Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

Apparently, some people have never been lost in a library. I work on a campus that has a huge, multi-story library. It's not as big as some (can you imagine how big the U of Michigan library is, but I digress), but it's big. I lost my sense of direction in the poorly lit basement (very little natural light, only a few weak overhead lights) while searching for an Austen novel. Every path I tried to get out seemed to dead end. If it had been night time (i.e. even darker), I would have been seriously creeped out. There were also plenty of those creepy periodical sliders Alisa speaks of.

And then there's those stories of students living in the library...

I read BeancounterBlog when I remember to -- okay, it's not often, but I've always found it to be pretty good.

On that note, I'm adding it to Bloglines so I don't forget about it again.

1. Attempt to save at least 10% of net income, adjusting up or down accordingly with what you can afford. Don't count on only the company's 401(k) matching program -- open a secondary RSA or, if you plan to be in a higher tax bracket later in life (hopefully you do), go for the Roth IRA. Of course, you want some of your savings to be liquid, so putting some money into a savings account is a good idea as well. Be sure to shop around as your local brick-and-mortar bank is going to give you a bad deal -- online banks like ING Direct, etc, offer similar security but better interest rates. Most importantly, have savings automatically taken from your bank account. If you never see the money, you'll be less tempted to spend it.

2. Don't commit to new expenses before getting your first paycheck. Taxes and other deductions always end up being more than planned. In other words, don't commit to a larger car payment before you know exactly how much your take-home pay will be.

3. If you can swing it make sure you put money away for travelling. You're going to want to visit your now far-flung college friends or meet them in a fun, exotic locale for reminiscing. :)

The one that immediately stands out in my mind is the soundtrack for The Safety of Objects. Unfortunately, it was never produced and sold as a CD. Here's the IMDB song listing for those curious.

I always encourage those who believe the failure is funding to do the research and see just how much of their state budget goes to education. It's a staggering percentage for most states -- generally 40-70%. How much more money does one throw at the problem before beginning to believe there must be another solution?

I have no idea what Joost even is.

(Crap. I just realized that, duh, I'm comment two. Please don't give me an invite -- let it go to someone who will appreciate it.)

I'm a big fan of cycling, but I'll have to settle for watching the Tour of Georgia on OLN (or whatever it's called now).

Bracketology is always a crapshoot I lose, so this year I filled it out in about 10 minutes. Seriously, picking by mascot is about as good a methodology as any.

Rock chalk Jayhawks!

Unfortunately, at that time of year, about any national park is going to be swimming with tourists.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches, Grand Canyon, Black Hills? NPS.gov also tells me there are a few in Hawaii, which wouldn't be such a bad place to spend 9 days. :P

I would say the one must see national park in the US is Yellowstone National Park. Within a day's drive is Glacier National Park in Montana, which is also also awe inspiring. It's so vast, it's hard to fathom. You shouldn't have a problem finding a nice hotel in between -- Bozeman, Missoula or Kalispell are all good stops.

Perhaps have him take a gander at this article from our favorite usability guy?

And here's my opinion on it -- just changing the link color is never enough if it isn't underlined or possess some sort of non-color-related, visual cue. Links should at least be bolded so that those with low-vision or who are colorblind can still tell that the link text is different than all the other text around it. And, yes, ideally it would be underlined or have some sort of visual cue, if not in static state, then on hover state.

Obviously, he missed the memo that stereotyping rants about how Americans are misinformed and shallow are SOOOO last season.

At least it was a well-composed rant, though.

Oh, and I played French horn for years, but haven't played it at all in the past 8 years. I miss it sometimes.

I've played piano for 18ish years. Oddly, I really got into it much more *after* I stopped taking lessons. For me, there's nothing better for a bad mood than Toccata in D Minor.

I'm sorry, but if your white rag being dirty is the last straw, then you might want to consider living by yourself. I understand that it's not the new color of the rag, but rather the ongoing issues that have built up. However, you really seem to be pissed off all the time.

A few tips:

• Separate your food. *Really* important. In fact, when I lived in a harmonious 5 roommate house we even initialed our food.
• Have a roommate chat. Demanding doesn't work, but airing out your problems might. Agree on cleaning and upkeep duties of common areas.
• Set boundaries. Maybe you're okay with someone borrowing a blank CD, but maybe another roommate isn't. Be clear on these boundaries.
• Let some things go. When you're living with other people, sometimes, though annoying, it's just not worth bringing something up. Pick your battles. Go for the big stuff instead.

Marie Claire
Self
Blueprint

I use a Mac at home, but Windows XP at work. It's good to have to use both operating systems on a regular basis, especially since I'm still expected to troubleshoot familial PC crises.

(But I much prefer my Mac.)

So, unfortunately, none of the songs grabbed me as must have (except Hallelujah, but I already own that one). I ended up buying "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. I'm giving a point to Ozone42, though, because I *almost* bought a different Our Lady Peace song.

