Lewies Blog

It seems that a new video game (DDR) has been taking a lot of my time. I had forgotten to release my beta. Oops! Any how, NetGravatars is a program that I use to download my exported comments from Haloscan. It then talks to the Gravatar site and determines if any of the people who commented on my blog have a gravatar. After that, it filters out people that I want to be displayed. (I prefer to show only people who have a gravatar and have also left there website address). Next, it parses a template and builds up a report of the remaining people. Last but not least, it uploads that file via. FTP.

That is a lot of stuff eh? Any ways - this is early, early, early beta. You may notice that I have a few plans for it because a few things will be disabled. (like the blogger features).

What you will need … an operating system running the Microsoft .Net runtime for version 1.1. A Haloscan account - preferably a premium account (Only 12 bucks a year folks. Cheap!), FTP destination.

If you don’t want to do the Haloscan thing, then you will need to convert your comments into CAIF format and tell the program to read a file rather then connect to Haloscan. If you don’t have FTP, then just tell it to save to a file.

I’ll work on releasing the source code as well within a few days.

Current program can be found here: Gravatars-1.0.1914.zip.

Support site can be found here: Net Gravatars

Hey - it’s a start. I just want to get something up and running before time runs out for the contest on the Gravatar Blog.

I was over at Just Breathe and found a little religion quiz they took to see which one best fit there beliefs. I decided to take a crack at it myself and was surprised to see it come back and say that I should consider becoming a Buddhist.

You scored as Buddhism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Buddhism. Do more research on Buddhism and possibly consider becoming Buddhist, if you are not already.

In Buddhism, there are Four Noble Truths: 1. Life is suffering. 2. All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the craving, attachment, and grasping that result from such ignorance. 3. Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment.4. The path to the suppression of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, and right contemplation. These eight are usually divided into three categories that base the Buddhist faith: morality, wisdom, and samadhi, or concentration. In Buddhism, there is no hierarchy, nor caste system; the Buddha taught that one’s spiritual worth is not based on birth.

Buddhism 88%
Paganism 83%
Agnosticism 83%
Satansim 75%
Hinduism 71%
Islam 63%
Atheism 42%
Christianity 33%
Judaism 33%

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)

created with QuizFarm.com

Whateva Sista! announced its’ Blog of the Month (BOTM) Winner today (again). Blogs were rated on Prettiness, Regular Updates, How many times they mention him, and a few other things.

Oddly enough, his other blog McFly Are Ace!! got the award. It turned out that it was just a joke. Here are the winners:

• Ms. Mac’s Meanderings!
• Anyhoo!
• World Wide Weird!

You may have noticed that I’m not on that list. There is something you can do about that. You can go ahead and nominate my blog for April. While you are there, you can nominate your own blog if you think that it is pretty, informative, amusing, updated often. Just don’t steal the WS!4BOTM wrist band idea from him or you’ll be disqualified.

I was visiting Chronicled and saw a post about flickr pointing me over to a site that plays with flickr images. It’s called Spell with flickr. You enter in a word, and it gets some random images from flickr to spell it out. Here are my results when I asked it to spell out Lewie:

If you refresh the page where you generate the images, you will get different images.

Deryke pointed out that the Ruksak Blog has a similar set of results in the header of his blogs template. It is possible that he did his images like this, but he couldn’t have used the default images that the “Spell with flickr” page gives you. He would have had to get the original photos from the flickr site and put them together.

My friend and I decided to take a brisk walk today and enjoy the weather. It was great outside and our office is located in a nice scenic park.

During our walk around the pond, we saw some turtles in the water. There was another turtle on the edge of the water with two smaller turtles on it. They all had there heads sticking up and darted into the water when I pointed at them. I counted about seven turtles swimming in the area.

After spotting the turtles, we saw what appeared to be a dead animal. We figured it to be a dog. It was curled up so you couldn’t see its head. The hair looked a bit odd for a dog. I noticed that the animal was breathing and started to continue walking.

