Unlike last year, this time I'm ready for the coming of Blue Beanie Day 2008. OK, so it's not as if I marked it on my calendar and looked forward to it all year like a child waiting for Christmas, but now that I've joined the Designing With Web Standards group on Facebook it's become somebody else's responsibility to inform me of said event. So when I got the message/call-to-arms a couple days ago, I almost mistook today for Blue Beanie Day; I even took my navy-blue NY baseball cap into work instead of my usual orange and black SF Giants one. Yes, you read that right; I actually don't have a blue beanie. Thankfully this extra week gives me time to prepare, properly.

Now, to find a blue beanie...

Through the blog of another web developer, I learned that last Monday (Nov 26) was designated 'Blue Beanie Day', an arbitrary day of the year given to the idea of promoting Internet page design with web standards and accessibility in mind. You'd best read Veerle's blog in that link as most of her experiences co-incide with my own and several others out there.

So what does Blue Beanie Day mean to me? 2 parts making life easier, 1 part Microsoft-bashing.

A lack of standards is like when a co-worker shares their holiday pics from their X-dot-Y megapixel camera, but then find that your 500-in-1 flash memory reader doesn't read that 501st format that your workmate somehow uses. Web developers face similar annoyances, except for us it's usually "Why doesn't (feature X) work in IE!??!"

Ah yes, what rant about standards would be complete without mentioning Internet Explorer - the least standards-compliant browser in circulation. We could save ourselves some trouble and all just follow IE, but most people generally aren't that fond of a corporation that electronically ass-rapes us on a daily basis. That, and we like choice (yeah, it's actually all about choice, but I just wanted to squeeze 'ass-rape' in there).

The day I no longer have to provide an IE-specific stylesheet for this site is the day pigs start developing wings. It's still a day I'd like to see in my lifetime, so the next time Blue Beanie Day (or some similar event) takes place, tell all your website-making friends, bring along any cute and opinionless children, and rally behind the cause!