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Attack & Release

Posted: 2009-03-04 12:55:26

I've been 50% sick and 50% healthy for the past 5 days. It's not getting better, it's not getting worse. I'm getting annoyed. I just want the sore throat to go away, and to not ache like an 80 year-old man. Amber had the same thing, only she just got flat out super sick, and is now better. I'm not sure if I'm better off this way or not. I've consumed a fairly constant stream of alkaseltzer for the past 4 days, and it seems to keep me in check. That's gotta be healthy.

Sandstorm Design launched its new website today. I'm pretty proud of it, seeing as I coded the whole thing. There's a lot of cool stuff I've done for this site like the homepage image swapping. I also wrote a pretty cool admin back end for our rfps and contact submissions storing all sorts of stuff with a database and blah blah blah.

I think we're getting close to the redesign of this guy being done, which i'm sure all you readers will be happy about, because I'm sick of it looking like crap. If I don't have the new site up by April 1st, I give all of you permission to punch me.

Embed your blog anywhere!

Posted: 2009-02-26 12:36:10

I don't usually do tech related posts here, but I figured I would today, because I'm bored and just encountered a problem that required some creative thinking.

For all you people not interested in web development, feel free to skip over this post.

So here's the dilemma. Our client has a website that is built in a CMS which results in all the pages being strict html (ie. ending with a .html extension). He has a blog hosted at blogspot and wishes to have his most recent blog posts displayed on his site.

Normally, this could be done using php to read his blog's RSS feed and embed the posts in his site. However, since his pages cannot end in .php, there is no way to directly embed the php code in his pages. (In order for php to process a page, and thus make use of any php code within a page, it must end in .php so the page goes through the processor).

In comes the problem solving. My original idea was to just use a bit of JavaScript to make an AJAX call to the server and call my standalone php file, returning the html to be displayed. This, however, is a little overkill, and has a chance for some interesting mistakes if the AJAX request returns before the rest of the page is finished loading. Which lead to my next idea:

My php script could create some javascript which would in turn create the html. Follow me? Here's the deal, I use some javascript in the page that has my php file as its source. The php file outputs javascript, so this should be a valid js source. The js that my php outputs is the html of the rss that the php read. Make sense? Good.

Turns out, this works. So, instead of just putting php on the page and having it output html, I put javascript on the page that called php which produced javascript that produced html. Seems like more work that was necessary, but for this scenario, it worked.

I think, when time allows, I'm going to write a basic RSS consumption php script that does just this, with a few user-submitted arguments, so that anyone can put their blog feed anywhere with just a little bit of javascript.

I'm ambitious :)

People in China are Shaped Funny

Posted: 2009-02-25 09:05:13

So, I was just in the lavatory, doing some paper work, and I happened to catch a glimpse of the tag on my underwear. It told me what size they were, each in EURO (M), US (M), CA (M), and CN (175/84a).

Wait, WHAT!?!?! It's a medium in all of europe, the US, and Cananda (and things are usually bass ackwards in Canadia). But in China, the size is 175/84a. That is just fucked up. I'd hate to try and find a shirt in my size, something like 130/54psq/#$__H3.

Phat Tuezday

Posted: 2009-02-24 08:13:49

Lent starts tomorrow, 40 days of "fasting" before Easter. I don't know anyone who actually fasts, but it is typical among the Christians to give up one of their vices for 40 days. A sort of "I know I could never actually fast for 40 days like Jesus, but this is along those same lines, plus the Church told me to" kind of things.

Now, that's all well and good, feel free to practice your religion. I've even partaken in the Lenten practice a few time, giving up my vices such as sobriety, abstinence, and ballet.

But here's what gets me: Fat Tuesday. A day of gluttony, indulgence, and general debauchery. Mardi Gras (directly translated "Fat Tuesday"), to me, seems to be the one of the largest mass-hypocritical events ever. It is not unlike the bachelor sleeping with a prostitute the day before his wedding. It is waves upon waves of sin jam-packed into one day before you are supposed to be "holy".

Does no one else see something wrong with this? I mean, it's not like it is news to me that religions can be hypocritical, but this is just taking the cake (and eating it too).

[UPDATE] It has been brought to my attention that this article has the tone that religion, and in specific Christianity, is the hypocrite here. Though I do think that most religions can be quite hypocritical, the target of this post is the practitioners of the religion who exhibit this. I do not think that Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras have ever expressly been in the Christian teachings, but I do think that in most instances, Fat Tuesday is directly associated with the following Christian practice of Lent. I am not a religious person, and that certainly shapes how I write in this blog. I have never claimed to write unbiasedly, and in fact I think I write with a very strong bias. But this blog is not about fair and unbiased reporting, it is a place for me to write about my own opinions.

All that said, I greatly appreciate the comments and discussions, and I can't wait to get this ugly-ass site redesigned so it's more pleasant to look at!

Feel the same? Think I'm a heathen? Let me know in the comments.

Leave a Comment || View Comments (8)

Mom said:

I agree with you. I think that it was once a religious practice but is now consider a reason for a party. And who doesn't like a good party?

Chris said:

First of all, I've given up on going through your website/blogs and looking for spelling and grammatical errors due to the fact that everything is riddled with them.

Second of all, you never really made a point in this blog. Fat Tuesday was created, or rather was referred to as because it certainly didn't start with the Christians, for people to indulge before fasting for 40 days. So what exactly is hypocritical? Aren't they doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing?

