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2010: The Year in Web Standards
WHAT A YEAR 2010 has been. It was the year HTML5 and CSS3 broke wide; the year the iPad, iPhone, and Android led designers down the contradictory paths of proprietary application design and standards-based mobile web application design—in both cases focused on user needs, simplicity, and new ways of interacting thanks to small screens and touch-sensitive surfaces.
It was the third year in a row that everyone was talking about content strategy and designers refused to "just comp something up" without first conducting research and developing a user experience strategy.
Even outside the newest, best browsers, things were better than ever. Modernizr and eCSStender brought advanced selectors and @font-face to archaic browsers (not to mention HTML5 and SVG, in the case of Modernizr). Tim Murtaugh and Mike Pick's HTML5 Reset and Paul Irish's HTML5 Boilerplate gave us clean starting points for HTML5- and CSS3-powered sites.
Web fonts were everywhere—from the W3C to small personal and large commercial websites—thanks to pioneering syntax constructions by Paul Irish and Richard Fink, fine open-source products like the Font Squirrel @Font-Face Generator,
open-source liberal font licensing like FontSpring's, and terrific service platforms led by Typekit and including Fontdeck, Webtype, Typotheque, and Kernest.
Print continued its move to networked screens. iPhone found a worthy adversary in Android. Webkit was ubiquitous.
Insights into the new spirit of web design, from a wide variety of extremely smart people, can be seen and heard on The Big Web Show, which Dan Benjamin and I started this year (and which won Video Podcast of the Year in the 2010 .net Awards), on Dan's other shows on the 5by5 network, on the Workers of the Web podcast by Alan Houser and Eric Anderson, and of course in A List Apart for people who make websites.
Zeldman.com: The Year in Review
A few things I wrote here at zeldman.com this year (some related to web standards and design, some not) may be worth reviewing:
- iPad as the New Flash 17 October 2010
- Masturbatory novelty is not a business strategy.
- Flash, iPad, and Standards 1 February 2010
- Lack of Flash in the iPad (and before that, in the iPhone) is a win for accessible, standards-based design. Not because Flash is bad, but because the increasing popularity of devices that don't support Flash is going to force recalcitrant web developers to build the semantic HTML layer first.
- An InDesign for HTML and CSS? 5 July 2010
- while our current tools can certainly stand improvement, no company will ever create "the modern day equivalent of Illustrator and PageMaker for CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript." The assumption that a such thing is possible suggests a lack of understanding.
- Stop Chasing Followers 21 April 2010
- The web is not a game of "eyeballs." Never has been, never will be. Influence matters, numbers don't.
- Crowdsourcing Dickens 23 March 2010
- Like it says.
- My Love/Hate Affair with Typekit 22 March 2010
- Like it says.
- You Cannot Copyright A Tweet 25 February 2010
- Like it says.
- Free Advice: Show Up Early 5 February 2010
- Love means never having to say you're sorry, but client services means apologizing every five minutes. Give yourself one less thing to be sorry for. Take some free advice. Show up often, and show up early.
Outside Reading
A few things I wrote elsewhere might repay your interest as well:
- The Future of Web Standards 26 September, for .net Magazine
- Cheap, complex devices such as the iPhone and the Droid have come along at precisely the moment when HTML5, CSS3 and web fonts are ready for action; when standards-based web development is no longer relegated to the fringe; and when web designers, no longer content to merely decorate screens, are crafting provocative, multi-platform experiences. Is this the dawn of a new web?
- Style vs. Design written in 1999 and slightly revised in 2005, for Adobe
- When Style is a fetish, sites confuse visitors, hurting users and the companies that paid for the sites. When designers don't start by asking who will use the site, and what they will use it for, we get meaningless eye candy that gives beauty a bad name.
Happy New Year, all!
My other iPad is a Kindle
The new Kindle has a lot going for it. It's inexpensive compared to a full-featured tablet computer like the iPad; you can slip it in your back pocket, where it's more comfortable than an old-style paperback; and it includes a Webkit browser. This last point is where folks like us start to give a hoot, whether we're fans of epub reading or not.
The flavor of Kindle's browser concerns us because it affords us the ability to optimize the mobile viewing experience with a single line of markup. You can see this in action in the photo at the head of this article (published and discussed on Flickr).
I made no tweaks for Kindle per se; the Kindle is simply responding to a line of markup I've been putting into my web pages since 2007—namely, the viewport meta element, which controls the width of the viewport, thus enabling mobile devices with a limited number of pixels to focus all available pixels on your site's core content (instead of, for instance, wasting part of the small screen on a background color, image, or gradient). The technique is as simple as web design gets:
meta name="viewport" content="width=770"
(Obviously, the value of "width" should be adjusted to match your site's layout.)
I learned this little trick from Craig Hockenberry's Put Your Content in My Pocket (A List Apart, August 28, 2007), which I naturally recommend to any designer who hasn't seen it.
I guest-edit .net magazine
A List Apart and .net magazine have long admired each other. So when .net editor Dan Oliver did me the great honor of asking if I wished to guest edit an issue, I saluted smartly. The result is now arriving in subscriber post boxes and will soon flood Her Majesty's newsstands.
