Stand clear; drivel in small doses

Ever since my blogging has been less frequent, I've unconsiously felt that almost every post I write has to be substantial. This is mainly why you're not getting details, little anecdotes, and so on, because One Anecdote Does Not A Blog Post Make. Well, it can, of course, it can - just not here, not with the state that bbt's in right now. So I have a load of nonsensical snippets which I'll just comment on briefly, and lay them out below, exposed.

• As I said last week, I've been fiddling with redesigns and looking at other people's, and I've started wondering: if hacks in the markup of a document are so bad and evil and wrong, why aren't hacks in the stylesheet considered equally bad? I've settled into the purists' camp with regards to markup, but I'm still unsure about CSS. If I shudder when I have to insert a <div> just so I can apply CSS to it (ie. for purely presentational purposes), why is it all right to do nasty hacky things with CSS that, for example, would make no sense to a beginner who's just read the whole CSS spec, but which would have to be explained in the context of specific browser (mis)implementations? In both cases the hack would be required for presentational purposes, and wouldn't be seen by anyone who wasn't looking for it. By the by, I'm less opposed to container divs when they're actually grouping some elements together; although they're not actually adding structure to the document, they do look as though they are, and so make the source HTML clearer to read. Bah, I'm screwy. Anyway, I'm now leaning towards not liking CSS hacks, which is a real problem because you can't author CSS straight from the W3C spec and expect it to work for the majority of users. You need hacks if you want control over your page.

  And on the subject of CSS, before we wander over to more diverse realms, one little effect that seems to be becoming fairly popular is a:visited {text-decoration: line-through;}. I really, really don't like this, particularly where I've seen it applied to blogrolls and the like. Surely the line-through implies that you've already visited that link, and therefore you don't need to click on it? It just doesn't seem appropriate when you're linking to an entire website, especially one that changes as often as most blogs do, as opposed to a specific article or webpage.

  For a linklog, though, I think it's spot on.

• Work, work, work... I've been commuting for the first time, four trains a day, one hour each way, for eight weeks now. What's unexpected isn't that the trains run late. Of course the trains run late. What's unexpected is the way some people get really shocked and annoyed about the trains being late. It's not that I can't understand that it's annoying in itself, but I can't understand why people often seem surprised by the fact that trains are ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes late or cancelled. It's the UK rail network - doesn't everyone expect trains to be delayed, and find themselves pleasantly surprised when they're not?

  I work about twenty miles from home, apart from two days a week when I work seventy miles from home. On these days, I get to drive another hour from my twenty-mile-away-workplace to my seventy-mile-away-workplace, in a nice company hire car. The roads tend to be pretty clear since a) I'm heading away from London in the mornings, b) by that time I've missed all the rush-hour traffic, and c) it's motorway and nice wide A-roads all the way.

  It's really fun driving all these nice new cars (and incidentally, I'm quite lucky in that the company's hire car contract was altered, just a few months before I arrived, to allow under-21s to hire cars. I'd have been quite stuck, otherwise), even though I keep being given bigger and bigger cars than I've asked for. I ask for the smallest car they have, every time (example car in this group is a Vauxhall Corsa), and I've been given Fiestas, Ford Fusions, Vauxhall Astras and a Vectra. And the Vectra was horrible because you can't control the indicators - they decide for themselves exactly how long you wanted them to flash for, and don't allow you to turn them off. When I was moving out a lane on the motorway, I must have looked like an absolute nutter: right indicator, move out, take off right indicator... no, it's flashing left! Take off left indicator... flashing right! Damn it...

  And repeat as above, until I remember the correct way to deal with the indicator, which is to leave it alone, cross your fingers (well, not while you're driving...), and just hope it goes off eventually. Nasty car. The other bad thing about all the Vauxhalls I've driven is their suspension - not a problem in itself as such, but when I have a CD on and I'm singing at the top of my voice, sustaining a note, the car bumps continually on the road surface and makes my voice wobble.

  The Fiestas have been really nice, though. I approve. Lots and lots. The only problem is that my standards regarding cars are far too high now, and when I try driving our car I suddenly start moaning about the clutch being stiff, or the brakes being slightly dodgy, or any one of a few dozen little niggling points that really don't matter in the slightest.

• It has been noted that it's been Britain's driest autumn since records began, and I've been perpetually amazed by it. We've had an incredible dry spell, glorious colours on the trees, bright sunshine and clear blue skies throughout last month. The weather has been truly stunning - I mean, this is Britain in October - and I keep wondering just what's going to happen to even things up. Prepare yourself for winter...

• I moved office last week, within the building I work in, and so far it's definitely an improvement. I am now the proud possessor of my own bin, an absolutely huge desk (which is admittedly, as yet, utterly clear), a window at my back (really - a window! I now have natural sunlight, obscured only by the open blinds which seem to stay drawn, and the building three feet from the window... I can just about see clouds, though, which is progress), not to mention that the new office is right next to the library (which doesn't contain many interesting things, but does have a whole back-catalogue of New Scientists)

  It's the little things that matter the most. The only problem that I can see is that I'm now ten feet away from a Catherine, which is bound to cause confusion (and, indeed, already has).

• Just a note - Southend pier shuts at 8pm. Really shuts. And they clear off pretty quickly, leaving you locked and potentially stranded there unless you hang around until the security guard comes back up in the lift a few minutes later, and you bang on the locked glass doors and ask if he can let you in, and he makes you feel about five inches tall for being so silly and only reaching the start of the pier at 8:05pm which is well after closing time, and he shuffles off to get the keys and eventually returns, and it takes him a while to let you back in and then out the doors one floor down onto the seafront, and you feel quite embarrassed for causing so much hassle.

  So I've heard, anyway.