Just because a person doesn't particularly believe in a god or gods or religion or reincarnation you get tagged as a satanist.... :p

You scored as Satanism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Satanism! Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism. </td> Satanism 75% agnosticism 75% atheism 63% paganism 54% Buddhism 46% Islam 42% Judaism 21% Christianity 17% Hinduism 8% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Date:	2003-07-20 19:37
Subject:	scjp - progress
Security:	Public
Mood:	nerdy

Sun Certified Java Programmer
I have completed chapter 1.
Preparing to start chapter 2 pg 60.

Took the practice test.
20 Questions. Got 5* wrong.
I think I actually got only 4 wrong.

I'll post in java_dev the question that I got wrong and see what people's
answers are.

i'm reading up so that i can go take the sun certified programmer test sometime.

i really want to just freakin do it this time.. i'll post my progress
and in the end post my test scores.

Check out Ktail at sevensoft.net.
Tail utility. (Like what you miss from *nix)

currently v1.0.3 jar file is available.
no docs.
no source yet.

took about 5ish hours to write, however that included mostly watching tv
and not paying attention to the code.

Date:	2003-07-06 23:44
Subject:	Ktail
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Well. I finally wrote something new after what seems like years.
I had time and ambition this weekend to write a program similar to the unix tail program.

Its java (swing based).

I'll package it up maybe tomorrow.
The only thing I notice thats buggy (not really a bug) is the file chooser.
On my computer it takes nearly 15 or 20 seconds for the dialog to pop up the first time.
I think this is probably due to the fact that I have network drives that aren't connected
since i'm on a laptop but the file chooser still probably tries to connect to them.

-ken

Welcome to Phantasy Star Online Hunters License for Xbox Live™!

Your Premium Service was activated on Wednesday, April 16, 2003. It will
continue until such time as you cancel it.


Woot, that is a beautiful thing. I can't believe its finally here and in my hands.

anyone who have live, my gamertag is Zendril, send me a friend request/guild card.

see ya on Ragol.

i hope its good.. if not, then its probably wrong. :p

Conscious self	Overall self

Take Free Enneagram Test

leaving for myrtle beach, just wanted to leave a note behind for my wonderful wife.

i love you and i'll be missing you until i return.

thinking 'bout you lots.

love,
ken

i started to play around with full screen exclusive mode in java.
i noticed that for games i would want the cursor to go away.
there isn't a library to do this, however i did find a way around it.

create a 1pixel transparent (you'll see the filename in the code, so you can change that if you want)
create an image from that gif (in java)
create a custom cursor from that image
set the cursor for the component to the nifty custom cursor

the following code is mostly from sun as a part of their tutorial on full screen exclusive mode, i
blocked out the part that i added stuff in.



/**
 * This test takes a number up to 13 as an argument (assumes 2 by
 * default) and creates a multiple buffer strategy with the number of
 * buffers given.  This application enters full-screen mode, if available,
 * and flips back and forth between each buffer (each signified by a different
 * color).
 */

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferStrategy;

public class MultiBufferTest {

    private static Color[] COLORS = new Color[] {
        Color.red, Color.blue, Color.green, Color.white, Color.black,
        Color.yellow, Color.gray, Color.cyan, Color.pink, Color.lightGray,
        Color.magenta, Color.orange, Color.darkGray };
    private static DisplayMode[] BEST_DISPLAY_MODES = new DisplayMode[] {
        new DisplayMode(640, 480, 32, 0),
        new DisplayMode(640, 480, 16, 0),
        new DisplayMode(640, 480, 8, 0)
    };

    Frame mainFrame;
    
    //BEGIN COOL STUFF
    Image transCursorImage;
    Cursor transCursor;
    String transCursorName = new String("transparentCursor");
    
    public MultiBufferTest(int numBuffers, GraphicsDevice device) {
        try {
            GraphicsConfiguration gc = device.getDefaultConfiguration();
            mainFrame = new Frame(gc);
            mainFrame.setUndecorated(true);
            mainFrame.setIgnoreRepaint(true);
            device.setFullScreenWindow(mainFrame);

