October 2008 Archives

This weekend was a little different. I got up early Saturday morning to go get some groceries. I asked my kids if either of them wanted to go, but only my 13 year-old son wanted to come along. After getting our groceries he said he wanted to look for some Under Armour shirt, so I sent him on his way to find it while I looked for something else. I found mine, but he hadn't shown up after a few minutes. When I went looking for him I found him in some department where they had a demo set up for RockBand 2. I joined in with him playing Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. He played the guitar and I played the drums. That's all it took - I was hooked.

We have an old, and tiring, PS2 and a 3 year-old XBox. I recently got a Wii. Since I haven't pumped out the money for a PS3 or XBox 360, I figured it wasn't possible to get Rockband. We went back to the electronics department and sure enough, there's Rockband Special Edition for the Wii - complete with guitar, microphone and drums. It was also on sale ( most likely since Rockband 2 is coming out ).

Suffice it to say that I spent the weekend playing Rockband with the kids. I have found a new obsession . . . seriously. I'd much rather play the drums than play the guitar and anyone in the immediate area would much rather I don't sing. However, I eventually end up in pain after spending so much time playing the drums because I just haven't used the muscles required to press on the bass pedal in so long. Still, it's a lot of fun.

Rockband 2 for the Wii comes out this December - I've already checked.

Have you tried Rockband? What do you like to play? Guitar? Drums? Or do you prefer to sing?

Something I wish I had done earlier on in my programming career . . .

Or, perhaps it's more a function of the library in the city I happen to live, is that the library will often order books that you recommend. When a book comes out, related to something new that I've been hearing about in the field of web development or programming, I recommend it to the library for them to purchase and check out. They've never turned down one of my requests, but there's a caveat:

Sometimes actually getting the book into my hands can take a while. It's great that I can request books ( as well as DVDs and other materials ), but the book I most recently requested, Practical Django Projects, has really taken a great deal of time. I requested it clear back in June. I just noticed today, ( as I can check my account with the library via the web ) that the book was finally checked out to me. The funny thing is that the library actually received the book and had a status of "Newly Acquired" a few weeks after I requested it. So, it actually sat in limbo for almost three months. Just two weeks ago I finally saw the status change to "In Processing" meaning that they were preparing it for checkout.

While this method is less costly in terms of money than going out and buying technical books, the opportunity cost can be quite expensive. However, I guess at the end of the day you have to decide which is more important. Do you want to buy technical books that you may or may not end up using for a while and then transfer to the shelf never to be used again, or can you put off certain things you want to read more about?

I started using Django about six months ago and I really like the framework. While the online documentation is pretty good I've been looking for some pratical examples that can help me expand and try out some more advanced techniques. The reviews have been a bit mixed on the book, but I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. Sometimes, when the reviews are mixed on books like these, it's better to try before you buy. I've sunk a bunch of dough into tech books that sometimes I wish I had back in my pocket.

I've been a little neglectful the past few days on this blog due to the fact that I have been quite busy building content for my new one at Boxedfool.com. If you haven't yet, visit now and quite often.

The ideas for posts are a heck of a lot easier to come by - that's for sure. But, I'm trying to apply some of the principles and information that I came across in Technorati's State of the Blogosphere as well as many other good resources.

The most difficult part for me right now is managing to build up visitors. With a large chunk of the day spent at my day job and my evenings spent trying to build content, it's difficult to do the networking part of the job. Hopefully things will start to fall into place - after all, it's only been less than a week. On the upside, I've managed to keep my content count within the range that I desired.

In other areas ( beware - political digression forthcoming ), I watched the debate last night. McCain certainly came across like a bitter, cynical, old guy - just the kind I hope to avoid becoming should I get to be as old as him.

About the whole healthcare issue the two of them are trying to address:

While getting $5K is nice, it doesn't really help all that much. Obama was clearly the more knowledgeable of the two. The both stated what they believed was the "average cost of a healthcare plan." Well, the FAMILY plan that I have costs roughly $12K a year. I am fortunate that my employer pays 100% of it - and I am thankful for that. I still have co-pays and deductibles that I am responsible for, but there is no way that I could pay all of it on my own. With McCains plan, I'd still be responsible for $7K. That would still be a bit of a juggling act to manage.

