Blue Beanie Day Haiku Contest, Revisited
IN NOVEMBER, as part of the 4th Annual Blue Beanie Day to support web standards, we announced a web standards haiku contest, with prizes donated by Peachpit/New Riders (“Voices That Matter”) and A Book Apart. Entries were posted on Twitter with the hashtag #bbd4, with judging to follow in December. It should have been easy.
Unfortunately, searches on hashtags only go back a few days. Which means, when Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition co-author Ethan Marcotte and I sat down to judge your entries, said entries were nowhere to be found.
Not even mighty Google was able to uncover more than a few of them.
We wrote to our friends at Twitter to ask for help, but they were too busy dating supermodels on a pile of money to get back to us. With existing entries sucked into the void formerly known as Twitter search results, and with all those great books to give away and all those eager participants to thank, we have only one choice:
Blue Beanie Day Haiku Contest Phase II—This Time It’s Personal
Instructions follow:
Attention, web design geeks, contest fans, standards freaks, HTML5ophiles, CSSistas, grammarians, bookworms, UXers, designers, developers, and budding Haikuists. Can you do this?
Do not tell me I
Am source of your browser woes.
Template validates.
Write a web standards haiku (like that one), and post it on Twitter right here between today and Friday, December 24th. Entries must be “postmarked” no later than 11:59 PM Eastern. Judging will be held the week after Christmas, with winners announced before the New Year.
FAQ
Can I re-post the haiku(s) I submitted in November?
Yes, please!
Can I create one or more new haikus?
Yes, of course.
How many entries may I post?
As many as you like. However, you can only win once. (In other words, if you post the best ten haikus, you won’t win ten prizes, you’ll win one.)
I can’t post my entry here. (I’m behind a firewall.)
Unfortunately, posting behind firewalls is disabled on this site. (By doing this, I remove 99% of comment spam.) Try posting from your phone, or from a location other than your current one.
Thanks and Praise
Thanks to our sponsors, Peachpit/New Riders (“Voices That Matter”) and A Book Apart, and to Doug Vos, co-founder of Blue Beanie Day.
Let the haikus commence!
Photo: Luke Dorny
Comments are now closed. Watch this space—winners will be posted soon.
Filed under: Advocacy, Announcements, Blue Beanie Day, Free, Gifts
222 Responses to “Blue Beanie Day Haiku Contest, Revisited”
Comments off.
Here we go again. The haiku I tweeted on BBD4:
browsers forsake me
hack my tableless design
The WaSP stings again
TTFN!
Unconditional
love for standards may need con-
ditional comments.
Where did I say this
Was X-M-Fucking-L?
Now the page won’t show.
Why did I serve this
Thing as X-M-Fucking-L?
Now the page won’t show.
(sorry about the last entry, counted wrong)
dreamed last night that I
Was a summer intern at
@happycog. So weird.
(true story by the way.)
FIRST POST!
The game is on!
New web journeys wait
of Blue beanies sing; old mud walks
to break internet
Up all night till dawn
Crafting HTML code
Got the green check mark
Z eld man is hunched
heavy weave on his head
blue he is not
Cascading sheets of style
More time taken
More time saved
HTML5
is missing a key feature:
a new
tag.Top left or left top?
What is the correct order?
F^¢% it, zero space zero
My CSS3
Brings roundness a plenty
To your eyes with glee.
web standards are not
choking vines nor steep cliffs, but
paths through wilderness
IE hates my xhtml site
Fear not xhtml
The green checkmark saves us all
If politicians
Had to Validate
Before running for office…
Webstandard weather
No snow flakes ahead can see
I hope it will be
Old site
Standards jump in
Validation sounds
HTML5
CSS3 I can see
Standard code writing
Umm…
Tweet archive eludes;
I had the best haiku;
Now I’m down to this.
Semantic ripe fruits
Must we harvest and use good
Standard respected
HTML5
And CSS3 don’t
hate they deprecate
A site so clean, bright!
Lo – built in nested tables;
salty, bitter tears.
One more time for the world! (sorry. Zappa reference) Here’s my original tweet/post/glance into my solitary existence:
“Step 1: Learn the way
Step 2: Commit to no hacks
Step 3: Teach. Repeat.”
