May31

Productivity!

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Productivity!

Wow, I haven’t been this prolific (if such a word can be used to describe such a small quantity) since November of 2006. That was the last time I had this many posts in one month. I’m going to have to pick up the pace for next month if I want this site to be something more than a place where I check in approximately once a year to register the fact that yes, I am in fact alive. I’m about to set to work on my 2 remaining absurdly overdue reviews for Ask the Fatty. After that, I think I’m going to (finally!) complete my picture galleries here on My Twisted Mind and also see what I can do in terms of either mirroring them on Picassa’s web albums or integrating that on the site somehow. The reason I’m looking at Picassa is because of the Android integration. I found out, quite by accident, that pictures in Picassa’s web galleries show up as if they were pictures native to my phone when I access it’s picture gallery option. They’re separated out into their own category, but show up automatically without me having to do any configuration or tweaking. It’s pretty sweet.

Can I tell you how much I love my Droid? I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I just can’t get over how awesome this thing is. I’ve most recently been playing with apps that alter the home screen of the Droid. After seeing how the Nexus One has 2 more home screen to fill with app icons than the Droid, I knew I had to find some way to replicate this functionality on the Droid. A quick Google search found me a couple of alternative home screens that let you take your home screens up to 9. (How awesome would it be if it went up to 11 though?) They have varying features and some work better than others. Most of the forum threads I found about these programs talked about people using them for 2 weeks before making a decision, though to be honest, I can’t imagine how. About half of the suggested programs either gave me grief when trying to set them up and then acted sluggish every time I tried to use them. Worse yet, they crashed (or “force closed” in Android terms) seemingly at random. All but one of them had an extra row of pre-set icons on either side of the app drawer that you couldn’t customize. There was one that didn’t suffer from these limitations. It’s called TagHome and it’s awesome. It’s not foolishly sluggish, it didn’t present any setup problems, it’s bottom icon row is totally customizable, and it has an indicator to tell you which screen you’re on. And it goes up to nine. That’s right, NINE! Not that I’ll need that many, but it’s nice to have. It’s interface is also the closest to the stock Android interface, which I happen to quite like.

Right now, it’s time for dinner, ice cream, then to work on website fun times. A sea monster had better not have eaten my ice cream.

May30

I missed a day!

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I missed a day!

LATE EDIT: So I apparently forgot to hit the publish button on this entry and I’m seeing it now, on 6/17. Oops!

So its officially the 30th and I don’t have an entry for the 29th. I was doing so well, too! I guess I can count this as the 29th’s entry. I haven’t gone to sleep yet so its still Saturday night for me. So there you go, a daily update for you.

Now why might a daily update matter, you say. What’s the point? Well, a quick glance at the archives shows you how absurdly lax I am with updating the site. Look at the last time there were this many entries in a monument, let alone this many continuous entries. I’ve decided that I’m going to try to write a little each day so that I can get into the habit of not being so goddamn lazy. So far so good!

Dam, I’m falling asleep at the wheel here. Gonna check on a link and then go to bed. Wow, I literally almost dozed off there and just now when I tried to write another it, it came out as gibberish. I’m so tired my body is trying to force me asleep. Treachery is afoot!

And now some advice: the Baconator is NOT a good late night meal. Trust me when I say that you WILL find yourself in the bathroom. A lot. When it first came out, I tried it then and it was OK, but I must be getting old or something because now I can’t do it. The grease is just so… gross. And oh man it goes right through you. I’ve spent most of the last hour recovering. Oh god i can see forever. I might even go to sleep soon.

I get the feeling this is all probably incoherent and that this will probably be pretty funny to read tomorrow like that drunk post from a couple of years ago.

May28

Unidentified Shiny Objects

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Unidentified Shiny Objects

So… yeah… I was looking for something to put on the TV as background noise while I worked on the Ask the Fatty reviews and I came across some show on History International about UFOs and then it was 2 hours later. Oops. I also kinda wanted to consolidate my RSS feeds into Google Reader instead of my Google homepage so that I could read this endless stream of tomfoolery on the go via Newsrob. I might do that after I do some review work. Or I might do that first. Stupid Shiny Syndromeâ„¢, it always sidetracks me into all kinds of irrelevant stuff. Right now they’re recreating dogfights between UFOs and military pilots who’ve encountered them. They’re going to use an EMP pulse generated via a Tesla coil to blow out a computer to see if it would reboot after the pulse. Apparently you can. And a UFO neutralized some pilot’s avionics during an engagement and they weren’t sure how at the time the dogfight occurred in the 70s.

Right.

So yeah, I’m gonna go play around with my RSS feeds. Speaking of which, hey Cat! Tell me if the askthefatty.com RSS link I sent you worked right. I’M DYING TO KNOW SO I MAY INCORPORATE IT DIRECTLY ON THE SITE. NO PRESSURE! 😉

May27

Still diseased part 2

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Still diseased part 2

So those reasons I mentioned in my last post? Here they are:

  • I’m so stuffed and headachy and I just want to lie down.
  • I’ve got a bunch of pictures that I need to pull off of my camera and organize, since almost all of them are going up on either askthefatty.com or here.
  • I’m sort of itching for more Sins of a Solar Empire.
  • I want to get back to work on my… what is it now, 4 restaurant reviews, 2 candy bar reviews, and 1 cereal review that I have lined up for askthefatty.com. Several of them have written drafts, a couple have drafts in my head, and none of them are complete or have the accompanying photos ready to go. I want to put an end to my neglectful website updating ways!
  • My DVR is so backlogged and I really need to make a dent in that.
  • Investigate why askthefatty.com’s RSS feeds work in some browsers and RSS readers and not others.
  • And finally, Super Mario Galaxy 2! Wa-hoo! Note: It’s way harder than the first one.

