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dedicated to
June 20, 2010 - 22:31
- fathers day
What better occasion to share a brief writeup on my father than on father's day?
A few weeks ago the program for his school's athletic banquet was dedicated to him with the following words:
We dedicate the 44th Annual Athletic Banquet program book to Tom DeSantis. Tom DeSantis began his teaching career in 1973 at Holy Trinity School and later served as Principal at Our Lady of Pompeii School. In 1993 he was named Assistant Principal at Bishop Grimes Junior-Senior High School. Tom is affectionately known by all as "Mr. D". The scope of his role at Bishop Grimes goes beyond his responsibilities for Student Activities and Student Discipline. Although he is "tough" on the kids and maintains very high expectations for them, he is well respected by the students and is a valuable asset to the school. Aside from the disciplinary side of Mr. D, he is also a source of support, strength and guidance for many. He will offer heartfelt words of encouragement and even an "I love you" to his students who may be having a difficult time. And he can be heard daily during the dismissal announcements, where he always ends with "And remember, that God does love you!"
Mr. D. is always a positive support for our students, whether in academics or athletics. When it comes to athletics, he genuinely enjoys taking part as a spectator. You can find him in the stands at football and soccer games, basketball and volleyball games, and baseball, softball and lacrosse games. He attends both home and away games, always ready and willing to cheer our Grimes athletes on. Mr. D has even gone so far as to put his mustache on the line as an incentive to have the athletes strive harder in their competitions and to win at the state level. If any of our teams were to reach this achievement, he is willing to shave off his mustache, a sight that no one has everseen, not even his wife!
We thank Mr. D for his continued support to our children and athletes. And in his, own words, as can be viewed inside the program book, "The mustache remains!"
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/180.jpg' width='399' height='612' /][/DIV_IMG]
I think that write up is great, but obviously not even close to as great as my dad :)
Happy fathers day to him and all the other dad's out there!
A few weeks ago the program for his school's athletic banquet was dedicated to him with the following words:
We dedicate the 44th Annual Athletic Banquet program book to Tom DeSantis. Tom DeSantis began his teaching career in 1973 at Holy Trinity School and later served as Principal at Our Lady of Pompeii School. In 1993 he was named Assistant Principal at Bishop Grimes Junior-Senior High School. Tom is affectionately known by all as "Mr. D". The scope of his role at Bishop Grimes goes beyond his responsibilities for Student Activities and Student Discipline. Although he is "tough" on the kids and maintains very high expectations for them, he is well respected by the students and is a valuable asset to the school. Aside from the disciplinary side of Mr. D, he is also a source of support, strength and guidance for many. He will offer heartfelt words of encouragement and even an "I love you" to his students who may be having a difficult time. And he can be heard daily during the dismissal announcements, where he always ends with "And remember, that God does love you!"
Mr. D. is always a positive support for our students, whether in academics or athletics. When it comes to athletics, he genuinely enjoys taking part as a spectator. You can find him in the stands at football and soccer games, basketball and volleyball games, and baseball, softball and lacrosse games. He attends both home and away games, always ready and willing to cheer our Grimes athletes on. Mr. D has even gone so far as to put his mustache on the line as an incentive to have the athletes strive harder in their competitions and to win at the state level. If any of our teams were to reach this achievement, he is willing to shave off his mustache, a sight that no one has everseen, not even his wife!
We thank Mr. D for his continued support to our children and athletes. And in his, own words, as can be viewed inside the program book, "The mustache remains!"
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/180.jpg' width='399' height='612' /][/DIV_IMG]
I think that write up is great, but obviously not even close to as great as my dad :)
Happy fathers day to him and all the other dad's out there!
the bad type of drama
June 18, 2010 - 23:6
- World Cup - Phish
I just finished watching the replay of the US v Slovenia match from earlier today, I can not begin to express my frustration with the the fact that the match ended as draw.
-lapses in our defense unsurprisingly plagued us match long
-we had some missed finishing opportunities during the first half and more during the second. there were several occasions where we were extremely close to getting the ball in the back of the net.
-the referee, [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koman_Coulibaly" target="_blank"]Koman Coulibaly[/a], called an absolutely horrible game. he made some disgusting judgments on several key opportunistic moments in our pursuit for the win, with the most significant being our go ahead goal in the 86th minute. hopefully the referee will offer an explanation of what he saw when he blew the whistle, which was fairly early into the beginning of the free kick that the alleged foul occurred during. worthy to note, no explanation can be made that would clarify the yellow card given to Findley during the 1st half. even if there was a hand ball, which there wasn't, it certainly could not be considered intentional and therefore worthy of the card given. normally a yellow card would not be worth mentioning again, accept that our forward will now have to miss next weeks incredibly important game.
and...sportscenter just said there has been a key development in the story surrounding the aforementioned referee/call...the World Cup drama continues!
I have loved every minute of the WC, I really hope we beat Algeria (like we should) next week so we advance to the round of 16.
Last weeks party for the US v England game was more than I could have hoped for, it was literally perfect.
Phish concert at [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Performing_Arts_Center" target="_blank"]SPAC[/a] tomorrow, fathers day BBQ Sunday, good night.
-lapses in our defense unsurprisingly plagued us match long
-we had some missed finishing opportunities during the first half and more during the second. there were several occasions where we were extremely close to getting the ball in the back of the net.
-the referee, [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koman_Coulibaly" target="_blank"]Koman Coulibaly[/a], called an absolutely horrible game. he made some disgusting judgments on several key opportunistic moments in our pursuit for the win, with the most significant being our go ahead goal in the 86th minute. hopefully the referee will offer an explanation of what he saw when he blew the whistle, which was fairly early into the beginning of the free kick that the alleged foul occurred during. worthy to note, no explanation can be made that would clarify the yellow card given to Findley during the 1st half. even if there was a hand ball, which there wasn't, it certainly could not be considered intentional and therefore worthy of the card given. normally a yellow card would not be worth mentioning again, accept that our forward will now have to miss next weeks incredibly important game.
and...sportscenter just said there has been a key development in the story surrounding the aforementioned referee/call...the World Cup drama continues!
I have loved every minute of the WC, I really hope we beat Algeria (like we should) next week so we advance to the round of 16.
Last weeks party for the US v England game was more than I could have hoped for, it was literally perfect.
Phish concert at [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Performing_Arts_Center" target="_blank"]SPAC[/a] tomorrow, fathers day BBQ Sunday, good night.
The World Cup Bachelorette
June 7, 2010 - 21:3
- iPad - iPhone - LOST - Vegas - World Cup
Some talking points made up of the past few days, months, years:
-I'm still a big fan of warm sunny days. I will notify this blog if that ever changes and will continue to reiterate my enjoyment of said weather conditions as often as I think of it. Snow is OK, but lately all it does is give me a deeper appreciation of life without it.
-I'm still a big fan of thunderstorms, especially when it is warm enough to leave the windows open. Thunderstorms that come in after very warm sunny days are nice, they cool down everything and give you time to sit inside and recover from being out in the sun.
-Maybe I should have been a meteorologist if I like talking about the weather so much. Have you ever consciously avoided talking about the weather in a conversation because you don't want to fall back on the easiest topic ever to talk about? Does everyone think about that stuff? Levels of conversation deepness, that could be a fun blog topic, so good a whole section dedicated to why, thus far, I am not a fan of jQuery over pure JavaScript.
-The series finale of LOST was satisfying. I am looking forward to re-watching every episode with a piece of paper and pencil so I can document a lot of different things, with the hopes of obtaining complete clarity of what happened. "Complete Clarity"... sounds like something a monk dedicates their life pursuing.
-I think I would rather document those LOST episode on an iPad. I want an iPad, even more (I think) than the new iPhone released today.The thing is, the second generation iPad will likely have a front facing camera like todays iPhone, and video chatting on the iPad would be awesomeeeeeeee.
-One of the most appealing features of the new iPhone is the improved still/video camera. Two weeks ago I went to vegas with a ton of people for an inevitably amazing time. There was a small handful of times that I wished I had a point and shoot camera. I had my phone, and used it, but having at least a 5 megapixel camera plus HD video would have been very much more preferred; the new iPhone will provide that point and shoot functionality.
two picture from vegas not taken with my phone:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/179.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/177.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]enter picture caption [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-The first picture was when a subset of us went on a desert dune buggy adventure. I don't throw the word [i]adventure[/i] around loosely. I use it in the context of defining a period of time when you were doing something really fun and really scary and you thought you might die.
-The second picture is a group shot from one of the nights. I was sporting the jersey from the US away kit that I purchased for the upcoming World Cup. I couldn't be more excited about the World Cup starting this weekend. It is like the excitement I get from the Olympics, times a ton. I am fortunate to have the perfect upcoming weekend lined up for the US v England game, a weekend too perfect for my words.
-The bachelorette is on in the background. Ridiculous yet oddly appealing. Anything to get me pumped up for my soccer game tonight at 9:55. Seriously, 9:55? I have a 7am meeting I need to be at, coming home all riled up and sweaty at 11p is not helping with my sleep needs.
-Speaking of sports, I might as well jinx my whole softball season right now, because we are currently 5-0. The best start ever from the most unlikely softball captain/coach/whatever ever. Worthy to note though, I did accomplish something last week that I rarely do, a home run during our latest victory. Yes, I find that very worthy to note.
And...I'm done.
Time for a quick game of FIFA 10 World Cup with Clarker13, one of my favorite inside activities ever.
-I'm still a big fan of warm sunny days. I will notify this blog if that ever changes and will continue to reiterate my enjoyment of said weather conditions as often as I think of it. Snow is OK, but lately all it does is give me a deeper appreciation of life without it.
-I'm still a big fan of thunderstorms, especially when it is warm enough to leave the windows open. Thunderstorms that come in after very warm sunny days are nice, they cool down everything and give you time to sit inside and recover from being out in the sun.
-Maybe I should have been a meteorologist if I like talking about the weather so much. Have you ever consciously avoided talking about the weather in a conversation because you don't want to fall back on the easiest topic ever to talk about? Does everyone think about that stuff? Levels of conversation deepness, that could be a fun blog topic, so good a whole section dedicated to why, thus far, I am not a fan of jQuery over pure JavaScript.
-The series finale of LOST was satisfying. I am looking forward to re-watching every episode with a piece of paper and pencil so I can document a lot of different things, with the hopes of obtaining complete clarity of what happened. "Complete Clarity"... sounds like something a monk dedicates their life pursuing.
-I think I would rather document those LOST episode on an iPad. I want an iPad, even more (I think) than the new iPhone released today.The thing is, the second generation iPad will likely have a front facing camera like todays iPhone, and video chatting on the iPad would be awesomeeeeeeee.
-One of the most appealing features of the new iPhone is the improved still/video camera. Two weeks ago I went to vegas with a ton of people for an inevitably amazing time. There was a small handful of times that I wished I had a point and shoot camera. I had my phone, and used it, but having at least a 5 megapixel camera plus HD video would have been very much more preferred; the new iPhone will provide that point and shoot functionality.
two picture from vegas not taken with my phone:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/179.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/177.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]enter picture caption [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-The first picture was when a subset of us went on a desert dune buggy adventure. I don't throw the word [i]adventure[/i] around loosely. I use it in the context of defining a period of time when you were doing something really fun and really scary and you thought you might die.
-The second picture is a group shot from one of the nights. I was sporting the jersey from the US away kit that I purchased for the upcoming World Cup. I couldn't be more excited about the World Cup starting this weekend. It is like the excitement I get from the Olympics, times a ton. I am fortunate to have the perfect upcoming weekend lined up for the US v England game, a weekend too perfect for my words.
-The bachelorette is on in the background. Ridiculous yet oddly appealing. Anything to get me pumped up for my soccer game tonight at 9:55. Seriously, 9:55? I have a 7am meeting I need to be at, coming home all riled up and sweaty at 11p is not helping with my sleep needs.
-Speaking of sports, I might as well jinx my whole softball season right now, because we are currently 5-0. The best start ever from the most unlikely softball captain/coach/whatever ever. Worthy to note though, I did accomplish something last week that I rarely do, a home run during our latest victory. Yes, I find that very worthy to note.
And...I'm done.
Time for a quick game of FIFA 10 World Cup with Clarker13, one of my favorite inside activities ever.
LOST
May 23, 2010 - 19:8
The 5 hour LOST series finale just began.
The LOST party went all out tonight with a huge multi-course feast.
It is a fitting send off, as we have been sharing each episode together for the past three seasons.
I love LOST, I really appreciate the journey the writers have taken us on.
All the questions raised and characters carefully developed, this series has been brilliant.
I'm going to miss LOST.
The questions, mysteries, parties, and 'water cooler' chatter.
That's all for now.
From the inside, out, get LOST.
The LOST party went all out tonight with a huge multi-course feast.
It is a fitting send off, as we have been sharing each episode together for the past three seasons.
I love LOST, I really appreciate the journey the writers have taken us on.
All the questions raised and characters carefully developed, this series has been brilliant.
I'm going to miss LOST.
The questions, mysteries, parties, and 'water cooler' chatter.
That's all for now.
From the inside, out, get LOST.
a pseudo road map to CT
April 28, 2010 - 20:41
- web dev - ct
A few weeks ago I made a sudden switch in the project I spend my personal time working on. For no specific reason I took a few months off of working on CT. Stepping away from CT allowed me to pick it back up with a refreshed sense of clarity on where the site was and where it needed to be.
A few years ago, my partner on this project and I spent a very long time planning out the foundation of the site. We thought on a big scale when we laid out exactly how a site of this manor needed to be designed, at least from a database perspective at that point in the process. We knew that we wouldn't immediately have time to build the vast majority of functionality we envisioned, but we could at least build the database in a way to support that functionality as we had time to add it.
After the database foundation was laid we started building core site functionality, the functions that would populate all those database tables we had planned out and built. Next we started building the functions to take all that data a few steps further. Step by step we were getting close to completing a circle of functionality, one in which every step a person needed to take to use the site was in place and connected.
So we get to a point where every step in the aforementioned circle is complete, at least pretty much complete, a point where we can start building out secondary functionality, the stuff that will add value to users lives. This part of the development process was interesting, because we had spent so much time working on all the things that users will take for granted, we now have to start building the things that people will actually look at and critique.
We started divvying up some of the new functionality and proceeded on tackling it, but we quickly found ourselves at a point where it wasn't immediately clear how all the new functions where going to talk to each other, the database, and the user. We had some good conversations regarding what approach we were going to take and laid out a pseudo road map of the framework we believed would work on the next phase of the site.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I picked up that pseudo road map and started building it out. I was lucky that part of the functionality we would need for building this framework was already pretty far along the way in development for this site, my home site, with the rest of it needing to be built from scratch. One of the main concepts of the new framework is an approach neither of us was completely convinced was the best one, but one we both agreed would be a good one. The whole "six of one, a half dozen of the other" saying comes to mind when I think about what the best approach for anything is. It comes down to a point where you've gone through the nitty gritty of what you want and don't want and just need to implement it, so I did.
The new framework provides a clear direction for how new functionality should start and provides no ceiling for where it should end. Having it in place allows new functions to be written without the huge burden of jumping through a bunch of hoops just to get it off the ground.
I am very excited for what we have accomplished and what is still to come. The status of the site is very strong and I look forward to writing more detailed descriptions of what is going on with it as well as for the time when I can post the link and invite people to use it.
A few years ago, my partner on this project and I spent a very long time planning out the foundation of the site. We thought on a big scale when we laid out exactly how a site of this manor needed to be designed, at least from a database perspective at that point in the process. We knew that we wouldn't immediately have time to build the vast majority of functionality we envisioned, but we could at least build the database in a way to support that functionality as we had time to add it.
After the database foundation was laid we started building core site functionality, the functions that would populate all those database tables we had planned out and built. Next we started building the functions to take all that data a few steps further. Step by step we were getting close to completing a circle of functionality, one in which every step a person needed to take to use the site was in place and connected.
So we get to a point where every step in the aforementioned circle is complete, at least pretty much complete, a point where we can start building out secondary functionality, the stuff that will add value to users lives. This part of the development process was interesting, because we had spent so much time working on all the things that users will take for granted, we now have to start building the things that people will actually look at and critique.
We started divvying up some of the new functionality and proceeded on tackling it, but we quickly found ourselves at a point where it wasn't immediately clear how all the new functions where going to talk to each other, the database, and the user. We had some good conversations regarding what approach we were going to take and laid out a pseudo road map of the framework we believed would work on the next phase of the site.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I picked up that pseudo road map and started building it out. I was lucky that part of the functionality we would need for building this framework was already pretty far along the way in development for this site, my home site, with the rest of it needing to be built from scratch. One of the main concepts of the new framework is an approach neither of us was completely convinced was the best one, but one we both agreed would be a good one. The whole "six of one, a half dozen of the other" saying comes to mind when I think about what the best approach for anything is. It comes down to a point where you've gone through the nitty gritty of what you want and don't want and just need to implement it, so I did.
The new framework provides a clear direction for how new functionality should start and provides no ceiling for where it should end. Having it in place allows new functions to be written without the huge burden of jumping through a bunch of hoops just to get it off the ground.
I am very excited for what we have accomplished and what is still to come. The status of the site is very strong and I look forward to writing more detailed descriptions of what is going on with it as well as for the time when I can post the link and invite people to use it.
a picture is worth...
April 21, 2010 - 21:2
collecting coins can pay off:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/175.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
before West Virginia VS Kentucky in the Elite Eight at the Dome:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/171.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
glazed doughnut + double bacon cheeseburger:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/172.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
mmm...leftovers...my mom is the best cook ever:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/174.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
Scottie and I played with another MW2 clan called 0CT0, pretty random:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/176.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
action shot during the dodgeball tournament:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/170.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
from the inside, out... talk to you soon
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/175.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
before West Virginia VS Kentucky in the Elite Eight at the Dome:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/171.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
glazed doughnut + double bacon cheeseburger:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/172.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
mmm...leftovers...my mom is the best cook ever:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/174.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][/DIV_IMG]
Scottie and I played with another MW2 clan called 0CT0, pretty random:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/176.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
action shot during the dodgeball tournament:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/170.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
from the inside, out... talk to you soon
"Harry holds court"
March 8, 2010 - 16:48
- video - SU Basketball - Papou
Last week, SU's [a href="http://newhouse.syr.edu/" target="_blank"]S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications[/a] did an [a href=" http://www.thenewshouse.com/story/harry-holds-court" target="_blank"]article[/a] on one of my close friends grandfather, or as he is most commonly known by his family and friends 'Papou'. As the article and video show, he is an amazing person on many different levels. I'm very happy I've had the chance to spend some time with him over the years. The article and video are definitely worth checking out.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
mail call
February 25, 2010 - 21:37
I'm so excited about some items I received in the mail over the past week, I just had to share it with someone.
- Adidas Yoda sneakers. The credit getting these goes to my man Skiz, who called me at like 7am a few weeks ago letting me know a pair of these incredibly hard to get bad boys were available in my size. I quickly snatched them up and now look at them every night before bed, just dreaming of the day when I do something cool/important enough to wear them. I feel like the designers for all of the kicks in the Star Wars line set out with the goal of creating footwear that the characters would wear in real life, if Adidas existed in the Star Wars universe.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/168.png' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]Adidas Yoda kicks [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
- NCAA East Regional Tickets. Once again, the credit for obtaining these bad boys goes to a friend, who alerted me last year to the fact that a lottery was about to take place to get ticket packages for the NCAA men's b'ball East Regionals, which is taking place in Syracuse. Even though the rules disallow a team from playing in their home venue, the three games that take place in these rounds will undoubtedly be awesome. I entered the lottery, not thinking I would get the option to buy early tickets, but voila, I ended up getting four sets. Last time I went to a tournament game was in '03 to watch 'Cuse in the Elite Eight beat Oklahoma, in Boston...which as we all know, was the year we went all the way!
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/169.png' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]NCAA tix [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
That's my exciting mail, and now we are all like best friends for sharing that moment together.
I just got back (in this ugly weather) from paying my teams entry fee for a dodge ball tournament that is taking place next weekend. I haven't played dodge ball since elementary school, I doubt anyone on the team has either, but it should be great. Our team is made up of people from my soccer and softball teams, which are kind of close to dodge ball, I guess. The tournament should be fun, and the pub crawl afterwords should be amazing.
Some interesting things have happened in the past few days, unrelated to anything above, unrelated to anything I will talk about in this public forum, but interesting enough to note in this vague fashion.
OK, almost done.
Time to play some 'FIFA Ultimate Team', which came out today as an add-on for FIFA10 for Xbox360...which will unfortunately be followed by an indoor soccer game starting at 10:55 tonight...super UGGGG to super late games on school nights.
And in closing, I would like to say 'ditto' and thank you to the Smith's, who I miss and love a ton.
Staying dry and warm on the inside, good night.
- Adidas Yoda sneakers. The credit getting these goes to my man Skiz, who called me at like 7am a few weeks ago letting me know a pair of these incredibly hard to get bad boys were available in my size. I quickly snatched them up and now look at them every night before bed, just dreaming of the day when I do something cool/important enough to wear them. I feel like the designers for all of the kicks in the Star Wars line set out with the goal of creating footwear that the characters would wear in real life, if Adidas existed in the Star Wars universe.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/168.png' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]Adidas Yoda kicks [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
- NCAA East Regional Tickets. Once again, the credit for obtaining these bad boys goes to a friend, who alerted me last year to the fact that a lottery was about to take place to get ticket packages for the NCAA men's b'ball East Regionals, which is taking place in Syracuse. Even though the rules disallow a team from playing in their home venue, the three games that take place in these rounds will undoubtedly be awesome. I entered the lottery, not thinking I would get the option to buy early tickets, but voila, I ended up getting four sets. Last time I went to a tournament game was in '03 to watch 'Cuse in the Elite Eight beat Oklahoma, in Boston...which as we all know, was the year we went all the way!
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/169.png' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]NCAA tix [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
That's my exciting mail, and now we are all like best friends for sharing that moment together.
I just got back (in this ugly weather) from paying my teams entry fee for a dodge ball tournament that is taking place next weekend. I haven't played dodge ball since elementary school, I doubt anyone on the team has either, but it should be great. Our team is made up of people from my soccer and softball teams, which are kind of close to dodge ball, I guess. The tournament should be fun, and the pub crawl afterwords should be amazing.
Some interesting things have happened in the past few days, unrelated to anything above, unrelated to anything I will talk about in this public forum, but interesting enough to note in this vague fashion.
OK, almost done.
Time to play some 'FIFA Ultimate Team', which came out today as an add-on for FIFA10 for Xbox360...which will unfortunately be followed by an indoor soccer game starting at 10:55 tonight...super UGGGG to super late games on school nights.
And in closing, I would like to say 'ditto' and thank you to the Smith's, who I miss and love a ton.
Staying dry and warm on the inside, good night.
from the inside, out
February 17, 2010 - 22:50
- ipad - sandbox - Olympics - LOST - splash
I know I haven't written anything lately, but it's not because I don't care.
It's actually the opposite, I've been updating a ton of code on this site over the past few months and I hope to make a lot of the new stuff live soon.
Ugg to me for it taking this long, but a lot of the new stuff I write will be used in CT, making the process worthwhile but time consuming.
After this next round of updates are made to this site, I hope my blog posts are shorter but more on point to one topic/issue/idea/whatever and more frequent.
Until then, here is the run down:
-LOST is amazing, obviously. Last night's episode was one of my favorite in a while. I really enjoy the way the story line has focused on Jacob and the 'Man in Black' as well as the 'flash sideways' or whatever they are called. The latter is really enjoyable because we get to see these characters who we've spent the past handful of years learning about get put in situations that we can really appreciate, enjoy, and ponder. It's going to be sad to see LOST come to an end but I will always appreciate the years we had together.
[i]'Tis better to have loved and LOST than never to have loved at all [/i]
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
-The 2010 Winter Olympics have been awesome (minus the tragedy involving [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodar_Kumaritashvili" target="_blank"]Nodar Kumaritashvili[/a]). I always enjoy watching the obscure sports we rarely get exposed to on network tv. Thus far though, I am unsure what type of medal Vancouver would get for it's job hosting, we will have to judge once it's all said and done.
-iPad : I would like one when it comes out, but will hopefully be able to wait until one is released with a front facing camera. The ability to video chat on one of those things is just too appealing to not wait for (hopefully). I don't want to get into the details of my opinion on the new device at this time but I am excited to use one at sometime in the near future.
-the worlds best mother is also the world best cook:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/166.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Mom and me, picture taken by Dad [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-sometimes, some things I am working on are in a sandbox that is live on this site, feel free to check it out sometime, but be warned that you will likely find many of the items boring and broken :)
[a href=" http://sethdesantis.com/sandbox/" target="_blank"]sandbox link[/a]
good night friends.
It's actually the opposite, I've been updating a ton of code on this site over the past few months and I hope to make a lot of the new stuff live soon.
Ugg to me for it taking this long, but a lot of the new stuff I write will be used in CT, making the process worthwhile but time consuming.
After this next round of updates are made to this site, I hope my blog posts are shorter but more on point to one topic/issue/idea/whatever and more frequent.
Until then, here is the run down:
-LOST is amazing, obviously. Last night's episode was one of my favorite in a while. I really enjoy the way the story line has focused on Jacob and the 'Man in Black' as well as the 'flash sideways' or whatever they are called. The latter is really enjoyable because we get to see these characters who we've spent the past handful of years learning about get put in situations that we can really appreciate, enjoy, and ponder. It's going to be sad to see LOST come to an end but I will always appreciate the years we had together.
[i]'Tis better to have loved and LOST than never to have loved at all [/i]
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
-The 2010 Winter Olympics have been awesome (minus the tragedy involving [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodar_Kumaritashvili" target="_blank"]Nodar Kumaritashvili[/a]). I always enjoy watching the obscure sports we rarely get exposed to on network tv. Thus far though, I am unsure what type of medal Vancouver would get for it's job hosting, we will have to judge once it's all said and done.
-iPad : I would like one when it comes out, but will hopefully be able to wait until one is released with a front facing camera. The ability to video chat on one of those things is just too appealing to not wait for (hopefully). I don't want to get into the details of my opinion on the new device at this time but I am excited to use one at sometime in the near future.
-the worlds best mother is also the world best cook:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/166.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Mom and me, picture taken by Dad [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-sometimes, some things I am working on are in a sandbox that is live on this site, feel free to check it out sometime, but be warned that you will likely find many of the items boring and broken :)
[a href=" http://sethdesantis.com/sandbox/" target="_blank"]sandbox link[/a]
good night friends.
the short list
December 30, 2009 - 16:38
- Christmas - Cooperstown - Cuse - web dev - LOST
Lets make some bullets of the bast few weeks, in no particular order:
-Christmas was great. My Dad's side of the family came over Christmas Eve, it's always great seeing my older and younger cousins. We spent Christmas Day with some family friends which was very nice. Both days were filled with a seemingly unlimited supply of amazing food. My mom is hands down the best cook I know.
-2010 is right around the corner! I am fortunate to have local plans with some local and out of town friends. I am glad I do not have to travel far this year to be with good friends.
-2009 was a good year. I accomplished a few personal goals that I am pleased about. I feel like I have a good grasp on what I would like to accomplish in 2010. Expect to hear much more chatter about CT, it is on 2010's front burner. Phase 1 of the project is so close to being done, I wouldn't be surprised if it was wrapped up by the end of the 1st quarter.
-Recently I've been spending many hours tightening up the blog code for this site. My progress is currently in the sandbox, ideally I can make the updates live in the next week or two. Please excuse any 'test' blog posts that I have made or will make, sometimes I need to post random things or extreme scenarios for testing purposes.
-LOST! The sixth and final season starts 2/2/10, I am incredibly excited. I've been re-watching the past seasons. I got through Season 3 two weeks ago and am almost done with Season 1, after which I will watch the remaining seasons in their respective orders.
-This year marked my third annual Christmas [post]card. Again, I was late starting them and I believe almost everyone on the list received theirs after Christmas, but I am happy I was able to send one out. Here is a picture of my setup for taking the picture I used for the card:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/165.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]set up for 2009 Christmas Card cover [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-"The 'Cuse is in the House", OMG, OMG. The Orange have been having a great season thus far, I really hope they continue winning. I was able to watch them play my Alma Mater two weeks ago. It was a win win night, with 'Cuse winning and me getting to see a lot of old friends.
Alright.
From the inside, out, see ya next year!
-Christmas was great. My Dad's side of the family came over Christmas Eve, it's always great seeing my older and younger cousins. We spent Christmas Day with some family friends which was very nice. Both days were filled with a seemingly unlimited supply of amazing food. My mom is hands down the best cook I know.
-2010 is right around the corner! I am fortunate to have local plans with some local and out of town friends. I am glad I do not have to travel far this year to be with good friends.
-2009 was a good year. I accomplished a few personal goals that I am pleased about. I feel like I have a good grasp on what I would like to accomplish in 2010. Expect to hear much more chatter about CT, it is on 2010's front burner. Phase 1 of the project is so close to being done, I wouldn't be surprised if it was wrapped up by the end of the 1st quarter.
-Recently I've been spending many hours tightening up the blog code for this site. My progress is currently in the sandbox, ideally I can make the updates live in the next week or two. Please excuse any 'test' blog posts that I have made or will make, sometimes I need to post random things or extreme scenarios for testing purposes.
-LOST! The sixth and final season starts 2/2/10, I am incredibly excited. I've been re-watching the past seasons. I got through Season 3 two weeks ago and am almost done with Season 1, after which I will watch the remaining seasons in their respective orders.
-This year marked my third annual Christmas [post]card. Again, I was late starting them and I believe almost everyone on the list received theirs after Christmas, but I am happy I was able to send one out. Here is a picture of my setup for taking the picture I used for the card:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/165.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]set up for 2009 Christmas Card cover [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-"The 'Cuse is in the House", OMG, OMG. The Orange have been having a great season thus far, I really hope they continue winning. I was able to watch them play my Alma Mater two weeks ago. It was a win win night, with 'Cuse winning and me getting to see a lot of old friends.
Alright.
From the inside, out, see ya next year!
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December 27, 2009 - 11:11
- testing - things
test post, to be used to test new blog functions. entry to be deleted.
code test:
[code] /*check and insert tags */
var div_tagRow = document.createElement("div");
var div_tagCell = document.createElement("div");
//get tags
var xmlTags = xmlEntries[numEntry].getElementsByTagName("Tag");
if (xmlTags.length > 0) {
//creat tag row div
journal_container.appendChild(div_tagRow);
for (numTags = 0; numTags < xmlTags.length; numTags++) {
var tag = xmlTags[numTags].firstChild.data;
div_tagCell.innerHTML = tag;
div_tagCell.onclick = function() {
var tt = this.innerHTML;
get_post('', tt, '');
};
div_tagRow.appendChild(div_tagCell);
}
var spacer = document.createElement("div");
spacer.className = "spacer";
div_tagRow.appendChild(spacer);
}[/code]
code test:
[code] /*check and insert tags */
var div_tagRow = document.createElement("div");
var div_tagCell = document.createElement("div");
//get tags
var xmlTags = xmlEntries[numEntry].getElementsByTagName("Tag");
if (xmlTags.length > 0) {
//creat tag row div
journal_container.appendChild(div_tagRow);
for (numTags = 0; numTags < xmlTags.length; numTags++) {
var tag = xmlTags[numTags].firstChild.data;
div_tagCell.innerHTML = tag;
div_tagCell.onclick = function() {
var tt = this.innerHTML;
get_post('', tt, '');
};
div_tagRow.appendChild(div_tagCell);
}
var spacer = document.createElement("div");
spacer.className = "spacer";
div_tagRow.appendChild(spacer);
}[/code]
two thirds
December 7, 2009 - 18:33
I can't read that last blog post in one sitting, I promise to try to never write anything so convoluted again.
It's been a busy few months, but not too busy for me to write any posts, I really don't have any good excuses.
There's a bunch of things that I would have liked to talk about over the past few months, but let's keep this short.
-the 2009 wedding season ended three weeks ago with the wedding of the first friend I had in life. The mass gave me the second opportunity this year to visit the church that is connected to the elementary school I attended growing up and the reception was held at the Hotel Syracuse grand ball room, one of my favorite reception venues in Syracuse. It was a fantastic evening that allowed me to reconnect with some elementary and high school friends who I had not scene in a long time. A few weeks prior to that wedding I attended a slightly unique ceremony/reception, as both were held at the [a href="http://www.rmsc.org/" target="_blank"]Rochester Museum & Science Center[/a]. The ceremony was held in the planetarium and was accompanied by a unique show/narration for the couple getting married. Having a reception in a museum is a great idea, definitely a fun night.
-softball is over, we ended up making playoffs for our fall season but didn't advance past the first round (not too disappointing considering how cold it was for some of our final games). Indoor soccer started a few weeks ago and is progressing nicely.
-i went to my first Phish show two weeks ago. I can honestly say that it was one of the top experiences of my life. No need to get into the details,I can sum it all up by stating that it was a very special evening that I was fortunate to participate in with some close friends. I am unsure if I will ever end up at another show but I appreciate the fact that I was able to get a worthy glimpse of the scene that so many of my friends have been a part of for many years.
taking pics/vids was the last thing on my mind during the show, but I did manage to take two quick clips, with the longer one posted below. it does not come close to capturing the feeling of being there:
-thanksgiving was awesome, got to spend it with friends and family, can never go wrong there.
-FIFA10 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are two of the most amazing games ever made, maybe I will discuss both in more detail at a later date.
-incredibly excited for the draw the USA got for the upcoming [a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/ " target="_blank"]World Cup[/a]. It's great that we are in a group that I can see us advancing out of and it is great that we will get to see a match vs England. I really can't even get into how excited I am for all of this to begin in the summer.
All right. That was clean and simple, albeit probably pretty boring for you.
From the inside, out, good night.
It's been a busy few months, but not too busy for me to write any posts, I really don't have any good excuses.
There's a bunch of things that I would have liked to talk about over the past few months, but let's keep this short.
-the 2009 wedding season ended three weeks ago with the wedding of the first friend I had in life. The mass gave me the second opportunity this year to visit the church that is connected to the elementary school I attended growing up and the reception was held at the Hotel Syracuse grand ball room, one of my favorite reception venues in Syracuse. It was a fantastic evening that allowed me to reconnect with some elementary and high school friends who I had not scene in a long time. A few weeks prior to that wedding I attended a slightly unique ceremony/reception, as both were held at the [a href="http://www.rmsc.org/" target="_blank"]Rochester Museum & Science Center[/a]. The ceremony was held in the planetarium and was accompanied by a unique show/narration for the couple getting married. Having a reception in a museum is a great idea, definitely a fun night.
-softball is over, we ended up making playoffs for our fall season but didn't advance past the first round (not too disappointing considering how cold it was for some of our final games). Indoor soccer started a few weeks ago and is progressing nicely.
-i went to my first Phish show two weeks ago. I can honestly say that it was one of the top experiences of my life. No need to get into the details,I can sum it all up by stating that it was a very special evening that I was fortunate to participate in with some close friends. I am unsure if I will ever end up at another show but I appreciate the fact that I was able to get a worthy glimpse of the scene that so many of my friends have been a part of for many years.
taking pics/vids was the last thing on my mind during the show, but I did manage to take two quick clips, with the longer one posted below. it does not come close to capturing the feeling of being there:
-thanksgiving was awesome, got to spend it with friends and family, can never go wrong there.
-FIFA10 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are two of the most amazing games ever made, maybe I will discuss both in more detail at a later date.
-incredibly excited for the draw the USA got for the upcoming [a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/ " target="_blank"]World Cup[/a]. It's great that we are in a group that I can see us advancing out of and it is great that we will get to see a match vs England. I really can't even get into how excited I am for all of this to begin in the summer.
All right. That was clean and simple, albeit probably pretty boring for you.
From the inside, out, good night.
i'm lost without you
September 13, 2009 - 12:32
I'm currently sitting on a train heading to Albany, while my phone is sitting in my friend's car in Buffalo. It took about ten minutes for me to fully accept what had happened and it took about another ten minutes for me to be OK with the idea of having no connection to the outside world, accept for whatever is going on in my physical location. The phone has traditionally made train rides more enjoyable. It allows me to check Facebook as much as I want as well as do a lot of txt messeging. Sometimes I will write some emails or just read random news stories. I don't have many games on it that I play often but I did load Season 3 of LOST on it for me to watch if I got really bored. A while ago there was an application sold for just a few days that allows the phone to share it's internet connection wirelessly with my laptop. If I could do that now I think I would be playing Word Challenge on Facebook. Sometimes I go through phases where I play that game all the time but recently I've only found myself playing it when I am on train rides. I don't have any of those things to do right now and I am trying to prevent myself from getting nervous about when the next time will be that I have my phone back. The biggest case I am arguing to myself against getting nervous is the fact that I am fairly confident that I can sync one of my older phones with my computer when I get home and then have that be setup as my current phone. Part of me feels like there could be an issue with the SIM card or something like that, which I do not know a lot about. If that turns out to be the case then I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that there is an at&t store open somewhere, I am confident that they could get me one of the cards which would allow me to use one of the older phones. Even as I write this, I am having to remain conscience of not allowing my self to get freaked out over all the things I could be doing right now if I had my phone.
Our softball team had a game that was cancelled Friday. I was happy the game was cancelled because I was out of town but I was upset to find out that it had been rescheduled for tomorrow night. This game is game one of playoffs, it is supposed to be at 9pm. The problem is that Friday afternoon, when the league canceled the game due to rain, is also the same day that the league released the schedule for the fall season, and our first game is supposed to be tomorrow night at 7:30pm, at a field across town from where the 9pm game is. As if this logistical dilemma is not enough, it is often difficult to get the full team available for a game when it is rescheduled with short notice. If I had my phone I would be able to contact people regarding the games and maybe contact the league about the logistics problem, I hope our 7:30 game gets changed.
If I can get a phone to work tonight then everything will be OK.
How did people live before cell phones? I remember what the first 15 years of my life were like, before cell phones came out, and I don't remember people freaking out about not being able to check their social networks, email, txt messeges, or be able to make calls. I guess people didn't know what any of those things were at the time, accept the phone calls part, but how did anyone get anything done? How did people communicate? Having to sit at home on a land line and make calls is the worst.
Now I'm starting to think about what people did before there were phones. I actually can't realistically imagine would life would be like without phones. How did anything at all ever come close to getting done, speaking of getting 'it' done, how did 'it' even get started? Did people have to mail letters to other people and companies and stuff? Having to sit at home and write letters to communicate is the worst.
In high school I had a girlfriend for a summer who would write notes and letters and stuff. She would always put the same kind of stickers on it and stuff. Those were pretty cool. In college I had a girlfriend for a long time and over the summers when we were away from each other she would write me a letter each day. That was really cool. At the end of the summer I had a shoebox with stuff having to do with our relationship, including the letters, and when I would look through it, I just couldn't believe how many letters I had. One for every day of the month for like three months. That made me know she liked me, which was cool. I wrote her a few letters, maybe like 5 or 6, maybe less. I always found it easier to talk on the phone, but I never had a shoebox full of phone calls that I could take out and reminisce through.
Maybe I'll write my friend a letter and ask him is he can mail me my cell phone back. That could work. Once I get home I am going to check the MobilMe website to confirm where exactly my phone is, then I'm going to remotely lock it. As long as I can use one of my old phones, I see no reason why I can't send him a self addressed box with a little note. Maybe I will write something like this:
Poop Johnson,
Please plug my phone into an iPod charger for a few hours, then please put it in this box and put it in a mailbox.
Thank you for everything you do and continue to do,
Disco Stu
I'll have him charge it so I can track it on the map during its voyage back home.
There are some groups of friends that call me Disco, others that call me Stu, others that call me both, and a few that call me Seth. Seth was my first name, then my sophomore year of college we were driving in RAC's car to campus and Bard said to me in an English accent that I looked like I Stuart to him. Since then an overwhelming majority of people call me Stu. A subset of friends almost exclusively in the class above us started calling me Disco. I am fairly confident it started with Gman. He would call me Disco, and a few people like Poops Johnson picked up on it, and then when they started going with Disco Stu. It is interesting that there is a Simpsons character by that same name, interesting yet coincidental. I would say that 40% of people in my life call me Seth, 55% call me Stu, and 5% would be categorized as 'other', which would include Disco Stu and Crazy Legs.
I brought Gman with me on a family cruise last month. It was quite amazing. Bermuda is always a nice place to visit, but hanging out with my parents and Gman that much is really what made it special. I'm looking forward to posting some pictures soon.
I've attended three weddings since my last blog post. One was of a good college friend, one was for a cousin who is like my sister and the last one, the one I am traveling back from now, was for a college friend who is like a brother to me. The first and last weddings were in Buffalo with the middle one being close to Philadelphia. Each of the three weddings were incredibly nice and fun, with the last two being slightly more meaningful due to my closeness with the bride and groom and the fact that I was in the wedding parties.
My cousin who got marriedis biologically closer to being a sibling of mine than anyone else on the planet. Her mom and my mom are identical twins, meaning we share a lot of the same genes. She is only three days older than me, so people have always thought we were fraternal twins. Although she has always lived in Pennsylvania, I always saw her a lot growing up. We are close genetically and we are close mentally and emotionally. Seeing her get married and being able to be in the wedding party was very significant to me.
Last nights wedding marked the first time I have been someone's Best Man. My man who got married played an incredibly significant role in my four years of college. We were pretty much attached at the hip every day during the school year, and we also spent two summers working for the university where we were roommates in one of the dorms. He had a job with the admissions department while I had an internship with my Computer Science department making web pages for the different academic departments. Both jobs provided room/board/meals/stipend/ and a course each summer semester. Those summers were amazing, as was pretty much every single day of college. I feel that my childhood summers at our camp are a very close second to my four years of college in regards to the favorite eras of my life up to this point, I am confident that without my friend, my college experience would have not been as meaningful.
Around a month ago I started writing the best man toast as I was on the train from Albany to Buffalo for his bachelor party which I planned in Niagara Falls. At that time I wrote a decent amount of things down. With about two pages of notes I felt confident that I would be able to write something worthy of the person and occasion. For a few weeks before that train ride and every day following it, I would think about the toast. In the shower, on my way to work, all the time. Having spent so much time with my friend, we have been on some amazing, almost unbelievable adventures. I was having a hard time picking stories that a) represented fairly the overall amazingness of our memories and b)did not cause any of the families, guests, or his new bride to disown him after hearing some of our antics. I finished the final touches to what I though I was going to use as my toast on Thursdays train ride. That night I slept fairly soundly, as I had the majority of the toast memorized and was fairly confident it was a good balance of everything the toast should be. It wasn't until after the rehearsal at the mass when we were on the way to the rehearsal dinner that I realized the body of my toast was not good enough to give, in fact I needed to scrap pretty much everything. This was a horrible realization to make, how could I have gotten it so wrong? At this point any slight jitters I had surrounding the toast turned into a case of the absolute worst nerves I have ever experienced. I was an absolute wreck on the inside, my head was filled with disappointment in my ability to write a worthy toast, and I was filled with apprehension about what was going to happen when I had to give the toast and I had nothing to say. It wasn't until yesterday morning that I realized that I needed to accept the fact that I am not nearly as good of a speech writer as I am at simply talking about a topic I know a lot about, in this case my friend. So I was faced with a decision: do I write a mediocre toast or do I deliver a knock out toast? I had no choice but to choose the second option. I was going to give my pre written intro and then hit a few pre designated talking points while filling in everything connecting the talking points on the fly. This was one of the biggest risks I feel like I have ever taken in my life. My nerves were honestly at the highest they have ever been and I expected myself to be able to deliver a 2-3 minute toast on the fly? To make things more interesting, we got pretty tipsy on the limo after the mass while we were driving around taking pictures. Pretty tipsy is an understatement. We destroyed three bottles of champagne and around three cases of beer. I knew that having a few drinks would calm my nerves, even the priest told me that when I told him how nervous I was, but I really had to walk a fine line of not getting wasted. Once we got back to the hotel where the reception was things happened super fast. I would say it was time for me to give my toast within five minutes of our entrance into the reception. Someone announced â it is now time for the toastsâ and someone started walking over with the mic. I descended the two tiered main table that we were all seated at, grabbed the mic down by the audience, and looked up at my buddy and his wife. My head was as empty as it could have been, all I could do was tap my fingers on the mic to make sure it was on. Finally after about one second, which seemed like and eternity, I started. Game time. I got a huge round of laughter and applause after my second sentence, which I wasn't expecting, it was a funny line but I didn't think it would be that big of a hit. I followed that line up with something a tad more funny and realized as quickly as it took to say about four sentences, the crowd, wedding party, bride and groom had my back and were into the toast. I did some super impromptu talking about things that happened in our past together as well as things that happened just a few hours earlier in that day. The toast was probably around the 2 -3 minutes I was aiming for, but to be honest, I don't remember it all that much. It was as if I was blacked out with nervousness. When the toast was over people congratulated me and I felt like the bride and groom truly appreciated my words. The feeling of relief that I felt really cannot be expressed in words. The wedding was amazing, the bride and groom are amazing, my dance moves were amazing (umm, maybe), and I really could not have imagined a more perfect wedding weekend.
Oh boy, this surely has been probably the longest blog post of my life. What else would you have me do though, without a phone or the internet? Read a book? All my audio books are on my phone. Take a nap? Easier said than done with all these people talking and me not having my music on the phone. Maybe I will just keep rambling on about life, I'm sure that soooo many people have already read this far and would just love to keep reading :-)
No, I'll end it now.
Our softball team had a game that was cancelled Friday. I was happy the game was cancelled because I was out of town but I was upset to find out that it had been rescheduled for tomorrow night. This game is game one of playoffs, it is supposed to be at 9pm. The problem is that Friday afternoon, when the league canceled the game due to rain, is also the same day that the league released the schedule for the fall season, and our first game is supposed to be tomorrow night at 7:30pm, at a field across town from where the 9pm game is. As if this logistical dilemma is not enough, it is often difficult to get the full team available for a game when it is rescheduled with short notice. If I had my phone I would be able to contact people regarding the games and maybe contact the league about the logistics problem, I hope our 7:30 game gets changed.
If I can get a phone to work tonight then everything will be OK.
How did people live before cell phones? I remember what the first 15 years of my life were like, before cell phones came out, and I don't remember people freaking out about not being able to check their social networks, email, txt messeges, or be able to make calls. I guess people didn't know what any of those things were at the time, accept the phone calls part, but how did anyone get anything done? How did people communicate? Having to sit at home on a land line and make calls is the worst.
Now I'm starting to think about what people did before there were phones. I actually can't realistically imagine would life would be like without phones. How did anything at all ever come close to getting done, speaking of getting 'it' done, how did 'it' even get started? Did people have to mail letters to other people and companies and stuff? Having to sit at home and write letters to communicate is the worst.
In high school I had a girlfriend for a summer who would write notes and letters and stuff. She would always put the same kind of stickers on it and stuff. Those were pretty cool. In college I had a girlfriend for a long time and over the summers when we were away from each other she would write me a letter each day. That was really cool. At the end of the summer I had a shoebox with stuff having to do with our relationship, including the letters, and when I would look through it, I just couldn't believe how many letters I had. One for every day of the month for like three months. That made me know she liked me, which was cool. I wrote her a few letters, maybe like 5 or 6, maybe less. I always found it easier to talk on the phone, but I never had a shoebox full of phone calls that I could take out and reminisce through.
Maybe I'll write my friend a letter and ask him is he can mail me my cell phone back. That could work. Once I get home I am going to check the MobilMe website to confirm where exactly my phone is, then I'm going to remotely lock it. As long as I can use one of my old phones, I see no reason why I can't send him a self addressed box with a little note. Maybe I will write something like this:
Poop Johnson,
Please plug my phone into an iPod charger for a few hours, then please put it in this box and put it in a mailbox.
Thank you for everything you do and continue to do,
Disco Stu
I'll have him charge it so I can track it on the map during its voyage back home.
There are some groups of friends that call me Disco, others that call me Stu, others that call me both, and a few that call me Seth. Seth was my first name, then my sophomore year of college we were driving in RAC's car to campus and Bard said to me in an English accent that I looked like I Stuart to him. Since then an overwhelming majority of people call me Stu. A subset of friends almost exclusively in the class above us started calling me Disco. I am fairly confident it started with Gman. He would call me Disco, and a few people like Poops Johnson picked up on it, and then when they started going with Disco Stu. It is interesting that there is a Simpsons character by that same name, interesting yet coincidental. I would say that 40% of people in my life call me Seth, 55% call me Stu, and 5% would be categorized as 'other', which would include Disco Stu and Crazy Legs.
I brought Gman with me on a family cruise last month. It was quite amazing. Bermuda is always a nice place to visit, but hanging out with my parents and Gman that much is really what made it special. I'm looking forward to posting some pictures soon.
I've attended three weddings since my last blog post. One was of a good college friend, one was for a cousin who is like my sister and the last one, the one I am traveling back from now, was for a college friend who is like a brother to me. The first and last weddings were in Buffalo with the middle one being close to Philadelphia. Each of the three weddings were incredibly nice and fun, with the last two being slightly more meaningful due to my closeness with the bride and groom and the fact that I was in the wedding parties.
My cousin who got marriedis biologically closer to being a sibling of mine than anyone else on the planet. Her mom and my mom are identical twins, meaning we share a lot of the same genes. She is only three days older than me, so people have always thought we were fraternal twins. Although she has always lived in Pennsylvania, I always saw her a lot growing up. We are close genetically and we are close mentally and emotionally. Seeing her get married and being able to be in the wedding party was very significant to me.
Last nights wedding marked the first time I have been someone's Best Man. My man who got married played an incredibly significant role in my four years of college. We were pretty much attached at the hip every day during the school year, and we also spent two summers working for the university where we were roommates in one of the dorms. He had a job with the admissions department while I had an internship with my Computer Science department making web pages for the different academic departments. Both jobs provided room/board/meals/stipend/ and a course each summer semester. Those summers were amazing, as was pretty much every single day of college. I feel that my childhood summers at our camp are a very close second to my four years of college in regards to the favorite eras of my life up to this point, I am confident that without my friend, my college experience would have not been as meaningful.
Around a month ago I started writing the best man toast as I was on the train from Albany to Buffalo for his bachelor party which I planned in Niagara Falls. At that time I wrote a decent amount of things down. With about two pages of notes I felt confident that I would be able to write something worthy of the person and occasion. For a few weeks before that train ride and every day following it, I would think about the toast. In the shower, on my way to work, all the time. Having spent so much time with my friend, we have been on some amazing, almost unbelievable adventures. I was having a hard time picking stories that a) represented fairly the overall amazingness of our memories and b)did not cause any of the families, guests, or his new bride to disown him after hearing some of our antics. I finished the final touches to what I though I was going to use as my toast on Thursdays train ride. That night I slept fairly soundly, as I had the majority of the toast memorized and was fairly confident it was a good balance of everything the toast should be. It wasn't until after the rehearsal at the mass when we were on the way to the rehearsal dinner that I realized the body of my toast was not good enough to give, in fact I needed to scrap pretty much everything. This was a horrible realization to make, how could I have gotten it so wrong? At this point any slight jitters I had surrounding the toast turned into a case of the absolute worst nerves I have ever experienced. I was an absolute wreck on the inside, my head was filled with disappointment in my ability to write a worthy toast, and I was filled with apprehension about what was going to happen when I had to give the toast and I had nothing to say. It wasn't until yesterday morning that I realized that I needed to accept the fact that I am not nearly as good of a speech writer as I am at simply talking about a topic I know a lot about, in this case my friend. So I was faced with a decision: do I write a mediocre toast or do I deliver a knock out toast? I had no choice but to choose the second option. I was going to give my pre written intro and then hit a few pre designated talking points while filling in everything connecting the talking points on the fly. This was one of the biggest risks I feel like I have ever taken in my life. My nerves were honestly at the highest they have ever been and I expected myself to be able to deliver a 2-3 minute toast on the fly? To make things more interesting, we got pretty tipsy on the limo after the mass while we were driving around taking pictures. Pretty tipsy is an understatement. We destroyed three bottles of champagne and around three cases of beer. I knew that having a few drinks would calm my nerves, even the priest told me that when I told him how nervous I was, but I really had to walk a fine line of not getting wasted. Once we got back to the hotel where the reception was things happened super fast. I would say it was time for me to give my toast within five minutes of our entrance into the reception. Someone announced â it is now time for the toastsâ and someone started walking over with the mic. I descended the two tiered main table that we were all seated at, grabbed the mic down by the audience, and looked up at my buddy and his wife. My head was as empty as it could have been, all I could do was tap my fingers on the mic to make sure it was on. Finally after about one second, which seemed like and eternity, I started. Game time. I got a huge round of laughter and applause after my second sentence, which I wasn't expecting, it was a funny line but I didn't think it would be that big of a hit. I followed that line up with something a tad more funny and realized as quickly as it took to say about four sentences, the crowd, wedding party, bride and groom had my back and were into the toast. I did some super impromptu talking about things that happened in our past together as well as things that happened just a few hours earlier in that day. The toast was probably around the 2 -3 minutes I was aiming for, but to be honest, I don't remember it all that much. It was as if I was blacked out with nervousness. When the toast was over people congratulated me and I felt like the bride and groom truly appreciated my words. The feeling of relief that I felt really cannot be expressed in words. The wedding was amazing, the bride and groom are amazing, my dance moves were amazing (umm, maybe), and I really could not have imagined a more perfect wedding weekend.
