Web design, take five. Yes, I'm slow as a slug when it comes to web design. I plod along, tweaking, sampling, experimenting, throwing my half-baked ideas out on the blog for the world to see and critique. Well, here's take five of the Hooked on the Net website design effort:
I have a couple of questions for any style sheets experts reading:
- I've incorporated the "style" tags to make the columns resize as a window is resized, to accommodate different size monitors. Yet when I resize on my monitor, the left and right columns move up, into the banner above them. It is not a pretty sight. Any ideas of how I can make it stop?
- You'll notice that the bottoms of each column are uneven. Is that always the case when using style tags instead of frames? Maybe I should just stick to frames, but I wanted to try something different and a bit cleaner, code-wise.
As always, your thoughts and ideas are appreciated. I've incorporated many of your earlier thoughts into this version. See? I really do listen! (Sometimes.)
:: Andrew 15:55 + ::
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:: Thursday, August 15, 2002 ::
We are what we read? World magazine's July 7-13 issue carried an interesting analysis of American evangelical Christians' reading habits. The story analyzed the content of the top 100 best-sellers as identified by the Christian Booksellers Association. Although the CBA only charts Christian book sales from Christian bookstores, not considering the sales of Christian books via Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Borders and other secular booksellers, the list probably mirrors any more global list of top-selling Christian books. (In the interest of full disclosure, and with much sadness, I report that neither of my books were on that top 100 list.) Gene Edward Veith, the author of the article, summarizes his thesis: "On the principle 'you are what you read,' the books that are most popular among Christians provide a snapshot of American Christianity. The issues that most concern them, the nature of their theology, and their engagement in the culture around them are all evident from the Christian bestseller lists." Among Veith's observations:
Christian publishing has finally broken free of the Christian ghetto, accounting for 16 percent of all book sales last year. (This confirms an earlier Christianity Today report, which pointed out that the publishing industry's best sellers in 2001, in both fiction and non-fiction, came from Christian publishers.) "By economic standards, Christian books have certainly penetrated the culture," Veith writes. "The question remains: What are they saying about that culture? Are the books -- and, more importantly, the Christians who read them -- appeasing or transforming the culture? Or ignoring it altogether?" Based on a glance at the top 10 best-sellers, it seems Christian readers are more interested in escapist fiction than theology. Six of the top 10 best-sellers were from the Left Behind end-times Christian soap opera series, signifying a preoccupation with premillenial end-times theology. Many of the best-sellers that deal with God are "experiential" and "relational" in nature. This perhaps reflects the postmodern mood of Christianity. There seems to be more emphasis on works than on grace in many best-sellers. "The Christian life tends to be depicted in terms of what we do, rather than what God has done," writes Veith. "Thus, a number of the bestsellers dealing with God are 'how-to' books -- in the words of the editorial descriptions, 'how to find God's will through the power of the Spirit'; 'how to know and do God's will'; 'how to be constantly transformed by the Holy Spirit.' ... . From many of these spiritual 'how-to' books, one could easily get the opposite impression, that salvation is by works after all." Only four of the top 100 are about Jesus Christ; only two are about the Holy Spirit. If you count The Catechism of the Catholic Church (at No. 26), then there are two books on the top 100 about the church. The other is Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Church (No. 87), and it "is about how the church needs to be changed."
What do you make of all this? While the sales figures do tell us about the reading habits of American Christians at large, do they tell us anything about the state of the church today? I'd love to hear your comments.
:: Andrew 10:13 + ::
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:: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 ::
Young Latino Leaders Summit. Now here's a conference I would love to attend. Unfortunately, it comes at a bad time for me -- Sept. 3-7, right at the beginning of a busy semester -- and is too far away -- Anaheim, California, USA. Rudy Carrasco of Urban Onramps is one of the partners for the conference, and I'd love to meet this man sometime. From what I've read, he's doing some great work with young people in urban areas.
From the site: Who will step up to lead the Latino church of the future? Who will plant innovative churches to lead the 2nd and 3rd generation Latino? It's a question that needs to be asked here in the Midwest, as well as in the Southwest. In Missouri, the fastest-growing ethnic group is the Latino population. According to this summary from the 2000 Census:
Missouri's Hispanic population grew by a staggering 92.2% from 61,698 in 1990 to 118,592 in 2000. In contrast, Missouri's total population grew by 9.3% from just over 5.1 million in 1990 to slightly under 5.6 million in 2000. Sullivan (2,164%), McDonald (1,577%), and Barry (1,027%) counties reported enormous percent increases since 1990 in Hispanic population due to expanding employment opportunities. Jackson County reported the largest increase in persons - 16,272, an 86.1% increase; followed by St. Louis county with 4,766, a 48.6% increase; and Clay county with 3,055, an 86.3% increase. Fifty-six of Missouri's 114 counties reported percentage increases from 1990 of over 100%.
:: Andrew 07:56 + ::
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A fast two decades. Has it really been 20 years since the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released? Yes, it has been. Twenty years ago today, in fact. "Fast Times" is one of the best movie portrayals of my generation. If there were a "Which Fast Times... Character Are You" quiz on the Internet (and maybe there is one, but I haven't found it), I would probably test out as Brad Hamilton; I worked in about as many fast food joints.
Why did Fast Times become a classic? This article provides some insight. I'm glad the author makes note of the fantastic soundtrack from that movie. From the Go-Gos to Oingo Boingo, that soundtrack had all the great ephemeral music of the era.
Another interesting tidbit: this September 1982 Newsweek brief about the film.
A fast five decades. My friend and co-worker Jennifer, who constitutes one third of the UMR Web Divas, turns the big five-oh today. Happy Birthday, Jen!
A quick thanks. Thanks to all who have left comments or e-mailed about the "Hooked on the Net" site design. It's a work in progress that unfortunately has been put on the back burner due to pressures at the day job. I'll keep you posted on how things progress.
:: Andrew 07:44 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