In .net magazine Issue No. 206, on sale 17th August in UK (and next month in the US, where it goes by the name "Practical Web Design"), we examine how new standards like CSS3 and HTML5, new devices like iPhone and Droid, and maturing UX disciplines like content strategy are converging to create new opportunities for web designers and the web users we serve:
- Exult as Luke Wroblewski shows how the explosive growth of mobile lets us stop bowing to committees and refocus on features customers need.
- Marvel as Ethan Marcotte explains how fluid grids, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries help us create precise yet context-sensitive layouts that change to fit the device and screen on which they're viewed.
- Delight as Kristina Halvorson tells how to achieve better design through coherent content wrangling.
- Thrill as Andy Hume shows how to sell wary clients on cutting-edge design methods never before possible.
- Geek out as Tim Van Damme shows how progressive enhancement and CSS3 make for sexy experiences in today's most capable browsers—and damned fine experiences in those that are less web-standards-savvy.
You can also read my article, which asks the musical question:
Cheap, complex devices such as the iPhone and the Droid have come along at precisely the moment when HTML5, CSS3 and web fonts are ready for action; when standards-based web development is no longer relegated to the fringe; and when web designers, no longer content to merely decorate screens, are crafting provocative, multi-platform experiences. Is this the dawn of a newer, more mature, more ubiquitous web?
Today's web is about interacting with your users wherever they are, whenever they have a minute to spare. New code and new ideas for a new time are what the new issue of .net magazine captures. There has never been a better time to create websites. Enjoy!
Photo by Daniel Byrne for .net magazine. All rights reserved.
Opera loves my web font
And so do my iPhone and your iPad. All it took was a bit o' the old Richard Fink syntax and a quick drive through the Font Squirrel @Font-Face Kit Generator (featuring Base 64 encoding and SVG generation) to bring the joy and wonder of fast, optimized, semi-bulletproof web fonts to Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, iPhone, and Apple's latest religious device.
Haven't checked IE7, IE8, IE9, or iPad yet; photos welcome. (Post on Flickr and link here.)
What I learned:
☛ Even if manufacturer supplies "web font" versions with web license purchase, it's better to roll your own web font files as long as this doesn't violate the license.
Love Me Long Time
Those who say web users don't spend time reading web pages haven't met readers like you folks. According to Google Analytics, zeldman.com fans spent five minutes, fifty-five seconds reading the relatively short post, "My Love/Hate Affair With Typekit." If Jakob Nielsen is right, and readers take in no more than 20% of the words on a page, y'all took a hella long time to read 190 words.
But generalized findings like Jakob's are merely one data point in a universe of possibilities. Every site is a special snowflake, with stats and usage patterns all its own. Faced with an unfamiliar shopping site, we may indeed give it little more than a cursory scan before closing the window and returning to Google to fine-tune the search that led us there. But when we visit a familiar site to read, then read we do—as anyone with a good blog and a decent set of analytics tools can tell you.
Here are a few recent average times readers spent poring over various zeldman.com posts:
|Post Title
|Average Time Spent
|My Love/Hate Affair With Typekit
|Crowdsourcing Dickens
|20 Signs You Don't Want That Web Design Project
|Ed Bott's Lament
|Gowalla My Dreams
|IE9 Preview
Morals of the story:
- Don't use Peter's stats to paint Paul.
- If you want people to spend time reading your site, give them better content.
Past Blast
Among the pleasures of running an independent personal site is the accidental discovery of an ancient page, such as the version of this site's contact page from the 1990s that I stumbled onto this morning.
"We've got mail!" the old site cheerfully announces, complete with a meaningless header image. The image, like the header and navigation typography, is pixellated to convey "webbiness"—in case you forgot that you were looking at a website in a browser, I guess. "Got mail" is a play on America On-line (kids, ask your parents). "We" is the royal first person plural with which I used to write this site, despite being its sole author. I'd gotten into the habit of "we" from writing copy on entertainment sites for clients like Warner Bros. It made their sites, and mine, seem bigger. It was also an ongoing, self-deprecating joke, although not everyone got it.
As I look at this old page, the copy still feels like me, and it also, if I may say so, anticipates the playful directional body copy of Web 2.0 sites like Flickr by about a decade. (Could be coincidence. Derek Powazek and Heather Champ also wrote jovial instructional copy at the time. Others may have done so as well.)
I'm a lot more ashamed of the design. I'm particularly abashed at:
- My abysmally stupid effort to straddle the "liquid layout" and "fixed width layout" genres by designing a page that doesn't work as liquid or fixed. Possibly the only web design ever to put peanut butter and bicycle chains together and call it a sandwich. It should have stayed fixed, and the text and input fields should have matched the width of the illustration and header.
- Alignment, alignment, alignment.
- Tiny type with seemingly random hierarchy. In my defense, remember that in those days all type was pixellated. I picked 11px Georgia and 9px Verdana because those sizes looked great in that pixellated world. Still. Feh.
If your old work doesn't shame you, you're not growing.
