I've been doing a lot more thinking about web design recently. I'm designing three new sites, tweaking a lot of my existing ones, and I've even subscribed to the Boagworld podcast. And although I tend to focus most of my thought on css, php, and sometimes javascript, there are actually still some things to learn about plain old HTML.

HTML hasn't changed in a long time, and these are mostly things I've known about for years, but I recently gave myself a refresher on a number of tags and attributes that seem fairly obscure, or that I don't use at all. I thought I'd share.

The <blockquote> tag - I use the blockquote tag all the time. Any time I quote stuff on this site, you generally see the indented and framed text, in a different font, with the quotation mark watermark. I do all this by formatting my blockquote tag with css. It works well. The blockquote tag has a cite attribute for citing the source of your quote, so long as you've got the url. I use that a lot too.

The <q> tag - Nobody really uses the q tag, because it's not supported well by Internet Explorer. It's essentially an inline method for quoting shorter text snippets. And while there are a number of articles about how to use the q tag properly by implementing some css hacks, it just doesn't seem worth it.

The <acronym> tag - Like its cousin the <abbr> tag, <acronym> doesn't see much use. While this is understandable for <abbr>, since it's not supported in Internet Explorer, <acronym> is a good tag. I mainly use it to explain acronyms that might be unclear, (RTFM) but it can also be useful just to provide tooltips. I've prettied my acronym tags up with CSS so that the cursor changes to a question mark when you hover over one.

The <sub> and <sup> tags - for subscript and superscript. Useful sometimes. I thought I'd add them to this list since they never see much use.

The <strong> and <em> tags - Yes, there's really no difference between <strong> and <b> and there's no difference between <em> and <i>. But where <b> and <i> are presentational tags, indicating bold and italic text, <em> and <strong> are structural tags, indicating emphasis and strong emphasis. Since I'm into semantics, I tend to use <em> and <strong> more often than not.

Definition Lists - Here, I'm talking about <dl>, <dt>, and <dd>. Definition lists are similar to ordered and unordered lists, but each grouping contains a term and a definition. If you look at my resources page and view the source, you'll see that I use nested definition lists to present the different downloadable utilities. The definition list can be very useful at times.

The <address> tag - This is actually not for postal addresses. According to the W3C, the address tag is supposed to be used to supply contact information for a document or for part of a document. I've never really seen it used, so it's odd to see that it exists. Essentially, the <address> tag is the platypus of the HTML world. Or maybe a capybara.

The <label> tag - As opposed to the <address> tag, <label> seems kind of useful. Maybe you knew about it, but if I used to know, then I forgot. In essence it's a label to go along with a HTML form control. When you click the label text, it's like clicking the control. W3 Schools has a good example of the label tag in use. Nifty.

For anyone reading who's interested in xhtml, I wrote an article a few years back called XHTML in a Nutshell. It's fairly short, and a good start if you're interested in coding in HTML's parse-friendly cousin.

Not sure how many of you have heard the name of the original script which eventually became Hancock. Apparently, the script was written in 1996 and was legendary in Hollywood for a good decade. It was rewritten umpteen times before becoming the Will Smith vehicle currently in theaters.

In any event, the original script, which I imagine would have had difficulty pulling off a R rating, can be found here in pdf form. I read the whole thing recently, and I've got to say - it's kind of depressing. The character of Hancock isn't likable at all in that script, and the husband goes through a McFly character arc. While the second half of the finished movie Hancock got weird, the first half more than made up for it. I won't say the rewrites were a success, but that original script certainly wasn't doable as-is.

E3 is wrapping up today. Although somewhat less frenetic than in previous years, E3 is a tornado of media and hype, and liveblogs of the event are ubiquitous. Trying to keep up with Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid, and G4 this week has been nearly futile. I suppose it helps that much of the news doesn't interest me, since I've got no interest in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and I tend to categorize Pokemon with Power Rangers and Elmo. But that's just me.

Still, it was really nice to see updates and trailers on Resident Evil 5, Dragon Quest 4 for the DS, Far Cry 2, and Left 4 Dead. I'm excited for all these games.