Counted wrong. Dang it.
Let me write another one:
The orange one asks,
If we will don his blue hat;
Proudly, we comply.
Now, the above depends on how clear you enunciate the syllables in “or-ange” to count it as two.
the warm blue beanie
protects me from winter’s chill
and non-standard code
bad where the old ways
along came the blue beanies
bright is the future
Zeldman has a hat.
Luxury Luke has a pipe.
Ethan has Johnson?
Ryan Brunsvold wins, in my opinion. That was just brilliant.
Case of divitis
only one known cure to soothe
use of semantics
With the errors gone,
Through a browser compliant,
The page is rendered
Great joy will be ours,
When the browsers of the world,
Are standards compliant
I E 6 will die
surely, slowly, painfully
farewell the hack codes
xhtml5 has been born;
many designers are torn.
will valid markup be scorned?
CORRECTION:
html5 has been born;
many designers are torn.
will valid markup be scorned?
Web standards thrill me
When will the world convert to
blue beanie people?
true world is swift,
and flies in my browser tabs
masters it takes pages
pages with standards…
Hope this little extra line doesn’t hurt my “Haiku” :)
Btw – (#bbd4) – just to be on the safe side
My original version:
Zeldman dons blue toque;
Ignites passion, web standards;
Helps us all code well.
Something new:
Elegant markup;
Makes it easy to follow;
Along with your code.
No standards crash the planets,
the suns sink, and men freeze
like my share of experience
Chrome now correctlyrenders border-radius.
I must fix style sheets.
He used to just swapfor a ,
now it's for .
Whoops!
He used to just swap<tr> <td> for a <div>,
now it's <div> for <section>.
Developers loveweb standards. Now if only
browser vendors would.
Web standards requiresseparating concerns. Write
your own damn content.
onclick "validate"is behavior, not structure.
Go unobtrusive.
Where are you baby
You were coming if need be
Your HTML doesn’t work on blackberry
FROM TODAY ONWARDS
MARKUP YOUR SITE ONLY IN
HTML5
Codes of the past
Remember style, browser, oh
Cascade loves me
HTML5. Even with headless body. Doctype validates.
What are web standards? Even with valid markup. Websites can still suck.
Table-based layout. Not semantically correct. Use div tags instead.
No patience have I
for sites saturated with
non-compliant code.
Here’s my entry from Nov. 30th:
Exclusive not,
for there’s IE in Blue BenIE.
United for a better Web.
http://twitter.com/seiz/status/9683441301856256
Aaaaannd. Spellchecked:
Exclusive not,
for there’s IE in Blue BaenIE.
United for a better Web.
Hardboiled Design Haiku
Waste your time no more
IE need not be the same
Experience guides
Semantic markup
No jiggery-pokery
Your browser loves it.
A true haiku has
a reference to nature
Green Dog sports blue toque.
(originally posted 5:41 PM Nov 26th via Twitter)
So many browsers
Jockeying for market share
The struggle goes on
The standards are high
don’t bake bread and cry
just follow the sky
Sanity on web
Courtesy of web standards
Long live blue beanies
Accessible pages on my phone – there is almost none;
One mark-up and one norms
No place like 127.0.0.1
fluffy blue beanies
made my media queries
responsive
Zeldman`s blue hat
well known on the web
means standards no crap
One Web, One Mark-up
One Data, One Purpose
Here-connect 7 billions
unite with vision
one green book, one blue beanie
empowerment
O mother of God
Have you seen this damn template?
Divs all the way down.
That’s not a table
Why’d they mark it up like that?
Tears fall on keyboard
Confuse not, standard
with a recommendation.
Best practice, it is.
A page with standards
Is easier to maintain
In the long run. Word.
With all the new things
HTML5 brings fore
Forget Netscape 4
I heard Zeldman speak
That standards are the future
I was converted
built upon standards, See?
this beautiful site
is accessible
Your table-based site
On my Android phone browser
Is Unusable
There is meaning in content, semantics is your guide, transportability + accessibility! #bbd4
div.haiku:after {
content: “Support web standards” ;
font-style: inherit;
}
To think in black, white
is to create in colour
so that all may see
HTML5.