So yeah, that’s what I wanted to get done tonight. Of that, I’ve made progress on the reviews, completed the sorting of my pictures, searched fruitlessly for an answer the the RSS weirdness and watched a saved episode of SGU. I’m moving at like half speed today otherwise I think I would have gotten more done. Anyway, I’m going back to working on the RSS issue for a little while longer, then I’ll be heading to bed to read until I pass out.

May27

Still diseased

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Still diseased

A quick post today, brought to you by the last few minutes of my lunch. I’m still feeling blah, but I’m at work because I do feel better somewhat and I don’t want to use any more sick time this year unless I really need it. I can’t wait to go home today for many reasns which I’ll elaborate on further since I gotta head back to work.

May26

Some Heat Delirium Fueled Thoughts

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Some Heat Delirium Fueled Thoughts

Its 88 degrees last I checked. Truly a beautiful day. There are some downsides though. For one, I’m trying to fight off some disease I got at work. That’s right, I’m diseased again. Hate it, but I’m good and medicated. For another, having a beefcake computer means that trying to game on it is like sunning yourself on the side of an active volcano. Even just having it on is no picnic. I spent some time outside earlier today, until the bugs started after me. The warmer weather is great, except when its not. At least I can update my neglected website via my shiny, lovely Droid. Speaking of which, version 2.2 of the Android OS is out now for Nexus One phones and should be out soon for other Android phones. I can’t wait for it to hit mine. I seriously love this phone. Possibly one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time.

Oh God there’s a giant death bee hovering outside my window. Its just waiting for an opportunity to get inside and eat me. God I hate bees and related insects. Well, I hate all insects, but I hate bee-like bastards more than the others. Damn its still there. GET OUT OF HERE, YOU STUPID STINGING BASTARD!

I wonder where they find the hot chicks on Law & Order. Right now I’m watching saved episodes of a bunch of shows, Law & Order among them and these women are smoking hot. The guest stars are almost always people I’ve never heard of, but damn. I’m a PC and hot chicks were my idea. Or something.

Look, I know it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to. Who asked you anyway? Shut up!

Time for some FlashForward!
image

Jan24

Askthefatty.com Launches!

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Askthefatty.com Launches!

It’s done! I finished it! Ask the Fatty! is up and running and it’s fat-tastic! This has totally been one of those fool ideas that came from a joke which had no business springing to life into a full fledged project, but there you have it. Ask the Fatty! has got to be up there in my personal list of harebrained ideas, but goddamn if I’m not amused by the whole thing. I don’t really have a lot to say about it since my first few posts on the new site talk about the hilarious trials I had in getting it all off the ground and the sidebar contains the site’s origin story, which is actually factual!

Hey, here’s some insider info for my loyal readers: New features coming soon to Ask the Fatty!. I’ve found some plugins that will allow some pretty slick facey-place integration into both Ask the Fatty! and this site. That’ll probably be coming sometime in the next week cause I’m kinda burned after my week-long website creation/maintenance binge. I’m tired, it’s getting late (or I’m getting old, take your pick), and I’ve got work tomorrow. So for now, I sign off and bid you a good night.

PS: In case any one of you 1 or 2 long time visitors are worried, I’m not abandoning this in favor of Ask the Fatty!. That site has a narrow focus, and anything outside that focus will still be here. See, I’ll have 2 sites to neglect! updates here will continue in a frequent and regular fashion!

Jan20

Rageface!

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Rageface!

}:(

So I’ve been waiting for a particular domain to propagate through the net’s DNS servers. I thought to myself “Man, this is taking a while. You know, this may be taking a bit too long.” So I thought, let me try switching to a DNS server other than the one my ISP uses. I tried Google’s Public DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in case you’re interested) and it didn’t resolve there either. Curiouser and curiouser. Did a name server lookup (in windows command prompt: nslookup -debug yourdomain.com) and found that oh look, the DNS records are actually point to Dreamhost like they’re supposed to. So what gives? What’s going on? I think something curled up and died on Dreamhost’s end when I tried to set up the full hosting for the domain. I’m going to park the domain, and then set it back to full hosting to see if I can’t get it unstuck. Surely my cunning plan cannot fail!

If it does fail, I’ll just e-mail tech support because I don’t know if I’ll be able to kick start things at my end. Curse you server errors! You’ve cost me valuable time in which I could have been hilarious!

Jan17

An unlikely muse

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An unlikely muse

I didn’t think my co-worker’s boyfriend would be a source of inspiration for hilarious misdeeds such as I am prone to, but it just goes to show you that you can never be too sure where your next set of shenanigans is going to come from. Set of shenanigans… do shenanigans come in sets? If I do something filled with tomfoolery, am I engaging in a single shenanigan? Come to think of it, I’ve never heard anyone use the singular form of shenanigans, like ever. It’s always “What sort of idiot shenanigans are you up to?” or “What’s the deal with all these shenanigans?!” They always seem to come in some plural form. I guess set of shenanigans would be ok.

But I digress.

So Mike, you’ve caused me to start something here, something that may well end in tears (but will more than likely end in me undoing my last year’s weight loss, which will subsequently lead to tears), and I place any and all blame directly at your feet, sir! How do you sleep at night?! MONSTER!

So anyway, it looks as if we’re still in the propagation stage of things. Maybe another day or two and I can start doing some backend work and design. When this thing goes live, its going to be SO AWESOME.