Entry for June 20 2009 @ 10:58:18 pm EST
Howdy, y'all! I just finished the first version of my brand-spanking new Gallery script. And this time, it was more or less original! Whoooo.
Ok, ok, a little over the top, I know. Anyway, the only real caveat is that the script requires JavaScript to be enabled in order to function at all. Sorry, kids, dem's be the breaks. If'n YOU know a better way to dynamically change an HTML page once it's already been served, let me know, 'cause I want to learn it.
Anyway, enjoy the whopping three pictures I have. As I get more, I'll upload them.
Ciao! :)
Entry for June 19 2009 @ 9:24:56 pm EST
So, what do you think? I've got most of the new site coded. I think it looks a ton better than the previous version. The code-behind is definitely a lot cleaner. The page structure is cleaner. And I normalized the database a little bit better.
So, all-in-all, the redesign has been going pretty good, I'd say. What do you think? Register if you have an opinion, post if you've already registered.
:D
Entry for May 28 2009 @ 12:22:00 pm EST
Since we last met, no? Well, Louie has been muy busy. It's not easy being the creative side of a rather dull individual...
:)
Anyway, I just thought I'd stop on by an' let you all know I didn't forget you. I've jut been busy busy busy. Anarchy doesn't create itself, y'know. Chaos takes a lot of effort. I'm finally making some progress, so I should have time to post more soon. Also, be ready for a slight redesign. I like the overall look of me site, but a little change never hurt anyone, right?
k, buh-bye now!
:D
Entry for December 21 2008 @ 8:36:00 pm EST
To say the last few years of winter here in the good ole' state of Michigan have been mild is putting it lightly. It seems like it has been over a decade since we were last handed our collective asses by Mother Nature. Well, as of Friday, I would say that streak has been broken.
I can't remember the last time it was this cold and windy and snowing for so long. I know I was a heck of a lot younger. What I wouldn't give for those snow pants about now...
On a completely unrelated note, has anyone else listened to the new Coldplay album? I'm normally not a fan, but that stupid Viva La Vida
song has been stuck in my head since I saw the music video on VH1 last night. D'oh!
Oh, well...
Entry for November 17 2008 @ 2:13:00 pm EST
Wow. I did not post a single entry for October. The last entry was from September. Hoo-wah. That's bad...
So, today's topic: Breakfast!
Q: What is your favorite breakfast?
A: Omelets! Especially Western and Farmer's omelets.
Q: Sides?
A: Hash browns! English muffin bread! With lots and lots of butter. Hmmm...
If you can't tell, I'm kinda hungry...
:)
Entry for September 12 2008 @ 7:21:00 pm EST
I've been doing a lot of dev work on GeeksNeverSleep.com, and have discovered some nice tricks I didn't know before. Therefore, in the coming weeks I will be slowly rebuilding each of the pages on LouieSpeaks! to take advantage of this new knowledge.
So, if you see some weird stuff, it's probably just me updating a page and working the bugs out...
Whoopee...
:)
Entry for August 29 2008 @ 11:51:00 pm EST
Well, today was certainly interesting. I think I spent all of about 10 minutes in the computer lab. The other 7 hours and change I spent running up and down stairs, helping my school's IT department re-image the various PCs we have scattered around campus. Up, down, round and round...
Suppose it was better than sitting around bored in the lab. Feel kind of sorry for those IT guys, too. I left at 7pm (no overtime for me), and they were anticipating being there 'til very, very late. Like, tomorrow late. Yeesh. Nothing like being screwed over by someone else's inability to plan properly...
On a side note: Fall semester starts Tuesday. Woo. Hoo. Hold. Me. Back...
:p
Entry for August 18 2008 @ 6:41:00 pm EST
Talk about too much of a good thing...
I've been trying to get another job for quite some now, and have been rather unsuccessful. After a while, you just kind of give up, right?
Well, all of a sudden, my fortunes seem to have been reversed. I have somehow come upon the opportunity to get not one, not two, but three different jobs. Two of those jobs are real jobs, too!
Problem is, those real
jobs are for what you might consider competing
companies, so I couldn't do both, even if I could somehow re-arrange my schedule. So... I will have to probably choose one and tell the other, Sorry!