It’s missing a key feature:
the new
tag.Ha, the system stripped out part of mine:
HTML5.
It’s missing a key feature:
The new tag.
Damn!
HTML5.
It’s missing a key feature:
The new haiku tag.
Article Div P
Another Haiku Entry
P Div Article
What is not standard?
Internet Explorer 6
Upgrade browser now.
Find me on Twitter: @OakesDesign
Lovely ampersands / HTML entities / Semicolon cleansed
Thanks Jeffrey Zeldman
Standardizing web standards
And blue beanies too
Websites are changing
Browsers are evolving too
Rescued by the standards
the page wanting us
readers to unite writers
standardly that all can see
Conferences beckon
Everyone’s all atwitter
Ephemeral truths
Blame it on the user
Blame it on the designer
Not the programmer
I got the design,
Then I wrote the needed code,
Standards it followed
Zeldman is the lord,
Overseeing web standards,
Its Blue Beanie Day!
Just One Blue Beanie,
Has enlightened the masses,
Let’s raise our glasses
Here are all the ones I posted on twitter in Nov:
it’s web standards day \ i guess i don’t see why though \ standards mean always
please use IE6 \ no wait, now use seven, no! \ wait, nine next? give up
to HTML / or to XHTML / that is the question
ULs for menus \ but aren’t they kind of ordered? \ fine then use OLs
DIVs are block level \ unless you make them inline \ how does that make sense?
html5 / markup? js? css? / just a tangled mess
how did anyone \ get anything done online \ not having firebug?
css is great / so are standards i suppose / but where’s valign?
compatible mode / changes the user agent / but what is quirks mode?
why do designers / think the web is like a ‘zine? / different media!
xoxo!
with a screech and a
clank, the caffeinated gears
of web dev churn forth
The tag that’s named blink
We shouldn’t now use, instead:
Text-decoration?
I never wear hats
But when it comes to Blue Beanies
I’m a believer
Best way to learn how
to build websites: validate.
That is how I learned.
3-5-3
Over time
<UL> navigates
Shall <NAV> morph?
5-7-5
Google not valid
Developers surely high
Mountain View clam bake
h2 in address
makes sense to me but firefox
explodes violently
(Sorry for reposting, but looking over my haiku I realized a little formatting could go a long way)
in
makes sense to me but Firefox
explodes violently
…..Sigh, that’s embarrassing. Let me try this again, last time. Promise. Even if it fails:
in
makes sense to me but Firefox
explodes violently
I like web standards
And free prizes really rock
I hope that I win :)
video codecs
the best part about standards:
so many to choose
web standards are good
non-compliance makes me blue
just like Zeldman’s hat
language of the web
html, css
perfecting grammar
body header nav
section article h1
paragraph footer
No you can’t use that
paragraph inside a SPAN
Only inline tags
HTML5 /
So good to see you/
Make yourself at home
Peace: separation
of presentation, content
and interaction
My contribution:
Well-structured markup
It passes validation
View source, full of stars
Modern Web Browser
Supports Modern web standards
Developers rejoice
TABLE in TABLE,
spacer GIF, non-breaking space;
Death comes, I greet thee.
Haikus are for nerds
so is writing web standards
star wars night any one?
Zeldman with beanie
blue or otherwise looks good
but sadly not I
Poor markup, I stare
at the abyss; invalid.
The abyss stares back.
Who will make the web
A better place for us all?
The standardistas.
It validated
The WYSIWYG barfed on it
Code now looks like poo
HTML5,
The ‘X’ in front has gone now.
I’ll miss double quotes.
Complaining often
about how much IE sucks
time wasted, boring.
Header and Footer…
Goodbye Flash, hello Canvas…
New features: I like!
less is more, of course
you do not need wrapper divs
unless you want them
As of 2010
I might mix margins and paddings
But I won’t
It looks good to Sam
It’s totally hardboiled
It looks good to Sue
I like the way firebug
has replaced blackbox debugging
by x-ray goggles
The DOM tree stands firm
I traverse its branches with jQuery:
It blooms in the ZEN garden
Enterprise code's
styling stored as attributes,
I am your reaper.