It's nice to look back and feel that you've made progress. When you look at old work, it should suck glaringly and you should cringe painfully. But there should also be some germ within it that you're not ashamed of—some spark of talent or inspiration that connects to what you do now.
Firefox test page
Firefox gurus, a page demonstrating the Firefox long content bug has been created for your browser fixing pleasure. Kindly visit the test page using Firefox 3.0 and Firefox 3.5 for Windows (and possibly also for Linux). The following defects should be evident:
- At least half the comments should be cut off by the browser.
- The footer should be cut off by the browser.
- The form enabling you to add comments may also be cut off by the browser (or it may be incomplete, or the labels for such things as your name and email address may appear in the wrong location).
View the same page in Safari 3+, Opera 9+, or IE7/8, and compare. In the other browsers, all comments are displayed, the footer is displayed, and the content form is viewable and displays correctly. How often does Firefox compare unfavorably with some of these browsers? Hardly ever. Which is precisely why you want to fix it. (That, and you'd like your users to be able to view all the content on a page, not just some of the content.)
The test page is identical to this 2 July post, with comments frozen as of 9 July 2009, and with the site's original CSS, which revealed the long content bug in Firefox.
A subsequent 8 July post documents the steps I and two other developers took in order to isolate this bug in Firefox, and the CSS workarounds (suggested by two of the site's readers) which have since been put in place to cover up for this defect in Firefox. The thread also explains what we changed in the CSS to enable Firefox users to read long content on the site.
The CSS cover-up enables Firefox users to read all the content on long pages, but at a cost: there is a flash of red background during slow load times. And, obviously, it's better to fix Firefox than to create somewhat flawed CSS workarounds that slightly diminish the experience for all users of the site.
Thanks for your help! Let me and this site's readers know how we can assist you. And remember, please use the test page (not this page or any other page of the site) to isolate the bug in Firefox.
Read more
- HTML 5: Nav Ambiguity Resolved. An e-mail from Chairman Hickson resolves an ambiguity in the nav element of HTML 5. What does that mean in English? Glad you asked! — 13 July 2009
- Web Standards Secret Sauce: Even though Firefox and Opera offered powerfully compelling visions of what could be accomplished with web standards back when IE6 offered a poor experience, Firefox and Opera, not unlike Linux and Mac OS, were platforms for the converted. Thanks largely to the success of the iPhone, Webkit, in the form of Safari, has been a surprising force for good on the web, raising people's expectations about what a web browser can and should do, and what a web page should look like. — 12 July 2009
- In Defense of Web Developers: Pushing back against the "XHTML is bullshit, man!" crowd's using the cessation of XHTML 2.0 activity to condescend to—or even childishly glory in the "folly" of—web developers who build with XHTML 1.0, a stable W3C recommendation for nearly ten years, and one that will continue to work indefinitely. — 7 July 2009
- XHTML DOA WTF: The web's future isn't what the web's past cracked it up to be. — 2 July 2009
[tags]firefox, browser, bug, firefox3, firefox3.5, windows, linux, bugs, buggery, debugging, demo, testpage, mozilla[/tags]
Firefox forces orange background flash
There's good news and bad news. The good news is that Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 for Windows no longer cut long pages of this site in half, hiding 50% or more of the pages' content, including the footer, because of a newly discovered bug in Firefox (discovered by this site's layout).
The bad news is that the price of the "fix" is an annoying flash of reddish-orange background. When you first load a page in any browser, rather than the main content's off-white background area, you instead see the text against a reddish-orange background, obscuring words (including the drop cap), disrupting user experience, and raising doubts about the professionalism of the site and thus of the opinions it expresses.
With the annoying flash of colored background, everyone who reads this site suffers. But without it, Firefox 3/3.5 cuts long pages in half. Until Firefox fixes the bug, all readers of this site will experience what I'll label "the Flash of wrongly styled background color." (Note: although the browser is still broken, the color flash has since been "fixed." Impatient ones, skip ahead to the 9 July update. Narrative fans, keep reading.)
Here's the story.
Validators were no help
My 2 July post, XHTML DOA WTF, has thus far received 194 comments. Firefox users told me the thread "died" after comment #44049 in Firefox 3 and 3.5 for Windows. The problem also later surfaced on In Defense of Web Developers, written yesterday morning just prior to my surgery. Let's stick with the 2 July post, though, which is where we did our Q&A.
W3C and WDG validation services both indicated that there was an error on the page, but neither validator could explain it.
- The W3C showed a long list of unclosed elements (which in fact were closed), a typical W3C validation error when that validator misidentifies the actual problem. The W3C validator has made this mistake since at least 2001. Whenever I complain to the W3C, I'm told they need volunteers to help them fix the validator. So I more often rely on the WDG validation service.
- The WDG validator (usefully and apparently correctly) indicated that a single illegal UTF character in a comment it could not show me was causing the dilemma. This validator gave me a line number, but no code output—making the line number useless, and forcing me to go into my database and examine each of 194 comments visually for unsupported character problems.
