Well, I finished cleaning up this blog. I made some changes to the theme, which may or may not be obvious.

I seem to “redesign” this site every month, or at least that’s what @mmagnolia22 is saying. But I find it’s a nice way for me to relax. Even though I sit at the keyboard for hours on end and will eventually swear loudly and complain about how the Internet doesn’t work the way it should. Sounds odd doesn’t it?

But for some reason it relaxes me. Sports and expensive toys are good hobbies for some people, I guess. I never really got in to cars, and if it doesn’t have anything to do with the Hoosier basketball team I don’t really care. We don’t own a house, so I don’t need to paint or replace furnace filters. So, I do this when I’m bored or inspired.

Anywho, I started revamping earlier this week, then finished up today. I actually added content to some of the pages, but that’s not the story I’m actually here to tell.

It’s valid!

I have validation now. Not for this site (there are still at least 17 warnings about my CSS, but my XHTML is fine). The station blogs are both valid XHTML and valid CSS. You may not think that’s a big deal, or care at all, but I’m proud of that fact. Especially considering I wasn’t out to have valid code when I redesigned the themes a month ago.

So, that’s what I did with my Saturday, validated code. Oh, and @mmagnolia22 and I looked at a new place a few blocks up the street. Do you have a house-warming gift? That doesn’t involve fire?

Time for the Death Cab for Cutie concert, I should probably finish doing the dishes before I leave.

PS: Look for some nice After Effects work to be posted in the next few days.

I know that it may sound confusing: just because it’s the Internet and you want to be lazy, that doesn’t mean you should submit comments like this to the station blogs: (I will make fun of you)

i have heard that marissa is pregnant is she if so i think she can really move her body i such asexy way..

Wow. Really?

The only punctuation is a failed attempt at an ellipses, and apparently the “Shift” key was broken and the spacebar occasionally didn’t work.

I think I went to school with someone who wrote like that (granted I was in 2nd grade for the 4th time). I’m joking. Or am I? No, I am. Or not. This joke works much better when you see my face.

RTV6 has made a surprising commitment to blogging. Well, maybe not surprising, but unexpected. It all started when the General Manager started blogging at rtv6gm.com (link). Pretty soon, requests for blogs started pouring in. But the question was, how do we manage many blogs in a cheap, yet effective, way?

The solution was in-house. Use free software, a reliable, but competitively priced host, and tada! Now we’re up to 8 blogs and developing at least 2 more. Now, don’t think they’re all outrageously successful. StormTeam 6 Blog (link) has a tried and true following, and many office workers have started reading Grace Trahan’s thoughts on the Good Morning Indiana Blog (link). But the most successful blog (apart from TODDandTRISHA.com [link]) has to be the Capitol Watchblog (link). People interested in politics can never get enough of other people’s opinions, and the Capitol Watchblog pretty much proves that.

In case you weren’t aware, we moderate all of the comments to our blogs. Well, not “we” but “me.” Twice a day, everyday, I sift through spam to read all of our comments. What gets through depends on the blog. The Capitol Watchblog gets a lot of angry voters, but as long as their comments aren’t racist or hate speech they get through (though I do censor foul language [even though I choose to use it all the time]). TODDandTRISHA.com had a lot stricter moderation when we started, since it was a promotional tool, we felt it necessary to control the spin, but if someone did submit negative feedback, I shared it with management.

I’ve definitely seen some hilarious comments, but currently there’s a person commenting on EVERY Capitol Watchblog post. She’s posting basically the same thing, with some variations, but this one cracked me up:

Female first Hillary Clinton is for jobs for wind energy!Hillary Clinton has got the background and she knows what this country needs is reform!!!U.S. Sen. Barack Obama he wants more illegal alliens here come take our jobs in the U.S.!!! Our country is hurting enough unemployment is high we need our jobs ourselves us U.S. citizens!!!!I SAY FEMALE FIRST Hillary Clinton MAY BE THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT SHE’S GOT WHAT IT TAKES FOR THIS COUNTRY KEEP OUR JOBS FOR US THE U.S. CITIZENS THE ILLEGAL ALLIENS IS STEELING OUR JOBS RIGHT UNDER OUR FEET!!! Hillary Clinton bring our troops home from IRAQ!!!

Let’s focus on one key thing:

SHE’S GOT WHAT IT TAKES FOR THIS COUNTRY KEEP OUR JOBS FOR US THE U.S. CITIZENS THE ILLEGAL ALLIENS IS STEELING OUR JOBS

Wait, WTF?! Maybe the “illegal alliens” wouldn’t be “steeling” our jobs if you could learn how the “Caps Lock” button works. Oh, and spelling, too. Learn to spell.

It’s no wonder “illegal alliens” took your job.

I’ll let a few misspellings slide (since there isn’t a spell checker built into our commenting system), but this is just moronic. Did you not graduate from middle school? Are you from southern Indiana? What is it? Just tell us so we can help you!