Ajax
I’m looking for a project to write in PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and Ajax during my break from school. Does anyone out there know of a decent project that they would like to see written, or know of a project using those languages that I could pitch in and help out on? I’ve got 4 Ajax books, and I plan on reading through all of them to learn Ajax, but I need a project to work on.
Ideas?
Thoughts?
PS: Yes. I learn new languages for the fun of it. The languages that I’ve taught to myself over the years include: BASIC, C, C++, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, SQL, Shell scripting, and Java. It’s time to learn something new!
Fighting Spam
Some sorry fuckers out there have started leaving trackback links to my blog from various porn, health, mortgage, and other spammy businesses. I get notified of all comments and trackbacks, so I can remove them as soon as I get the email, but it’s becoming a pain in the ass. I’ve decided to install some anti-spam plugins to (hopefully) help combat the sorry ass spammers.
It might block some legitimate comments, but I hope to keep that to a minimum. If you’re a friend, and you suddenly can’t comment, drop me an IM. If you’re a friend, you know what it is. If you’re not a friend, then you don’t have it, and don’t need it.
WoW! What A Failure!
I’m a failure at World of Warcraft. Well, not really a failure. I prefer to think of it as WoW failing to meet my expectations. I just couldn’t get into the game. It was fun for the first 10 hours, but it got really repetitive after that. Sure, there are quests, but there are three basic types of quests:
- Fetch X number of items from monsters.
- Kill X number of Z types of monsters.
- Carry an item/message to another person.
There are only so many different ways that those three things can be done. There are a few other odd quests that were really neat, but they were few and far between. I guess the main problem that I had with the quests were that they were really the only way to level quickly, and you spend quite a bit of time on the road getting the quests done. I noticed that the higher my level got, the farther I had to travel to get the quests done. Higher levels should mean more difficult challenges, not wasting even more time on travel. I shudder to think how much time I would spend on the road at level 40 to complete a quest. That prospect is one of the main reasons that I’m no longer going to play the game.
Another part of the game was the daily grind of killing monsters for experience. Sure, that’s part of the game, but I find that boring these days. There just isn’t enough fun in doing this over and over and over and over. Either the monsters are too hard, team up with each other (thus leading to my repeated death), or they were too easy and didn’t yield enough experience.
I know. I know. I’m supposed to group to go out and have fun. The idea of teaming up with total strangers with questionable ability and intelligence just doesn’t appeal to me. Even when I was in the height of my mudding days, I rarely grouped with unknown people. I guess I’m a bit antisocial when it comes to interacting with people online. The two times that I did group, it was with much more experienced (but not higher level) people than me. I was basically led around by the nose, and I helped them kill monsters that they started fights with. I felt more like dead weight than an actual group member even though our levels were fairly even.
I do have some friends that play, and I could group with them. Their characters are much higher level than mine, and I didn’t feel like tagging along with them in their higher level places, and I’m not going to ask them to waste their time with me in the newbie areas. Just isn’t going to happen.
The final reason for me quitting WoW is that we can’t afford the monthly fees that they charge. They’re not outrageous fees. I actually think that they are quite reasonable, but we’re paying two mortgages right now. That extra $15 is just enough to make it difficult to pay the bills. I just can’t justify paying for a game that I’m not enjoying.
Spice. Jhianna. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get into the game that I know that the both of you love so much. I would have loved to have played with you wonderful ladies, but it just ain’t gonna happen.
MySpace
Yes, I’ve joined the cult of MySpace. I created a profile a while back, but Craing’s involvement in the site drew me in. I’ve found all of the friends that I can find that have a MySpace page, and I’ve requested that they add me to their friends list in MySpace. It’s all of four people right now, but it’s growing.
I won’t be abandoning this site for my blog in favor of MySpace. I prefer to keep things like this under my own control. I do need to find a way to link MySpace back to this blog, though. I’m not quite sure why I did the MySpace thing, but I did.
Lately I’ve noticed that the news reporters have been trolling MySpace for information about criminals, and using that as “news.” Seems rather lazy to me. Maybe I just made some reporter’s news writing easier for a future article when I lose control of my senses and run out to do something evil. Nah. I doubt that’ll happen.
Anyway, if you want to check out my MySpace page, you can find it here. Yeah. I know. I’m still using the same name there that I am here. I’ve been using “Beosig” for ages, and I’m not going to stop now. Someday I’ll let you in on the background behind the name. Maybe.
Road Rage
I had an interesting time on the way into work this morning. I was passing a line of cars that were going slowly in the left lane. I came around a bend, and I figured out why. There was a semi in the right lane, and a car passing the semi. However, the car was passing the semi very, very, very slowly. I decided that the left lane (going slightly faster than the right lane) was the place to be. A gap in the cars opened up as a red Chevy Avalanche made up to be a Cadillac slowed down. I signaled, checked my blind spot, and merged left.
