Archive for April, 2007
April
30
Seriously, this keeps getting better. The new smodcast is out…
No commentsIn which our heroes chat coiffure, get into some weight-y issues, hatch a seminal diet, order a dollar’s worth of fish, fear the sea, pinpoint the indignity of shark attacks, and fear bears, dinosaurs, and the duplicity of the fowl.
April
30
It’s that time again… Where I test my wiskers to see how the crop is coming in. This is the farthest I’ve gone with this experiment, it’ll be 3 weeks on Wednesday. Not sure how I like it, the last time I did this it was with the muctachio. Which in hindsight was a horrible choice.
We’ll see how long I can keep this up.
Later!
No commentsApril
24
So on the list of things that happened last week I forgot to mention that I had a little accident with my phone. This would be a huge deal, but thankfully I didn’t actually pay for the phone that I was using it was a gift from my old roommate Greg. I hadn’t signed a new contract with Cingular in 3 years because I didn’t need a new phone and I was happy with my plan. I just kept waiting for something awesome to come out but every phone that they offer seemed to have something wrong with it. No wifi. slow processor. no battery life. costs $600.
But this weekend I was wearing sweatpants, the solution and cause of all life’s problems. I got into the passengers side of Laurel’s car and didn’t notice anything was wrong until later when I was looking for my phone. I didn’t think anything of it because I leave that thing at home all the time. But when I hadn’t found it when I got home I started to worry. My fears were confirmed when Bobby brought it inside, he found it in the street. It must have fallen out of my sweatpants pocket and then we ran over it on the way out.
One good thing I can say about Palm is that the phone stil worked… sort of. The screen was crushed in 20 places, but it would still come on and most of the buttons still worked. But the problem is that the device would come on, but it was really hard to start the phone application without a screen. I did manage it once by pressing the touchscreen where I thought the buttons would be. But then I played with it some more and couldn’t duplicate that feat.
So I went ahead and signed a new contract with Cingular in exchange for a discounted price on the 8125 (HTC Wizard). It seems like a pretty good phone. It’s a little hard getting used to windows mobile 5, Palm OS may not have as many features and settings built in, but it’s a much more stable and fast system. The wifi is nice, I’ve already connected it to a free wifi spot at work without much trouble. If only I can do the same at home, I’ll be the king of the Sausage.
Later!
No commentsApril
20
Well it’s been a few days since I last posted something here so I thought I’d update what I’ve been doing since monday-ish.
- Played in a pre-season softball tourney
- Went to Art-o-Matic in Crystal City
- Dad’s 60th birthday, went to Dinner theater
- got another bad haircut
Notes on the above.
I need to hit the batting cage a little so I don’t suck so bad at the plate. I want to get back to art-o-matic to see the rest of the 6th floor stuff. My dad is officially old and all good musicals were written in the 60s. Haircut turned out not to be so bad after I ran it by the girlfriend filter.
Later!
Mark
April 16, 2007: VT Shooting Spree. 33 were killed (including shooter)
April 18, 1983: Suicide bomber destroys Lebanon embassy. 63 deaths
April 19, 1989: Turret explosed on USS Iowa. Kills 47.
April 19, 1993: The Branch Davidian Siege ends in the deaths of 81 people
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City Bombing kills 168
April 20, 1999: Columbine Massacre. 15 were killed (including shooters)
Don’t forget April 15, 1912: Titanic sinks. About 1,500 die.
No commentsWith the world on a 24 hour news cycle it’s hard to watch the reporters repeat what details are already out there for hours on end. I forced myself not to watch any reports for hours yesterday so that when I finally did I actually got information, not just a sick feeling in my stomach.
I just feel this need to know.
Does it make me feel better to know the details, to know the face, not really. I just clamor for information. I need to know. It’s like when you were a kid and you watched the scary parts through the cracks in your fingers, you were scared to find out, but you really wanted to know.
This is the scary part in real life.
So if you really want to know and don’t feel like putting up with Geraldo’s mustachioed ego, then go to what I’ve found to be the best resource for information.
later.
PS. write your name like this and tell me it doesn’t creep you out today…
Mark Schumaker, 25, Vienna Virginia
No commentsWe weren’t having the best night last night. It had poured down rain all day and the sump pump in Charlie’s room had given up. Water had made it all the way from the sump under the bathroom floor, to the laundry room. It was a total mess, unlike most things we couldn’t fix this. So we called Lauren (our landlord) and she told us the earliest she could get someone out to us would be 9:30 Monday morning. So we decided to take our chances with that time, so we used the shop vac to get as much water out of everything and let it ride.
But then at 9:30 nothing about our house situation seemed to matter. Nothing about changing jsp code at work mattered. Guitar Hero breaks could barley take my mind off what happened in Blacksburg. I was a senior in high school when Columbine happened, this feels so similar. Just thinking about it brings up all those images that are burned in my brain. Well now I have new images and sounds that keep echoing around inside my head.
There’s nothing I can do. That’s what I keep thinking.
For now it seems like there was nothing anybody could have done about it. I hope it stays like that. I’d hate to think this could have been avoided.
Mark
No commentsApril
13
So I’ve noticed that my day goes by much quicker and I’m in a better mood when I listen to music all day. Why is that? Mostly because I don’t have to listen to the idiotic rantings of my slovenly cube-neighbor. He is a grade-A dork. Not only does he write bad code and yet constantly complain about others code (mostly because of formatting of all things) But he claims things are done when they are obviously not even close, which makes more work for me when I have to come in at the last minute and fix things before they go to system test and make more work for someone else.
AND HE PROBABLY MAKES TWICE WHAT I DO.
I try not to be overtly mean to him. I try to think of what my mother would do, she being the nicest person in the world. But it so hard when he punctuates every sentence with annoying staccato laughter and keeps talking long after you’ve made it clear that you’re not interested anymore.
I think he should be my main argument for a raise. I put up with this guy more than anyone else does… give me more money.
Later!
Mark
April
10
I know this blog isn’t the best designed thing in the world, I try. But it does have a lot of CSS on the back end that I understand fairly well. When I’m at work I design the front end of our application, I try. I spend all day trying to get all the buttons to move one pixel to the right while still getting the error messages to float to the left. It’s been interesting day to say the least.
So then I come across a page in the system that another developer has been working on. I can tell from the screen that it needs some cleanup. (even though he says It’s almost done!). As I’m going through it I find this.
& #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160 & #160
which is the java equivalent of “ ” which is a space. I’m spending all day writing css styles to move things one pixel and this guy is aligning things by hitting the space bar 150 times.
AHHHHHHHHH.
No commentsApril
10
Since we got the Guitar Hero for the 360 we’ve been playing it non stop. I took off work a little early so that I could get home early and have some time by myself. I started my own band so I can keep track of my progress. Chuck Norris Tears will be tearing up the charts in no time. When the roomies get home its on to some intense battles. Since we only have to one guitar right now we just take turns playing the same songs and the one with the highest percentage gets to pick the next song. It’s not the best plan, but it’ll have to do until we find the second guitar.
But now when I type I’m expecting an off chord when I hit the delete key.
Later!
Mark