When McCain said that the average cost was $5800, I couldn't believe he threw out that figure. He must be thinking of single people seeking health insurance, because families pay significantly more than $5800.

So, here's to voting for Obama.

I opened up a new site today aimed at ( essentially ) everything television and movies. Reviews, recaps, stars of yesterday and today. Essentially this came from the fact that over the years the posts that seem to get the most attention are those that have anything to do with movies, tv series and related stuff. So I decided to try a niche blog.

Yes, there's still a lot of content that needs to be added. My first post is up and I hope to hit about three posts per day. Anyone who knows my posting frequency from the past would probably suggest that I have entirely lost my mind.

Well, I'm not entirely ignoring that fact. Perhaps I'm in denial . . . but I think I can do it, so why not try? Right?

Wish me luck and visit Boxedfool.com frequently!

Does the drama never end?

As if it wasn't enough to criticize The Ultimate Fighter just two days ago, I find myself doing it again today. Last night's episode sacrificed ultimate fighting for inebriated drama. Junie Browning, the lightweight who cannot hold his alcohol, served up more emotional tension than fighting skills.

According to Junie, the majority of this drama, while largely brought about because of alcohol, can also be attributed to the fact that the light heavyweights need to be put into their place:

They always want to be in control of stuff. They would say out of the way stuff that normally if they were my size they wouldn't be saying. I don't want them to think that because they're bigger they run everything, and when I got drunk I started saying stuff I normally wouldn't, doing stuff I normally wouldn't.

Junie goes on to say that he isn't really that much of a drinker and since there's alcohol in the house, and nothing else to do, he's just doing the only thing available to entertain himself. Should the fighters have more stuff to do like an X-Box or Wii or are they there for training?

Whatever . . .

I remember Dana White saying something to the effect that when he bought the UFC he wanted to show that this is a legitimate sport, not a bunch of drunken brawlers throwing haymakers and trying to take each other's heads off. So far this season, legitimacy is lacking. Point of fact, it seems, every season something like this occurs. There's always a person ( or persons ) in the house who can't hold their liquor.

Dana says he provides alcohol in the house because the fighters are adults and need to behave responsibly. Aren't these fighters also athletes? I know of no legitimate athletes who would subscribe to regular alcohol binges as a method of training. Do you?

If this keeps up The Ultimate Fighter is going to quickly fall off my watch list. I tune in to see Ultimate Fighting not drunken wannabes drinking and talking smack. How about you?

Midway through the week. Two days to go.

As I write this we are awaiting a test of the fire drill. It's supposed to be today, around 10 AM. Being on the 12th floor, we'll have to take the stairs . . . yay.

I'm going to be starting a new project within the next week based on things I've observed about this weblog. Better stated, I've recognized which posts get the most attention. So, as soon as everything gets set up and the work on my end is completed, I'll give it a go. More info to follow . . .

On other fronts, this abhorrent behavior of the wealthy, self-absorbed population is the very reason I did not favor voting for the bailout. To me, those excesses are fraud and should be treated as such. Personally, I find that the action taken by one man doesn't go far enough. But will it ever change?

In as much as I'd like to say that it's a good thing to see McCain's bid faltering, I am still skeptical that Obama is clearly the guy. Are you convinced that "That One" can do it? McCain's behavior in last night's debate clearly demonstrated to me that he is the candidate of dogmatic approach, bitter dispute and the drawback of getting older - better stated as "I-know-better-because-I'm-old-and-this-is-the-way-it's-always-been-done."

Perhaps I'm growing older, but at least I still can subscribe to the notion that in order for us as a people to grow and evolve we still need to find new approaches to problems. The world is becoming increasingly complex and the rules are changing. Old solutions don't work anymore.

Did Obama rule the debate? I thought he did better, but your thoughts may be different - go ahead, let it all out.

