Correspondence
I received an email the other day from celebrity cabbie, multimedia personality and all-around nice guy Adrian Neylan. Adrian was one of the first people to ever read this blog and has been a consistent peruser for over a year now. He's also been something of a mentor to me and has always been ready to help - he was the one who told me how to 'copy and paste' fer chrissake! He has some advice for me in his latest missive, I hope he doesn't mind, but I'm going to quote you a piece of it:
Hi Dirk, Good to see you're getting the image thingo happening. Just though you may be able to use these tips on manipulating wrap-around text and images.
In the HTML code you can nominate a border size around images - with numerals representing pixel distance on four sides. Also Blogger may allow you to locate images left and right side of posts - .
Also you should be able to manipulate whatever size thumbnail you want, by applying a percentage of the uploaded image size, pixel height by width. This is done by inserting the calculated percentage in the thumbnail code.
Below is an example of my HTML for a recent post...
Now, while Adrian's advice is always useful, my philosophy towards this blog is much the same as it is towards most hobby/lifestyle things, doing it yourself is half the point.
There are a lot of shows on pay TV that all based on one of two similar premises; somebody rebuilds a car for somebody else or somebody builds a chopper for somebody else. If I'm channel surfing and I wash up on one of these shows, then I'll stay for the rest of the episode; I love watching craftsmen of any kind at work and I love finding out a little about how these things are done. But the 'prestige' part of the deal rests entirely with the builders - you can't buy it. To say that your $200,000 Troy Trepanier Mustang imparts more prestige on you than Lou Lineworkers $20,000 special from Honest Guido's Used Mustangs gives him is ridiculous; it's like saying Alan Bond is an artist because he bought a Van Gogh. In fact, Lou's ride automatically imparts more respect, if not prestige, if Lou does some work on it himself. Even if his paint job has runs in it and his welds look like metal plated birdshit.
Anybody with $80,000 can buy a bike by Billy Lane, it doesn't make you Billy Lane, nor does it make you a 'biker'. It makes you an accountant on a bike. This bloke has more class than the lot of you put together. Why?
Glad you asked; because he built it himself (with a bit of help from 'is mates, loike.)
Same as this little page you're reading now. It's clunky, not particularly well designed - either in layout or appearance - but, dammit, it's MINE!! All my own work. Warts and all. So, while Adrians advice (and implied criticism that my use of images needs to improve) is welcome and I'm grateful, I have no intention of abandoning my wilfully ignorant ways.
Update: I just had a quick proof read and some of the HTML that Adrian was explaining has been taken as code by W.Bloggar. Oh well. You get the point.
Hi Dirk, Good to see you're getting the image thingo happening. Just though you may be able to use these tips on manipulating wrap-around text and images.
In the HTML code you can nominate a border size around images -
Also you should be able to manipulate whatever size thumbnail you want, by applying a percentage of the uploaded image size, pixel height by width. This is done by inserting the calculated percentage in the thumbnail code.
Below is an example of my HTML for a recent post...
Now, while Adrian's advice is always useful, my philosophy towards this blog is much the same as it is towards most hobby/lifestyle things, doing it yourself is half the point.
There are a lot of shows on pay TV that all based on one of two similar premises; somebody rebuilds a car for somebody else or somebody builds a chopper for somebody else. If I'm channel surfing and I wash up on one of these shows, then I'll stay for the rest of the episode; I love watching craftsmen of any kind at work and I love finding out a little about how these things are done. But the 'prestige' part of the deal rests entirely with the builders - you can't buy it. To say that your $200,000 Troy Trepanier Mustang imparts more prestige on you than Lou Lineworkers $20,000 special from Honest Guido's Used Mustangs gives him is ridiculous; it's like saying Alan Bond is an artist because he bought a Van Gogh. In fact, Lou's ride automatically imparts more respect, if not prestige, if Lou does some work on it himself. Even if his paint job has runs in it and his welds look like metal plated birdshit.
Anybody with $80,000 can buy a bike by Billy Lane, it doesn't make you Billy Lane, nor does it make you a 'biker'. It makes you an accountant on a bike. This bloke has more class than the lot of you put together. Why?
Glad you asked; because he built it himself (with a bit of help from 'is mates, loike.)
Same as this little page you're reading now. It's clunky, not particularly well designed - either in layout or appearance - but, dammit, it's MINE!! All my own work. Warts and all. So, while Adrians advice (and implied criticism that my use of images needs to improve) is welcome and I'm grateful, I have no intention of abandoning my wilfully ignorant ways.
Update: I just had a quick proof read and some of the HTML that Adrian was explaining has been taken as code by W.Bloggar. Oh well. You get the point.
posted by Dirk at 5:02 pm
6 Comments:
One rerason I don't watch those shows anymore...
I'd rather see some guy who's built the thing for himself...
well if doin it yourself is your thing, then go with it.
i agree on you halfway. with cars and bikes, it's totally more prestigious to do up your own.
getting someone else to do it for you (admittedly i'd do that if i could afford it) just ain't the same.
a mate of mine built a 55 chev, from a rusty shell he bought somewhere-or-other. ended up with a personally-built tilt front end, mildly worked 454 big block, reasonable suspension and nice interior. on a 1-10 of totally awesome, a street machine like that, in my book, is a 10. the only thing he didn't do himself was the electrics, got a sparky mate of ours to do it for a coupla cases of beer.
but i don't reckon that detracts, that just adds.
computer code is a different kettle of fish for me. it's personal satisfaction. i don't like re-inventing the wheel, but i do get personal satisfaction from working out a difficult bit and making it all happen.
however if you want to do it yourself, go for it. i find it a bit like working out a puzzle, if i find a puzzle that interests me, i take a lot of satisfaction out of actually getting it finished. however usually by then my manager has found 3 new puzzles that i don't want to play
sorry for long comment :-)
Way over my head... :/
Ranger and Rat,
about the only exceptions I can think of to the buid-it-yourself/get-it built prestige ranking rule are former Castlemaine Rod Shop owner Rod Hadfield; who got partway through building a '55 Chev and decided that it was taking too long so put on an extra staff member specifically to finish the car. It had a 3000hp V12 Packard engine from a WW2 fighter plane in it... Hadfield pioneered the Aussie modified vehicle industry, he also managed to get the Cev registered. The other exception I would make is Jay Leno. He's probably reasonably busy and at leat he gets it done un his own shop. He's reasonably handy on a spanner, too. (Rumour has it that he bought Hadfield's Chev.)
Cant,
it's over my head, too, but it's fun trying to swim.
No worries Dirk, I understand wilfully ignorant ways. Sounds like something my first wife would say. And needless to say, she dropped me !
Sheesh, now you got comment verification. Mate, you've got it all.
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