D'oh! Why can't life be easier....?
:p
Entry for August 14 2008 @ 5:24:00 pm EST
Going down the only road I've ever known.
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.
I've made up my mind, ain't wasting no more time...
Here I go again...
:)
Entry for July 24 2008 @ 2:04:00 pm EST
Louie hates stinky people. So do I. I mean, come on! It takes as little as five minutes to bathe in the morning. A little shampoo here, a little soap there, an' viola! No stink!
It probably doesn't help that I have fairly sensitive sinuses. I've been known to hyperventilate if there is too much fragrance in the air, like you find when you walk down the laundry aisle in a typical grocery store. I can't sit next to someone who smells as if he or she took a dip in a vat of cologne or perfume.
But what I REALLY can't stand is someone who smells as if he or she hasn't seen a shower or bathtub since Jimmy Carter was in office...
Bleh. Where's Febreeze when you need it?
:p
Entry for July 16 2008 @ 6:03:00 pm EST
Seeing as I work in a computer lab, and interact with students all day, it should come as no surprise that I have developed some opinions about the state of our various educational systems. And truth be told, not many of my opinions are favorable...
I am perhaps assuming too much here, but I always assumed that if a student is granted a diploma by an institution, that student should possess at least cursory skills in things like doing homework, reading, basic math. But, true to form, assuming
anything is a bad idea. It's quite common for students to come into the lab, and be barely capable of working on their own. These students seem to think tutor
is a French word for person who does my homework for me.
Needless to say, I find this annoying. I work on my own. I struggle. I get mad. Then, suddenly, everything makes sense! And the struggle to get to that point is what helps me retain that knowledge...
I suppose I may just be attempting to apply my own personal ethics and motivations to people who are nothing like me. Maybe some people are in school purely because they don't know what else to do. Maybe they are here because their friends are here.
Maybe they should try harder!
:)
Entry for July 13 2008 @ 8:58:00 pm EST
Well, I said I would post more, but it appears that was an unintentional fib. I kinda got a little distracted. I've been working on a website that I'm practically giving away. And... I figured out how to get AOE II to run on Vista without any problems. So..... that's what I've been doing.
Sorry!
:)
Entry for July 3 2008 @ 12:48:00 am EST
Wow. A little over two weeks. That's how long it has been since I last posted...
In my defense, I've had two things working against me:
1) I had a school project that took way more attention than I thought it would.
2) I have been working on adding comments and other little widgets to my other site, GeeksNeverSleep.com. I was also adding a little more content...
So, again, I apologize. I will try to post on a slightly more regular schedule. Lord knows I don't want to disappoint my handful of readers...
:)
Entry for June 14 2008 @ 1:09:00 am EST
Ow.
That sound you just heard? It was me running smack into a wall of ignorance. Luckily for me, it was a personal faux pass , and not something glaringly obvious to anyone who knows me...
So, what was this great transgression, you ask? It can be summed up in three simple words: Lack Of Planning.
I returned to school, oh, about four years ago. I knew I wanted to learn something useful, and I've always loved anything that involved technology, so I set out to learn all about electronics, figuring I could get an Associates Degree and start charging people to fix stuff...
Then I discovered programming. Bam! Time to switch majors! No problem, right?
Well, more or less. I really just wanted to learn enough programming syntax to get a nice little cubicle job. Give me some code and bugs to fix, and I'd be happy...
'Cept there's no degree for mindless code ant.
The best you can do is a Bachelors Degree in CIS, or Computer Information Systems. Which is a Business (read: management) degree. I don't want to be anybody's boss. Cubicle. Code. Busy busy busy. Remember? Sigh.
Then I find this other degree. Software Engineering. Woo. Sounds neat. Let's do that instead. Okay! Cool...
Hmm...
The other night, I was asked when I was supposed to graduate. I don't entirely know, 'cause the class scheduling is somewhat wonky. Then, I get asked the question that has me sitting here kinda numb....:
"So, what do you plan on doing for work when you graduate?"
Followed by:
"And where do you think you'll be working?"
...
...
Crap.
I have absolutely NO idea. And I just realized that scares the hell out of me, and makes me a bit angry, too. People who are almost thirty years old should have a clear idea of where their lives are going...