In search of a single UTF-16 character
I next spent two hours of an insanely busy pre-surgery day unsuccessfully attempting to manually track down UTF errors in comments that no validation service was able to pointpoint. I had to apologize to colleagues and clients to whom I owed work, since the quest to make my personal site legible and usable to Firefox users took precedence over paying work in my sad little mind. (Call it a mark of the high esteem in which I hold Firefox; also call it a concern for readers.)
Automattic's designer/developer (and my friend) Noel Jackson then took over for me and was eventually able to locate a single UTF error in a Japanese pingback. Or so it seemed.
WordPress, the power behind this site, is supposed to convert illegal UTF-16 to legal UTF-8, and we thought it had done so. Nevertheless, the only validation service to have claimed anything semi-coherent said otherwise. To solve the problem required brute force: we deleted the entire Japanese comment. To the clients and colleagues to whom I owed work I was unable to finish while tracking down a Firefox bug, I now also owed an apology to a Japanese blogger. Personally, I blamed Firefox for ludicrously Draconian error handling, but at least I thought we had "solved" the needless problem raised by such behavior.
Drudge work for nothing
I owe Firefox an apology. Draconian error handling of impossible-to-trace possible UTF errors was not the cause of its failure to display pages correctly. Inability to parse valid CSS on long pages was the actual cause.
Although my page now validated, Firefox still cut it off at the waist. Thanks to this bug, users of Firefox—many of whom care greatly about web standards (it's one reason so many developers choose Firefox)—were unable to read more than half the comments about XHTML 2 and HTML 5 from their fellow standardistas. They were also unable to post comments or view the footer (thus making them unable to view other content on this site, as well as third-party site highlighted in the footer). This was a win for nobody, except maybe Microsoft, Opera, and Safari. And, like I said, we like Firefox and people who use it. Back to the drawing board.
Seek and ye shall not find
Nikolay Bachiyski, a lead developer at Automattic, then conducted a series of tests:
- He established that only Firefox 3.0/3.5 (and only in Windows) cut the valid web page's content in half.
- He verified that the page's content was valid (UTF-8) as was its markup.
- The DOM loaded properly.
- There wasn't an (X)HTML parsing problem.
- Disabling JavaScript made no difference.
- Disabling CSS enabled all the page's content to display in Firefox; turning CSS back on cut the page in half again. Clearly, the issue was with CSS.
- Nikolay then disabled the lines of Mozilla- and Webkit- oriented CSS3 that generate "warnings" or "errors" in the W3C validation service. But even with those lines disabled and the CSS completely valid, the page's content failed to display completely in Firefox. The bottom of the page was still cut off.
A CSS "fix" with a drawback
Valid CSS was somehow to "blame" for Firefox's inability to show a long page without hiding half the content.
You may ask why I didn't discover this problem during the building and testing of my site's redesign. You might even ask why my readers didn't discover it (since I beta tested the redesign at several stages). The answer is simple. I never tested a dummy blog post with nearly 200 comments. It didn't occur to me that more than 40 comments would be necessary to test whether valid CSS and XHTML would work in good modern browsers, let alone in one as excellent as Firefox.
Michel Bozgounov and Kyle Weems then proposed a simple CSS fix:
div#wrapper {overflow: visible;}
My friend Noel implemented the CSS fix while I was unconscious and having stuff cut out of me.
It works, and I thank all these gentlemen. But it has the unfortunately side-effect of inflicting a flash of reddish-orange background on the page until most or all content has loaded. (I had previously spent over two weeks eliminating that flash of background.) And it does this in all browsers (or nearly all), not just Firefox. To force Firefox to display all content on a page, I have to force every other browser to flash red before it shows content.
Obviously, it's vital that Firefox users be enabled to read and comment on long or popular posts. But there must be a better way than deforming the CSS. And there is a better way: namely, a Firefox bug fix.
Our friends at WordPress have contacted our friends at Mozilla, so we are hopeful that this will be fast-tracked. Mozilla friends, call on me to help at any time.
9 July Update: 99% solution
With the addition of 1000px of min-height to #wrapper, the reddish-orange flash has been eliminated, at least in pages that load quickly. (On long pages, or with slow connections, the reddish-orange background remains painfully visible until the page finishes loading.) Read more about this CSS adjustment. Note that adding CSS workarounds is not the same thing as fixing browser bugs. (Indeed, CSS workarounds may retard browser development by removing the problem so it never gets fixed.)