Before I go into my five favorite E3 announcements, let me list the two that really disappointed me. Nintendo's big announcement for the Wii is Wii Music, which is just a variation on Rock Band, except you use the Wiimote in new and creative ways instead of having to buy plastic instruments. And if you suck, the game doesn't tell you that you suck. It just lets you hear the bad notes. Sorry, not my thing. If I want that, I'll pick up the actual instrument, thanks. My other disappointment came yesterday when I read about Fallout 3 lacking charm. Apparently, although the graphics and environments are amazing, it's missing what made the first two games so great. Quirky characters, dark humor, and the ability to sometimes not take itself seriously. Examples for each: a ghoul with a small tree growing out of his head, being forced at shotgun-point to marry the girl with whom your character just had a fling, and finding Dr. Who's Tardis. I loved the first two Fallout games, and I loved Wasteland. Too bad Fallout 3 lost its heart.

So on to the E3 announcements that really excited me.

#5: God of War 3 - The first two games were great. And although the series seemed to be getting a bit stale towards the end of the second game, I'm willing to give the third a shot.

#4: Netflix on the XBox 360 - It's true that I don't own an XBox and have no intention of getting one. But how cool is this? I'm a big fan of Netflix, and I think it's a good move.

#3: Ports of XBox 360 games - There were only three XBox 360 exclusive titles that I wanted to play. Mass Effect is already available on PC, so I'll play that when I get a PC that can handle the game. In addition, they announced this week that Dead Rising is coming to the Wii and Eternal Sonata is coming to the PS3. So now there are no more XBox 360 exclusives that I can't play. Horray!

#2: New Games - While not a ton of new games were annouced this year at E3, There were a few that sound really cool. Firstly, I Am Alive, a new survival horror title from the people who brought us Assassins Creed. It takes place in an earthquake-destroyed city (Manhattan or Chicago?) and focuses on character interaction and problem solving. Sounds cool. Mad World is a crazy Running Man-like game. Or maybe Smash TV. Your character must kill as many other players as he can to earn points so he can fight the level's boss. The game is entirely in black and white, except for the red red blood. A strange choice, but it might work for the same reasons No More Heroes did. Lastly, Nintendo announced that new Mario and Zelda games are under development, which is great news.

#1: Nintendo's MotionPlus Controller - This is the coolest-sound thing of all, because better motion tracking for the Wiimote could mean games that we'd initially declared impossible after first sampling the Wii controller. The two titles of which I've heard that will use the new Wii MotionPlus controller are Wii Sports Resort, a sequel to Wii Sports which will include frisbee, jet ski, and "sword play". Better yet, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which will use the new motion tracking to enable real light saber duels. Drool! It hasn't yet been announced whether the new MotionPlus controller will be an attachment or built-in to the Wiimote, but who cares? We're talking light sabers here!

I've always considered myself a fan of the Castlevania series despite not really liking the original Castlevania or Simon's Quest so much. The first game in the series that really hooked me was Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse on the NES. It was a fantastic game, and I ranked it 35th when I listed my favorite games of all time. Later, when I got my first Playstation, I picked up Symphony of the Night, which is in my opinion the best Castlevania game ever made. I ranked that one 14th. But recently, when I picked up Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS, I found the third Castlevania game ever that I've loved.

Granted, a lot of what it has going for it comes because it's imitating Symphony of the Night. It's got lots of RPG elements, enemies with specific weaknesses, (fire/ice/light/blunt/edged/whip/et cetera) and some Street Fighter-esque moves. It's even got a couple of the same bosses, including Symphony of the Night's "Legion", a crazy giant sphere of zombie corpses.

It also borrows some elements from Dracula's Curse, namely multiple characters and magic spells. Sadly, you don't have a choice of three companions as you did in Dracula's Curse, but your single companion does have magic spells, as Syfa did. And there are some cool spells: flames, healing, summoning, protection, transformation, and more.

The various subweapons include the classic axe, cross, holy water, and knife, but there are a couple dozen, and once you find one you can switch at will. And as you kill enemies with each weapon, that weapon levels up. And when it maxxes out, the graphic for the weapon actually changes. In reality, I found very few of the weapons to be really useful - I stuck primarily to the good old axe, which has a great arc and can hot a lot of enemies. And for raw damage, they're never as good as the spells. Acid bubbles, Ice Needle, and Raging Fire are staples for taking down big baddies.