I must have really upset Mr. Cadillac. Next thing I know, he was on my tail, flashing his brights, and honking his (rather pathetic sounding) horn. I guess the three car lengths that I had open between my rear bumper and his front bumper just weren’t enough. The guy continues to tailgate me as we pass the semi, and I decide, “Fuck this guy.” I know it was an asshole thing to do, but I slowed down just before passing the semi, and I made the guy wait there about two minutes. Then I realized that I was holding up more traffic than just Mr. Cadillac, so I sped up to the speed limit.
Mr. Cadillac got in the right lane after passing the semi, and pulled up next to me. I have tinted windows. He had tinted windows. I couldn’t see him, but I was certain that he was making rude gestures at me. He surged past me a few times, but never changed lanes because we always hit slower traffic right about the point that he tried to pass me. We finally hit an open stretch of roadway, and he passed me. As soon as he was past me, he cut me off and slammed on his brakes. What the moron didn’t realize is that his big truck-like vehicle can’t keep up with my sports car. I changed lanes to get around him, down-shifted, and floored it. He was a little red car in my rear view mirror before long.
I finally slowed down to the speed limit, and I figured that the gap that I put between us would be plenty to keep the guy away from me until we reached our exit off of the Interstate. I was wrong. The guy had a point to prove. Mr. Cadillac sped past me right as we entered a construction zone, and sped off into the traffic. I didn’t care. I was actually kind of hoping that he would get pulled over for being an idiot.
A mile or two down the road, I saw the flashing lights of a police officer pulling someone over, but it wasn’t Mr. Cadillac. He managed to squeak through the construction zone unscathed. I didn’t see him exit the Interstate, but I was glad to be rid of him. What a tweak.
Fred
The first pet that I ever had that was all my own was a hamster named Fred. I got him from a cousin of mine who’s mom was making him get rid of it. I got Fred, a cage, and some tube mazes for him for around $10. It was one of the best $10 that I’ve ever spent. Fred was friendly, sociable, and very active. He was a great pet for a 10 year old to have. I had many shirts that had pockets on the chest, and Fred would spend countless hours curled up inside those pockets sleeping away while I did homework, read a book, or watched TV.
Fred was also an escape artist. It seemed that no matter what steps we took to keep him in his cage, he would escape on a regular basis. The only way that we had to catch him was for me to sleep on the floor in the room that we kept his cage in. I would grab a blanket or two, and a pillow. I would sleep in one of those shirts with the pockets on it. Sometime during the night, he would crawl on top of me, and burrow into the pocket. Once he was situated, he would fall fast asleep in my pocket. I would get up in the morning to find his little pink nose sticking out of the pocket to greet me. He was a great hamster.
I remember the day that he died quite vividly. He had passed away sometime in the night, and my grandmother was frantic about how to replace him without me knowing. She always tried to shelter me from the hardships of life, but that’s another story for another time. We were getting ready to go to the big Little League season-ending wrap-up party were awards were given out, and the rankings for the season were announced. I went to Fred’s cage to tell him goodbye, and that I would be back after the party. That’s when I found his cold little body lying rigidly on the floor of his cage.
I was crushed.
The first thing, other than family, that I had loved was gone. I spent the entire Little League party sitting on a bench alone just crying my eyes out. There had been times in my life up to this point that I had cried. Skinned knees. Not being allowed to play with my friends. Being forced to stay at home when I wanted to go out. Little things. This was the first major thing in my life that I had cried over.
When we got back from the party, my grandfather suggested a funeral for Fred. He knew that it would bring me closure, and help me start to heal. I didn’t know this at the time, but he was entirely right. We got a shoe-box that I padded with tissues, and placed Fred’s cold little body into the box. We put the lid on the box, grabbed two shovels, and picked a place under the peach trees to put Fred to rest. Even though this was over two decades ago, I know that I can still find that spot without any effort. I know exactly where it is at.
After burying Fred, my grandfather told me to say a few words to wish Fred on his way. I choked up so hard that I could only utter, “Fred, you were the best…” I couldn’t say anything more, but it summed up Fred as best as I could.
I’ve had many pets over the years since then, but none of them have ever replaced the love that I felt for Fred.
Muscle Men
Wow. Just had a another flashback to my childhood, and I have no idea where it came from. It came unbidden from the depths of my memories like a baseball bat to the back of the head. You don’t see it coming, and it hits you hard.
There were these cheap toys called “Muscle Men” that came out when I was around 10 or 11 years old. They were these tiny little men made of flesh-colored rubber. There were all sorts. I loved playing with them. I had several dozen, and I was nowhere near to collecting all 200+ different ones. I’m not sure where my mom found them, but I loved playing with them all the time.