And I just realized I don't.
:(
Entry for June 10 2008 @ 1:36:00 am EST
Not really. Caught your attention, though, didn't it?
:)
So, as you may or may not have read before, I maintain another site, called geekneversleep.com, that I've been renovating and upgrading lately. I've been trying to finally get around to filling out some pages I put up as place-holders
a while back, mostly within the Web section.
One thing you learn when you're building a site like GNS: you may have knowledge, but figuring out how to pass it on in a comprehensible manner is a whole 'nother matter.
It's almost as bad as trying to figure out how to describe color to a blind person: you can only explain so much...
Entry for June 2 2008 @ 7:10:00 pm EST
Get your game on, go play...
Uh, where was I?
Oh, yeah.
I've been trying to decide whether the lack of error messages in my inbox from this site is a good sign, or if it means the bots have simply gotten bored with prowling my site...
Hmm..
Oh well. Maybe I'm just such an awesome coder that I've managed to weed out all the bugs.
NOT.
:D
Entry for May 28 2008 @ 12:22:00 am EST
So...
I've been reworking my original site, GeeksNeverSleep.com. I hacked up the page structure in such a way that I now have a very modular website. I can pretty much plug and chug
, as we programmers like to say, and have a new page in less than five minutes, easy.
So Step 1
was a success. Yay me, right?
Nope.
I've been getting inconsistent rendering from the four browsers I use to test my pages: Opera, Firefox , Safari, and Internet Explorer. The IE bugs I pretty much expect. But I was getting weird gaps in Firefox and not in either Opera or Safari. Needless to say, this concerned me.
So I've spent the better part of three days hacking up the CSS, making small changes here and there to try and fix the problem. Nothing worked!
Then...
Grrrrrrr.....!
I noticed four little characters on one of the pages.
Oh, Jesus, please tell me THAT isn't the problem!
, I wailed.
Deleted those dastardly characters, uploaded... and the problem is fixed.
@@#$%#@$%#@.
In case you're wondering: those characters make up what is called the Byte Order Mark (BOM) and is used in Unicode documents. And Firefox and IE don't know how to handle them...
...
F**k.
:)
Entry for May 22 2008 @ 1:11:00 am EST
Well, kiddies, prepare to be heart-broken. I, Louie, have just sold out.
Yep.
Signed up for a Technorati account. Got this here blog claimed, so maybe I might get a hit here and there from random web strollers.
I would have preferred to make it entirely on the strength of my prose, but let's face it: I ain't no Frost or Shakespeare...
Ah, well. Guess we all sell out at one point or another.
:)
Entry for May 16 2008 @ 12:47:00 pm EST
Well, I tried it for a while, but in the end, I decided I wasn't a super-big fan of Drupal. I'm something of a control freak when it comes to geeky
stuff, so having Drupal decide how I was doing stuff got to be kind of annoying.
That, and I like being The Decider
...
Anyway, geeksneversleep.com is back up in it's original form. I will be changing the structure , though, as soon as I figure out a script I'm working on for this site.
As usual, I will try to post updates here when possible...
:)
Entry for May 4 2008 @ 12:03:00 am EST
Yee-haw!
Just started the conversion of my sister site, GeeksNeverSleep.com, to Drupal. So far, have had a few kinks, but the install seems to have gone well. Even managed to apply an OK theme, until I have the time to develop a proper one.
Got one page up, too. Right now, the site is down, until I get some more content loaded. My hope is that Drupal will help me organize and maintain the content I want to display there better, with less work.
Basically, I want to spend my time figuring out how to phrase my content, not thinking of how to mark it up properly.
So, keep an eye out. Once the site is usable, I'll certainly be crowing here!
:)
Entry for April 29 2008 @ 6:55:00 pm EST
Huzzah! As of today, this horrible semester is over (at least, my community college classes are done). I don't think I've ever looked forward to the end of a semester as much as this one, and that includes high school.
I think I mentioned it before, but I've been out-of-whack this entire semester, so you could say it was doomed from the beginning. I've resolved to try a lot harder to keep on top of things from now on, so hopefully this doesn't happen again. I want to have my Bachelor's before I turn thirty, so....