So it's not as good as Symphony of the Night, but it's the best handheld Castlevania ever. I'm having a ton of fun with it.

Although I haven't been following the news, apparently there were reports of a lion on the loose outside Colorado Springs over the past few days. Now, there's some doubt about whether it's a lion or a dog.

Honestly, do lions and dogs look that similar? They've called off the search now because of the doubt, but in retrospect the whole thing seems a bit silly.

Last night, Linda and I got a babysitter and went out to see Hancock. I was pleasantly surprised. Although the story took a bit of a left turn about which I'm not sure how to feel, it had some moments at which I laughed harder than I have in a long time. I'd definitely recommend the movie.

I haven't yet seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and at this point I may be waiting for it to come out on video. I've heard lukewarm reviews of the movie, but I can't imagine it being too much worse than Temple of Doom.

Another movie that got less than great reviews was The Happening. I'll likely also see this one at home once I can get it from Netflix. I do really like M. Night Shamalamadingdong - my favorite movie of his is actually Signs, although I liked Lady in the Water more than some other people seem to have.

Dark Knight comes out soon, and I really want to see that one in the theater rather than wait for its home release. I haven't been a huge fan of the DC remakes¹, but this one looks pretty good.

Wanted wasn't even on my radar until it was already in the theater, and I've never really liked any Angelina Jolie movies², but it's gotten some really good reviews, so I'd like to see it at some point.

Hellboy 2 is coming out soon too. If there weren't so many other options, I'd probably see it. I liked the first one a lot. But as things are, I'll likely catch it on video.

Lastly, Pineapple Express, a Seth Rogen action/comedy for which I've got high hopes. If you haven't seen this trailer, you should check it out. And speaking of trailers, take a look at the trailer for Know1ng. I'm not a fan of Nicholas Cage, but somehow I like the scripts he picks, and so I often end up liking his movies.

¹ Superman Returns, Batman Begins
² Except maybe Hackers

This weekend was a lot of fun. I've never been the hugest fan of Denver, but in a lot of ways I'd rather be there than Cañon City. We drove up this past Friday morning and stayed until Sunday morning. We hit the zoo, aquarium, and childrens' museum.

We'd thought about seeing fireworks, a movie, or maybe bringing Lia into the hotel pool, but those things didn't work out. First off, the hotel we stayed at had no pool. The movie was out because the "accredited babysitting service" that the hotel offered didn't seem worth it. And as far as fireworks, they took place after Lia's bedtime, so we stayed in the hotel room and quietly watched Farscape episodes on Linda's laptop while eating fancy desserts, and went to sleep early, since Lia wakes up around 6AM most mornings.

The first place we hit on Friday was the Childrens' museum. The museum has a big section for kids under 4 years old, and Lia loved it. She got to play with the magnetic letters on the wall, pick plastic vegetables from a fake garden, and pull gears off this wall-mounted gear mechanism that she was too young to fully appreciate. But her favorite part was the stairs. There were a few sections where two steps led up to a small area with benches and magazines for adults, and she loved to crawl up the stairs, then try to walk down them. She'd always reach for my hand on the way down, and hold it while she attempted to walk down the two steps. I guess a 2-step stairway is less intimidating than a whole flight of stairs. She started going down with both feet at the same time, but eventually figured out that she could turn sideways and step just one foot down. It's cool to watch her learning.

The Aquarium was right next to the Childrens' Museum, so we went there next. We rented a stroller, since we'd forgotten to bring ours (stupid) and quickly learned that the strollers the aquarium rents are cool-looking but worthless. It's essentially impossible for a kid to fall asleep in one of them. So we left and checked into our hotel so Lia could nap. Meanwhile, I went out stroller-hunting on the streets of Denver while Linda watched the napping child.