Now for a bit of geekiness. I decided to make a tournament ladder for all of the Muscle Men. I had names for them all, and I setup a tournament-style competition between them all. I would make them hit each other, and tackle each other, and do all sorts of wrestling moves for them. I never would decide who would be the winner before the fight. I would let my imagination run free with the fight, and one of them would always win. I would note the winner on my tournament tree, and move on to the next fight.
I had a great time playing with all of them. I don’t know what happened to them. They got lost somewhere along the way in one of the many moves of my childhood. Ah… well… Such is life.
Beer Makes The World Go ‘Round
Yesterday was a pretty good day, but it was really busy. I managed to stay on top of all of my tasks until the end of the day when I found out that a program that I had finished wasn’t built to the specs that were required. I was given one set of specs while the rest of the team was given a different set. This made the end of the day horrible, and it really stressed me out.
I was in a bad mood until I got home, and Kiara had a cat club holiday thing to attend. That left me at the house all alone with a good chunk of TV shows recorded. I decided that last night would be a good time to drink a beer, then another, then another, then… Well, you get the point. Life got much better halfway through the fourth beer. The world began to spin with the fifth beer, so I stopped at that point.
As my beer buzz began to fade, I decided to head to bed. I slept like a rock until around 4:30. The beer that I had came back to haunt me. I had to hit the bathroom and pee like a Russian race horse. One I relieved that problem, I was able to get back to bed, and I slept fairly well the rest of the night.
I usually wait until Friday to do some drinking to unwind for the week, but I just couldn’t wait this time.
Childhood Flashback
Last week I was driving behind a large truck that had the standard truck bed removed and replaced with a large metal flat-bed structure. The custom-made bed was made of diamond plate. It reminded me of an episode of American Chopper where Paul, Jr. made a “soap box” derby car for an employee’s daughter to race. He did such a kick ass job on the derby car out of the diamond plate that I was very impressed. The girl ended up winning the race, but that’s not the point of this story….
It got me to thinking about an event that my Cub Scout troop participated in over 20 years ago. I grew up in West Texas where the landscape is flat and boring. There are no hills to race cars down, so we ended up at the airport where there were vast expanses of flat asphalt. We would have three-man teams. One person would drive while the other two would push the car. The length of the run was divided into three sections. At the end of each section, we’d stop the car and swap people around, so that each person had a chance to drive. I don’t remember what place we came in during the competition, but I seem to recall that we didn’t do very well.
My one lasting memory of that day is a boy was running alongside the track cheering on his team. He wasn’t watching where he was going, and then another boy stepped out in front of him. The first boy plowed into the second one at full speed, and they went down in a heap. When they were separated, they were both bloody on the knees, elbows, and other parts. They came up crying. I remember feeling so sorry for the both of them because it was purely an accident, and they were really hurting. There were no severe injuries, but asphalt burns on the joints really, really suck for days on end.
Just writing this reminds me of lots of different things that I did in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. They were some good times. It makes me wish that I had stuck with the Boy Scouts to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Instead, I only made it to First Class Scout shortly before I quit the Boy Scouts. Ahh well… Such is life. Too late to turn back on that one now.
Crunch TIme!
I have two classes coming to a close this week.
Web and E-Commerce Security
I’m taking this class GIS. I didn’t really learn a whole lot from the class because I’m already pretty well versed in this area. I’ve been doing web development for 12 years now, and I’ve been heavily interested in security for the past 7 years. I’ve combined the two of them for quite some time. I didn’t expect much from the class going into it, but I did learn a few minor things. I’m glad that I took the class, but I would have rather taken it online or in-class. That just wasn’t an option because not enough people are interested in the class. Ahh.. welll.. No biggie. I still get my credits, and I hope to get an ‘A’ out of the class to boost my GPA even higher. I just finished the final for the class today, so I’m free and clear of this class. That lets me concentrate on what I need to do in my other class.
Early Christian Ireland 431-1169
I’ve really enjoyed this class. It’s given me a great amount of information on the language, society, culture, and politics of early Ireland. I plan on using some of that knowledge in my D&D world, Lauremor. Now comes the hard part. I have to write four essays as the final for this class. Each one has to 800-1000 words in length. The problem that I have with these essays is that my writing style is very short and to the point. I can crank out 300-500 words on a topic without a problem. Once I get beyond 550-600, I start to have trouble. The topics of the essays are archaeology, history, literature, and an “interdisciplinary” writing. I have until next Saturday to get them done, but I’m going to shoot for doing one writing per night to get them all done by Thursday night. I know I won’t keep to this schedule, but if I slip a little, then I think I’ll still be able to finish them all by Saturday.