A Firefox Test Page
As I am not entirely satisfied with this CSS workaround (despite my gratitude to its authors) and as I do not want Mozilla's engineering wizards to be unable to fix Firefox because of changes to my CSS, I have posted a Firefox test page using the site's original (perfectly fine, background-flash-less) CSS, and a page explaining the Firefox test page.—JZ
Read more
- HTML 5: Nav Ambiguity Resolved. An e-mail from Chairman Hickson resolves an ambiguity in the nav element of HTML 5. What does that mean in English? Glad you asked! — 13 July 2009
- Web Standards Secret Sauce: Even though Firefox and Opera offered powerfully compelling visions of what could be accomplished with web standards back when IE6 offered a poor experience, Firefox and Opera, not unlike Linux and Mac OS, were platforms for the converted. Thanks largely to the success of the iPhone, Webkit, in the form of Safari, has been a surprising force for good on the web, raising people's expectations about what a web browser can and should do, and what a web page should look like. — 12 July 2009
- In Defense of Web Developers: Pushing back against the "XHTML is bullshit, man!" crowd's using the cessation of XHTML 2.0 activity to condescend to—or even childishly glory in the "folly" of—web developers who build with XHTML 1.0, a stable W3C recommendation for nearly ten years, and one that will continue to work indefinitely. — 7 July 2009
- XHTML DOA WTF: The web's future isn't what the web's past cracked it up to be. — 2 July 2009
[tags]browser, bugs, Firefox3, Firefox3.5, Firefox/Windows, browsers, firefoxbugs[/tags]
The zeldman.com redesign is up. You're soaking in it. It's old school. It's brand heritage, baby. It's retro 90s web. It's so retro it's nowtro. Because old is the new new.
Mainly, the redesign is content focused. After so many years as a web designer, and after creative directing so many influential projects, I naturally considered doing a wide, three-column, ultra-modern design—something cool, detached, polished, and glowing with rich media and fancy-pants sliding-drawer JavaScript effects. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. In the right circumstances, those things can rock hard. But this site is mainly about my writing. So I crafted a simple look that encourages reading and hearkens back to this site's early years.
Read more about it here, here, there, and elsewhere. (Don't freak out; these old posts are now in the new layout, adding a layer of surrealism to the experience, since you're looking at a blog post in the finished new look that links to and talks about cruddy early versions of that same look.)
If orange hurts you, there's a style switcher in the footer that will remember your preference for an off-white background. You're welcome.
WordPress implementation by Noel Jackson.
Rotation script by Mark Huot.
Thanks, fellas! And thanks to all readers who critiqued the public beta.
[tags]zeldman, zeldman.com, redesign, redesigns, webdesign, design[/tags]


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The past few days I have been finding dimes everywhere. Today when I found one on my seat as I began my time in the secret place, I began to ask about the symbolism God was speaking for an upcoming season.
Olive Branch
This will be a time of peace that passes understanding. That current conflict is going to come to an end. Olive branches also Biblically symbolized the end of flood. "When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth." Genesis 8:11 NIV
New start. New life. God may be "flooding" your world right now, but wait it out because as we step out of the boat by faith in this next season it will be a new start - a whole new world.
Romans 11:24 "After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!"
You may feel like you're in a season that is "contrary to nature". Maybe what you're experiencing or hearing spiritually is not lining up with earth. If this is you, God is going to be grafting you into a more natural place. There will be a shift in which you fee you are "back into your own."
"If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root." Romans 11:17 NIV
Get Ready for Nourishment
To share in nourishment, to be grafted into a place in which, roots have been spread for you by the Lord. While there may be a wait for this time, this shift will occur instantaneously; again, like Noah, that transition into a new start.
Olive oil also historically was used in anointing kings. This will be a season of anointing and God lifting up the humble and obedient into places of greater stewardship and leadership.
Gethsemane means "olive press." You may be feeling pressed or squeezed. Like you are under intense spiritual pressure. This pressure will squeeze out pure oil and prepare you for the place you are stepping into. Withstand the pressure and do what Jesus did in His olive press...PRAY!
Torches appear several places Biblically, but most often in Judges and Matthew 25.
"Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside." Judges 7:16 NIV
God actually stacked the natural odds against Gideon. Not to make it harder but to PROVE what was happening was not by his own strength. It may not look like you have the power, but you will have the victory. Don't get discouraged.
Samson and the Foxes
"Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, 'I'm going to my wife's room.' But her father would not let him go in. 'I was so sure you hated her,' he said, 'that I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.' Samson said to them, 'This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.' So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves." Judges 15:1-5 NIV
Samson's burning fox tails reminds me of God's loving jealousy for His church bride - the same urging us to catch foxes: "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom." Song of Songs 2:15 NIV
Anything that is growing where God needs to produce will be gathered up so that the harvest can be bountiful and pure. Any sneaky moves (foxes can be sneaky) of the enemy are going to be burned out by the purifying fire of God.
Matthew 25 - The parable of the TEN virgins (ten like a dime). In this next season God is urging us to receive the oil of our anointing, keep our torches trimmed and ready, and BE ALERT AND READY for we know not when God's timing will be.
Oak Branch
The oak was a guiding post on Abraham's process in taking the Promised land. "Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land." Genesis 12:6 NIV.
The Canaanites may still be in your land, but you are on your way to what is promised. This season is, like the oak in scripture, a place to praise God and remember God's words (Genesis 13:18, Joshua 24:26).
The oak was also a site of VISITATION (Genesis 18:1, Judges 6:11). Prepare for increasing visitations of the Lord sending messages or dreams.
Finally, the oak is a site of kings being crowned (AGAIN we see this!) Judges 9:6.
