n00b

Right, it's been about a week since the glorious launch of the Ricardiblog, and it seems I might actually be getting the hang of this. Having said that, I will doubtless manage to erase everything in a minute or two.

After some thrashing around with colour codes, the blog is now a highly attractive shade of taupe with puce accents, which is more or less what I was after in the first place. Actually, the taupe is now less brown than before and the puce is less purple. Just in case anyone cares. It still amounts to merely poking and prodding a bog-standard Blogger template though. During the process, all of the sidebar titles shrank mysteriously to their current size. I kind of like them like that so I think I'll just leave them as is.

I tried to get Misty to implement a similar colour scheme when she was guest blogging over at the Duck's place, but no go. There's no accounting for taste, obviously. So you lucky people get this colour scheme instead. One world-famous blogger has already commented on how lacking in style it is. Certain other people preferred the original template with green sidebars, which it took me a while to figure out how to eliminate. They're now decomposing in the composter out back, along with various vegetable tailings, some slightly-dead potted plants and most of a dogwood bush. Good riddance to 'em. The green sidebars, that is.

Thanks to all of you for the help and encouragement... even if I did inadvertently send all of your comments to the purgatory that is Blogger's moderation bin for a while. With a little help from Dawn, we got that sorted out too.

That's enough shameless name-dropping for now, I think. All you in the back, stop muttering. The colour scheme is here to stay. For now.

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In other news, I will be in sunny California for the last half of next week, investigating new genomic technologies and generally trying not to get lost en route from LAX to Irvine. If anybody has suggestions of what to look at while I'm there (apart from the inside of my hotel room, parked in front of the laptop and blogging away like mad), do let me know.

The obligatory n things

I am married to the only woman I ever dated.

I once wrote a budget that was in excess of 17 million dollars, for a project that was never funded.

I have a doctorate in Molecular and Medical Genetics, but I nearly failed introductory molecular biology.

If I had been born a girl, I would have been called Rachel.

I have been mentioned twice in a major electronic music magazine.

I once played the part of Sid Sawyer in a musical version of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer.

I worked for three years in a place where I had access to a variety of controlled substances.

I have traveled to only eight of Canada’s ten provinces, and none of the Territories.

I have never been east of Paris, or west of Vancouver Island.

I once used a microscope belonging to a Nobel Prize Laureate.

As far as I know, I have never broken a bone.

I have written a piano waltz, a jazz quartet, and a piece for solo clarinet. None of these has ever been performed on the instruments they were intended for.

I live only a few minutes from a very large amusement park, which I’ve never visited.

I lived in Wales for a year.

I have never had a nickname that I didn’t give to myself.

At the age of eight, I was a fairly decent soccer player.

At the age of 16, I was a very slow cross-country runner.

I have been on local television.

I was once in charge of maintaining two websites.

The worst sports injury I have ever had was sustained in a non-competitive, recreational softball league game.

I could have entered university as a clarinet major.

There exist recordings of me playing synthesizers, piano, harmonica, electric, acoustic and bass guitar, and bongos.

I love using the Oxford comma.

In the past, I have done research on antibody genes, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

I am a published author.

I have two budgies that are older than my children.

I studied the behaviour of millimetre-long nematode roundworms for a while.

Shoot me. Shoot me now.

From today's paper:

"Pop singer Elton John is planning to record a hip-hop album, and hopes to collaborate with stars including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West, BBC Online reports."

I suggest he also include K-Fed, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Young MC and Ton Loc, to make sure it has some real street cred.

Lovey-dovey, part 2

...and, right on cue, the hawk appears:



Look carefully, that's a dove it's snacking on.

Tentative identification of the villain is a female Northern Harrier, a.k.a. Marsh Hawk, Circus cyaneus, but it was a long way away and refused to turn around for a mugshot. The evidence is, however, compelling enough to clear the original suspect, an immature Broad-winged hawk, who was around last winter. He is now out on bail for his other crimes (trespassing in Canada when supposed to be overwintering in Florida, with malice aforethought). The score is, nevertheless, Doves 0, Hawks 1.

Lovey-dovey

So it's day two at the Ricardiblog. Project "taupe with puce accents" is progressing although my woeful lack of html chops is showing. If anyone has ideas how to get rid of those ugly green bars, let me know.

EDIT: the green sidebars are now history.

Typical. Second day of blogging and I already don't have anything useful to say. Instead, here's a picture of a regular backyard visitor, the Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura. You get it here because somehow, mysteriously, I've already hit my monthly upload quota on Flickr, and I'm too cheap to pay for more.




I have it on good authority (ok, I read it in a book somewhere) that certain people in the southern U.S. like to shoot these. For sport.

Even when they wake the kids up at 5:00 AM by cooing loudly on the windowsill, or crap all over the tomato plant (no, this is not that tomato plant and bird poo story), or chase all the other birds away from the feeders, I still wouldn't shoot them. I like doves. And pigeons.

Oh dear, it's finally happened...

Well, it's finally happened and here is the Ricardiblog, name courtesy of the Wrathful person over there. Yes, I know the Blogger template is ugly, thank you for mentioning it. I'll be fixing that as soon as I can figure out how this html business works. Then it'll be even worse.

Anyway, the only point of this post is to get the whole thing started, so instead of typing something pithy and witty and enlightening, I'll just direct you over to Scary's place where he has a most excellent Tale of Mirth and Woe™ for today.

If that all worked I'll be amazed. Bye for now.

EDIT: ok, so it didn't all work. The Scary story link is now unbroken. And the colours are even worse than before.