Oh boy, this surely has been probably the longest blog post of my life. What else would you have me do though, without a phone or the internet? Read a book? All my audio books are on my phone. Take a nap? Easier said than done with all these people talking and me not having my music on the phone. Maybe I will just keep rambling on about life, I'm sure that soooo many people have already read this far and would just love to keep reading :-)
No, I'll end it now.
slow starts with quick endings
July 30, 2009 - 2:36
Lately I have been taking note of the impact past and current relationships/events have on life. Relationships and events with friends, acquaintances, family members, significant others, co workers, strangers, yourself, and everyone in between. I suppose one could argue that as time increases (you live life) so does the frequency of being able to connect current relationships/events to past ones, as the number of past relationships/events available to influence current ones inevitably grows each day you get out of bed. That explanation of why I have been noticing this trend more lately in my life could work, but I am not completely confident that variables that are not as easy to explain as 'time', also play a role in determining new relationships/events in your life.
Ten years (or days) from now when I read that paragraph, I hope I don't identify this as when things started to go down hill where I went crazy! HA. I should delete it but it is an interesting thought awkwardly written.
This summer may be the busiest summer I will ever have in my life. The past few weeks have yielded more significant memories than I would ever ever get into now, between you, me...and anyone in the world with an internet connection; but there are some things I would like to document here. 'here' being this information repository built from the ground up from blog entry, to display, to user login, registration, commenting, lost password, etc, etc, etc... opposed to the other fine, yet less personal, vehicles of social media I frequent such as [a href="http://twitter.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]twitter[/a] and [a href=" http://www.facebook.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]facebook[/a]. With that rare yet still annoying act of self promotion I guess it is appropriate to give out my Google Voice number to the world, 317-IAMSETH . Anyone who has my personal number should definitely always choose that over this number, but this is an interesting way to give out my number in a manor that seems appropriate for an audience as potentially large as everyone, while in reality actually being no one :) So feel free to call or txt me, with me setting zero expectation of replying, because you know...I'm just wayyyyy to busy with what 'may be the busiest summer I will ever have in my life'...ha, I hibernate all winter and then think going to a wedding and party is a big enough deal to get super dramatic about!
My phone is acting up right now, just a little bit but there is something wrong, I don't feel like describing the issue, but feel like I will need to set up an appointment and take it to the 'genius bar'. I might just bring in my laptop too, the click button under the track pad acts weird when the computer is held at the angle I hold it at when I'm laying on my back.
Speaking of my phone, I have been enjoying the ability to take video and better pictures, also enjoying copy and pasting. I am disappointed in myself that I did not capture a single picture or clip from a very nice wedding of a very special friend which was held at [a href=" http://www.turningstone.com/" target="_blank"]Turning Stone Casino[/a], a place held close to heart by many from Syracuse.[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/163.png' width='199' height='131' /][CAPTION]taken from turningstone.com [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
The reception was located in a venue which was on the casino golf course but not connected to the casino/other hotels. It was cool being seemingly secluded but also a minute shuttle ride away from everything else. I found a picture on the casino's website of the building that was rented out for the reception, the day was as nice as the one shown and it really could not have been a better night.
That wedding was 6/20, since then I've been better at trying to capture video clips whenever I think about it. Some of them are interesting, others just outright boring/pointless, but they do serve as helpful reminders of what was going on at that moment. Here are a few in ascending order:
foggy night on Delaware Ave - 6/27/09
house - 7/3/09
fireworks in Empire Plaza - 7/4/09
Pugsely tired and warm-7/12/09
karaoke at Cravers - 7/18/09
house - 7/25/09
It is cool to have a video camera in your pocket all the time. I don't really like the way that youtube displays them though, with the black bars on the side.
I'm pretty tired, I'm going to goto bed, have a good night!
Ten years (or days) from now when I read that paragraph, I hope I don't identify this as when things started to go down hill where I went crazy! HA. I should delete it but it is an interesting thought awkwardly written.
This summer may be the busiest summer I will ever have in my life. The past few weeks have yielded more significant memories than I would ever ever get into now, between you, me...and anyone in the world with an internet connection; but there are some things I would like to document here. 'here' being this information repository built from the ground up from blog entry, to display, to user login, registration, commenting, lost password, etc, etc, etc... opposed to the other fine, yet less personal, vehicles of social media I frequent such as [a href="http://twitter.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]twitter[/a] and [a href=" http://www.facebook.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]facebook[/a]. With that rare yet still annoying act of self promotion I guess it is appropriate to give out my Google Voice number to the world, 317-IAMSETH . Anyone who has my personal number should definitely always choose that over this number, but this is an interesting way to give out my number in a manor that seems appropriate for an audience as potentially large as everyone, while in reality actually being no one :) So feel free to call or txt me, with me setting zero expectation of replying, because you know...I'm just wayyyyy to busy with what 'may be the busiest summer I will ever have in my life'...ha, I hibernate all winter and then think going to a wedding and party is a big enough deal to get super dramatic about!
My phone is acting up right now, just a little bit but there is something wrong, I don't feel like describing the issue, but feel like I will need to set up an appointment and take it to the 'genius bar'. I might just bring in my laptop too, the click button under the track pad acts weird when the computer is held at the angle I hold it at when I'm laying on my back.
Speaking of my phone, I have been enjoying the ability to take video and better pictures, also enjoying copy and pasting. I am disappointed in myself that I did not capture a single picture or clip from a very nice wedding of a very special friend which was held at [a href=" http://www.turningstone.com/" target="_blank"]Turning Stone Casino[/a], a place held close to heart by many from Syracuse.[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/163.png' width='199' height='131' /][CAPTION]taken from turningstone.com [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
The reception was located in a venue which was on the casino golf course but not connected to the casino/other hotels. It was cool being seemingly secluded but also a minute shuttle ride away from everything else. I found a picture on the casino's website of the building that was rented out for the reception, the day was as nice as the one shown and it really could not have been a better night.
That wedding was 6/20, since then I've been better at trying to capture video clips whenever I think about it. Some of them are interesting, others just outright boring/pointless, but they do serve as helpful reminders of what was going on at that moment. Here are a few in ascending order:
foggy night on Delaware Ave - 6/27/09
house - 7/3/09
fireworks in Empire Plaza - 7/4/09
Pugsely tired and warm-7/12/09
karaoke at Cravers - 7/18/09
house - 7/25/09
It is cool to have a video camera in your pocket all the time. I don't really like the way that youtube displays them though, with the black bars on the side.
I'm pretty tired, I'm going to goto bed, have a good night!
I'm not a fanboy
June 15, 2009 - 12:45
There is an awesome thunder storm going on right now. It is making me reminisce about the summers I used to spend at our camp. The upstairs of the camp was dedicated to beds and a bathroom. There were four beds, two for adults and two for kids. The adult beds were each isolated from the rest of the room via curtains; the other two beds were isolated from the rest of the room in the same manor, but not from each other. The bed I would sleep in is unlike any other bed I have encountered in my life. The entire mattress sat on a layer of springs making it likely the most comfortable/exciting sleeping surface possible for a child. I remember laying in bed listening to the rain on the lake. There was a tin can that covered an air vent in the ceiling, the sound the rain would make from hitting that was slightly less enjoyable than that from the lake. Storms with or without thunder are always more exciting when you are on the water. You can oddly substitute [i]exciting[/i] with [i]relaxing[/i] and the sentence is equally as true. Swimming in the rain always seemed more exciting. I think it was easier to be entertained back in those days. I remember one game I often played, it involved my Dad and I throwing a rock we painted white as far as we could off the dock and then racing to get it. Games and activities that you develop spending the summer at camp for the first decade and a half of your life is a pretty endless list. Substitute [i]games and activities[/i] with the cliche yet appropriate term [i]precious memories[/i] and the sentence is equally as true.
I think I need to get a comfortable seating solution for my front porch. The activities that happen on my street hit every point on the crazy spectrum. I remember when I was in high school, my friends and I found a very nice couch in our neighborhood that someone had put out on the curb with their garbage. We carried the couch to my house and put it on the sidewalk. Like a bunch of idiots we sat out there for a few days in the blistering heat with our shirts off, just listening to music and being high school stupid. Around the third day a car pulled over while we were sitting on the couch and inquired if that was the same couch that was around the corner on the curb. When we told them it was they told us that it was their couch that they had to throw away because their cats peed all over it beyond repair. It was horrible knowing that we had been sitting during the hottest days of the summer with our bare skin sweating against this saturated pee sponge. Thinking back on it, we obviously deserved this punishment from activities such as this that fall into the 'high school stupid' category.
Prior to this weekend, I had two big wedding weekends in a row. The first was a college wedding, with the bride and groom both being [a href="http://www.gobonnies.com/" target="_blank"]Bonnies[/a], it was like a college reunion zapped with an open bar and nice clothes. The second wedding involved a buddy who I've been friends with since kindergarten. The reception was held at his parents house on Lake Ontario, it was a picturesque setting. The groom and I spent everyday of elementary school together and much of high school, there is no one currently in life I've spent more recreation time with, except possibly Braunstein, I would have to do the math. Getting to be a part of his marriage with our high school friends was definitely appreciated. Both wedding weekends were extremely crazy.
I've stolen two pictures from Facebook of each wedding:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/161.jpg' width='399' height='265' /][CAPTION]Karen and Mark's wedding, picture taken from Facebook [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/162.jpg' width='399' height='599' /][CAPTION]Neil and I, from Jamie and Frankie's wedding, picture taken from Facebook [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
It's getting closer to bed time.
I guess that is always true, except when your sleeping.
I've been spending some free time during the past few weeks on a calendar for CT. The majority of my overall efforts have thus far been made on a pop up box that displays when the mouse goes over certain dates on the calendar. I am pushing myself relatively hard in some areas surrounding the functionality and information displayed when using this calendar. There is a chance that a significant amount of the sites functionality/information can be accessed from this calendar, so working on it has been exciting. Not exciting like going to a wedding, exciting like reading a book or painting a picture.
That is all I have right now, at least for you.
If you want more information then email or txt me.
Good night.
I think I need to get a comfortable seating solution for my front porch. The activities that happen on my street hit every point on the crazy spectrum. I remember when I was in high school, my friends and I found a very nice couch in our neighborhood that someone had put out on the curb with their garbage. We carried the couch to my house and put it on the sidewalk. Like a bunch of idiots we sat out there for a few days in the blistering heat with our shirts off, just listening to music and being high school stupid. Around the third day a car pulled over while we were sitting on the couch and inquired if that was the same couch that was around the corner on the curb. When we told them it was they told us that it was their couch that they had to throw away because their cats peed all over it beyond repair. It was horrible knowing that we had been sitting during the hottest days of the summer with our bare skin sweating against this saturated pee sponge. Thinking back on it, we obviously deserved this punishment from activities such as this that fall into the 'high school stupid' category.
Prior to this weekend, I had two big wedding weekends in a row. The first was a college wedding, with the bride and groom both being [a href="http://www.gobonnies.com/" target="_blank"]Bonnies[/a], it was like a college reunion zapped with an open bar and nice clothes. The second wedding involved a buddy who I've been friends with since kindergarten. The reception was held at his parents house on Lake Ontario, it was a picturesque setting. The groom and I spent everyday of elementary school together and much of high school, there is no one currently in life I've spent more recreation time with, except possibly Braunstein, I would have to do the math. Getting to be a part of his marriage with our high school friends was definitely appreciated. Both wedding weekends were extremely crazy.
I've stolen two pictures from Facebook of each wedding:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/161.jpg' width='399' height='265' /][CAPTION]Karen and Mark's wedding, picture taken from Facebook [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/162.jpg' width='399' height='599' /][CAPTION]Neil and I, from Jamie and Frankie's wedding, picture taken from Facebook [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
It's getting closer to bed time.
I guess that is always true, except when your sleeping.
I've been spending some free time during the past few weeks on a calendar for CT. The majority of my overall efforts have thus far been made on a pop up box that displays when the mouse goes over certain dates on the calendar. I am pushing myself relatively hard in some areas surrounding the functionality and information displayed when using this calendar. There is a chance that a significant amount of the sites functionality/information can be accessed from this calendar, so working on it has been exciting. Not exciting like going to a wedding, exciting like reading a book or painting a picture.
That is all I have right now, at least for you.
If you want more information then email or txt me.
Good night.
more than I thought
May 27, 2009 - 23:15
Since my last blog post:
-I've avoided what would have been a significant motor vehicle accident involving hitting animals, twice. The first time I was driving some friends home from watching the Star Trek movie. Half of the people I went with were Trekkie's and the other half knew nothing about it, I was very impressed that the movie was appealing to everyone on and off the geek spectrum. As we entered an on ramp during the drive home we almost struck a deer. We were going fast enough where the airbags would have likely deployed if we hit it, which would have not been very cool. The second near miss animal accident happened over this past weekend as I was taking my turn driving a friends car on our way to our annual memorial weekend party in Ellicottville. This year marks what I believe to be the sixth year of the tradition of renting a house for around twenty of us and getting a little crazy. The GPS had us going on some back roads that were pitch dark, we were going around 50 and then out of no where a herd of what looked like bulls were crossing the road. I imagine they escaped from some kind of fenced in enclosure or something. They had dark fur that luckily had some white spots. If we had hit those bulls we would have been in a huge world of hurt, that definitely would not have been cool.
-I've devoured three garbage plates. Two were this past weekend, one to and one from the aforementioned memorial weekend party; the other was with two friends on our way to a bachelor party in Buffalo. One of my very good elementary/high school friends is getting married next month. His bachelor party was super crazy and super fun. My favorite part by far was getting to spend two nights with friends who I don't get to spend nearly enough time with. I absolutely devoured the three garbage plates. Cheeseburger, mac salad, home fries, with everything on it. I truly believe I can eat a plate faster than anyone else.
-I've gotten fairly tipsy playing beer pong on a school night, twice. Both times were entertaining out of town friends for the evening. As with the other above recaps, the details of these events do not need to be elaborated on more than stating they were crazy.
That's enough of the overall recap of events since my last blog post. That will be enough to jog my memory in 50 years of what I did during May.
I'm sort of tired.
I've noticed that the time of entry for the last two blog post is showing up as "undefined". Super uggg to me for that. I will fix it, maybe soon, maybe not.
The LOST season finally was awesome.
I'm more tired than I thought.
Good night.
-I've avoided what would have been a significant motor vehicle accident involving hitting animals, twice. The first time I was driving some friends home from watching the Star Trek movie. Half of the people I went with were Trekkie's and the other half knew nothing about it, I was very impressed that the movie was appealing to everyone on and off the geek spectrum. As we entered an on ramp during the drive home we almost struck a deer. We were going fast enough where the airbags would have likely deployed if we hit it, which would have not been very cool. The second near miss animal accident happened over this past weekend as I was taking my turn driving a friends car on our way to our annual memorial weekend party in Ellicottville. This year marks what I believe to be the sixth year of the tradition of renting a house for around twenty of us and getting a little crazy. The GPS had us going on some back roads that were pitch dark, we were going around 50 and then out of no where a herd of what looked like bulls were crossing the road. I imagine they escaped from some kind of fenced in enclosure or something. They had dark fur that luckily had some white spots. If we had hit those bulls we would have been in a huge world of hurt, that definitely would not have been cool.
-I've devoured three garbage plates. Two were this past weekend, one to and one from the aforementioned memorial weekend party; the other was with two friends on our way to a bachelor party in Buffalo. One of my very good elementary/high school friends is getting married next month. His bachelor party was super crazy and super fun. My favorite part by far was getting to spend two nights with friends who I don't get to spend nearly enough time with. I absolutely devoured the three garbage plates. Cheeseburger, mac salad, home fries, with everything on it. I truly believe I can eat a plate faster than anyone else.
-I've gotten fairly tipsy playing beer pong on a school night, twice. Both times were entertaining out of town friends for the evening. As with the other above recaps, the details of these events do not need to be elaborated on more than stating they were crazy.
That's enough of the overall recap of events since my last blog post. That will be enough to jog my memory in 50 years of what I did during May.
I'm sort of tired.
I've noticed that the time of entry for the last two blog post is showing up as "undefined". Super uggg to me for that. I will fix it, maybe soon, maybe not.
The LOST season finally was awesome.
I'm more tired than I thought.
Good night.
For the 100th time
April 29, 2009 - 1:1
You get more bees with honey than vinegar. A friend said that during a conversation and it made me do a few seconds of thinking. I think that approach to dealing with people is appropriate in many scenarios, with some exceptions including:
-A person trying to lure others with malicious or misleading intentions (on a side note, whenever the verb lure is being used to describe the manor in which one is attracting others, a level of suspicion should at least be considered).
-A person who needs to accomplish a task in an atmosphere that is too hostile for kindness to be practical.
-A person who needs to accomplish a time sensitive task where friendliness is too inefficient to be practical.
Hopefully you never find yourself in the first scenario and rarely find yourself in the latter two. Being nice to others not only makes it easier to deal, work, like, and live with them; it also often makes you feel better.
I often question myself on what is the best way to deal with a customer service representative. I rarely talk to a customer service representative unless something is wrong. I feel that sometimes too much kindness can overshadow the issue at hand, making it easy for the customer service representative to treat the issue as less of a priority; with the flip side being starting off the interaction on such a sour note that the customer service representative would get joy out of not helping you. There is a balance between the two different poles of attitudes that can be found, with many scenarios likely requiring a dynamic attitude adjustment based on how the interaction is going.
What a random tangent regarding something other than technology.
The technology stars all fell into place for me this weekend. With the amazing upper 80 degree and sunny weather we have been experiencing lately, I decided to have a BBQ Saturday. I faced a common annoyance of having to play one playlist of music outside on the deck off of an ipod in a boombox and another playlist in the house being streamed to my main stereo via AppleTV and iTunes. After doing a little thinking it struck me that I should take the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GDIII?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002GDIII" target="_blank"]Airport Express[/a] that I currently use to connect the XBOX360 to the network and move it outside and use the audio out jack on it to play music on the boombox. The whole setup took about 5 minutes and consisted primarily of me unplugging the device from the living room and plugging it into an extension cord that the boombox was hooked up to outside. In iTunes I chose the option to play on "multiple speakers...", selected both the AppleTV and the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GDIII?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002GDIII " target="_blank"]Airport Express[/a], and it was all set. On top of that, I was able to control everything from volume to songs with the Remote application on my phone. Not a bad setup at all. Even better than all of that was the BBQ. My friends brought over an absolute overabundance of a gourmet selection of foods to grill and beers to drink. A lot of sunshine and beer pong later I found myself in bed thinking how happy I was that the warm weather seems to be here for good.
I woke up the next day with the unpleasant surprise of [a href=" http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Time-Warner-Cable-Internet-Service-Restored/2iPWQ7nopU2IVIOOsAQKBw.cspx" target="_blank"]no internet service[/a], a code red in my book! I didn't know what to do, so I texted a friend and we went for a bike ride, after which service was back to normal. I can't even imagine what people did before the internet.
I am excited to report that our softball season starts tomorrow (or I guess today at this point). Thus far my captain responsibilities have not been too bad, I am lucky to have teammates who make it all easy. What I am not very excited about is the fact that I could be missing what will likely be one of the best LOST episodes ever, the 100th episode in a very exciting crossroad of the storyline. I think I will be OK if I miss it. I will likely end up downloading it from iTunes and watching it Thursday. I've been downloading so many TV episodes and movies over the past few months that about a week ago I decided to dramatically cut down my cable subscription. The money I save monthly will make it easier for me to justify my quickly growing iTunes video collection. I would like to look at my decision to cut down my cable bill as my punishment to Time Warner for considering implementing bandwith caps, but I guess actions like this would only encourage them to pursue it in the future. I would have made these cuts regardless and I really look forward to the day when I have more than one viable option for internet service providers.
I am tired, almost time for bed.
First I would like to post a video that has gotten some recent media attention. It is of a US Soldier giving a speech to Iraqi police officers. The 5 minute clip will be considered offending to some people, there is a good amount of colorful language. I think the context in which this 'pep talk' is being given is of the utmost importance. I believe that the comparisons and accusations being made may not be true, but the Soldier IMHO is making an effective attempt at getting the police officers to do their job better. Do not watch this clip if you are easily offended.
Now it is bed time.
Good night.
-A person trying to lure others with malicious or misleading intentions (on a side note, whenever the verb lure is being used to describe the manor in which one is attracting others, a level of suspicion should at least be considered).
-A person who needs to accomplish a task in an atmosphere that is too hostile for kindness to be practical.
-A person who needs to accomplish a time sensitive task where friendliness is too inefficient to be practical.
Hopefully you never find yourself in the first scenario and rarely find yourself in the latter two. Being nice to others not only makes it easier to deal, work, like, and live with them; it also often makes you feel better.
I often question myself on what is the best way to deal with a customer service representative. I rarely talk to a customer service representative unless something is wrong. I feel that sometimes too much kindness can overshadow the issue at hand, making it easy for the customer service representative to treat the issue as less of a priority; with the flip side being starting off the interaction on such a sour note that the customer service representative would get joy out of not helping you. There is a balance between the two different poles of attitudes that can be found, with many scenarios likely requiring a dynamic attitude adjustment based on how the interaction is going.
What a random tangent regarding something other than technology.
The technology stars all fell into place for me this weekend. With the amazing upper 80 degree and sunny weather we have been experiencing lately, I decided to have a BBQ Saturday. I faced a common annoyance of having to play one playlist of music outside on the deck off of an ipod in a boombox and another playlist in the house being streamed to my main stereo via AppleTV and iTunes. After doing a little thinking it struck me that I should take the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GDIII?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002GDIII" target="_blank"]Airport Express[/a] that I currently use to connect the XBOX360 to the network and move it outside and use the audio out jack on it to play music on the boombox. The whole setup took about 5 minutes and consisted primarily of me unplugging the device from the living room and plugging it into an extension cord that the boombox was hooked up to outside. In iTunes I chose the option to play on "multiple speakers...", selected both the AppleTV and the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GDIII?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002GDIII " target="_blank"]Airport Express[/a], and it was all set. On top of that, I was able to control everything from volume to songs with the Remote application on my phone. Not a bad setup at all. Even better than all of that was the BBQ. My friends brought over an absolute overabundance of a gourmet selection of foods to grill and beers to drink. A lot of sunshine and beer pong later I found myself in bed thinking how happy I was that the warm weather seems to be here for good.
I woke up the next day with the unpleasant surprise of [a href=" http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Time-Warner-Cable-Internet-Service-Restored/2iPWQ7nopU2IVIOOsAQKBw.cspx" target="_blank"]no internet service[/a], a code red in my book! I didn't know what to do, so I texted a friend and we went for a bike ride, after which service was back to normal. I can't even imagine what people did before the internet.
I am excited to report that our softball season starts tomorrow (or I guess today at this point). Thus far my captain responsibilities have not been too bad, I am lucky to have teammates who make it all easy. What I am not very excited about is the fact that I could be missing what will likely be one of the best LOST episodes ever, the 100th episode in a very exciting crossroad of the storyline. I think I will be OK if I miss it. I will likely end up downloading it from iTunes and watching it Thursday. I've been downloading so many TV episodes and movies over the past few months that about a week ago I decided to dramatically cut down my cable subscription. The money I save monthly will make it easier for me to justify my quickly growing iTunes video collection. I would like to look at my decision to cut down my cable bill as my punishment to Time Warner for considering implementing bandwith caps, but I guess actions like this would only encourage them to pursue it in the future. I would have made these cuts regardless and I really look forward to the day when I have more than one viable option for internet service providers.
I am tired, almost time for bed.
First I would like to post a video that has gotten some recent media attention. It is of a US Soldier giving a speech to Iraqi police officers. The 5 minute clip will be considered offending to some people, there is a good amount of colorful language. I think the context in which this 'pep talk' is being given is of the utmost importance. I believe that the comparisons and accusations being made may not be true, but the Soldier IMHO is making an effective attempt at getting the police officers to do their job better. Do not watch this clip if you are easily offended.
Now it is bed time.
Good night.
you look smashing
April 24, 2009 - 2:55
Getting woken up in the middle of the night to a barrage of door bell rings is an unsettling feeling.
I just got woken up to a barrage of door bell rings.
It was one of my tenants, he had just gotten home and discovered that two of my windows recently got shot out from what appears to have been a BB gun.
It was not only my car, unfortunately this happened to two of my other tenants cars as well as at least one other car on our street.
House meeting, outside, right away....wish we could have been meeting under better circumstances fellas, but it is nice to see everyone. Albany PD on the scene, I guess there's not too much that can be done at this point. Claim reported, calling back around 8am to expedite.
The following lines complete the following question:
[b]Q:[/b] What is worse than being woken up by a barrage of door bell rings in the middle of the night and finding out that your car windows have been shot out?
[b]A:[/b] finding out that someone is dead or hurt
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your house is on fire
[b]A:[/b] finding out that items got stolen from your vehicle
[b]A:[/b] finding out that damage was done to your car that will not likely be covered under deductible free glass replacement.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and the weekend isn't supposed to be sunny and 80.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and it's not Friday.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and you have to leave really early in the morning for a vacation.
Things could definitely be worse, this situation is currently at the level of moderate inconvenience, I reserve the right to change the status as the situation develops.
This is the first time my car has been the victim of malicious activity while parked at my house.
Whoever did this could have easily taken items from some of our cars, I think it is worse morally speaking that they did not. Someone doing this so they could steal my sunglasses so they could sell them for money so they could feed their kids is better off in my book than someone who does this to watch glass break. Not cool either way, but I imagine karma will take a particularly harsh stance with this offender.
That's all I got.
Everything is fine.
Back to bed for you and me.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/160.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
I just got woken up to a barrage of door bell rings.
It was one of my tenants, he had just gotten home and discovered that two of my windows recently got shot out from what appears to have been a BB gun.
It was not only my car, unfortunately this happened to two of my other tenants cars as well as at least one other car on our street.
House meeting, outside, right away....wish we could have been meeting under better circumstances fellas, but it is nice to see everyone. Albany PD on the scene, I guess there's not too much that can be done at this point. Claim reported, calling back around 8am to expedite.
The following lines complete the following question:
[b]Q:[/b] What is worse than being woken up by a barrage of door bell rings in the middle of the night and finding out that your car windows have been shot out?
[b]A:[/b] finding out that someone is dead or hurt
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your house is on fire
[b]A:[/b] finding out that items got stolen from your vehicle
[b]A:[/b] finding out that damage was done to your car that will not likely be covered under deductible free glass replacement.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and the weekend isn't supposed to be sunny and 80.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and it's not Friday.
[b]A:[/b] finding out that your car windows have been shot out and you have to leave really early in the morning for a vacation.
Things could definitely be worse, this situation is currently at the level of moderate inconvenience, I reserve the right to change the status as the situation develops.
This is the first time my car has been the victim of malicious activity while parked at my house.
Whoever did this could have easily taken items from some of our cars, I think it is worse morally speaking that they did not. Someone doing this so they could steal my sunglasses so they could sell them for money so they could feed their kids is better off in my book than someone who does this to watch glass break. Not cool either way, but I imagine karma will take a particularly harsh stance with this offender.
That's all I got.
Everything is fine.
Back to bed for you and me.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/160.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][/DIV_IMG]
calendar recap
April 22, 2009 - 12:44
I dislike all of the worms that cover the pavement after it rains. They get on your shoes and they usually smell bad. Super uggg to that and a super uggg to my lack of recent blog posts. What have I been up to lately? That is a good question. Google Calendar to the rescue...
OK, let's see...
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/157.jpg' width='199' height='56' /][/DIV_IMG]SU's Sweet 16 game could have certainly gone better but I was fortunate enough to watch it with a bunch of friends at a [a href="http://www.recoveryroomsportsgrill.com/" target="_blank"]sports bar[/a] around the corner from my house. A handful of us got there right after work and reserved off a section for the entourage that was to follow. It just wasn't a good night for the Orange. Oh well, it was a good run and there is always next year (minus a few players, most notably Flynn...super big uggg to him and his agent). Later that evening some friends from out of town arrived for an overnight, it turned out to be a late night which made for an interesting early morning fire code inspection of my second and third floor apartments. The inspection went much better than I had anticipated, with there only being a few items they have to re-review during next months re-inspection.
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:198px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/156.jpg' width='198' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]I had visited DC with my parents a few times when I was younger, with those memories still floating around in my brain, I knew that it wouldn't take much for my friend (who had previously never been) and I to have a good weekend away. The initial motivation of the trip was my friend and I looking for different places within driving distance that would serve as cool places to visit and cool places to take pictures of. I am happy to report that from a photography standpoint, the weekend went well, but more importantly from a mini vacation standpoint, the weekend was great. The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom and the weather (at least Saturday) was great. Everything we wanted to do was within walking distance of our [a href=" http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/wassh-renaissance-mayflower-hotel/" target="_blank"]hotel[/a]. On Friday we spent the day going through some of the Smithsonian museums, on Saturday we stayed outside walking around to the different monuments/buildings, and Sunday before we left we had an amazing breakfast buffet and even a visit from one of my good high school friends who I rarely get to see anymore. The trip prompted my to purchase [a href=" http://www.apple.com/aperture/" target="_blank"]Aperture 2[/a] when I got home. My need for a new photo library management application became painfully apparent as I tried sorting through and rating dozens of pictures of pretty much the same shot knowing I would only end up using one of them. Aperture also serves well for almost all of the post processing I will ever do on pictures, which I previously was doing in either iPhoto or Photoshop. There was actually a decently sized discussion thread I started in an Apple support forum regarding how Aperture should fit into (or better yet redefine) my photography workflow once I received it. Many thanks as always to everyone out there who lends their expertise to other in need.
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/158.jpg' width='199' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]Easter is always nice, especially an Easter weekend that starts off with double pug sitting! I was almost overwhelmed with the responsibilities I found myself facing with two pugs in my possession. Lilly, Pugsley, and myself had a great slumber party, and believe it or not, I think the only pictures I got of the two of them are a handful I shot with my phone :-( Being home Saturday night and getting to see friends and family was great, as was all of the delicious food :-)
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/159.jpg' width='199' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]This past weekend [i]almost[/i] turned out horrible. A close family friend and 6 of his buddies were spending the night at my place for a Grateful Dead concert Friday night, and then I had a bachelor party in Rochester Saturday, both of which have been planned for months. Thursday night I was with a few friends when all of sudden I was hit with a horrific wave of nausea, about an hour later I found my self in the middle of a puking rally that kept hitting me every hour and a fairly high fever. The only hope I had was that this random illness would depart as quickly as it came, and luckily for me it did. While I still did not feel at par over the weekend, the really bad stuff ended early Friday afternoon and I was able to keep my plans unchanged, albeit a little watered down on my end from a getting crazy perspective.
So that is a recap of events, all thanks to my calendar.
That will likely be highly boring for anyone to read, other than possibly myself, but I guess that is acceptable for a blog with the mission of keeping an official record of everything me. For me, by me, boring me? I guess the official record will be a boring one, which I guess is better than an inappropriate one.
I'm trying to think about what else I might have missed
hmmm...
-Softball season starts next week, as such our team has been practicing a bit in the batting cages. I am very excited that the warmer weather finally appears to be here for good. This season is going to allow for some serious testing of Cooperstown. Yes, you probably forgot about that, but we haven't. It is currently rough around the edges but I am happy to say that the steps which need to happen for the 'service' to work are connected and the site can be used for it's intended purpose. Now isn't a time to get into any of this.
-In my last post I talked about how I was trying to figure out a way to have my camera take 1 picture every 1 second for a very long period of time. Since that post I've spent hours researching, writing emails, and asking for advice on how I might accomplish that task. The great Internet Community has once again been very generous with providing help in my time of need. This problem was causing me such frustration (relatively speaking of course) that I took a coworkers advice and emailed one of my favorite [a href=" http://twit.tv/mbw" target="_blank"]TWiT[/a] panelist, [a href="http://www.photofocus.com" target="_blank"]Scott Bourne[/a]. He quickly responded, first with with a disclaimer that stop motion is not his area of expertise, but then was a promising solution that ultimately I did not end up using. After some more searching I found a [a href=" http://www.imaginginfinity.com/" target="_blank"]website[/a] for an astronomer who, in addition to offering other services, offers modifications to remote timer controls, which allows them to connect to cameras they otherwise would not be able to connect to. I ordered the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009XVA3?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00009XVA3 " target="_blank"]Canon TC80N3[/a], which allows for shots to be taken automatically at the interval I have been looking for. I mailed it away today and am looking forward to see if it will end up working as I need it to.
-I've uploaded a few picture albums in the past month. One is from my college junior year and the other is of NYC that I took in March. Very soon an album that I recently received back from [a href=" https://www.scancafe.com/" target="_blank"]scanning[/a] will be active. It contains pictures from 1981 that were in an album my mom made. They are definitely some of my favorite pictures.
-OK, from the inside, out, good night.
OK, let's see...
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/157.jpg' width='199' height='56' /][/DIV_IMG]SU's Sweet 16 game could have certainly gone better but I was fortunate enough to watch it with a bunch of friends at a [a href="http://www.recoveryroomsportsgrill.com/" target="_blank"]sports bar[/a] around the corner from my house. A handful of us got there right after work and reserved off a section for the entourage that was to follow. It just wasn't a good night for the Orange. Oh well, it was a good run and there is always next year (minus a few players, most notably Flynn...super big uggg to him and his agent). Later that evening some friends from out of town arrived for an overnight, it turned out to be a late night which made for an interesting early morning fire code inspection of my second and third floor apartments. The inspection went much better than I had anticipated, with there only being a few items they have to re-review during next months re-inspection.
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:198px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/156.jpg' width='198' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]I had visited DC with my parents a few times when I was younger, with those memories still floating around in my brain, I knew that it wouldn't take much for my friend (who had previously never been) and I to have a good weekend away. The initial motivation of the trip was my friend and I looking for different places within driving distance that would serve as cool places to visit and cool places to take pictures of. I am happy to report that from a photography standpoint, the weekend went well, but more importantly from a mini vacation standpoint, the weekend was great. The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom and the weather (at least Saturday) was great. Everything we wanted to do was within walking distance of our [a href=" http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/wassh-renaissance-mayflower-hotel/" target="_blank"]hotel[/a]. On Friday we spent the day going through some of the Smithsonian museums, on Saturday we stayed outside walking around to the different monuments/buildings, and Sunday before we left we had an amazing breakfast buffet and even a visit from one of my good high school friends who I rarely get to see anymore. The trip prompted my to purchase [a href=" http://www.apple.com/aperture/" target="_blank"]Aperture 2[/a] when I got home. My need for a new photo library management application became painfully apparent as I tried sorting through and rating dozens of pictures of pretty much the same shot knowing I would only end up using one of them. Aperture also serves well for almost all of the post processing I will ever do on pictures, which I previously was doing in either iPhoto or Photoshop. There was actually a decently sized discussion thread I started in an Apple support forum regarding how Aperture should fit into (or better yet redefine) my photography workflow once I received it. Many thanks as always to everyone out there who lends their expertise to other in need.
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/158.jpg' width='199' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]Easter is always nice, especially an Easter weekend that starts off with double pug sitting! I was almost overwhelmed with the responsibilities I found myself facing with two pugs in my possession. Lilly, Pugsley, and myself had a great slumber party, and believe it or not, I think the only pictures I got of the two of them are a handful I shot with my phone :-( Being home Saturday night and getting to see friends and family was great, as was all of the delicious food :-)
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:199px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/159.jpg' width='199' height='68' /][/DIV_IMG]This past weekend [i]almost[/i] turned out horrible. A close family friend and 6 of his buddies were spending the night at my place for a Grateful Dead concert Friday night, and then I had a bachelor party in Rochester Saturday, both of which have been planned for months. Thursday night I was with a few friends when all of sudden I was hit with a horrific wave of nausea, about an hour later I found my self in the middle of a puking rally that kept hitting me every hour and a fairly high fever. The only hope I had was that this random illness would depart as quickly as it came, and luckily for me it did. While I still did not feel at par over the weekend, the really bad stuff ended early Friday afternoon and I was able to keep my plans unchanged, albeit a little watered down on my end from a getting crazy perspective.
So that is a recap of events, all thanks to my calendar.
That will likely be highly boring for anyone to read, other than possibly myself, but I guess that is acceptable for a blog with the mission of keeping an official record of everything me. For me, by me, boring me? I guess the official record will be a boring one, which I guess is better than an inappropriate one.
I'm trying to think about what else I might have missed
hmmm...
-Softball season starts next week, as such our team has been practicing a bit in the batting cages. I am very excited that the warmer weather finally appears to be here for good. This season is going to allow for some serious testing of Cooperstown. Yes, you probably forgot about that, but we haven't. It is currently rough around the edges but I am happy to say that the steps which need to happen for the 'service' to work are connected and the site can be used for it's intended purpose. Now isn't a time to get into any of this.
-In my last post I talked about how I was trying to figure out a way to have my camera take 1 picture every 1 second for a very long period of time. Since that post I've spent hours researching, writing emails, and asking for advice on how I might accomplish that task. The great Internet Community has once again been very generous with providing help in my time of need. This problem was causing me such frustration (relatively speaking of course) that I took a coworkers advice and emailed one of my favorite [a href=" http://twit.tv/mbw" target="_blank"]TWiT[/a] panelist, [a href="http://www.photofocus.com" target="_blank"]Scott Bourne[/a]. He quickly responded, first with with a disclaimer that stop motion is not his area of expertise, but then was a promising solution that ultimately I did not end up using. After some more searching I found a [a href=" http://www.imaginginfinity.com/" target="_blank"]website[/a] for an astronomer who, in addition to offering other services, offers modifications to remote timer controls, which allows them to connect to cameras they otherwise would not be able to connect to. I ordered the [a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009XVA3?ie=UTF8&tag=sethdesantisc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00009XVA3 " target="_blank"]Canon TC80N3[/a], which allows for shots to be taken automatically at the interval I have been looking for. I mailed it away today and am looking forward to see if it will end up working as I need it to.
-I've uploaded a few picture albums in the past month. One is from my college junior year and the other is of NYC that I took in March. Very soon an album that I recently received back from [a href=" https://www.scancafe.com/" target="_blank"]scanning[/a] will be active. It contains pictures from 1981 that were in an album my mom made. They are definitely some of my favorite pictures.
-OK, from the inside, out, good night.
American Madness
March 24, 2009 - 12:52
I'm currently watching American Chopper, it is my favorite reality TV show ever. I enjoy watching the [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County_Choppers" target="_blank"]OCC[/a] crew take a unique bike idea from concept to final product. Every build they perform is a very dynamic process as many of the parts they use are designed and fabricated in house. In many instances you see the crew pushing themselves to come up with new looks and styles of otherwise generic bike parts, making their approach arguably inefficient but undeniably one of a kind. The show does a good job of mixing footage from the bike builds as well as footage of the family and crew partaking on a wide variety of adventures.
So, when I'm not writing boring reviews about TV shows, I write boring blog posts about nothing.
If your looking for anything else to watch then I recommend you check out the free HD download on iTunes of NBC's "Kings". You can't really go wrong with 83 commercial and cost free minutes of the pilot episode of what [i]could[/i] turn out to be an interesting series.
[a href=" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=imho" target="_blank"]IMHO[/a], this past weekends March Madness basketball games and accompanying activities were significantly more exciting than either of the two aforementioned TV shows. 'Cuse is looking very strong, I can't wait for Friday nights Sweet 16 game.
So it doesn't go unmentioned, the recent iPhone 3.0 software upgrade could turn out to be a pretty big deal. With there being too many new features/improvements than I wish to go over, I will say that I am immediately most excited for the addition of [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service" target="_blank"]MMS[/a],but much more excited for the future potential of new accessories. I envision that in a year or two there will be accessories along the lines of a sonogram attachments, imagine an expecting mother showing her baby to someone with her phone. That is crazy and I think that is the caliber of things that are going to come out for this platform.
To take that thought just a tad further, I believe the aforementioned platform will definitely extend to an "iTablet" format. It will be the size of a magazine, you will be able to prop it like a picture frame, and it will do everything and more than you can imagine. I was thinking the other day that they could make a device like this that a slightly more powerful iPhone could dock inside of, therefore reducing the need for redundant hardware, but I think that idea has a few too many shortcomings to happen.
I've been fooling around with stop motion videos. I hooked up the Rebel XT to the Air via USB and then used the included Canon software application "EOS Utility" to control the camera functions. I have an ultimate goal that I would like to accomplish and thus far I think the biggest hurdle currently in front of me is finding an alternative to EOS Utility that will let me set the interval of time between pictures being taken to 1 second, opposed to the minimum of 5 seconds I am currently facing. I've uploaded approximately 8 seconds of video which is 262 pictures which was taken over approximately 21 minutes on my front porch.
and a few pictures from Saturday...
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/154.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/153.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/155.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
and good night.
So, when I'm not writing boring reviews about TV shows, I write boring blog posts about nothing.
If your looking for anything else to watch then I recommend you check out the free HD download on iTunes of NBC's "Kings". You can't really go wrong with 83 commercial and cost free minutes of the pilot episode of what [i]could[/i] turn out to be an interesting series.
[a href=" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=imho" target="_blank"]IMHO[/a], this past weekends March Madness basketball games and accompanying activities were significantly more exciting than either of the two aforementioned TV shows. 'Cuse is looking very strong, I can't wait for Friday nights Sweet 16 game.
So it doesn't go unmentioned, the recent iPhone 3.0 software upgrade could turn out to be a pretty big deal. With there being too many new features/improvements than I wish to go over, I will say that I am immediately most excited for the addition of [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service" target="_blank"]MMS[/a],but much more excited for the future potential of new accessories. I envision that in a year or two there will be accessories along the lines of a sonogram attachments, imagine an expecting mother showing her baby to someone with her phone. That is crazy and I think that is the caliber of things that are going to come out for this platform.
To take that thought just a tad further, I believe the aforementioned platform will definitely extend to an "iTablet" format. It will be the size of a magazine, you will be able to prop it like a picture frame, and it will do everything and more than you can imagine. I was thinking the other day that they could make a device like this that a slightly more powerful iPhone could dock inside of, therefore reducing the need for redundant hardware, but I think that idea has a few too many shortcomings to happen.
I've been fooling around with stop motion videos. I hooked up the Rebel XT to the Air via USB and then used the included Canon software application "EOS Utility" to control the camera functions. I have an ultimate goal that I would like to accomplish and thus far I think the biggest hurdle currently in front of me is finding an alternative to EOS Utility that will let me set the interval of time between pictures being taken to 1 second, opposed to the minimum of 5 seconds I am currently facing. I've uploaded approximately 8 seconds of video which is 262 pictures which was taken over approximately 21 minutes on my front porch.
and a few pictures from Saturday...
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/154.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/153.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/155.jpg' width='398' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
and good night.
Lost snow
March 19, 2009 - 12:28
Looking back at the post I wrote five days ago, this post may serve as an update on some of the topics previously discussed.
-A friend pointed out to me this evening that the word "tweeting" had an explosion of popularity as a search term this afternoon around 1pm. Additionally, over the past few days I have continued to find myself incredibly surprised by the different people I know that are on [a href="http://twitter.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]Twitter[/a], as well as those talking about it. The rate in which this is happening is greater than it was five days ago so obviously I am questioning how fast and how long this will continue to happen. Tonight my friend and I discussed this situation semi in depth and I would like to recap our conclusions/observations with you now. not.
-I find myself lucky to be in a generation that went to elementary school when hardly anyone had cell phones, to high school were about half the people had cell phones, to college where absolutely every had cell phones. Although that statement offers little concrete backing, it does hold true for my personal experience of growing up and I imagine it has to be similar for many other people born in 1980. I think about this exact topic quite often and would like to get into it more some other time.
-I started the last blog post during the SU/uconn game and ended it right after the 6th overtime started. That same day, albeit evening, I watched SU defeat West Virgina (written in caps out of respect for [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gansey" target="_blank"]Mike Gansey[/a] and the Summer of 2001) in the semifinals. Rewind a few weeks prior, I purchased two tickets to the championship game. Needless to say I was incredibly excited when I got to see them play last Saturday. It was the first game I've gone to at [a href=" http://www.thegarden.com/" target="_blank"]MSG[/a] and getting to see the 'Cuse play the finale to such a magical tournament was amazing.
Last weekend kicked off what will likely be the busiest spring/summer season of my life. Getting into it now would make me too tired to wake up in the morning.
-LOST this evening, as like the entire season, as like the entire series, was brilliant. What a weird word for me to use but it is definitely appropriate. The direction and setting the show is currently in is genius. The show sets up these amazing scenarios involving characters we have been getting snippets of information about over the past few years, the things we learn and the situations we see them in seems so dramatic. I feel like although we (the audience) think we have no idea what is going on, we know enough to appreciate whatever it is we are currently watching. I pride myself on the fact that I have re watched every season enough times to pick up on many minut, yet mind blowing, ironies that really make almost every second of watching this series a pleasure.
-Tomorrow is a bye night for indoor soccer, as this final session I will play in reaches approximately it's halfway mark, our softball team just had a team meeting Monday. With the recent weather being very favorable, I have become very excited for an outdoor sport to finally begin. I can not wait for warm weather to be here for good.
With the delightful memory of warm weather still fresh in your mind I will leave you with a wonderful picture of when SU was up during Saturday nights championship game. Good night.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/151.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Big East Championship game at MSG [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
-A friend pointed out to me this evening that the word "tweeting" had an explosion of popularity as a search term this afternoon around 1pm. Additionally, over the past few days I have continued to find myself incredibly surprised by the different people I know that are on [a href="http://twitter.com/sethdesantis" target="_blank"]Twitter[/a], as well as those talking about it. The rate in which this is happening is greater than it was five days ago so obviously I am questioning how fast and how long this will continue to happen. Tonight my friend and I discussed this situation semi in depth and I would like to recap our conclusions/observations with you now. not.
-I find myself lucky to be in a generation that went to elementary school when hardly anyone had cell phones, to high school were about half the people had cell phones, to college where absolutely every had cell phones. Although that statement offers little concrete backing, it does hold true for my personal experience of growing up and I imagine it has to be similar for many other people born in 1980. I think about this exact topic quite often and would like to get into it more some other time.
-I started the last blog post during the SU/uconn game and ended it right after the 6th overtime started. That same day, albeit evening, I watched SU defeat West Virgina (written in caps out of respect for [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gansey" target="_blank"]Mike Gansey[/a] and the Summer of 2001) in the semifinals. Rewind a few weeks prior, I purchased two tickets to the championship game. Needless to say I was incredibly excited when I got to see them play last Saturday. It was the first game I've gone to at [a href=" http://www.thegarden.com/" target="_blank"]MSG[/a] and getting to see the 'Cuse play the finale to such a magical tournament was amazing.
Last weekend kicked off what will likely be the busiest spring/summer season of my life. Getting into it now would make me too tired to wake up in the morning.
-LOST this evening, as like the entire season, as like the entire series, was brilliant. What a weird word for me to use but it is definitely appropriate. The direction and setting the show is currently in is genius. The show sets up these amazing scenarios involving characters we have been getting snippets of information about over the past few years, the things we learn and the situations we see them in seems so dramatic. I feel like although we (the audience) think we have no idea what is going on, we know enough to appreciate whatever it is we are currently watching. I pride myself on the fact that I have re watched every season enough times to pick up on many minut, yet mind blowing, ironies that really make almost every second of watching this series a pleasure.
-Tomorrow is a bye night for indoor soccer, as this final session I will play in reaches approximately it's halfway mark, our softball team just had a team meeting Monday. With the recent weather being very favorable, I have become very excited for an outdoor sport to finally begin. I can not wait for warm weather to be here for good.
With the delightful memory of warm weather still fresh in your mind I will leave you with a wonderful picture of when SU was up during Saturday nights championship game. Good night.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:400px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/151.jpg' width='400' height='300' /][CAPTION]Big East Championship game at MSG [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
6th OT
March 13, 2009 - 1:9
I remember listening to a [a href="http://twit.tv/" target="_blank"]TWIT[/a] podcast about a year ago, it was talking about [a href=" http://twitter.com/" target="_blank"]Twitter[/a] and I remember thinking to myself that there was no chance that anyone close to me would ever know about the service let alone try it. Fast forward to today and I am amazed with the unlikely cast of characters from my life who have either joined the service or are talking about it. There wasn't a hint of doubt in my mind that some of the people using Twitter wouldn't be. In this type of scenario, I obviously enjoy being wrong.
I have some slightly disappointing news to report :-(
The off site file backup process which was running continuously on the iMac and it's attached hard drives, for approximately 31 days, became the victim of a catastrophic system freeze a few days ago; the process was a little over 90% done and once it stopped it couldn't be resumed. All of this is disappointing but shouldn't be significant in the long run. I've run a months worth of system/program updates and will restart the backup within the next few days. I believe when I restart it I will select fewer folders for the initial backup, I imagine I will be able to add more later as I want.
I've uploaded some video taken a few weeks ago when I was pug sitting. I thought about editing down the 12 minutes of footage but decided to save that for another day. I applied a small, slightly animated, watermark on the bottom right hand corner but I unfortunately made it a little too opaque to be visible after being compressed by YouTube; upping the opacity, re rendering, and then re uploading the videos definitely would not be worth the time involved in the last two of the aforementioned three steps.
I've been writing this blog post over the past few hours during commercial breaks on the Syracuse/UConn quarter final game for the Big East Tournament. It's currently in the 5th overtime and undoubtedly much too crazy of a game to even begin to discuss. I'm going down to the City Saturday for the championship game and would be ecstatic if 'Cuse was in that game. OMG, the game is now in the 6th OT. I am going to wrap up this post now. I can't imagine how tired the players must be, and that one of these teams has to play again today.
Good night.
I have some slightly disappointing news to report :-(
The off site file backup process which was running continuously on the iMac and it's attached hard drives, for approximately 31 days, became the victim of a catastrophic system freeze a few days ago; the process was a little over 90% done and once it stopped it couldn't be resumed. All of this is disappointing but shouldn't be significant in the long run. I've run a months worth of system/program updates and will restart the backup within the next few days. I believe when I restart it I will select fewer folders for the initial backup, I imagine I will be able to add more later as I want.
I've uploaded some video taken a few weeks ago when I was pug sitting. I thought about editing down the 12 minutes of footage but decided to save that for another day. I applied a small, slightly animated, watermark on the bottom right hand corner but I unfortunately made it a little too opaque to be visible after being compressed by YouTube; upping the opacity, re rendering, and then re uploading the videos definitely would not be worth the time involved in the last two of the aforementioned three steps.
I've been writing this blog post over the past few hours during commercial breaks on the Syracuse/UConn quarter final game for the Big East Tournament. It's currently in the 5th overtime and undoubtedly much too crazy of a game to even begin to discuss. I'm going down to the City Saturday for the championship game and would be ecstatic if 'Cuse was in that game. OMG, the game is now in the 6th OT. I am going to wrap up this post now. I can't imagine how tired the players must be, and that one of these teams has to play again today.
Good night.
the weekend in review
March 1, 2009 - 23:43
Here are a few snap shots from the weekend:
I've been doing some "pug sitting":
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/149.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/148.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][CAPTION]wide angle [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
My progress on getting some older pictures geotagged:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/150.jpg' width='399' height='291' /][/DIV_IMG]
The upload status for the off site backup now has an estimated "time remaining" number:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/147.jpg' width='398' height='248' /][/DIV_IMG]
That's all you get.
Good night!
I've been doing some "pug sitting":
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/149.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/148.jpg' width='399' height='266' /][CAPTION]wide angle [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
My progress on getting some older pictures geotagged:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/150.jpg' width='399' height='291' /][/DIV_IMG]
The upload status for the off site backup now has an estimated "time remaining" number:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:398px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/147.jpg' width='398' height='248' /][/DIV_IMG]
That's all you get.
Good night!
the data is not Lost
February 26, 2009 - 12:43
[DIV_IMG style='float:left ; width:108px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/144.png' width='108' height='64' /][CAPTION]uptime as of a few minutes ago [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]A few weeks ago I signed up for an online file backup service. Over the past few years I have been working on digitalizing every picture and video in my possession. The use of a scanning service to scan all of the "paper" pictures was a huge step towards getting as many memories as I can in a format that can easily be shared, modified, and preserved. I currently use external hard drives to backup my data. This approach works well and will guard me against a disk malfunction, I like the idea of having a local backup of data and I look very forward to someday purchasing a [a href="http://www.drobo.com/" target="_blank"]Drobo[/a]! Mmmm...Drobo's!
The main problem with having only a local backup of data is what happens if a catastrophic event happens like a fire, or flood, or a strike from a piece of [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris" target="_blank"]space debris[/a]!? A solid solution for me to this potential problem is online backup. My understanding of this process is that it will work like many other syncs, a copy of all of the data will be saved and then any modifications to the source data will be reflected on the backup data via periodic comparisons.
I am currently in the first stage of this process, a copy of all of the source data is currently being transferred to the online backup. This stage is taking a pretty long time. A good chunk of the data being uploaded are video files. I've imported all of my 8mm video tapes in their raw format so those files take up a decent amount of space. During this initial transfer of data I can not restart my computer. I don't remember what day this all started on, I know this computers uptime but I am unsure how long after that last restart I started the transfer. I believe I still have a few weeks before it will be over, assuming there are no issues.
Wasn't that exciting.
I guess I could have talked about tonight's episode of LOST. In my humble opinion, I believe it was one of the best episodes we have ever gotten. There was so much information given but so many new questions now to ask (surprising statement regarding this series). I think we are going to see a lot of flashbacks showing that many of the flight 815 passengers were placed on that specific flight intentionally, knowing it's final destination was the island. There were a lot of new dynamics revealed tonight, I am looking forward to watching it again, as well as obviously seeing the rest of the season/series.