If the day before a bachelor's wedding was referred to as "Free Pass Day" and culturally accepted for the past 2,000 years, he could get away with sleeping with a prostitute because "Free Pass Day" is the day you get a free pass for sleeping with someone else before you get married.

He wouldn't be a hypocrite would he?

Sidebar: Do I come back on here to see your response? haha...sweet irony...How will I find out the answer to that question?

Bryan said:

Chris,
Your comment is grammatically perfect...

My point, if it went over your head, was that an act of gluttony, one of the 7 deadly sins, before a religious holiday, seems hypocritical.

I strongly doubt that Jesus ate like a pig and got shit-faced the day before he headed out to the desert.

The point is, the gluttony encouraged with fat Tuesday seems to be contradictory to the whole point of Lent. As would be sleeping with a prostitute the day before your wedding.

Jeff said:

I don't think that the celebration we all associate with Mardi Gras is in any way truly related to Christianity. Also, no church I have ever been to has ever encouraged gluttony and debauchery on Mardi Gras. Just because people interpret the day in that manner does not mean that it is the behavior encouraged by religion.

Bryan said:

It was not my intent to imply that Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras were parts of the Christian practice. Rather that practicing Christians display this hypocrisy.

Chris said:

The behavior used to be encouraged by religion. The association we make with Fat Tuesday now is that we are supposed to "eat up" before 40 days of fasting. So at least it DID have an association with religion.

Not to mention the fact, that you know as well as I do that their isn't a day that goes by the Christians aren't hypocritical to their religions. Although, it could be argued that Christians themselves aren't being hypocritical, but specifically Catholics. And we all know that Catholics create dirty generalizations to all Christian denominations.

Jeff said:

Chris, what evidence do you have that this sort of behavior was ever encouraged by religion? They certainly do not do so now, at least not any religion I am familiar with. Just because YOU associate Mardi Gras to religion doesn't mean the religion is the source.

Also, Lent is not strictly a Catholic thing, so either your last statement is made to rabble rouse or you are woefully ignorant.

Chris said:

Mainly, to "rabble rouse." Due to the fact that, despite not being a Christian, I believe Catholics have got most things Christian wrong.

History Lesson:

Fat Tuesday was said to have been started by the Pagans. They would parade a cow around town during the day and at night they would slaughter it. The slaughtering was coupled with a celebration of "gluttony" the day before starting a fast to show praise to the gods.

As most things Christian, these traditions were carried over when the Romans conquered the Pagans. Thus why Mardi Gras ends immediately at midnight on the Tuesday, otherwise known as Fat Tuesday, before Lent. The real catch is that Mardi Gras is part of the "Carnival Season," which is the season in between when Jesus Christ was actually born (Jan 6th) and when Lent starts. So in other words the people that are partying, if they were truly sticking to their "Christian" values, shouldn't be sober from Jan 6th to whenever Lent begins that year.

Apparently I'm a Mutant

Posted: 2009-02-23 11:48:55

This past weekend I tried to buy a suit. When I graduated from college (not so long ago) my parents got me a suit. Turns out I knew nothing about style or fashion and I ended up with a suit that looks like I'm a 6 year-old wearing my dad's suit. So I decided, I have a bunch of weddings coming up that I need to go to, and I'd like a suit that I actually look good in.

I had seen a suit at Banana Republic a few weeks back that I really liked, and it just so happened that Amber had a 25% off coupon for Banana, so we went to check it out. Well, it turns out that I don't fit into a normal off-the-rack suit jacket. I am what the fashion world (and the ladies) call "long". The dude at Banana informed me that they do not carry "long" in the store, nor would anyone else on the strip (we were down by North and Clyborn).

I thought this was rather shocking. I mean, I'm tall, yes, but I didn't think I was 'specialty store' tall. I've never had to shop in a Big & Tall or anything. Granted, most clothing manufactures assume that, if you have a 32 inch waist, you're probably under 5 feet tall, and similarly, if you need a 34 inch inseam, you're probably well over 250lbs.

The man told me I could always shop at Banana online, to which I responded "I'm going to surgically attach your shins to your forearms so you don't fit into anything in this store" and stomped away.

I tried Express next, despite Mr. Banana Ass telling me that no store was going to carry the elusive "long". Express did, and I really wanted to go rub it in back at Banana, but I controlled myself and just tried on the suit at Express.

Discovery #2: I may be tall and skinny, but I am broad. I have broad shoulders and a narrow waist. I'm goddamn sexy as shit, but I don't fit into an off the rack suit jacket even if it is "long". (I don't know why I keep putting "long" in quotes. Is it more amusing that way?)

It didn't help that the gigantic anti-theft ink tag jabbed right into my sternum on the suit coat, but I had had enough of trying on suits in these stores that cater to "normal people". So we left and decided I needed someplace like a Men's Warehouse (where my current suit is from... so not too excited about that) or maybe a Macy's or something of the sort.

The next wedding is coming up in under a month, so I gotta at least get some pants that don't have a pleats. Because anyone who's watched at least one episode of What Not To Wear knows that pleats = big no no.

Tricked you!

Posted: 2009-02-17 08:13:58

Ok, so I lied. You can no longer read my blog at urgack.blogspot.com. You are now forced to come here. I know it's ugly, but that will soon change. And you can still subscribe to the RSS feed (if you have troubles with this, please let me know, as it still might need some tweaking). You can still view all my posts, and comment and what not.

So suck it up, and enjoy reading all my thoughts here.