A dime is ten cents or a tenth of a dollar. The Lord says, "You have tasted a tenth of what is coming". Willingly sacrifice first fruits to the Lord, and the reward will be tenfold. So hold on through the process, the purification, the pressing because the result will be great!!
Sara Whitten

subset: commoncrawl


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from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A liquor distilled from grapes (a brandy) made in wine-producing regions of Peru and Chile. It is the most widely consumed spirit in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
An amusing coicindence except for the fact that pisco is an alcoholic beverage.
The cuisine's key ingredients like aji amarillo, a yellow chili are now found at farmers' markets frequented by chefs, and sales of pisco, Peru's fiery grape brandy, have doubled in the last five years.
As the sun vanished and a full moon rose over the lake – the twin symbols of Inca religion – we toasted the Yavari with pisco sours, Peru's national cocktail.
It's easiest to slip in with the Hotel California, an apricot-infused gin, pisco, lime and pineapple juice pleaser.
Nothing like empanadas de horno on a cool Puerto Montt early afternoon (maybe accompanied by a couple of pisco sours …) thanks for the recipe.
Aqua Expeditions Between excursions, guests on the Aqua sip pisco sours in the glass-enclosed lounge while downloading photos and swapping travel tales, Mr. McCarthy writes.
Pink dolphins and pisco sours come together on a wild stretch of the Amazon .
Or you could hang out in the bar, where engaging young sommelier José Bracamonte offers pisco tastings and advice on Peru's excellent but little-known wines.
A band plays meringue and salsa, people drink beer and pisco sours, eat and dance -- a good time for old and young alike.
Paul Stoller: Celebrating The Old And New Year In The Valley Of Longevity
The balanced mai tai dispels that cocktail's image as cloying and classless; its pisco sour, frothy with egg whites and bright with fresh lime, is an $11 pit stop in Peru.
Tom Sietsema on the Atlas Room: Two-chef restaurant lives up to name
Thanks, yarb. Looking forward to the report.
The Chileans I'm working with think that Chile won the right to most things in the war of the Pacific, but even they admit (to me) that Pisco is probably more Peruvian than Chilean.
I'm quite partial to grappa late at night or after a big dinner.
I neither drink nor live in Chile any longer, but I used to do both, and a good pisco sour is delightful. Straight pisco I'm not so fond of--it tastes like grappa.
I always thought Chile won the right claim pisco as its own when it kicked the asses of both Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific.
I have so far only drunk pisco in pisco sours (piscos sour?). I plan to rectify this very soon though by consuming it neat and will let you know, rt.
Yes, the potent pisco sour, known to make individuals forget their marital status, or name, or how to breathe..depending on how many one drinks. Doesn't take many so be careful!
Ooh. What's it like?
A spirit distilled from grapes, claimed by both Peru and Chile as the national drink, and the subject of bitter dispute between the two countries.
Basis of the superb pisco sour cocktail.


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New 1room CENTER apt, Klovska metro
New 1room CENTER apt, Klovska metro
O Espaço
I would like to suggest to you 1 room apartment in historical centre of Kiev. It's not big apartment (32 square meter) but fresh renovated,
all is new there , you can see this on photos.
There is big wardrobe with glass doors, double bed with good orthopaedic mattress, cable TV with more then 100 channels (eng, germ, fr, it, etc), Wi-Fi internet, comfortable arm-chair and coffee table
There is big balcony (closed by glass)
The kitchen is fully equipped, there is big refrigerator, gas stove, electric kettle, all necessary dishes, microwave, tea and sugar for you.
The bathroom is not tiny, here is big (1.70m) standard new bath, sink with big mirror, toilet and washing machine. All is new, of course , and very very clean.
Minimum stay for the period of Christmass, New Year, May holidays is 5 days (nights). If you'd like to rent a week or more - you will get discount!
Estacionamento gratuito nas instalações
Indisponível: Detetor de Fumo
Indisponível: Detetor de Monóxido de Carbono


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Okay this is a quick post to just say THIS IS CRAZY, I logged onto my blog this morning to find I now have 141 of you lovely people following me, like what?! I started my blog to simply write about the things I love, as a hobby and to offer advice to those who want it. I honestly have no idea why all you amazing people want to follow me but just know I appreciate and love you all very much!!!
Friday, 7 August 2015
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DACULA — From the time this core group of Winder-Barrow girls basketball players began their run of success two years ago, they've considered themselves a tournament team.
That was never more apparent Saturday night as the Lady Bulldoggs jumped out to a gigantic lead early and cruised to a 59-38 win over Lanier in the GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA tournament championship game at Dacula High School.
The second-ranked Lady Bulldoggs (22-4) won a second consecutive region title for the first time in program history. And unlike last year, when they weren't at full strength and had to rally past Gainesville in the fourth quarter of the title game, they didn't have to sweat this one out at all.
Winder-Barrow scored the first eight points of the night — on the strength of 3-pointers from Chellia Watson and Latrice Perkins to kick the game off — and later went on a 20-0 run to grab a 34-6 lead midway through the second quarter en route to a 36-13 halftime cushion.