Time for bed.
Here are two screen shots showing the slow progression of the file upload, such exciting stuff I give you.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/145.png' width='399' height='233' /][CAPTION]2-24-09 [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/146.png' width='399' height='233' /][CAPTION]2-25-09 [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
The main problem with having only a local backup of data is what happens if a catastrophic event happens like a fire, or flood, or a strike from a piece of [a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris" target="_blank"]space debris[/a]!? A solid solution for me to this potential problem is online backup. My understanding of this process is that it will work like many other syncs, a copy of all of the data will be saved and then any modifications to the source data will be reflected on the backup data via periodic comparisons.
I am currently in the first stage of this process, a copy of all of the source data is currently being transferred to the online backup. This stage is taking a pretty long time. A good chunk of the data being uploaded are video files. I've imported all of my 8mm video tapes in their raw format so those files take up a decent amount of space. During this initial transfer of data I can not restart my computer. I don't remember what day this all started on, I know this computers uptime but I am unsure how long after that last restart I started the transfer. I believe I still have a few weeks before it will be over, assuming there are no issues.
Wasn't that exciting.
I guess I could have talked about tonight's episode of LOST. In my humble opinion, I believe it was one of the best episodes we have ever gotten. There was so much information given but so many new questions now to ask (surprising statement regarding this series). I think we are going to see a lot of flashbacks showing that many of the flight 815 passengers were placed on that specific flight intentionally, knowing it's final destination was the island. There were a lot of new dynamics revealed tonight, I am looking forward to watching it again, as well as obviously seeing the rest of the season/series.
Time for bed.
Here are two screen shots showing the slow progression of the file upload, such exciting stuff I give you.
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/145.png' width='399' height='233' /][CAPTION]2-24-09 [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/146.png' width='399' height='233' /][CAPTION]2-25-09 [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
Splash 9
February 24, 2009 - 22:2
Greetings from the inside.
I have been excited for the moment when I would finally be able to post another blog entry. That moment, rather this moment, had to follow the completion of some significant site upgrades. I initially started off with the goal of updating the functions which display blog entries. This upgrade would allow me to write entries from a more robust blog entry page that I created for CT. This upgrade meant moving a lot of site functionality that was previously handled solely by PHP to being handled by JavaScript AJAX calls to and from PHP, an approach I previously decided as being the new default for all site functionality.
[b]I am going to go on a quick ramble about the dorkier side of the site improvements, feel free to skip ahead until the next bold sentence. [/b]
I previously had a minor internal struggle with the decision of whether or not the upgrades I was going to make would justify a site version number increment from 8 to 9. A little over a month later, I can report back that they definitely do justify that increment.
Getting legacy blog posts and new blog posts, each written with a different encoding, to display properly as they are now on the hompage did not take much time. I already had the majority of that code written for CT and modifying/upgrading it was quick. After that the next step was writing the functions that handle user comments. The majority of the steps involved in implementing the comment system with AJAX were straight forward but time consuming. I was quickly faced with a list of functions that had to be built if I didn't want to cut corners, and make a page without page reloads. I decided that since I was going to have to get my hands dirty with checking/getting user login status information via PHP session info and posting/getting information from some of the MYSQL tables, I might as well write the functions to handle user login/log off. I wrote everything to be as reusable as possible. All site events/functionality that vary based on user login status go through a checkLogin function. That function not only determines login status but it also parses the div id from which it was called, determining what and where the next piece of code needs to execute and calls the functions to execute it. I had total discretion with what approach I was to take for everything. I think making checkLogin such a central function will work well for future site functionality, an alternative approach was to have checkLogin simply return login status and have the calling function handle the next steps. I decided early on that I would not stray from the main goal of implementing this new back-end by updating the layout and look of the site. Due to this, some of the new site elements such as the login boxes do not fit perfectly with where they are being displayed. This is not a big issue, and it will only be a problem on older page styles (such as the current homepage). After the functions were written to display blogs/comments, add coments, check login, and display login; I stuck with the "since my hands are already dirty" mentality and decided to add the functionality for a user to reset a lost password. Adding this was not too crazy and it allowed me to work more with sending automated dynamic email messages. Also, I quick shout out to my good [a href="http://www.brianzimmel.com" target="_blank"]friend[/a] who gave me the solution to remedy the problem of information from the XML return document being cut short when being displayed.
Overall and down to the smaller details, I am very happy with version 9 of the splash page. I have laid a vast amount of groundwork for future site upgrades, and now that I have so much of the coding out of the way, future projects can focus more on the layout/look/feel eye candy type of stuff.
[b]That is the end of the most dorky and boring part of this post, the rest will be slightly easier to tolerate.[/b]
A few quick talking points:
-Boxee and Hulu : I am extremely disappointed with the recent happenings that resulted in Hulu being removed from Boxee, which I had running on the AppleTV. Having access to so much recent content was amazing, I hope an agreement to bring it back in a similar manor will be reached soon.
-Geotagging : Has become a recent obsession of mine. I want to geotag the heck out of every picture I ever take again. I have investigated a few approaches. Starting immediately I will use an iPhone GPS app called Trails to track my coordinates when taking pictures, I will then use [a href="http://www.houdah.com/houdahGeo/" target="_blank"]HoudahGeo[/a] to match up those coordinates with the pictures via their time stamps. After this, the image files will have the location information embedded, allowing endless possibilities with programs such as Google Earth, iPhoto 09, etc... I will consider buying one of the many devices available to get coordinates in lieu of the iPhone at some point, but this approach seems very doable for the time being.
- LOST : Has been amazing. I love how the story is being told and the information we are learning. Way too much to get into now.
- Strep Throat : I was sick for like a week starting a month ago, I finally went to the doctor and it turned out I had Strep Throat, something I haven't had in forever. The medicine attacked the Strep but I continued to feel pretty worn down for the weeks following. I am finally feeling more back to normal. It seems like a lot of winter sickness is making the rounds. None of this prevented me from going to work but I unfortunately have been missing a lot of indoor soccer games :-(
- Blog Pictures : I can now upload and display pictures with a lot of new options but I don't have anything exciting to display right now. This post has been even more boring than usual, no need to spice it up at this point.
- Pug Sitting : I have been doing a decent amount of it over the past month. I will conclude this post with a short video from one of the times when he was over:
Good night.
I have been excited for the moment when I would finally be able to post another blog entry. That moment, rather this moment, had to follow the completion of some significant site upgrades. I initially started off with the goal of updating the functions which display blog entries. This upgrade would allow me to write entries from a more robust blog entry page that I created for CT. This upgrade meant moving a lot of site functionality that was previously handled solely by PHP to being handled by JavaScript AJAX calls to and from PHP, an approach I previously decided as being the new default for all site functionality.
[b]I am going to go on a quick ramble about the dorkier side of the site improvements, feel free to skip ahead until the next bold sentence. [/b]
I previously had a minor internal struggle with the decision of whether or not the upgrades I was going to make would justify a site version number increment from 8 to 9. A little over a month later, I can report back that they definitely do justify that increment.
Getting legacy blog posts and new blog posts, each written with a different encoding, to display properly as they are now on the hompage did not take much time. I already had the majority of that code written for CT and modifying/upgrading it was quick. After that the next step was writing the functions that handle user comments. The majority of the steps involved in implementing the comment system with AJAX were straight forward but time consuming. I was quickly faced with a list of functions that had to be built if I didn't want to cut corners, and make a page without page reloads. I decided that since I was going to have to get my hands dirty with checking/getting user login status information via PHP session info and posting/getting information from some of the MYSQL tables, I might as well write the functions to handle user login/log off. I wrote everything to be as reusable as possible. All site events/functionality that vary based on user login status go through a checkLogin function. That function not only determines login status but it also parses the div id from which it was called, determining what and where the next piece of code needs to execute and calls the functions to execute it. I had total discretion with what approach I was to take for everything. I think making checkLogin such a central function will work well for future site functionality, an alternative approach was to have checkLogin simply return login status and have the calling function handle the next steps. I decided early on that I would not stray from the main goal of implementing this new back-end by updating the layout and look of the site. Due to this, some of the new site elements such as the login boxes do not fit perfectly with where they are being displayed. This is not a big issue, and it will only be a problem on older page styles (such as the current homepage). After the functions were written to display blogs/comments, add coments, check login, and display login; I stuck with the "since my hands are already dirty" mentality and decided to add the functionality for a user to reset a lost password. Adding this was not too crazy and it allowed me to work more with sending automated dynamic email messages. Also, I quick shout out to my good [a href="http://www.brianzimmel.com" target="_blank"]friend[/a] who gave me the solution to remedy the problem of information from the XML return document being cut short when being displayed.
Overall and down to the smaller details, I am very happy with version 9 of the splash page. I have laid a vast amount of groundwork for future site upgrades, and now that I have so much of the coding out of the way, future projects can focus more on the layout/look/feel eye candy type of stuff.
[b]That is the end of the most dorky and boring part of this post, the rest will be slightly easier to tolerate.[/b]
A few quick talking points:
-Boxee and Hulu : I am extremely disappointed with the recent happenings that resulted in Hulu being removed from Boxee, which I had running on the AppleTV. Having access to so much recent content was amazing, I hope an agreement to bring it back in a similar manor will be reached soon.
-Geotagging : Has become a recent obsession of mine. I want to geotag the heck out of every picture I ever take again. I have investigated a few approaches. Starting immediately I will use an iPhone GPS app called Trails to track my coordinates when taking pictures, I will then use [a href="http://www.houdah.com/houdahGeo/" target="_blank"]HoudahGeo[/a] to match up those coordinates with the pictures via their time stamps. After this, the image files will have the location information embedded, allowing endless possibilities with programs such as Google Earth, iPhoto 09, etc... I will consider buying one of the many devices available to get coordinates in lieu of the iPhone at some point, but this approach seems very doable for the time being.
- LOST : Has been amazing. I love how the story is being told and the information we are learning. Way too much to get into now.
- Strep Throat : I was sick for like a week starting a month ago, I finally went to the doctor and it turned out I had Strep Throat, something I haven't had in forever. The medicine attacked the Strep but I continued to feel pretty worn down for the weeks following. I am finally feeling more back to normal. It seems like a lot of winter sickness is making the rounds. None of this prevented me from going to work but I unfortunately have been missing a lot of indoor soccer games :-(
- Blog Pictures : I can now upload and display pictures with a lot of new options but I don't have anything exciting to display right now. This post has been even more boring than usual, no need to spice it up at this point.
- Pug Sitting : I have been doing a decent amount of it over the past month. I will conclude this post with a short video from one of the times when he was over:
Good night.
test 2 - splash 9
February 20, 2009 - 12:38
max image width 400, no float:
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/141.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]a light bulb [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
[DIV_IMG style='float:none ; width:399px' ][IMG src='/up/s9blog_fileUpload/141.jpg' width='399' height='533' /][CAPTION]a light bulb [/CAPTION][/DIV_IMG]
try two
January 20, 2009 - 12:23
- Splash - LOST - GTA4 - pugs
sooo....about an hour ago I thought I submitted a blog entry, but I must have hit the wrong button or something...because it didn't post :-(
Lucky for you it didn't post! The last entry was a horrible disaster that started as a long ramble about nothing and ended as a long ramble about technology.
I will spare you the wordiness and the ramble and the technology...maybe.
-It is hard to recreate something when there was nothing to even begin with.
-This past three day weekend, it was way too cold to do much that involved leaving the house for extended periods of time. That, and the fact that I had previously signed up to "pug sit" those three nights gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and play a decent amount of Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox 360 and to put in a good amount of work into this website.
-GTA4: Great game, I played it a lot when it came out but more recently it say behind newer releases such as Gears of War 2 and FIFA 09. I am currently on chapter 4 and hope to finish the game in the near future.
-sethdesantis.com : I don't know why I picked this web site as the focus of the vast majority of web efforts I was to make during this extended weekend, but I did. I've decided to start working on a "Splash 9" version of the site. This whole number increase in site version number is being made primarily due to the wide scope of files being affected during this upgrade. After a fairly long evaluation of where the site currently stands, I decided that for the most part, I am happy with the look of the home page, and therefore the majority of major changes will be behind the scenes. The current framework of the site primarily depends on page loads to get and send information, I am looking to implement an AJAX approach (currently only used in User Registration and User Control Panel) throughout the entire site (or at least a significant amount in the home page and totally for the Blog page). Besides generic page cleanup that I am doing on many unreleased files which are copies of current files, Splash 9 will use AJAX to handle all blog functions. Tackling this functionality is easier than it normally would have been due to the fact that it wasn't too long ago I wrote the code to does this exact thing, but for Cooperstown. One of the hurdles I was concerned about was reading/parsing blog posts written[saved] in one format when the format it is intended to expect is fairly different. My current blog posts (this one I write now) have all of the information saved as HTML (information like the tags to insert links or pictures, or make something bold and italic). The code I was going to use does not expect HTML tags, rather it expects custom tags that I decided on before hand, that get read by the code and then parsed into the HTML. I think the latter approach offers more long term flexibility with how your posts are displayed. Anyhow, the code wasn't made to use regular HTML tags but after only a few modification (which will end up serving as improvements to the current version used in CT), it was reading and displaying everything correctly. Soon I will be able to switch Blog entry Pages and will be able to use the one I created for CT, which is much much better than this one. I've added a little section of code already where I can enter the date that posts switched formats and then the correct styles will be used. All of the code that was previously written to handle non HTML tags is simply ignored.
Just think about how exciting my blog posts will be once I can enter them in my new, robust, Blog Entry Page!!! ha, PUKE, my posts will never be exciting :-(
At least not if I talk about that kind of stuff.
Let's see...
-"The Neighborhood Ball" Inauguration show was more entertaining than I previously anticipated.
-LOST starts tomorrow, I'm too excited to discuss.
-SU Basketball has been offering a lot of reasons to be happy lately, it could be an emotional roller coaster of a season.
-One of the Splash 9 improvements are bigger pictures with more accurate dimensions being displayed in blog posts, I've implemented that functionality already. Feel free to browse through old pictures in posts in the Blog section of the site, and feel free to enjoy this recent picture:
Good night.
Lucky for you it didn't post! The last entry was a horrible disaster that started as a long ramble about nothing and ended as a long ramble about technology.
I will spare you the wordiness and the ramble and the technology...maybe.
-It is hard to recreate something when there was nothing to even begin with.
-This past three day weekend, it was way too cold to do much that involved leaving the house for extended periods of time. That, and the fact that I had previously signed up to "pug sit" those three nights gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and play a decent amount of Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox 360 and to put in a good amount of work into this website.
-GTA4: Great game, I played it a lot when it came out but more recently it say behind newer releases such as Gears of War 2 and FIFA 09. I am currently on chapter 4 and hope to finish the game in the near future.
-sethdesantis.com : I don't know why I picked this web site as the focus of the vast majority of web efforts I was to make during this extended weekend, but I did. I've decided to start working on a "Splash 9" version of the site. This whole number increase in site version number is being made primarily due to the wide scope of files being affected during this upgrade. After a fairly long evaluation of where the site currently stands, I decided that for the most part, I am happy with the look of the home page, and therefore the majority of major changes will be behind the scenes. The current framework of the site primarily depends on page loads to get and send information, I am looking to implement an AJAX approach (currently only used in User Registration and User Control Panel) throughout the entire site (or at least a significant amount in the home page and totally for the Blog page). Besides generic page cleanup that I am doing on many unreleased files which are copies of current files, Splash 9 will use AJAX to handle all blog functions. Tackling this functionality is easier than it normally would have been due to the fact that it wasn't too long ago I wrote the code to does this exact thing, but for Cooperstown. One of the hurdles I was concerned about was reading/parsing blog posts written[saved] in one format when the format it is intended to expect is fairly different. My current blog posts (this one I write now) have all of the information saved as HTML (information like the tags to insert links or pictures, or make something bold and italic). The code I was going to use does not expect HTML tags, rather it expects custom tags that I decided on before hand, that get read by the code and then parsed into the HTML. I think the latter approach offers more long term flexibility with how your posts are displayed. Anyhow, the code wasn't made to use regular HTML tags but after only a few modification (which will end up serving as improvements to the current version used in CT), it was reading and displaying everything correctly. Soon I will be able to switch Blog entry Pages and will be able to use the one I created for CT, which is much much better than this one. I've added a little section of code already where I can enter the date that posts switched formats and then the correct styles will be used. All of the code that was previously written to handle non HTML tags is simply ignored.
Just think about how exciting my blog posts will be once I can enter them in my new, robust, Blog Entry Page!!! ha, PUKE, my posts will never be exciting :-(
At least not if I talk about that kind of stuff.
Let's see...
-"The Neighborhood Ball" Inauguration show was more entertaining than I previously anticipated.
-LOST starts tomorrow, I'm too excited to discuss.
-SU Basketball has been offering a lot of reasons to be happy lately, it could be an emotional roller coaster of a season.
-One of the Splash 9 improvements are bigger pictures with more accurate dimensions being displayed in blog posts, I've implemented that functionality already. Feel free to browse through old pictures in posts in the Blog section of the site, and feel free to enjoy this recent picture:
Good night.
stay clean
January 12, 2009 - 11:52
- Photo Album - ramble - sophomore year - body cleansing
I don't have anything specific I would like to get into right now. There has been a conversation I would like to have via a blog post regarding my thoughts and observations on what the first half of my life was like without the internet and what the second half has been with it, but now still isn't the time for all of that.
A nice little ramble would be nice right about now.
I'm currently uploading 67 pictures in a folder titled "5-00_College_Sophomore_Year". These pictures are a sub set of the massive number of pictures I received back from being scanned a few months ago. I briefly browsed through them for editorial reasons and am happy to report that the entire album will be posted. Unlike the majority of pictures that I sent away to be scanned, these pictures were housed in a scrapbook prior to me rubber banding them up and mailing them out. Looking back at the scrapbooks that I've made throughout the years, it is apparent that collecting meaningful groups of photos for preservation and display has always been a hobby of mine, without doubt the internet has made this more efficient and worthwhile. The fact that every picture passed a quick editorial glance does not mean that I do not look like a complete fool in well over half of the pictures.
If you did not realize by now, I will point out the pink elephant sitting in the room. This album is the first album I've uploaded from the year 2000! In addition to being the first album from the first year of the 21st century, it will also be the first album to test whether or not a Y2K bug is present in the PHP code that parses each album folders name for date and title information. I sit here a few years since I've written that code and all I can do is hope that the reason I used two year digits in the folder naming conventions opposed to four is due to me making an educated guess that I will not be posting any pictures from the year 2100, rather than me not taking into account this likely album year scenario. I semi remember having to fix a similar something a while back(too tired to read through blog right now to see) but I don't remember the specifics. We will keep our fingers wrong, if it breaks the parser than I will fix it and post a blog update.
As if my long list of disgustingly dorky blog posts was not enough for you to be mad at me, you should see me at this exact moment. I am sitting here at my desk, typing my blog post, and sipping a cup of tea. I feel like a cozy tool. UGGG. Not that there is anything wrong with any of the aforementioned things, but sometimes I have to just have to ask myself "what am I doing". I don't know, I just associate drinking tea before bed as being super sophisticated. Like, people that do this wear a different pair of pants every day to work and wash their sheets once a week. I had a turkey Hungry-Man TV dinner thing for supper and then some tater tots for dessert , I can't go and try to make that alright with one cup of delicious tea. The only argument I can present in my defense in this case of seemingly confused self identity is the fact that the tea I currently am elegantly sipping on is an item that I received as part of a 60 day set that is meant to be a routine to clean the body of the type of toxins that can build up from every day life. I bought this kit a few months ago after multiple discussions during lunch breaks with a prior co worker. We talked a little bit about all the guck from food and drinks that probably builds up in your body over years and that it would probably be a good idea to try to get it out. So this big box with at least 6 different sets of pills and shakes and tea arrives a few months ago, I open it up and take a look at everything and realize that this routine is more like a horrible relationship that requires all of your time and effort than a health fad, so I put it all back in the box and put that in the closet. Fast forward to about a week or two ago... I find myself in the store buying a scale so I can monitor interesting facts such as my current and historical weight (historical since the inception of the scale into my life. While the cause of my random curiosity and interest with my basic vital statistics still remains unknown, I can say with complete certainty that for a span of about 3 months prior to December I was on a very unhealthy food kick and the results of such a barrage of unhealthiness did leave me wondering what kind of effects it had taken. Along with all of this, I had a sudden urge to not eat any more unhealthy food. I've still gone to Taco Bell, Chinese buffet, and had meals like what I had tonight; but overall I would have to save that the amount of unhealthy food I consume on a daily basis has dropped approximately 75%. This dietary change was inevitable, as I ate unhealthy pretty carefree knowing I could get away with it only for a small period of time. All the details regarding the exciting subs and cereals I have been enjoying is even more boring that what I've already said, but this was all worth it to explain why I was drinking this cup of tea. As anyone could guess, the modifications I made to my eating habits opened the perfect window for me to also add in the body cleaning kits. And here we are now, me telling you a whole bunch about nothing exciting.
I'm incredibly tired and can't wait for bed.
From the clean inside, out, good night.
A nice little ramble would be nice right about now.
I'm currently uploading 67 pictures in a folder titled "5-00_College_Sophomore_Year". These pictures are a sub set of the massive number of pictures I received back from being scanned a few months ago. I briefly browsed through them for editorial reasons and am happy to report that the entire album will be posted. Unlike the majority of pictures that I sent away to be scanned, these pictures were housed in a scrapbook prior to me rubber banding them up and mailing them out. Looking back at the scrapbooks that I've made throughout the years, it is apparent that collecting meaningful groups of photos for preservation and display has always been a hobby of mine, without doubt the internet has made this more efficient and worthwhile. The fact that every picture passed a quick editorial glance does not mean that I do not look like a complete fool in well over half of the pictures.
If you did not realize by now, I will point out the pink elephant sitting in the room. This album is the first album I've uploaded from the year 2000! In addition to being the first album from the first year of the 21st century, it will also be the first album to test whether or not a Y2K bug is present in the PHP code that parses each album folders name for date and title information. I sit here a few years since I've written that code and all I can do is hope that the reason I used two year digits in the folder naming conventions opposed to four is due to me making an educated guess that I will not be posting any pictures from the year 2100, rather than me not taking into account this likely album year scenario. I semi remember having to fix a similar something a while back(too tired to read through blog right now to see) but I don't remember the specifics. We will keep our fingers wrong, if it breaks the parser than I will fix it and post a blog update.
As if my long list of disgustingly dorky blog posts was not enough for you to be mad at me, you should see me at this exact moment. I am sitting here at my desk, typing my blog post, and sipping a cup of tea. I feel like a cozy tool. UGGG. Not that there is anything wrong with any of the aforementioned things, but sometimes I have to just have to ask myself "what am I doing". I don't know, I just associate drinking tea before bed as being super sophisticated. Like, people that do this wear a different pair of pants every day to work and wash their sheets once a week. I had a turkey Hungry-Man TV dinner thing for supper and then some tater tots for dessert , I can't go and try to make that alright with one cup of delicious tea. The only argument I can present in my defense in this case of seemingly confused self identity is the fact that the tea I currently am elegantly sipping on is an item that I received as part of a 60 day set that is meant to be a routine to clean the body of the type of toxins that can build up from every day life. I bought this kit a few months ago after multiple discussions during lunch breaks with a prior co worker. We talked a little bit about all the guck from food and drinks that probably builds up in your body over years and that it would probably be a good idea to try to get it out. So this big box with at least 6 different sets of pills and shakes and tea arrives a few months ago, I open it up and take a look at everything and realize that this routine is more like a horrible relationship that requires all of your time and effort than a health fad, so I put it all back in the box and put that in the closet. Fast forward to about a week or two ago... I find myself in the store buying a scale so I can monitor interesting facts such as my current and historical weight (historical since the inception of the scale into my life. While the cause of my random curiosity and interest with my basic vital statistics still remains unknown, I can say with complete certainty that for a span of about 3 months prior to December I was on a very unhealthy food kick and the results of such a barrage of unhealthiness did leave me wondering what kind of effects it had taken. Along with all of this, I had a sudden urge to not eat any more unhealthy food. I've still gone to Taco Bell, Chinese buffet, and had meals like what I had tonight; but overall I would have to save that the amount of unhealthy food I consume on a daily basis has dropped approximately 75%. This dietary change was inevitable, as I ate unhealthy pretty carefree knowing I could get away with it only for a small period of time. All the details regarding the exciting subs and cereals I have been enjoying is even more boring that what I've already said, but this was all worth it to explain why I was drinking this cup of tea. As anyone could guess, the modifications I made to my eating habits opened the perfect window for me to also add in the body cleaning kits. And here we are now, me telling you a whole bunch about nothing exciting.
I'm incredibly tired and can't wait for bed.
From the clean inside, out, good night.
Hooked 'em
January 5, 2009 - 11:8
- SBU - OSU - Texas - Shockwave - web dev
I'm currently watching OSU vs Texas in the Fiesta Bowl, it took me a while to realize it, but I've been to the campuses of both of these schools. During my senior year of college I made an unsolicited offer to be the assistant manager of the our schools girl lacrosse team. I was friends with some of the girls on the team and I was looking for an extra curricular activity to fill the void that was left by not being in student government anymore. Student government was a really fun but time consuming activity. I was bestowed the privilege of being my classes president for my first three years of school, that position allowed me to do many exciting things including but not limited to attending several free meals each semester. It didn't however allow me to visit OSU in Columbus, for that I needed the lacrosse team. The two games that we had in Ohio were second only to a few nights we spent at UNC as the farthest destination I traveled with the team. During our stay in Ohio the team practiced in the OSU football teams indoor facility, which was a semi interesting experience.
In regards to The University of Texas, a few years ago I spent a few months in Austin. In addition to several nights out downtown on 6th Street, there were many nights friends and I would walk around the U of T campus. It was a very impressive campus that was delightful to walk around even at night. I liked the city of Austin more than Columbus, and therefore say "Hook 'em Horns" for tonight's game.
I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. I stayed local and enjoyed a calm night watching the ball drop at a good friends house with his family. I think one of the tricks to a successful New Years Eve is finding a good balance between effort and return. From incredibly crazy events in the past to calms ones like this year, I've historically been fortunate to have had enjoyable nights.
I've recently been spending some time creating and implementing Shockwave animations for the web. I want to be able to use some JavaScript onmouseover events to trigger the swapping of a few different animations. An alternative approach that I've chosen in the past is the use of animated GIFs. I am unsure if Shockwave will ultimately be used in the end, but the prospect of being able to export quality animated web site elements directly from After Effects is very appealing and worth the time I am spending on it now. Some of the initial hurdles I am facing include file sizes a tad too large for the animation to instantly start playing as well as browser incompatibilities.
The second session of indoor soccer starts this Thursday at 10pm, I am excited for another session but am nervous that the games may interfere with the quickly approaching premiere of LOST Season 5 and the episodes to follow. We will see what happens.
Well, Texas just won the game and in honor of that I am going to post a YouTube video I found. I unfortunately do not know the background story behind it, but I imagine with a little research or by talking to someone from Texas I would.
Good night.
In regards to The University of Texas, a few years ago I spent a few months in Austin. In addition to several nights out downtown on 6th Street, there were many nights friends and I would walk around the U of T campus. It was a very impressive campus that was delightful to walk around even at night. I liked the city of Austin more than Columbus, and therefore say "Hook 'em Horns" for tonight's game.
I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. I stayed local and enjoyed a calm night watching the ball drop at a good friends house with his family. I think one of the tricks to a successful New Years Eve is finding a good balance between effort and return. From incredibly crazy events in the past to calms ones like this year, I've historically been fortunate to have had enjoyable nights.
I've recently been spending some time creating and implementing Shockwave animations for the web. I want to be able to use some JavaScript onmouseover events to trigger the swapping of a few different animations. An alternative approach that I've chosen in the past is the use of animated GIFs. I am unsure if Shockwave will ultimately be used in the end, but the prospect of being able to export quality animated web site elements directly from After Effects is very appealing and worth the time I am spending on it now. Some of the initial hurdles I am facing include file sizes a tad too large for the animation to instantly start playing as well as browser incompatibilities.
The second session of indoor soccer starts this Thursday at 10pm, I am excited for another session but am nervous that the games may interfere with the quickly approaching premiere of LOST Season 5 and the episodes to follow. We will see what happens.
Well, Texas just won the game and in honor of that I am going to post a YouTube video I found. I unfortunately do not know the background story behind it, but I imagine with a little research or by talking to someone from Texas I would.
Good night.
stored & easy to view
December 25, 2008 - 12:31
- Christmas - Boxee - AppleTV - Hulu - Apple
I feel like Christmas kind of snuck up on me this year. Not in the sense that I found myself with a lot of last minute shopping, I got the vast majority of gifts I was to buy this year from Amazon weeks ago, and besides that I didn't have too many holiday preparations to make. Possibly that is why It caught me a tad off guard. Now I feel like it's come and gone so quickly, I am a tad disappointed I have to wait another 364 days and 7 minutes for it.
What I am not disappointed about is how I got to spend my Christmas. The family that I spent Thanksgiving with came over to my parents house on Christmas Eve. It's my Dad's side of the family who I've periodically mentioned before in the past. For many years we spent every summer together at our camp, which made all of us very close, so getting to see each other now during holidays and other family gatherings is much appreciated by myself and everyone else involved. I gave some of my younger cousins my camera, they went around and took some great shots that I've uploaded into a photo album. The first half of pictures in the album are pictures they took and the second half are the first shots I've taken with a new wide angle lens I got from Santa. This new lens takes the prize as the nicest one in my humble collection, it is a Canon EF-S 10-22mm . There have been several scenarios in the past where I wish I had this lens, as my skills in photography hopefully continue to improve, I look forward to future opportunities of some cool shots. I'm currently in the preliminary stages of scheduling a trip to DC this spring with a friend where our primary focus will be photography. I used to go there fairly often with my parents when I was younger, I remember enough to know that there would be gigabytes and gigabytes of great photo ops. I could definitely go on a photo rant right now, I received some other exciting lens/camera accessories today that really have me excited about this topic.
When I was at the mall last week dropping off this laptop to be fixed, again, I picked up a cheap USB drive. After quite a while of owning the AppleTV I decided to hack it and install Boxee. I'm not sure why it took me so long to apply the hack, but not applying it seems consistent with some recent trends of mine such as purchasing the Adobe CS suit, not even considering hacking the iPhone, and buying all of my music and video content opposed to torents/P2P networks. Prior to installing Boxee, I've always been very content with the AppleTV. I think a big part of that contentness is the fact that after HD DVD lost the "format wars" and my Xbox 360 add on drive and handful of movies I reluctantly purchased found themselves at a dead end, I decided that I would no longer buy old DVD's or new high definition DVD's, rather I would buy things I really felt compelled to own on iTunes. This allows me to view the content on any of my computers, living room TV, iPods/iPhones, and any TV I hook those "pods" up to. The last method is really what pushed me over the edge, being able to put a few movies/TV episodes on my phone or a bunch on an iPod and then hook it up to any TV is very compelling. Any how, that's why the AppleTV and I get along well, I don't mind buying or renting movies/TV shows to watch on it, because that's the only place I'm buying those things. But then there is Boxee, which amongst many other features, gives you a very sleak interface to Hulu. Ahhh, Hulu, I really can't talk about you enough. Ever since my very early interactions with Hulu during it's invitation beta phase, when I was exploring options other than Joost, I became very fond of what it offered. The movies and TV shows available in high quality with very few commercials is impressive, up to date, and all for free. The possibility of being able to access all of this content on my main living room set up by just installing some software to a USB stick was just too good to be true. Soooo, I buy the USB stick, go home to download the software, but find out I have to sign up and wait for an invitation :-( Long story short, I got the email invite today, installed everything, and now have had Boxee running for the past few hours. I can say hands hows, unequivocally, that Boxee is amazing. So far I have watched the Muppet Christmas Special, an episode of Dr. Danger, and now I have an episode of Fringe on; also I watched the beginning of 28 Days and Planet Of The Apes (before realizing I wasn't in the mood for a movie). All for free, all streaming quickly, and all in acceptable quality (very slightly sub DVD to DVD quality, in my opinion). I've always talked the AppleTV up in the past, but only to people who had an iTunes library significant enough to warrant streaming or the desire to start one. I'm not sure if it even made sense for someone who was looking to rent a lot, as I would suggest streaming Netflix to an Xbox 360 or a Roku device. But now it makes sense for almost everyone. Combining the hacked ability to stream so much free content; as well as intended capability of streaming pictures, music, and video; makes the AppleTV a very valuable deice in any home entertainment center.
Well, that was a little commercially on my part, and some parts were a tad materialistic, how un Christmassy of me. I will blame the mass media and Hollywood, ha.
I have to quickly mention the resolve to the issues I was having with this laptop. After Apple failed to repair the speakers and microphone problem the first time I brought the Air into them, they offered to replace it with a new 120gb one opposed to my original 80gb. This solution made me happy, I'm glad they did the right thing without me having to suggest or argue for it.
I had some major "sync" issues a few days ago. They unfortunately affected my address books and they started the night I was printing my Christmas cards, labels, and postage. I'm not sure what caused it, but the contacts in my phone and computer address book were tripled. It took a while for me to finally get everything back to normal, but they are now. MobileMe recently had some updates, so I'm not sure if that caused it or not. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, because the way it works now is very cool. Whenever I add or update a contact in my phone, online, or in the address book in my laptop or desktop, the changes get pushed out to all of the other devices. Things are work the same way with calendars. I really enjoy all of this functionality, but still wish I didn't have to pay an annual fee for it.
Alright, that was a huge rant about something and nothing. Bed time for me.
From the merry inside, out, good night.
What I am not disappointed about is how I got to spend my Christmas. The family that I spent Thanksgiving with came over to my parents house on Christmas Eve. It's my Dad's side of the family who I've periodically mentioned before in the past. For many years we spent every summer together at our camp, which made all of us very close, so getting to see each other now during holidays and other family gatherings is much appreciated by myself and everyone else involved. I gave some of my younger cousins my camera, they went around and took some great shots that I've uploaded into a photo album. The first half of pictures in the album are pictures they took and the second half are the first shots I've taken with a new wide angle lens I got from Santa. This new lens takes the prize as the nicest one in my humble collection, it is a Canon EF-S 10-22mm . There have been several scenarios in the past where I wish I had this lens, as my skills in photography hopefully continue to improve, I look forward to future opportunities of some cool shots. I'm currently in the preliminary stages of scheduling a trip to DC this spring with a friend where our primary focus will be photography. I used to go there fairly often with my parents when I was younger, I remember enough to know that there would be gigabytes and gigabytes of great photo ops. I could definitely go on a photo rant right now, I received some other exciting lens/camera accessories today that really have me excited about this topic.
When I was at the mall last week dropping off this laptop to be fixed, again, I picked up a cheap USB drive. After quite a while of owning the AppleTV I decided to hack it and install Boxee. I'm not sure why it took me so long to apply the hack, but not applying it seems consistent with some recent trends of mine such as purchasing the Adobe CS suit, not even considering hacking the iPhone, and buying all of my music and video content opposed to torents/P2P networks. Prior to installing Boxee, I've always been very content with the AppleTV. I think a big part of that contentness is the fact that after HD DVD lost the "format wars" and my Xbox 360 add on drive and handful of movies I reluctantly purchased found themselves at a dead end, I decided that I would no longer buy old DVD's or new high definition DVD's, rather I would buy things I really felt compelled to own on iTunes. This allows me to view the content on any of my computers, living room TV, iPods/iPhones, and any TV I hook those "pods" up to. The last method is really what pushed me over the edge, being able to put a few movies/TV episodes on my phone or a bunch on an iPod and then hook it up to any TV is very compelling. Any how, that's why the AppleTV and I get along well, I don't mind buying or renting movies/TV shows to watch on it, because that's the only place I'm buying those things. But then there is Boxee, which amongst many other features, gives you a very sleak interface to Hulu. Ahhh, Hulu, I really can't talk about you enough. Ever since my very early interactions with Hulu during it's invitation beta phase, when I was exploring options other than Joost, I became very fond of what it offered. The movies and TV shows available in high quality with very few commercials is impressive, up to date, and all for free. The possibility of being able to access all of this content on my main living room set up by just installing some software to a USB stick was just too good to be true. Soooo, I buy the USB stick, go home to download the software, but find out I have to sign up and wait for an invitation :-( Long story short, I got the email invite today, installed everything, and now have had Boxee running for the past few hours. I can say hands hows, unequivocally, that Boxee is amazing. So far I have watched the Muppet Christmas Special, an episode of Dr. Danger, and now I have an episode of Fringe on; also I watched the beginning of 28 Days and Planet Of The Apes (before realizing I wasn't in the mood for a movie). All for free, all streaming quickly, and all in acceptable quality (very slightly sub DVD to DVD quality, in my opinion). I've always talked the AppleTV up in the past, but only to people who had an iTunes library significant enough to warrant streaming or the desire to start one. I'm not sure if it even made sense for someone who was looking to rent a lot, as I would suggest streaming Netflix to an Xbox 360 or a Roku device. But now it makes sense for almost everyone. Combining the hacked ability to stream so much free content; as well as intended capability of streaming pictures, music, and video; makes the AppleTV a very valuable deice in any home entertainment center.
Well, that was a little commercially on my part, and some parts were a tad materialistic, how un Christmassy of me. I will blame the mass media and Hollywood, ha.
I have to quickly mention the resolve to the issues I was having with this laptop. After Apple failed to repair the speakers and microphone problem the first time I brought the Air into them, they offered to replace it with a new 120gb one opposed to my original 80gb. This solution made me happy, I'm glad they did the right thing without me having to suggest or argue for it.
I had some major "sync" issues a few days ago. They unfortunately affected my address books and they started the night I was printing my Christmas cards, labels, and postage. I'm not sure what caused it, but the contacts in my phone and computer address book were tripled. It took a while for me to finally get everything back to normal, but they are now. MobileMe recently had some updates, so I'm not sure if that caused it or not. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, because the way it works now is very cool. Whenever I add or update a contact in my phone, online, or in the address book in my laptop or desktop, the changes get pushed out to all of the other devices. Things are work the same way with calendars. I really enjoy all of this functionality, but still wish I didn't have to pay an annual fee for it.
Alright, that was a huge rant about something and nothing. Bed time for me.
From the merry inside, out, good night.
uncomfortable chair
December 21, 2008 - 12:10
- winter weather - Mac Book Air - pics
To the best of my sleepy recollection, this weekend marked the first time this winter that inclement weather played a semi significant factor in any activities that involved leaving the house. This statement should be read in a positive light when considering the date on which I make it. There are several cities within a few hours of here that deal with comparable amounts of snowfall, or more, starting weeks earlier and on a much more consistent basis.
I feel like I've been busy lately. I mean I must have been, I'm so incredibly tired right now. I couldn't have gotten this tried by not doing anything.
My laptop has been getting repaired on and off over the past week, it's been super annoying. My computer habits have shifted dramatically due to not having the Air. I've been doing everything computer related in my office. The difference in the type of things I work on when using the two different computers is interesting enough to note, but not interesting enough to detail. One product of the increased time I've been spending on the iMac is the banner graphic for this site. Prior to last week I had a fairly significant artistic filter applied to the graphic, distorting it enough for it to be used without the necessary additional work needed on it. The graphic is intended to be a work in progress, but I hadn't even reached the point where basic elements of it (such as the grass) were cleaned up enough to be displayed. It's at least good enough now for me to display with out the filter. The best part of image is that the original size of the one I work on is huge, big enough for a poster or wall mural, so once I clean it up more and add much more, I'll be able to print it out in a cool format.
I think I'll leave it at that.
I have a nice handful of things to talk about but I'm really too tired to be sitting here at my desk. If I could just be siting on my couch I would love to discuss many different things, including the improvements I have noted in my already well rounded winter driving skill set.
Instead I will just post two fairly different pictures that I took today of the cold.
Staying warm on the inside, out, good night.
I feel like I've been busy lately. I mean I must have been, I'm so incredibly tired right now. I couldn't have gotten this tried by not doing anything.
My laptop has been getting repaired on and off over the past week, it's been super annoying. My computer habits have shifted dramatically due to not having the Air. I've been doing everything computer related in my office. The difference in the type of things I work on when using the two different computers is interesting enough to note, but not interesting enough to detail. One product of the increased time I've been spending on the iMac is the banner graphic for this site. Prior to last week I had a fairly significant artistic filter applied to the graphic, distorting it enough for it to be used without the necessary additional work needed on it. The graphic is intended to be a work in progress, but I hadn't even reached the point where basic elements of it (such as the grass) were cleaned up enough to be displayed. It's at least good enough now for me to display with out the filter. The best part of image is that the original size of the one I work on is huge, big enough for a poster or wall mural, so once I clean it up more and add much more, I'll be able to print it out in a cool format.
I think I'll leave it at that.
I have a nice handful of things to talk about but I'm really too tired to be sitting here at my desk. If I could just be siting on my couch I would love to discuss many different things, including the improvements I have noted in my already well rounded winter driving skill set.
Instead I will just post two fairly different pictures that I took today of the cold.
Staying warm on the inside, out, good night.
Aforementioned Bobci
December 8, 2008 - 10:4
- Bobci
I got a call this morning from my Dad. The time in which he was placing it, approximately 9:22, was suspect, as email is our usual choice of communication during business hours. My first inclination regarding the subject of the call was unfortunately correct when he told me that Bobci passed away earlier that morning. My Grandmother has been in a nursing home over the past few months due to the type of health problems people have when they are 91 years old. The 25 years prior to that relatively short period of time in the nursing home she lived in the same house as my parents and I. Besides the obvious benefits that come along with living so close to your grandmother (food, attention, gifts, and love), there were bonus benefits such as having a 95% guaranteed "yes" response to requests to borrow her car during my early driving years; as well as a few drawbacks such as having a keen ear that lived below you that never went out late during the weekend who could and would easily count the number of friends, via foot steps up and down the stairs, that allegedly would come over when I was home and my parents were out.
Bobci, as her grandmother nickname would suggest, was very Polish. She could definitely talk and read in it whenever she wanted. If her success in life was to be judged by the quality of person her daughter, my mother, turned out to be then she reached a level of success I will not see. In addition to the aforementioned awesomeness that came along with her living downstairs, there came a significant responsibility of care that fell into the hands of my parents. My words are unable to accurately depict the substantial sacrifices my parents made for Bobci's physical and emotional well being. If the time they each individually spent with her was added up and divided by 5, it would be much larger than the combined time her other children spent with her. This fact could carry an asterisk next to it, arguing proximity as the explanation for the un-proportional amount of care given by Bobci's respective children, but it won't. In my opinion, putting bias aide and sticking to facts, my parents are unarguably better people morally speaking than any of the aforementioned people, myself definitely included. This train of thought is not to imply that the "aforementioned people" are not amazing people, morally and otherwise; it simply states that my parents are in a league of their own. Unwilling to incorrectly take the high ground here, the quality time I spent with Bobci could certainly be subject to the aforementioned asterisk.
In the end, Bobci is going to be extremely missed by all her children, grandchildren, and significant number of local family members that survive her; everyone loved her very much.
Hopefully I can arrange some of the words in the aforementioned literary disaster for the eulogy I will be co responsible for later this week. My cousin is giving it with me, she write articles for newspapers on a daily basis and practically has a Ph.D. in journalism. People will laugh at me and throw me a helmet if I have to give mine after her. I'm not sure if these things get worked out by a coin toss or what, but I am definitely going to have a big say in the eulogy lineup.
As it's been a while since my last blog post, I have been thinking about some of the things I was going to talk about. There are a ton of geek things to talk about such as recent work on the Cooperstown backend, my purchase of VMware Fusion at the special price, and the fact that I finally agreed to depart with the Air long enough for some tune ups. I was going to talk about why I feel like my house has turned into a hostel over the past few weeks. I wanted to discuss the amazing Thanksgiving I had with family. I was going to briefly mention the subtle yet significant improvements in FIFA 09 and the fact that two friends and I forged through Rockband 2 to the credits. I also had a few paragraphs in me regarding social websites such as Facebook and Twitter and my appreciation of them. I'm sure all of the aforementioned topics in this paragraph have your teeth sweating with anticipation but they will have to wait to be discussed until another day.
I am going to spend the rest of this evening eating food, cleaning the house, and thinking about the fact that the last words Bobci told me when we were alone was to not go through life alone. That conversation definitely worried me a bit, it made me think about the fact that not only was she having heart issues, but her vision might be going bad. HA!
From the inside turned out, good night.
Bobci and my Mom, Mothers Day, 2004
Bobci, as her grandmother nickname would suggest, was very Polish. She could definitely talk and read in it whenever she wanted. If her success in life was to be judged by the quality of person her daughter, my mother, turned out to be then she reached a level of success I will not see. In addition to the aforementioned awesomeness that came along with her living downstairs, there came a significant responsibility of care that fell into the hands of my parents. My words are unable to accurately depict the substantial sacrifices my parents made for Bobci's physical and emotional well being. If the time they each individually spent with her was added up and divided by 5, it would be much larger than the combined time her other children spent with her. This fact could carry an asterisk next to it, arguing proximity as the explanation for the un-proportional amount of care given by Bobci's respective children, but it won't. In my opinion, putting bias aide and sticking to facts, my parents are unarguably better people morally speaking than any of the aforementioned people, myself definitely included. This train of thought is not to imply that the "aforementioned people" are not amazing people, morally and otherwise; it simply states that my parents are in a league of their own. Unwilling to incorrectly take the high ground here, the quality time I spent with Bobci could certainly be subject to the aforementioned asterisk.
In the end, Bobci is going to be extremely missed by all her children, grandchildren, and significant number of local family members that survive her; everyone loved her very much.
Hopefully I can arrange some of the words in the aforementioned literary disaster for the eulogy I will be co responsible for later this week. My cousin is giving it with me, she write articles for newspapers on a daily basis and practically has a Ph.D. in journalism. People will laugh at me and throw me a helmet if I have to give mine after her. I'm not sure if these things get worked out by a coin toss or what, but I am definitely going to have a big say in the eulogy lineup.
As it's been a while since my last blog post, I have been thinking about some of the things I was going to talk about. There are a ton of geek things to talk about such as recent work on the Cooperstown backend, my purchase of VMware Fusion at the special price, and the fact that I finally agreed to depart with the Air long enough for some tune ups. I was going to talk about why I feel like my house has turned into a hostel over the past few weeks. I wanted to discuss the amazing Thanksgiving I had with family. I was going to briefly mention the subtle yet significant improvements in FIFA 09 and the fact that two friends and I forged through Rockband 2 to the credits. I also had a few paragraphs in me regarding social websites such as Facebook and Twitter and my appreciation of them. I'm sure all of the aforementioned topics in this paragraph have your teeth sweating with anticipation but they will have to wait to be discussed until another day.
I am going to spend the rest of this evening eating food, cleaning the house, and thinking about the fact that the last words Bobci told me when we were alone was to not go through life alone. That conversation definitely worried me a bit, it made me think about the fact that not only was she having heart issues, but her vision might be going bad. HA!
From the inside turned out, good night.
Bobci and my Mom, Mothers Day, 2004
landmark events
November 17, 2008 - 12:48
- pseudo policy - Dreamweaver - Cooperstown
Historically I have written very little about my employers. I consciously implemented this personal pseudo policy to avoid putting myself in a position where I would disclose information that would compromise my status as an employee. There have been and I imagine always will be occasions where I refer to a situation that occurred during the hours of the day where I am be being paid by someone other than my self, but I rest well at night knowing that those occasions and reference will disclose nothing to jeopardize my standing as a payee by said employer.
That preface might help explain my lack of blog posting over the last two weeks. During that period of time I gave notice to my employer of slightly over five years that I would be pursuing opportunities outside of the company. The ease in which I was able to make the decision to leave did not follow me through the actual process of leaving. Over that half a decade I formed many rewarding friendships with coworkers; it gave me a somber feeling knowing that I would no longer be able to spend my weekdays with them. Last Friday as I walked with my box of belongings through the parking lot, looking for my car for the final time, I couldn't help but think about the incredibly hard working and generous coworkers I was leaving. I was sad to say good bye, but am very confident that I will remain in personal and virtual contact with many of them via happy hours, get togethers, and Facebook.
Today was my first day with my new employer. This past weekend reminded me of how I used to feel before the start of a new school year. I did a little shopping, flossed my teeth, and even popped a few pimples (maybe). If today was the first day back in elementary school, I felt like a third or fourth grader. Part of me kind of knew what to expect and part of me was super nervous. The day went very well and I am excited with what lies ahead of me.
The past two weeks have obviously been filled with more than what has already been discussed. I purchased Gears of War 2 and upgraded Dreamweaver CS3 to CS4. I spent all day yesterday with a recursive function that ended up being exponentially smaller and [arguably] simpler at the end of the night than what I had in the middle of the day. I watched some great episodes of True Blood, Office, and Heroes. Indoor soccer started. I played Rock Band 2 online with good friends in other cities. My friend and I discussed landmark ideas for Cooperstown and started the process on paper of the next and final stage required prior to beta testing can begin. The speaker joined the microphone on the list of items not working on the Air, I am definitely close to bringing it in for these repairs which will cost nothing more than a few days without this computer. A few more things happened, but I am just way too tired right now to discuss.
From the inside, out, good night.
That preface might help explain my lack of blog posting over the last two weeks. During that period of time I gave notice to my employer of slightly over five years that I would be pursuing opportunities outside of the company. The ease in which I was able to make the decision to leave did not follow me through the actual process of leaving. Over that half a decade I formed many rewarding friendships with coworkers; it gave me a somber feeling knowing that I would no longer be able to spend my weekdays with them. Last Friday as I walked with my box of belongings through the parking lot, looking for my car for the final time, I couldn't help but think about the incredibly hard working and generous coworkers I was leaving. I was sad to say good bye, but am very confident that I will remain in personal and virtual contact with many of them via happy hours, get togethers, and Facebook.
Today was my first day with my new employer. This past weekend reminded me of how I used to feel before the start of a new school year. I did a little shopping, flossed my teeth, and even popped a few pimples (maybe). If today was the first day back in elementary school, I felt like a third or fourth grader. Part of me kind of knew what to expect and part of me was super nervous. The day went very well and I am excited with what lies ahead of me.
The past two weeks have obviously been filled with more than what has already been discussed. I purchased Gears of War 2 and upgraded Dreamweaver CS3 to CS4. I spent all day yesterday with a recursive function that ended up being exponentially smaller and [arguably] simpler at the end of the night than what I had in the middle of the day. I watched some great episodes of True Blood, Office, and Heroes. Indoor soccer started. I played Rock Band 2 online with good friends in other cities. My friend and I discussed landmark ideas for Cooperstown and started the process on paper of the next and final stage required prior to beta testing can begin. The speaker joined the microphone on the list of items not working on the Air, I am definitely close to bringing it in for these repairs which will cost nothing more than a few days without this computer. A few more things happened, but I am just way too tired right now to discuss.
From the inside, out, good night.
True Text
November 2, 2008 - 9:45
- Text Messaging - Simpsons - True Blood
I am so full. I've been eating so much these past few weeks, I feel like my stomach might explode. It's been great. By the time it snows, I will definitely be ready for the cold weather.
The Simpson's Halloween special was on tonight, it was very good. If I read the roman numerals correctly, it is the 19th Treehouse of Horror episode, which is pretty insane. I wonder what the longest running series of all time are. Watching it made me think back to when I was a kid and would look forward to watching it. It is interesting that I am still very entertained today by a series that I was entertained by 19 years ago, when I was around 9. One of the segments of tonight's episode poked fun of the Charlie Brown special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I remember watching that special when I was younger. My Mom and I would always watch seasonal specials like that together. I wonder what seasonal television specials kids watch now a days, hmmm, maybe it is the same ones? Or maybe there are new ones? I will have to keep an eye out this year to see what is on.
I read this weekend how Google is enabling the ability to text message people via their instant messenger client, Google Talk. It made me wonder how difficult this functionality would be to add to other types of web sites / web applications. Today I spent a few hours on this question and ended up developing a nice little page that let's you enter a phone number, wireless carrier, and message; which is then seny. It currently only works on AT&T and Verizon, but adding other carriers will be quick and easy (once I find people with other carriers that I can test a few things on). The whole process is incredibly easy, it took much more time to set up the pages/forms to talk to each other (using AJAX methodologies) than actually setting up the sending of the message. The grand goal behind this little proof of concept page will be adding this functionality into Cooperstown. My partner in code and I both agree that the ability to send text messages in Coperstown will be very useful in a few select scenarios.
Alright, True Blood is about to start, I can't wait.
From the inside, out, good night.
The Simpson's Halloween special was on tonight, it was very good. If I read the roman numerals correctly, it is the 19th Treehouse of Horror episode, which is pretty insane. I wonder what the longest running series of all time are. Watching it made me think back to when I was a kid and would look forward to watching it. It is interesting that I am still very entertained today by a series that I was entertained by 19 years ago, when I was around 9. One of the segments of tonight's episode poked fun of the Charlie Brown special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I remember watching that special when I was younger. My Mom and I would always watch seasonal specials like that together. I wonder what seasonal television specials kids watch now a days, hmmm, maybe it is the same ones? Or maybe there are new ones? I will have to keep an eye out this year to see what is on.
