Robert Boylan
February 7, 1998
6:28 p.m.
 I meant to finish working up a short story plotline for Mike Resnick today. And I meant to do a critique or two for some e-mail friends. And I meant to maybe catch up on my reading (which I again find myself behind on). What I didn't plan on doing was working on this site for much of the day. But I'll not beat myself up over it. Instead, I'll blame it on Robert Boylan. I've never met Robert. But it turns out that he's read these pages for the past sevveral months. Thanks, Robert! He noticed a few problems with my journal recently, and bless his soul, took it upon himself to develop some code that would solve them. I received them in my e-mail, unzipped everything, and immediately realized his method was quite elegant. It removed a little javascript, and made the interface less complex. Beyond that, it was just flat out -- c o o l -- . Oh, yes, I've made a few changes to the concept here and there--colors, spacing, fonts, going to quarters rather than years, etc. The end result, however, is the page you see before you now. And, yes, it took me awhile to convert the whole diary into this format. But I think it was worth it. Thank you very much, Robert. Vita, I think the work I've done today should resolve your problems, too. Please e-mail me again if they still "persist". :) I have to say, that I'm shocked someone would spend their hard-earned time working to improve my page. It makes me feel a sense of peace, or maybe it's better described as a tiny inkling of the "sense of wonder" SF writers are always looking for. Yes, I think Robert will use this idea someplace else. But he started working on it to fix my page. And he sent me the changes. I know he didn't have to do that. And it's that knowledge that makes his effort so meaningful. Yes, it's a tiny thing overall, and I know I'm running the risk of blowing things out of proportion. But if the media can over-report every dark stain on the worldscape, I hope I can be forgiven this mild excess. When people do something like Robert just did, something honest and open, something given with nno strings attached, it makes me confident that we as a human race cannot help but succeed. Oh yeah, this afternoon I did get to the library to pick up a few reference books on organized crime (for the short I mentioned previously). So, progress has been made ...  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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