"This is what they live for," Winder-Barrow coach Kimberly Garren said after the win. "They were ready and they were on fire. It was a business trip for them, and now they can check this goal off their list."
Watson, a standout junior guard, was the main culprit in the 20-0 run, getting behind the Lanier defense on several steals for easy lay-ups in transition. She finished with a game-high 21 points. Senior post player and Connecticut signee Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 12, while Latrice Perkins scored 8 points and Jakayla Sullivan chipped in 7.
Sixth-ranked Lanier (21-6) was never really in it and only got as close as 15 points on a couple of occasions in the second half. It was Winder-Barrow's second victory in three tries against the Lady Longhorns this season.
For a second night in a row, following a 55-27 win over Gainesville in the semifinals Friday, a big lead early allowed Garren to go to her bench for a large chunk of the game and rest her starters.
"We had a huge bench the last two games both on the floor and cheering for the starters," Garren said. "That's important as we go into this state playoff run. Our second group is very coachable. They run the system well and they do everything we ask of them."
After the game, Garren was named the region Coach of the Year. Nelson-Ododa was named Player of the Year, while Perkins, Watson and Sullivan all made the all-region team.
With its region title and No. 1 seed in the state playoffs, the Lady Doggs are guaranteed homefield advantage in at least the first two rounds. They'll host Johns Creek (17-9), the No. 4 seed from Region 7, in the first round Friday.
"They're going to give us their best because everybody gives us their best," Garren said of the Lady Gladiators. "But if we play our game, we've got it."
The confidence is well-earned. The Lady Doggs are now 72-17 dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, one in which they came up one point short in the Class AAAAA title game. Last year they appeared to be on track to get back in that position, but a season-ending knee injury suffered by Nelson-Ododa late in the regular season was enough to slow them down as they fell to eventual state champion Mays in the quarterfinals.
This year, they're healthy — and determined to reach the mountain top.
"And they're gelling together, which helps," Garren said. "Every bit of adversity we've faced has just made them stronger and made them come together. I just think they're ready.
"They believe it's their time."
And for Garren, her first year as a head coach has, so far, gone according to plan.
"I love where the program is, but what makes me even more proud is they're setting school records and they're doing it the right way," she said. "They get it done in the classroom. They're best friends on and off the court. They're just a fun and special group and I think it takes fun and special groups to accomplish things like this."
Basketball: Lady Doggs rout Lanier to claim second straight region title
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The San Diego Gopher Snake: a Photo Study
A Fast-Moving Reptile..
The San Diego Gopher Snake is a non-poisonous denizen ranging from Santa Barbara County, California, down into the Baja area of Mexico. It resembles the Great Basin Gopher Snake, but its pattern is subtly different if you look more closely. It can grow up to 4 or even 5 feet in length at full maturity. Our snake was found relaxing in the sun by Lake Silverwood, California, about ten miles below Crestline. Since it was camera-shy, I have substituted these stock images for you to enjoy. Later on, in the same general area, we encountered it again and got some very nice photos of it (May 2010).
I really like the coloration of the first one. Very cool looking.
I hate snakes! Thanks for the information. Pictures and content are useful. http://www.trapgopher.com/
Nice. :) I have a san diego gopher snake, she just reached 7 feet. Supposively the sonoran gopher snakes can reach 8 feet.
lovin the pics by the way, especially the first one :)
i have a bullsnake my self they are amazing snakes to have but u do have to handle them loads otherwise they can easily get really aggressive
For not being snake-obsessed you have a lot of snake hubs. Somehow I didn't realize there were so many types. Interesting topic and great, creepy photos!
Interesting hub, snakes are not all that common here, but we do have the odd rattler.


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Events for May 29, 2018
Events Search and Views Navigation
8:00 am
Cardio Strength
Tuesdays: 8 AM - 8:50 AM Gabrielino Park Basketball Court Thursdays: 8 AM - 8:50 AM Uhills Community Center, Community Room Come to try any class for FREE, and join in anytime to fun, friendly, multi-level fitness classes in UHills. The location is Gabrielino Park (we meet at Community Center on Thursdays). Anyone can attend (Ages 12…Find out more »
9:00 am
UHills YOGA Monday & Wednesday 5:15-6:30pm Tuesday & Friday 9:30-10:45am Multi-level yoga classes are ongoing throughout the year, though new sessions begin every six weeks. You can begin at ANY time! Current Session: May 7 - June 22 (No class: May 14-18, May 28 and June 18) Unlimited session for $85 Or, 12 classes for…Find out more »
11:00 am
Department Appreciation Lunch
Department Appreciation LunchFind out more »
6:30 pm
Yongsheng ShiFind out more »


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The Duchess (2008)
1 continuity mistake
Directed by: Saul Dibb
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when Georgiana is talking with her mother about her engagement, the curl running down the back of Georgiana's neck disappears and reappears multiple times.THGhost
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Oh hey y'all, it's been a hot minute since I wrote anything on here, life happened, (read on for more details on that) something had to give, and my blog did. I'm back though, this blog gives my heart such joy and it is my earnest hope and desire it brings joy to those who read it. I have met so many incredible mamas through this, and made so many precious friendships. Writing is also such a cathartic release for me, my creative soul has been feeling pretty suffocated lately and I am desperately trying to change things so it's not so hard anymore. I saw a quote the other day that said something about if you don't like your life then change it, and so I'm buckling my boots and getting to work on that.