It would be so nice
If we could all just agree
Until then, zoom: 1
Indenting helps some
Syntax color helps others
Zeldman helps us all
What of web standards?
They light the path that brings us
Together as one
Maybe we should eat?Maybe we should watch TV?Hey guys, WEB STANDARDS!Nobody’s pages
validate down the hill;
inline scripts, short days
Moon dark and day short
like sixteen-thirty-eight, now
suggest you font-face?
Benighted web devs
Attain blissful nirvana
All praise to Zeldman.
Web standards are here.
Now web pros are enlightened.
Let’s now fix email!
Fare thee well, Netscape.
I never liked your blink tag.
Proprietary!
Dear friend, your font tag
upsets me. You should know that
it’s deprecated.
form
really should follow
function
children in school
fathers at work
HTML with w3C.
only standards give
all my browsers and devices
graceful degradation
Tawk rite, hold tite, step forward,
Knowledge of standards compliant
HTML CSS is a plus…
{a haiku with the image of two wedding rings}
true mark-up is swift,
flies in my browser tabs
masters it takes pages
pages with standards…
{a re-visit to my shakespearean haiku}
{a haiku with 4 lines.. ANY Problems??}
Sitting beneath the blue beany
I see the web’s Four Noble Truths:
HTML, CSS, EcmaScript and DOM.
There is a difference
Between and
I’d like to emphasise
Curse me for using tags in my haiku. Once more:
There is a difference
Between and
I’d like to emphasise
Darnit! Please be so kind as to delete the previous two comments and not send Albanian hit men to my home address.
This should look OK:
There is a difference
Between <strong> and <b>
I’d like to emphasise
when browsers unite
when standards reach new heights
then all is well at night
Pixel perfection
is not real perfection
There is only code
Designing by writing
only online
It exists
Many kittens die.
As you well know ’tis with
each hack written.
There were only three fonts
back in the day
When letters were lead.
So easy code flows
Many complex lines
Build a cathedral
What…woah, 404
the new standards nowadays,
Even fail looks great
We are magicians
Casting spells
Black magic?
I see the Matrix before me
Keanu is there
Unplug
woe to the h-ref
to put or not put quotes
that is the question
This is a situation that’s been happening a lot lately. Luckily for me, it falls right into Haiku format.
Last minute request:
“It’s gotta work on mobile!”
Me: “’Already does.”
You can even replace mobile to fit in your scenario. Some suggestions include: iPad, iPhone, Android, “Blackb’ry,” etc.
Happy holidays! :)
All the books in Alexandria
Went up in smoke
No HTML
People are the only standard
Code is but a tool
Make it work
I hope I got this haiku style right.. if not, blame wikipedia for its description.
It is weird but true,
HTML exposure
caused semicolons cancer
For Sale: Domain Names. Never worn.
Having writers block
can’t seem to write anything
even a haiku
Cold hard computer code
is written for people
to understand
ugly degradation
nightmare.
multi-screen, multi-os, multi-browser, Vishnu.
Be the change
you want to see
on the web
The web is not fleeting
It is here to stay
except Geocities
Serve what you will as
text! As text! As the sun sets
later by seconds
Pixel-perfect but
“it sucks.” Wish the client would
degrade gracefully
Make the logo bigger
Is not your job
Ctrl-+
content joins markup
semantic and well structured
browser renders well
Would you honestly believe
That Zeldman dot com still renders well
In Netscape 4 point 7
Seven - nine - sevenAn elongated haikuPoetry standards?“This site best viewed with…”
Remember? Everywhere! How
Much fun wasn’t that?
table table cell
my eyes cannot see
cell table table
Ok, I love you guys but I can’t resist:
“Web designers write
According to Web standards.
Haiku standards, well…”
And, look, I’m sorry about reposting this one again but I am DETERMINED to format it properly.
“<h2> in <address>
makes sense to me but Firefox
explodes violently”
Achieve dot calmness. Believe not in hot tag soup. Viva web standards! #bbd4 #haiku
The future is here
All your tags are belong to
HTML5
HTML5
For Web Designers; huzzah!