I read this weekend how Google is enabling the ability to text message people via their instant messenger client, Google Talk. It made me wonder how difficult this functionality would be to add to other types of web sites / web applications. Today I spent a few hours on this question and ended up developing a nice little page that let's you enter a phone number, wireless carrier, and message; which is then seny. It currently only works on AT&T and Verizon, but adding other carriers will be quick and easy (once I find people with other carriers that I can test a few things on). The whole process is incredibly easy, it took much more time to set up the pages/forms to talk to each other (using AJAX methodologies) than actually setting up the sending of the message. The grand goal behind this little proof of concept page will be adding this functionality into Cooperstown. My partner in code and I both agree that the ability to send text messages in Coperstown will be very useful in a few select scenarios.
Alright, True Blood is about to start, I can't wait.
From the inside, out, good night.
disco pants
October 26, 2008 - 10:25
- True Blood - Rock Band 2 - Haircut
I absolutely love HBO's "True Blood", it's so good, I can't get enough of it. That was on tonight and then I just got done watching Entourage. The episode of True Blood was amazing.
The weather today was good, I went for a bike ride and then kicked the ball around for a bit. Indoor soccer will be starting soon, I think I'm going to be playing on a new team this year, as I believe my old team is breaking up (I could be wrong, but that was the word at our softball game Friday, rumor has it that Mr. Ken is playing on a new team).
I didn't do anything that would even resemble web site work this weekend. I do have some stuff that I definitely need to worked on, but I'll be able to get it done this week.
I picked up the game/set for Rock Band 2, so far it's been awesome.
Here is a pic of my character, "Stu":
and here is a pic of me after my recent haircut:
It's more of a Summer cut than a Fall one but I like it.
Alright, I'm tired, good night.
The weather today was good, I went for a bike ride and then kicked the ball around for a bit. Indoor soccer will be starting soon, I think I'm going to be playing on a new team this year, as I believe my old team is breaking up (I could be wrong, but that was the word at our softball game Friday, rumor has it that Mr. Ken is playing on a new team).
I didn't do anything that would even resemble web site work this weekend. I do have some stuff that I definitely need to worked on, but I'll be able to get it done this week.
I picked up the game/set for Rock Band 2, so far it's been awesome.
Here is a pic of my character, "Stu":
and here is a pic of me after my recent haircut:
It's more of a Summer cut than a Fall one but I like it.
Alright, I'm tired, good night.
attack of the infinite bots
October 20, 2008 - 11:11
- Weddings - Thatcher Park - Copperstown - Heroes
Today was a nice day. Not necessarily outside, but inside. A very good friend that I mentioned in my previous post called me today and told me he got engaged over the weekend, not a robot after all I see :-) I get happy when those who are close to me are happy. Next years wedding season is already shaping out to be a busy one, with a close friend getting married (at a casino, YES) at the end of June, the "Thrills" the day before my birthday, and a few other important ones I have and have not previously mentioned, I believe I will be spending a lot of time on the road and in the air. I think I'm going to pick out one or more cool summer suits for all of these events.
This past weekend was busy, enjoyable, productive, and tiring. A buddy was up for the weekend, so we played in a softball game Friday night and then had a late night out on the town. The next day when we finally woke up we hit up Five Guys and then brought our cameras up to Thatcher Park and got some cool pictures of the fall foliage. I've uploaded some of them to an album today.
I spent pretty much all of Sunday working on primarily Cooperstown, with a little time spent on the site for my high school buddy who was up last weekend. I set up some administrative stuff for Cooperstown. I had an unusually and unexpectedly difficult time setting up .htaccess and .htpasswd files for a directory, my difficulties were caused by the fact that I forgot the site is currently not being hosted at the root level of the web hosting directory, but rather in a folder a few levels deeper, once I realized/remembered that, everything went smoothly. I did some final tune ups and error handling for the new blog entry page, then I reorganized and cleaned up the files/folders for that page, I believe all work on that is now completed (although I now want to add the functionality to load and edit previous posts, but am going to wait so I can continue work on much more important matters with the site).
On an unrelated yet equally boring note, this site (sethdesantis.com) has recently been visited a ton of times by some bots from IP addresses 208.99.195.54 and 65.55.230.165 . I think I will have to implement some safeguards to block such unwanted traffic in the near future. I did a little research on these IP addresses and found out that many other people are also having issues with them.
I currently have Heroes Season 1 on, I've been re watching the series (LOST style!) via Apple TV via iTunes the past week or so, I must say that the older episodes definitely tie in a lot of things that are currently happening in the current season. I didn't get a chance to watch tonights episode and my stupid DVR didn't record it (or stupid me forgot to free up space), so I'm going to download it tomorrow and see what happened then.
Alright, I'm done.
From the inside, out, good night.
This past weekend was busy, enjoyable, productive, and tiring. A buddy was up for the weekend, so we played in a softball game Friday night and then had a late night out on the town. The next day when we finally woke up we hit up Five Guys and then brought our cameras up to Thatcher Park and got some cool pictures of the fall foliage. I've uploaded some of them to an album today.
I spent pretty much all of Sunday working on primarily Cooperstown, with a little time spent on the site for my high school buddy who was up last weekend. I set up some administrative stuff for Cooperstown. I had an unusually and unexpectedly difficult time setting up .htaccess and .htpasswd files for a directory, my difficulties were caused by the fact that I forgot the site is currently not being hosted at the root level of the web hosting directory, but rather in a folder a few levels deeper, once I realized/remembered that, everything went smoothly. I did some final tune ups and error handling for the new blog entry page, then I reorganized and cleaned up the files/folders for that page, I believe all work on that is now completed (although I now want to add the functionality to load and edit previous posts, but am going to wait so I can continue work on much more important matters with the site).
On an unrelated yet equally boring note, this site (sethdesantis.com) has recently been visited a ton of times by some bots from IP addresses 208.99.195.54 and 65.55.230.165 . I think I will have to implement some safeguards to block such unwanted traffic in the near future. I did a little research on these IP addresses and found out that many other people are also having issues with them.
I currently have Heroes Season 1 on, I've been re watching the series (LOST style!) via Apple TV via iTunes the past week or so, I must say that the older episodes definitely tie in a lot of things that are currently happening in the current season. I didn't get a chance to watch tonights episode and my stupid DVR didn't record it (or stupid me forgot to free up space), so I'm going to download it tomorrow and see what happened then.
Alright, I'm done.
From the inside, out, good night.
When it rains, it pours.
October 13, 2008 - 11:38
- Magic Stick - Massages - Web Development
I am too tired to shower but too dirty for bed. That was my status on Facebook via Twitter the other day and it would be as true of a statement tonight as it was then. Tonight was our last game of what seems like a softball marathon, our next game is this Friday. I'm sore and slow. I got thrown out twice trying to take extra bases, once Saturday and once tonight. I slid both times and all I got was bloody and humbled. Super cute girl playing third tonight. Not cute like hot, but cute like God ripped a page out of my book on perfect and made her. Then I heard she worked for the same company Braunstein works for, she didn't seem like a robot, but I'm pretty sure his company only hires robots such as himself, so I saved myself the inevitable embarrassment I would have felt by saying something like, "Hey, cool shoes" or "Hey, what's your name" or "Hey, do you know Braunstein" or "Hey, you look like you've been dipped in pretty sauce" and I just kept my mouth shut and coached third, every inning. My achilles tendon hurts, both of them. Not just tonight, but periodically, usually when I am doing something active, and not to the point where I can't run, but just to the point where they hurt a lot. I was hoping to discuss it with the physicians assistant who pretends to be my doctor when I went in again for my back pain 2 weeks ago, but he spent, ummm, about 30 seconds with me before prescribing meds and saying good bye. I'm in the market for a new primary care physician. I would prefer a guy, but the only mandatory requirement is that they at least pretend to care about me. I went to a full body massage a week and a half ago. There is a Massage Therapy school around here and the students give full body hour massages for only $40! It was fantabulous. There was a few funny moments of the whole process, one being when I was making the appointment at work. "So Seth, since this is your first appointment, would you prefer a guy or girl masseuse?", so I stutter in a low voice "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm....a female". That was great, except I definitely said it loud enough where others heard me, who then went on to blow up my spot big time, solely due to the nervous way I attempted to respond quietly. Uggg to me and a much bigger UGGG to the plumbing in my house. The plumber came over Friday and did a good job fixing a leak in my second units' shower, I thought I dodged a huge money bullet escaping the whole ordeal with a bill just under the $200...until Sunday, when I get a call that there is a minor leak from my third floor unit going into the second floor one. Totally unrelated to the previously fixed problem. The leak has since gone away but I still need to get the plumber over for some diagnostics and then fixing, and I am a tad nervous I won't be as lucky this time through the plumbing gauntlet. Copperstown needs to be done immediately :-)
My high school friends were up this weekend. While my one buddy and his fiance were at a wedding my other buddy and I put in around 6 very solid hours or work on a website for a product his company is making. Those hours combined with another 6 or 7 we put in Sunday were enough to get the whole site up an running with all products linked to a shopping cart provided by a third party. The reason the site could be built so quickly was in a big part due to the fact that my friend had already designed all of the graphics and layout in Photoshop and all I had to do was cut the PSDs and put them together on the pages. In the name of future laziness, I decided to use PHP to read through specific folders to load the graphics for products in their respective pages. This approach opposed to hard coding them into the pages will allow super simple future updates to the product catalog, as all we have to do is change the files in the folder and then just update a few key numbers in the code that creates the links to the shopping cart (as well as obviously update the catalog info, but I wont likely be the one responsible for that). A final note on this exciting story is the fact that my friend sat with me for every second that I worked on the site. I highly recommend this approach to anyone who asks someone else to do a website for them for a low or zero cost. It is easy for someone to write in an email, "umm, could you please move that one picture over here..."etc... and another for them to sit there with you while you do it. My friend wanted to see how it all worked so he could fine tune his process for making images that are as close as possible to being web ready without me doing additional work, but I think he also did it as a show of support and even gratitude. These relatively minor efforts on his part will certainly make me more enthusiastic to do future work on this site..that, in addition to the small percentage cut I will get from profits :-) And as a quick disclaimer, obviously it is not always logistically possible for one asking a favor to sit there, like my cousin who will hopefully be launching a journalism site that I insist on helping her with, but when it is possible, I do recommend it, at least for a few times (and only if they can be quiet and bring fun like my buddy was and did). I will post a link to the site we developed once the shopping cart is linked to a bank account thus enabling it for purchases.
That's all I got at this second. Time for bed.
From the inside, out, good night.
My high school friends were up this weekend. While my one buddy and his fiance were at a wedding my other buddy and I put in around 6 very solid hours or work on a website for a product his company is making. Those hours combined with another 6 or 7 we put in Sunday were enough to get the whole site up an running with all products linked to a shopping cart provided by a third party. The reason the site could be built so quickly was in a big part due to the fact that my friend had already designed all of the graphics and layout in Photoshop and all I had to do was cut the PSDs and put them together on the pages. In the name of future laziness, I decided to use PHP to read through specific folders to load the graphics for products in their respective pages. This approach opposed to hard coding them into the pages will allow super simple future updates to the product catalog, as all we have to do is change the files in the folder and then just update a few key numbers in the code that creates the links to the shopping cart (as well as obviously update the catalog info, but I wont likely be the one responsible for that). A final note on this exciting story is the fact that my friend sat with me for every second that I worked on the site. I highly recommend this approach to anyone who asks someone else to do a website for them for a low or zero cost. It is easy for someone to write in an email, "umm, could you please move that one picture over here..."etc... and another for them to sit there with you while you do it. My friend wanted to see how it all worked so he could fine tune his process for making images that are as close as possible to being web ready without me doing additional work, but I think he also did it as a show of support and even gratitude. These relatively minor efforts on his part will certainly make me more enthusiastic to do future work on this site..that, in addition to the small percentage cut I will get from profits :-) And as a quick disclaimer, obviously it is not always logistically possible for one asking a favor to sit there, like my cousin who will hopefully be launching a journalism site that I insist on helping her with, but when it is possible, I do recommend it, at least for a few times (and only if they can be quiet and bring fun like my buddy was and did). I will post a link to the site we developed once the shopping cart is linked to a bank account thus enabling it for purchases.
That's all I got at this second. Time for bed.
From the inside, out, good night.
game on
October 9, 2008 - 7:52
- Magic Stick
I was supposed to have two softball games tonight but the first one was canceled due to the field being flooded. That wouldn't have be a big deal, but I found this out when I got to the field, so now I'm home for about an hour, waiting to go to the 9pm game. We have a ton of games this week. We have a game tomorrow night, Saturday afternoon and then Monday night. The weather is supposed to be in the 70's though this weekend so it should be a good time. I have 3 friends coming up to visit this weekend. One high school buddy and his fiance are coming up Saturday because they have a wedding in the area and are going to spend the night here that night; and I have another high school buddy coming up Saturday and staying probably until Monday. He has a business in Syracuse that I'm do some web work for so we will likely do some work during the day and hopefully all of us will go out pretty hard that night. Well, I guess this blog post is an example of how boring posts would be if I wrote them all the time, not much of a difference than the regular weekly posts :-)
Gloucester
October 5, 2008 - 11:7
- Weddings - Keuka Lake - Picture Album - Cooperstown - Back Pain
The movie Perfect Storm is currently on, it's an alright movie. I'd say I like it more than the Rush Hour series but less than Dirty Dancing. This weekend I had the last wedding of what has been a busy wedding season. I do not believe I have another one until March, which I am still on the cusp of determining what my RSVP status will be. My uncertainty is certainly due to the wedding being in Florida, opposed to me not wanting to see one of my favorite couples "tie the knot". This weekends wedding was technically called a Commitment Ceremony, it was the first time I've had the pleasure of attending a ceremony of this type. I believe I am allowed to refer to it as a wedding, but if I am wrong, I apologize. It was a wonderful event with two wonderful ladies, one with whom I've been friends with my whole life. It was the second "Four Seasons" wedding I've attended in the past three weeks, I will write a post explaining what and who the "Four Seasons" are at a latter date. The venue for this magnificent event was the Esperanza Mansion which overlooks Keuka Lake. Here is a pic of the view from under the tent where their vows were exchanged, what a view.
I woke up this morning in the hotel room feeling like a truck hit me, the ride back to Syracuse with my parents and then my solo ride back here to Albany was horrific, but there is no one to blame accept myself for pillaging the open bar like I did.
On another note, my back is finally feeling better. I had another bout with horrible spasms for the past two weeks. It started after a softball game and it definitely made me miserable. Interesting enough to point out, unlike the last few times this happened, the spasms didn't get to the point where I was stuck in one position in bed for a few days; I was still able to walk (read hobble) and goto work. The fact that I wasn't totally immobilized could be due to the physical therapy I did earlier this year, or not, I don't know.
Work on Cooperstown is coming along nicely. We are almost done with what will likely be the most time consuming coding stage the project will require. After this stage is done we will do some feature testing, browser compatibility testing, then some styling. It will be very exciting when this entire phase is complete.
I received the CD's with my picture scans. They came out awesome. I'm going to periodically post many of the albums here on the site. The one I publish tonight is from a scrapbook I made after my freshman year of college. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to post the entire album, as some of the pictures are pretty weird, but I decided I might as well.
That's all I have tonight. I feel like I could sleep for an entire week. Have a good night.
I woke up this morning in the hotel room feeling like a truck hit me, the ride back to Syracuse with my parents and then my solo ride back here to Albany was horrific, but there is no one to blame accept myself for pillaging the open bar like I did.
On another note, my back is finally feeling better. I had another bout with horrible spasms for the past two weeks. It started after a softball game and it definitely made me miserable. Interesting enough to point out, unlike the last few times this happened, the spasms didn't get to the point where I was stuck in one position in bed for a few days; I was still able to walk (read hobble) and goto work. The fact that I wasn't totally immobilized could be due to the physical therapy I did earlier this year, or not, I don't know.
Work on Cooperstown is coming along nicely. We are almost done with what will likely be the most time consuming coding stage the project will require. After this stage is done we will do some feature testing, browser compatibility testing, then some styling. It will be very exciting when this entire phase is complete.
I received the CD's with my picture scans. They came out awesome. I'm going to periodically post many of the albums here on the site. The one I publish tonight is from a scrapbook I made after my freshman year of college. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to post the entire album, as some of the pictures are pretty weird, but I decided I might as well.
That's all I have tonight. I feel like I could sleep for an entire week. Have a good night.
A contrasting weekened.
September 25, 2008 - 11:12
I've been doing some thinking lately about some different things. How do those things fit into this blog? That is my question. These posts are filled with insignificant technology ramblings broken apart by rare stories of substance involving family and friends. There are often things I would like to write about but I don't feel that the universal audience a blog is available to should hear meaningful stories awkwardly told through my limited writing ability. When I started this blog, I said it would be "the official public record of everything me", what is public and what is private? When something happens to people close to me, is it appropriate for me to discuss it here? Maybe, sometimes, but not always. This blog will mature over the years. The ramblings will always be present, but the stories of substance will become less rare. When that is the case maybe I will feel like it is more appropriate to make some private stories public, they will be in better company than being sandwiched in between technology ramblings.
From the inside, out, good night.
From the inside, out, good night.
a boring tech update
September 10, 2008 - 12:30
- iPhone - Air - iTunes - NBC
a few quick bullets:
-Cannon customer support was unusually easy to deal with regarding sending me a replacement CD for some bundled software that came with my camera. This software plus a free downloadable update should allow me to hook up and control my camera via my laptop. I am hoping that this will help me better take multiple images at different exposure which can then be used to make HD pictures (THIS might be an accurate link for the type of file it will create) . I've been doing some reading about HD pics since hearing about a program called Photomatix on TWiT. My camera will take 3 shots in a row with different exposures using a the AEB function. Having 3 pictures will be enough to make a HD picture, but more is likely preferred, so using the laptop might help with this. Additionally, I still have a hard time with all the setting on the camera, I'm hoping that by being able to change them by using the computer I will get more used to how they all work together. Getting the CD from Cannon only took a few quick emails to their customer support and it's on the way now.
-I went to the Apple store tonight because the speaker on the iPhone was messed up, the volume was very low even at the loudest setting. The "genius" at the store who I had my appointment with quickly swapped out the phone for a new one. This is the third time I've had to swap out the phone since I purchased the first one over 2 years ago. This fact doesn't bother me because every time I had a problem they didn't argue or anything, they just swapped it out for a new one. New products with so much jam packed in them are bound to have issues, and as long as I get a new phone without a hassle when they occur I'm a happy camper.
I also brought in the Air because the microphone hasn't worked for a few months. They said they could replace it in-store but I would have to leave it there for 2-3 nights. I told the guy that I will definitely proceed with that plan, but I just wasn't ready to give up my laptop at that exact moment. Not having a working microphone is really only an issue for me during video iChat, so not having it isn't the end of the world for now.
-Apples new announcements yesterday were nice. I was most excited with the news that NBC is finally back in the iTunes store, their absence has bothered me for quite some time. The fact that HD television shows are now available is really cool as well. $2.99 per episode is borderline expensive, but good shows will hopefully be worth it. In celebration of these announcements, I am currently downloading season 4 of the Office in HD. The iTunes TV store was offering the first episode of Hero's season 2 for download, so I have that on now via the AppleTV (which I had to do a factory reset on tonight...uggg). This show isn't in HD, so the Office will be my first chance to see if the $1 premium is worth it per episode for the HD version. A standard definition version of every episode is also downloaded, so you can watch the show on you iPod/iPhone. These two files combined take up close to 1 GB (710mb & 240mb respectively) of hard drive space, for approximately 21 minutes of videos. It's amazing how huge hard drives are just taken for granted now a days.
Well that was a boring little update of some tech news in my life. Have a good night :-)
-Cannon customer support was unusually easy to deal with regarding sending me a replacement CD for some bundled software that came with my camera. This software plus a free downloadable update should allow me to hook up and control my camera via my laptop. I am hoping that this will help me better take multiple images at different exposure which can then be used to make HD pictures (THIS might be an accurate link for the type of file it will create) . I've been doing some reading about HD pics since hearing about a program called Photomatix on TWiT. My camera will take 3 shots in a row with different exposures using a the AEB function. Having 3 pictures will be enough to make a HD picture, but more is likely preferred, so using the laptop might help with this. Additionally, I still have a hard time with all the setting on the camera, I'm hoping that by being able to change them by using the computer I will get more used to how they all work together. Getting the CD from Cannon only took a few quick emails to their customer support and it's on the way now.
-I went to the Apple store tonight because the speaker on the iPhone was messed up, the volume was very low even at the loudest setting. The "genius" at the store who I had my appointment with quickly swapped out the phone for a new one. This is the third time I've had to swap out the phone since I purchased the first one over 2 years ago. This fact doesn't bother me because every time I had a problem they didn't argue or anything, they just swapped it out for a new one. New products with so much jam packed in them are bound to have issues, and as long as I get a new phone without a hassle when they occur I'm a happy camper.
I also brought in the Air because the microphone hasn't worked for a few months. They said they could replace it in-store but I would have to leave it there for 2-3 nights. I told the guy that I will definitely proceed with that plan, but I just wasn't ready to give up my laptop at that exact moment. Not having a working microphone is really only an issue for me during video iChat, so not having it isn't the end of the world for now.
-Apples new announcements yesterday were nice. I was most excited with the news that NBC is finally back in the iTunes store, their absence has bothered me for quite some time. The fact that HD television shows are now available is really cool as well. $2.99 per episode is borderline expensive, but good shows will hopefully be worth it. In celebration of these announcements, I am currently downloading season 4 of the Office in HD. The iTunes TV store was offering the first episode of Hero's season 2 for download, so I have that on now via the AppleTV (which I had to do a factory reset on tonight...uggg). This show isn't in HD, so the Office will be my first chance to see if the $1 premium is worth it per episode for the HD version. A standard definition version of every episode is also downloaded, so you can watch the show on you iPod/iPhone. These two files combined take up close to 1 GB (710mb & 240mb respectively) of hard drive space, for approximately 21 minutes of videos. It's amazing how huge hard drives are just taken for granted now a days.
Well that was a boring little update of some tech news in my life. Have a good night :-)
skip to the bottom
September 7, 2008 - 8:54
- Cooperstown - Spore - Antiquing
Hello, hello, hello,
This past week has been semi unusual, in addition to having Monday off due to labor day, I ended up taking another 1.5 days off due to have a horrible cold/cough/sickness. It wasn't the end of the world, but I felt miserable, and I think my coughing made others (ie co-workers) not very enthusiastic to be around me. At one point, when I said I wasn't going to go home, one of my friends on my team offered to give me a sick day if I left. Ha. I am happy to report that I feel almost fully recovered now, and am happy whatever I had didn't turn into anything worse than it was.
Due to not feeling well during the week, I decided to stay in pretty much this entire weekend. That time, in combination with the time I had off from work gave me a supppper huge amount of time to work on exciting things such as web development. My current project is the same as it's been for the past many months, Cooperstown. I decided like two weeks ago to take a break from the primary site coding to work on a developer blog. This little hiatus worked out well as my partner in crime (err, code) was away for a week vacation and then wanted to put in about a week of work to lay down the foundation and layout for his personal website. HERE is a link to his site, maybe someday my blog entry page will be good enough for him to use! I decided when I started this blog entry page that I wanted it to be the last blog entry page I would ever have to build and that I wanted it to be so feature rich and easy to use that other people would be more than happy to use it for their own blogs. I am still not completely done with it, but I am extremely happy with how it is all coming together. Before beginning on the new page I took a quick glance at what free blogs offer for their entry page and I had a pretty decent list of shortcomings that my current blog entry page (that I type this post in) has that I would like to remedy in this new iteration. Some functionality/features I wanted was:
-no page reloads, ever... so Ajax is used extensively
-no limit on how many photos can be uploaded/displayed for an entry (my current limit is 4)
-the ability to specify different image sizes
-the ability to float images in the post
-the ability to enter captions for images
-no limit on the number of tags
-the ability to preview a post
-more intuitive interface for entering links
-the ability to enter code snippets
-the ability to specify who the author of the post is
so, with that list stated, I can say that all of those features will be implemented and that 70% of them are currently done. I decided to tackle the handling of the images first, as I knew that part would likely suck the most to build...and I was right. I can say that 80% of my time coding this page has been spent working with the images. I have a love/hate (read: hate) relationship with images. Besides browser incompatibilities, there is just an onslaught of things that need to be considered. I am happy with the current system, but the time it takes to load all images that have been uploaded can sometime be annoying. I had similar issues when coding my current image gallery (which sometimes doesn't even work as intended). My frustrations with this current project, specifically the load times, prompted me to post my concerns, approach, and goals on two different popular coding forums. The bad news is also the good news, as no one has offered a radically different approach to the solution, so I am stuck with load times that aren't great, but also knowing that my initial approach wasn't totally off base. In the real world use of the blog entry page, the load times will rarely if ever become an issue, but it is still something I wish worked better.
Wow, enough about talking about that!
Here is a screen shout of the page as it currently looks. Can you tell I like to change the background color of different DIVs when building a page?
What else could I even talk about after such a long and boring post?
Well the game Spore came out today and I am very excited to pick that up. I think it's been in development for like 3 years!
I got an email that the pictures I mailed away a few months ago were finished being scanned. I quickly reviewed them online and purchased all 609 of them, I can't wait for the DVD's to come. Here is a screen shot I took of one of the pictures (as I couldn't download it off the site). I sent it to a friend and wrote a little blurb about what the picture is about. I will end this email with that blurb. Have a good night.
" I am including a picture I took after I antiqued Freeman. It was the night before graduation and I was explaining to a girl at the bar, who was up to watch one of her friends graduate, how I haven't slept in my own bed for weeks. I explained that I was a major Antiquing target and had to relocate every night like a ninja so I wouldn't get "hit". She didn't believe me so I took her over to Tuggey and G-Mans apartment, knowing I would find some passed out victim. We snuck through Tuggeys window and there he was. In classic antiquing fashion I used ingredients from the victims dwelling. This particular hit involved ice tea mix and water. I ended up "hitting" him three different times, just to see how many times he would puke. You see, after every "hit" he puked all over the floor. He was so drunk he couldn't even get up to pound me. As we were leaving out the front door Tuggey was walking in, being absolutely wasted in classic Tuggey fashion he didn't even notice us passing him in his own halway giggling. "
This past week has been semi unusual, in addition to having Monday off due to labor day, I ended up taking another 1.5 days off due to have a horrible cold/cough/sickness. It wasn't the end of the world, but I felt miserable, and I think my coughing made others (ie co-workers) not very enthusiastic to be around me. At one point, when I said I wasn't going to go home, one of my friends on my team offered to give me a sick day if I left. Ha. I am happy to report that I feel almost fully recovered now, and am happy whatever I had didn't turn into anything worse than it was.
Due to not feeling well during the week, I decided to stay in pretty much this entire weekend. That time, in combination with the time I had off from work gave me a supppper huge amount of time to work on exciting things such as web development. My current project is the same as it's been for the past many months, Cooperstown. I decided like two weeks ago to take a break from the primary site coding to work on a developer blog. This little hiatus worked out well as my partner in crime (err, code) was away for a week vacation and then wanted to put in about a week of work to lay down the foundation and layout for his personal website. HERE is a link to his site, maybe someday my blog entry page will be good enough for him to use! I decided when I started this blog entry page that I wanted it to be the last blog entry page I would ever have to build and that I wanted it to be so feature rich and easy to use that other people would be more than happy to use it for their own blogs. I am still not completely done with it, but I am extremely happy with how it is all coming together. Before beginning on the new page I took a quick glance at what free blogs offer for their entry page and I had a pretty decent list of shortcomings that my current blog entry page (that I type this post in) has that I would like to remedy in this new iteration. Some functionality/features I wanted was:
-no page reloads, ever... so Ajax is used extensively
-no limit on how many photos can be uploaded/displayed for an entry (my current limit is 4)
-the ability to specify different image sizes
-the ability to float images in the post
-the ability to enter captions for images
-no limit on the number of tags
-the ability to preview a post
-more intuitive interface for entering links
-the ability to enter code snippets
-the ability to specify who the author of the post is
so, with that list stated, I can say that all of those features will be implemented and that 70% of them are currently done. I decided to tackle the handling of the images first, as I knew that part would likely suck the most to build...and I was right. I can say that 80% of my time coding this page has been spent working with the images. I have a love/hate (read: hate) relationship with images. Besides browser incompatibilities, there is just an onslaught of things that need to be considered. I am happy with the current system, but the time it takes to load all images that have been uploaded can sometime be annoying. I had similar issues when coding my current image gallery (which sometimes doesn't even work as intended). My frustrations with this current project, specifically the load times, prompted me to post my concerns, approach, and goals on two different popular coding forums. The bad news is also the good news, as no one has offered a radically different approach to the solution, so I am stuck with load times that aren't great, but also knowing that my initial approach wasn't totally off base. In the real world use of the blog entry page, the load times will rarely if ever become an issue, but it is still something I wish worked better.
Wow, enough about talking about that!
Here is a screen shout of the page as it currently looks. Can you tell I like to change the background color of different DIVs when building a page?
What else could I even talk about after such a long and boring post?
Well the game Spore came out today and I am very excited to pick that up. I think it's been in development for like 3 years!
I got an email that the pictures I mailed away a few months ago were finished being scanned. I quickly reviewed them online and purchased all 609 of them, I can't wait for the DVD's to come. Here is a screen shot I took of one of the pictures (as I couldn't download it off the site). I sent it to a friend and wrote a little blurb about what the picture is about. I will end this email with that blurb. Have a good night.
" I am including a picture I took after I antiqued Freeman. It was the night before graduation and I was explaining to a girl at the bar, who was up to watch one of her friends graduate, how I haven't slept in my own bed for weeks. I explained that I was a major Antiquing target and had to relocate every night like a ninja so I wouldn't get "hit". She didn't believe me so I took her over to Tuggey and G-Mans apartment, knowing I would find some passed out victim. We snuck through Tuggeys window and there he was. In classic antiquing fashion I used ingredients from the victims dwelling. This particular hit involved ice tea mix and water. I ended up "hitting" him three different times, just to see how many times he would puke. You see, after every "hit" he puked all over the floor. He was so drunk he couldn't even get up to pound me. As we were leaving out the front door Tuggey was walking in, being absolutely wasted in classic Tuggey fashion he didn't even notice us passing him in his own halway giggling. "
on the go...
August 30, 2008 - 13:21
- NetShare
A few weeks ago I heard some buzz about an iPhone app called NetShare. The reports stated that this app would allow you to share your iPhones EDGE or 3G connection with your laptop (like a tethered modem). The reports also stated that the app's availability on the App Store was in flux, going between available and unavailable. I quickly purchased the app but never tried using it until just now. I'm currently writing this post from a train as I head to Syracuse. The setup took less than 5 minutes and now I have internet wherever I have cell service...for no extra cause. The last I read, this app was no longer available to purchase, as I'm sure AT&T disliked the functionality that they usually charge around $30 p/month for.
I'm still in disbelief that this actually works.
If this app ever becomes available again, I would definitely recommend getting it!
I'm still in disbelief that this actually works.
If this app ever becomes available again, I would definitely recommend getting it!
a fixed bathtub spout
August 26, 2008 - 11:13
- friendship - Camp Tuggey
There are some things I could complain about. Those complaints would be on a wide spectrum of facts, people, situations, and thoughts. The product such complaints would yield might offer some instant gratification but I do not believe any positive long term changes would be seen. More importantly, why would I spend time writing my thoughts complaining when there are so many things I am grateful for. Today, as every day, I am extremely grateful for my friends. I have been fortunate over the past many years to accumulate a solid group of friends from all over the place. People I would do anything for, people that would do anything for me. Now isn't a time that I'm going to go into a lengthy dialogue of love for my buddies, but I do find it worthy to touch upon from time to time. I remember when I was younger, I think it was a few weeks before I was going to enter junior high, I was walking through Skaneateles with my Dad and he was talking to me about friendship, he told me something along the lines of, "Son, if you're a person who is kind and trustworthy to others then you will always make friends". What good advice to give to someone, what good advice to live by. I feel that I have lived my life thus far adhering fairly well to that advice and I feel that those I surround myself also live by similar words. My gratitude for the friendships I have with others will always fall second only to the gratitude I have for all the actions and words my parents every made and gave for and to me.
Alright, I'm spent. It's been a busy few days preparing my third floor unit for new tenants to move in. My house is as close to a college dorm as you could get. It's bursting at the seems with loud music, video games, various other activities not to be named, the occasional studying, and a whole lot of people sharing my internet connection.
I leave you with a few pictures I and others took from Camp Tuggey (please excuse my prior posts miss spelling of that infamous last name). I will look to upload a complete gallery in the near future.
Good night.
Alright, I'm spent. It's been a busy few days preparing my third floor unit for new tenants to move in. My house is as close to a college dorm as you could get. It's bursting at the seems with loud music, video games, various other activities not to be named, the occasional studying, and a whole lot of people sharing my internet connection.
I leave you with a few pictures I and others took from Camp Tuggey (please excuse my prior posts miss spelling of that infamous last name). I will look to upload a complete gallery in the near future.
Good night.
Camp Tuggy
August 22, 2008 - 11:19
- Olympics - Waboba Ball - Cooperstown - Blood Donations
Having the Olympics to watch these past few weeks has been absolutely amazing, it will be sad to see them close this Sunday. There have been so many happy, sad, and surprising moments thus far; it would be impossible to recap them all. There are obvious ones like Michael Phelps winning his eighth gold medal. I remember watching it in a bar after one of our softball games, they had the race on every TV and the audio blasting on the sound system; everyone was cheering "USA", it was so much more exciting that it was such a close relay race; it really came down to a finger length between the gold and silver. The gymnastics were pretty cool, our men and woman held their own for the team and individual standings. The "Redeem Team" has been outstanding to watch, I love seeing 'Melo and Boeheim together again. I would like to say I'm confident in them winning the gold, but look at what happened to our woman's softball team in the gold medal game against Japan, as well as our men and woman's 4 x 100 track teams the other night. I really can't believe both squads dropped the baton, how disappointed they must be. I was diapointed for Lolo Jones in the 100m hurdles final, she was definitely in the lead when she clipped the second to last hurdle, I was rooting for her. Usain Bolt is definitely a name worth mentioning, that Jamaican can definitely run. Just a second ago they showed him and his teammates winning the 4 x 100m, not much of a surprise there, but good for them. All of the soccer I've been able to watch has been fabulous, I saw a few very craft shows put on by Brazil who is always fun to watch. That's just a small run down from my highlight real, I've been fortunate to watch a very diverse selection of sports, but unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of watching any sailing or indoor cycling, two events I was looking forwarding to seeing.
I got a funny call today from Bard who is in San Diego for a wedding I feel like I could have been on the bubble of being invited to. The groom is definitely one of my friends, but we didn't hang out a ton in college, I was hoping to get grandfathered into the invitation list because I was present the night he met his wife to be, but I just didn't make the cut. I definitely do wish the both of them a very happy marriage and life together. Anyhow, the phone call, I got a call from Bard today while I was at work. He sounded frantic and drunk and started going off into a frenzy about me looking up online where he could purchase a new Waboba Ball in San Diego. I didn't get the exact details about where he lost the ball, but he did give me a good run down of all the people he has played the game with since I gave him the ball during his recent visit up here. The Waboba ball is a ball that bounces very aggressively on water, I believe I read about it on DIGG a few weeks ago and then picked up three shortly after that from eBay. Giving one to Bard was a no brainer, as I knew he would get hours of water excitement from this item. By the conversation we had this afternoon, I couldn't have been more correct, he kept going on about all of the good matches he has had since getting it. Although I was unable to help him locate a retailer by him to buy a new one, I did get a follow up call from Will "The Thrill" that Bard climbed in a sewer to recover the lost one. I was promised pictures, so that will be exciting.
Even more exciting is my early morning departure (7 hours from now) tomorrow to Camp Tuggy. A bunch of my college friends are all getting together at one of our buddies houses this weekend for a birthday party. I got a call from the people who were already there tonight and I will rest assured that tomorrow will be a very entertaining day/night.
This overnight party will unfortunately prevent me from attending our softball teams last regular season game which is Sunday at 9:30am, but I am happy to report that we will likely make playoffs, so I will still get a game or two in before fall ball starts in September.
My friend and I did a ton of work on Cooperstown these past few weeks. Almost every night we would watch the Olympics from our respective houses while coding away on the site, communicating via iChat. My friend has made amazing strides on dragging and dropping objects on certain pages, which will undoubtedly add to a premiere user interface experience.
Alright, I need to get some sleep.
Here is a picture of a machine I was hooked up to yesterday at our companies blood drive (the 12th one I've organized to date). This machine takes out your red blood cells, and then mixes in that brown stuff that looks like beer back into your blood, then they pump that blood back into you. It was kind of cool, it didn't take too long, and it doubles the effectiveness of a blood donation.
Have a good night/weekend.
I got a funny call today from Bard who is in San Diego for a wedding I feel like I could have been on the bubble of being invited to. The groom is definitely one of my friends, but we didn't hang out a ton in college, I was hoping to get grandfathered into the invitation list because I was present the night he met his wife to be, but I just didn't make the cut. I definitely do wish the both of them a very happy marriage and life together. Anyhow, the phone call, I got a call from Bard today while I was at work. He sounded frantic and drunk and started going off into a frenzy about me looking up online where he could purchase a new Waboba Ball in San Diego. I didn't get the exact details about where he lost the ball, but he did give me a good run down of all the people he has played the game with since I gave him the ball during his recent visit up here. The Waboba ball is a ball that bounces very aggressively on water, I believe I read about it on DIGG a few weeks ago and then picked up three shortly after that from eBay. Giving one to Bard was a no brainer, as I knew he would get hours of water excitement from this item. By the conversation we had this afternoon, I couldn't have been more correct, he kept going on about all of the good matches he has had since getting it. Although I was unable to help him locate a retailer by him to buy a new one, I did get a follow up call from Will "The Thrill" that Bard climbed in a sewer to recover the lost one. I was promised pictures, so that will be exciting.
Even more exciting is my early morning departure (7 hours from now) tomorrow to Camp Tuggy. A bunch of my college friends are all getting together at one of our buddies houses this weekend for a birthday party. I got a call from the people who were already there tonight and I will rest assured that tomorrow will be a very entertaining day/night.
This overnight party will unfortunately prevent me from attending our softball teams last regular season game which is Sunday at 9:30am, but I am happy to report that we will likely make playoffs, so I will still get a game or two in before fall ball starts in September.
My friend and I did a ton of work on Cooperstown these past few weeks. Almost every night we would watch the Olympics from our respective houses while coding away on the site, communicating via iChat. My friend has made amazing strides on dragging and dropping objects on certain pages, which will undoubtedly add to a premiere user interface experience.
Alright, I need to get some sleep.
Here is a picture of a machine I was hooked up to yesterday at our companies blood drive (the 12th one I've organized to date). This machine takes out your red blood cells, and then mixes in that brown stuff that looks like beer back into your blood, then they pump that blood back into you. It was kind of cool, it didn't take too long, and it doubles the effectiveness of a blood donation.
Have a good night/weekend.
nothing to see here, keep walking...
August 13, 2008 - 6:47
- Terminix - GoDaddy - Cooperstown
So I was feeling a little brave a few minutes ago when I answered a call from an unknown phone number in the 480 area code. Much to my relief, it was just GoDaddy calling to ensure I am happy with my service and not the jerks at Terminix. Uggg to Terminix, like a month ago I got a bill from them for around $150, for a bunch of service visits that they apparently did, because they auto renewed my contract that I though ended around a half a month ago. Whatever, I paid the bill without putting up a fuss, because I figured there was some small print about auto renew that I must have omitted to read. Anyhow, after I pay the balance on my bill they said a manager was going to call me to discuss why I was canceling my services, so I told them that is fine but I likely won't pick up and that I want the service canceled regardless of whether or not I talk to this manager, they agreed and said their system was noted. Fast forward to a few nights ago, I get an FYI email saying that the next Terminix service visit is scheduled for some time this week... so I reply informing them how I canceled the service and that if this visit is already paid for then I would appreciate a proportional refund. I am totally expecting to get billed for this service visit, I bet they say something like they didn't get the email because I replied to a automatically generated email, or something of that sorts. Whatever is all I have to say to that, a company that big should definitely have all emails sent to their domain from non spammers read by someone is customer service. If I do get billed, I'll just show them the email I sent and hopefully that will prevent me from having to pay for a service that I don't even think did any good in the first place. I mean, I originally called them because one of my tenants said he saw a few mice, so Terminx definitely has that original concern on file, and they never called me to set up appointments for the year of service I paid for, they would just do something outside when I was at work and I would get some stupid door hanger saying they were here. The mouse problem never mounted into anything, so I never felt the need to follow up on these service visits, but I must ask myself, what the heck where they even doing when they came over if they couldn't get into the house? I'm sure they would tell me that they were spraying the foundation with bug spray or something, but that was never the problem...and there are a ton of bugs outside, so their spray didn't even work. Like I said before, big uggg to Terminx.
Gee wiz, why did I even start writing a blog post? Hmmm...ah, yes, GoDaddy. I am a very big fan of GoDaddy and I recommend their domain name registration services as well as their web hosting accounts very highly. I currently have two hosting accounts with them and they are super cheap and very robust (150gb storage / 25 MySQL DB's), for like $6 a month. I have around 25 domain names registered, with the vast majority of them having private registration to prevent WHOIS stalking, and that was all very reasonable priced. And they are a big company, so I feel safe that they aren't going away anytime soon and that they will have a very good "uptime" percentage...and, they periodically call to see if I'm happy....awwww, they care about me!
I did actually ask the dude who called me a question about a problem I was having last night, and although he didn't ultimately help me, I feel like the problem might not be GoDaddys (although it could be) but he did listen and go over a few possible causes of the problem. Last night I was doing some more work on the developer blog entry page for Cooperstown, specifically on the image/file upload section, and more specifically on the code to write to the DB for files uploaded and some code to ensure files only get saved to the server that aren't too big ( under 5mb for now). So the problem arose every time I would upload a file that was around 6mb big from the blog entry page, the code prevented the file from being saved to the server, but for whatever reason, Dreamweaver was getting disconnected from the server after every upload, and would have to wait a few minutes before being able to connect again. It happened like ten times, so it wasn't random. I really don't know what the relation between uploading big files on the front end has with me being disconnected on the back end, but something was up. Oh well though, it's not like that scenario happens very often so it's not a huge deal.
What a long blog post filled with a bunch of nothing!
I'll tell you what isn't nothing, the steak and cheese sub, jalapeno poppers and fries I just ordered for delivery....MMMM. I'm going to have an awesome night of eating, watching Olympics, and working on getting a pop up calender to potion properly via absolute positioning using CSS. Can't wait.
Gee wiz, why did I even start writing a blog post? Hmmm...ah, yes, GoDaddy. I am a very big fan of GoDaddy and I recommend their domain name registration services as well as their web hosting accounts very highly. I currently have two hosting accounts with them and they are super cheap and very robust (150gb storage / 25 MySQL DB's), for like $6 a month. I have around 25 domain names registered, with the vast majority of them having private registration to prevent WHOIS stalking, and that was all very reasonable priced. And they are a big company, so I feel safe that they aren't going away anytime soon and that they will have a very good "uptime" percentage...and, they periodically call to see if I'm happy....awwww, they care about me!
I did actually ask the dude who called me a question about a problem I was having last night, and although he didn't ultimately help me, I feel like the problem might not be GoDaddys (although it could be) but he did listen and go over a few possible causes of the problem. Last night I was doing some more work on the developer blog entry page for Cooperstown, specifically on the image/file upload section, and more specifically on the code to write to the DB for files uploaded and some code to ensure files only get saved to the server that aren't too big ( under 5mb for now). So the problem arose every time I would upload a file that was around 6mb big from the blog entry page, the code prevented the file from being saved to the server, but for whatever reason, Dreamweaver was getting disconnected from the server after every upload, and would have to wait a few minutes before being able to connect again. It happened like ten times, so it wasn't random. I really don't know what the relation between uploading big files on the front end has with me being disconnected on the back end, but something was up. Oh well though, it's not like that scenario happens very often so it's not a huge deal.
What a long blog post filled with a bunch of nothing!
I'll tell you what isn't nothing, the steak and cheese sub, jalapeno poppers and fries I just ordered for delivery....MMMM. I'm going to have an awesome night of eating, watching Olympics, and working on getting a pop up calender to potion properly via absolute positioning using CSS. Can't wait.
My New Haircut
August 10, 2008 - 11:57
- softball - weather - Generation Kill - IFrames - Olympics
It's been a busy week filled with unrelated enjoyable events. The only un-enjoyable (is that the correct spelling?) events I can think of at this time is the two losses our softball team suffered Tuesday and Saturday. We were supposed to have a total of four games, but Thursdays got rained out and half of our double header on Saturday was forfeited by the opposing team. On Tuesday, we gave up an eight run lead in the last inning which resulted in a disappointing late night loss to "The Factory Sliders" aka the Cheesecake Factory. It's plain painful to see such a lead slowly be chipped away by your opponent. Last night (actually I guess technically two nights ago) we faced a good team with a nasty pitcher. I'm embarrassed to say that my first two strike outs of the season game during this game; I was just a head case, I don't even think my eyes were open when she was pitching to me. On a positive note, our team did receive 9 pitchers that night at the league sponsoring bar, four from the loss and five from the win via forfeit...ahhh, that definitely helped.
It's been raining just a ton lately. Not even delightful afternoon sun showers, rather torrential downpours of rain with accompanying lightning/thunder. Honestly, I can't remember the last time it rained this much; which actually doesn't say much as I don't believe I retain many weather memories from year to year.
On Friday night I got to enjoy the much anticipated Olympic Opening Ceremonies from Beijing. As Gman would say, they were "sick just sick". Putting aside China's horrible human rights record and their Communist government, they certainly know how to build some cool venues with huge LCD screens and light off a bunch of fireworks. That show was over the top awesome. I especially enjoyed the segment with the giant woodblock printing press where each block was raised and lowered with such precision depicting elements of nature such as wind and water drops. I thought that was amazing when I was thinking that it was being controlled by a computer and hydraulics system, but when I found out there was actually a person under each of those blocks, I was simply awestricken.
As mad as I still am at NBC from pulling their content from iTunes, I am super impressed thus far with their coverage of the games. My cable provider has dedicated stations 1700 to 1704 for the 5 high definition NBC stations that provide from what I can tell 24/7 HD coverage of the games, with usually different Olympic programming being provided on multiple stations at a time. I've watched at least twenty hours of the games thus far, so much so, that I don't even want to start talking about all the cool matches/competitions I've already seen.
I did take a break from The Games tonight for an hour to watch Generation Kill with my good friend, who's birthday it is/was! I still really enjoy the series, but tonight seemed to harp a tad much via negative dialogue from the characters about the way things are run during the war. Myself, not having even close to a hair of first hand knowledge on the way things are in Iraq, would not look to offer an argument that the show is being inaccurate; I just hope that it is not trying to make a political statement by focusing on negative scenarios at a rate that is unproportional to how often they actually occur.
[This next paragraph will be boring to most]
The Games gave me a perfect background today to work on a developers blog I am building for Copperstown. I am currently working on the blog entry page, which when finished, I hope to use for the blog entry page I am currently using to write this blog entry on. The new entry page when compared to the one I currently use for this blog will be leaps and bounds better; which is the way I think things should be. Only meaning, many of the elements of sethdesantis.com are done for proof of concept, and are rarely polished or even developed to a point that would be a viable commercial solution. What a nice disclaimer, but with that said, I do have to say that I am quit happy with this site (sethdesantis.com) even when looked at outside the standards of a sandbox area to test new ideas. The new blog entry page is giving me an opportunity to take some of my previously learned concepts to the next level, as well as learn a few new ones. The most recent newly learned piece of information is the use of IFrames, specifically in a manor where they are hidden and allow another piece of code to run without a page refresh (which is likely an uncommon way to use IFrames). I am using this technique for the functionality of uploading pictures to be used in blog entries without a page refresh. It gives that part of the page an "AJAX"y feel without using AJAX, as least not in a way I am used to using it.
[End of technical paragraph]
I will leave you tonight with a few fun items.
The first is a picture of myself with two coworkers taken at the Track Friday afternoon before a huge storm caused the track to close after the third race. No, I didn't skip work, we were there for work sponsored team building. I wish there was work sponsored Olympic watching.
This next picture is of Bard and his sister from Friday night/Saturday morning. Bard has been up for the past week and spent a few nights here at my place. Worthy to note, Wednesday night we went out for an amazing meal, one that I attended wayyy under dressed. I didn't think the place we were going to was as classy as it was, and my cargo shorts, tee shirt and yellow sneakers just didn't compete with the suits everyone else was wearing. Luckily, dress attire does not affect how good food taste and how much fun you can have. In this following picture, we were about to do some Jager Bombs, which was spawned from an absolutely hilarious video we watched from YouTube. You definitely need to check this video out, it can be found HERE.
Alright, that's all I have for you right now.
Enjoy the Olympics, I know I will, badminton is currently on and i't great.
PS - try typing in the name of a sport (ie: swimming or badminton) in Google as a search and the first item returned are recent Olympic results!
It's been raining just a ton lately. Not even delightful afternoon sun showers, rather torrential downpours of rain with accompanying lightning/thunder. Honestly, I can't remember the last time it rained this much; which actually doesn't say much as I don't believe I retain many weather memories from year to year.
On Friday night I got to enjoy the much anticipated Olympic Opening Ceremonies from Beijing. As Gman would say, they were "sick just sick". Putting aside China's horrible human rights record and their Communist government, they certainly know how to build some cool venues with huge LCD screens and light off a bunch of fireworks. That show was over the top awesome. I especially enjoyed the segment with the giant woodblock printing press where each block was raised and lowered with such precision depicting elements of nature such as wind and water drops. I thought that was amazing when I was thinking that it was being controlled by a computer and hydraulics system, but when I found out there was actually a person under each of those blocks, I was simply awestricken.
As mad as I still am at NBC from pulling their content from iTunes, I am super impressed thus far with their coverage of the games. My cable provider has dedicated stations 1700 to 1704 for the 5 high definition NBC stations that provide from what I can tell 24/7 HD coverage of the games, with usually different Olympic programming being provided on multiple stations at a time. I've watched at least twenty hours of the games thus far, so much so, that I don't even want to start talking about all the cool matches/competitions I've already seen.
I did take a break from The Games tonight for an hour to watch Generation Kill with my good friend, who's birthday it is/was! I still really enjoy the series, but tonight seemed to harp a tad much via negative dialogue from the characters about the way things are run during the war. Myself, not having even close to a hair of first hand knowledge on the way things are in Iraq, would not look to offer an argument that the show is being inaccurate; I just hope that it is not trying to make a political statement by focusing on negative scenarios at a rate that is unproportional to how often they actually occur.
[This next paragraph will be boring to most]
The Games gave me a perfect background today to work on a developers blog I am building for Copperstown. I am currently working on the blog entry page, which when finished, I hope to use for the blog entry page I am currently using to write this blog entry on. The new entry page when compared to the one I currently use for this blog will be leaps and bounds better; which is the way I think things should be. Only meaning, many of the elements of sethdesantis.com are done for proof of concept, and are rarely polished or even developed to a point that would be a viable commercial solution. What a nice disclaimer, but with that said, I do have to say that I am quit happy with this site (sethdesantis.com) even when looked at outside the standards of a sandbox area to test new ideas. The new blog entry page is giving me an opportunity to take some of my previously learned concepts to the next level, as well as learn a few new ones. The most recent newly learned piece of information is the use of IFrames, specifically in a manor where they are hidden and allow another piece of code to run without a page refresh (which is likely an uncommon way to use IFrames). I am using this technique for the functionality of uploading pictures to be used in blog entries without a page refresh. It gives that part of the page an "AJAX"y feel without using AJAX, as least not in a way I am used to using it.
[End of technical paragraph]
I will leave you tonight with a few fun items.
The first is a picture of myself with two coworkers taken at the Track Friday afternoon before a huge storm caused the track to close after the third race. No, I didn't skip work, we were there for work sponsored team building. I wish there was work sponsored Olympic watching.
This next picture is of Bard and his sister from Friday night/Saturday morning. Bard has been up for the past week and spent a few nights here at my place. Worthy to note, Wednesday night we went out for an amazing meal, one that I attended wayyy under dressed. I didn't think the place we were going to was as classy as it was, and my cargo shorts, tee shirt and yellow sneakers just didn't compete with the suits everyone else was wearing. Luckily, dress attire does not affect how good food taste and how much fun you can have. In this following picture, we were about to do some Jager Bombs, which was spawned from an absolutely hilarious video we watched from YouTube. You definitely need to check this video out, it can be found HERE.
Alright, that's all I have for you right now.
Enjoy the Olympics, I know I will, badminton is currently on and i't great.
PS - try typing in the name of a sport (ie: swimming or badminton) in Google as a search and the first item returned are recent Olympic results!
An Emancipation of Clarity
July 31, 2008 - 11:33
- Facebook - Twitter - iPhone - Montauk Monster - Olympics
The words of this post will have little to do with the title, but someday I will write the post that corresponds more appropriately. I'm not even sure if the title is grammatically correct, maybe some of my journalism friends could comment on whether or not it is, or my Dad, he was an English major, I would trust his judgment wayyy before the likes of anyone I graduated with :-)
Lately, technology has intertwined my life with others at such a rapid rate that I really do not even know where to begin.
