over the hump

With a somewhat stressful week half behind us, I march on toward the weekend when I can turn my attentions back to redesigning my website, a responsibility that has been four years stagnant....and it shows. I've learned a great deal about web design in that time. So much, in fact, that I'm truly embarrassed at the way it currently looks. I'm tempted to put up the new site even if it's not done - just cuz it's better half baked than what I've got now.

But I digress - my point is, and I do have one, that there are two very important pieces of software that I've come to loathe of late.

1. Microsoft's Front Page. It inserts a lot of crap code that dirties the water and throws errors left and right. While it might be "user friendly" for some (and was the only thing - I thought - available to me at the time I first built my site some 5+ years ago), in reality it causes more problems than it fixes.

This time 'round I'm using html kit which is free (bonus). But, for all I use it for, I might as well create the pages using any 'ol text editor. I write the code by hand, as it were, not using automatic tag inserts, GUI, or other bell and whistle effects. I don't use any of html kit's functions other than it's automatic changing of the font colors according to the code, and I do find that helpful to my eyes if nothing else. That feature alone has made using html kit worth using.

2. AOL's AIM instant messaging. I was asked to install this chat client as part of UK Libraries Blue 2.0 experiment. I have found no redeeming qualities about AIM. AOL, in my mind, has become the Microsoft of personal communication. They're proprietary and invasive, wrecking havoc on browsers and performance overall, what with the download of peripheral goop like games. Compared to other chat clients I've used AIM doesn't come close to being user friendly or rightly functional. I really don't understand, given the chat clients that are freely available, why Blue 2.0 chose such an invasive species.

And that's my rant for today -

Toothpaste

People often ask who I'm named after, where I got my name or what my name means. I've asked these same questions of my mother many times. Surprisingly, I got different answers - and they seemed to differ according to the age I was at the time I asked the question.

For instance, my first memory of asking produced the answer, "I had a doll named Kopana."

Next came, "You know how little girls like to change the letters of words and make new words? I had a doll named Kopana."

Followed by, "There was a popular toothpaste when I was young called Ipana Toothpaste. You know how little girls like to change the letters of words to make new words? Ipana Kopana."

NOTE: For those too young to remember Ipana (45-ish or younger) you may have instead seen the movie Grease. There is a scene in which the girls have a sleepover at Frenchy's. On TV is an Ipana Commercial....sing along: "brusha, brusha, brusha, new Ipana toothpaste...."

And then there's my own theory; the theory mom would never fess-up to even if I was right. Before she married dad she was engaged to a Hawaiian. I don't know his name (she's only mentioned him once in my 43 years) but there is a common Hawaiian male name "Kaapana ". (In fact, there's a famous slack key and ukulele master named Led Kaapana ledkaapana.com) Am I a leftover from a romance gone asunder? I think it entirely possible....especially since she'd had 20+ years of rearranging letters to make new words by that time.

Still - nothing sounds as good as being named after a toothpaste!

more names

Here's a good one for ya - remember back years ago before everyone had a cell phone? Back when you made collect calls? Back when dialing zero got a live human being? (Does it still get you a human on the first ring?) Anyway, back "then".....I was traveling a lot and needed to call home. I made a collect call to my mother.

Operator: "Operator. How may I direct your call?"
Me: "Collect from Kopana"
Operator: "One moment"

ring......ring......ring......

Mom: "Hello?"
Operator: "I have a collect call from Chrysler, will you accept?"
Mom: laughter......
Operator: "Ma'am, will you accept the charges?"
Mom: "Yes" more laughter.....
Operator: "Go ahead"
Mom: "Chrysler?" laughter........
Me: "We haven't heard that one yet!"

hello friends

It's far too late at night after a harrowing Monday (aren't they all?) to build a blog but here I am.

What's in a name, you ask? You tell me! With a name like Kopana, trust me, I hear all kinds. Mis-spellings are fun, too. The latest is Kotana which sounds strangely like a feminine hygiene product laced with the scent of banana- I told you it was too late to do this.

I'll share more bastardized mis-spellings later - there's plenty.