This weekend I caught up on a whole bunch of shows of which one of those was The Ultimate Fighter. During each season a cast of MMA fighters competes for a six-figure contract with the UFC in this reality series.

I've been a huge fan ever since the inception of Ultimate Fighting and when Dana White took over I've liked it even more. Starting this series has probably been the best thing he could have done to bring the sport to the mainstream.

Of course the UFC has it's opponents, but the sport is growing in popularity and is bound to overtake the more mainstream boxing fans eventually - unless traditional boxing changes something. What that would be I have no idea.

However, there's a couple things that soured me a bit this season of The Ultimate Fighter:

First off, there's the Spike TV channel. The commercials are getting way out of hand. It almost seems as if there are 5 minutes of commercials for every 2 minutes of the show. This wouldn't be so bad if the commercials changed every now and then, but it's the same commercials! Keep in mind, people watch to see the show not lame-ass Burger King commercials and pimping for UFC DVDs. Do you think the series is getting a little bloated with commercials?

Second, I'm not sure if the method being used to determine who gets into the house is really going to find the best candidates. Last week's episode had two guys who won their fights kicked out. This really sucks. Because they got their noses cracked? This just isn't right. Allow me to explain:

Let's face it. The object of a fight is to inflict damage upon your opponent while avoiding damage your opponent intends to inflict upon you. MMA is particularly wrought with a variety of ways to inflict damage. It is inevitable that a fighter will get injured unless he grossly outclasses another fighter.

Additionally, I've seen a number of fights in which fighters were obviously injured with probable broken noses and huge cuts. There are instances in which the ringside doctors allowed the fight to go on. So, I find it a little hypocritical that the guys who earned their spot in the house were told to leave even though their noses were NOT broke, but cracked. Guys with cuts were allowed to stay in previous seasons. What's up?

Do you think those guys should have been sent home?

Lastly, perhaps there needs to be a psychological test. What's up with the bipolar hillbilly?

As I said, I'm a fan of ultimate fighting. Whether or not I'm a fan of The Ultimate Fighter is a little up in the air right now.

What about you? Are you a fan for life or is The Ultimate Fighter jumping the shark?

After watching the VP debate last night, and listening to the political pundits' assessment, I was a bit surprised by what I was hearing. All the democrat vs republican criticism aside - I really don't think anyone could walk away saying that "Palin held her own." It seems to me that the political pundits are claiming a Palin victory because she exceeded everyone's expectations that she might break down, have a Katie Couric moment or wasn't devoured by Biden. While I'll admit she did better than I expected, I don't believe anyone should hang a medal around her neck.

At the outset she seemed very nervous to me. Honestly, she almost came across like a deer in the headlights. But I will confess that she found her stride and became very comfortable after a while. There were stumbling blocks along the way, but all things considered, she did ok.

Biden, however, was as I expected. Calm, cool, collected. He was the experienced politician that knew how to stump for his ticket.

I personally believe that Biden won this debate because, although Palin did show that she has some competency against an deeply experienced politician, she could not bolster her arguments with facts. She defended her stance with emotion and catch phrases taking every opportunity to remind us she was "just like us" from "up there in Alaska" and would be "tapping" just about anything that could be tapped. In other words, the Palin side of the debate was sound bites, rhetoric and appeasement.

On the other hand, Biden did present facts that demonstrate ( at least to me ) that the party represented by Palin and McCain is not the party of "Joe Six Pack." This was never more evident than near the end of the debate. A question regarding the powers of the Vice President as interpreted by Dick Cheney was presented. My intepretation of Palin's answer was that they had no problem with the abuses that Dick Cheney has been responsible over the last 8 years.

Biden, however, unmistakeably chastised the behavior of Dick Cheney.

That, to me, told me which candidates understand.

I was going to write a short, although sarcastic, piece about yet another image of the Virgin Mary appearing in a doctor's window in Springfield, MA. I found this via Google News. I was taken to the Boston Globe's website and landed at the article which described the turn of events. I had hoped to see a picture of the image, instead the lead image above the text of the article was that of a crowd of awe-inspired onlookers.