			Toolkit toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
			transCursorImage = toolkit.getImage("./1pxtrans_cursor.gif");
			MediaTracker mediaTracker = new MediaTracker(mainFrame);
			mediaTracker.addImage(transCursorImage, 0);
			try
			{
				mediaTracker.waitForID(0);
			}
			catch (InterruptedException ie)
			{
				System.err.println(ie);
				System.exit(1);
			}

            transCursor = toolkit.createCustomCursor(transCursorImage, new Point(0,0), transCursorName);
			((Component)mainFrame).setCursor(transCursor);
	//END COOL STUFF
            if (device.isDisplayChangeSupported()) {
                chooseBestDisplayMode(device);
            }
            Rectangle bounds = mainFrame.getBounds();
            mainFrame.createBufferStrategy(numBuffers);
            BufferStrategy bufferStrategy = mainFrame.getBufferStrategy();
            for (float lag = 1000.0f; lag > 0.00000006f; lag = lag / 1.33f) {
                for (int i = 0; i < numBuffers; i++) {
                    Graphics g = bufferStrategy.getDrawGraphics();
                    if (!bufferStrategy.contentsLost()) {
                        g.setColor(COLORS[i]);
                        g.fillRect(0,0,bounds.width, bounds.height);
                        bufferStrategy.show();
                        g.dispose();
                    }
                    try {
                        Thread.sleep((int)lag);
                    } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            device.setFullScreenWindow(null);
        }
    }

    private static DisplayMode getBestDisplayMode(GraphicsDevice device) {
        for (int x = 0; x < BEST_DISPLAY_MODES.length; x++) {
            DisplayMode[] modes = device.getDisplayModes();
            for (int i = 0; i < modes.length; i++) {
                if (modes[i].getWidth() == BEST_DISPLAY_MODES[x].getWidth()
                   && modes[i].getHeight() == BEST_DISPLAY_MODES[x].getHeight()
                   && modes[i].getBitDepth() == BEST_DISPLAY_MODES[x].getBitDepth()
                   ) {
                    return BEST_DISPLAY_MODES[x];
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    public static void chooseBestDisplayMode(GraphicsDevice device) {
        DisplayMode best = getBestDisplayMode(device);
        if (best != null) {
            device.setDisplayMode(best);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            int numBuffers = 2;
            if (args != null && args.length > 0) {
                numBuffers = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
                if (numBuffers < 2 || numBuffers > COLORS.length) {
                    System.err.println("Must specify between 2 and "
                        + COLORS.length + " buffers");
                    System.exit(1);
                }
            }
            GraphicsEnvironment env = GraphicsEnvironment.
                getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
            GraphicsDevice device = env.getDefaultScreenDevice();
            MultiBufferTest test = new MultiBufferTest(numBuffers, device);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        System.exit(0);
    }
}

i know its been forever since i've posted anything.

i needed a quick place to write down some quotes i've heard recently
either first person or directly from a friend


i'm not aware of anything...
... at all

do you think i enjoy being this stupid?

no i'm not on the internet, i'm on dial-up

(armenian person - in heavy accent)
i call this place for help and there are no americans,
everyone is foreign


i'll edit post later as i remember more

I know no too many people are going to read this. Perhaps that is a good thing. In any case I figured I needed to have this written down. It seems beyond reality.

Thursday morning January 24th 2002, I'm driving to work listening to KML (Kirk, Mark, and Lopez) on 98 Rock. They mention that if you are the whatever'th caller you will win some sort of ski trip with KML courtesy of Dillon Bus service.

