I’ve decided to start slinging freelance work in order to pay the bills, which suddenly appear much larger now that my income has bottomed out. And health insurance, Holy Christ, what a cost! People on payroll, take heed.

To that end, I’ve updated my self-promotional website with a new resume and a new look. I doubt I’ll get mistaken for a designer, but it was still a fun to play with colors.

To layout the site I used Blueprint, a CSS framework. It makes grid-respecting columns very, very easy, but breaking the semantic wall feels a bit dirty. For example, to get three columns, one would do:

<div class="container">
    <div class="span-8">
        ...
    </div>
    <div class="span-8">
        ...
    </div>
    <div class="span-8 last">
        ...
    </div>
</div>

After having the separation of presentation and content pounded into my head for years, this seems like sliding backwards somehow. Wouldn’t a true guru just assign meaningful ids and figure it all out in the stylesheets? Probably. But in the interest of speed, it’s hard to argue against such a quick, well-working solution.

Apparently, my new kitchen is wired to an outlet in my new basement where all the computery goodies are plugged in. Thus, Mr. Microwave tanked everything last night. Yay.

On this Tuesday past, I kissed Brooklyn good-bye and moved with my family to New Jersey. Yes, the Manhattan Dream is on hold for now, but we hold hope for a future return. Right now, a quiet little house is a good remedy for what ails us, and it’s turning out quite nice. Cozy.

What will I miss? I used to walk to get dog food. Now I have to drive.

What have I gained? A half-finished basement that’s mine, all mine. Right now, it’s a assemblage of cardboard boxes and furniture parts, but it’ll soon be turned into an office slash den, the proverbial husband’s escape from his family’s torment. No, too stereotypical, but in all honesty it’s a pleasure to have such a space devoted to my own pastimes. I intend to get a lot of work done here, perhaps launching a project or a business or two, and maybe one day it will become a historical marker, like the patent clerk’s desk where Einstein sat or the birthplace of Shakespeare. Then again, it probably won’t.

I just need to do something about this dampness…

And the spiders.