Suntana's Blog Trek

Thanks, Dennis! Through a little bit of serendipity, I came across another Blog Theme that just happened to fit the "Sun" part of my Opera Community moniker. And it looks fancier than the one I had before ... and without having to mess around with HTML & CSS.

Now I won't be in such a rush to learn HTML & CSS. I still want to do it though. I did mess with HTML the other day and did generate a very simplistic Header and Body on a Test HTML File.

Microsoft ... you better Watch OUT!
Suntana is gaining on you!

Thanks for dropping by, Tamil.
In all my Message Board years, I had always seen the ROFLMAO expression, but this is the first time I see someone actually doing it. Once you stop laughing you can have some hors d'oeuvres at my Guests Gourmet table: And wash it down with some Lemonade. C'mon, Tamil. Try it. REALLY! I swear, it only LOOKS like Beer, but it's really Lemonade!

Congratulations, Southern Cross Andrew!
For being the Winner of the Who'll Make the 4th Comment Contest, you've won ... you've won, Uhhh, a Designer Stuffed Yes Siree! I have nothing, but the Best Prizes for my Guests.

Anyway, Andrew, Thanks for popping in with words of encouragement. An HTML / CSS Wizard, Eh? THAT's what I want to be! From what I've seen of both of those, they're most definitely do-able. I mean, I've done BASIC Programming and MSDOS before, so Coding / Syntax are not really uncharted territory for me. It's just right now, the obstacle, my enemy is the lack of time. It's bad enough time is in short supply. But, then I have Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator supposedly on my To Do / To Learn List. PLUS I want to RE-learn MS Access. I taught myself that back in 2002. Then after 2 masterpiece Databases that I created, I didn't use it again ... and I forgot everything. Grrrrr!

Well, let me go see what's cooking at your place.

Yeah, bmp's ARE Bigger Files. On my Debut Blog Post, I just flat out didn't know the deal of what the Blog Service ... preferred. I just tossed in what I had handy. By my 2nd Post, I already knew the deal and DID plan on using a JPEG, which I had converted from a bmp with irFanView.

The 1st version of the JPEG Pic I was going to use on my 2nd Post, came out too small. So, I made a Bigger version in Windows Paint and converted it to JPEG. I originally had wording in the Pic. The Pic portion of it was now OK, but the wording was messed up. I tried a PNG version of it. The wording was still messed up ... NOT Clear. I probably could have erased the wording (Created in Paint) and Copied & Pasted Text Boxes from MS Word and that would have fixed the problem. But, I was no longer in the mood. So, I just wiped out the wording and slapped the bmp Pic into the 2nd Post without even converting it to JPEG.

But, I'll most definitely try and go the JPEG / PNG route from now on when at all possible. Besides the File Size aspect, is there any other reason for particularly going with JPEG or PNG? Will bmp Freak Out the Blog ... its loading or something? I definitely know that the Header area would NOT accept bmps PERIOD! So, the Header is definitely a PNG.

As I've said before, I'm still learning the ins & outs of this Blog Experiment. I'll eventually get with the program.
Thanks, Tamil for all your help since I joined the Opera Community! I have Spotlighted your Blog in appreciation of that.

BTW, Tamil, thanks to your succinct, point blank advice, Tip ... I went back and converted both the Flash Drive & Bookends Pics in my first 2 posts to PNG. So, I have now Kicked the BMP habit. I might need a BMP Patch or some BMP Gum to help me deal with the BMP Withdrawal symptoms. But, I am now 100% All PNG! Definitely shaved off some Bytes from My Opera Files.

Right after I had sent you the PM, I immediately remembered about the Quotation Marks required. I then inserted them last night and it still didn't work. And now I even Copied & Pasted your revised Code from your Comment and pasted it into my CSS area and Saved it. I HAVE clicked on the Reload Button. Still No Go. Could it possibly be that it wants a JPEG instead of a PNG for that function? Or should it work either way? What about ... does it matter where exactly in the sequence of the CSS Lines I insert this latest line? I just inserted it after all the other CSS lines I already had there. Zat OK?

I put the Body Background Code on Top ... still didn't want to work.
Ahhh, but then I made some adjustments. I did like Clint Eastwood said in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, "I improvised ... I adapted ... I overcame." Okay, so you're too young to know that movie or who Clint Eastwood is for that matter. Good Movie!

Digression aside, I Googled and found this site:

http://csshtmltutorial.com/csshtmltutorial-cssbackgroundcodetutorial.php

With what I read in there, I tweaked the Code to:

body
{
background-image:
url('http://files.myopera.com/Suntana/blog/Legal Pad.png');
background-repeat: repeat;
}

Then the Legal Pad background started displaying, but only for like 2 seconds! I knew I was close though. I then eventually figured out that the Legal Pad background WOULD display and STAY, but you can only see it in Full Screen Mode. It displays BEHIND my Music Theme. You cannot see it in the Split Screen Mode with the Left Panel Active. I'll decide later whether I'm going to keep it or not. The idea had been to have the Legal Pad background in the Writing Area.

Oh well, mystery solved anyway.
Hey, Tech Dude ... on that revised Code above ... WHY do they have the Curly Parenthesis on separate lines? Could I Backspace and put them with the rest of the Pack and still have the Code work OK? Also, why do they use Apostrophes around the URL and you use Quotation Marks? Is it OK to use either one?

Muchas Gracias por las Congrats!
Hah! Spanglish at its best.
Man oh Man am I ever a Tejano listener. The only reason I didn't mention any more Tejano Groups on my About Page is cuz well, with Tejano being a Regional Thing, the odds were that no one else was going to have a clue as to any of my array of Tejano Groups.

Hey, is it Suzie ... or Mar? Anyway, if you're a Tejano listener, then you MUST check out BNetRadio Tejano if you haven't yet:

http://www.bnetradio.com/tejano/home.htm

Unfortunately, I can no longer listen to it. One of my nieces had told me about it. I listened to it for a couple of months. I was Hooked. Suddenly without warning, I could no longer connect. By the message I would get, it seemed like the Station was doing Server maintenance. But, then after 2 weeks I find out from my brother and niece that they have been listening to it all along. What the heck? Then there I was troubleshooting my computer. I even did 2 Windows Reinstalls, all to no avail. I concluded it had to have been that the Station changed something. I finally E-mailed the Station. They didn't confirm they changed anything, but within about 2 hours, they had updated their website whereby now the 20K Slow Stream Button was GONE! Oops! I mean: I have AOL Dial Up. I cannot use the 64K Streaming.

An additional recommendation, for some Tejano Funny, entertaining reading, you should check out Joe Ramos' Road Tales Y Otras Mentiras Newsletter. Joe Ramos is the Guitarist / Keyboard Player for Ruben Ramos & the Mexican Revolution. He puts out a Newsletter almost every week regarding their Gigs and other stuff. He's pretty funny.

http://www.usted.com/joeramos/