I suggested that it may have been a beaver. My friend didn’t think that beavers were that big. Obviously he doesn’t watch the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet. I told him that they are bigger then what most people think. There is no such thing as a small beaver unless you start at about 20 pounds and go up. (An adult cat weighs about eight pounds.)

He asked if I had my camera phone (SPH-A600) on me. We stopped and looked back. The beaver got up, turned around, and laid back down. It definitely was not a dog. I pulled out my phone and slowly walked back to get a shot of the beaver basking in the sun.

From one angle, all I got was the backside of the beaver. I walked to the other side of it and shot a picture. The big beaver didn’t budge. My cell phone is really bad at capturing the intimate detail that I could see from just ten feet away. I could see its front legs with claws. I thought that the beaver should have had webbed feet. It appeared to look like a giant hamster. Even its buttocks looked like my hamsters at home. I didn’t see the tail end of the beaver. Perhaps it was tucked under its body.




I didn’t want to get any closer so I let the beaver lie in peace. We decided not to take our usual second lap around the pond. We didn’t see any of the other pond people while we were out and figured it was because of the sight of that wild beaver.

I’m really getting into this Dance Dance Revolution game. I’ve gotten to the point that I can get a B+ average on most of the beginner steps for the songs. I discovered that I can watch the videos if I go into standard mode. I have been wearing myself out a few times. I’ve started to form an odd habit of altering between working out and sitting on my butt to program.

I got the plastic pad with my game. I have been having problems where the pad seems to move its way to the back of my living room as I work out. Another problem is that I can not concentrate on where my feet are on the pad. This is especially the case when I avoid the center and only stay on the arrows. I wonder if those metal pads have enough texture to “feel” your way around the dance mat.

Last, there seems to be a bug or a fluke with the video game and some of the songs. The game will freeze for a brief moment. This is painful when I’m about to hit that arrow and I got to hold my foot over it until the game unfreezes. It always seems to be in the same spot of the problem songs.

My pad hasn’t worn out yet. I hear that the Cobalt Flux Pad is the way to go if you don’t want your pad to wear out. Unfortunately, they are $299.95 each. You can find them on eBay for about $100 less. Since they weigh 30 pounds each, your going to be killed on shipping costs.

My nephew came over this past weekend and we had a blast playing head to head. We found out that you can use the joy stick and compete against the other person on the mat. When he was on the dance pad, he was doing better then I was on the game controller.

My niece got in on the fun as well. She doesn’t comprehend the game, but she knows her colors. I would shout out what color to step on. It began to look like she was playing twister. There was one point where I would lift her up and down a lot while moving her around the pad. She was just full of giggles.

My sister in-law went job hunting with her boyfriend today and they saw some young kids at the arcade doing this game. Both my wife and sister in-law told me about it individually. It appears that she thinks there is an opportunity with my skills. I had to explain that I’m not a pro at this. I’m not even at standard. I’m just doing this to have a blast.

I’m debating if I should get the eye toy or not. My hands are all over the place rite now in a balancing act to keep from falling. With all my weight, I’m hoping to burn a few calories. Rite now I’m burning about 400 a day according to the workout mode. Well, that is my life in the past few days regarding DDR Extreme.

I told one of my friends about the free iPod deal that I was participating in when I first started it. He wanted an MP3 player, but his wife had to approve of it first. When the iPod shuffles came out, we both took a look and even at the low price, he was still reluctant to ask his wife.

Today, he just blew my mind away. After coming back from his lunch break, he presented a small black cube to me. He went out and purchased iPod photo. I was shocked and amazed. I came over to his cube and saw that he purchased a ton of additional gadgets for it as well.

Apparently, the photo iPod doesn’t come with a cradle and such. It just has an AC adapter that plugs into the bottom. He purchased a cradle, a car cigarette adapter, and a cover guard.

My friend went on to tell of his adventure over at Tysons Corner Center. The mall and the store itself was packed. A sign had fallen down (that weighed as much as a desktop computer) and made a loud noise, but no one payed any attention to it. Everyone just kept ringing up customers and going about there business. He got a chance to look at the iPod shuffle that someone had. “That thing is so tiny!“, he exclaimed. The iPod mini was just too small.