Thanks everyone! Oh, and anyone that wanders across this and still wants to leave a recommendation, please do. I'm not afraid to award more points for good recommendations.

I have to disagree with the hypothesis that because you found programming success through an alternate route and aren't surrounded by quality CS degree-bearing programmers that a Computer Science degree must be useless.

There is a misunderstanding here as to what a Computer Science degree is. Obtaining a CS degree isn't about learning everything there is to know about PHP or HTML/CSS separation -- there are community colleges and other degrees for that. It's about creating knowledge that can be applied to any programming situation. Computer Science courses teach one the foundations of information, computation, and programming. CS majors take a variety of theoretical, programming, and math courses so as to learn the building blocks of programming and computation. Certainly, there are many courses on specific topics (which are great) but the whole point is to create building blocks of knowledge.

I have data structures like queues, deques and linked lists swimming around in my head that I can apply to a variety of programming situations. I've learned the foundations of programming languages making it easy for me to pick up about any new language I choose because, really, they all have the same basic pieces.

If a CS degree-bearing programmer doesn't understand (or care about) simplicity, flexibility and optimization in code then they weren't paying attention or, unfortunately, chose a bad comp. sci. program.

In the end, one gets out of formal education what one puts into it. In my opinion and experience, people who felt they were short-changed didn't put enough into it.

Yay! I'll go through these tonight. Thanks everyone!

No love? Don't make me spend this $1.29 on a Hillary Duff song.

Everyone seems to be recommending cities, but, most of the US isn't in a city (obviously). There are not many places prettier or more awe-inspiring than Yellowstone National Park or Glacier National Park.

Dark chocolate. Or, secondarily, riding my bike.

Dear Guy with your bike on the bus at the same time as me,

I'm not sure how acquainted you are with the bike-on-bus procedure, but I thought I'd take a moment from my day for a quick tutorial.

1. The way our route is set up, you know that most people are getting off the bus at one of only two stops (and one stop being more likely than the other since it is the transit center). Given that knowledge, perhaps knowing that you would most likely be getting off first (at the sooner of the two probable stops), you might inquire as to whether I'd like to put my bike on first. This way, your bike wouldn't be sandwiched behind mine. Which brings me to number 2...
2. If number 1 is ignored, it is usually best practice NOT to pull your bike from the back, and, in the process, rip the chain off the parallel remaining bike. I figured this one was obvious, but you know what they say about assuming...

As you might have gathered, your subpar bike-on-bus etiquette left my bike with its chain wrapped around its pedal. Which is a totally fixable thing, but not when I'm in work clothes. Luckily for you, your name (which I did not know, of course) was saved from permanent sullying when a biker compatriot stopped and fixed my chain for me. That was cool. In the name of reconciliation, I'm ignoring the fact that I then felt stupid, and that guy probably now believes I'm a helpless novice biker.

So, anyway, I guess I'll try to beat you to the bus stop next Thursday.

Until then,

-- Your fellow bus rider and biker

One thing that comes to mind is that the upgrade may have messed up the type of line return used in the files. Unix can't read Windows line returns. If you open one of the PHP files from the command line, do you see ^M at the end of each line? If so, that might be your problem.

Of course, this is just a giant stab in the dark, but many file problems I've had have stemmed from this.

I'm a registered Libertarian, though I consider myself to be a "bleeding-heart" libertarian.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway

Certainly I've read quite a few trashy novels and my fair share of mediocre chick lit, but, in my mind, this "classic" is the worst because it was so disappointing. I expected to be reading a transformative literary work, and, instead, I finished the book and thought, "Huh?"

I know shamefully little about the local bands where I live.

When I lived in Helena, MT, there was a great local band called The Clintons. They put on a great live show -- it's the kind of show where you dance all night and can't believe it's suddenly 2am.

I've since moved to Colorado and, even though it seems impossible, I know even less about the local music scene here.

In my defense, I don't remember issuing an "or I'll kill you" ultimatum. ;)

This is more of an exercise to see if people are able to pick one song. I think it's interesting to read someone's process of picking just one song from the thousands and thousands most likely existing on their external hard drives and iPods.

@deus62 -- And I appreciate your effort despite your opposition to the question. :)

@Ivy -- Haha. I just noticed you mentioned Lightbox too. Someday I'll learn not to read things too quickly.

Of all the little pop princesses, I've actually always like Christina the most because she can actually sing. She has an incredible set of pipes.

I had to look up the performance on YouTube -- and it is pretty darn good.

@klunkatronic: Perhaps my eyes are failing me, but that looks like two. ;)

@JPhill -- I've never even heard of Corner Story. I'll have to check that out.

@Everyone -- Thanks for bravely playing along.

iBook: 60GB
iPod: 20GB
External: 60GB
iPod Shuffle: 512MB
USB stick: 128MB

Geez, finally! ;)

I know it's hard -- it's supposed to be! Anyone else?