I'm taking only one class this summer, but I plan on study my Calculus books pretty hard, so that I can take the next level class come fall. I really need to pass Calc II, and then I will be all done with math, unless I decide to keep going and get a Master's degree (but don't count on that).
So...
Hurray for summer!
:)
Entry for April 20 2008 @ 9:40:00 pm EST
And so goes the only worthwhile quote in the movie, "Batman and Robin."
Which has nothing to do with this post, but it popped into my head, so I figure, "what the hell, throw it in there!"
:)
Anyway...
So I have now experienced the closest thing to a malware cluster-f**k I've ever known. I was trying to install WinXP on my nice new laptop. Usually, nothing works out of the gate, so I didn't think to unplug the stupid Ethernet cable before I finished rounding up my software...
So, I'm sitting there, copying stuff from my old laptop to a flash drive, when something catches my attention. I look over at the new laptop just in time to see a couple of command windows closing.
"Hmm... something's fishy here," I think to myself.
Sure enough, not more than ten seconds later IE starts popping up with all kinds of windows. You can imagine how that would concern me...
So I quickly pull the Ethernet cable out, and start running every anti-virus and anti-spyware app I own. Managed to get things controlled, but this fire obviously wasn't going out without a fight. I had to install a trial of Trend Micro antivirus to finally put it down for good (I think).
Wound up having at least four Trojans, and something on the order of seventy viruses. Worse part is that this crap got into my flash drives, too, so I've had to wipe them , as well. I had to run a couple passes of Darik's Boot & Nuke before I actually felt like the old laptop was clean.
Wouldn't be so bad, but this was time I was supposed to spend working on my project for school. To complicate matters, I haven't quite figured out how to configure Visual Studio correctly in Vista, so I can't build my project anyway...
Argh.
Sooo....
How was YOUR weekend?
:D
Entry for April 14 2008 @ 8:29:00 pm EST
For those who aren't aware, I also maintain another website, called "GeeksNeverSleep.com". I made that site to try and relate some of the technical knowledge I have gained over the last few years.
Well, I'm about to rebuild that site, so I may not be posting again for a while.
But, then again, I may post more. Might be interesting to post progress reports here, as I complete various stages...
Huh. Either way, things are going to change. W00t!
:D
Entry for April 10 2008 @ 12:36:00 am EST
Well, I am officially writing off this semester as a bust, regardless of what my GPA winds up being. It's been one frustration after another, some of it my fault, some perhaps aided by stupidity on the part of those I must interact with...
I suppose I may just be feeling run-down. I've been out-of-sync since the beginning of the semester, and I don't feel like I ever caught up. Sigh. This is so going to put me behind schedule for my Bachelor's degree.
I think I will definitely be approaching school differently in the fall. I have only one class this summer, which will be nice. Maybe I can recharge and come back swinging in the fall.
Hope so.
:D
Entry for April 7 2008 @ 11:30:00 pm EST
Religion!
I know. Sounds odd, right? But it's also true. Some of the most interesting conversations I've ever had started with someone either accidentally or purposefully making some sort of blanket statement that only the "righteous" can make.
See, I'm not a "religious" person. I won't condemn or chastise and only mildly mock someone if he or she says something based purely on faith. I'm not saying having religion is bad or wrong. Far from it, actually. If it persuades someone to act in a decent and moral manner, I'm all for putting your energy into worshiping a God or gods.
What I don't like are people who use their religion as a status symbol, or as justification for acts I can't but consider bigoted and hate-filled. It's the latter that gets me the most...
By way of example: In a society where it is far too common for people to be judged based on appearance or perceived life-style, it's rare to hear about young people taking an initiative to try and be more understanding. I did hear just such a story once about a Californian high school. The student body and the local chapter of some Gay and Lesbian support group had gotten together to try and talk about, well, that kind of stuff. These kids decided to do this all on their own, which to me speaks volumes of the character of people at that school.
Well, apparently open-mindedness is a sin of some sort, because some church group in some Podunk town in Georgia or somewhere thereabouts found out about this and decided it was M-O-O-N, that spells wrong. They took upon themselves to drive across the entire breadth of the good 'ol U.S. of A. to picket these poor kids' graduation ceremony with lovely rainbow signs proclaiming ('cause you know that they know what God feels) that, quote, "God Hates Fags," unquote. And that was one of the tamer signs...
