Alaskan Artist - Elise Tomlinson
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08/17/2004: "Redesign"


I've finally decided to redesign my own site, use style sheets and server-side includes and clean up the code so I don't have to be embarassed about it anymore. So far I'm sill trying to find a combo I like on the site home page so it will be changing a lot over the next week. I don't like the yellow and green combo up there now but don't have time to work on it for awhile.

I haven't been posting much the last couple of days because the weather has been so nice I've been out sailing and working on boat. A guy I met who has his sailboat on the same float as me powerwashed Rozinante for me on Sunday morning and then I stained all the teak trim later in the afternoon. She looks excellent right now.

This week is faculty convocation at work. It's the one time of the year that all the faculty get together, even from the branch campuses, and there is the equivalent of a big pep ralley. Actually it has been pretty good so far. Our university system is doing great, enrollment is up, we're getting lots of funding from our legislature, we have new programs and faculty coming on board...since I started at the University of Alaska 5 years ago things seem to just keep getting better and better. I also got to see a friend who's teaching English comp by distance (from Vancouver) and we went out for lunch to get caught up. She and her husband are living on their 36" sailboat Iona. Today I have to talk in front of the full assembly about my experiences doing the "Cultural Infusion" project where I went to an Alaskan Native village for fish camp and participated in a bunch of other events relating to the Tlingit culture. I'm a little nervous and now my throat is so sore I can barely swallow.

I'm still waiting to get the rest of my paintings back from the printer. Now, the guy who does the color correction is not working because there was a big fire in downtown Juneau on Sunday and his other printing business got damaged. I remember this time that I was supposed to go out on a date with a guy on Superbowl Sunday and I had gotten all ready and then he didn't come over to pick me up and he didn't call. I was so pissed off because I thought I'd been stood up that I called his machine and left a nasty message on it. The next day I was teaching a library research session and pulled up the local paper to see there had been a big fire in downtown Juneau and an entire apartment complex had burned down. Every fire crew in town had been called in early that morning and they'd fought the fire into the night. Can anyone guess what the guy I was seeing did for a living?

Man, I was humiliated. Let's just say there are reasons why I don't date anymore.


Replies: 4 Comments

on Tuesday, August 17th, elderberrystudio2000NOJUNKMAIL@yahoo.com">Jackie said

E: I was wondering where you had got to! I read in the Anchorage Daily News about the fire in downtown Juneau - how awful! Does the printer who is scanning your work still have the paintings, or did he at least get the scans done? I'd feel fortunate that it wasn't the business where my work was being printed, and the printer didn't have my original works...
During the earthquake here in SEattle a few years back, all of the galleries who sell glass had tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage done to glass work. Many pieces were beyond repair - and get this: most of the galleries didn't have the pieces fixed in place in any way!! No museum putty, nothing. Whew - scary medium.
I'm heading for Kodiak Thursday a.m. - have fun sailing!

on Tuesday, August 17th, support@elisetomlinson.com">Elise said

Wow, that's terrible that they didn't use anything to secure the pieces, particularly since Seattle is on a fault line!

I hope they had good insurance.

And the place that got damaged by the fire was not the place where my paintings were at so I am thankful for that. They have been scanned, it's the color correction that is not finished yet. I'm afraid if they aren't finished soon I'll just have to take them back unfinished so I can deliver them to those still waiting.

Have fun in Kodiak! I bet the weather is nice there. We've had record high temps so far in July and August both. Today is another sunny day except for all the smoke from the various forest fires. I'm not sure if you'll be affected by that in Kodiak or not.

on Wednesday, August 18th, Anna L. Conti said

Elise,
If you're redesigning the site, I'd like to put in a request for less contrast in the text vs background of the blog here. Your posts are on my "daily reads" list, but the white on black makes ghost images in the next several pages I visit. You can make the text grey and it'll still be easy to read, but won't cause the ghosts. Or, if you're changing both text and background, keep the contrast thing in mind. Thanks,
Anna

on Wednesday, August 18th, support@elisetomlinson.com">Elise said

Hi Anna,
Thanks so much for the feedback. I read your site everyday too!

When I started this site I like the way the art looked against a black background and when I installed the blog software I wanted it to look consistent. I agree it's not ideal. I'll try to change it to plain old black text on a white background. Hopefully that will be much better.