s always about something that’s not of her business–which is exactly what I told her. Oh what fun.
So, yes, the holidays were okay in most respects but I could really do without the teen-style drama. I can watch Gossip Girl for that and at least get cute guys in the mix.
I headed out today to return and exchange stuff that didn’t fit and hit the bookstore for yet another script book. It’s another PHP/MySQL book, but it’s set up differently than PHP and MySQL for Dummies so I hope between the two, I can start to grasp the language better than I had before. I thought about picking up one of the CSS books, but I figure I’ll save that. I’m passable at CSS, enough at least for my own satisfaction right now so I really want to concentrate on PHP/MySQL. You get tired of trying to find scripts to do what you want your site to do. It’d be so much easier to just write it myself so I know I’ll get what I need.
I should head to bed — have to get up early and clean out my room so my father can put together my new desk (with tons of shelving and storage, whee!) and bring up the mattress I got for Christmas. My room’s going to look fabulous when it’s done, I’m so excited.