My stroller hunt was long and grueling. Ross had no stroller, but they had a baby-sized travel pillow - you know those horseshoe shaped ones? Lia's always falling asleep in the carseat or stroller with her neck at some hideous angle, and I'd actually thought about looking for one online. Turns out I got it for four bucks. And she seems to like using it now. There was also no stroller at Walgreens, although I bought some junk food. Rite-Aid had one cheapo stroller left. Less than twenty bucks, which was good, since we now own six strollers. Of course, this is the first one we've actually bought - the five others were gifts, freebees, or hand-me-downs. So now we've got the pimped out jeep stroller, the carseat-fits-in-it stroller, the expensive gift bugaboo stroller, and three umbrella strollers.

After Lia woke up, we headed back to the aquarium with our new umbrella stroller. Those things are actually really useful in that they're lightweight and compact. We saw all the stuff at the aquarium and then had dinner at the aquarium restaurant. The restaurant is actually the coolest thing about the aquarium. You sit and eat dinner a foot away from the glass wall of the tank, which holds lots of fish. Big fish. We parked Lia right in front of the wall, and she had a good time. Halfway through our meal, some guy in a scuba suit swam by and waved.

We'd planned to go see fireworks, but by eight o'clock it was past Lia's bedtime, and it doesn't get dark until around nine, so we just called it a night. Good thing I brought the Farscape DVDs.

Saturday was zoo day, and we got a lot of good pictures. I thought we were getting there early, but there were already people leaving when we showed up. The first animal Lia saw was a tiger, and although it took her a while to spot it, she let us know when she did. She pointed, and said something that sounded very much like "Kitty Cat!". Either that or "What's that?" It's hard to tell when all she's actually saying is "Hui-tyah!". Anyway, she seemed to want to make sure that everyone else saw what she'd seen.

After that she got to see lots of animals, and she got to point at all of them. She liked getting really close to the peacock and the ducks, and Linda even brought her into the petting zoo area. Lia also got to ride a merry-go-round, although she got kind of scared halfway through that ride. But I picked her up from her seat and held her facing me, and she was fine after that. She took a nap in her new cheapo stroller, and got to walk around a lot, although she got a pretty bad blister on one heel.

We came back Sunday morning. We'll bring Lia back to some of the same things when she gets older. And I'll try to post some of the video I took within the next week. Keep an eye on Lia's site if you're interested.

Here's something that's been occupying my thoughts over the past few days since I heard a question posed at the end of the most recent Totally Rad Show podcast. The question was thus:

You are in a mall when zombies attack. you have one weapon, one song blasting on the speakers, and one famous person to fight alongside you.

So what and who do you choose? The answers that immediately popped into my head for weapon and companion are a lightsaber and Bruce Campbell. I still haven't come up with much for song options, but I'm trying to think of better choices, since those two options were picked by guys on the podcast. I mean, it's pretty hard to beat a lightsaber when you're talking about fighting zombies. Anyway, I'm gonna think about it some more, and post my conclusion in the comments. In the meantime, what would you choose?

I've been reading a lot of really good books recently. I don't know whether I'm just lucking out or what, because in the past, I've picked some real stinkers. The books that I tend not to like, I quit reading and don't even add to my books list. But recently, I've read some really fantastic fiction. The two books that I want to address here are The Time Traveler's Wife and Little Brother.

I read The Time Traveler's Wife in ten days. I just got really absorbed in the story and in the characters' lives. I really firmly believe that Journeyman cribbed heavily from this book, and while I loved that show, the book honestly does it better in many ways. The differences are interesting - Journeyman took the Quantum Leap route of having the traveler fix peoples lives, with some mysterious person or force guiding the leaps, whereas in Time Travelers Wife, it's completely random. And while the character(s) in Journeyman were made to leap because of some crazy magic comet present during their births, Richard DeTamble's time traveling is a genetic disorder that could be passed along, were it not for the problem of the fetus leaping in and out of the womb. I won't kid you, the book can definitely break your heart at times, but in a very Somewhere in Time kind of way rather than in a depressing way.

The other book is Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. Three and a half years ago, I wrote about reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. It was the first of Doctorow's books I'd read, and I really enjoyed. I have a memory of printing out the story from Craphound.com and reading the printout while sitting in a dentist chair and waiting for the novicaine to start working.