I asked why he had the change in will power. “Oh, my wife purchased some luggage“, he replied. Oh well, that’s usually how we get our toys. We hold back until our other half crosses the line. By the time I left, he was staying late so his photo iPod could get a full charge before unplugging it. I wonder if he is still there.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed two songs in particular playing that I really enjoy. But the people who produced the songs ruin it for me. These are the songs that I really hate to love.

The first is done by Kelly Osbourne called One Word. I never thought of Kelly as singing todays club music. She has sung a really bad version of the Madonna song - Pappa Don’t Preach, but nothing has come of it. On top of that, her bratty life being plugged on The Osbournes show just goes to show how much of a brat she is.

The other sing is done by Paris Hilton called Screwed. Again, it’s that bratty personality of a rich girl that really annoys me. Paris spends her life at the clubs with her sister and pretty much doesn’t care about anything else. Watching her show “The Simple Life” just goes to show how stupid her and her sister really are.

A long while ago, in a galaxy far, far away - Aurorealis got an early Christmas gift of DDR. I read along as she made brief references to it.

I had the feeling that this thing is kinda lame, but the fact that she agrees and that she got addicted enough to get a workout had me sold. Recently, my state income tax check cleared the bank and I decided that it was about time to give myself a treat. I picked up the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme bundle that came with both the game and a dance pad.

I could do the lessons in the game. As soon as I started playing the game itself, I realized that this wasn’t going to work. It was too fast for me on the easiest level. Figuring that the game is for the truly hardcore dancer teens out there, I went back to the store and picked up the original Dance Dance Revolution Maximum game. I started playing the game and it was good for my speed.

Aurorealis was rite. You totally forget that you are working out with this thing. Your mind is being challenged to pay attention to the moves that your feet need to do. This, along with the mesmerizing background becomes harder to do with different songs.

My wife’s friends came in the door and one guy said that he had lost all respect for me as a DDR Freak. I just replied that I never needed it anyway. It’s not like I hang out in his circles.

Update

I went back to the first game that I purchased and found some settings that I could change for the difficulty. I set it to the easiest level and was able to start playing. (I wish I thought of that earlier.) I prefer the songs on the Extreme version. I’ve heard a few on my XM Radio so it’s starting to go with my taste of music.

Today was Engin’s last day with us where I work. It is sad to see her leaving us after a year. The good news is that she will still be working with us off-site. I still get to chat with her online, but I will no longer be able to have her as a lunch partner.

Engin loves Turkish restaurants, so we decided to go out to her favorite - Temel. On the ride over, her and my manager are talking in Turkish while another coworker next to me is speaking Spanish on his cell phone. I’m at a loss here. It reminds me when my wife and sister in-law start talking gibberish.

The cook came out to greet all of us and then the waiter came and got our drinks. We looked over the menu for a while. I got a Pastirma Pizza. It is made with spicy Turkish ham on a base of kaser cheese with green peppers and tomatoes.

Most of us got the “Pizza Boats” of different kinds. There was spinach, sucuk, chicken, ground beef, and the obvious - eggplant pizza. There is a saying in Turkey that a woman is not ready for marriage unless she knows 100 recipes for eggplant. It must be very common there.

Because the cook makes the dough himself, our entries took a very long time to be prepared. No one was too worried. After all, our manager was there with us and we all had lots to talk about.

As our food came, another coworker was talking to me about cell phones and blogging. I casually took out my cell phone, took a picture, and then sent it to my blogs special email address. When we came back from Temel, I sent him the URL of my blog to show him how it posted.

Just before the end of the day, Engin sent out an instant message of her last will.

Before I leave the office , I wanted to declare my will: in the refrigerator, half a bottle hot sauce is for Zerrin, bottle of mustard is for Lewis, and a bag of string chesses is for La Fonso..Use them and remember me:):D:):D

It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye (from laughing so hard).