Donkeylips Fan Club Updated

A few months ago, I learned that Michael Ray Bower finally had a site of his own. As you can see, his site is pretty lousy in design and interface, and yes, I did offer to revamp it for him. Pro bono, maybe, but I like the other kind of work. It comes with its own message board, courtesy of Google Groups, and I utilized it to break through that fourth wall, and finally interact with Donkeylips!

I notified him of the existence of my Donkeylips tribute page, and after a few suspenseful days, I received a reply from a Bower. He had visited the site before, and he didn't hate my guts. In fact, he loved them. I actually paid the site a visit myself, and while pleasantly surprised by the handful of hits a day it had been receiving, I realized it was woefully inadequate, a hallmark of the internet dark ages. We and I have moved far beyond such web design trends, and you as users should expect more.

I set to work on the new DLFC last Saturday, and then taking a six day break (the shortest from this site yet) before finishing it today. I was smart enough to get the layout and code completely finished before bothering with the CSS. Writing CSS is fun for me, and the other tasks menial, so I'm more liable to let them fall by the wayside. I kept the tricks to a minimum, and being a site with few different layout elements, debugging in the major browsers was a snap. I don't think I've ever gone from layout to final product this fast in my halcyon CSS days.

The other aspect of this project that makes it special is that instead of using flat HTML files with no dynamic, run-time programming involved, the DLFC is entirely integrated into the squarehappy CMS. It is processed just as the articles, portfolio, etc. are and uses the same HTML template. This means that, should I ever get around to it, porting the DLFC style to squarehappy will be a snap. I simply have to layout the whatever elements squarehappy has that the DLFC does not. Okay, it's not that simple, but the backbone is already in place. I could port it right now and it would be usable, but ugly. Butt ugly.

So if you missed my previous shill for the DLFC, here's your chance again. If you're from my generation and grew up watching whatever Nickelodeon wanted us to see, then don't miss this trip down memory lane with Salute Your Shorts' most unforgettable character, Donkeylips.

The Donkeylips Fan Club