Different Web Browsers and building your own Website

Everyone has their favorite web browser. Personally, I like to use Internet Explorer and FireFox. However, recently, I built a website for my Freelance Writing and Editing services and the several different web browsers options have been a major issue.

I'm not a master website designer, however, I am great with HTML and CSS and a little bit of JavaScript. I am self-taught in all of them and have been creating simple websites for nearly eight years now. www.dawritings.com is my first major website that I am actively trying to get traffic through and, so far, it has been going alright. However, I got a call the other day from someone who uses FireFox and found my website. Their were words and headings and pictures all over the place and overlapping each other. I created the site using Internet Explorer and checked it periodcially on Safari (thinking that most mac users would be using that).

Well, my mistake was that I didn't verify that my website was working properly on all web browsers. The potential client didn't seem too impressed by the look of my website on FireFox and I spent most of the next day fixing that error.

I could have hired someone to build my site, however, I am just starting out in the freelance writing and editing industry and have a pretty tight budget. Beside, I enjoy creating websites and was perfectly capable of creating a simple site for what I needed.

My question is this: Why can't all of the browsers just all get along? Wouldn't it be much easier if they all just interpreted the code the same? I guess that would defeat the purpose of competition though.

Has anyone else had any issue with their website on the different browsers? What browsers do you use? I have tested my site on IE, FireFox Safari. Any other major browsers out there that I should know of?

A Freelancer's Best Friend(s)?

I have been working in my home office for quite some time now and have discovered something rather interesting.

I have two dogs: Louie, a beagle; and Zeus, a yellow lab. They are the two most loyal dogs anyone could ask for. In fact, they are so loyal that they like to be at my feet 24/7; not the worse thing in the world, but sometimes annoying.

Eventually, they will crawl out from under my desk and go out in to the living room and play with each other (usually until something gets knocked over or broken) and then pass out for a good two hours (sometimes more).

However, by the end of that two (or more) hours, I am usually growing weary of something that I am working on and need a break. Somehow, they can sense that and they come into the office and check on me. It is like clockwork. They let me work for a while and then come in and remind to take a break (and that they would like to go outside for a bit.

So, while some freelancers disapprove of any kind of distraction at all throughout the entire day, I more than welcome these two furry friends in to my work day. They keep me from going crazy over a project on which I am working.

Does anyone else have 'good' distractions like this? Let me know...

ECU vs. NCSU

Everybody just calm down. I will give you a moment… Good, now that we are back to the reality that NCSU never actually had a chance at a BCS Bowl let alone a (chuckles at the ignorance) National Title, and that Russell Wilson is certainly not Heisman material and never was, we can look at this situation with a, down-to-earth kind of mentality.

NCSU is definitely a good looking football team. They were the sleeper team in the ACC and surprised the hell out of everyone at the beginning of the season. Bravo! Then came VT. Of all the monstrosities to have ever been brought into existence, VT is the worst of them all (followed very closely by UNC). NCSU should have won that game but they didn’t… We all know the story, no sense in repeating it. However, NCSU was humbled greatly and reality set in that they never actually had a real chance at doing anything special. The story goes the same way for VT, who is constantly overrated at the beginning of every season and then blows it all.

Then came ECU; apparently, “EZU” is not as bad as everyone always assumes them to be. ECU is always the underdog, no matter who they are playing and especially when they are playing NCSU, UNC, VT and the like. Then, out of nowhere, those teams who overlook them and count on them as being a automatic win are stunned by them. NCSU was the one to get it this year because, obviously, UNC and VT did not overlook them. We all know this story too: NCSU loses to ECU in overtime because of bad play calling and coaching. Even though NCSU fans decided a week before the game that they could easily score over 50 points on any NC team. Now, my friends, or enemies, NCSU has been humbled again and the fact that they never really had a shot at doing anything special and that RW is certainly not, and never was, Heisman material, has shown itself again in a dark haze of purple.

Play the loss off as “inconsequential” all you want, it is still a loss and a humbling one. Now, all of a sudden, that “easily score 50 points on any NC team” mentality is diminishing and UNC is starting to be feared, and possible wins over FSU and Clemson are slowly fading from memory like a bad dream. Tell yourself that a loss to ECU doesn't matter, you're right. It doesn't matter, until NCSU wants to go to a bowl game and ends up one win short of eligibility.

You may predict all you want, however the truth will arrive soon enough.