It started about a month ago when I joined Facebook. I don't even remember what prompted me to sign up, maybe it was just the first time the hangover wore off from all the home page bling bling and pimp my profile garbage that myspace promotes. Regardless of what it was, it instantly put me in touch with hundreds of friends from way way in the past up to the most current ones in the present. I learned about engagements, weddings, babies, moves, promotions, transfers...just a ton of info I would likely not have gotten otherwise.... and it was great.
After Facebook came Twitter. I've heard about Twitter for a little over a year, but the people that talked about it were always the TWIT podcasters or people like that. I always thought how cool it would be to use the service but I never thought any of my friends would also use it, rendering it pretty useless. And then, all of a sudden, I learned (via Facebook) that I did have friends that used it, and now I use it, and now I get daily/hourly updates about what others are up to.... and it's great.
And then there is the glue that brings it all together, the iPhone. Even before the release of version 2.0 there were "Web Apps", but now with real downlaodable apps, the user experience of browsing and updating these services has improved ten fold. The iPhone is quickly becoming a real life tricorder.... and that is definitely great.
Now if only I could get a holodeck...super big dork uggg to me.
OK, I'm sure there will be much more time in the future to talk about the ways technology keeps me connected with others, which I'm sure everyone is just dying to read about.
Let's talk quickly about a few other things...
-In my constant pursuit on keeping my life in sync, I downloaded and installed BusySync on my main computer. I believe with that program and MobileMe (formally .Mac) I am now able to sync both ways with all of my mac calendars as well as my Google Calendar. Preliminary tests have been very positive. If true, I will gladly pay the $25 fee associated with using this program over the 30 day trial period... but I do still believe that this functionality should be offered for free as a first party option.
-This morning at work I told my team about the Montauk Monster, which I learned about last night from DIGG... everyone thought I was crazy, but then I noticed that it reached the top of the Google search terms, and now I see that almost every major news agency is at least mentioning it. A cool addition to the story is that one of the guys on my team went to high school with a girl from Montauk that was interviewed, and he confirmed that to the best of his knowledge she was not crazy. My early reaction to the "sea demon" is that it is fake. I draw this early conclusion based on the fact that the animal seems to be giving "the finger", which just makes it seem like a viral stunt.
-Team USA for Basketball had a dominating win this evening against Turkey...I am just so excited for the Olympics, I really wish I could just sit in front of a TV for the entire duration of them. Maybe once Copperstown goes live I could live such a dream :-)
-Our softball team had a great victory over KPMG Tuesday night...it went into extra innings where we finally put on a rally and ended up winning 10-6...which is great considering we were down 1-6 with only one inning remaining in regulation. Beating KPMG always makes me super happy because one of my friends works for them in Buffalo and although I'm sure he doesn't care too much, it's a fun phone call to make rubbing our W in.
And finally I leave you with a picture of my own little Montauk Monster who is staying with me for a while... he may be cute, but check out that puke stain he left on my sheets...uggggg.
Last night he was going nuts chewing on a treat, it was like he was crazy, his eyes were almost popping out of his head and he went after it. I wish I videotaped it.
Have a good night.
Lately, technology has intertwined my life with others at such a rapid rate that I really do not even know where to begin.
It started about a month ago when I joined Facebook. I don't even remember what prompted me to sign up, maybe it was just the first time the hangover wore off from all the home page bling bling and pimp my profile garbage that myspace promotes. Regardless of what it was, it instantly put me in touch with hundreds of friends from way way in the past up to the most current ones in the present. I learned about engagements, weddings, babies, moves, promotions, transfers...just a ton of info I would likely not have gotten otherwise.... and it was great.
After Facebook came Twitter. I've heard about Twitter for a little over a year, but the people that talked about it were always the TWIT podcasters or people like that. I always thought how cool it would be to use the service but I never thought any of my friends would also use it, rendering it pretty useless. And then, all of a sudden, I learned (via Facebook) that I did have friends that used it, and now I use it, and now I get daily/hourly updates about what others are up to.... and it's great.
And then there is the glue that brings it all together, the iPhone. Even before the release of version 2.0 there were "Web Apps", but now with real downlaodable apps, the user experience of browsing and updating these services has improved ten fold. The iPhone is quickly becoming a real life tricorder.... and that is definitely great.
Now if only I could get a holodeck...super big dork uggg to me.
OK, I'm sure there will be much more time in the future to talk about the ways technology keeps me connected with others, which I'm sure everyone is just dying to read about.
Let's talk quickly about a few other things...
-In my constant pursuit on keeping my life in sync, I downloaded and installed BusySync on my main computer. I believe with that program and MobileMe (formally .Mac) I am now able to sync both ways with all of my mac calendars as well as my Google Calendar. Preliminary tests have been very positive. If true, I will gladly pay the $25 fee associated with using this program over the 30 day trial period... but I do still believe that this functionality should be offered for free as a first party option.
-This morning at work I told my team about the Montauk Monster, which I learned about last night from DIGG... everyone thought I was crazy, but then I noticed that it reached the top of the Google search terms, and now I see that almost every major news agency is at least mentioning it. A cool addition to the story is that one of the guys on my team went to high school with a girl from Montauk that was interviewed, and he confirmed that to the best of his knowledge she was not crazy. My early reaction to the "sea demon" is that it is fake. I draw this early conclusion based on the fact that the animal seems to be giving "the finger", which just makes it seem like a viral stunt.
-Team USA for Basketball had a dominating win this evening against Turkey...I am just so excited for the Olympics, I really wish I could just sit in front of a TV for the entire duration of them. Maybe once Copperstown goes live I could live such a dream :-)
-Our softball team had a great victory over KPMG Tuesday night...it went into extra innings where we finally put on a rally and ended up winning 10-6...which is great considering we were down 1-6 with only one inning remaining in regulation. Beating KPMG always makes me super happy because one of my friends works for them in Buffalo and although I'm sure he doesn't care too much, it's a fun phone call to make rubbing our W in.
And finally I leave you with a picture of my own little Montauk Monster who is staying with me for a while... he may be cute, but check out that puke stain he left on my sheets...uggggg.
Last night he was going nuts chewing on a treat, it was like he was crazy, his eyes were almost popping out of his head and he went after it. I wish I videotaped it.
Have a good night.
12 days and counting
July 27, 2008 - 11:13
- Dubas - Generation Kill - biking - Olympics
I have the movie "The Kingdom" on, good movie. I rented it a few months ago on the cruise, a lot of action and a good plot. Lately I've had a minor obsession reading and watching shows about Middle East countries. I really enjoy anything having to do with the city of Dubai, there is a ton of interesting development projects going on there. One of my favorite projects is "The World" islands.
My new favorite mini series was on tonight, "Generation Kill" from HBO. I'm not sure how accurate the series is regarding the types of things that go on during the war in Iraq, but I feel like there is at least a chance it is close to being a true portrayal of the way things are. I would definitely be naive to think that any television show, or movie, could ever give the viewer any sort of accurate idea of what it is actually like to be a soldier in a war, but it at least gives the viewer enough information for them to deeply appreciate the sacrifices soldiers make for joining the armed services, as well the bravery they show every day by being in a combat zone.
It finally stopped raining long enough yesterday to enjoy a nice bike ride with one of my friends. There is a cool trail around here called the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail, a good part of it is on dedicated bike/walking trails but part of it does go on some semi busy streets. We ended up going further than usual and the trip ended up being around 32 miles. Compliments of my friend, you can check out a map of it HERE. I posted a few pics from the ride in my photo album.
After the bike ride I had to quickly get ready and head out to a wedding. I really didn't think I was going to make it but with the help of a large Turbo Ice before and a few cocktails during, the wedding turned out to be great.
On an unrelated note, I still need to post pictures from the wedding from earlier this month as well the cruise, both will be awesome albums once they are up.
As I previously touched upon, I'm having a bunch of high school and college pictures scanned. I ended up sending a little over 550 around 2 weeks ago, which should be ready by September. Those scans will definitely make some great albums and likely a few movies.
Alright, I'm not going to finish watching this movie, just too tired. Only 12 days until the Olympics start! I think I might have an Opening Ceremonies party.
Here is a cool pic from the spot where we stopped our bike ride and turned back around:
Good night.
My new favorite mini series was on tonight, "Generation Kill" from HBO. I'm not sure how accurate the series is regarding the types of things that go on during the war in Iraq, but I feel like there is at least a chance it is close to being a true portrayal of the way things are. I would definitely be naive to think that any television show, or movie, could ever give the viewer any sort of accurate idea of what it is actually like to be a soldier in a war, but it at least gives the viewer enough information for them to deeply appreciate the sacrifices soldiers make for joining the armed services, as well the bravery they show every day by being in a combat zone.
It finally stopped raining long enough yesterday to enjoy a nice bike ride with one of my friends. There is a cool trail around here called the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail, a good part of it is on dedicated bike/walking trails but part of it does go on some semi busy streets. We ended up going further than usual and the trip ended up being around 32 miles. Compliments of my friend, you can check out a map of it HERE. I posted a few pics from the ride in my photo album.
After the bike ride I had to quickly get ready and head out to a wedding. I really didn't think I was going to make it but with the help of a large Turbo Ice before and a few cocktails during, the wedding turned out to be great.
On an unrelated note, I still need to post pictures from the wedding from earlier this month as well the cruise, both will be awesome albums once they are up.
As I previously touched upon, I'm having a bunch of high school and college pictures scanned. I ended up sending a little over 550 around 2 weeks ago, which should be ready by September. Those scans will definitely make some great albums and likely a few movies.
Alright, I'm not going to finish watching this movie, just too tired. Only 12 days until the Olympics start! I think I might have an Opening Ceremonies party.
Here is a cool pic from the spot where we stopped our bike ride and turned back around:
Good night.
let's get lucid
July 20, 2008 - 10:47
- Lucid Dreams - Fringe - Firefox 3 - Top Spin 3 - Cooperstown
For whatever reason I've been having some weird dreams the past week.
-In the beginning of the week, I think Monday, I dreamt that I was on the woman's soccer team in college. I remember asking the coach if he was sure it was OK that I play and I remember being nervous before subbing in. I don't remember how I did in the game, but I bet I got worked :-)
-The next day I dreamt that I qualified for the Olympics in the sport of speed walking. I remembered much more of this dream immediately after I woke up and I wish I wrote some of the details down. The field for the qualifying race was large but myself along with the runner up broke away early and were each others only competition. I believe that the top three finishers qualified so it wasn't much of a nail biter. I don't believe my dream lasted long enough for me to actually get to Beijing and although I don't remember much more, I do remember feeling a tremendous sense of pride to be representing my country on the international stage.
-During this weekend I had a very relaxing dream that I was sailing. The boat was a Sunfish, which kind of sucks, as I would rather have been in something a tad bigger with more than one sail, but it was still awesome.
I remember when I was around the age of 7 I had a dream that my consciousness became aware that I was dreaming, while still in the dream. I was at a science fair doing whatever and then something happened that made me aware of the fact that I was in a dream. I believe I started running around causing mischief by knocking down exhibits/etc. I'll never forget that night, it was super super super crazy becoming aware that you were in a dream, thus allowing you to do anything your mind could think of. Many years later I did some research on this topic and learned that this whole scenario is called a "lucid dream". I read a few books on it and even contemplated taking the steps recommended for people to try to enter lucid dreams on their own will. In the end, I didn't pursue this topic much further, but I hope someday I do have another dream like that.
I saw some commercials that prompted me to do some internet investigating on the new Fox fall series produced by J.J. Abrams called "Fringe", the series looks amazing and I can't wait for it to start in September.
I downloaded Firefox 3 on two of my computers the day it came out and even today I am finding subtle improvements that are much appreciated, I can't recommend it enough that everyone use Firefox as their default browser.
I quietly picked up Top Spin 3 last weekend and have put in probably around 5 hours of game play boosting up my created player, Bona Stu. Thus far, 2 of my friends who were part of the doubles phenomenon we made from the first Top Spin have picked up this latest release and the third and final friend is slated to buy it any day now. It has yet to be determined if we will be able to play ranked doubles with each of us in our respective homes, but more likely than not, the game will require each doubles team to be playing on the same console. If that is the case, we have discussed a contingency plan where we will switch partners due to geographical reasons and then proceed from there. I am a tad nervous because historically Bona Stu has been a back court player with enough power and speed to cover the whole line thus allowing my partner to snipe vollys from the net; whereas I believe my new partner isn't as big of a net player as Clarker13 a.k.a Unlisted Driver was. We will see and I will keep you updated, but I doubt much will happen until the weather takes a turn for the worse post autumn.
I picked up a white iPhone Friday. It is cool. I enjoy having GPS and 3G and will definitely appreciate an extra 8 gigs of space for video and music, but I am a tad nervous about the battery. This week will be a good test.
Stuff with Cooperstown slowed down this past week, but I am anticipating progress to ramp up significantly starting this week. The last thing I was working on was a pop up calendar which will initially be used just for picking dates but will soon be ported for a wider spectrum of duties. I would tell you more about that as well as what my partner is working on, but those details would give away more details than I currently wish to divulge about the site/project.
I am close to adding a photo album from the wedding 2 weeks ago but am just waiting to see if I can get copies of photos from one of the couples that was there. Here is a nice picture to hold you over until then:
and two pictures from last night:
and a big good night from the inside, out, to you.
-In the beginning of the week, I think Monday, I dreamt that I was on the woman's soccer team in college. I remember asking the coach if he was sure it was OK that I play and I remember being nervous before subbing in. I don't remember how I did in the game, but I bet I got worked :-)
-The next day I dreamt that I qualified for the Olympics in the sport of speed walking. I remembered much more of this dream immediately after I woke up and I wish I wrote some of the details down. The field for the qualifying race was large but myself along with the runner up broke away early and were each others only competition. I believe that the top three finishers qualified so it wasn't much of a nail biter. I don't believe my dream lasted long enough for me to actually get to Beijing and although I don't remember much more, I do remember feeling a tremendous sense of pride to be representing my country on the international stage.
-During this weekend I had a very relaxing dream that I was sailing. The boat was a Sunfish, which kind of sucks, as I would rather have been in something a tad bigger with more than one sail, but it was still awesome.
I remember when I was around the age of 7 I had a dream that my consciousness became aware that I was dreaming, while still in the dream. I was at a science fair doing whatever and then something happened that made me aware of the fact that I was in a dream. I believe I started running around causing mischief by knocking down exhibits/etc. I'll never forget that night, it was super super super crazy becoming aware that you were in a dream, thus allowing you to do anything your mind could think of. Many years later I did some research on this topic and learned that this whole scenario is called a "lucid dream". I read a few books on it and even contemplated taking the steps recommended for people to try to enter lucid dreams on their own will. In the end, I didn't pursue this topic much further, but I hope someday I do have another dream like that.
I saw some commercials that prompted me to do some internet investigating on the new Fox fall series produced by J.J. Abrams called "Fringe", the series looks amazing and I can't wait for it to start in September.
I downloaded Firefox 3 on two of my computers the day it came out and even today I am finding subtle improvements that are much appreciated, I can't recommend it enough that everyone use Firefox as their default browser.
I quietly picked up Top Spin 3 last weekend and have put in probably around 5 hours of game play boosting up my created player, Bona Stu. Thus far, 2 of my friends who were part of the doubles phenomenon we made from the first Top Spin have picked up this latest release and the third and final friend is slated to buy it any day now. It has yet to be determined if we will be able to play ranked doubles with each of us in our respective homes, but more likely than not, the game will require each doubles team to be playing on the same console. If that is the case, we have discussed a contingency plan where we will switch partners due to geographical reasons and then proceed from there. I am a tad nervous because historically Bona Stu has been a back court player with enough power and speed to cover the whole line thus allowing my partner to snipe vollys from the net; whereas I believe my new partner isn't as big of a net player as Clarker13 a.k.a Unlisted Driver was. We will see and I will keep you updated, but I doubt much will happen until the weather takes a turn for the worse post autumn.
I picked up a white iPhone Friday. It is cool. I enjoy having GPS and 3G and will definitely appreciate an extra 8 gigs of space for video and music, but I am a tad nervous about the battery. This week will be a good test.
Stuff with Cooperstown slowed down this past week, but I am anticipating progress to ramp up significantly starting this week. The last thing I was working on was a pop up calendar which will initially be used just for picking dates but will soon be ported for a wider spectrum of duties. I would tell you more about that as well as what my partner is working on, but those details would give away more details than I currently wish to divulge about the site/project.
I am close to adding a photo album from the wedding 2 weeks ago but am just waiting to see if I can get copies of photos from one of the couples that was there. Here is a nice picture to hold you over until then:
and two pictures from last night:
and a big good night from the inside, out, to you.
Super heavy
July 13, 2008 - 10:19
- Scanning - Frisbee
I just finished watching the movie "Superbad"...wow, Superfunny.I didn't really think it would make me laugh as much as it did, but there were definitely some funny parts. Much better than the movie "Dan in Real Life", I saw that movie a month or two ago it really just hated about 98% of it. Superbad was a good movie to have on as I sorted through a box of pictures I am preparing to mail away to get scanned. They are mostly college pictures with a few high school ones, so those in conjunction with the movie made for some good memories. I've decided that the fees associated with having a 3rd party scan my pre digital photo age snap shots will be worth it, since I just can't motivate myself to to spend all of the time required to do bulk scanning. A few months ago I gave a stab at it, after I got the process down, I could scan 3-4 pictures at a time, for a total turn around time of around 5 minutes per set....super ugggg and a big puke to that idea. I have a huge box of pictures plus 4 photo albums, it would take forrrever to scan all of those. I can't wait for these pictures to be scanned, they are definitely good ones.
Not much else to talk about right now. I tried getting a white iPhone yesterday but missed the last one by like a minute. I ended up picking up a new Frisbee instead. I found a 200g one that I feel like I could throw to Mars. It's definitely the heaviest one I've ever had, and it's yellow, and it has a picture of a Sumo wrestler on it...so it's pretty much the coolest thing I currently own. Good night.
Not much else to talk about right now. I tried getting a white iPhone yesterday but missed the last one by like a minute. I ended up picking up a new Frisbee instead. I found a 200g one that I feel like I could throw to Mars. It's definitely the heaviest one I've ever had, and it's yellow, and it has a picture of a Sumo wrestler on it...so it's pretty much the coolest thing I currently own. Good night.
2.0
July 10, 2008 - 12:31
- iPhone
There have been a lot of things I've wanted to write about over the past week. Often, I find myself not wanting to blog about things out of chronological order (ie: not blogging about my impressions of the new iPhone software before I blog about the amazing 3 nights I spent in the Rochester area last weak for the wedding). This blog does maintain a date time stamp this is accurate give or take 12 hours, and it is by default displayed newest to oldest, my desire to be conscious of the order in which events happen and the order that I write about them is understandable.
With that said, I would like to say that I am absolutely amazed with version 2.0 of the iPhone software, more specifically with the applications it has allowed me to download over the past 2 hours. With the exception of Sega's Super Monkey Ball that I purchased for $9.99, all of the applications I downloaded were free. I went pretty overboard with getting programs, off the top of my head I got the following: AOL AIM, FaceBook, Fox News U Report, Twitter[iffic], PayPal, Apple's Remote, and AP News. I picked up all of the apps from the new section of the iTune store except for the last one, that one I downloaded directly from the phone's "App Store", it downloaded and installed directly to the phone and took around 2 minutes.
All of the above programs surpassed my expectations of the content and user interface. The graphics in Super Monkey Ball are much better than any game I have seen on PSP or Nintendo DS, they remind me of Wii graphics. The FaceBook App is a definite step up from the web app; it offers chat and going through your friends and writing messages closely resembles going through your phones address book or writing an email. The PayPal program is kind of crazy, you select a person from your address book/contacts, enter an amount, hit send... and then I guess they get the money; I will see if my friend gets the dollar I believe I just sent. The Fox News program lets you take picture and send it to them, with the possibility of it airing on TV or their site. [SIDE NOTE: just got an email pop up here on the Air that a PayPal transaction has been initiated] Saving the best I will talk about for last, the Remote program published by Apple is out of this world. It allowed me to easily connect the iTunes library on the iMac as well as the library on the Apple TV and control them both from the phone. So I can choose Apple TV, and then a list of all my iTunes content comes up on the phone, all of the videos, podcasts, songs, play lists... everything. And then I can scroll through everything and when I touch it, the screen displays the album art for that song or video and it starts playing on my TV. I can pause, fast forward, etc. It really is unbelievable. You can be anywhere in your house, browse your library, and change the song.
All of these programs just came out today, the first day, so they are all first generation. I can't even imagine what there will be in a few months.
I was going to wake up early tomorrow to go get the new phone but now I don't think I'm going to. This new version of the software has more than doubled how crazy amazing any iPhone or iTouch is/will be.
I'm not going to devalue some of the pictures I've slowly been collecting from this past weekend by posting them in this super boring blog post. Instead I will just say good night and will hopefully talk about more exciting things at another time.
With that said, I would like to say that I am absolutely amazed with version 2.0 of the iPhone software, more specifically with the applications it has allowed me to download over the past 2 hours. With the exception of Sega's Super Monkey Ball that I purchased for $9.99, all of the applications I downloaded were free. I went pretty overboard with getting programs, off the top of my head I got the following: AOL AIM, FaceBook, Fox News U Report, Twitter[iffic], PayPal, Apple's Remote, and AP News. I picked up all of the apps from the new section of the iTune store except for the last one, that one I downloaded directly from the phone's "App Store", it downloaded and installed directly to the phone and took around 2 minutes.
All of the above programs surpassed my expectations of the content and user interface. The graphics in Super Monkey Ball are much better than any game I have seen on PSP or Nintendo DS, they remind me of Wii graphics. The FaceBook App is a definite step up from the web app; it offers chat and going through your friends and writing messages closely resembles going through your phones address book or writing an email. The PayPal program is kind of crazy, you select a person from your address book/contacts, enter an amount, hit send... and then I guess they get the money; I will see if my friend gets the dollar I believe I just sent. The Fox News program lets you take picture and send it to them, with the possibility of it airing on TV or their site. [SIDE NOTE: just got an email pop up here on the Air that a PayPal transaction has been initiated] Saving the best I will talk about for last, the Remote program published by Apple is out of this world. It allowed me to easily connect the iTunes library on the iMac as well as the library on the Apple TV and control them both from the phone. So I can choose Apple TV, and then a list of all my iTunes content comes up on the phone, all of the videos, podcasts, songs, play lists... everything. And then I can scroll through everything and when I touch it, the screen displays the album art for that song or video and it starts playing on my TV. I can pause, fast forward, etc. It really is unbelievable. You can be anywhere in your house, browse your library, and change the song.
All of these programs just came out today, the first day, so they are all first generation. I can't even imagine what there will be in a few months.
I was going to wake up early tomorrow to go get the new phone but now I don't think I'm going to. This new version of the software has more than doubled how crazy amazing any iPhone or iTouch is/will be.
I'm not going to devalue some of the pictures I've slowly been collecting from this past weekend by posting them in this super boring blog post. Instead I will just say good night and will hopefully talk about more exciting things at another time.
don't go chasing waterfalls
July 1, 2008 - 10:16
- NYC Waterfalls - tourist
uggg...I have to goto bed early again tonight to catch another train tomorrow AM. The good news though, is... after tomorrow, I am off work until next Tuesday :-) I'll be headed to the Roch either Thursday or Friday to participate in the wedding of my brother from another mother, so that is cool. I will get to hang out with some of my best friends from high school and college again, and on my birthday no less!
Yesterday wasn't a bad day at all in the city, my coworker friend and I were done with work early enough where we could play tourist for a few hours. It was soooo hot down there, the gravy train definitely was rolling in full force. Due to this, we felt it appropriate to pick up some new digs at a thrift store.
We were the best tourists around...
before:
after:
Included in the many sights we saw were the "Waterfalls"... albeit they were interesting, they definitely were not as cool as I imagine "The Gates" were.
good night.
ps - I'm looking to give my iPhone away after 7/11, if anyone has AT&T and is interested in receiving my phone, then let me know.
Yesterday wasn't a bad day at all in the city, my coworker friend and I were done with work early enough where we could play tourist for a few hours. It was soooo hot down there, the gravy train definitely was rolling in full force. Due to this, we felt it appropriate to pick up some new digs at a thrift store.
We were the best tourists around...
before:
after:
Included in the many sights we saw were the "Waterfalls"... albeit they were interesting, they definitely were not as cool as I imagine "The Gates" were.
good night.
ps - I'm looking to give my iPhone away after 7/11, if anyone has AT&T and is interested in receiving my phone, then let me know.
Superman
June 29, 2008 - 9:57
- UEFA - Superman - Discomentary
After another weekend leaving me feeling like I need another weekend to recoup, I already find myself facing another busy yet exciting week/weekend. I used the word "another" three times in the preceding horribly written ramble of a sentence....uggg to me being super lazy right now, pointing out mistakes but not willing to fix them. I have to wake up super early tomorrow AM to catch a train...waking up earlier than normal is rarely fun.
The UEFA Euro 08 finals were today; I will miss the world class games the tournament provided over the past weeks. There wasn't one game I watched that wasn't fantastic.
This weekend, I learned what the word Superman means when used as a verb. I was surprised to learn that a term has been coined for the scenario it describes. Better judgment prevents me from discussing it further but I cut a clip from the Discomentary Volume 1 intro that uses Soulja Boy.
Yet another super boring blog post, uggg to me.
I need to figure out some softball stuff and then get to sleep.
Here are a few random pics from the weekend:
Good night.
The UEFA Euro 08 finals were today; I will miss the world class games the tournament provided over the past weeks. There wasn't one game I watched that wasn't fantastic.
This weekend, I learned what the word Superman means when used as a verb. I was surprised to learn that a term has been coined for the scenario it describes. Better judgment prevents me from discussing it further but I cut a clip from the Discomentary Volume 1 intro that uses Soulja Boy.
Yet another super boring blog post, uggg to me.
I need to figure out some softball stuff and then get to sleep.
Here are a few random pics from the weekend:
Good night.
8-8-08
June 25, 2008 - 10:48
- Olympics - E-Mail
Historically, I have always been a very enthusiastic fan of the Olympics games; this summer will be no different. I am very excited for almost every sport that will take place 8-8-08 in Beijing. Table Tennis, Track Cycling, Track and Field, Rowing, Sailing, Basketball, Softball, Soccer, Pentathlon, Swimming and Diving, Water Polo the Opening Ceremonies, and the sport I currently have the qualifiers on for, Gymnastics. Since LOST currently is not on, I can with complete certainty state that I will choose to watch any Olympic sport over any other television show on during those two weeks. It is going to be great.
Additionally, I don't think e-mail is dead. Sometimes people say that e-mail is going to be replaced with other forms of e-communication. Replaced with services along the lines of Twitter or one of the countless IM clients. I think that's hogwash, I think a main advantage e-mail has over the other services is the fact that it operates along a standard that is accessible to almost everyone you would want to get or stay in touch with. Unless one of the other services emerged as the overwhelming choice of all computer users, or all of the competing services adopted interoperability policies, I just don't believe or foresee email as being dead. I think the people that say e-mail is dead heard it from either their kids, or someone else who heard it from their kids. I guess that is the X factor though, kids. Most kids born within the past few years will grow up without the idea of what life is like for people without cell phones or computers. Approximately 15-20 years ago cell phones and home computers were definitely considered very luxurious and frivolous items to most people. Now many people use both of these items on a daily non-work related basis. It is difficult to predict how generations of people feeling as comfortable with high tech devices as they do with silverware will utilize the many options available to "stay in touch".
The outcome of that discussion would definitely be less interesting than the outcome of the summer Olympic medal race in HD. The things that these girl gymnasts can do is pretty ridiculous. I can't believe their legs and ankles don't break when they are doing these routines. If I had to choose one event to attend I think I would want to attend something outside, but I definitely wouldn't be picky. I think watching Table Tennis would be pretty cool. '
I'm spent, good night.
Additionally, I don't think e-mail is dead. Sometimes people say that e-mail is going to be replaced with other forms of e-communication. Replaced with services along the lines of Twitter or one of the countless IM clients. I think that's hogwash, I think a main advantage e-mail has over the other services is the fact that it operates along a standard that is accessible to almost everyone you would want to get or stay in touch with. Unless one of the other services emerged as the overwhelming choice of all computer users, or all of the competing services adopted interoperability policies, I just don't believe or foresee email as being dead. I think the people that say e-mail is dead heard it from either their kids, or someone else who heard it from their kids. I guess that is the X factor though, kids. Most kids born within the past few years will grow up without the idea of what life is like for people without cell phones or computers. Approximately 15-20 years ago cell phones and home computers were definitely considered very luxurious and frivolous items to most people. Now many people use both of these items on a daily non-work related basis. It is difficult to predict how generations of people feeling as comfortable with high tech devices as they do with silverware will utilize the many options available to "stay in touch".
The outcome of that discussion would definitely be less interesting than the outcome of the summer Olympic medal race in HD. The things that these girl gymnasts can do is pretty ridiculous. I can't believe their legs and ankles don't break when they are doing these routines. If I had to choose one event to attend I think I would want to attend something outside, but I definitely wouldn't be picky. I think watching Table Tennis would be pretty cool. '
I'm spent, good night.
potentially life changing news
June 22, 2008 - 10:45
- Dinosaur BBQ
The weekend has left me feeling like I got hit by a train.
I attended a family wedding Friday; it was fantastic to see so many cousins, some of who I haven't seen in many years. As my previous blog post hints at, I was left feeling a tad tipsy at the end of the evening. I would never even entertain the idea of attempting to decipher those ramblings.
Saturday morning started with a quick little road trip to attend a bachelor party I've been helping plan for a few months now. The party consisted of a little over 30 good friends from high school and college...3 kegs and 800 bucks of Dinosaur BBQ later, we were all pretty spent.
I would consider cutting off a toe to have a day or two to just sleep but it was all definitely worth it.
On an exciting side note, Dinosaur BBQ is going to open up a restaurant in Albany. This is potentially life changing.
Good Night.
I attended a family wedding Friday; it was fantastic to see so many cousins, some of who I haven't seen in many years. As my previous blog post hints at, I was left feeling a tad tipsy at the end of the evening. I would never even entertain the idea of attempting to decipher those ramblings.
Saturday morning started with a quick little road trip to attend a bachelor party I've been helping plan for a few months now. The party consisted of a little over 30 good friends from high school and college...3 kegs and 800 bucks of Dinosaur BBQ later, we were all pretty spent.
I would consider cutting off a toe to have a day or two to just sleep but it was all definitely worth it.
On an exciting side note, Dinosaur BBQ is going to open up a restaurant in Albany. This is potentially life changing.
Good Night.
check please
June 20, 2008 - 12:50
I just deleted such a huge entry.
It was much too much of a view from the inside.
I've known for a few weeks that this weekend might, in hindsight, be considered the busiest weekend I have all summer. I think I will be right.
-the birthday call resulting in knowing about the move
-the wedding
-the family I used to spend every day with, but now spend every day without
then...
-the road trip with the original crew
-the bachelor party
then, finally...
-the girl I will get married to.
so much to think about, so little to talk to you about.
it's complicated.
from the inside, out, good night.
It was much too much of a view from the inside.
I've known for a few weeks that this weekend might, in hindsight, be considered the busiest weekend I have all summer. I think I will be right.
-the birthday call resulting in knowing about the move
-the wedding
-the family I used to spend every day with, but now spend every day without
then...
-the road trip with the original crew
-the bachelor party
then, finally...
-the girl I will get married to.
so much to think about, so little to talk to you about.
it's complicated.
from the inside, out, good night.
more about Dreamweaver CS4 beta...
June 18, 2008 - 12:12
- Dreamweaver CS4 - Cooperstown
if the title doesn't sound interesting then neither will this quick followup post...
I found myself doing some semi intense code cleanup on a few pages I have recently been working on. The majority of my efforts were spent moving functions to pages they seemed more appropriate to be on, renaming a few pages to better reflect the purpose they have evolved to serve, and some small albeit super important code rewriting. All of my efforts were concentrated in one specific section of Cooperstown.
During this period of time I enjoyed the first instance of me truly appreciating some of the new functionality/features of DW CS4 beta. The auto suggesting (or as they call it "code hinting") for JavaScript saved me a decent amount of time and more importantly barred me from the annoyance of writing such long mundane lines of case sensitive code. Additionally, the syntax checking seems much more "live" than in the previous version. As soon as you add or subtract syntax characters (opening and closing brackets, etc...) that make the code invalid, the program immediately informs you via a message bar on the top of the window as well as a small red marker on the line of the code where the error may exist.
I feel like both of these features were in some form included in GoLive, which I believe DW CS3 replaced, so maybe CS4 is now just on par to where it previously should have been... but either way, I am happy using it.
I am so tired right now, good night
I found myself doing some semi intense code cleanup on a few pages I have recently been working on. The majority of my efforts were spent moving functions to pages they seemed more appropriate to be on, renaming a few pages to better reflect the purpose they have evolved to serve, and some small albeit super important code rewriting. All of my efforts were concentrated in one specific section of Cooperstown.
During this period of time I enjoyed the first instance of me truly appreciating some of the new functionality/features of DW CS4 beta. The auto suggesting (or as they call it "code hinting") for JavaScript saved me a decent amount of time and more importantly barred me from the annoyance of writing such long mundane lines of case sensitive code. Additionally, the syntax checking seems much more "live" than in the previous version. As soon as you add or subtract syntax characters (opening and closing brackets, etc...) that make the code invalid, the program immediately informs you via a message bar on the top of the window as well as a small red marker on the line of the code where the error may exist.
I feel like both of these features were in some form included in GoLive, which I believe DW CS3 replaced, so maybe CS4 is now just on par to where it previously should have been... but either way, I am happy using it.
I am so tired right now, good night
6/14-6/16
June 16, 2008 - 11:27
I'm sure you did.
flashback
June 15, 2008 - 10:42
- NASA - Cooperstown - Fathers Day - Celtics
I remember when I was younger, I somehow got the phone number for some NASA office that would mail information packets and posters for practically any mission or space topic I could think of. I would tell them I was working on a school project, and a few days later tons of information would arrive. I was like 9, so getting poster tubes and boxes marked NASA yielded almost overwhelming amounts of excitement.
That flashback can be attributed to the TV show "Left Earth" I currently have on. The flashback I wont talk about involves the cool rain forest and underwater posters I used to have in my room as a young child. That flashback can be attributed to the aforementioned flashback, specifically due to me asking myself why I never hung any of those NASA posters up. I could get stuck in an endless loop of enjoyable childhood flashbacks, which would be nice, but kind of counter productive, so let's not let that happen.
Now I have the Celtics/Laker game on. I definitely want the Celtics to win, not for myself, but for my friends. Personally, I'm a tad sick of the city of Boston winning so much lately.
This past weekend was very diverse. Definitely a little bit of everything. I didn't do a ton, but I kind of did. Nothing to get into now.
Cooperstown is coming along a tad slowly, but definitely nicely. I'm currently at the very tail end of a function, but keep getting a query error. Don't worry, it will be OK.
Here is a nice picture my Mom took of my Dad and I as we celebrated fathers day, the two people responsible for all of my enjoyable childhood flashbacks.
Huge game for our softball team tomorrow, everyone make sure to wear purple and gold to work to show your support.
Good night.
That flashback can be attributed to the TV show "Left Earth" I currently have on. The flashback I wont talk about involves the cool rain forest and underwater posters I used to have in my room as a young child. That flashback can be attributed to the aforementioned flashback, specifically due to me asking myself why I never hung any of those NASA posters up. I could get stuck in an endless loop of enjoyable childhood flashbacks, which would be nice, but kind of counter productive, so let's not let that happen.
Now I have the Celtics/Laker game on. I definitely want the Celtics to win, not for myself, but for my friends. Personally, I'm a tad sick of the city of Boston winning so much lately.
This past weekend was very diverse. Definitely a little bit of everything. I didn't do a ton, but I kind of did. Nothing to get into now.
Cooperstown is coming along a tad slowly, but definitely nicely. I'm currently at the very tail end of a function, but keep getting a query error. Don't worry, it will be OK.
Here is a nice picture my Mom took of my Dad and I as we celebrated fathers day, the two people responsible for all of my enjoyable childhood flashbacks.
Huge game for our softball team tomorrow, everyone make sure to wear purple and gold to work to show your support.
Good night.
the short list
June 9, 2008 - 11:22
my short winners and losers list goes as follows:
losers:
-Apples WWDC announcement. They are not to blame, my expectations were just to high, in reality, 8 gig iPhones for under $200 are gonna sell like hot cakes, but I was hoping for a red iPhone with video chat (and an iTablet)
-you
winners:
-UEFA Euro 2008, absolutely sick just sick
-me
good night
losers:
-Apples WWDC announcement. They are not to blame, my expectations were just to high, in reality, 8 gig iPhones for under $200 are gonna sell like hot cakes, but I was hoping for a red iPhone with video chat (and an iTablet)
-you
winners:
-UEFA Euro 2008, absolutely sick just sick
-me
good night
86 and sunny
June 7, 2008 - 4:18
- haircut - orienteering
It is super warm and humid out, definitely time to get the AC's out. Today has thus far been a pretty exciting today. For starters, this morning I had my first scheduled hair cut appointment in over a decade. I'm not exactly sure why I deviated from my previous habit of going to walk in places like Supercuts... really don't care a ton about haircuts...as long as I can wet, towel dry, and not have to do anything else, I'm a pretty happy camper. I think I was just looking for consistency, I was sick of always having to describe what I wanted to a new person, which would almost always end up as me just telling the person to do whatever they think will look OK, because it will likely look the same in a few weeks anyhow. I went to a hair salon recommended to me by a good friend who I know, knows a lot, about looking good. It was a good experience, there were a lot of pretty girls there that asked questions like whether or not I wanted anything to drink, and stuff like that. I was the only guy there, but it was kind of early in the morning; I stayed in last night just so I wouldn't miss my appointment.
After the haircut a friend and I participated in some orienteering at a local park. It was definitely the most challenging course her or I had ever done but it was fun.
I think I might take a nap, pick up my laundry, then go out.
That sounds like a plan I can work with.
Have a good day.
After the haircut a friend and I participated in some orienteering at a local park. It was definitely the most challenging course her or I had ever done but it was fun.
I think I might take a nap, pick up my laundry, then go out.
That sounds like a plan I can work with.
Have a good day.
stuck in a loop
June 5, 2008 - 10:50
- LOST
As I sit on my couch working on Cooperstown, I just noticed something pretty crazy in the LOST episode I'm re-watching...
It's season 4, episode 11 "Cabin Fever", about minute 7... Locke wakes up to the sound of chopping wood, this is where he meets Horace, the guy from the Dharma Initiative that has been dead for over a decade...anyhow, when I originally watched this episode, I saw like I'm sure everyone else did, the nose bleeds Horace is sometimes shown with, sometimes shown without. What I didn't notice is that when you first see Horace, without a nose bleed, he finishes chopping a tree and pushes it over...then a few seconds later, you see Horace with a nose bleed, pushing over the same tree...then he says "Hello There" to Locke...for the second time, then a few seconds later, the tree is there again (for the third time).
It's almost as if Horace is in some loop. I don't know, I just thought that was sort of exciting...almost as exciting as the new iPhone that will be out in 4 days, or as exciting as our dominant softball victory last evening. Good night.
It's season 4, episode 11 "Cabin Fever", about minute 7... Locke wakes up to the sound of chopping wood, this is where he meets Horace, the guy from the Dharma Initiative that has been dead for over a decade...anyhow, when I originally watched this episode, I saw like I'm sure everyone else did, the nose bleeds Horace is sometimes shown with, sometimes shown without. What I didn't notice is that when you first see Horace, without a nose bleed, he finishes chopping a tree and pushes it over...then a few seconds later, you see Horace with a nose bleed, pushing over the same tree...then he says "Hello There" to Locke...for the second time, then a few seconds later, the tree is there again (for the third time).
It's almost as if Horace is in some loop. I don't know, I just thought that was sort of exciting...almost as exciting as the new iPhone that will be out in 4 days, or as exciting as our dominant softball victory last evening. Good night.
boring documentation
June 2, 2008 - 11:1
- site
I think the internet is going slower. Not in general, just lately and locally around me. Stuff has been taking forever to load or just not loading at all. I might just be jumping to conclusions, last night it was working fine, but today in a few different spot, it was acting weird.
I just wanted to document that.
Also, date and/or time doesn't usually display correctly for this site. I'm just not super motivated to fix it right now, but on a good note, I do believe it is stored properly.
I just wanted to document that.
Also, date and/or time doesn't usually display correctly for this site. I'm just not super motivated to fix it right now, but on a good note, I do believe it is stored properly.
take a shower
May 28, 2008 - 12:37
- Memorial Weekend - Garbage Plates - GTA4 - Dreamweave CS4 - Heids
It's a little later than I would like it to be...I wish it was around 5:30pm...that is usually a great time of the day. Just to keep things straight, I will refer to today as the day I am still in and tomorrow as the day that will begin after I wake up in around 6 or 7 hours.
It's been a great couple of days off. Our annual Memorial Weekend get together was awesome, as usual. I really hope this tradition which begun the year after college graduation continues for the rest of my life. Some people are already starting to have kids, which is pretty crazy. RAC Deuce had to miss the festivities, as his wife had twins on Tuesday. The couple that organizes the weekend have a beautifull daughter who was with her grandparents for the 2 nights, but did make a cameo Saturday evening. A few other participants from years past have kids, I mean Richy has one and another on the way, it's really just getting out of control. Here I am, somewhere in life, and there they are somewhere else in life. I'm just glad we all have weekends like this past one where we can either fast forward or rewind to the same spot and hit play, even if only for a few days.
All of this makes me think a little bit... I've met a few of my college friends babies before, all of them under the age of one, and when I see them I just get so blown away that this kid is the child of a friend who I have done and scene so many things with. It kind of makes me think about my parents friends from either high school or college, specifically my Dads friends. Growing up, they always acted like family to the point where I would call most of them "uncle" and they always took such good care of me no matter where we were or whatever we were doing. I bet at some point, when they were all having kids, they felt some of the shock and awe that I feel when I see my friends little babies. It's like, you would obviously do anything for one of your good friends, so that feeling transfers over to their children, you would do anything for them. It's just a whole lot to think about and appreciate. Having babies seems fun and cool, I think I want one...LATTA!
Today was my first day back at work, I feel like I had the entire summer off, amazing what 5 consecutive days of not formally working will do to you. I really did get a lot done during the days off. I had 2 garbage plates with Skizzard, one on our way to and one on our way from E'Ville. I absolutely housed the second one, but I only got through like half of the first one...ugggg. Not to get rude, mean, or negative, but when we got the first plate, I saw 6 of the dirties people I have ever seen in my entire life. The people were just straight up dirty. Not dirty like they were just working in a pile of mud and therefore just didn't get a chance to shower yet, but dirty like they haven't showered since '88. One of the ladies had these weird scabs all over her arm, I noticed them when she was standing next to us at the counter. I was like "OK Skiz, I'll go find us a seat, get the food and find me". Then, one of the dudes was coughing like he had SARS or Bird Flu or something, I just sat there and tried to hold my breath. It was so difficult to eat my meal when I though I was getting infected with Bird Flu. Man, all of this sounds super bad, but I wasn't mean or anything to these people, I was just thinking all of this in my head, I would have totally held the door open or something for them if I had the chance to. And it's not like they are poor, I mean they are dining at "Steve T's" eating garbage plates, they must be rolling with some kind of bank if they are eating like kings. It's weird that the name of the restaurant is "Steve T's", it used to be called "Nick Tahoes" but I guess the family split up the business or something. Kind of like Heids . I think I heard once that their family had an argument or something, and then they started doing things different, or something like that. Maybe it was just a rumor, if anyone has any more info, please share it with me.
I got to check out a cool state park the other day with some Doemels (man, the Doemels always find their way into my blog posts...here and at Uni Mart are always a good place to find Digger Jr). We went to Thatcher Park. It was great, I brought my camera but not the new telephoto lens, which sucks, because there is an awesome shot to be had of this city. We walked all over the place and eventually over some shady bridges to a place where some waterfalls fell. I stood underneath one because I was super dirty and hot. I wish I had brought those dirty people from the restaurant, they would have had a blast.
I was playing GTA 4 today and was in a comedy club with Brucie. The dude doing the stand up was Katt Williams. It was so funny, here I am, sitting on my couch, laughing my face off at a video game. I'm super glad I didn't fast forward through that cut scene skit. That game is just so awesome, it's like sometimes I feel bad driving crazy or killing people because it's so realistic, it's just a fantastic game all around.
I downloaded Dreamweaver CS4 beta the other day on my office computer (Disco Development office that is). It's pretty cool and I guess I can use this version until 30 days after the date the final version is released. Ahhh, I'm finally reaping the benefits of all the money I gave Adobe for legit versions of their software. So far, the only "great" feature I have found is that the program auto fills/suggests which JavaScript function I am about to type, which is pretty helpfull for Cooperstown coding. I need to set up a testing server so the "live preview" works, that would be pretty cool as well...I think.
Big day tomorrow after work... we have a softball game and then the 2 hour finale of LOST...can't wait.
OK, time to lay down, it's like 1:30am now...ugggg...I wish tomorrow could start a little later than it actually will. I posted some pics the other day from Memorial Weekend, check those out if you are still looking for more.
From the inside, out, good night to you.
It's been a great couple of days off. Our annual Memorial Weekend get together was awesome, as usual. I really hope this tradition which begun the year after college graduation continues for the rest of my life. Some people are already starting to have kids, which is pretty crazy. RAC Deuce had to miss the festivities, as his wife had twins on Tuesday. The couple that organizes the weekend have a beautifull daughter who was with her grandparents for the 2 nights, but did make a cameo Saturday evening. A few other participants from years past have kids, I mean Richy has one and another on the way, it's really just getting out of control. Here I am, somewhere in life, and there they are somewhere else in life. I'm just glad we all have weekends like this past one where we can either fast forward or rewind to the same spot and hit play, even if only for a few days.
All of this makes me think a little bit... I've met a few of my college friends babies before, all of them under the age of one, and when I see them I just get so blown away that this kid is the child of a friend who I have done and scene so many things with. It kind of makes me think about my parents friends from either high school or college, specifically my Dads friends. Growing up, they always acted like family to the point where I would call most of them "uncle" and they always took such good care of me no matter where we were or whatever we were doing. I bet at some point, when they were all having kids, they felt some of the shock and awe that I feel when I see my friends little babies. It's like, you would obviously do anything for one of your good friends, so that feeling transfers over to their children, you would do anything for them. It's just a whole lot to think about and appreciate. Having babies seems fun and cool, I think I want one...LATTA!
Today was my first day back at work, I feel like I had the entire summer off, amazing what 5 consecutive days of not formally working will do to you. I really did get a lot done during the days off. I had 2 garbage plates with Skizzard, one on our way to and one on our way from E'Ville. I absolutely housed the second one, but I only got through like half of the first one...ugggg. Not to get rude, mean, or negative, but when we got the first plate, I saw 6 of the dirties people I have ever seen in my entire life. The people were just straight up dirty. Not dirty like they were just working in a pile of mud and therefore just didn't get a chance to shower yet, but dirty like they haven't showered since '88. One of the ladies had these weird scabs all over her arm, I noticed them when she was standing next to us at the counter. I was like "OK Skiz, I'll go find us a seat, get the food and find me". Then, one of the dudes was coughing like he had SARS or Bird Flu or something, I just sat there and tried to hold my breath. It was so difficult to eat my meal when I though I was getting infected with Bird Flu. Man, all of this sounds super bad, but I wasn't mean or anything to these people, I was just thinking all of this in my head, I would have totally held the door open or something for them if I had the chance to. And it's not like they are poor, I mean they are dining at "Steve T's" eating garbage plates, they must be rolling with some kind of bank if they are eating like kings. It's weird that the name of the restaurant is "Steve T's", it used to be called "Nick Tahoes" but I guess the family split up the business or something. Kind of like Heids . I think I heard once that their family had an argument or something, and then they started doing things different, or something like that. Maybe it was just a rumor, if anyone has any more info, please share it with me.
I got to check out a cool state park the other day with some Doemels (man, the Doemels always find their way into my blog posts...here and at Uni Mart are always a good place to find Digger Jr). We went to Thatcher Park. It was great, I brought my camera but not the new telephoto lens, which sucks, because there is an awesome shot to be had of this city. We walked all over the place and eventually over some shady bridges to a place where some waterfalls fell. I stood underneath one because I was super dirty and hot. I wish I had brought those dirty people from the restaurant, they would have had a blast.
I was playing GTA 4 today and was in a comedy club with Brucie. The dude doing the stand up was Katt Williams. It was so funny, here I am, sitting on my couch, laughing my face off at a video game. I'm super glad I didn't fast forward through that cut scene skit. That game is just so awesome, it's like sometimes I feel bad driving crazy or killing people because it's so realistic, it's just a fantastic game all around.
I downloaded Dreamweaver CS4 beta the other day on my office computer (Disco Development office that is). It's pretty cool and I guess I can use this version until 30 days after the date the final version is released. Ahhh, I'm finally reaping the benefits of all the money I gave Adobe for legit versions of their software. So far, the only "great" feature I have found is that the program auto fills/suggests which JavaScript function I am about to type, which is pretty helpfull for Cooperstown coding. I need to set up a testing server so the "live preview" works, that would be pretty cool as well...I think.
Big day tomorrow after work... we have a softball game and then the 2 hour finale of LOST...can't wait.
OK, time to lay down, it's like 1:30am now...ugggg...I wish tomorrow could start a little later than it actually will. I posted some pics the other day from Memorial Weekend, check those out if you are still looking for more.
From the inside, out, good night to you.
progress
May 21, 2008 - 11:18
- Cooperstown - Hibachi
Zim -"all of a sudden i feel like we made a ton of progress"
me -"ha, well we have been, and now we can see it"
soooo, stuff with Cooperstown is coming along nicely. Since we don't have the developer blog created just yet, I will discuss all the progress here...
or not... it's just not ready enough to talk about. You must be oh so disappointed.
but I can talk about the lunch I had today!
I had Hibachi steak...mmmmm.
That's it for now...after tomorrow I'll be on my way to Elicotville for my annual Memorial Weekend with the boys.
Good night.
me -"ha, well we have been, and now we can see it"
soooo, stuff with Cooperstown is coming along nicely. Since we don't have the developer blog created just yet, I will discuss all the progress here...
or not... it's just not ready enough to talk about. You must be oh so disappointed.
but I can talk about the lunch I had today!
I had Hibachi steak...mmmmm.
That's it for now...after tomorrow I'll be on my way to Elicotville for my annual Memorial Weekend with the boys.
Good night.
the week in review
May 18, 2008 - 8:31
- GHI Challenge - Dinosaur BBQ - Fibonacci
A quick glimpse of this past week:
-Just before the start of this years GHI Workforce Challenge
-If a party is measured by the number of Doemels present, then I attended a ripper last night :-)
-MMMMMMM....Dinosaur BBQ. I remember when it first opened, I think I was in 2nd grade. Our class went to a dinosaur exhibit across the street from the restaurant, I'm not sure, but I believe it got it's name from that exhibit.
-mmmmmmmme
Not much else for you right now. If you're still bored, here is some interesting reading on Fibonacci numbers:
Britannica
Wikipedia
Softball game tomorrow! The past two had to be canceled, so keep your fingers crossed that we finally get to play tomorrow.
From the inside, out, good night.
-Just before the start of this years GHI Workforce Challenge
-If a party is measured by the number of Doemels present, then I attended a ripper last night :-)
-MMMMMMM....Dinosaur BBQ. I remember when it first opened, I think I was in 2nd grade. Our class went to a dinosaur exhibit across the street from the restaurant, I'm not sure, but I believe it got it's name from that exhibit.
-mmmmmmmme
Not much else for you right now. If you're still bored, here is some interesting reading on Fibonacci numbers:
Britannica
Wikipedia
Softball game tomorrow! The past two had to be canceled, so keep your fingers crossed that we finally get to play tomorrow.
From the inside, out, good night.
if...
May 12, 2008 - 10:14
- Tulip Festival - pics - GTA4 - Tulip Festival - pics - GTA4
It's been a busy couple of days, but I wanted to post a few pics I and others took from this past weekends Tulip Festival. It was a fantastic weekend with friends, drinking, tulips, concerts, food, beer pong, flip cup and a whole lot of craziness. To put things in perspective, there were 3 Doemels present at one point, which is just one shy of the record set two summers ago during the "big summer party".
At the end of what I thought was Saturday evening, Scotty and I decided to go out and see what the bars had to offer, that move lead to two completely separate yet equally amazing adventures. It is all definitely too much to talk about.
On a separate note, USA is playing Argentina in a friendly on June 8th at Giants Stadium...there is a chance my friend might get permission from his wife to go with me...let's keep our fingers crossed!
GTA4 is amazing...I got it over a week ago, and it is likely a main contributing factor to my lack of free time. I'm about 20% into it at this point.
If this blog was a place I wrote about more personal issues/thoughts than I would write about them now, but instead, all I have to say is...
good night from the inside.
At the end of what I thought was Saturday evening, Scotty and I decided to go out and see what the bars had to offer, that move lead to two completely separate yet equally amazing adventures. It is all definitely too much to talk about.
On a separate note, USA is playing Argentina in a friendly on June 8th at Giants Stadium...there is a chance my friend might get permission from his wife to go with me...let's keep our fingers crossed!
GTA4 is amazing...I got it over a week ago, and it is likely a main contributing factor to my lack of free time. I'm about 20% into it at this point.
