Jack Palance and Tony Tyler both Dead

while reading the latest issue of MacUser today i learned of the death of Tony Tyler, a regular contributor to the Shutdown column at the back of the magazine. he was 62, not very old by todays standards, but he managed to pack an awful lot in as is told by his friend and colleague, Charles Shaar Murray in a touching obituary here.

yesterday another dinosaur passed away also. Jack Palance had a tough guy image with a face to match. lately he was known for his roles in the City Slickers movies, for which he won a best supporting oscar. Palance also played the part of mob boss Carl Grissom in Tim Burton's Batman (my favourite role of his).

both giants (6' 5", and 6'4" respectively), and both will be missed.

< /Web Design Course >

a couple of days ago i decided to pull out of my course in multimedia and web design. i'd only be going for a couple of months but it was becoming apparent that this was not the course for me. having been surfing forums for a while and reading other blogs online, i've come across some pretty cool people that make a living online, make friends online, and seem to have fun while they are at it. i remember reading something Chuck Palahniuk wrote about air friends: (paraphrasing)

relationships developed with people that have the same interests as you, will on the whole last longer that relationships with people that are based on location (eg.neighbours).

he called neighbours "air friends". once neighbours move away from each other they don't have that common bond to keep them talking to each other. the web on the other hand can link people with the same interests across oceans and continents, whether that interest is bulbs, flashlights, making web pages or whatever.

the book i bought is sams html & css in 24hours, 24 one hour lessons written in an easy to read reference that teaches you to build a web page quickly and then tinker with it.



this seems a better approach than what the college was proposing: slowly building something in macromedia director week by week and then our efforts would be uploaded to the college server. i thought i was going into an environment where people would be exited about the web, but to my surprise the 3 tutors were not actively involved with running a website online. the environment was not very conducive to stimulating creativity imho.
coupled with a fibro flare up, the thought of dragging my weary body for a total of 3 hours roundtrip bus travelling time each day, and having compulsory breaks that lasted half an hour, even if you wanted to stay in and work on something finally clinched it for me.
so it looks like it's going to be books and forums from now on. see you online. :)