Anyway, Little Brother got a good amount of publicity on the podcasts to which I subscribe. Scott Sigler even included in his podcast feed a large chunk of audio from the book, read by Cory Doctorow himself.

Boy am I glad I bought the book. I read it cover to cover in five days. It's got a liberal bias - it reminds me slightly of V for Vendetta, but it's more realistic. Doctorow paints a very realistic picture of San Fransisco becoming an almost-police-state. The people at the DHS are the bad guys. When they're a bit overzealous in their roundups of suspects following a terrorist attack, a group of high school kids ends up in a Guantanamo-like prison camp, where they're interrogated and humiliated. This is just the start of the book, and throughout it, the tyranny of the DHS grows more and more outrageous, while we see many citizens accepting it due to the fearmongering of the mainstream media.

The book totally sucked me in right from the start. I really need to go look into other Cory Doctorow books, because Little Brother was great, and not just because the author liked to use terms like "teh suck" in his writing. If you want to check out the book, you can download Little Brother free online at Cory Doctorow's site. If you like it, maybe you'll do what I did and start paying for his books. The guy's a good author.

Not sure what I'm going to read next - maybe Terry Brooks's new Shannara series or one of those Batman books I've still got lying around. I can only hope it's half as good as the other stuff I've read recently.

The journey back to Burgtonburyville was not a pleasant one for Brazen Blusterfuss. She'd immediately realized that walking with her normal exaggerated bounce would cause an intolerable amount of chafing, as she wore nothing beneath the very tight chainmail shirt she'd borrowed from Blacksash. But as it was the only clothing available, she walked slowly and measuredly, and bore the discomfort.

The next morning, after she'd used a healing surge to counter the chafing, and stolen a bedsheet from their inn room, she returned Blacksash's armor. Eventually, at a local seamstress, she managed to exchange one of her daggers for a hastily tailored black muumuu. It wasn't armor, but at least it wasn't bloodstained paisley.

While she was shopping, Ominous brought Blacksash and Pothole to the Drunken Beholder. "Okay, Blacksash. What's your Charisma?"

"Eleven. Why?"

"Okay. Mine's thirteen. Guess I'm doing the talking. Our opponents are way higher level than we are. The only way we're going to get through this is by working together." He took a deep breath, and stepped into the barroom.

The Drunken Beholder was still crowded with PCs. Ominous took a moment to survey the room before speaking. He didn't see the druid Tarbo GreenThinger or any of his men anywhere. He cleared his throat.

"Adventurers!" he said, in his loudest, deepest, most mysterious voice. "May I have your attention, please?"

The room quieted as people shifted in their seats or stood to see who was speaking.

"We have a problem in this town."

"No shit!", shouted a shrill-voiced Tiefling from the back of the room.

"I think I may have a solution." With that pronouncement, the room quieted further. They might not believe in him, but they were willing to listen. These PCs were desperate.

Ominous explained the situation. He told everyone that they'd found the kobolds, but that they had 20 or death poison, and were guarded by some very high-level ogre warriors. He then asked everyone with a 17 or higher intelligence or wisdom to join him in the back room for some strategizing.

After hours of planning and negotiation, they were finally getting somewhere. The planners, besides Ominous Buttcrack, consisted of four clerics, five wizards, a druid, and a paladin. At first, they were interrupted constantly by the three drunk barbarians, who took turns knocking on the door to ask where the kobolds were. Eventually, they decided to have one of the rogues lead the barbarians on a goose chase in circles around the city for a few hours so the rest of them could talk.

The plan was to have the five rangers and the bard approach the keep on horseback, and lure the ogres away. They would lead them a mile south, to where the two druids would be waiting with entangle spells. Two other wizards on-site would offer assistance with grease spells or expedited retreats if necessary. While the ogres were occupied, a party of eleven rogues would sneak up from the side and scale the keep walls, trying to get in through the windows. Once the rogues were able to get the keep doors open, the three barbarians and the monk would rush the gates, holding it long enough for the bulk of the war party to arrive. It wasn't a bad plan, except for the fact that no one had yet come up with a strategy for countering the kobolds' poison. But it was getting late, and the barbarians were returning, their buzz having worn off. Perhaps they should sleep on it.