If this blog was a place I wrote about more personal issues/thoughts than I would write about them now, but instead, all I have to say is...
good night from the inside.
semi funny
April 29, 2008 - 11:14
- fleur-de-lis - Cooperstown - Apple TV - LOST
In response to a comment post from a special friend regarding the "eyes" graphic currently used in my You Fun control panel page, I would like to alleviate any discomfort the graphic might cause by showing the original picture I fooled around with to get it:
see, nothing to be bothered by, it is just a fleur-de-lis!
Anyone clicking the above link on fleur-de-lis will notice that the definition is being provided by a site other than Wikipedia. I signed up and received a free subscription to the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica ($69.95 p/yr value), so I can link to articles which will be fully accessible to anyone that clicks them. I'm interested to see how the content from the two sites varies and I'm excited to have a source available which would be accepted by anyone grading a college paper.
Well here I am in the middle of a random blog post, what else should I talk about as I lay in bed? Let's stick to dorky subjects, just to make you feel more comfortable.
I've been watching some past LOST episodes since last Thursdays amazing episode. I find the old ones worthy to re-re-watch with all of the new things we have learned, specifically all the new things we learned about Ben, who kind of went from dud to stud in my book. Now he's Mr "in control of the black smoke" "Jason Bourne like" dude... not bad for the guy Sawyer was calling Gizmo just a few episodes back. I noticed this evening as I was working on the computer while watching an episode that I've traded in working in my office on my iMac, with a iTunes window open in the corner; to working on my couch on the Air watching iTunes off of the Apple TV. I must say the latter is definitely more comfortable, leading to equal if not improved productivity and creativity. With the moral of the story being...offices should be replaced with living rooms.
A semi funny trend worth mentioning is the fact that almost every time my friend who I am working on Cooperstown with and I go out to dinner to layout plans for the site, without fail we have a more difficult time deciding how best to split and pay for the bill than we do with any other topic of conversation. From laying out the tables for the DB to discussing JavaScript errors, the biggest hurdle we have to overcome is dividing the check and tip. Now that is semi funny.
OK, well the clock just struck midnight so I'm gonna try to fall asleep. Good night.
see, nothing to be bothered by, it is just a fleur-de-lis!
Anyone clicking the above link on fleur-de-lis will notice that the definition is being provided by a site other than Wikipedia. I signed up and received a free subscription to the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica ($69.95 p/yr value), so I can link to articles which will be fully accessible to anyone that clicks them. I'm interested to see how the content from the two sites varies and I'm excited to have a source available which would be accepted by anyone grading a college paper.
Well here I am in the middle of a random blog post, what else should I talk about as I lay in bed? Let's stick to dorky subjects, just to make you feel more comfortable.
I've been watching some past LOST episodes since last Thursdays amazing episode. I find the old ones worthy to re-re-watch with all of the new things we have learned, specifically all the new things we learned about Ben, who kind of went from dud to stud in my book. Now he's Mr "in control of the black smoke" "Jason Bourne like" dude... not bad for the guy Sawyer was calling Gizmo just a few episodes back. I noticed this evening as I was working on the computer while watching an episode that I've traded in working in my office on my iMac, with a iTunes window open in the corner; to working on my couch on the Air watching iTunes off of the Apple TV. I must say the latter is definitely more comfortable, leading to equal if not improved productivity and creativity. With the moral of the story being...offices should be replaced with living rooms.
A semi funny trend worth mentioning is the fact that almost every time my friend who I am working on Cooperstown with and I go out to dinner to layout plans for the site, without fail we have a more difficult time deciding how best to split and pay for the bill than we do with any other topic of conversation. From laying out the tables for the DB to discussing JavaScript errors, the biggest hurdle we have to overcome is dividing the check and tip. Now that is semi funny.
OK, well the clock just struck midnight so I'm gonna try to fall asleep. Good night.
thus
April 27, 2008 - 12:9
- lawn - Cooperstown - Cruise
I wish today was Friday, thus meaning the weekend was about to start again. I've busy doing all sorts of things. I went totally overboard with re-seeding my back yard, I ended up putting down 47 lbs of grass seed, which is absolutely ridiculous for a back yard as small as mine. I would rather go overboard in that manor opposed to the literal one, like an individual did just this past week on the same ship we were on just a few days prior.
The project my friend and I are undertaking will from this point forward be known by the code name of Cooperstown. We are currently developing the user control panels. Everything is moving forward at a nice pace, there are a few speed bumps here and there, but thus far the different aspects of the site have been coming together very nicely. We are using AJAX extensively throughout all of the pages, it is allowing us to offer a user interface that will, in my opinion, be on par if not better than the vast majority of the webs most popular websites. I doubt many people will ever be using the site and think to themselves what a great user experience they are getting, but I am pretty confident that they will never think that things are sloppy, difficult, or confusing. Until this weekend, the two of us where each sticking to working on specific types of page elements, that once completed, would talk and work with each other. I would say that our current areas of concentration are slightly broader than before, and ultimately, we will each end up working fairly extensively on the entire spectrum of page/site elements that need to be created. What won't change though will be our planning sessions where we decide what type of elements we will build and how they should be built. Rest assured, a developer blog will be created, thus alleviating my need to discuss Copperstown here.
It's late and I guess I am tired, but I wish I didn't have to goto bed. Ugg. Here is a picture from the second formal night of our cruise. Dinner time was definitely one of my favorite times of the trip.
Alright, good night.
The project my friend and I are undertaking will from this point forward be known by the code name of Cooperstown. We are currently developing the user control panels. Everything is moving forward at a nice pace, there are a few speed bumps here and there, but thus far the different aspects of the site have been coming together very nicely. We are using AJAX extensively throughout all of the pages, it is allowing us to offer a user interface that will, in my opinion, be on par if not better than the vast majority of the webs most popular websites. I doubt many people will ever be using the site and think to themselves what a great user experience they are getting, but I am pretty confident that they will never think that things are sloppy, difficult, or confusing. Until this weekend, the two of us where each sticking to working on specific types of page elements, that once completed, would talk and work with each other. I would say that our current areas of concentration are slightly broader than before, and ultimately, we will each end up working fairly extensively on the entire spectrum of page/site elements that need to be created. What won't change though will be our planning sessions where we decide what type of elements we will build and how they should be built. Rest assured, a developer blog will be created, thus alleviating my need to discuss Copperstown here.
It's late and I guess I am tired, but I wish I didn't have to goto bed. Ugg. Here is a picture from the second formal night of our cruise. Dinner time was definitely one of my favorite times of the trip.
Alright, good night.
Body Mousse
April 21, 2008 - 11:48
- Puma - Push Mower - Halo 3 - Body moisturizer
The trip home from my very enjoyable time away was long. Our plane left Miami a few minutes past it's scheduled departure time of 7pm. This small delay resulted in my parents and I just barley making our connection in Charlotte, the doors to the plane were already locked, they weren't planning on waiting for us! super uggg to them. At least we made it, which is more than I can say about 3/4 of our luggage. The only piece that made it was the bag I got for my souvenirs. I would definitely take my new Pumas over my toothbrush any day.
I didn't end up getting to sleep until like 5:30 this morning and for whatever reason, I woke up around 10 and couldn't fall back asleep. super uggg to me. This surprisingly warm weather prompted me to do more than just play the 3 new Halo maps I downloaded when I woke up. I got some good headway done on some spring cleaning around the house, with my primary efforts being focussed on exterior clean up. I purchased a push mower today with some of my Craps winnings. I was a little apprehensive with my decision to opt out of buying either an electric or gas mower but am pleased to report that it is working out great. Even more exciting than the push mower purchase is the body moisturizer I picked up. I went out on a limb and decided to buy a form of lotion I have never seen before. It is called "Olay Quench Body Mousse" and it is a form of skin hydration beyond my wildest dreams. I would highly recommend that anyone looking for a solution to dry skin pick it up. Although the results are yet to be seen, if they are even half as impressive as the application process, then I will be swimming in smooth skin for years to come.
In celebration of my half raked yard, my friend came over and we grilled and then worked on our special project; phase 1 is approaching completion, which means I will soon be able to discuss it in more detail.
I look forward to posting pictures from the trip, but might wait until I get some copies of pictures from others that were with us. I ended up taking approximately 1,132, so even if I don't wait, it will certainly take some time for me to cut that number down to a number suitable for a web gallery.
OK, super tired right now.
Have a good night.
I didn't end up getting to sleep until like 5:30 this morning and for whatever reason, I woke up around 10 and couldn't fall back asleep. super uggg to me. This surprisingly warm weather prompted me to do more than just play the 3 new Halo maps I downloaded when I woke up. I got some good headway done on some spring cleaning around the house, with my primary efforts being focussed on exterior clean up. I purchased a push mower today with some of my Craps winnings. I was a little apprehensive with my decision to opt out of buying either an electric or gas mower but am pleased to report that it is working out great. Even more exciting than the push mower purchase is the body moisturizer I picked up. I went out on a limb and decided to buy a form of lotion I have never seen before. It is called "Olay Quench Body Mousse" and it is a form of skin hydration beyond my wildest dreams. I would highly recommend that anyone looking for a solution to dry skin pick it up. Although the results are yet to be seen, if they are even half as impressive as the application process, then I will be swimming in smooth skin for years to come.
In celebration of my half raked yard, my friend came over and we grilled and then worked on our special project; phase 1 is approaching completion, which means I will soon be able to discuss it in more detail.
I look forward to posting pictures from the trip, but might wait until I get some copies of pictures from others that were with us. I ended up taking approximately 1,132, so even if I don't wait, it will certainly take some time for me to cut that number down to a number suitable for a web gallery.
OK, super tired right now.
Have a good night.
Greatings from the Atlantic
April 18, 2008 - 14:50
- Day at sea - Yoda
I write you this blog post from my balcony overlooking the Atlantic on our second to last "day at sea". Kelly decided to spend the day at the Spa so I decided to spend the day working on my joint web project, it has thus far been a very relaxing and productive day.
Yesterday we were in port at St. Marten (still not sure how to spell it, maybe Maarten is the right way?), it is an incredibly nice island. Like all of our destinations, shopping was a big part of our time on land. I decided to try my negotiating skills at some electronic stores and ended up getting some cool accessories for my camera. The item I am most excited about was my purchase of a new telephoto lens for my camera. I ended up picking up the Canon EFS 55-250mm lens for approximately $100 less than the cheapest price I could find on Amazon. There was one store that was run by a dude, Nick Maley, who goes by the name of "that Yoda guy". He is one of the primary artists who created the Yoda puppet/charecter for the Star Wars movies. His shop was filled with a bunch of cool movie memorabilia as well as some impressive original artwork by him. I highly considered paying the $7 to get my picture taken with him, but figured I would not cross the line of paying someone for them to take a picture with me, thinking to myself that I should be the one charging for such experiences :-) Regardless, I enjoyed meeting him and seeing his work, he is as interesting as he is talented.
Look at this amazing blue water, how cool:
OK, that's all I got for you right now.
From the face pealing inside, out, enjoy your day.
Yesterday we were in port at St. Marten (still not sure how to spell it, maybe Maarten is the right way?), it is an incredibly nice island. Like all of our destinations, shopping was a big part of our time on land. I decided to try my negotiating skills at some electronic stores and ended up getting some cool accessories for my camera. The item I am most excited about was my purchase of a new telephoto lens for my camera. I ended up picking up the Canon EFS 55-250mm lens for approximately $100 less than the cheapest price I could find on Amazon. There was one store that was run by a dude, Nick Maley, who goes by the name of "that Yoda guy". He is one of the primary artists who created the Yoda puppet/charecter for the Star Wars movies. His shop was filled with a bunch of cool movie memorabilia as well as some impressive original artwork by him. I highly considered paying the $7 to get my picture taken with him, but figured I would not cross the line of paying someone for them to take a picture with me, thinking to myself that I should be the one charging for such experiences :-) Regardless, I enjoyed meeting him and seeing his work, he is as interesting as he is talented.
Look at this amazing blue water, how cool:
OK, that's all I got for you right now.
From the face pealing inside, out, enjoy your day.
Good morning...
April 16, 2008 - 7:41
- St. Thomas
...from St. Thomas.
Have a good day.
ps - what happened to Melo? Uggg.
Have a good day.
ps - what happened to Melo? Uggg.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
April 15, 2008 - 11:34
- sun burn - Puerto Rico - Craps
What do you want first, the bad news or the good news? OK, I'll start with the bad... I am sun burn and my eyes are all messed up. I really don't know what happened, yesterday during our first "day at sea" I fell asleep outside (after 2 double Bloody Mary's and a Pina Colada) for about three hours and I woke up redddd. My forehead hurts, my under arms hurt, and my nose hurts. Even worse, my eyes are super messed up. They have been watering non stop for about 8 hours and it is really causing some adverse affects. Besides the fact that I look like I'm bawling my face off, my nose is running...I'm pretty much just a mess. It stings when I close my eyes, so I'm wondering if I got some lotion on my eyelids or something weird like that. Visine isn't even coming close to touching this stinging sensation.
That's the bad news, the good news is that I'm having an amazing time. My burn is slowly fading, and although there will likely be some pealing, the pain isn't too bad and I am already starting to see some nice golden brown skin tones. My eyes really do hurt a ton, but hopefully after some sleep they will find some relief. The internet isn't free, but I bought 200 minutes for a decent price and will be able to extend them pretty far. Since I wanted to stay out of the sun a while today, I was able to get a good amount done on one of the pages I am working on for for my join project. The casino has been treating me nice, especially the Craps table. For whatever reason I have historically only played Craps on cruises, besides some Bonus Electronic Poker, I've stucken solely to the dice. We landed in Puerto Rico today around 4 and will probably be embarking any minute now. I'm not sure where we will be when I wake up, but I believe it is an island that starts with "Saint". Besides a million other stores, there was a Puma outlet! I picked up the four coolest pairs of shoes ever. I've taken a bunch of pictures these past 2.5 days, I busted out my tripod tonight and really got some amazing shots. I've taken 381 pics so far, I will end this post with a few I just taken. The Mexican Buffet starts any minute now so I'm gonna get going.
From the red zone, out, good night.
Delayed but not forgoten
April 12, 2008 - 14:31
- Miami - .mac - red zone
well it's a tad after 2:30am and I just got settled in our room in Miami...nice room, 2 big flat screens, uggg...wish I had Halo 3. At least I have the internet... albeit for a small fee. I was informed that the ship has free wireless...ummm, that would be amazing, I'll believe it when I see it, because free wi-fi in the Caribbean seems a little too good to be true. The friend I am working on the "big project" with and I got together Thursday for some new NBC sitcom episodes and to layout what we would like to work on during my down time from fighting pirates and exploring. In case he is reading this: Zim, make sure you don't put any work into the pages I specified I am going to be working on, I will likely do blind uploads replacing the current files.
I did some big time dorky prep for this trip....I purchased a .mac membership...primarily just to finally my quest to seamlessly sync my contacts between my iPhone, iMac and the Air...but a super cool feature I didn't think I would use a ton is the ability to remote connect to my home machine... as I type this I am watching shows I DVR'd on that computer (worthy to note, no sound). The 10 gig iDrive is nice too I guess. I'm not sure what else .mac provides, but even the aforementioned features will justify the yearly subscription fee...but I would still be happy to make the argument that functionality like this shouldn't cost extra.
Well, hopefully next time I'm writing a blog post I'll be sipping Mojitos in the sun, thinking of you.
From the red zone, out, good night.
I did some big time dorky prep for this trip....I purchased a .mac membership...primarily just to finally my quest to seamlessly sync my contacts between my iPhone, iMac and the Air...but a super cool feature I didn't think I would use a ton is the ability to remote connect to my home machine... as I type this I am watching shows I DVR'd on that computer (worthy to note, no sound). The 10 gig iDrive is nice too I guess. I'm not sure what else .mac provides, but even the aforementioned features will justify the yearly subscription fee...but I would still be happy to make the argument that functionality like this shouldn't cost extra.
Well, hopefully next time I'm writing a blog post I'll be sipping Mojitos in the sun, thinking of you.
From the red zone, out, good night.
too tired to think
April 6, 2008 - 9:39
- antiquing - John Adams - Rickroll
I just wrote the following in an IM "there are like 3 differnt specific generes of commenting I love"[sic]. What does that even mean? Well it's referring to the way some people leave comments on Digg, some styles are just so funny I can't help but laugh out loud every time I read them. Here is a good example (click the picture to enlarge it). I recently learned what it means to "Rickroll" someone, or something, that is also super funny. Neither are as funny as Antiquing, but both are cleaner and safer. I remember is college there was a semester where antiquing got really bad. There were spans of nights when I had to sleep somewhere else because I knew I was going to be targeted. The night I did sleep in my room, I slept with my buddies paint ball gun in hope of deterring would be attackers. I finally got hit really hard one night. I remembering being so tired that night, I just had to sleep in my own bed. The heat was super high that week and I knew there would be an attempt made on me if I was in my house. The lock on my door was broken so I moved a bunch of furniture in front of my door and cleverly climbed over it to get through. I didn't necessarily need to stop them, I just wanted enough time to get up and stand on my roommates bed so I could spray them with paint balls from the opposite corner of the room when they walked in. My roommate wasn't there because he had a soccer game the next day and he would sleep at his GF's those nights, our house was never the best for a good nights sleep. So I get all barricaded in and fall asleep. Next thing you know I'm getting pelted with eggs and doused with water than flower. Uggg, that sucked. I totally had it coming though, I played a part in so many antiquing missions, it was inevitable that I was going to get it myself. The eggs are not part of a text book antiquing, but I believe they were due to the revenge factor involved. I believe it was a four man team, after gathering my senses I ran through the house and down the stairs firing blindly in the darkness, I don't believe I even came close to hitting any of them. The worst part was that I was still super tired but now I was without a dry/clean bed....uggg to that feeling.
I'm so tired right now. Last night was absolutely crazy. I can't even keep my eyes open. The project a friend and I have been working on is coming together nicely, it will be nice when it is done so I can talk about it more. In the meantime, you should try to watch the HBO mini series "John Adams", it is really fantastic
Good night.
I'm so tired right now. Last night was absolutely crazy. I can't even keep my eyes open. The project a friend and I have been working on is coming together nicely, it will be nice when it is done so I can talk about it more. In the meantime, you should try to watch the HBO mini series "John Adams", it is really fantastic
Good night.
Fantastically Fascinating Facts
March 27, 2008 - 12:52
- LOST - soccer - video
With the absence of a new LOST episode this evening, I finally got to goto one one of my indoor soccer games. This is the first session we've ever had games on Thursdays, and this is the first season I've ever committed to hosting a LOST party for every episode. This season of LOST has been great. Opposed to being overwhelmed by the many new doors of questions that have been opened this season, I have chosen to make peace with my eagerness and curiosity to figure out what everything means, and just take every amazing second in; without asking how, what, and why.
The funniest thing happened right at the end of our game tonight... we were up by 1 and there was less than a minute left... I was sucking wind big time and found myself being the only one between one of our opponents better players and our goalie... needless to say he absolutely broke me with a nice little move... being able to partially recover, I started to change my inertia and proceed in the direction I should have gone in the first place... being about 1 or 2 steps too far away to break up the shot, I was utterly useless...until... my jackass teammate, raised in the same city as I, pushed me down in front of the shot. It was amazing. Anyones best guess would be that I made an awkward kamikaze like dive, but he and I knew better. It worked, we regained control of the ball, and won the game. I look forward to hopefully returning the favor at some point during our quickly approaching softball season.
Besides that, not much to report. I've been doing a lot of preparing lately. Preparation for a wide variety of things. Things like trips, projects, and life. I'm currently in the yellow zone of preparation. I'm doing stuff like tanning, thinking, and producing. Tanning my body so I don't burn; thinking about things I'm doing, will do, and shouldn't do; producing results. Results like ideas and content. Theres really a whale of an idea we are working on right now. This might not be the money maker you read about on this thing called the internet, but it could be, and I find that just fascinating!
If fascinating is tonights designated word for cool things then I will use it to tag this following video. It was shot in the school and by the students my Dad is vice principal of.
Did you know that children of identical twins are considered half siblings because they share half the same genes?
Good night.
The funniest thing happened right at the end of our game tonight... we were up by 1 and there was less than a minute left... I was sucking wind big time and found myself being the only one between one of our opponents better players and our goalie... needless to say he absolutely broke me with a nice little move... being able to partially recover, I started to change my inertia and proceed in the direction I should have gone in the first place... being about 1 or 2 steps too far away to break up the shot, I was utterly useless...until... my jackass teammate, raised in the same city as I, pushed me down in front of the shot. It was amazing. Anyones best guess would be that I made an awkward kamikaze like dive, but he and I knew better. It worked, we regained control of the ball, and won the game. I look forward to hopefully returning the favor at some point during our quickly approaching softball season.
Besides that, not much to report. I've been doing a lot of preparing lately. Preparation for a wide variety of things. Things like trips, projects, and life. I'm currently in the yellow zone of preparation. I'm doing stuff like tanning, thinking, and producing. Tanning my body so I don't burn; thinking about things I'm doing, will do, and shouldn't do; producing results. Results like ideas and content. Theres really a whale of an idea we are working on right now. This might not be the money maker you read about on this thing called the internet, but it could be, and I find that just fascinating!
If fascinating is tonights designated word for cool things then I will use it to tag this following video. It was shot in the school and by the students my Dad is vice principal of.
Did you know that children of identical twins are considered half siblings because they share half the same genes?
Good night.
team doubles
March 19, 2008 - 10:10
- Sega Superstar Tennis - Mr Biggins
For anyone that is interested, Sonic Allstar Tennis for XBox 360 is awesome. I'm not sure if it will rival Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64 but it is the closest thing I have played since. I picked it up today and just got worked online, I'm excited to get better at it.
I'm in like week 3 or 4 of physical therapy for my back, I'd say it's going well... they have "Mr. Biggins" balls everywhere! I was able to snap a shot of one tonight, I wanted to take one with me but they said I need to buy my own.
Good night.
I'm in like week 3 or 4 of physical therapy for my back, I'd say it's going well... they have "Mr. Biggins" balls everywhere! I was able to snap a shot of one tonight, I wanted to take one with me but they said I need to buy my own.
Good night.
Sonic
March 16, 2008 - 7:13
- photo album - Ashley Dupre - Sonic
I'll blame the slightly sub two week delay in new bog entries on some recent time I've been spending on the new photo album page. I went ahead and made the current version, pic21, the default viewer for all photo albums. This version is not the final version I will end up with, but it is close. I am unfortunately aware of some instability issues which pretty much crash the whole page (try a refresh if it happens). Those issues occur at a rate where I feel the user interface enhancements will hopefully outweigh seldom stability issues (ha, I wonder if Microsoft said that about Windows). I think there is some error detection/handling that I can improve upon to eliminate some of the current issues I am aware of. The ideal solution for that page is for it to be completely re-written from the ground up. I ended up learning so many new JavaScript techniques during the development of this page, if I had to do it all over again, I would take a different approach. Specifically, I believe I would look to use global variables a lot more than I currently do. As is, I get a ton of information about the current state or status of the page by grabbing various information from different page elements (ie: grabbing the ALT value of an image in order to figure out what the page should do somewhere else); I have an uneducated hunch that many of the initial IE issues I previously experienced as well as some of the current instability issues that occur are due to one part of the page looking for information that either isn't set or is outdated due to delays caused by page loading. Oh well is all I can say about that right now though, it took some crazy (and sometimes dirty) coding to get the screwed up model I started with to perform as well asit currently does on at least IE6+, Firefox, Opera and I'm still testing on Safari.
Tonight I took down the streaming feed / store link to the Ashley Dupre song "What We Want". I put it up last week and thought it was a nice way to give a shout out to the entertaining story that has been filling the news the past few days. I have to admit, I've done some uncharecteristic internet gossip searching on this one. I just think it is so interesting how this girl is going to make sooooo much money over all this. I think it's great. I think she should stay super DL for as long as possible, then come out of nowhere with a book. She doesn't even have to write it, all she has to do is sit there and talk to some author about anything, and then they will make a book, and it will sell so many copies. Then she can sell the rights to the story, sell some CD's, and sell some poses. She is really going to make a ton of money.
I'm starving, I wish there was a Sonic I could goto to eat. I don't understand why they advertise for a place that doesn't even exist anywhere in this state. Uggg. Good bye.
Tonight I took down the streaming feed / store link to the Ashley Dupre song "What We Want". I put it up last week and thought it was a nice way to give a shout out to the entertaining story that has been filling the news the past few days. I have to admit, I've done some uncharecteristic internet gossip searching on this one. I just think it is so interesting how this girl is going to make sooooo much money over all this. I think it's great. I think she should stay super DL for as long as possible, then come out of nowhere with a book. She doesn't even have to write it, all she has to do is sit there and talk to some author about anything, and then they will make a book, and it will sell so many copies. Then she can sell the rights to the story, sell some CD's, and sell some poses. She is really going to make a ton of money.
I'm starving, I wish there was a Sonic I could goto to eat. I don't understand why they advertise for a place that doesn't even exist anywhere in this state. Uggg. Good bye.
Net Neutrality
March 4, 2008 - 14:17
- Net Neutrality
The net neutrality debate is an interesting one. It is possible that the whole business of selling internet connections will remain in check by capitalism, but why is it that I have so few connection options currently available? The idea of a service provider filtering content is absolutely disgusting. I think this video adds a worthwhile perspective to the debate:
Academy
March 3, 2008 - 12:57
- CBA
The high school I went to has a few different chapters... I think they could be called chapters. One of them which is located locally had their basketball sectional final tonight at the downtown arena. I remember those kind of games from back in my HS days... going to a smaller school means for better or worse, everyone knows everyone. Getting to watch good friends play in big games is always awesome. I ended up busting out my HS scrapbook to check out some pictures I have from games like that, seeing those few pictures makes me remember a ton of pretty crazy memories. If having that connection with one of the teams wasn't enough for me to bust out some purple and gold attire, there happens to be another equally bonding connection I have with that team. My very good college buddy is the assistant coach of the team and his dad is the head coach. I got to goto a team dinner hosted at one of the players houses this past weekend. The parents are like big time caterers or something, because the food was honestly on par with what you would expect at a wedding. It was a great diving board for a Saturday night. There was video game playing and ping pong playing and at one point they busted out rock band for all the parents to watch. It's too bad they lost their game tonight, but their opponent was definitely solid and they played well.
Less disappointing but worthy to mention was my personal loss this morning of the eBay auction I foolishly thought I was going to win. I got out played so hard it's embarrassing. I should have never increased my bid until the last 1-3 minutes. I was surprised the other bidder kept increasing their bid as they did. I figured after the lead flipped back and forth for a few hours that my final offer of 96 bucks was enough. It was at 83 when I went to bed and 97 when I woke up. Whatever is all I have to say, because if I knew this other bidder was going to be stalking the auction like the season finale of LOST, then I would have been all over it. I'm glad they got stuck paying as much as he did for it.
I'm so tired, good night.
Less disappointing but worthy to mention was my personal loss this morning of the eBay auction I foolishly thought I was going to win. I got out played so hard it's embarrassing. I should have never increased my bid until the last 1-3 minutes. I was surprised the other bidder kept increasing their bid as they did. I figured after the lead flipped back and forth for a few hours that my final offer of 96 bucks was enough. It was at 83 when I went to bed and 97 when I woke up. Whatever is all I have to say, because if I knew this other bidder was going to be stalking the auction like the season finale of LOST, then I would have been all over it. I'm glad they got stuck paying as much as he did for it.
I'm so tired, good night.
no title
March 2, 2008 - 12:28
I spent some time today working on the new Photo Album page, the whole idea of it really just makes me want to puke. It's just a terrible mess that I couldn't even start to get into right now. I'm currently winning a semi competitive eBay auction for a signed poster showing an aerial view of "The Gates" in Central Park. I'd really like to get into this super weird fascination I've had with that project after watching a HBO documentary on it like a week ago, but I couldn't give that ramble it's due brain power at this exact moment. If in 8 hours I find myself victorious in this auction, I will have the poster professionally framed right before inducting it as the inaugural piece of artwork in my humble, yet exciting, office. I'm sure that would prompt me to talk about it a lot more at a later time. I can't believe I made such a push to work on that page today... the weekend has been exciting and today should have just been a day of playing the new LOST video game. I have a new approach to making the page work in IE, I'm going to see what preloading a bunch of images does to solve the big problem. It just sucks having to use two computers to build this page. Puke. I think I just heard my tenant walk up stairs, he's nasty at Halo 3 so I kind of want to text him right now to see if he wan't to play. "Let me know if ur looking for any halo" is what I just wrote. This is almost as exciting as the auction. Waiting. Waiting. Ugggg, no response yet, but I think I hear a laugh. Maybe it's just my imagination because there should be no laughter in this house considering the way the new Photo Album page doesn't work in Internet Explorer. Oh my god, I think I just heard the Halo intro music! I have to get going, good night.
Splash 8.42 is now live.
February 24, 2008 - 12:38
- Splash - Photo Album Page - Blog Page - LOST
I dislike my tendency to not document more things that cross my mind and my life, in my blog. Substitute blog with any other method one would use to document/discuss whatever they choose, I think it is beneficial to have a place to do these things. It's interesting to think about the differences between an online blog and a personal diary. Both could serve the same purpose, but hopefully don't. I do not keep a diary. Every time I think the word diary I think of a girly book. Substitute diary with journal. I do not keep a journal, but I used to. Holy crazy, I would never document any of the stuff in those books in an online blog. Maybe I still do keep a journal and it's just been a long time since my last entry. Yes, no reason to close that book just yet, I revise my previous statement.
There is a bunch I would like to talk about, but I just don't know where to begin. Instead, I will do something I haven't done in like 7 months, I'm going to list some pending and outstanding web site features and issues.
-The current version of the splash page is technically 8.41, but I am now deeming it 8.42 to account for minor undocumented changes.
-Photo album page:
This page is to be replaced by my 3rd generation album page, which is currently on it's 10th revision (pic10.php). The page currently linked to via "Picture Album Beta" is pic8.php . The 2nd generation page was only linked to via a blog post, it was never more than a proof of concept page. The most relevant outstanding issues with pic10 include:
-IE not unhidding hidden divs after thumbnails are loaded and resized. This is a difficult issue that I believe will be resolved using proper image loading.
-the inability to honor $_GET[] variables, therefore being unable to jump to specific albums. This functionality will likely not be very difficult to implement.
-the page sometimes not displaying properly on it's initial load. This problem will likely be fixed when I work on handling $_GET variables. For now, a user refresh should do the trick.
-various minor styling and external linking issues. Not a major issue, nothing I am dreading to fix.
-The bottom line is that this page is a disaster, from a coding point of view. I implemented a ton of new techniques I had just learned, and it is painfully obvious. I learned new and better way of doing things on the fly, and implemented them as such. My plan is to implement/fix the above bullets without having to re-code the entire page. I am pleased with how the page works from a user point of view and will be happy if I can wrap it up and not worry about it ever again.
-Blog page:
This page was never intended to be used as long as it has been. It was coded in a weekend and and lacks a ton of features. I am saddened by the fact that it is was people get if the link to me via RSS feeds. The most relevant outstanding features and issues with this page include:
-The inability to view and post comments.
-The fact that all posts are displayed when the page is entered directly.
-The "tag cloud" could use some help.
-I like the look of the page. The images that are used to give it the feel of an actual book are pictures I painstakingly took of a blank page in one of my previously mentioned journal books; getting shots that would seamlessly repeat along the Y axis took some time.
-None of the above issues are difficult to implement. I have been reluctant to do any work on this page because I will likely re-build/code it from the ground up. I'm not sure how high of a priority this is at this time.
-Backend pages:
User control page and user log page:
-I am currently working on a project with a friend that will likely yield much improved backend pages (administrative pages not for users). Our project specifically deals with user logs but will likely prompt me to redo the majority of my backend pages.
-I am happy enough with my current Blog post entry page to not feel the need to work on it at all, at this time. I am currently running version 0.010 of this page.
Running parallel to the website in regards to projects I am dedicated to working on is Discomentary Volume One. I would say that this video project is my number one priority. With that said, I can't just bang it out with a ton of man hours, it's stuff that needs to be thought and re-thought about. I am close to reaching one milestone with Discomentary, once that is reached, I will begin a ton of footage editing and cutting.
I'm kind of tired right now so I'm not going to write much more.
This pic is from the other day. I'm holding the best rubber bouncy ball ever made. I got it at the NBA store in NYC. I went online to see if I could buy more but I couldn't find it listed in the online catalog. I instead bought a box of 50 bouncy balls from a store other than NBA.com . It was a mediocre alternative pick, but it was the best I could find. Yes, those balls join the new LOST Xbox 360 game and a new Bluetooth headset as items I purchased that night drunk.
From the inside, out, good night.
There is a bunch I would like to talk about, but I just don't know where to begin. Instead, I will do something I haven't done in like 7 months, I'm going to list some pending and outstanding web site features and issues.
-The current version of the splash page is technically 8.41, but I am now deeming it 8.42 to account for minor undocumented changes.
-Photo album page:
This page is to be replaced by my 3rd generation album page, which is currently on it's 10th revision (pic10.php). The page currently linked to via "Picture Album Beta" is pic8.php . The 2nd generation page was only linked to via a blog post, it was never more than a proof of concept page. The most relevant outstanding issues with pic10 include:
-IE not unhidding hidden divs after thumbnails are loaded and resized. This is a difficult issue that I believe will be resolved using proper image loading.
-the inability to honor $_GET[] variables, therefore being unable to jump to specific albums. This functionality will likely not be very difficult to implement.
-the page sometimes not displaying properly on it's initial load. This problem will likely be fixed when I work on handling $_GET variables. For now, a user refresh should do the trick.
-various minor styling and external linking issues. Not a major issue, nothing I am dreading to fix.
-The bottom line is that this page is a disaster, from a coding point of view. I implemented a ton of new techniques I had just learned, and it is painfully obvious. I learned new and better way of doing things on the fly, and implemented them as such. My plan is to implement/fix the above bullets without having to re-code the entire page. I am pleased with how the page works from a user point of view and will be happy if I can wrap it up and not worry about it ever again.
-Blog page:
This page was never intended to be used as long as it has been. It was coded in a weekend and and lacks a ton of features. I am saddened by the fact that it is was people get if the link to me via RSS feeds. The most relevant outstanding features and issues with this page include:
-The inability to view and post comments.
-The fact that all posts are displayed when the page is entered directly.
-The "tag cloud" could use some help.
-I like the look of the page. The images that are used to give it the feel of an actual book are pictures I painstakingly took of a blank page in one of my previously mentioned journal books; getting shots that would seamlessly repeat along the Y axis took some time.
-None of the above issues are difficult to implement. I have been reluctant to do any work on this page because I will likely re-build/code it from the ground up. I'm not sure how high of a priority this is at this time.
-Backend pages:
User control page and user log page:
-I am currently working on a project with a friend that will likely yield much improved backend pages (administrative pages not for users). Our project specifically deals with user logs but will likely prompt me to redo the majority of my backend pages.
-I am happy enough with my current Blog post entry page to not feel the need to work on it at all, at this time. I am currently running version 0.010 of this page.
Running parallel to the website in regards to projects I am dedicated to working on is Discomentary Volume One. I would say that this video project is my number one priority. With that said, I can't just bang it out with a ton of man hours, it's stuff that needs to be thought and re-thought about. I am close to reaching one milestone with Discomentary, once that is reached, I will begin a ton of footage editing and cutting.
I'm kind of tired right now so I'm not going to write much more.
This pic is from the other day. I'm holding the best rubber bouncy ball ever made. I got it at the NBA store in NYC. I went online to see if I could buy more but I couldn't find it listed in the online catalog. I instead bought a box of 50 bouncy balls from a store other than NBA.com . It was a mediocre alternative pick, but it was the best I could find. Yes, those balls join the new LOST Xbox 360 game and a new Bluetooth headset as items I purchased that night drunk.
From the inside, out, good night.
the cube
February 16, 2008 - 14:25
- Apple 5th Ave Store
how could I resist the opportunity to write a quick blog post from Apple's 5th ave "cube" store.
taken with Photo Booth on the Air from in the store:
taken outside on the iPhone:
I might as well be walking around with a huge flashing tourist sign on my head...but that's fine, I never get to do this stuff when I come down for work.
Good day to you.
taken with Photo Booth on the Air from in the store:
taken outside on the iPhone:
I might as well be walking around with a huge flashing tourist sign on my head...but that's fine, I never get to do this stuff when I come down for work.
Good day to you.
tent slippers
February 15, 2008 - 14:5
- AppleTV
Just in time for me to play with before a weekend away, I received some items today that I ordered throughout the week.
I ordered the AppleTV after reading a review of some of the new featured in the "Take Two" software update. Since buying my first Mac around 4 years ago, I've unintentionally migrated the vast majority of digital content I own/use into Apple programs, specifically iPhoto and iTunes. My iPhoto library is creeping towards 7k and my iTunes library is filled with more video and music than I wish to categorize. The ability to access this content in the room most suited for viewing and listening to multimedia was enough to justify the price of the 40gb model. I hooked up the video using a HDMI to DVI cable and the audio using a digital optical cable. This set up replaces AirTunes using an Airport Express (but I'm keeping the Airport in it's current spot as I use it to connect the Xbox360).
I rented "Blades of Glory" in HD, it looked great and started in just a minute or two. The user interface for browsing content is nice, however using a remote to "cick" through albums opposed to using the iPhone and MacBook Air's touch input to "flick" through albums, now seems counter intuitive (we're getting spoiled). Watching video podcasts and browsing/viewing YouTube videos are two things I didn't think too much about before hand, but I know realize I have a far more interesting option of "background noise" than just putting on the news. I hope that they add the ability to watch visualizations while playing music and for some reason the remote that control the AppleTV also controls the MB Air (annoying). All in all, I'm happy I picked this up.
I'm super tired and I have to wake up early.
Here is a pic my new tent slippers and the AppleTV:
Good night.
I ordered the AppleTV after reading a review of some of the new featured in the "Take Two" software update. Since buying my first Mac around 4 years ago, I've unintentionally migrated the vast majority of digital content I own/use into Apple programs, specifically iPhoto and iTunes. My iPhoto library is creeping towards 7k and my iTunes library is filled with more video and music than I wish to categorize. The ability to access this content in the room most suited for viewing and listening to multimedia was enough to justify the price of the 40gb model. I hooked up the video using a HDMI to DVI cable and the audio using a digital optical cable. This set up replaces AirTunes using an Airport Express (but I'm keeping the Airport in it's current spot as I use it to connect the Xbox360).
I rented "Blades of Glory" in HD, it looked great and started in just a minute or two. The user interface for browsing content is nice, however using a remote to "cick" through albums opposed to using the iPhone and MacBook Air's touch input to "flick" through albums, now seems counter intuitive (we're getting spoiled). Watching video podcasts and browsing/viewing YouTube videos are two things I didn't think too much about before hand, but I know realize I have a far more interesting option of "background noise" than just putting on the news. I hope that they add the ability to watch visualizations while playing music and for some reason the remote that control the AppleTV also controls the MB Air (annoying). All in all, I'm happy I picked this up.
I'm super tired and I have to wake up early.
Here is a pic my new tent slippers and the AppleTV:
Good night.
all is not LOST
February 14, 2008 - 12:21
- After Effects - Lost
I have been struggling with a huge issue the past few days. Much to my relief and surprise it was suddenly resolved just a little while ago! For an unknown reason, a video project I've spent many many hours on would not open in After Effects. I was getting an absolutely horrible error message. For the record, it was:
After Effects error: not enough memory to initialize AGM ( 83 :: 8 )
I searched existing threads in several forums for help but could find very little. I started a thread in the Adobe Forums and was lucky enough to have one user with seemingly very solid knowledge on CS3 offer some tips. At that point, I was just super happy to describe the problem to someone who could potentially help. Before trying the users suggestion I updated some software and tried to open the project one more time...and here we are, super happy and relieved. The project contains an absolutely critical part of Discomentary Volume 1, having to redo it would have sucked...yet, it would have been nice I guess to fix a few fundamental things I wish I had done differently.
Here is a screen shot from when my nice little project opened up:
how exciting!
Almost equally as exciting was tonights episode of LOST, it was one of my favorite ones out of all 4 seasons. I really liked it when Sawyer called Ben, Gizmo. Ha. How about Hurley tricking Sayid into thinking he was left behind by the new Others, Lock's stupid posse? I wouldn't mind it one bit if Hurley found himself with Charlie...I guess we def know that won't be happening. How about Sayid working for Ben? That one will keep you thinking for a long time.
There is more about more but not now, good night.
After Effects error: not enough memory to initialize AGM ( 83 :: 8 )
I searched existing threads in several forums for help but could find very little. I started a thread in the Adobe Forums and was lucky enough to have one user with seemingly very solid knowledge on CS3 offer some tips. At that point, I was just super happy to describe the problem to someone who could potentially help. Before trying the users suggestion I updated some software and tried to open the project one more time...and here we are, super happy and relieved. The project contains an absolutely critical part of Discomentary Volume 1, having to redo it would have sucked...yet, it would have been nice I guess to fix a few fundamental things I wish I had done differently.
Here is a screen shot from when my nice little project opened up:
how exciting!
Almost equally as exciting was tonights episode of LOST, it was one of my favorite ones out of all 4 seasons. I really liked it when Sawyer called Ben, Gizmo. Ha. How about Hurley tricking Sayid into thinking he was left behind by the new Others, Lock's stupid posse? I wouldn't mind it one bit if Hurley found himself with Charlie...I guess we def know that won't be happening. How about Sayid working for Ben? That one will keep you thinking for a long time.
There is more about more but not now, good night.
my syncless life
February 12, 2008 - 13:9
- ramble
Everything I look at on a computer seems to be a little out of sync, and it bothers me. Why doesn't my Gmail address book seamlessly sync with my Mac address book? Why don't either seamlessly sync with most cell phones? Why don't my Safari bookmarks sync with my Firefox ones? Why can't I sync my Xbox 360 with iTunes? I don't want 3rd party apps or hacks, I want a checkbox under preferences.
It's competition which has evolved into greed, or possibly the other way around; regardless, it is super annoying.
There is hope. Microsoft might buy Yahoo, then everything will be in sync. What a nightmare that merger would be.
All the companies want to give us that one special feature or service. It may cost something or it may be free. It will start off as something we look at as a luxury, but one day when we least expect it, we will see that is has grown into a necessity. Like a cell phone number, an email address, or a screen name. Then we will be stuck, you might as well tattoo that companies name on your elbow.
The good news you ask? Well that's simple; anytime you can complain or even notice such nuisances then things can't be going that bad. I will continue to dredge through my syncless life, always keeping the dream of my checkbox under preferences alive in my heart.
It's competition which has evolved into greed, or possibly the other way around; regardless, it is super annoying.
There is hope. Microsoft might buy Yahoo, then everything will be in sync. What a nightmare that merger would be.
All the companies want to give us that one special feature or service. It may cost something or it may be free. It will start off as something we look at as a luxury, but one day when we least expect it, we will see that is has grown into a necessity. Like a cell phone number, an email address, or a screen name. Then we will be stuck, you might as well tattoo that companies name on your elbow.
The good news you ask? Well that's simple; anytime you can complain or even notice such nuisances then things can't be going that bad. I will continue to dredge through my syncless life, always keeping the dream of my checkbox under preferences alive in my heart.
suspicious activity
February 5, 2008 - 14:1
- link
this page has a good round up of the underwater internet cable issues:
Wikipedia article
Wikipedia article
Super Tuesday
February 5, 2008 - 12:0
- Mac Book Air
This is my first blog post from the Mac Book Air I picked up earlier today. My initial impression is that it is super cool. It's really just awesome to have a laptop to surf the internet while I watch TV or wait for Halo 3 games to load. Navigating through folders with the new trackpad is cooler than I thought it would be. Alright, good night.
New York
February 3, 2008 - 12:6
- LOST - After Effects - Internet Traffic
-The Super Bowl was great, I'm really happy the Giants won, who would have thought? Take that Boston.
-I was just checking out some LOST related sites, there is a whole chain of "official" sites such as flyoceanicair.com and find815.com. The latter has some interesting clips that I will look to watch more of at some point. The first clip got me thinking, are any of the LOST people stranded on the island married to someone not on the plane, or at least away from a significant other parter kind of person? I can't think of anyone who has talked about missing a husband/wife bf/gf. Can you???
-My computer has been rendering a 1 minute 26 second clip for 7 hours and 7 minutes with 1 hour and 53 minutes remaining. I used my first expressions today in After Effects, they are pretty cool/powerful. The clip rendering will be my first chance to see how it all turned out. Worthy to note, I was previously getting a horrible error message. After combing the forums for a while, I learned the problem was caused by Apples recently released Quicktime 7.4 upgrade. I had to use a program called Pacifist to revert back to QT 7.3 before I could start this rendering, it seems to be working fine now.
-Forums are so amazing, I think the answer to almost ever question in the world can be found in a forum. Last week , I had a super specific tax question that I posted on the TurboTax community support forum; within 2 hours I had a great answer by one of their "Tax Pro" staff members. Here is a question I would like answered: What is the deal with all of these under water internet cables breaking? Why isn't anyone freaking out about this? Maybe the Fire sales from "Live Free or Die Hard" are still too fresh in my head, but the number of internet issues within the past few days seems to be a little suspicious at the least.
-OK, good night.
-I was just checking out some LOST related sites, there is a whole chain of "official" sites such as flyoceanicair.com and find815.com. The latter has some interesting clips that I will look to watch more of at some point. The first clip got me thinking, are any of the LOST people stranded on the island married to someone not on the plane, or at least away from a significant other parter kind of person? I can't think of anyone who has talked about missing a husband/wife bf/gf. Can you???
-My computer has been rendering a 1 minute 26 second clip for 7 hours and 7 minutes with 1 hour and 53 minutes remaining. I used my first expressions today in After Effects, they are pretty cool/powerful. The clip rendering will be my first chance to see how it all turned out. Worthy to note, I was previously getting a horrible error message. After combing the forums for a while, I learned the problem was caused by Apples recently released Quicktime 7.4 upgrade. I had to use a program called Pacifist to revert back to QT 7.3 before I could start this rendering, it seems to be working fine now.
-Forums are so amazing, I think the answer to almost ever question in the world can be found in a forum. Last week , I had a super specific tax question that I posted on the TurboTax community support forum; within 2 hours I had a great answer by one of their "Tax Pro" staff members. Here is a question I would like answered: What is the deal with all of these under water internet cables breaking? Why isn't anyone freaking out about this? Maybe the Fire sales from "Live Free or Die Hard" are still too fresh in my head, but the number of internet issues within the past few days seems to be a little suspicious at the least.
-OK, good night.
test
February 2, 2008 - 14:6
RSS create feed test
6 more weeks...
February 2, 2008 - 12:28
- Top Spin 3 - Destiny USA
My XBox360 arrived in town this morning, according to the FedEx tracking site, but unfortunately they are closed on weekends :-( Rainy and cold last night would have been perfect for some Halo 3. Speaking of 3's, the best sports game ever made is coming out with a new version due this Spring. The first Top Spin tennis game was awesome, the second one was kind of weak, so I have super high expectations for this one. As of this past Christmas, my doubles partner from the original game has XBox Live, as does our nemesis doubles opponents. I really can't wait for this game to come out. I believe I can safely guarantee a victory against anyone who will ever read this blog post, and if video games aren't your thing, I am almost as confident saying the same thing about Canasta.
I watched "Live Free or Die Hard" last night. I liked it more than I thought I would. I'm not sure why I didn't have high expectations for it, as I really enjoyed the previous movies. The plot had a lot to do with technology, and surprisingly, I feel like the scenarios that were taking place could conceivably happen in real life. This was the first movie I've rented from iTunes...it worked out well, I put it on my iPhone and then hooked that up to my TV. The quality definitely wasn't HD, but it was definitely acceptable.
I really want to goto the mall right now and buy the Air, but I'm going to try to wait until next week when I get my returns, uggg.
The groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, says more cold winter...another ugg to that.
Here is a picture of the proposed mall/hotel in Syracuse:
I think it looks super cool, and regardless of what the opposition says, I believe "Destiny USA" is a good idea.
And if I haven't already given you enough, I will leave you with this very funny video a friend sent me via Digg:
Have a good day.
I watched "Live Free or Die Hard" last night. I liked it more than I thought I would. I'm not sure why I didn't have high expectations for it, as I really enjoyed the previous movies. The plot had a lot to do with technology, and surprisingly, I feel like the scenarios that were taking place could conceivably happen in real life. This was the first movie I've rented from iTunes...it worked out well, I put it on my iPhone and then hooked that up to my TV. The quality definitely wasn't HD, but it was definitely acceptable.
I really want to goto the mall right now and buy the Air, but I'm going to try to wait until next week when I get my returns, uggg.
The groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, says more cold winter...another ugg to that.
Here is a picture of the proposed mall/hotel in Syracuse:
I think it looks super cool, and regardless of what the opposition says, I believe "Destiny USA" is a good idea.
And if I haven't already given you enough, I will leave you with this very funny video a friend sent me via Digg:
Have a good day.
flash back
January 31, 2008 - 11:13
- LOST - homesick
I remember when I was 13 or 14 I went on a trip overseas for three weeks with like 30 kids my age. I remember having to hold back tears when we were saying bye to our families and boarding the plane in Syracuse. I remember those few moments when I was leaving being the only time of the whole trip of me feeling homesick (which is good, as a few years prior my Dad had to pick me up from a week long summer camp because I got homesick). I remember parts of those three weeks abroad so clearly, and I know that if I tried I could remember so much more...ahhh, but not here and not now. If there was ever an age of truly innocent mischief, then it was around that time; doing the things you weren't supposed to do wasn't like throwing a party and getting laid, it was like sneaking behind a barn and making out. Those three weeks were really amazing. I remember the first night I got home from that trip. I was laying down trying to fall asleep and I felt a homesick like feeling from being away from the 30 kids I had just spent the past three weeks with. It was a really weird feeling of just missing the idea of being in that big group doing everything together. Tonights episode of LOST made me remember all these things. The flash forwards are pretty insane, I think there is a decent chance all of the "flash backs" we saw in all the episodes except season 3's finale could be replaced with the "flash forwards". Really just crazy stuff. Almost as crazy as the executives at ABC being OK with themselves for putting so many commercials interruptions during the show... ha, I'll complain about any interruption during the best television show that I have ever seen. Good night.
The state of the union is strong.
January 28, 2008 - 10:34
- Tax Return - Family Guy - DRM - Lost - RSS
What a Federal evening it is. The State of the Union is on in the background (err, upper right hand corner) and I just finished my 2007 taxes. Hopefully that bling will be deposited by early next week so I can get my Mac Air, it's been wayyyy too long since I've had a viable laptop option in my life.
Let's see, what's going on? How about a State of the Seth Address? Let's limit it to the past few days opposed to the past year...let's also limit it too super cool topics such as web design, video games, and technology in general...ha, or not.
-I bought the Family Guy short movie, Blue Harvest the other day...I only got it because of the "Digital Copy", as I am still without an Xbox360, and therefore a DVD player. It's definitely more like a long episode then a movie, weighing in at a modest 48 minutes. You know what I just realized, I think the "Digital Copy" was downloaded from iTunes opposed to copied from the 2nd disc included in the box. That is kind of interesting. Hmmm, I might be wrong, because I don't know if that makes total sense, if it was downloaded, it must definitely have something to do with the DRM scheme used for this sort of thing. Either way, I really hope this idea catches on, asking consumers to buy multiple formats of the same content when it's so cheap to distribute a multi format version is practically a mortal sin, which as we all know sends people to hell.
-LOST THURSDAY, so excited. I can not wait to see what happens with that helicopter...remember Charlie saying that it "wasn't Penny" right before he finally died? Who is it then? What is going to happen? I don't even want to talk about this right now, I get way too excited.
-"It's not your 21st birthday unless you puke"...correct, ask my cousin who I took out for his 21st birthday this past Saturday.
-I created an RSS feed for my blog. It was pretty straight forward, as I created a PHP page to create an XML page of blog content. I still need to add the code to call this function to the "submit" for when I post a blog, but besides that, I think it works well. Please subscribe to my feed and tell me if there are any issues.
-Alright, theres more, a good amount more, but just not for you :-(
In closing, a happy birthday to the world greatest mom!
Good night.
Let's see, what's going on? How about a State of the Seth Address? Let's limit it to the past few days opposed to the past year...let's also limit it too super cool topics such as web design, video games, and technology in general...ha, or not.
-I bought the Family Guy short movie, Blue Harvest the other day...I only got it because of the "Digital Copy", as I am still without an Xbox360, and therefore a DVD player. It's definitely more like a long episode then a movie, weighing in at a modest 48 minutes. You know what I just realized, I think the "Digital Copy" was downloaded from iTunes opposed to copied from the 2nd disc included in the box. That is kind of interesting. Hmmm, I might be wrong, because I don't know if that makes total sense, if it was downloaded, it must definitely have something to do with the DRM scheme used for this sort of thing. Either way, I really hope this idea catches on, asking consumers to buy multiple formats of the same content when it's so cheap to distribute a multi format version is practically a mortal sin, which as we all know sends people to hell.
-LOST THURSDAY, so excited. I can not wait to see what happens with that helicopter...remember Charlie saying that it "wasn't Penny" right before he finally died? Who is it then? What is going to happen? I don't even want to talk about this right now, I get way too excited.
-"It's not your 21st birthday unless you puke"...correct, ask my cousin who I took out for his 21st birthday this past Saturday.
