STEVE2.NET

I haven't written in my blog for, like, weeks - I have been busy and this has just been low on my priority list. Anyhow, lemme get right into a few things:

WEB DESIGN:
I have been playing around with the image maps functions in Adobe Image Ready and have begun to create a series of exciting new image navigation maps for my site here - of course my use of the word 'exciting' is relative - and in the process I have discovered a few minor discrepancies between the way IE handles image maps and rollovers and the way that Netscape handles maps - gee, I might as well get this off my chest right away: When you mouseover my fancy new buttons in IE you get the rollover effect, and the link - however, when you mouseover my fancy buttons with Netscape, you only get the rollover image UNTIL you hit the actual dimensions of the IMAGE MAP and then you get - the original image. Blah!!! I cannot figure this one out, so what I have done is to create little tiny map hotspots within the middle of the image so that you get the rollover effect in both browsers. The limitation is obvious, is it not? You have to mouseover the tiny image map to get the link to the target page, otherwise, you get no link at all. But if I make the map as big as the button image, then you get no rollover AT ALL when browsing the page with Netscape. Well, we all have to compromise don't we, I have done so JUST to accomodate any Netscape users.

CD LISTENING:
I have a whole bunch of new CD's to listen to - Justin Markert recently sent me one, so did Chris Viola, I have listened only to a little of both of those 'demo' CD's. Chris Nekvinda had a FABULOUS CD release party at UCA early this month and since then I have been listening to his CD "Picture Show" and just yesterday while listening to the track "Lost in America" (or maybe it's "3000 miles" ) I got all misty. I have Tim Fry's new CD - very nice sounding, open, mellow and peaceful solo acoustic tunes with interesting and introspective lyrical poetry - these recordings capture a focused studio performance on Tim's part, recorded mostly at Strangelove and mastered by Charlie Mosbrook. Good job Tim!!! I have been listening to "Mirandas Moon" - the first CD, with the cut "Saturn Five" - and I have been diggin it waaay more since giving it some time in the CD player. All the tracks from that CD are super well done and the music is really unique and interesting and fun too. I have a copy of Jake Harper's demo CD and I need to spin that one up a few more times before I can get a feel for it - it sounds good at first listen, but I usually need several listens before I can fully tune my ears into a new voice. And lets see, I have XelaKooshtick - and these cuts are so big sounding and warm and alive! I just am totally into the sound of those tracks, they were recorded in front of a live audience at a soundstage somewhere in the TRI-C campus, and Xela man plays some great songs (I just groove out totally to LALALAND) with Nick Gaudette's accompany on double bass, if you have not heard this CD yet, get it very soon, I think it's his best recorded work to date, however, I am a huge fan of the XelaMonster and I have all his full-length CD's sometimes I get to accompany him myself on acoustic bass and I listen to the CD's frequently so don't hold me to my word if I all a sudden decide that I like one of the other CD's better again. I must not forget to mention that I have Mike Allan's illicit demo CD (Thanks Roger!) and I have been listening to that allot as well - although, recently, Mike has recorded new vocal tracks to those cuts and has been working with the music and the vocals during trips to Detroit, so I cant wait to hear the final versions! The Stoigatronic one laid down some delicate, tender and generally sweeeeet asssss solo acoustic versions of a few of those tracks during the Strange Night event this past SAT - heheh!!

STRANGE NIGHT:
Ok, enough about what I have been listening too - and back to what is happeneing! The Strange Night at UCA with 'Mobile Love' (Mobile Strange Love Recording) went of without a single hitch - it was smooth, flawless, perfect in every way. All the artists showed up, every one played really, really well - probably better then they would under 'ordinary circumstances'. It was an OUTSTANDING event and one worth repeating which is exactly what we are going to do. Look for another Strange Night sometime in FEB 2005 - thanks to everyone who made this night so special, y'all know who you are: Terry, Miriam, Tim, Jim, Mo, Brittany, Mike, Chris, Veronica

CROP CIRCLES:
I have been kind of a little bit obsessed with the crop circle formation phenomenon just recently and the nav map idea that graces the home page is made from a legitimate crop circle photo here are the details about that particular picture:
==========================
Location (nearest town or landmark): Noyan, Quebec
Date First Reported or Discovered: August 24, 2004
Crop: cattle corn (9-10 feet tall)
Shape: circle
Size: 27 metres (89 feet) diameter
On-site investigation: CCCRN Quebec (Denyse Aita), BLT Research Team (Nancy Talbott)
Found August 24 by farmer. Later reported September 11 in Le Canada Francais newspaper. Offset centre. Plants flattened radially outward from centre to outside edge, never seen before in a corn formation. Cavities / splits in some stalk nodes. Additional photos and diagrams coming soon.

-----------
Here are the actual picture credits for the photo I used to construct the image map: Aerial view - October 15.© Denyse Aita, CCCRN Quebec
===============
Ah, I feel so much better publishing the picture credit.
Here is a blurb about CCCRN:

(visit the site for a whole bunch of really neato pictures taken of and around legitimate crop circle formations)

===============
"The Canadian Crop Circle Research Network (CCCRN) was started in 1995 (initially as Circles Phenomenon Research Canada, an affiliate of Circles Phenomenon Research International in the USA, before the later closure of the CPRI offices, and then refounded in 2001 as CCCRN), as an effort to investigate and document the crop circle phenomenon in Canada. Up to that point, there was no organized means of doing this, other than a handful of very few independent researchers. As the phenomenon was now being reported virtually across the whole country (since 1990), although concentrated in the prairies, it became clear that a more organized approach was necessary, including having field researchers spread out geographically to cover as many reports as possible, as quickly as possible. The situation was different than in England, the long-standing centre of activity, where by far most formations are found within an eighty kilometre (fifty mile) or so radius of the Stonehenge / Avebury region. In Canada however, and in the United States, they have been found literally from one side of the continent to the other, although again, most have been in the prairie provinces. Thus, CCCRN was born."
=========

So, there you go.

And here is a link to another really interesting site devoted to crop circle formations and the investigation of them. Go eahead, click on over there, I would not steer you wrong.

=======

I gotta go pee. See you later.