Needless to say, I found myself feeling, well... yeah, I'll say it: F@#$king Pissed. In my perhaps feeble mind, I cannot in any way conceive how any Being that has the omnipotent knowledge and power to create something as wonderfully complex as the Universe can ever possibly have the capacity for hate. Hate is a human emotion, born of fear and mis-understanding. No true God would ever feel such a thing. Disappointment, maybe, since we repeatedly fail to live up to our potential. Hate? NO.
But that's just my two cents. Admittedly, I have no formal religious education, so maybe I'm missing something here...
So, knowing that I've possibly alienated most of my minuscule reader base, I shall sign off...
:)
Entry for April 4 2008 @ 1:29:00 am EST
One of my coworkers in the computer lab at the school I attend (whew!) is a developer at a local technology-consulting firm. I've talked code with him on numerous occasions. I'd say we get along pretty well.
Well, it happened a while back that he approached me about possibly doing some intern-level work with him, which, as you might imagine, would totally rock. I've been looking for real programming projects for a while now, and the idea of actually doing something practically leaves me breathless...
So, this past week I finally had an opportunity to pass him a copy of my admittedly bare resume. I really hope they give me a chance. It would validate every ounce of aggravation I've had to bear since deciding to go back to school...
Wish me luck!
:)
Entry for March 28 2008 @ 2:13:00 am EST
I hang around a lot at a neat little site called IconBuffet. I love the place. I've met many, many nice, intelligent people. It's not unusual to have a totally random, pointless conversation, leave for a few days, and resume it like it was two minutes ago.
IconBuffet is also where I met my hero and my mentor, Karen. She's a quirky ole' lady, but lovable.
But, lately, there's been a bit of a gloom hanging over the site. Our beloved Chefs seem to have shifted their focus to other projects, and it's caused more than a few members to become somewhat negative in their postings.
I've personally been expecting this sort of slow-down for a while, so it doesn't really bother me much. I think things will get better, as long as we stay positive. So, to prove my point... no, to maybe put a "real" face to each of the Chefs, I've spent some time researching each of them. When I have a few spare moments, I will write up a little expose on the Chefs, and post it here and on IconBuffet. My hope is that I can make the grumblers see that the Chefs are real people, with real lives that, sadly, may not revolve around IB...
Stay tuned!
:)
Entry for March 21 2008 @ 11:41:00 am EST
Here's what whatis.com says:
In computers and the Internet, a geek is a person who is inordinately dedicated to and involved with technology.
And that's me to a tee, folks. If it's digital in any way, I'm drooling over it. And thinking about taking it apart so I know how it works.
Yep. If it has screws, I'm taking it apart, poking around, and hoping that this time, when I put it back together, that I don't have extra pieces laying around...
:)
Entry for March 14 2008 @ 5:24:00 pm EST
That's a question I have to keep asking myself as I build this web log. How much is too much, when it comes to adding fancy effects or pretty images? I want my site to be decently usable across the widest range of connection speeds possible, so I have to constantly weigh (in terms of bits) the cost of adding that extra image here, that neat script there.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to wrestle with these issues, but it never ceases to amaze me when I happen upon a site I know would choke a 56.6Kbps connection...
What do you think? Do I code for high-speed users, and make everything shiny and wow!
? Or do I sacrifice some detail and use lower resolution/smaller images?
Oh, and feel free to contact me (use the mailto:
link below) if you ever have problems with a specific page acting up. I try to test across multiple browsers, and, as many an IT person has said, It works on my machine...
, but I am not naive enough to think my scripts are perfect...
Entry for March 8 2008 @ 12:40:00 pm EST
I think it would be fun to go to one of the big geek-fests that are held every so often. There is one going on now in Austin, Texas and it seems everyone is there and blogging/twittering about it. Actually I would have liked to got the Drupalcon earlier in the week in Boston, but I missed that, too.
I would not have been embarrassed to be there either, for the first time I have a computer that wouldn't have tempted people to point and laugh at me.
Instead of traveling, I have been taking geeky comfort in updating several sites, making some backups, and watching it snow through the window.
Maybe next year.