-I created an RSS feed for my blog. It was pretty straight forward, as I created a PHP page to create an XML page of blog content. I still need to add the code to call this function to the "submit" for when I post a blog, but besides that, I think it works well. Please subscribe to my feed and tell me if there are any issues.
-Alright, theres more, a good amount more, but just not for you :-(
In closing, a happy birthday to the world greatest mom!
Good night.
Ice Bowl
January 20, 2008 - 10:17
- lower back pain - Mac Book Air
The Giants game is pretty good, it's currently tied @ 20, I hope they win, and then I hope they beat the Patriots.
I found a good article about back spasms, you can read it HERE. My back is still pretty sore, this is the longest I think it's taken to get to 100%. No soccer tomorrow.
Here is a screen shot from Discomentary Volume One:
I want a program that does 3D better than After Effects, but I want a new laptop more. I think I'm going to get the new Air. It would be perfect for almost everything I would ever want to do on the road, or on the couch. Firefox, Dreamweaver, Photoshop...it will run those just fine.
I want to see the new series, "The Moment of Truth", I just saw a commercial for it, it where they hook contestants up to a polygraph machine and ask them questions they would probably prefer to dodge at all costs. I want to see LOST more.
OK, good night.
I found a good article about back spasms, you can read it HERE. My back is still pretty sore, this is the longest I think it's taken to get to 100%. No soccer tomorrow.
Here is a screen shot from Discomentary Volume One:
I want a program that does 3D better than After Effects, but I want a new laptop more. I think I'm going to get the new Air. It would be perfect for almost everything I would ever want to do on the road, or on the couch. Firefox, Dreamweaver, Photoshop...it will run those just fine.
I want to see the new series, "The Moment of Truth", I just saw a commercial for it, it where they hook contestants up to a polygraph machine and ask them questions they would probably prefer to dodge at all costs. I want to see LOST more.
OK, good night.
You are on your way to building your future.
January 18, 2008 - 9:7
- thank you
The title says it all. I just read those words as part of a confirmation message, how gratifying and positive. I also got 2000 airline miles as well. I wonder if anyone could guess what I did online to receive such acclamations.
tracks and field
January 17, 2008 - 10:50
- lower back pain
My back pain appears to have followed the course I previously anticipated. I do not not want to count my chickens before they have hatched, but I am now able to get up and walk around almost whenever I want to. I am unfortunately still confined to baby steps, so I look pretty silly. The harsh waves of pain have slowly dwindled in frequency, I have not had any since this morning. I think I am going to look into maybe taking yoga, I am pretty sure these occurrences come from my lack of flexibility. If it's not that, then it could be karma, and if that is the case then I'm definitely in trouble; if that pain what the result of bad karma then I am definitely standing on the wrong side of the tracks. Like how Liverpool is on the wrong side of the tracks. I'm about to Bengay it up and get to bed, good night.
hobble
January 16, 2008 - 9:43
Things with my back peaked last night and I'm happy to say that it has slowly been getting better since. At one point last night it got pretty ridiculous, it was just one wave of not cool pain after another. I was able to hobble around the house a little bit today, so that was good. I wish I didn't already rewatch all of the LOST episodes because this would have been the perfect time for it. When I typed hobble I thought of hobbit, which makes me think about the new movies from Peter Jackson being made, those are going to be good. Good night.
Stuck
January 15, 2008 - 10:5
I want a mac book air, a shot of muscle relaxer, a glass of water, a toilet, some food, and my phone charger.
mid point
January 14, 2008 - 10:53
- lower back pain
Once or twice a year I experience excruciating lower back pain. Another one or two times a year I experience what I believe to be the onset of this pain, but it ends up turning around and not getting horrible. I am currently at that mid point. It started about 20 minutes into our 8pm soccer game tonight and it's still rolling. It's like there is a ball of muscle in my lower back, and certain movements on my part cause the ball of muscle to wind up, getting tighter and tighter all over my body. Per past experiences the ball usually keeps winding up for two to three days, and will then unwind in like a day or so. I'll know right away tomorrow when I wake up, because if it's going to be bad, I will be stuck. I end up getting into one position, and any deviation from that position makes it feel like that ball goes into super wind mode and really just cause collapsing pain starting in the center of my lower back, shooting down both legs. The only way to make that pain stop is to usually calm down and breath slowly, which is super hard to do when all of this is going on. I sometimes find that the only solution is laughing, that sometimes will stop or slow down that "super wind mode" on the ball of muscles.
Well we will see how this one turns out. Even if it's bad, it's not really that bad, because there are a bunch of people who probably have to deal with the same kind of pain, like everyday, and not just a few out of the year.
But...just the same....I will take a hot tub, a tanning bed, and a hot chiropractor please. Add some good meds, a milk shake and a new Xbox 360 and I will be all set. Thank you.
Well we will see how this one turns out. Even if it's bad, it's not really that bad, because there are a bunch of people who probably have to deal with the same kind of pain, like everyday, and not just a few out of the year.
But...just the same....I will take a hot tub, a tanning bed, and a hot chiropractor please. Add some good meds, a milk shake and a new Xbox 360 and I will be all set. Thank you.
one eleven
January 11, 2008 - 13:0
- eleven - Xbox 360 - Top Spin - Halo 3
I would have to say that the first eleven days of the new year have been interesting. Interesting, ironic, and surprising. Further elaboration just doesn't seem appropriate at this time or place.
Some unrelated pictures instead:
Bona Stu vs Clarker13. The Top Spin doubles team who once held a world ranking in the lower hundreds battles via Xbox Live.
My Xbox as of last night and this morning :-( A new one is on the way.
A screen shot from Discomentary Volume One, nothing incredibly special.
And I'm spent, good night.
Some unrelated pictures instead:
Bona Stu vs Clarker13. The Top Spin doubles team who once held a world ranking in the lower hundreds battles via Xbox Live.
My Xbox as of last night and this morning :-( A new one is on the way.
A screen shot from Discomentary Volume One, nothing incredibly special.
And I'm spent, good night.
I am an American Gladiator.
January 6, 2008 - 12:11
- iTablet - LOST - Cloverfield
I'm currently watching a recording of American Gladiators. The remake of the old school show premiered tonight. I love this show. I remember when I was younger, my friends and I would turn a room in my house into the arena used for "Assault". We had those Nerf blasters which were pretty cool. I guess that room has been replaced with the arena Halo 3 offers. Some of my "off line" buddies have recently become "online buddies", it's so much more fun to be on a team of all people you know well, opposed to stray cats you meet online.
I've been following some Cloverfield hype via some viral videos. Let's see, big time special effects with tons of things blowing up? Check. This will be a movie I will not hate.
LOST January 31st. Can't wait, can't even begin to talk about it.
Macworld January 15th. Can wait, but super excited. I have been thinking about an iTablet since the summer, I wonder if it will come true. What else... iTune movie rental deal with at least Fox, and probably Disney? Check. New pro desktops? Very likely. New iPhone software 1.3? Check, if not sooner than 1/15. I wonder what else?
Last week, it was so cold out, that even with my heat JACKED UP, I couldn't get the temperature above 60 degrees! Uggg. This weekend, especially today, has been much warmer.
I picked up a new TV for my bedroom. I never really considered the high height of the dresser I was going to put it on in conjunction with the limited distance between me and, "it". Turns out, my viewing angle from laying in bed was below the viewing angle that would work. So I had to switch my night stand with that dresser, creating the perfect viewing angle, but eliminating the ability for me to reach the prefect night stand without getting out of bed. Not cool.
Another sequence for Discomentary Volume One is almost completed. Just special effects, not much content in this one.
OK, good night.
I've been following some Cloverfield hype via some viral videos. Let's see, big time special effects with tons of things blowing up? Check. This will be a movie I will not hate.
LOST January 31st. Can't wait, can't even begin to talk about it.
Macworld January 15th. Can wait, but super excited. I have been thinking about an iTablet since the summer, I wonder if it will come true. What else... iTune movie rental deal with at least Fox, and probably Disney? Check. New pro desktops? Very likely. New iPhone software 1.3? Check, if not sooner than 1/15. I wonder what else?
Last week, it was so cold out, that even with my heat JACKED UP, I couldn't get the temperature above 60 degrees! Uggg. This weekend, especially today, has been much warmer.
I picked up a new TV for my bedroom. I never really considered the high height of the dresser I was going to put it on in conjunction with the limited distance between me and, "it". Turns out, my viewing angle from laying in bed was below the viewing angle that would work. So I had to switch my night stand with that dresser, creating the perfect viewing angle, but eliminating the ability for me to reach the prefect night stand without getting out of bed. Not cool.
Another sequence for Discomentary Volume One is almost completed. Just special effects, not much content in this one.
OK, good night.
fixed?
January 2, 2008 - 13:56
it was a Y2.008K problem in an old function I wrote a while ago...sloppy on my part.
test
January 2, 2008 - 13:51
I think my blog entry date function is messed up :-(
The second day of the year.
January 2, 2008 - 13:10
Today is organization day.
Thus far:
-I've created a new Google spreadsheet for 2008 Finances. I'm going with three categories of Personal, House, Company expenses; broken down into 12 months, which is broken down into 3 sub categories of amount, pay date/source, and comment.
-I got a new home owners insurance policy and I saved over 53%! That is pretty insane.
Hopefully this is just the beginning and not the end of organization day.
Happy New Year!
Thus far:
-I've created a new Google spreadsheet for 2008 Finances. I'm going with three categories of Personal, House, Company expenses; broken down into 12 months, which is broken down into 3 sub categories of amount, pay date/source, and comment.
-I got a new home owners insurance policy and I saved over 53%! That is pretty insane.
Hopefully this is just the beginning and not the end of organization day.
Happy New Year!
Feliz Navidad
December 27, 2007 - 10:17
- EyeTV 250 - American Choppers - Discomentary
Belated Merry Christmas. I hope everyone had a great holiday with great food. Our Christmas meal was excellent, just like every other meal at home.
I carefully placed a few select tech items on an Amazon wish list for any interested parties. The only interested party picked up 3 of the top items, leaving me with some very cool new thing. The only one I'll briefly mention right now is the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus . The device has a ton of features, with the most exciting to me being the instant ability to watch cable TV on my computer. Plug in the coax cable and your done. It has a program guide so I can easily find something to watch, and if nothing is on, I can just watch the news. It's also like a DVR on steroids, you can record, save, and burn anything you want. It also includes an import for another source, such as a DVD player or Xbox360. It has HD capabilities I haven't fooled around with yet as well. As you can tell, I am a big fan of this device.
Other things I am a big fan of include:
-American Chopper: I have had a marathon running in the background for the past few hours. This show represents my favorite reality TV series. I'm not really into any aspect of motorcycles, but I think it's super cool how they design and build some creative bikes. The people on the show also seem more down to earth than anyone else I ever see on reality shows, which is nice.
-my recent work on Discomentary Volume One. I have been digging pretty deep into a level of video effects I previously didn't really get into. It's pretty cool, but I still have a ton to learn about and do.
-days off
-and the fact that I can use my new photo album in IE (with only a few minor nuances).
Things I'm not a big fan of:
-waking up early and boring blog posts like my recent ones.
Thank you and good night!
I carefully placed a few select tech items on an Amazon wish list for any interested parties. The only interested party picked up 3 of the top items, leaving me with some very cool new thing. The only one I'll briefly mention right now is the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus . The device has a ton of features, with the most exciting to me being the instant ability to watch cable TV on my computer. Plug in the coax cable and your done. It has a program guide so I can easily find something to watch, and if nothing is on, I can just watch the news. It's also like a DVR on steroids, you can record, save, and burn anything you want. It also includes an import for another source, such as a DVD player or Xbox360. It has HD capabilities I haven't fooled around with yet as well. As you can tell, I am a big fan of this device.
Other things I am a big fan of include:
-American Chopper: I have had a marathon running in the background for the past few hours. This show represents my favorite reality TV series. I'm not really into any aspect of motorcycles, but I think it's super cool how they design and build some creative bikes. The people on the show also seem more down to earth than anyone else I ever see on reality shows, which is nice.
-my recent work on Discomentary Volume One. I have been digging pretty deep into a level of video effects I previously didn't really get into. It's pretty cool, but I still have a ton to learn about and do.
-days off
-and the fact that I can use my new photo album in IE (with only a few minor nuances).
Things I'm not a big fan of:
-waking up early and boring blog posts like my recent ones.
Thank you and good night!
nothing much
December 21, 2007 - 13:31
It's been a pretty busy week. I ended up traveling down to the City 3 times, which was fine, but I missed 2 soccer games :-( I'm very happy that Christmas is here. Having a good handful of days off in a row will be very nice. I don't have much of anything exciting to discuss. I bought Call of Duty 4, it is a good game, but not as cool as Halo 3...but, as I played through the game, it did keep me pretty interested into the storyline, like watching a good movie. I ended up creating 2 different versions of my Christmas card...in hindsight, I should have used the time I spent creating the second version, on gathering physical addresses for people I would have liked to send a card too. I quickly realized a little too late that I don't really have that many addresses of people...so, I pretty much just sent them out to people who I got cards (with return addresses) from.
A few quick pictures:
Time Square
Penn Station
first advertisement I've seen for Cloverfield
me
and, good night.
A few quick pictures:
Time Square
Penn Station
first advertisement I've seen for Cloverfield
me
and, good night.
Hulu hoop
December 17, 2007 - 8:18
- Hulu - Joost - iTunes
A few weeks ago I signed up for the private beta testing of Hulu, a new site that delivers streaming video content online. I received my invitation email today, so I was pretty excited to try the free service out.
I would have to say that my immediate reaction is quite positive. I only browsed around for a few minutes and then watched an episode of "The Office", but the site seems to offer some noteworthy functionality. For one, I was allowed to "pop out" the video window, so I could have it in a corner of the screen while I worked on whatever I was working on. This is a must have feature for any video service I will use on a regular basis. The quality seemed to be a tad above what I get from Joost, but the video (not audio) did freeze when a print dialog box opened from a Google Document I was working on. I didn't count the number of advertisements, but it was definitely far fewer than what you would get on network television; they did not bother me at all.
The selection of shows is certainly one of the sites stronger categories. It boost content such as NBC's "The Office", and "Heroes"; and FOX's "Family Guy" and "Simpsons". After quickly browsing through the 8 pages of content available I am almost shocked with the number of shows that I will likely be watching in the background sometime soon. This selection of shows suits my personal taste more than Joost's selection does. Worthy to note, I have put in a decent amount of time within the past month watching and browsing through Joost's catalog of content, there are some shows I definitely enjoy, but I was having a hard time finding a "channel" I could keep on for a few hours in a row without getting bored with it.
An interesting offering from Hulu is the ability to embed an entire episode onto a personal website. This is pretty cool. I just added an episode of "The Office" above my picbar on my homepage. It seems to function pretty much like the YouTube embedded player.
So, all in all, my first encounter with Hulu has been a good one, I hope I am not disappointed with more use of this service.
Finally, while on this topic, I would like to add the following commentary regarding Universal Studios decision to not re-sign with iTuens under Apples current pricing scheme:
In my opinion, the decision to not re-sign their contract with iTunes is greedy and unethical. I believe it is simply greedy to think that a single episode of television should cost more than $1.99. I think it is unethical to pull a distribution option for a series after already offering one or more seasons in it. I purchased many seasons from iTunes, including "Heroes" and "The Office" from NBC. I think it's ridiculous that I will not be able to complete these series in the format I have already started collecting them in. I could continue ranting about this for a while, but I'm not even going to get into it any further right now.
I have to wake up early again to go back down to the city. I could have chosen to spend the night down there and I probably should have. Oh well, at least I now have Hulu.
From the inside, out, good night.
I would have to say that my immediate reaction is quite positive. I only browsed around for a few minutes and then watched an episode of "The Office", but the site seems to offer some noteworthy functionality. For one, I was allowed to "pop out" the video window, so I could have it in a corner of the screen while I worked on whatever I was working on. This is a must have feature for any video service I will use on a regular basis. The quality seemed to be a tad above what I get from Joost, but the video (not audio) did freeze when a print dialog box opened from a Google Document I was working on. I didn't count the number of advertisements, but it was definitely far fewer than what you would get on network television; they did not bother me at all.
The selection of shows is certainly one of the sites stronger categories. It boost content such as NBC's "The Office", and "Heroes"; and FOX's "Family Guy" and "Simpsons". After quickly browsing through the 8 pages of content available I am almost shocked with the number of shows that I will likely be watching in the background sometime soon. This selection of shows suits my personal taste more than Joost's selection does. Worthy to note, I have put in a decent amount of time within the past month watching and browsing through Joost's catalog of content, there are some shows I definitely enjoy, but I was having a hard time finding a "channel" I could keep on for a few hours in a row without getting bored with it.
An interesting offering from Hulu is the ability to embed an entire episode onto a personal website. This is pretty cool. I just added an episode of "The Office" above my picbar on my homepage. It seems to function pretty much like the YouTube embedded player.
So, all in all, my first encounter with Hulu has been a good one, I hope I am not disappointed with more use of this service.
Finally, while on this topic, I would like to add the following commentary regarding Universal Studios decision to not re-sign with iTuens under Apples current pricing scheme:
In my opinion, the decision to not re-sign their contract with iTunes is greedy and unethical. I believe it is simply greedy to think that a single episode of television should cost more than $1.99. I think it is unethical to pull a distribution option for a series after already offering one or more seasons in it. I purchased many seasons from iTunes, including "Heroes" and "The Office" from NBC. I think it's ridiculous that I will not be able to complete these series in the format I have already started collecting them in. I could continue ranting about this for a while, but I'm not even going to get into it any further right now.
I have to wake up early again to go back down to the city. I could have chosen to spend the night down there and I probably should have. Oh well, at least I now have Hulu.
From the inside, out, good night.
about the new photo album page
December 16, 2007 - 9:34
- Photo Album
Waging the risk of entering into a chamber of complete frustration, I decided to put a decent amount of work into the new photo album page. As you may recall, I got the page very close to complete but then realized a major browser incompatibility issue with IE6. My absolute backup plan was to create two different versions of the page, but I would really like to avoid that horrible work around at all costs. The hours I put into this page yesterday went very unrewarded. I almost certainly broke some stuff and fixed little to nothing. As I laid in bed last night, I started thinking along the lines that I might be better off starting the page over, this time debugging in IE6 as well as Firefox, which is just a huge pain.
I knew that before making that drastic decision, I would be best off going over the issues with someone else. I luckily found my good computer science friend online this morning, I sent him my 2 files and started to express my despair via video chat. He looked over everything and we talked about some of the compatibility issues. After about an hour or two of tinkering around with the page, it was leaps and bounds better than before in regards to at least many of the album functions working in IE. This forward momentum was enough for me to gather the courage to attempt to fix the floating div issue, an issue which causes the page to be completely unusable in IE6. See, I had a floating div that "dropped" below the div it was supposed to float next to. I've experienced problems in IE like this in the past, but none of my prior solutions worked. After really nit picking through every single line of code, via inserting "alerts", so I could see exactly where my div floats broke, I was able to find the first line of code that caused the problem. About an hour after that, I was able to fix the problem, which is absolutely awesome. That problem scared me more than any other problem of this sort, I really had no clue how I was going to fix it.
At this moment, I am experiencing some issues with IE6 and Firefox. I can't completely track what causes the page to start malfunctioning, but I think that with a few hours of debugging, I should be able to get a grip on everything. No immediate rush on that, I am going to enjoy the fact that the page works as well as it does in IE6. There are still a decent amount of things that are "beta" but people would likely enjoy viewing albums in the new album, as is, over the old one.
Ewwww....that was just a ton from me about that page. I'm glad I got that out. I have to goto bed soon because I need to wake up earrrrly to go down to the city....Amtrak to NYP, then LI Express to Queens.... I enjoy going down there, but with the snowy weather we've had this weekend and expected into tomorrow, I am keeping my fingers crossed for limited delays with our travel.
Good night.
I knew that before making that drastic decision, I would be best off going over the issues with someone else. I luckily found my good computer science friend online this morning, I sent him my 2 files and started to express my despair via video chat. He looked over everything and we talked about some of the compatibility issues. After about an hour or two of tinkering around with the page, it was leaps and bounds better than before in regards to at least many of the album functions working in IE. This forward momentum was enough for me to gather the courage to attempt to fix the floating div issue, an issue which causes the page to be completely unusable in IE6. See, I had a floating div that "dropped" below the div it was supposed to float next to. I've experienced problems in IE like this in the past, but none of my prior solutions worked. After really nit picking through every single line of code, via inserting "alerts", so I could see exactly where my div floats broke, I was able to find the first line of code that caused the problem. About an hour after that, I was able to fix the problem, which is absolutely awesome. That problem scared me more than any other problem of this sort, I really had no clue how I was going to fix it.
At this moment, I am experiencing some issues with IE6 and Firefox. I can't completely track what causes the page to start malfunctioning, but I think that with a few hours of debugging, I should be able to get a grip on everything. No immediate rush on that, I am going to enjoy the fact that the page works as well as it does in IE6. There are still a decent amount of things that are "beta" but people would likely enjoy viewing albums in the new album, as is, over the old one.
Ewwww....that was just a ton from me about that page. I'm glad I got that out. I have to goto bed soon because I need to wake up earrrrly to go down to the city....Amtrak to NYP, then LI Express to Queens.... I enjoy going down there, but with the snowy weather we've had this weekend and expected into tomorrow, I am keeping my fingers crossed for limited delays with our travel.
Good night.
all over the place
December 9, 2007 - 10:19
- Control Panel - User Registration - Soccer - Halo 3 - haircut
There has definitely been a little lapse in my blog posting, I primarily attribute this to...hmmm, I don't have much of a reason. Here is a random breakdown of things that happened since my last blog post:
-I got a good amount of work done on the page I wasn't going to call "Control Panel", but likely will. It has been linked to for about a week now from my home page, it is fully functional for all options it currently offers.
-I begun and am close to finishing a new User Registration page. The code is all in place and working well, I now just need to finish the layout. I am happy with how the code turned out. I am doing input validation with JavaScript, then submitting the mySQL query via an AJAX request. The use of JavaScript has allowed me to offer an in intuitive user interface that hopefully makes registration nice and easy; specifically, I am pleased with how errors with various registration input data will be communicated to the user.
-I began and completed my first ever Christmas Card for mass mailing. I did some searching of the many different approaches to making the cards, the hardest part was choosing the paper. I like projects where where the hardest part is choosing the paper. Maybe you will be lucky enough to receive one in the mail. I now only need to collect addresses for people. Street addresses is one thing I do not have a lot of. If you would like to be considered :-) to receive a card, please email me your physical address.
-I purchased FIFA 08 for Xbox 360, it is pretty cool. It is the most realistic soccer game I have played to date.
-I have an indoor soccer game tomorrow @ 10:55pm....super uggg to games that late. I have scored in every game, except last Mondays, hopefully tomorrow things can get back on track.
-I reached level 30 in Halo 3, putting me at the rank of Major...as in "Major Cool"....right?
-I went to the casino yesterday to meet up with a buddy... I got worked. I was only playing blackjack, and I hit some of my bigger hands, but for whatever reason, I just got worked over by the Indians.
-I got a haircut today, I'm not sure if it's really good or really bad. I've been watching peoples faces after they look at me, but I haven't been able to figure out what they think about it. I'm gonna try doing this with people I know, as it is hard to gauge the reaction of a stranger.
-That's all I got. Good night.
-I got a good amount of work done on the page I wasn't going to call "Control Panel", but likely will. It has been linked to for about a week now from my home page, it is fully functional for all options it currently offers.
-I begun and am close to finishing a new User Registration page. The code is all in place and working well, I now just need to finish the layout. I am happy with how the code turned out. I am doing input validation with JavaScript, then submitting the mySQL query via an AJAX request. The use of JavaScript has allowed me to offer an in intuitive user interface that hopefully makes registration nice and easy; specifically, I am pleased with how errors with various registration input data will be communicated to the user.
-I began and completed my first ever Christmas Card for mass mailing. I did some searching of the many different approaches to making the cards, the hardest part was choosing the paper. I like projects where where the hardest part is choosing the paper. Maybe you will be lucky enough to receive one in the mail. I now only need to collect addresses for people. Street addresses is one thing I do not have a lot of. If you would like to be considered :-) to receive a card, please email me your physical address.
-I purchased FIFA 08 for Xbox 360, it is pretty cool. It is the most realistic soccer game I have played to date.
-I have an indoor soccer game tomorrow @ 10:55pm....super uggg to games that late. I have scored in every game, except last Mondays, hopefully tomorrow things can get back on track.
-I reached level 30 in Halo 3, putting me at the rank of Major...as in "Major Cool"....right?
-I went to the casino yesterday to meet up with a buddy... I got worked. I was only playing blackjack, and I hit some of my bigger hands, but for whatever reason, I just got worked over by the Indians.
-I got a haircut today, I'm not sure if it's really good or really bad. I've been watching peoples faces after they look at me, but I haven't been able to figure out what they think about it. I'm gonna try doing this with people I know, as it is hard to gauge the reaction of a stranger.
-That's all I got. Good night.
is tannish a word?
November 28, 2007 - 7:53
- Control Panel - Bathrooms
I've been kind of stuck the past few days. I've been trying to figure out the next step for my "Control Panel" page, specifically in regards to it's layout and look. I was just taking a random shower, not one where I was gonna get my head wet (I need a haircut, bad), but just one to relax. I want a shower that you can walk in. All Italian marble, a tan color. You walk in, and you will have some marble benches that extend from the floor and into the wall. So you walk in, and the room opens up by maybe 4 feet on each side, those benches will be there, they turn the corner, and extend maybe another 3 to 4 feet. The room will extend another 4 to 5 feet past the end of the benches. You will have a lot of different shower heads on the walls coming out at you and over you. The whole room will feel like a sauna, and there should likely be a jacuzzi type item, made out of the same marble, somewhere in a corner, with a good view of some of the in-wall LCD's.
mmmm...can't wait for that bathroom, some great ideas will be had in there.
Anyways, the solution to my problem was that I need to stop thinking about the page as a "Control Panel". That title limits it too much. I am now free to think about the layout/look/and content as freely as I wish, with no pre-conceived ideas clouding my judgment.
I'm going to play some Halo 3 now.
Good day to you too.
mmmm...can't wait for that bathroom, some great ideas will be had in there.
Anyways, the solution to my problem was that I need to stop thinking about the page as a "Control Panel". That title limits it too much. I am now free to think about the layout/look/and content as freely as I wish, with no pre-conceived ideas clouding my judgment.
I'm going to play some Halo 3 now.
Good day to you too.
a little bit of this and that
November 25, 2007 - 11:24
- Control Panel - Thanksgiving Pictures
I spent some time working on the new control panel for users. I've actually spent so much time working on it, I don't feel like talking about it much. I am very happy to report that it works great. There are currently 5 fields to view/change, each field has it's own PHP page to handle the AJAX interaction with the DB. I am doing form validation on the input field level using Javascript, which is stored in the function called to initiate the AJAX request. I catch any errors prior to the DB request. I don't like the buzz word Web 2.0, but this new page encompasses everything it implies.
I have linked to the new page under the "User Information" box, which appears once you log in. The page is still in it's early beta phase, but this is a good way to get a sneak peak.
Once this page is done, I will finish the new Photo Album Page...speaking of photos, I have been trying to wait until the new album page was completely finished before uploading any photos...so I have a few albums I have been holding, but I uploaded the Thanksgiving pictures just a few minutes ago.
The pictures came out great. To my knowledge, only two of my younger cousins took the pictures, but who knows who's hands the camera could have been passed around to. They did a much better job than I could have done documenting some random moments of our holiday, round of applause to them.
My brain and body are tired, good night.
I have linked to the new page under the "User Information" box, which appears once you log in. The page is still in it's early beta phase, but this is a good way to get a sneak peak.
Once this page is done, I will finish the new Photo Album Page...speaking of photos, I have been trying to wait until the new album page was completely finished before uploading any photos...so I have a few albums I have been holding, but I uploaded the Thanksgiving pictures just a few minutes ago.
The pictures came out great. To my knowledge, only two of my younger cousins took the pictures, but who knows who's hands the camera could have been passed around to. They did a much better job than I could have done documenting some random moments of our holiday, round of applause to them.
My brain and body are tired, good night.
Happy Turkey Day!
November 22, 2007 - 7:38
- Thanksgiving - Skaneatles Lake
Although I arrived in town less than 24 hours ago, I've had more quality time with those that mean most to me than I've had in a while.
Last night, after hanging out with my parent for a while (and fixing their wireless network) I headed over to one of my buddies house to hang out with some high school buddies. It was just great, we got to talk about some really crazy memories from back in the day... we also got a chance to rock out some Guitar Hero 3, as one of my friends had 2 guitars. I was luckily able to hold my own, albeit just barley. The decision to sit out one of the biggest "going out" nights of the year was a great one, I would choose drinking beers in a living room with those guys any day over being in any bar with anyone else.
Today my family from my dads side came over for all the holiday fun. They roll about 30-40 deep, so it was just awesome. Back in the day, from about birth to high school graduation, my dads entire family would move out to our camp on Skaneatles Lake for the summer. Waking up, boating, swimming, camp fires every day...you could never ask for better childhood memories. It was awesome getting to see all these people... from seeing them all the time to hardly ever, I appreciate days like today more than anything.
I gave my cousins my DSLR camera and told them to take as many pictures of the family as they wanted. From the few I saw, they turned out great, I can't wait to post them when I get back to "the office".
Who knows what tonight and the next few nights hold, even if I was to see no one else, this trip home would be deemed perfect. Luckily, I expect there to be some more quality moments in store before I head back east down 90.
From the true inside, out, gobble gobble :-)
Last night, after hanging out with my parent for a while (and fixing their wireless network) I headed over to one of my buddies house to hang out with some high school buddies. It was just great, we got to talk about some really crazy memories from back in the day... we also got a chance to rock out some Guitar Hero 3, as one of my friends had 2 guitars. I was luckily able to hold my own, albeit just barley. The decision to sit out one of the biggest "going out" nights of the year was a great one, I would choose drinking beers in a living room with those guys any day over being in any bar with anyone else.
Today my family from my dads side came over for all the holiday fun. They roll about 30-40 deep, so it was just awesome. Back in the day, from about birth to high school graduation, my dads entire family would move out to our camp on Skaneatles Lake for the summer. Waking up, boating, swimming, camp fires every day...you could never ask for better childhood memories. It was awesome getting to see all these people... from seeing them all the time to hardly ever, I appreciate days like today more than anything.
I gave my cousins my DSLR camera and told them to take as many pictures of the family as they wanted. From the few I saw, they turned out great, I can't wait to post them when I get back to "the office".
Who knows what tonight and the next few nights hold, even if I was to see no one else, this trip home would be deemed perfect. Luckily, I expect there to be some more quality moments in store before I head back east down 90.
From the true inside, out, gobble gobble :-)
satisifaction
November 18, 2007 - 10:16
- Photo Album - AJAX - Control Panel - JavaScript
Among other things, I wanted to dedicate some time this weekend to a computer project. For whatever reason, I couldn't seem to get myself in the mood to work on any video for Discomentary Volume 1, and I really did not want to open the Pandora's box of frustration that lies under the surface of my new Photo Album page. A few weeks back, whenever I dedicated a ton of time to the Photo Album, I got so incredibly frustrated with the browser incompatibly issues I was facing. I really just wanted to accomplish something I could be happy about, and couldn't risk working on that Album.
In my opinion, I need to finish certain parts of this site prior to finishing (or at least showing) my video. It's along the same lines of me not sending out an email to everyone I know about my website until those same parts are completed. The Photo Album page is one of those parts, as is a section for users to change and update their information. I decided that if I could start the user control panel page and make some good progress with it this weekend, it would give me good momentum to tackle the final issues with the Photo Album page. Some final parts of the Photo page will require a tad of AJAX(primarily updating a user log), additionally, the problems I am having with that page solely involve JavaScript. The control panel page would rely heavily on JS using a good amount of AJAX implementation, so to put it simply, I decided to grab the bull by it's horns, and dive into the control panel page.
The only golden rule I set down for the control panel page was that I definitely want to do it once and never think about it again. I therefore didn't want to take any cheap or lazy approaches. It is a page that seems so trivial and second thought, but it serves such an important purpose. I want this page to be as top notch as such a page can conceivably be. I have decided to go with an AJAX implementation of the submission of information wherever it seems appropriate (which has so far been with everything). This page is allowing me to tie in everything I have previously done with AJAX, before this, everything involving AJAX that I have done, except the "user name submission" on the home page, has been proof of concept.
Many hours and 482 lines of code later, I am extremely pleased with the progress I have made on the page. The learning curve on this page was pretty steep, I would say that I spent 95% of the time getting the first item to work as I wanted, and 5% on the following two. I am not releasing the page yet, it's layout is not in place and there are still many features to be added. With that said, the vast majority of the "hard part" is done. Almost everything else will take time and a little thought, but hopefully no innovation :-)
My weekend wasn't totally consumed with the above project, but I'm no longer in the mood to write about anything else. From the inside, out, good night.
In my opinion, I need to finish certain parts of this site prior to finishing (or at least showing) my video. It's along the same lines of me not sending out an email to everyone I know about my website until those same parts are completed. The Photo Album page is one of those parts, as is a section for users to change and update their information. I decided that if I could start the user control panel page and make some good progress with it this weekend, it would give me good momentum to tackle the final issues with the Photo Album page. Some final parts of the Photo page will require a tad of AJAX(primarily updating a user log), additionally, the problems I am having with that page solely involve JavaScript. The control panel page would rely heavily on JS using a good amount of AJAX implementation, so to put it simply, I decided to grab the bull by it's horns, and dive into the control panel page.
The only golden rule I set down for the control panel page was that I definitely want to do it once and never think about it again. I therefore didn't want to take any cheap or lazy approaches. It is a page that seems so trivial and second thought, but it serves such an important purpose. I want this page to be as top notch as such a page can conceivably be. I have decided to go with an AJAX implementation of the submission of information wherever it seems appropriate (which has so far been with everything). This page is allowing me to tie in everything I have previously done with AJAX, before this, everything involving AJAX that I have done, except the "user name submission" on the home page, has been proof of concept.
Many hours and 482 lines of code later, I am extremely pleased with the progress I have made on the page. The learning curve on this page was pretty steep, I would say that I spent 95% of the time getting the first item to work as I wanted, and 5% on the following two. I am not releasing the page yet, it's layout is not in place and there are still many features to be added. With that said, the vast majority of the "hard part" is done. Almost everything else will take time and a little thought, but hopefully no innovation :-)
My weekend wasn't totally consumed with the above project, but I'm no longer in the mood to write about anything else. From the inside, out, good night.
3 Yankee Stadium pics
November 13, 2007 - 10:34
- Yankee Stadium
I currently have a miserable cold. I hate colds. So far, I have a dry cough, that is much better than a greenish/yellow yucky one, I hope it doesn't turn into that.
Here are a few pics I took on my phone today of the current and under construction Yankee Stadiums.
Good night.
Here are a few pics I took on my phone today of the current and under construction Yankee Stadiums.
Good night.
Aren't androids sci-fi robots?
November 12, 2007 - 13:3
- Android - iPhone - iTablet - Soccer
For anyone board out there, I would check out news on the new Android Phone Platform recently unveiled by Google. The prototype I watched in a video appears to truly be in the same class as the iPhone. Although it still remains to be seen what the projects partners will release months from now, I would not be surprised if this platform makes a huge impact on the cell phone market. I would imagine a lot of the companies who turned down the opportunity to carry the iPhone would be super interested in this device. Worthy to note, I think the biggest drawback in running primarily 3rd party applications is that any sloppy code will lead to crashes and security vulnerabilities. I attribute the majority of issues with my old Palm Treo 700p to 3rd party apps, and I am happy Apple is taking it's time with releasing a SDK for the iPhone.
I'm still waiting for an iTablet, I think this wait will definitely be worth it.
On an unrelated topic, our indoor soccer team crushed our opponent tonight, putting us at a respectable 1 and 1. I have to wake up in about 5 hours to get down to the Bronx, sooooo.....good night.
I'm still waiting for an iTablet, I think this wait will definitely be worth it.
On an unrelated topic, our indoor soccer team crushed our opponent tonight, putting us at a respectable 1 and 1. I have to wake up in about 5 hours to get down to the Bronx, sooooo.....good night.
Today is November 11th
November 11, 2007 - 10:32
- ELevens - Guitar Hero 3 - Halo 3 - Discomentary
11/11, what a cool date. Eleven eleven, rhymes with heaven, in one hour and and 37 minutes it'll be eleven eleven, eleven eleven PM. Can't wait!
If the time stamp on my site worked correctly, I'd post a comment during that special minute, freezing it forever for just for you and me. A time stamp is such a simple yet important feature of almost everything in life, I vow to fix this element of my site sometime before eleven eleven eleven.
My friend has been up visiting this weekend. She wanted me to pick up Guitar Hero 3 because she got to play her sisters' boyfriends' (is that the appropriate use of the apostrophe there??) and "couldn't stop thinking about it". I have had two notable run ins with this series, once during a weekend gathering with a bunch of college buddies and the other every night from about 6pm - 1am when my 2nd floor tenant is playing it (minus the time he is making relations with his GF, which also fills the room with sweet sweet melody). Neither got me very excited about this game. I think the main culprit to blame for my lack of interest in this game is my lack of appreciation for certain aspects of music in general. I love music, but I'm usually not interested into the actual performer about 95% of the time, and not really interested in the actual lyrics about 55% of the time. Hmmm, this is puzzling, I like putting percentages on personal feeling, because it makes me see in numbers how weird I might or might not be. Anyhow, bottom line, wasn't going to get this game, fast forward to finding the game sold out at the first five retailers and not at the sixth, got the game, the real story begins...
To my knowledge, the only other game I have ever seen like this in my life is Dance Dance Revolution. By "like this" I am referring to a video game that relies on and therefore builds upon muscle memory to a degree that requires a qualified "expert" user to actually bypass any strictly rely on the muscles in your fingers to react to the colors your eyes see, without actually comprehending any of the in between. I am about half way through the "medium" level and there are some songs that I need to go through twice to complete, so I don't even know if I'm physically capable of competing at the "expert" level of play. There have been a few instances of my fingers and eyes taking away control from my brain, but that is probably only around 5% of the time so far. When we first loaded up the game and started to play, I blasted the stereo, hoping that my tenants would embrace the fact that I embrace all of the passions they embrace. It worked, they came down and the one who plays the game all the time played a song on expert. Maybe it was all of the Sake I drank during dinner, but watching him play was the most amazing musical performance I have ever seen. The button combinations that he was consistently nailing was simply un human. Just to think, so many people are probably capable of doing what I saw him do, this game is going to turn it's players into super humans. It's like, if you goto an Olympic ping pong championship game, you expect to see some pretty crazy feats of hand eye coordination, but when you are just sitting there watching someone play a guitar video game, you aren't expecting to see something so amazing. I think it is funny to think about all of the kids out there who are absolutely sick at video games. They can sit there in their living room blasting away enemies in Halo 3, with their parents only getting out of it that there is a lot of violence going on, and not that what they are doing is actually pretty hard. But now, the kid could be like, "Try out this guitar game, just hit the buttons who colors correspond to the notes", and the parent might not be so quick to dismiss the game for it's aesthetic value, opposed to the skills required to be successful at it. After playing probably semi decently at an easy level, then getting destroyed at a harder level, watching their child breeze through those same hard levels would probably incite a feeling of simple appreciation of that ability, much like I gave a ton of props to my tenant for being so nasty at the game. I think my example of the "parent and child" could actually be a tad off, I think there are a lot of parents who probably do think that what their kids do in video games is pretty cool, let's just replace "parent" for "anti video game politician". That sits better with me. I want there to be studies done of people playing this game. Take some pro athletes, some kids, some gamers, non gamers, adults, musicians, and watch them all play this game, and monitor their success, because I really think this games pushes the envelope on hand eye coordination, and I think those results would be fascinating!
OK, enough about that! I think that was almost a tad overboard of a video game discussion....but, since we are on the topic, I have finished Halo 3 on Heroic, and I've been a level 20 Second Lieutenant online for about a week now [pat on the back, pat on the back please].
Time to wrap things up with some multimedia and a favor!
First, a picture of me, Pugsley, my sweet Les Paul wireless controller with stars and stripes faceplate, and my new coat. I have been looking for a new winter coat for about 2 years now, I finally found "the one" during my day off on Friday...that bad boy is going to change the entire season of winter!
And second, a clip, that I would like your help on. Long story short, this is a brief clip from some stuff I did last week. I knew it spun too fast, and I didn't mind, because I think any good performance makes the user go through the entire spectrum of emotions...except maybe nausea...confusion=fine but puke=bad. Please let me know if this is simply too fast to really grasp any of the pictures, or too fast to sit there comfortably and watch it. Thanks in advance.
OK, that's all you get from the inside tonight.
If the time stamp on my site worked correctly, I'd post a comment during that special minute, freezing it forever for just for you and me. A time stamp is such a simple yet important feature of almost everything in life, I vow to fix this element of my site sometime before eleven eleven eleven.
My friend has been up visiting this weekend. She wanted me to pick up Guitar Hero 3 because she got to play her sisters' boyfriends' (is that the appropriate use of the apostrophe there??) and "couldn't stop thinking about it". I have had two notable run ins with this series, once during a weekend gathering with a bunch of college buddies and the other every night from about 6pm - 1am when my 2nd floor tenant is playing it (minus the time he is making relations with his GF, which also fills the room with sweet sweet melody). Neither got me very excited about this game. I think the main culprit to blame for my lack of interest in this game is my lack of appreciation for certain aspects of music in general. I love music, but I'm usually not interested into the actual performer about 95% of the time, and not really interested in the actual lyrics about 55% of the time. Hmmm, this is puzzling, I like putting percentages on personal feeling, because it makes me see in numbers how weird I might or might not be. Anyhow, bottom line, wasn't going to get this game, fast forward to finding the game sold out at the first five retailers and not at the sixth, got the game, the real story begins...
To my knowledge, the only other game I have ever seen like this in my life is Dance Dance Revolution. By "like this" I am referring to a video game that relies on and therefore builds upon muscle memory to a degree that requires a qualified "expert" user to actually bypass any strictly rely on the muscles in your fingers to react to the colors your eyes see, without actually comprehending any of the in between. I am about half way through the "medium" level and there are some songs that I need to go through twice to complete, so I don't even know if I'm physically capable of competing at the "expert" level of play. There have been a few instances of my fingers and eyes taking away control from my brain, but that is probably only around 5% of the time so far. When we first loaded up the game and started to play, I blasted the stereo, hoping that my tenants would embrace the fact that I embrace all of the passions they embrace. It worked, they came down and the one who plays the game all the time played a song on expert. Maybe it was all of the Sake I drank during dinner, but watching him play was the most amazing musical performance I have ever seen. The button combinations that he was consistently nailing was simply un human. Just to think, so many people are probably capable of doing what I saw him do, this game is going to turn it's players into super humans. It's like, if you goto an Olympic ping pong championship game, you expect to see some pretty crazy feats of hand eye coordination, but when you are just sitting there watching someone play a guitar video game, you aren't expecting to see something so amazing. I think it is funny to think about all of the kids out there who are absolutely sick at video games. They can sit there in their living room blasting away enemies in Halo 3, with their parents only getting out of it that there is a lot of violence going on, and not that what they are doing is actually pretty hard. But now, the kid could be like, "Try out this guitar game, just hit the buttons who colors correspond to the notes", and the parent might not be so quick to dismiss the game for it's aesthetic value, opposed to the skills required to be successful at it. After playing probably semi decently at an easy level, then getting destroyed at a harder level, watching their child breeze through those same hard levels would probably incite a feeling of simple appreciation of that ability, much like I gave a ton of props to my tenant for being so nasty at the game. I think my example of the "parent and child" could actually be a tad off, I think there are a lot of parents who probably do think that what their kids do in video games is pretty cool, let's just replace "parent" for "anti video game politician". That sits better with me. I want there to be studies done of people playing this game. Take some pro athletes, some kids, some gamers, non gamers, adults, musicians, and watch them all play this game, and monitor their success, because I really think this games pushes the envelope on hand eye coordination, and I think those results would be fascinating!
OK, enough about that! I think that was almost a tad overboard of a video game discussion....but, since we are on the topic, I have finished Halo 3 on Heroic, and I've been a level 20 Second Lieutenant online for about a week now [pat on the back, pat on the back please].
Time to wrap things up with some multimedia and a favor!
First, a picture of me, Pugsley, my sweet Les Paul wireless controller with stars and stripes faceplate, and my new coat. I have been looking for a new winter coat for about 2 years now, I finally found "the one" during my day off on Friday...that bad boy is going to change the entire season of winter!
And second, a clip, that I would like your help on. Long story short, this is a brief clip from some stuff I did last week. I knew it spun too fast, and I didn't mind, because I think any good performance makes the user go through the entire spectrum of emotions...except maybe nausea...confusion=fine but puke=bad. Please let me know if this is simply too fast to really grasp any of the pictures, or too fast to sit there comfortably and watch it. Thanks in advance.
OK, that's all you get from the inside tonight.
New Orleans Video Slide Show
November 4, 2007 - 12:28
- video - Discomentary
I got a good amount of work done on a segment for Discomentary Volume 1, about 1 minute 20 seconds to be exact. I knew I wanted to get something done on that project, I just didn't know what to work on, so I started fooling around with an idea I've had for a few weeks. I primarily used Illustrator, Photoshop and After Affects; and I'm happy with what I got done. I think I will use this project for part of the videos beginning.
I always have internal debates about what best drives many projects like this (or a website), content or layout. I often find that the content will end up dictating the layout, so getting carried away with layout during the initial phases could be time wasted, but unlike many of my recent projects, the content is often already ready in one form or another, so layout is one of the only areas still left to be worked on. To be fair to this topic, I will not even discuss it any further, there is really so much that can be said on it, and I am way too tried to even think about something like this right now :)
I've been having another internal debate about whether or not I would post much video for Discomentary on the web using a third party service such as YouTube. My primary reservation in doing so is due to my desire to have everything I work on and then display to be shown in as close to the original resolution/quality that I intended on it being shown in. I decided to post the New Orleans video slide show tonight. The quality did get butchered a bit, but it actually isn't all that bad. It will be nice for some of my friends to see who were on that trip, which was ultimately the deciding factor in me uploading it.
Here is the clip:
Well no more internal debates to be discussed this evening. This is neither the time, nor the venue, for more interesting conversation.
Leaving you with a filtered view of life on the inside, out,
good night.
I always have internal debates about what best drives many projects like this (or a website), content or layout. I often find that the content will end up dictating the layout, so getting carried away with layout during the initial phases could be time wasted, but unlike many of my recent projects, the content is often already ready in one form or another, so layout is one of the only areas still left to be worked on. To be fair to this topic, I will not even discuss it any further, there is really so much that can be said on it, and I am way too tried to even think about something like this right now :)
I've been having another internal debate about whether or not I would post much video for Discomentary on the web using a third party service such as YouTube. My primary reservation in doing so is due to my desire to have everything I work on and then display to be shown in as close to the original resolution/quality that I intended on it being shown in. I decided to post the New Orleans video slide show tonight. The quality did get butchered a bit, but it actually isn't all that bad. It will be nice for some of my friends to see who were on that trip, which was ultimately the deciding factor in me uploading it.
Here is the clip:
Well no more internal debates to be discussed this evening. This is neither the time, nor the venue, for more interesting conversation.
Leaving you with a filtered view of life on the inside, out,
good night.
not much
October 31, 2007 - 12:26
- Leopard - Gmail IMAP - Pando - Lost
I have been having a few issues with my computer, they have been minor yet annoying. It seems that I have to enter my "keychain" password before I start and exit most applications, worthy to note, I was experiencing issues with "keychain" prior to upgrading to Leopard, so I am unsure if the new OS is to blame. Issues I have noticed since the upgrade include many instance of "finder" crashing, as well as occasional infinite freezes in many of my Adobe applications. None of the above problems have been more annoying than a screwed up fast food breakfast order, but they were worth documenting.
Every issue I am currently having with the Operating System is completely overshadowed with the upgrade in quality of life IMAP support in Gmail has given me. Prior to this offering by Google, every email I received showed up as a new email on the three interfaces I regularly use to check/send email (Apple Mail, iPhone Mail, and online), and they would stay as "unread" until I opened it in that interface. Now, whenever I check an email in one place, it's status is updated everywhere else at their next respective syncs. This all leads to huge improvements in personal efficiency.
Someone sent me some pretty big files for me to download via an application I've never heard of before, Pando. I am currently downloading 2 500+ mb files, this could be a good alternate to sending some stuff via data CD.
I have the LOST episode "Exodus Part 2" playing, I really can't wait for the new season to start February.
OK, that's all I got for you, good night and happy Halloween .
Every issue I am currently having with the Operating System is completely overshadowed with the upgrade in quality of life IMAP support in Gmail has given me. Prior to this offering by Google, every email I received showed up as a new email on the three interfaces I regularly use to check/send email (Apple Mail, iPhone Mail, and online), and they would stay as "unread" until I opened it in that interface. Now, whenever I check an email in one place, it's status is updated everywhere else at their next respective syncs. This all leads to huge improvements in personal efficiency.
Someone sent me some pretty big files for me to download via an application I've never heard of before, Pando. I am currently downloading 2 500+ mb files, this could be a good alternate to sending some stuff via data CD.
I have the LOST episode "Exodus Part 2" playing, I really can't wait for the new season to start February.
OK, that's all I got for you, good night and happy Halloween .
New Orleans video slideshow has gone gold
October 28, 2007 - 10:10
- New Orleans vide slideshow - Xbox360 gamer tag
I have completed the New Orleans video slide show. I am pleased with how it turned out. I burned it to DVD and checked it out on in my living room, I was very happy with the quality. My primary motivation on completing this project came from my desire to cleanup a ton of files for it that accumulated on my desktop. I also wanted to start transitioning over with some video stuff; the green chroma screen came last week, it set up very quickly, I just need to move it to another part of the room, as the camera is currently only getting about half of the desired shot I am looking for.
That's all I have at this second for you, I hope you had a nice weekend :-)
That's all I have at this second for you, I hope you had a nice weekend :-)
blunders
October 27, 2007 - 10:0
- softball - Leopard
So last night we were supposed to have a game at 9pm. It was raining pretty solid since about 6pm, so we kept checking the "rain out hotline" to see if this make up game would end up getting it's own make up game. I got to the field and saw that the game before ours was only in thee 5th inning. I was not surprised to not see any teammates, as everyone said they were running a tad late. After standing there for a few minutes by one of the other teams, the umpire yelled up and asked if anyone was there waiting for the 9pm game, when I said I was, he said that our game was going to be canceled due to the rain. I quickly called almost all of my teammates and gave them the news. About 20 minutes later, I got a voice mail from one of my teammates who said she was at the field, and the umpire wanted to know where our team was. Puzzled, I called her back and explained that I was really sorry that I forgot to call her, but that the umpire canceled our game. She said he had just left, and she was going to do the same. I apologized again for not calling her and told her I didn't know why the ump was acting so weird, like how could he forget he told me the game was canceled?? About an hour later (as I was playing some Halo 3! I have to get my game on somewhere!ha),I got an email from the girl, she was just saying how weird the whole thing was, in the email she mentioned the name of the field she had gone to. I started laughing really hard and quickly wrote back to her that she had gone to the wrong field. She is really smart, so I didn't mind laughing at her a little bit, I knew she would also get a kick out of this mishap. About 10 minutes later she called me and she was laughing, she's like scroll down to the original email, it was the email from me telling the team where our next two games are, it was the email telling the team to goto the right field, opposed to the field I showed up to. HA. The whole entire thing was my fault! I showed up at the wrong field, and was told another game was canceled, not ours. What a coaching blunder, now it looks like we forfeited, meaning the league will expect the $100 forfeit fee, and I will have to explain to them what happened, hopefully appealing to a good faith decision to waiver said fee. I do amuse myself sometimes.
On an unrelated note, I picked up Leopard and iLife '08 last night at the FedEx depot. They actually attempted delivery at 9:13am, which is cool (to at least me), because the stores weren't going to sell it until 6pm. Worthy to note, there were 2 other people at the FedEx place also picking up missed deliveries of Leopard, pretty unlikely coincidence in my opinion. Everything is cool with the new OS, except that the HP application in charge of getting scans from my wireless printer/scanner is crashing. There is an online "print server" control panel that I can use from the web browser, I am able to at least preview what is on the scanner bed from that interface, leaving me to safely assume it is a software issue opposed to a hardware/network problem.
Off to start my day!
On an unrelated note, I picked up Leopard and iLife '08 last night at the FedEx depot. They actually attempted delivery at 9:13am, which is cool (to at least me), because the stores weren't going to sell it until 6pm. Worthy to note, there were 2 other people at the FedEx place also picking up missed deliveries of Leopard, pretty unlikely coincidence in my opinion. Everything is cool with the new OS, except that the HP application in charge of getting scans from my wireless printer/scanner is crashing. There is an online "print server" control panel that I can use from the web browser, I am able to at least preview what is on the scanner bed from that interface, leaving me to safely assume it is a software issue opposed to a hardware/network problem.
Off to start my day!
