The Rocky Mesa BLOG

Welcome to the blog for Rocky Mesa dot com.
This is where we will deconstruct the Rocky Mesa website gallery.

RockyMesa.com is the flagship website. The book about Shiprock and time-travel started everything. Its revenue pays for all the computers, software, supplies, digital cameras, DSL, etc. used to go on-line and do our research. The entire first press-run sold out; all that’s left are publisher’s overrun copies and used copies on Amazon.com and other literary websites.
Go find one … if you can.

It is a traditional HTML website, with a little CSS, PHP, and Javascript thrown in just to give it some sizzle. Kinda like putting a Hurst floor shifter in that old Pontiac LeMans to replace the three-up-the-tree transmission shifter. The engine was still the same old V8, but those Hurst decals sure looked good in the rear-view mirror on the rear-window when we blew the carbon out of engine on those desert backroads in Antelope Valley. Vrooooom!

This is the webspace for our Internet blog. Pour some coffee and stay awhile. Time will freeze, just like it did at 10:10am on February 26th above.

We needed something to allow blogging and editing conveniently, so a traditional HTML website wouldn’t suffice. This is a WordPress template that continues to receive customization even to this day. It’s a little slower loading/running than an HTML website because of the MySQL database access, but much faster than a full CMS (Content Management System) with its bigger database, picture galleries, news feeds, user login, etc.

MyTravelbearSpace is a Joomla website. It is a full blown CMS (Content Management System). See the real-time Property Tax deadline countdown, picture galleries for the users, user logon/logoff, resource tabs and links, a real-time weather feed for downtown Santa Barbara, a simple 1-page calendar, plugin modules, PHP code extensions, IM type ShoutBox, and more under the hood after you login. Even nicer — they can even edit all their own text and web content to make it do whatever they want to.

The Car Rally is a Node33 CSS template rendering of what it looks like from the other side of the camera at a photoshoot for an oil-company commercial. Seated in the grandstands, we can see the director, camerman, gyro-driven boom camera, keygrips, soundman, the stars, Kleig lights, solar reflectors, and the cheering audience (us). When the commercial is released on YouTube, we’ll post the URL here. And yes, the cheerleader from Toledo won, the Beachbum Ugly Car Buffing Team lost, and free pizza and drinks were enjoyed by everyone after the 4-hour photoshoot in the blazing sun here at the “Fullerton International Speedway”:

Sorry, your browser doesn’t support Java.

Sorry, your browser doesn’t support Java.

People joke about reaching the “End of the Internet”, because they haven’t figured out how to get there. When you truly understand how web pages are cached up in primary and replicant servers, and you journey to the fringes of the Internet, then you can sift thru all the expired (but not yet deleted) web pages from years way back in time. Women’s fashions change weekly, and so do the web pages selling them. Shown above are the Torrid and Hot Topic home pages from my own journey back in time. You or your wife and daughters already understand why these websites are so cool to them and suit their fickle tastes in clothing and accessories. Hover and drag your cursor over the cubes and try to slow down your journey 11 years back in time. Can you stop both of them from turning ??

This is a collection many of the “bugs” (icons) for resources we found useful. Everything is out on the Internet; you just have to find it. Learn how to use Google, and you’ll start talking to your kids like “Who + took + my + ‘glass of beer’?”. Kudos and compliments to all of them below for their individual contributions. See one you like? Hover your mouse and click on thru to them. And, of course, in no particular order:

Thanks for stopping by.