robot pirate scorpion

so this past week i went to the library. with all the books there, it was hard to find exactly what i wanted- a book about javascript that explicitly breaks down some of the fineries of cookies. i already have a couple books on javascript, and some of them were even useful. the book i decided to check out, The Book of Javascript by David Thau, turned out to be a pretty good find. in most books, the examples seem to be somewhat limited. the examples in this book were the most concise, clear, and useful out of the guides i’ve consulted. (also, split() looks pretty useful.) but that’s not the point.

the point is that i realized how much javascript and c++ are alike. (it’s too bad i don’t know java, but that’s a post for another day.) if i had known this before, i wouldn’t have waited so long to learn either, and wouldn’t have wasted as much time looking for good javascript books. wait, that’s not the point either. the real point is this:

i got a cable in the mail today. it’s supposed to be a nokia ca-53. good thing it came today because the auction ended about ten days ago and i was starting to get nervous- the last thing i feel like dealing with now is a repeat of the great “no-show airport card” incident of fall ‘05.

now all i need is to find some software (anyone with a link to diego 3.08 feel free to email me) and i’m set- customized mp3 ringtones and no more telus logos or that annoying camera shutter sound.

link 1

link 2

(…and here i am still struggling with integral calculus.)

that was fun.

since i last posted i’ve been:

• disproving the fundamental theorem of algebra. it simply doesn’t exist anymore. you’re welcome.
• learning c++. easier than i thought (so far). why did i wait so long?
• drinking jager. old habits…
• playing classic and old-school fighting games. (street fighter 2, soul caliber 2, etc.)

this time, i think i’ll be posting in a more consistent fashion.

my main goals from now on include getting a replacement for this computer. a g3 imac only has so much life in it. learning c++ made me realize how easy javascript is/was. i should really do more with it. i have some ideas, but they’ll have to wait until i’ve got a new computer.

so i stumbled upon a few cool things lately- orkut, del.icio.us, yulblog, and the mini-blog. i’m not going to run down the first two because a) as much as i’d like to, i don’t live in brazil and can’t speak portuguese, and b)i’m years too late on this one and you’ve probably all been there and done that already. some things i just can’t get into right away, and delicious was on of them. useful, kinda neat actually, but whatever.

the main topics of discussion for today’s lecture are yulblog and another (mini)blog i found. firstly, why i like yulblog is because it’s a regularly updated stream of random tidbits of lives that are lived close to mine. it’s kind of interesting to read miscellaneous posts and realize that i may have actually run into one of these people today and not even known it. (literally, i almost hit a lot of people/cars on my daily bike rides to school. i blame it on the video games as a kid.)

in reading one of the blogs, i came across the miniblog, which you may or may not have seen already.  i think this is neat because it’s so random and has almost no possible context.  so, similarly to why i find random blogs interesting, mini randomness is even more interesting because there is no context to the post, no follow-up, no explanation, no nothing.  almost no point.
it might be something i’d incorporate here. i think that having only tiny posts to write is less daunting than writing almost a full page.

just thought i’d share.

p.s.- in case anyone’s wondering; yes i am only writing this as a way to procrastinate some more. my homework is really annoying.

a recent aim of mine has been to get more into learning programming/scripting. i’ve done some experimenting with basic javascript in high school, and some logowriter about two decades ago in grade 3 or something, but now is the time to get a head start on my long term goal. since i am aiming to do fucking amazingly well in my math classes this semester and apply to computer science for next year, now might be the time to get ahead. and my has allah blessed me(!!! praise be upon his name) because today in the trash at work (i work in a trashpile, by the way) i found this in the trash. yes, that’s right-Essential Visual C++ 4 from 1995.
i think this was a good sign because i just realized that i have inadvertantly started a collection of outdated computer books. some highlights include 1999’s MSMQ from scratch and some other book on Netscape 2.0 or something. i fully realize that they probably have next to no useful information in them, but are good to have for a sporadic browsing nonetheless.

so i registered for classes yesterday. what a blast. found out that i can only take three, not four this semester. oh well, i think math 202, 203, and physics 205 is just about enough fun for me.

also heard from a distant friend recently. that’s was good. weird how people tend to get back in touch during the summer, and disappear during the winters. i blame the communists.

i tried to make this a productive day. i got started on learning more C++, did a little bit of math, and worked on some php. i saw a tutorial on pagination a few days ago that looks like it could be exactly what i need. today, though, i focused on includes.

it seems to make sense the same way style sheets make sense. if you have your styles in one area, and the content in another, why not do the same thing with the separate parts of the content? as it is, i can change the “look” of the page by changing the styles in one file, but to add something to the menu, or change to footer or whatever i have to go in to every page and copy and paste the same html. pretty ridiculous. so today i did this.

i know it looks the same, but it’s supposed to. it’s supposed to look exactly the same. if you compare the source for these two pages, you’ll notice that the index page here (in the main section) is kinda scrambly and a big mess. if you look at the example page (whose title i’ve changed to P H P I N C L U D E to better differentiate the two) you’ll see that it’s only a few lines long*, and that if i want to make any changes to three of the sections of the page, i’ll only have to modify one file to see it reflected across the site (once all of the pages are changed over of course).

finally, i would like to state that i will get this pagination/entry browsing thing down. seriously.

*correction: i just realized that you won’t see the php in the source, just the html it’s including. don’t bother looking.

so i’ve been thinking- maybe instead of trying to half-ass a back-end php thingy together to handle entire files, i should just separate the page into sections and templates a la wordpress. i understand that the main page is just a bunch of sections/templates that pull together different parts. maybe that’s what i should do here.

now that i think about it, this is exactly what i need. the header/footer sections will just be containers that get fill themselves in with html (that doesn’t change). the main section will call the latest (ex:highest numbered) file from a database or array of filenames and display it. the prev/next buttons at the bottom will either subtract or add 1 to it and display that in the main content section. it’s so simple. i don’t really know what i was thinking of doing before.

note to self-don’t forget about getting some sort of form-handling script together to further automate the posting process.

over and out

i knew this would happen. i have trouble finishing things that i start. as i’ve previously mentioned, i had another blog that atrophied from disuse. this site was supposed to be a new beginning, another symbol of my newfound drive and stickwithittudiness. less than two months in and, surprise of surprises, i’ve started to slack off.

the good news about my recent relapse is that i’ve acknowledged it, decided to do something about it, and actually followed through. maybe this is a turning point. or maybe this is a token post to ease my conscience.

i’ve decided to share a few things that i’ve been up to in the past few weeks:

• recycling
• 43 things (will definitely post more on this later)
• rearranging my habitat
• math
• watching a 4-year-old play my drums.

part of my motivation to build this site was to build some skills with php and practice using “validating” (x)html and css more. this was to build on my recent abandoning of tables for layout, and realizing that the html that i usually write validated with almost no changes (i’m a genius, i know). obviously, html skills are less of a concern than actually figuring out php. i know exactly how i want this site to look, but i’m having trouble making it do what i want it to. i’m really looking forward to solving this problem, because i know that the system i put in place will make it really easy for me to post at least once per day.