Well, after some mussing around with all the goop I've been adding and changing, I managed to get this site to again pass w3c validation, at least on a cursory level. (i.e. I checked the main site, plus a couple of random ramblings (haha, bad pun), but not every page that might ever appear.)

I've decided that what the world needs is a validating browser. I want a checkbox in Mozilla that says "Check the html and css on every page that loads, and popup a big error dialog for anything that wouldn't pass w3c spec." That would make validation testing so much easier. Every time an improperly nested tag or bad attribute was introduced, it could be caught immediately.

I could login and logout with my browser, and all the pages differences that change between modes would be validated. The w3c validator caught a minor error that was only happening when not logged in. It wierded me out at first, because when I looked at the source as a logged in user, it appeared fine. I had to do a little hunting before I realized what was going on. But if the browser were validating everything as I go, I would have seen the error back when I was going through standard pseudo-regression testing.

The closest thing I've discovered so far is Checky. It's got the right idea in general, but is still massively incumbered by (1) the fact that it uploads the html of every page to the w3c to check in a new tab, and (2) you have to specifically tell it every time you want a page checked. When I tried it, it wouldn't work because the w3c page thought it was uploading the wrong mime type.

Mozilla has the best standards compliant html parser around, right? If so, would it be that hard to spit out an optional error when something doesn't comply with the DTD? (Says me from my ignorance of Mozilla's internals.)

But anyway, this page is now valid html 4.01 transitional. I did a little messing around to see how hard it would be to go strict, but decided I'm not quite ready for that just yet. p tags (or a block-level element) required around all my form input tags? No thanks. Transitional will do for now.

Of course, there's also the possibility of user-entered data screwing things up. The potental for an html formatted comment by someone whose html skills less than stellar, a content solutions comment, or even a mistake I make typing a rambling. I'm working on a solution to cover all of these scenarios, but it is not yet ready just yet. It will probably land in production right around the same time as comment preview mode goes live. Sometime soon.

(In the meantime, I'm impressed that everybody's comments so far appear to be 100% compliant. We have good users. Of course, I'm probably jinxing that by saying so. There is probably someone out there who now won't be able to resist the urge to enter a comment full of bad tags. Sigh.)

...

Went clubbing last night. Wasn't the greatest night in comparison with the past couple of Onyx Fridays I attended, but I guess it was passable.

Saw a job listing a few minutes ago that I might, sort of, almost be qualified for. Sent my resume, knowing that I have like a 0.01% chance of even getting an interview, much less hired. The position? Web Applications Engineer. The company? None other.

Yeeeah. Not a chance in hell. But what the hell? If ya don't give it a shot, you'll never know what might have been. And sometimes, miracles have been known to happen, as evidenced by one former coworker of mine...

Anyway. I've decided on a minor shift in strategy, in this case, and possibily others to come. I'm going back on the policy of keeping this page more or less a secret from potential employers. The reason? This website, moreso than any line item on my resume or thing I might say about my skills, proves that I can (1) do web scripting database type stuff, and do it well, (2) write gooder than all them lamers out their who don't know there grammer and speling.

So I write some personal, and occassionally controversial shit here. If my writing turns some off, then frankly, they probably don't want to know me well enough to see me in the same office every day either. More importantly, I probably wouldn't want to work for someone with so little tolerance.

As for the bad past experiences that prompted me to believe it would be a better idea to not share this url with employers, well... Frankly, the same shit probably would have happened sooner or later with or without them knowing about this web page. Fucked up situations, with or without the web, lead to fucked up endings.

Besides, I hate hiding. There's no need for it. No reason for it. Not anymore. Not now. Call it an out of the closet moment, if you like.

Now, time to go grab some food, and wonder some more about the future.