Making Progress

One of my favorite screenwriting bloggers, Dave Anaxagoras, recently updated his blog. Changed the design, the categories, revamped the entire thing. It really looks fantastic now and is much easier to get around. Unfortunately, he seems to have dumped some pretty good articles during the transition. One of those lost posts explained how to create a progress bar that you can easily use on your own site to track your writing. And if you're not a writer, you can use it to track the progress of just about anything else. If you look over to the right, you'll see mine. They let others know not only what I'm working on, but the varying degrees of productivity -- or procrastination. C'mon, you all know how that goes.

The progress bar is über-easy to set up. And if you know even a little CSS and HTML, it's that much easier. Here's the code, followed by the inevitable explanation...

CSS:

.prog-border {
height: 17px;
width: 205px;
background: #113355;
border: 1px solid silver;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

.prog-bar {
height: 13px;
margin: 2px;
padding: 0px;
background: #C9DDEC;
color: #113355;
font-size: 12px;
text-align: center;
line-height: 13px
}


HTML:

<div class="prog-border">
<div style="width: 75%;" class="prog-bar"><em>75%</em></div>
</div>


First, add the CSS code to your current CSS style definition, which should be found either in the header of the page's code or in a separate file. You can also change the colors to match your site if you feel the need.

Then, paste the HTML wherever you want the bars to appear. When you're ready to update your progress, simply change the percentages in the bar's HTML code. (The version I have here has a slight issue with the bar width once you get to 100%...and you WILL get to 100%, right? When the bar width is set to 100%, it extends past the frame. So, I use a 98% width to show a nice and neat 100% bar.) 

And there you have it. Now you can proudly display the fruits of your never ending labor to the world. Oh, and when you're done, be sure to visit Earl Newton's excellent collection of short films, Stranger Things...He's the one who asked me about the progress bars.

The Six Things

meme |mēm|
n. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.

My wife, who has a great blog that blows mine out of the water, asked me the other day what a meme is. Since I spend a good amount of my time online, I knew some examples of popular memes -- Chocolate Rain, Diet Coke + Mentos, The Numa Numa guy...the list goes on ad infinitum. However, I couldn't come up with a concise definition of one.

So, to better help me understand the concept of memes, my darling spouse has seen fit to tag me with the infamous "Six Things" blog meme. And not one to be a party pooper, here goes...

Six Things People (Generally) Don't Know About Me:

1. I knit. Let's get that one out there now. I don't knit often, nor do I do it very well, but I do knit.

2. I almost dropped out of college in favor of culinary school to become a chef.

3. The only film I've ever had to hide my eyes from was Jaws.

4. My friends and I used to play baseball in a cemetery. First base was the grave marker for an 11-year-old boy. I always thought of him as part of the team.

5. I was the one who loosened all the bolts on Eric Costello's bike.

6. I'm still embarrassed by the horribly awful John Fogerty impression in a college acting class. Only a handful of you know that.

There you have it. And to make sure I don't get to have all the fun to myself, I've tagged Dave Anaxagoras, WriterDad, Joel Haber, ScreenwriterGuy, Will Martell, and Andy Coughlan.