Buy a copy right now
Meaning-raked markup
made bright by Garden’s shadow.
This path needs no guide.
CSS-set stones
Swim free like dragon hatchlings
But wake tsunamis
One more:
With each walk through code
the gardener breathes deeply
expelling prolix lines.
My first solo gig?
Client Over Cuckoo’s Nest:
Requests “Curlz MT”
It is amazing
to see how many people
can’t write a haiku
src img=”http://www.thesecretofmydream.org/im/lemon_chewingum_lips.jpg”
alt=”flymetothemoon”
width=”yourhands” height=”very” /
(Sorry, it enters as code and doesn’t show up!)
Please, add the signs in place. Ta ta!
Embrace web standards!
Reject the future to be
obselite. Be Smart.
With Microdata,
(Itemprop equals Haiku),
Items have meaning
Clarity obscured
By a web of confusion -
Standard ignorance
Not every user
Has a monitor like yours
Make sites adaptive
Turn off CSS
Read your markup on the screen
Does it still make sense?
Just because you can
Add all those flashy effects
Doesn’t mean you should
Shut down Photoshop
Design around the content
Adaptive layout
Table based layouts
With inline styles and font tags
Make the angels barf
HTML 5 is your CSS3 dream come true. Don’t blow it on canvas.
The cure for a bad website is Web Standards.
There is no cure for Web Standards.
(blatantly adapted from Dorothy Parker)
HTML5 + CSS3 : web domination, NOW !
(blatantly adapted from Linus Torvalds)
Intellectual property ? What’s that ? a mental disease ?
You have to @font-face the reality : your browser is obsolete.
New acronym: MISS (Make It Standard, Stupid).
Client : Hey, your code doesn’t validate.
Developer : nor does your validator.
Web standards are dead. Long live to Web Standards !
Adding extra divs
just to make it work
misses the whole point
(Jeez — my syllable counting is impaired today)
Adding extra divs
just to match the Photoshop
misses the whole point
Progressive degradation of old browsers gracefully enhances your life.
At least with tables
layout worked in all browsers.
Take another lap.
Christmas wishlist :
- responsive web design
- responsible web markup
OK, last one (not exactly a haiku ! ). Inspired by M. King.
Let Standards ring. And when this happens, and when we allow Standards ring, when we let them ring from every website and every blog, from every server and every provider, we will be able to speed up that day when all of the Internet’s children — Explorer and Firefox, Chrome and Safari — will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Internet song: “Standards at last! Standards at last! Thank God Almighty, we are Standards-compliant !”
So the haiku version would be:
I have a dream.
Let Standards ring.
Ah, Obsolescence!
Clouds open; it’s time to go.
Your Flash burns my eyes.
With W’s 3
Wistful, We Whistle.
Weep, Wail or ceaselessly Whine,
Dubya 3 ain’t 2
——
Practice to deceive
you’re Wicked Web Ways you Pricks!
Standards are coming!
———- or ——————
A sole thought whispers
on a silent, moonless night
a standard revealed
——
My last search is done.
The internet is over…
My dog wants to eat.
——
Thinkin’ bout standards….
A yellow cab blasts it’s horn!
?%#&*#@! *$%@!#n’ cabbie!
If only standards
were as common as white bread
It’s starting to snow
Thinkin’ bout standards….
A yellow cab blasts it’s horn!
?%#&*#@! *$%@!#n’ cabbie!
A sole thought whispers
on a silent, moonless night
a standard revealed
Wistful, We Whistle.
Weep, Wail or ceaselessly Whine,
Dubya 3 ain’t 2
Wish for a New Year!
A web that follows standards…
Someone wake me up.
I dress in all black,
I’m Creative Director.
Clients extoll me.
In this world, know me
by the standards that I use.
Where’s my Blue Beanie?
I stand by standards,
my search-friendly sites load fast!
I sleep very well….
She knows my standards.
I hear her breathing quicken,
I can wait no more…..
I like my standards
the way I like my coffee
with cream & sugar
What am I doing
on Christmas Eve? I can’t believe,
I’m writing haiku
IE, ooh, IE
6, 7, 8, 9, we endure
Ooh, IE, no more