Life happening the past couple months has consisted of work, being sick from work (as in CONSTANTLY SICK), a LOT of coffee and me tunneling into survival mode. Due to being sick I haven't even been able to visit my sister in law after her kidney transplant, which has really made me sad. My hubby and I had slipped into "roommates" mode, you know y'all when life is so busy and you don't tend to each other that can happen terrifyingly fast.
And then we had a false positive, I panicked, Brian was thrilled, the sweetheart, he's amazing like that, and then right when I let my hear soar with excitement I found out at the less than empathetic urgent care the test was wrong. (And by less than empathetic I mean downright heartless. After spending two hours of waiting all by myself with the twins and trying to keep my wild little monkeys from licking all the terrifying germ covered surfaces at the clinic he barged in and unceremoniously. goes "MUST HAVE BEEN A SPONTANEOUS ABORTION". It wasn't, it was a false positive. BUT REGARDLESS my heart shattered right there and I wanted to simultaneously throw up, run away and sock him with his stethoscope, HARD).
And you know when you had no idea how badly you wanted something until you thought you had it and then you didn't? Yeah. I was truly and utterly crushed. We weren't even trying, and in full honesty I haven't even been sure I wanted another one. Being a full time working mama with toddler twins and a husband in medical school is HARD. Bone. Crushing. Hard. It doesn't mean I'm not grateful, but holy wow is it hard, through no fault of my husband I am rowing that single parent boat every day because he can't be home that often and when he is he has to study, and the thought of adding another tiny one sent my panic through the roof. Until I thought another one was on the way. And then I ached for it. And I'll admit I also I saw that third baby as maybe a way to stay home more, to work less, to have the postpartum experience I missed out on having with my precious twins since I had to go back to work so soon (three weeks postpartum!). But then I also started worrying, would another baby make it where I was even less present for my babies already here? I already feel they haven't gotten enough of mommy, constantly dividing my attention makes me feel they never get enough.
And then I had started this new series of thrifted mama fashion on here and quickly disappeared and then I thought, WHY EVEN BOTHER. It's felt ridiculous to justify dressing nicely and doing my makeup when all I do is wipe poopy bums shower and repeat and frankly I didn't feel worth the effort. Add to this my general sense of failure due to the fact that I am a college graduate with a performance degree working as a non glorious nanny and this mama hasn't been feeling so victorious.
But then I had a real come to Jesus moment mamas. I remembered that as a single income household we literally can't break even paying for childcare for twins on my income alone, but even more importantly I chose to nanny so I could be with my babies that I had ached for for years. And I remembered I have a direct line to the man above, if my situation isn't working and I'm this stressed, clearly He gives a toot and wants to help. If we decide we want more children, He cares. If I want to be home more with my children, He cares. And you know what else, HE CARES about us mamas feeling beautiful inside AND out. So I'm dusting off my stay at home mommy goals, buying a few more cans of dry shampoo and renewing my thriving instead of surviving efforts (and yes that includes charging after my thrifty mama series again!) And if it means wearing my super fun outfits to Costco for groceries then SO BE IT. Who says we can't rock over the knee boots while shopping for broccoli and wearing a baby carrier?!
We are meant to thrive sweet mamas, not just survive. I'll readily admit I've been doing quite a bit of surviving lately, quite a bit of misery and tears and aching heart, and yes even some self pity, and no I don't have the whole thriving thing on perfect lockdown yet. But I'm working towards it and it's going to happen. Because Jesus does love this hot mess (and thank Jesus for that!). 😂 Who's with me mamas, let's do this!


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Class of 2026 Photo. I need to get a shirt for Lyla so I can start this with her next year. (and should I start doing it with Devin?)
Went up the Canyon for Memorial Day. Went on a hike, had a picnic in the meadow and rode the ski lifts.
Made apple pie caramel apples. I think I'll just stick with normal caramel apples (Don't get me wrong...these were really good. I guess I just like my caramel apples plain).


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Racing Talk Radio – Episode 2.40 – November 15, 2017
Racing Talk Radio – Episode 2.40 – November 15, 2017
Today on Racing Talk Radio powered by Hiwassee Chase Air Systems: Jamie Kyle, Scott Webb, and Jason Hildebrand discuss Matt Kenseth's win at Phoenix, Championship contenders, Ford Championship weekend at Miami Homestead Speedway, and this week's Power Rankings/Winners. Listen to the fastest hour in racing!
Posted on November 15, 2017, in Camping World Truck Series News and Notes, Monster Energy Cup News and Notes, NASCAR News, Podcasts, Power Rankings, Racing Talk Radio Media, Xfinity Series News and Notes and tagged Brad Keselowski, Ford Championship Weekend, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Monster Energy Series, NASCAR, NASCAR Trucks, Racing Talk Radio, Xfinity Series. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


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