backdrifts.net

I am an Italian-American...

:. Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 12:16:03 AM EST

I am an Italian American. My roots are deep in an ancient soil, drenched by the Mediterranean sun, and watered by pure streams from snow capped mountains.

I am enriched by thousands of years of culture.

My hands are those of the mason, the artist, the man of the soil.

My thoughts have been recounted in the annals of Rome, the poetry of Virgil, the creations of Dante, and the philosophy of Benedetto Croce.

I am an Italian-American, and from my ancient world, I first spanned the seas to the New World. I am Cristoforo Colombo.

I am Giovanni Caboto known in American History as John Cabot, discoverer of the mainland of North America.

I am Amerigo Vespucci, who gave my name to the New World, America.

First to sail on the Great Lakes in 1679, founder of the territory that became the State of Illinois, colonizer of Louisiana and Arkansas, I am Enrico Tonti.

I am Filippo Mazzei friend of Thomas Jefferson, and my thesis on the equality of man was written into the Bill of Rights.

I am William Paca, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

I am an Italian-American; I financed the Northwest Expedition of George Rogers Clark and accompanied him through the lands that would become Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. I am Colonel Francesco Vigo.

I mapped the Pacific from Mexico to Alaska and to the Philippines, I am Alessandro Malaspina.

I am Giacomo Belinimi, discoverer of the source of the Mississippi River in 1823.

I created the Dome of the United States Capitol. They call me the Michelangelo of America. I am Constantino Brumidi.

In 1904, I founded in San Francisco, the Bank of Italy now known as the Bank of America, the largest financial institution in the world, I am A.P. Giannini.

I am Enrico Fermi, father of nuclear science in America.

I am Steve Geppi, founder of Diamond Comics, the largest distributorship of comics on the planet.

I am the first enlisted man to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II; I am John Basilone of New Jersey.

I am an Italian-American.

I am the million strong who served in America's armies and the tens of thousands whose names are enshrined in military cemeteries from Guadalcanal to the Rhine.

I am the steel maker in Pittsburgh, the grower in the Imperial Valley of California, the textile designer in Manhattan, the movie maker in Hollywood, the homemaker and the breadwinner in over 10,000 communities.

I am an American without stint or reservation, loving this land as only one who understands history, its agonies and its triumphs can love and serve it.

I will not be told that my contribution is any less nor my role not as worthy as that of any other American.

I will stand in support of this nation's freedom and protect against all foes.

My heritage has dedicated me to this nation. I am proud of my heritage, and I shall remain worthy of it.

I am an Italian-American!

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Possible new layout for the site

:. Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 09:22:01 AM EST

Hello everybody! I've spent some time now working on a new design. I'm not totally sold on it, though. Take a look here:

http://www.backdrifts.net/new

So far, the homepage, which contains the blog, has not been implemented into the new design, yet. The rest of the sections are up and working, though. What do you think?

I know that frames are a big NO NO in web design, but I wanted to contain the whole site in a consistent size. However, now that I take a look around, especially in the photos section, I realize that frames just make everything flow horribly.

Any input? I'm at a loss...

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Some random site updates

:. Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 04:06:35 AM EST

Every now and then at late hours such as these, I find myself highly motivated and inspired to make little, neurotic changes to this website.

Tonight (or this morning, rather) I changed portions of the layout for "the latest" bar that sits at the right of the page. For one, the FAU owl logo and the Christmas Tree have been given drop-shadow effects. In addition, the titles "newest photos," "newest comments" and "newest writings" have been added to their respective sections of "the latest" bar. I felt it may not have been clear the intent of all of these links unless they were specifically labeled.

That's all that I changed here on the blog. However, web development/hosting services page underwent many changes. Most of my visitors out there have probably never seen this page before, although I put it up years ago. Even though I have a good job, I'd still like to make money on the side. Therefore, I'm trying to further promote this services page.

Anyway, that's that... I will end this post with a request for your opinion!

As you know, backdrifts.net has existed in some form since 2002. It has since seen many designs. The current one was created specifically to run on the 40 MHz SPARCstation, hence the minimalist layout.

So I ask... should I give this site a new look? A facelift very well may be in order here. I have a lot of great ideas for a new, sexy design. Best of all, this site has been 100% database-driven for years now, so implementing a new page and displaying all of the same information will be a breeze!

Hm... decisions, decisions...

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