After examining the page for a few seconds I found the image gallery for this particular news event. It consisted of six images that recounted a few other Virgin Mary image sightings in varying settings.

Here's where it got interesting, and is the real point of this post. Being at the final image in the series I wasn't sure if the first image in the series was the one that the article referred to. So I clicked on what I expected should take me to the first image in the series.

But I didn't get to look at it. Instead, I was prompted to login. Lame . . .

There's been no shortage of news that conventional news outlets are losing profits. Even the local paper where I live has raised their rates citing increased costs. Has your local newspaper raised their rates lately?

Previously when I linked to local news stories I also had to add that they still hadn't quite gotten used to the fact that they really should consider NOT forcing people to login just to read the news article. Perhaps they got the message. You can read the news without logging in. Of course they did re-design their site and improve it such that they can now load even more ads of which some are really, really ugly. How many ads does the online version of your paper have?

As much as "The Press" wants to throw around the adage that "the people have a right to know" you would think that they would be able to wrap their head around the fact that they shouldn't need to login to exercise that right. Do you have to login for any particular function of your local paper? To read the article or view photographs?

Local news outlets just aren't getting it. They don't understand the Internet and much like the music industry, they are clinging to a dying model in which they grossly overcharge for classifieds and ad space on their online and print versions. Have you paid for a classified ad lately? How much was it? Did it actually pay off for you?

I think this topic deserves a little more research and will most likely be something I'll post about again in the near future. Anything you think deserves mentioning?

Anybody who checks out my blog from time to time knows a few things:

1. I'm a pretty liberal, idealistic guy.

2. I'm for free speech.

3. I'm not very religious.

With that in mind when I came across this news in one of the video podcasts, I had to do a little more research.

In Clay County, Florida a girl by the name of Lexi is running for student council president and created the sign you see in this post. As is so often the case, a bunch of stuffy parents are upset about the fact that the sign reads, "Jesus loves you! Lexi for Prez!" Some have been even so motivated as to write a letter to the principal of the school.

However, school officials said the sign may stay because it is neither "sponsored speech" nor "offensive."

Good for them!

According to Lexi:

"My friend told me that this dude said it's a little cheesy, but I don't listen to that kind of stuff," Lexi said.

Good for you Lexi!

Stick to you beliefs no matter what some people may say. If only our elected politicians had the same fortitude the world would probably be a better place.

I hope you become student council president! If I could, I'd vote for you!

I don't know who said it, but the saying goes something like this, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Little sayings like that permeate our society, but every so often you find that they actually mean something. I found out why that saying is true yesterday when my son's principal called.

Evidently some kid, who I guess also happens to be some kind of first-class ass, was picking a fight with my son's friend. Although my son confirmed that his friend didn't really need it, my son jumped in between them. I guess the other kid decided to direct his anger towards my son. A little shoving match ensued. The other kid ( the ass ) ended up on the floor.

I guess after that he got up and started pulling my kid's hair? Now what kind of a little punk pulls another guy's hair?

What a puss.

After that the teacher showed up and broke them apart. No real punches were thrown. No one got hurt. I think the principal did the right thing by having them spend the rest of the day in in school suspension. However, it was a real good opportunity to teach my kid the meaning of the saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

I'm sure he was trying to do what he thought was the right thing. He was trying to break up what could have escalated into a fight. However, he got himself caught in the middle and ended up having to face the consequences. His friend? Nothing happened to him. No in school suspension. My son even concluded that his friend probably didn't need the help.

My kid, in my opinion, did the right thing. He tried to be a peacemaker. He tried to stand up for his friend. But at the end of it all I had to ask him two things:

Do you know that your friend would have stuck his neck out for you in the same way?

Do you believe it's fair that you took the consequences that, had you left it to work itself out, would have been on him?

What do you think? Did my kid do the right thing? Is it fair that he spent the day in in school suspension? Are guys that pull hair when they fight total pussies? Discuss.