My stomach hurts
October 22, 2007 - 11:48
- LOST - DVR - Softball - astrics
I was able to re-watch the majority of LOST season one over the weekend, it is amazing how much you pick up the second time around. Some things I had not really thought about in a while include: the fact that the palm-reader psychic dude most likely told Claire to get on flight 815, knowing that it was going to crash; the fact that Jack's dad talked about the sacrifices made in Jacks life so he (Jack) could save thousands of lives (as a doctor I'm assuming by the context of the conversation I'm referencing);the fact that Walt simply has some crazy, crazy powers, like controlling the weather, creating animals, etc; and the fact that almost everyone see's what would seem to be a hallucination but other people around them usually confirm seeing (or hearing) it as well. There is so much more, but I can't even get into it.
I DVR'd Heroes tonight, very excited to watch that. Is there a verb for DVR'd? I guess to be proper, I digital video recorded it.
I've linked to my most recent version of the new Photo Album page. The link is on the right column of the main page. It is still beta, it only works well in Firefox, the play button doesn't work, if you log into this site, from the picture page, you will have to click refresh...besides that, enjoy...ha. Still some house cleaning left on that project. Anyone using Firefox, I am very interested in detailed feedback. Feel free to tell me everything, including how long different albums take to load.
I hit a homerun over the fence tonight during our softball game. This is noteworthy, a) due to my previously discussed lack of softball/baseball experience and b) my last, and only other, one wasn't in a park with a fence so I felt like it had to go in the books with an astric.
I am going to bed*
* - after a game or two of Halo 3**
** - this astric joke is pathetic and makes my stomach hurt.
I DVR'd Heroes tonight, very excited to watch that. Is there a verb for DVR'd? I guess to be proper, I digital video recorded it.
I've linked to my most recent version of the new Photo Album page. The link is on the right column of the main page. It is still beta, it only works well in Firefox, the play button doesn't work, if you log into this site, from the picture page, you will have to click refresh...besides that, enjoy...ha. Still some house cleaning left on that project. Anyone using Firefox, I am very interested in detailed feedback. Feel free to tell me everything, including how long different albums take to load.
I hit a homerun over the fence tonight during our softball game. This is noteworthy, a) due to my previously discussed lack of softball/baseball experience and b) my last, and only other, one wasn't in a park with a fence so I felt like it had to go in the books with an astric.
I am going to bed*
* - after a game or two of Halo 3**
** - this astric joke is pathetic and makes my stomach hurt.
Photo Album Page
October 21, 2007 - 9:18
- Photo Album
This will be considered boring to many...
I've spent an enormous amount of time the past few days working on my new Photo Album page, the time was spent almost exclusively on getting the current version of the page to display properly in Internet Explorer, primarily version 6. Disappointingly, the only positive yield from this time spent was me gaining a better understanding into various Javascript features/concepts, opposed to actually implementing the current page in a fashion that would display as intended in Internet Explorer. After much research, as well as countless attempts at implementing a viable work around, I have come to the conclusion that I will likely have to use two different pages, with the users browser being the variable that determines which page is loaded. One of the biggest obstacles I face in using only one page is the difference between the way Firefox and Internet Explorer cache images and handle onload events. I am disappointed in this development because I am very pleased with the way the page looks and works in Firefox, and for that not to be carried over in it's entirety is unfortunate. On a positive note, I believe I will be able to implement a similar page for Internet Explorer, but some features and/or conveniences will be lost. One very specific feature that I am having a surprising amount of trouble with is displaying a hidden element after an onload even is fired. The IE page may have the thumbnails display in their full size while loading, and then resized once done. I have considered the option of going many steps backwards to redesign a page with at least IE 7 in mind, but I'm not going. This compromise will allow me to release the version I am very excited about for anyone using Firefox and Safari, and whatever I end up releasing for other browsers will be better than what is currently available.
Halo 3 has been a good stress reliever throughout all of this. I am very excited for when I'm done with all of this Javascript coding. I still prefer doing PHP projects, and I believe I prefer any creative project involving graphics or video much more. With the last two, you will hardly ever have to deal with the issues comparable to browser incompatibility issues .
I've spent an enormous amount of time the past few days working on my new Photo Album page, the time was spent almost exclusively on getting the current version of the page to display properly in Internet Explorer, primarily version 6. Disappointingly, the only positive yield from this time spent was me gaining a better understanding into various Javascript features/concepts, opposed to actually implementing the current page in a fashion that would display as intended in Internet Explorer. After much research, as well as countless attempts at implementing a viable work around, I have come to the conclusion that I will likely have to use two different pages, with the users browser being the variable that determines which page is loaded. One of the biggest obstacles I face in using only one page is the difference between the way Firefox and Internet Explorer cache images and handle onload events. I am disappointed in this development because I am very pleased with the way the page looks and works in Firefox, and for that not to be carried over in it's entirety is unfortunate. On a positive note, I believe I will be able to implement a similar page for Internet Explorer, but some features and/or conveniences will be lost. One very specific feature that I am having a surprising amount of trouble with is displaying a hidden element after an onload even is fired. The IE page may have the thumbnails display in their full size while loading, and then resized once done. I have considered the option of going many steps backwards to redesign a page with at least IE 7 in mind, but I'm not going. This compromise will allow me to release the version I am very excited about for anyone using Firefox and Safari, and whatever I end up releasing for other browsers will be better than what is currently available.
Halo 3 has been a good stress reliever throughout all of this. I am very excited for when I'm done with all of this Javascript coding. I still prefer doing PHP projects, and I believe I prefer any creative project involving graphics or video much more. With the last two, you will hardly ever have to deal with the issues comparable to browser incompatibility issues .
pieces of the pie
October 18, 2007 - 12:2
- Halo 3 - Heroes - The Office - NBC - iTablet
I made the rank of Lieutenant in Halo 3 today. I was pretty excited, as it unlocked a 25 point "achievement", as well as upgraded the little rank icon next to me name to a shiny silver rectangle thing. I really can't get enough of this game, especially the multiplayer. It's the best multiplayer game I've ever played, I'm not like a fanatic when it comes to these games, but I bet most fanatics rank this pretty high on their list. Here are some screen shots of my dude, Bona Stu.
During a team game:
During "lone wolves" ie: everyman for himself
Those screen shots are from "in game", every second of every match looks that good....so cool.
You may notice my current choice in colors as well as logo. I like to represent my lucky number "11" as well as the Fleur-de-lis, to represent post Katrina New Orleans. The colors are from my high school, as well as my softball team.
I like to see it when television shows pay homage to post Katrina New Orleans. Heroes does this. I really, really, like NBC's Heroes. I'm not even going to get into it right now, but I have been following it religiously and really like where it is going. I also like NBC's The Office, definitely one of the funniest shows of all time. Worthy to note I enjoyed this weeks episode, but enjoyed it a little bit less than last weeks, which I enjoyed just a slight tab less than all the preceding episodes. Making tonights episode the worst of all time, but still awesome. I hope this trend does not continue, and I do not believe it will. I had to watch one episode on NBC's website, which is nice, but so much worse than just buying it from iTunes. I hate nbc so much. They should be arrested for taking their shows off of iTunes, every single person involved in that decision should be arrested....unless they were involved in getting Heroes or The Office, in which case they should just be fired.
On a sad note, getting the Photo Album page to work in Internet Explorer could be a little more difficult than I thought. I won't even go there right now. It will likely all work out just fine.
I still think Apple will release an iTablet. Why not maximize the head start/momentum they have in the arena of portable touch screen technology, and release an 8.5x11 "ultimate all in one". Hopefully, but unlikely, more than just wishful thinking.
I'm tired.
Good night.
During a team game:
During "lone wolves" ie: everyman for himself
Those screen shots are from "in game", every second of every match looks that good....so cool.
You may notice my current choice in colors as well as logo. I like to represent my lucky number "11" as well as the Fleur-de-lis, to represent post Katrina New Orleans. The colors are from my high school, as well as my softball team.
I like to see it when television shows pay homage to post Katrina New Orleans. Heroes does this. I really, really, like NBC's Heroes. I'm not even going to get into it right now, but I have been following it religiously and really like where it is going. I also like NBC's The Office, definitely one of the funniest shows of all time. Worthy to note I enjoyed this weeks episode, but enjoyed it a little bit less than last weeks, which I enjoyed just a slight tab less than all the preceding episodes. Making tonights episode the worst of all time, but still awesome. I hope this trend does not continue, and I do not believe it will. I had to watch one episode on NBC's website, which is nice, but so much worse than just buying it from iTunes. I hate nbc so much. They should be arrested for taking their shows off of iTunes, every single person involved in that decision should be arrested....unless they were involved in getting Heroes or The Office, in which case they should just be fired.
On a sad note, getting the Photo Album page to work in Internet Explorer could be a little more difficult than I thought. I won't even go there right now. It will likely all work out just fine.
I still think Apple will release an iTablet. Why not maximize the head start/momentum they have in the arena of portable touch screen technology, and release an 8.5x11 "ultimate all in one". Hopefully, but unlikely, more than just wishful thinking.
I'm tired.
Good night.
Aren't I so nice?
October 17, 2007 - 6:17
- Photo Album - random
Over a week later, I finally get around to writing another blog post. UGGG to me. I blame the fact that I don't have a working laptop. As some may remember, I previously discussed technical issues with my slightly old Powerbook, the issue is definitely the logic board. I just need to bring it in and pay the approximate $300 it will cost to fix it, and then I will be up and running, but then I just keep thinking about how nice it would be to install Production Premium CS3 on a new Intel dual-core, and I face the realization that whether or not I am willing to admit it, I am currently in the market for a new laptop. I am hoping that sometime after the beginning of the new year, Apple will release a new Pro line of laptops, which I would then look to buy with my hopefully significant 2007 tax returns. We will see. I'm going to still take my current laptop in, just to have something in front of me so I can watch TV guilt free, and not be thinking about a million things I would like to be doing on the computer. I find myself purchasing and watching a ton of iTunes TV shows, just to have something on when I'm working on stuff, it would be nice to be able to sit in the living room or in bed for a change, opposed to only the office.
Ahhh yes, I can see where this post is already heading, anyone not looking for some random geek talk, you are advised to turn around immediately.
I ordered a green chroma screen with stand today. It is 11'x12' big, which will provide amble room for some of the ideas I have in my head. I ordered and received a camera tripod last week, it's still in the box, but within the next month, I hope to wrap up a few web projects, and look to focus the majority of my time "on projects like this" working on my video. I will be sending out an email in the near future to various people, inviting them to come over and dance to some songs I have picked out. The list could change, but if I was to start the project tomorrow, the 2 songs I would use for this part of the video is:
UZI (Pinky Ring) by Wu Tang Clan
and
Drop It Like It's Hot - the instrumental version
The chroma screen will be used in many projects, but a dance video is likely the first project to test out it's usefulness. I am so excited for the moment when my new Photo Album is finished, I am looking forward to a hopefully long break away from heavy coding. I had to take a small break away from work on the Photo page over this past week as I worked on two different web sites. I will likely look to minimize any technology related obligations to others during the next few months as video work kicks into high gear, but would obviously not turn down an either super interesting or super lucrative deal.
I am excited for Leopard to be released on the 26th and I don't really care about 3rd Party Apps on the iPhone at the moment, but am interested to see what comes out this coming February.
I have the first of four softball games between tonight and Monday. It luckily is not pouring like it was at our last game. Better rain than snow. I wish it could stay summer all year long.
Well I need to get going, no time to even proof read this entry. I hope everyone has a nice day, on whichever day you read this, and all days following. Aren't I so nice?
ps - anyone else notice that I usually just copy and paste a random/obscure/unrelated line from the entry and make it the subject? I'm not deceptive, I'm lazy :-)
Ahhh yes, I can see where this post is already heading, anyone not looking for some random geek talk, you are advised to turn around immediately.
I ordered a green chroma screen with stand today. It is 11'x12' big, which will provide amble room for some of the ideas I have in my head. I ordered and received a camera tripod last week, it's still in the box, but within the next month, I hope to wrap up a few web projects, and look to focus the majority of my time "on projects like this" working on my video. I will be sending out an email in the near future to various people, inviting them to come over and dance to some songs I have picked out. The list could change, but if I was to start the project tomorrow, the 2 songs I would use for this part of the video is:
UZI (Pinky Ring) by Wu Tang Clan
and
Drop It Like It's Hot - the instrumental version
The chroma screen will be used in many projects, but a dance video is likely the first project to test out it's usefulness. I am so excited for the moment when my new Photo Album is finished, I am looking forward to a hopefully long break away from heavy coding. I had to take a small break away from work on the Photo page over this past week as I worked on two different web sites. I will likely look to minimize any technology related obligations to others during the next few months as video work kicks into high gear, but would obviously not turn down an either super interesting or super lucrative deal.
I am excited for Leopard to be released on the 26th and I don't really care about 3rd Party Apps on the iPhone at the moment, but am interested to see what comes out this coming February.
I have the first of four softball games between tonight and Monday. It luckily is not pouring like it was at our last game. Better rain than snow. I wish it could stay summer all year long.
Well I need to get going, no time to even proof read this entry. I hope everyone has a nice day, on whichever day you read this, and all days following. Aren't I so nice?
ps - anyone else notice that I usually just copy and paste a random/obscure/unrelated line from the entry and make it the subject? I'm not deceptive, I'm lazy :-)
likely, hopefully, and doubtfully
October 7, 2007 - 12:17
- Photo Album - Discomentary Volume 1 - Halo 3
My two days of jury duty resulted in me not sitting on the jury for the still ongoing trial, it was an interesting experience though.
I've put in a good amount of time into the new picture album page, it is progressing along very nicely. This will hopefully be my last hard core coding project for a while. Once this page is finished, I plan on spending almost all of the time I would spend on these kind of projects to Discomentary Volume 1. This time away from that video project has at least allowed me to put together some various trains of thoughts on different segments I would like to include in the upcoming video. As such, I am spending a lot of time working out, for what I consider to be, the finer details of the page. I have spent a considerable amount of time debating which approach/implementation is best when building a photo gallery. I am going to ramble quickly about my approach, just for the record, it will likely be worth skipping...
I decided to break each album up into pages of 28 pictures. Instead of loading a thumbnail version of the picture for the 28 thumbnails displayed at a time, I load the full size version, resulting in some wait time up front but none once that page of 28 is loaded [repeat number of pictures / 28]. This allows a user to mouse over over a thumbnail, simultaneously displaying the larger version next to it. This approach also allows for quick navigation of an album simply by clicking "next" (or "back"), a method of browsing I believe many people use. At the sacrifice of how large I could display the currently biggest available size of an image, I was able to reduce the need for users to click to another page to get a respectable view of the photo (pictures won't be displayed larger than 500x375). Specific to the page I currently have built and will almost certainly release, it was built more on the fly, than on paper before hand. I knew what I wanted in the end, I pretty much knew how to do what needed to be done to to it, I just didn't plan out the steps as they would need to be taken to put it all together. Luckily, as I have found with many other parts of this site, the flow of putting everything together seemed pretty inherent. I would say about 75% of the navigation is currently in place. There are several "counting errors" and ELSE IF statement that need to be addressed, but luckily much of the code (or at least heavy thinking) involved in addressing them has already be addressed. I worked out a lot of behind the scenes issues this weekend, I believe I have laid the majority of the final groundwork necessary for the page to be brought to a stage where I am comfortable not thinking about it for a very very long time.
Here is a screenshot of the page as it currently exists:
I have been playing so much Halo 3. The multiplayer is really unbelievable. The game is good enough where you can be running around killing the other team, while chatting with you team mates, and you almost get lost in whether or not you are playing a game or running around some field or fortress in a paintball like experience. I am lucky, because I turn off the lights, blast all 7.1 speakers, and really get sucked into the big HD experience. It is so late right now, but I think I might play one or two matches, UGGGG. I started playing the campaign version of the game today on Legendary with my considerably younger cousin (well 10 years is kind of considerable) and two of his friends, it is so amazing how easy as well as top notch the whole online experience is. I actually don't think the majority of people out there have experienced how far along online multiplayer games are, they have been popular on computers for over a decade, and now the consoles are brining it to a much wider audience. I really recommend people stop over a persons house who has Xbox Live, a 360, and a game like Halo 3, Gears of War, sports games...etc...and see what it's all about.
Well, that is likely, hopefully, and doubtfully (?), the dorkiest blog post I will ever write.
Good night.
I've put in a good amount of time into the new picture album page, it is progressing along very nicely. This will hopefully be my last hard core coding project for a while. Once this page is finished, I plan on spending almost all of the time I would spend on these kind of projects to Discomentary Volume 1. This time away from that video project has at least allowed me to put together some various trains of thoughts on different segments I would like to include in the upcoming video. As such, I am spending a lot of time working out, for what I consider to be, the finer details of the page. I have spent a considerable amount of time debating which approach/implementation is best when building a photo gallery. I am going to ramble quickly about my approach, just for the record, it will likely be worth skipping...
I decided to break each album up into pages of 28 pictures. Instead of loading a thumbnail version of the picture for the 28 thumbnails displayed at a time, I load the full size version, resulting in some wait time up front but none once that page of 28 is loaded [repeat number of pictures / 28]. This allows a user to mouse over over a thumbnail, simultaneously displaying the larger version next to it. This approach also allows for quick navigation of an album simply by clicking "next" (or "back"), a method of browsing I believe many people use. At the sacrifice of how large I could display the currently biggest available size of an image, I was able to reduce the need for users to click to another page to get a respectable view of the photo (pictures won't be displayed larger than 500x375). Specific to the page I currently have built and will almost certainly release, it was built more on the fly, than on paper before hand. I knew what I wanted in the end, I pretty much knew how to do what needed to be done to to it, I just didn't plan out the steps as they would need to be taken to put it all together. Luckily, as I have found with many other parts of this site, the flow of putting everything together seemed pretty inherent. I would say about 75% of the navigation is currently in place. There are several "counting errors" and ELSE IF statement that need to be addressed, but luckily much of the code (or at least heavy thinking) involved in addressing them has already be addressed. I worked out a lot of behind the scenes issues this weekend, I believe I have laid the majority of the final groundwork necessary for the page to be brought to a stage where I am comfortable not thinking about it for a very very long time.
Here is a screenshot of the page as it currently exists:
I have been playing so much Halo 3. The multiplayer is really unbelievable. The game is good enough where you can be running around killing the other team, while chatting with you team mates, and you almost get lost in whether or not you are playing a game or running around some field or fortress in a paintball like experience. I am lucky, because I turn off the lights, blast all 7.1 speakers, and really get sucked into the big HD experience. It is so late right now, but I think I might play one or two matches, UGGGG. I started playing the campaign version of the game today on Legendary with my considerably younger cousin (well 10 years is kind of considerable) and two of his friends, it is so amazing how easy as well as top notch the whole online experience is. I actually don't think the majority of people out there have experienced how far along online multiplayer games are, they have been popular on computers for over a decade, and now the consoles are brining it to a much wider audience. I really recommend people stop over a persons house who has Xbox Live, a 360, and a game like Halo 3, Gears of War, sports games...etc...and see what it's all about.
Well, that is likely, hopefully, and doubtfully (?), the dorkiest blog post I will ever write.
Good night.
a warm bathwater shower for me please
October 1, 2007 - 6:38
- Lake Placid - AT&T - iPhone - iTablet - Halo 3
The past few days have been pretty busy. My day off Friday turned into a day with the plumbers as a clogged bath tub in one of my units turned into a bursting pipe and a shower of bathwater from above (yes, bathwater, I can explain). It was so crazy I actually got a kick out of the whole ordeal. One of the plumbers said to me, "Man, I'm glad you are being cool about this, because most people would be freaking out", as I stood there soaking wet, buckets in hand, trying to minimize the flood. It was really just too funny of a scene to get mad about, I would much rather save anger for bad drivers, screwed up fast food orders, and shady people. The only drawback of the entire ordeal was the fact that I arrived at a wedding that evening an hour late. I totally don't think anyone really noticed, and the wedding was awesome, so good fight and good night to Friday.
On Saturday I was in Lake Placid for the night, attending another wedding. It was a very good time. I let my hair down a little bit more that evening. I didn't know that many people, so it was safe to bring out "Crazy Legs". CL had a good time, he worked up a good sweat with some new moves, but certainly didn't hide the trademarked "leg slide". All in all, with only a few exceptions, the night went off very smoothly. As if I was touched by the hand of God, I found myself wide awake and ready to go at 8am Sunday morning. I took the hours between then and when other people started to wake up to take a few snapshots around the town that has played host to two winter Olympics. I have uploaded some of the shots I took. My parents took my to Lake Placid when I was younger, that was nice.
I found myself in the middle of a rather interesting state supreme court jury selection process today. The case involves a heavily covered event, so finding an impartial jury is taking longer than expected. All of us are in the court room, so hearing the various questions/answers was semi-interesting, but also semi-boring. I have to go back tomorrow for a likely round three. I think I am allowed to write everything I just did. You have to admit, that was pretty non descriptive.
I am not currently in the mind set to work on the new Photo Album Page, maybe later tonight, maybe tomorrow.
I think outdoor ceremony's can be nice, weather allowing.
AT&T gave me a $250 refund a few weeks ago on my rather high iPhone bill for when I was "at sea" and in Bermuda. I just explained my train of thought, and they agreed, with actually no arguing. I commend this customer service. On a semi-similar, yet semi-unrelated note, I think people that complain about their iPhone's being "bricked", after they knowingly install software/firmware hacks, allowing such instances of using the iPhone on another carriers network, are supppper annoying. A huge UGGGGG to all of them. I am not an Apple "fan boy", nor am I an idiot, and if I applied a hack to my iPhone to do something so against the EULA like use a different carrier, and it stopped working, for whatever reason, I would bite the bullet and blame the man in the mirror. One more thing, have I talked to you about the iTablet...I really can't wait.
Halo 3 is very good. Just as impressive as it's game play, is it's Xbox Live experience. Very top notch job done with this game.
Ok, good bye.
On Saturday I was in Lake Placid for the night, attending another wedding. It was a very good time. I let my hair down a little bit more that evening. I didn't know that many people, so it was safe to bring out "Crazy Legs". CL had a good time, he worked up a good sweat with some new moves, but certainly didn't hide the trademarked "leg slide". All in all, with only a few exceptions, the night went off very smoothly. As if I was touched by the hand of God, I found myself wide awake and ready to go at 8am Sunday morning. I took the hours between then and when other people started to wake up to take a few snapshots around the town that has played host to two winter Olympics. I have uploaded some of the shots I took. My parents took my to Lake Placid when I was younger, that was nice.
I found myself in the middle of a rather interesting state supreme court jury selection process today. The case involves a heavily covered event, so finding an impartial jury is taking longer than expected. All of us are in the court room, so hearing the various questions/answers was semi-interesting, but also semi-boring. I have to go back tomorrow for a likely round three. I think I am allowed to write everything I just did. You have to admit, that was pretty non descriptive.
I am not currently in the mind set to work on the new Photo Album Page, maybe later tonight, maybe tomorrow.
I think outdoor ceremony's can be nice, weather allowing.
AT&T gave me a $250 refund a few weeks ago on my rather high iPhone bill for when I was "at sea" and in Bermuda. I just explained my train of thought, and they agreed, with actually no arguing. I commend this customer service. On a semi-similar, yet semi-unrelated note, I think people that complain about their iPhone's being "bricked", after they knowingly install software/firmware hacks, allowing such instances of using the iPhone on another carriers network, are supppper annoying. A huge UGGGGG to all of them. I am not an Apple "fan boy", nor am I an idiot, and if I applied a hack to my iPhone to do something so against the EULA like use a different carrier, and it stopped working, for whatever reason, I would bite the bullet and blame the man in the mirror. One more thing, have I talked to you about the iTablet...I really can't wait.
Halo 3 is very good. Just as impressive as it's game play, is it's Xbox Live experience. Very top notch job done with this game.
Ok, good bye.
High School Track
September 28, 2007 - 10:10
- Track Times
Regarding the comment to my last blog post...
This newspaper clipping is the closest thing I have to an "official" sub 5 minute mile...officially at 5:02.0 ...worthy to note, I had to run the 1 and 2 mile that day, and won both, so going for a "personal best" wasn't the game plan. I believe I also ran the 800 that day, but def didn't win that event.
I believe I have hit the sub 5 minute mark before, but have nothing to prove it with...
Some day, I am going to scan my high school photo album, where this newspaper clipping was. That album is one of my favorites of all time.
Day off for me, have fun at work everyone!
This newspaper clipping is the closest thing I have to an "official" sub 5 minute mile...officially at 5:02.0 ...worthy to note, I had to run the 1 and 2 mile that day, and won both, so going for a "personal best" wasn't the game plan. I believe I also ran the 800 that day, but def didn't win that event.
I believe I have hit the sub 5 minute mark before, but have nothing to prove it with...
Some day, I am going to scan my high school photo album, where this newspaper clipping was. That album is one of my favorites of all time.
Day off for me, have fun at work everyone!
regarding
September 26, 2007 - 11:31
- Halo 3 - picture Page - Softball - Fire Drill - Tonight
-Regarding, Halo 3, it is cool. I was able to get it yesterday as originally hoped. I have only played online, and only for a few hours, and thus far I am happy. Worthy to note, nothing has blown me away yet graphics wise.
-Regarding, the Photo Album Page, it is coming along nicely. I believe I will be able to get it fully functional in IE without too much hassle, we will see. I still have many hours left in coding the page, but even now, I would have to say it is the best gallery for viewing my albums. I am excited to finish and release it (and then get back to working on videos).
-Regarding, our softball game tonight, we lost. But it was close, and I hit the ball much much further than I ever have, or thought I could. There was no fence around our field so it will have to be considered an "in the park" home run, but I believe if there was a fence, the ball would have gone over it. This is likely a small accomplishment for many, but a major milestone in my intramural/gym class athletic book of records; in my opinion its equivalence in the high school athletic book of records would be running a sub five minute mile, which I may or may not have done, depending on who you ask.
-Regarding, the file drill at work today, I got to take someone down 3 flights of stairs in the Evac-Chair. It was kind of fun. Worthy to note, I would not want to be the one in an Evac-Chair with me driving.
-Regarding, tonight, I'm done. Good night.
-Regarding, the Photo Album Page, it is coming along nicely. I believe I will be able to get it fully functional in IE without too much hassle, we will see. I still have many hours left in coding the page, but even now, I would have to say it is the best gallery for viewing my albums. I am excited to finish and release it (and then get back to working on videos).
-Regarding, our softball game tonight, we lost. But it was close, and I hit the ball much much further than I ever have, or thought I could. There was no fence around our field so it will have to be considered an "in the park" home run, but I believe if there was a fence, the ball would have gone over it. This is likely a small accomplishment for many, but a major milestone in my intramural/gym class athletic book of records; in my opinion its equivalence in the high school athletic book of records would be running a sub five minute mile, which I may or may not have done, depending on who you ask.
-Regarding, the file drill at work today, I got to take someone down 3 flights of stairs in the Evac-Chair. It was kind of fun. Worthy to note, I would not want to be the one in an Evac-Chair with me driving.
-Regarding, tonight, I'm done. Good night.
Halo 3
September 25, 2007 - 8:54
- Halo 3 - Xbox 360
Halo 3 came out today. I'm definitely not a super star at it like everyone else, but I absolutely can't wait to play it, especially on-line. I didn't pre-order it, but to my surprise this morning, the local Best Buy has it marked as "in stock". We will see if I actually get to pick it up today or not.
simple yet intriguing
September 23, 2007 - 11:4
- Photo Album
Every few hours of every day I think of things I would like to share on this blog. From a quick picture or random observation/thought I get while I'm on the go, to full fledged dissertations on obscure topics; I look very much forward to keeping an official record of me.
With that said, even the small selection of blog posts available clearly demonstrate that when I am working on specific projects , I tend to write very little of anything interesting, especially when they are projects for this site. With the exact cause of this anomaly being unknown, I will go out on a limb with my immediate reaction: I believe that if free time was divided up into a pie, the slice I use for blogging is the same slice I use for projects exclusive to this site.
I decided to really attack the new photo album page. It is one of the most important parts of this site and I just needed to do it to get it over with. I will cautiously state that the page is 65% complete, with there currently being a fatal issue that absolutely nothing happens in any version of Internet Explorer (AHHHHHHHH!!!!). I can comfortably state how uncomfortable I am programming this much in JavaScript. I think the uneasy feeling can be attributed to the vast number of approaches I see to implement the page I want to end up with. I simply had to man up and face these insecurities, and while they still exist, I worry about them so much less than I did before, that is if you can worry about something less than never, ha! If I am able to get what I have done thus far to work in Internet Explorer, than I would say we are going to be golden. I made an executive decision the moment I realized that none of the JavaScript was working in IE; the progress being made on the page was happening at such an accelerated rate, stopping it to troubleshoot compatibility issues seemed premature. I am relying exclusively on Firefox as my testing browser and will worry about IE later. I hope that my expectation that finding and implementing a workable solution will be possible without a complete rewrite, because if I am wrong....that would just suck, big time, not cool.
Let's see, I have a MILLION things I would like to talk about, but will have to leave you with a simple yet intriguing: Good night from the inside.
With that said, even the small selection of blog posts available clearly demonstrate that when I am working on specific projects , I tend to write very little of anything interesting, especially when they are projects for this site. With the exact cause of this anomaly being unknown, I will go out on a limb with my immediate reaction: I believe that if free time was divided up into a pie, the slice I use for blogging is the same slice I use for projects exclusive to this site.
I decided to really attack the new photo album page. It is one of the most important parts of this site and I just needed to do it to get it over with. I will cautiously state that the page is 65% complete, with there currently being a fatal issue that absolutely nothing happens in any version of Internet Explorer (AHHHHHHHH!!!!). I can comfortably state how uncomfortable I am programming this much in JavaScript. I think the uneasy feeling can be attributed to the vast number of approaches I see to implement the page I want to end up with. I simply had to man up and face these insecurities, and while they still exist, I worry about them so much less than I did before, that is if you can worry about something less than never, ha! If I am able to get what I have done thus far to work in Internet Explorer, than I would say we are going to be golden. I made an executive decision the moment I realized that none of the JavaScript was working in IE; the progress being made on the page was happening at such an accelerated rate, stopping it to troubleshoot compatibility issues seemed premature. I am relying exclusively on Firefox as my testing browser and will worry about IE later. I hope that my expectation that finding and implementing a workable solution will be possible without a complete rewrite, because if I am wrong....that would just suck, big time, not cool.
Let's see, I have a MILLION things I would like to talk about, but will have to leave you with a simple yet intriguing: Good night from the inside.
bottom of the 6th
September 16, 2007 - 8:43
- picture album - Lark Fest - Schuyler Park - laundry
This weekend turned out to be a little busier than I had first anticipated. I'm typing this on my friends laptop as we watch the Yankees/sox game but I am sure I will be sound asleep before the conclusion of this exciting series. My laptop is still a little "messed up", as I am fairly confident the logic board needs to be replaced. What to talk about, what to talk about, hmmm...
-I am around 15% done with "pic2.php", the new picture album page I am working on. I have the majority of the main layout all worked out in Photoshop and now just need to code everything. The page will use primarily Javascript. The page will likely display around 36 photos from the selected album, with "on mouse overs" being used to display a bigger version of the thumbnails on that same page. How exciting.
-I went on a nice bike ride with a friend today, we ended up at Schuyler Park, which back in the day was the location of a farm, a stockade, and the Erie Canal. The site served a fairly significant role during the American Revolution. It now plays host to a nice bike path, an apartment complex, a bunch of fields, and a few "history happened here" like signs.
-The weather ending up cooperating enough yesterday to allow a buddy and I to make a day/night out of Lark Fest. It was fun and pretty crowded. By midnight we were spent and def called it an early night.
-I have officially converted to a new "wash n fold" laundromat facility. This choice was made primarily due to better hours. There is nothing better than clean and folded laundry...that you didn't have to clean and fold yourself. There is usually nothing I would rather not do than laundry.
-I received the $100 Apple store gift card thing for early iPhone buyers. I didn't see anything in the store that I really wanted so I hung onto it...I wish I could just apply it to my iPhone bill, as last months was $836...UGGGGG...stomachache city....I feel that I was mislead about the pricing while in Bermuda and on the ship.
-Our softball team is 0 and 2, our coach can't seem to motivate the team enough to get the big W. We have a good team and should not be lose this much.
-I bought the new 50 Cent and Kayne West albums, so far I like Kayne's more, but will not render an official opinion just yet.
-I still think Apple is going to release an "iPad". Once again, it will be an 8.5 x 11 inch version of the iPhone. Did I mention it will have iSight as well? I discussed it with a friend earlier today, I really think there is a market out there and that it could sell @ $2k. Obviously this is complete speculation.
Alright, the game is tied @ 1's, bottom of the 6th...I might make it to the end, but am still doubtful. Have a great evening.
-I am around 15% done with "pic2.php", the new picture album page I am working on. I have the majority of the main layout all worked out in Photoshop and now just need to code everything. The page will use primarily Javascript. The page will likely display around 36 photos from the selected album, with "on mouse overs" being used to display a bigger version of the thumbnails on that same page. How exciting.
-I went on a nice bike ride with a friend today, we ended up at Schuyler Park, which back in the day was the location of a farm, a stockade, and the Erie Canal. The site served a fairly significant role during the American Revolution. It now plays host to a nice bike path, an apartment complex, a bunch of fields, and a few "history happened here" like signs.
-The weather ending up cooperating enough yesterday to allow a buddy and I to make a day/night out of Lark Fest. It was fun and pretty crowded. By midnight we were spent and def called it an early night.
-I have officially converted to a new "wash n fold" laundromat facility. This choice was made primarily due to better hours. There is nothing better than clean and folded laundry...that you didn't have to clean and fold yourself. There is usually nothing I would rather not do than laundry.
-I received the $100 Apple store gift card thing for early iPhone buyers. I didn't see anything in the store that I really wanted so I hung onto it...I wish I could just apply it to my iPhone bill, as last months was $836...UGGGGG...stomachache city....I feel that I was mislead about the pricing while in Bermuda and on the ship.
-Our softball team is 0 and 2, our coach can't seem to motivate the team enough to get the big W. We have a good team and should not be lose this much.
-I bought the new 50 Cent and Kayne West albums, so far I like Kayne's more, but will not render an official opinion just yet.
-I still think Apple is going to release an "iPad". Once again, it will be an 8.5 x 11 inch version of the iPhone. Did I mention it will have iSight as well? I discussed it with a friend earlier today, I really think there is a market out there and that it could sell @ $2k. Obviously this is complete speculation.
Alright, the game is tied @ 1's, bottom of the 6th...I might make it to the end, but am still doubtful. Have a great evening.
This is just a little too crazy for me to handle
September 11, 2007 - 8:58
- iPhone - iTunes - ringtones
I just got done converting some songs in my library to ringtones. Out of all the songs I have purchased, I was given the option of using 117 of them as ringtones. I previously heard that the selection of songs available to be converted to ringtones was pretty limited, but that wasn't my impression. I didn't look on the iTunes store yet to see if there is a master list of albums/songs available to be converted (which would ultimately cost $1.98 from un-boughten song to ringtone), as I was already semi overwhelmed with choosing from my measly 117 purchases that were available to be used.
I ended up converting 9 songs. The process was quick and easy. I think that there might actually be a chance that once you choose your 30 or less second clip to be converted and purchase it, you are limited to that selection, and would have to pay another $0.99 to convert another 30 or less seconds. I am not entirely sure if that is the case, but my initial impression leads me to believe it might be... which is just sooooo funny, because this is the ultimate luxury, so no one will ever have a legitimate reason to complain, and the amount of money that they are going to generate either way over this is crazy.
I never want to put my phone on vibrate again. I want to assign a different song for everyone that calls me (hmmm, already got about 9 too many songs then you say? ha) In a few weeks, once Wireless iTunes, or whatever it is called, comes out; you will be able to meet someone, get their number, download a song that reminds you of them, and assign it to their picture...all without ever leaving your phone. This is just a little too crazy for me to handle. These devices are so small, yet they do so much (that's what she said), you really can't even start to think about what there will be in the next 5,10,15 years...considering the rapid progress seen in the past same amount of years.
Leaving you with a screen shot of ringtones, from the inside, as I get ready for the commencement of Fall Ball Softball tomorrow evening, I bid you a good night.
I ended up converting 9 songs. The process was quick and easy. I think that there might actually be a chance that once you choose your 30 or less second clip to be converted and purchase it, you are limited to that selection, and would have to pay another $0.99 to convert another 30 or less seconds. I am not entirely sure if that is the case, but my initial impression leads me to believe it might be... which is just sooooo funny, because this is the ultimate luxury, so no one will ever have a legitimate reason to complain, and the amount of money that they are going to generate either way over this is crazy.
I never want to put my phone on vibrate again. I want to assign a different song for everyone that calls me (hmmm, already got about 9 too many songs then you say? ha) In a few weeks, once Wireless iTunes, or whatever it is called, comes out; you will be able to meet someone, get their number, download a song that reminds you of them, and assign it to their picture...all without ever leaving your phone. This is just a little too crazy for me to handle. These devices are so small, yet they do so much (that's what she said), you really can't even start to think about what there will be in the next 5,10,15 years...considering the rapid progress seen in the past same amount of years.
Leaving you with a screen shot of ringtones, from the inside, as I get ready for the commencement of Fall Ball Softball tomorrow evening, I bid you a good night.
Splash 8.41
September 10, 2007 - 10:17
- Splash - AJAX
[This will be boring to everyone]
I have updated the sites current index page, splash 8.41 is now live.
Updates include:
-The user name submission input in the user information box (displayed when a user is logged in) now uses AJAX. The page is not refreshed when the submit button is clicked.
Worthy to note, I have decided to take out the use of AJAX for user login for the main (splash) page. This decision was primarily made due to multiple parts of the main page relaying on whether or not a user is logged in. Implementing an AJAX approach would have required me to update all of those different sections whenever a login or logout occurred. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it (especially when so many other things are broke or simply missing)"
I have decided to focus my coding attention to a new picture page. I have placed a link to the one I was previously working on in the right column. It offers a different option for navigating photo albums, but you will see it's shortcomings are bountiful. If you think an album's thumbnails are taking a while to load, scroll down, as you will likely see the progress. I am going to scrap this page in lieu of a new layout I have been thinking about.
Any feedback regarding personal preferences for online photo browsing are welcome.
sleepy and full, good night.
I have updated the sites current index page, splash 8.41 is now live.
Updates include:
-The user name submission input in the user information box (displayed when a user is logged in) now uses AJAX. The page is not refreshed when the submit button is clicked.
Worthy to note, I have decided to take out the use of AJAX for user login for the main (splash) page. This decision was primarily made due to multiple parts of the main page relaying on whether or not a user is logged in. Implementing an AJAX approach would have required me to update all of those different sections whenever a login or logout occurred. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it (especially when so many other things are broke or simply missing)"
I have decided to focus my coding attention to a new picture page. I have placed a link to the one I was previously working on in the right column. It offers a different option for navigating photo albums, but you will see it's shortcomings are bountiful. If you think an album's thumbnails are taking a while to load, scroll down, as you will likely see the progress. I am going to scrap this page in lieu of a new layout I have been thinking about.
Any feedback regarding personal preferences for online photo browsing are welcome.
sleepy and full, good night.
non notable yet enjoyable weekend
September 9, 2007 - 10:37
- US Soccer - Xbox 360 - AJAX
I have had a fulfilling weekend doing many different things, I am currently a tad tired, or maybe just lazy, and don't really feel like typing about much.
-I bought Madden 08 for Xbox 360. Not being a huge football video game fan, I can say I like it.
-I went for a bike ride with a friend that extended a little over 2 hours and 20 miles, throughout rain and shine, it was nice.
-I spent a little more than a handful of hours implementing AJAX in yet to be released Splash 8.4, I have so far converted over the main user login function and the selection of a username function, to use AJAX. I am very pleased with the results so far.
-I worked on a little video editing, primarily on video from Summer 2002.
-My DVR only recorded the first half of USA vs Brazil...I thought we looked very competitive the first half and am saddened by the fact that I was unable to watch the second half. I need to clear out some shows on the DVR's hard drive.
Those are some notable highlights from a non notable yet enjoyable weekend. Good night.
-I bought Madden 08 for Xbox 360. Not being a huge football video game fan, I can say I like it.
-I went for a bike ride with a friend that extended a little over 2 hours and 20 miles, throughout rain and shine, it was nice.
-I spent a little more than a handful of hours implementing AJAX in yet to be released Splash 8.4, I have so far converted over the main user login function and the selection of a username function, to use AJAX. I am very pleased with the results so far.
-I worked on a little video editing, primarily on video from Summer 2002.
-My DVR only recorded the first half of USA vs Brazil...I thought we looked very competitive the first half and am saddened by the fact that I was unable to watch the second half. I need to clear out some shows on the DVR's hard drive.
Those are some notable highlights from a non notable yet enjoyable weekend. Good night.
a ton of brass
September 5, 2007 - 10:16
- Apple - iPhone - iPod - Nano
I watched Apple's announcements today via Engadget's live text/picture stream, I was pretty impressed with everything, although nothing really floored me. I had the chance to discuss the new product releases over a long bike ride and then diner with a good computer friend of mine (The only difference between a good friend and a good computer friend is that the latter, in most cases, is smarter). I think we are both on the fence on whether or not the iPod Touch is worth the $299 and $399 prices, while both agreeing that the new Nano is definitely a good grab.
I was very surprised about the iPhone price drop. I knew I took a chance when I got the phone so soon after it's release, but I figured I would be burnt by Apple releasing a super updated device hardware wise, opposed to such a significant price drop. I am not mad in the least about having to pay the old price. In my opinion, the device is worth twice of what I paid and the more they sell, the more driven they will be to keep releasing new applications for it. I am actually happier that it was a price drop, opposed to a new iPhone model. Just the thought of having more memory, or maybe a flash for the camera...
I don't think it is too hard to picture almost the entire line of iPods someday having Wi-Fi, which will just mean an onslaught of amazing applications that will work on iPod Touchs and iPhones alike. This is really the best part of the whole thing. Apples release of the iTune Wi-Fi Store today is the first new application that they are releasing for the iPhone, I can only imagine all the new things that must be under works. Unlike previous cell phones, I expect this one to have fairly significant software updates throughout it's life, which is pretty exciting.
I'm also excited about the ringtones feature, it's funny to image all the people that are going to spend an extra $0.99 just to convert a song into a ringtone, I know I will be guilty of doing that many times over. I wonder who is going to get that extra money? Maybe Apple will give it do the labels, in an effort to keep their content providers happy, so hopefully all of them won't end up like the greedy idiots at Universal and NBC.
So, at the end of the day, I am happy. I want a Nano, but I'm going to wait to get one as a gift, from you, so...silver or blue please, and maybe one of the Red ones, who can resist a good cause.
That was my little run down, I leave you with a picture of a band that was playing at a bar I went to dinner at last night with a friend, the stage at the bar isn't too big, but there were like 16 instruments, making it more like a mini orchestra! There was a ton of brass, some percussion, and one or two strings, it was really cool:
Have a good night, and for info on where to send the Nano, send me a comment and I will email you my contact info.
I was very surprised about the iPhone price drop. I knew I took a chance when I got the phone so soon after it's release, but I figured I would be burnt by Apple releasing a super updated device hardware wise, opposed to such a significant price drop. I am not mad in the least about having to pay the old price. In my opinion, the device is worth twice of what I paid and the more they sell, the more driven they will be to keep releasing new applications for it. I am actually happier that it was a price drop, opposed to a new iPhone model. Just the thought of having more memory, or maybe a flash for the camera...
I don't think it is too hard to picture almost the entire line of iPods someday having Wi-Fi, which will just mean an onslaught of amazing applications that will work on iPod Touchs and iPhones alike. This is really the best part of the whole thing. Apples release of the iTune Wi-Fi Store today is the first new application that they are releasing for the iPhone, I can only imagine all the new things that must be under works. Unlike previous cell phones, I expect this one to have fairly significant software updates throughout it's life, which is pretty exciting.
I'm also excited about the ringtones feature, it's funny to image all the people that are going to spend an extra $0.99 just to convert a song into a ringtone, I know I will be guilty of doing that many times over. I wonder who is going to get that extra money? Maybe Apple will give it do the labels, in an effort to keep their content providers happy, so hopefully all of them won't end up like the greedy idiots at Universal and NBC.
So, at the end of the day, I am happy. I want a Nano, but I'm going to wait to get one as a gift, from you, so...silver or blue please, and maybe one of the Red ones, who can resist a good cause.
That was my little run down, I leave you with a picture of a band that was playing at a bar I went to dinner at last night with a friend, the stage at the bar isn't too big, but there were like 16 instruments, making it more like a mini orchestra! There was a ton of brass, some percussion, and one or two strings, it was really cool:
Have a good night, and for info on where to send the Nano, send me a comment and I will email you my contact info.
There is more, but I just need to sleep
September 3, 2007 - 11:45
- Bermuda - Explorer of the Seas - After Effects - AJAX - Apple
The cruise was great. Overall, it was very relaxing, a quality many vacations often lack. The boat was huge and the amenities were plentiful. The ship, Explorer of the Seas, is new; with it's maiden voyage being in 2000. When I noticed all of the things in my room bearing the ships name, I initially thought that Royal Caribbean was simply acknowledging the fact that I myself was an explorer who happened to be at sea. When I later realized that no such acknowledgment had in fact taken place and that every room likely bared such items, I was not disappointed. I have posted some photos from the trip, the majority are ones I took, with there being some that my Mom took on her camera. Worthy to note, I really like being able to get someone else's entire "digital roll" of film from a trip I was also on. Not only was it nice having some of the very good shots my Mom took, but it is cool seeing the entire trip you were on through another persons eyes.
Here is a picture of our assistant waitress cutting my food for me. It's funny on its face, but even funnier because historically, cutting my food is my least favorite part about eating. Her name is Oana, pronounced as wanna:
Here is a picture of me in my new favorite hat:
The extended weekend I faced after returning to the inside Friday was nothing like the relaxing atmosphere I had just departed. I received phone calls from two different college friends during the cruise, each stating they were looking to visit during the weekend.My one friend and I went out pretty hard Friday night and had a great time. The next two days my other buddy and I really took advantage of the great weather as we hit up Grafton Lake State Park to walk some of the trails and then took a long bike tour around the city and then along the Hudson. We bought enough awesome food to grill that we were actually still able to make it out for a few hours each night. It was a really great weekend.
A picture of the ping pong table we moved outside:
[The rest of this post will likely be considered more boring than what you have just read, proceed with caution, if at all]
After being pretty lazy for the most part of the day, I finished a sequence for the New Orleans video slide show. This project is really just turning into a big sandbox, where I am trying out a ton of different ideas really quickly, that I would later slow down and use in future projects. Due to this, I will not spend an incredibly long amount of time polishing up some scenes that I see minor problems with when I watch it. I bought an After Effects book prior to the trip, it has proven to be a good investment, it has a lot of screen shots so it was actually useful even without the computer in front of me.
I got an urge to jump back into AJAX today, fear not, I resisted. I have some housecleaning I would like to do on this site, as well as some long overdue implementation of basic site functionality (looking up a forgotten password, blog comments in blog page, the list goes on forever...). I am fairly confident an AJAX approach will really get me the results I am looking for. And then there is the new picture page I have had on the back burner for a month or two...I am not too far from finishing it, but really need to figure out the best way to load a decent number of pictures in a reasonable amount of time, while also maintaining a snappy user interface. I might dabble a little bit more with AJAX in the near future, my last efforts bared me a fully functioning AJAX "set up" of pages but it was all proof of concept, as I quickly learned I was pursuing the wrong approach to what I was working on (Photo Album Bar on main page). With the kind of things I am now looking to work on, an AJAX approach is definitely appropriate, as everything will require the interaction of the server side database. With all that said there is a good chance that I will avoid any coding distractions as I continue my push on Discomentary Volume 1.
Well, I am tired.
Final thoughts you ask...?
-2 days until September 5th, I am very interested to see what Apple will release, with almost all speculation pointing at significantly improved iPods.
-I am VERY MAD at NBC. I blame them for the breakdown of talks regarding their content being on iTunes. I already bought a few Office seasons as well as all of Heros season 1, and now I can't continue my collection in the same format as what I already have. UGGGG to them.
[end of "more boring" stuff]
There is more, but I just need to sleep...from me, to you, inside to out, good night.
Here is a picture of our assistant waitress cutting my food for me. It's funny on its face, but even funnier because historically, cutting my food is my least favorite part about eating. Her name is Oana, pronounced as wanna:
Here is a picture of me in my new favorite hat:
The extended weekend I faced after returning to the inside Friday was nothing like the relaxing atmosphere I had just departed. I received phone calls from two different college friends during the cruise, each stating they were looking to visit during the weekend.My one friend and I went out pretty hard Friday night and had a great time. The next two days my other buddy and I really took advantage of the great weather as we hit up Grafton Lake State Park to walk some of the trails and then took a long bike tour around the city and then along the Hudson. We bought enough awesome food to grill that we were actually still able to make it out for a few hours each night. It was a really great weekend.
A picture of the ping pong table we moved outside:
[The rest of this post will likely be considered more boring than what you have just read, proceed with caution, if at all]
After being pretty lazy for the most part of the day, I finished a sequence for the New Orleans video slide show. This project is really just turning into a big sandbox, where I am trying out a ton of different ideas really quickly, that I would later slow down and use in future projects. Due to this, I will not spend an incredibly long amount of time polishing up some scenes that I see minor problems with when I watch it. I bought an After Effects book prior to the trip, it has proven to be a good investment, it has a lot of screen shots so it was actually useful even without the computer in front of me.
I got an urge to jump back into AJAX today, fear not, I resisted. I have some housecleaning I would like to do on this site, as well as some long overdue implementation of basic site functionality (looking up a forgotten password, blog comments in blog page, the list goes on forever...). I am fairly confident an AJAX approach will really get me the results I am looking for. And then there is the new picture page I have had on the back burner for a month or two...I am not too far from finishing it, but really need to figure out the best way to load a decent number of pictures in a reasonable amount of time, while also maintaining a snappy user interface. I might dabble a little bit more with AJAX in the near future, my last efforts bared me a fully functioning AJAX "set up" of pages but it was all proof of concept, as I quickly learned I was pursuing the wrong approach to what I was working on (Photo Album Bar on main page). With the kind of things I am now looking to work on, an AJAX approach is definitely appropriate, as everything will require the interaction of the server side database. With all that said there is a good chance that I will avoid any coding distractions as I continue my push on Discomentary Volume 1.
Well, I am tired.
Final thoughts you ask...?
-2 days until September 5th, I am very interested to see what Apple will release, with almost all speculation pointing at significantly improved iPods.
-I am VERY MAD at NBC. I blame them for the breakdown of talks regarding their content being on iTunes. I already bought a few Office seasons as well as all of Heros season 1, and now I can't continue my collection in the same format as what I already have. UGGGG to them.
[end of "more boring" stuff]
There is more, but I just need to sleep...from me, to you, inside to out, good night.
7,10,11,12,13,21
August 30, 2007 - 9:51
- Bermuda - casino - Soccer
I lay here in bed with the balconey door open, listening to the rather rough ocean, thinking about how I will spend this final day at sea. I have stratgicly limited my time in the casino so I could look to make a big run when the timing was just right, that day is today. I still havent finalized my plan of attack, but I may stray from my usual pattern of wearing down the casino in blackjack so I can deliver the knockout punch in roulette. Worthy to note, my single most amazing casino run happened almost exactley a year ago on a cruise to Mexico. The things that happened that day will likely never be recreated or surpassed. I think I will run a little craps today, maybe even before blackjack, such an uncharecteristic move on my part could potentially put the casino on its heels, allowing me to blitzkrieg the bank with little to no opposition from the Romanians who I have historically found to make up the majority of cruise casino staff.
There has been a ton of soccer on during the cruise, currently I'm watching a UEFA qualifier match between Arsenal and Sparta. I am still amazed about how much higher the level of competition is in pretty much any league and then the MLS. Very worthy to note though is the equalizer goal via bicycle kick from Klien of LA Galexy during their eventual penalty kick loss during yesterdays championship game against a team and a tournament who's names currently escape me. Also worthy to note is Beckhams new knee strain injury, I really hope he isn't out too long, he is obviously a superb soccer player as well as an all around good person.
Well I think i might get out of bed, lunch with the parents in about an hour and then likely the casino. I believe i have already determined the staple numbers to be used during roulette!
There has been a ton of soccer on during the cruise, currently I'm watching a UEFA qualifier match between Arsenal and Sparta. I am still amazed about how much higher the level of competition is in pretty much any league and then the MLS. Very worthy to note though is the equalizer goal via bicycle kick from Klien of LA Galexy during their eventual penalty kick loss during yesterdays championship game against a team and a tournament who's names currently escape me. Also worthy to note is Beckhams new knee strain injury, I really hope he isn't out too long, he is obviously a superb soccer player as well as an all around good person.
Well I think i might get out of bed, lunch with the parents in about an hour and then likely the casino. I believe i have already determined the staple numbers to be used during roulette!
Bermuda
August 28, 2007 - 15:31
- Horseshoe Beach - Bermuda
Dear diary,
I am so happy that I am able to write to you via the iPhone. We arrived at Kings Wharf, Bermuda this morning. This is an amazing island country with crystal clear bluish/green water that i have only heard about prior to today. My parents and I took a bus to Horseshoe Beach, a popular hotspot. Th
I am so happy that I am able to write to you via the iPhone. We arrived at Kings Wharf, Bermuda this morning. This is an amazing island country with crystal clear bluish/green water that i have only heard about prior to today. My parents and I took a bus to Horseshoe Beach, a popular hotspot. Th