Entry for March 4 2008 @ 9:44:00 pm EST
So, I'm on spring break from college, right? For most people, that means a chance to get away from class work, their job, maybe even friends and family. A little me
time, if you will.
Me? Nope...
I go to a community college AND a university. It's this 3+1
program, where I can take most of my credits at the community college, then transfer those credits into my bachelor's program at the university. Right now, that means I'm taking classes at both. Not a big deal, until the mid-term hits.
The problem? They occur a week apart. Which means I can't go anywhere, because I have classes both weeks...
Stupid schools. Grrrr....
Entry for February 21 2008 @ 12:48:00 am EST
So, for one reason or another, I didn't have to be somewhere today, for once. I had originally planned on getting my far-too-long hair cropped back to it's proper length. But, instead, I spent the entire day being a lazy S.O.B...
In a way, I don't regret it, because I don't get many of these days lately. On the other hand, I really should have at least attempted to do something productive.
There's homework to be done. Housework to do. Hearts to break...
Ah well. Hindsight's 20/20, I suppose.
:)
Entry for February 18 2008 @ 12:25:00 am EST
So, I created a nice shiny new background image for my header (doesn't it look purty?) just now. It has a nice "pseudo" glass look to it.
Now, you ask some people how they make something like that, they start listing all these steps they went through in Photoshop...
Me?
:D
I bent my meager software resources to uses for which they were never intended, in order to further my nefarious plans.
First, I used IconWorkshop, an awesome icon package creator. Made a nice, innocent little icon. I then used it's export function to create a PNG image from the icon. Nice 256x256 pixel PNG image, I now have...
Next, I opened up my trusty Paint.NET, which is kinda like an, um, "special" version of Photoshop. I used Paint.NET to hack the edges off the icon image, and stretched it out to the dimensions of the header you see above.
Viola! Shiny header! Yayz!!!
[EDIT:] Um, yeah. I replaced it with a tiled image, courtesy of my friend and hero, Karen.
Entry for February 15 2008 @ 2:13:00 am EST
I've decided to move my sister site to a new domain, which will also allow me to re-order this domain. What that means: some oddities may pop up here and there as I move files around, fix links, and all the other nice stuff associated with domain migration.
So, as usual, be prepared to think kind thoughts. I will try to keep interruptions to minimum, but I can't promise anything...
BTW, I am still working on getting more of the major scripts done and active. I hope to have everything sailing smoothly by summer, but please don't hold me to that, eh?
:D
Entry for February 8 2008 @ 11:36:00 pm EST
Oye vey. You know you're tired when everything starts to take on that nice "nimbus" glow. You know, your peripheral vision gets a little cloudy, seems like it takes a lot of effort to make you eyes focus on anything in front of you....
Yep, that's me right now. Tired. Mind-numbingly tired.
Which it not helping me get motivated for work tomorrow at all. I've only worked the weekends lately, but even that seems too much. God, only You can know how much I loathe that den of inequity. I literally have to convince myself to bother showing up the days I do go in. I don't want to be there, plain and simple.
Maybe I quit? Watch my hair grow back the instant I turn my badge in, too...
Ah well.
Entry for February 6 2008 @ 8:17:00 pm EST
Hello! I have been involved with the testing of this new blogging platform from the start, and now I am pleased to fill in as guest blogger.
This blog gets more fully featured every day. There are still a few things to be worked out, my favorites being comments and syndication. Progress here is fairly rapid so we shouldn't have too long to wait.
**EDIT: The blog now has an edit feature!**
Entry for February 6 2008 @ 5:49:00 pm EST
Strange, how when you're a kid, you love snow days. Bring 'em on!, you say.
Then you grow up. And have to pay to go to school. Now, snow days are irritating. I mean, I paid good money to sit in that there classroom, and you ain't dragging me out of it unless I want to leave!
But, nooooo. Put a little bit of heavy snow on the ground, and suddenly school is canceled. Now what am I supposed to do? It's boring at home...
And here I was, thinking that we Michiganders would just laugh at having a little snow on the ground, and would go on our merry ways.
Nope.
Posted by:
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Coven
May 30 2009 @ 6:36:00 pm EST
Ya know, I thought there was something missing around here. Glad to see you back!