Everyonce in awhile i'll hear those and dial in, and its always busy of course. So I thought I'd be stubborn and try it anyways. I dialed and it rang busy. So i redialed, it began to ring (which if often does, then tells me all circuits busy or something else letting me know that I'm a fool for even trying). Someone picks up (I can barely hear them) and I think they say something about 98Rock. I just said "I'm trying to win the Ski Tickets". Hoping that it wasn't another station and have them jerk me around (like i've heard on Opie and Anthony where they get people calling trying to win something and they play along like they've won, when in fact you are being laughed at by thousands of people for having called the wrong place). A female voice says "You've won.". Great! So I pull off the road, because the Jeep is too loud to hear the phone while moving. I get my name, phone number and address to her. Which I was able to get the name Stephanie. At this point everything starts getting real quiet and I'm having trouble hearing her and obviously she can't hear me at all.

I hang up and kind of forget about it until I get to work and there is a voice mail from Stephanie. She says that I need to get down there between 9-5 thurs or friday to pick up the tickets. Now, down there means Hooper avenue in Baltimore, MD. Which is about 2 hours from where my work is. I'll figure something out for tomm.

Thursday night I call my Boss' voice mail and leave a message stating that I am going to the doctor, because I have had a cold and cough for 2 weeks. (*NOTE* I still have a cough after 3 weeks). I'm all set.

Friday rolls around and I wake up and head out to Baltimore. On the way I have to sit in 1 1/2 of traffic because there was a funeral procession for a police officer. During this procession, two police officers ran into each other and caused an accident. I'm glad I had izzy with me to keep me company because I was sitting dead still on I95.

I make it to Hooper ave and get let in the gates. I sit in a chair watching a nice widescreen flat panel tv (because this building houses not only the radio station but a bunch of other media things such at WBAL-tv11, etc...). Needless to say its on Channel 11.

Lori, from 98Rock promotions comes down the stairs and hands me an envelope and tells me that directions are in it, and promptly disappears back up the stairs. (Nice to meet you too.)

Up until the time that I got the tickets, I wasn't sure -exactly- what was included. It almost sounded from the people and the promo on www.98online.com that it was just bus tickets. Upon examining the contents of the envelope I found that it was Bus tickets, Lift Tickets and Rentals (to be provided upon arrival). All the while getting to ride along with the KML morning radio personalities. Sponsored by Miller Brewing Company.

Fantastic.

Oh, wait.

Blonnie is only 20. That little writing at the bottom states that you need to be 21 and have a valid ID to participate. Hrm. I leave, have a nice trip back home and place a call to blonnie. Oh, $6 in tolls to and from. I tell her the good (and bad) news. I make a call to two friends who are both blonde and hope blonnie can pass for. Charlotte was kind enough to accomodate us. She answered the phone and I said, "I need to ask a favor. I won Ski Trip tickets...". Poor thing probably thought that I was gonna ask her to go, or give her tickets. "You need to be 21 to attend, can we borrow your ID so that blonnie can go?" I asked. Blonnie stopped by and picked up the ID on her way home.

We need clothes. Blonnie came from Texas. She hardly has any cold weather attire. A few puffy jackets for the brisk Maryland winters, but certainly nothing that will withstand chilly western mountain breezes. We head out to The Ski Bum in Newark.

Oooof. $500 later we leave with 4 garments of clothing. Two ski jackets and two ski pants. Very stylish indeed. After arriving home I begin looking up directions to the Park & Ride (MARC Train station) where the bus will be departing from. It is below Baltimore just off of rt 100, a few miles from 295. About 1 hour 15 minutes from home. The bus leaves at 7 so we need to be there at 6:30ish. We go to sleep around 12:30.

4:30 BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Gawd, its time already. We get up, gather our stuff, take a bag that contains our ski clothes and head out the door. I should probably take some headache medicine or something. Why bother, its going to be a beautiful day of fun in the sun. Am I forgetting anything? No.

Driving to Baltimore at 5:00 in the morning is wonderful. No traffic. We arrive at 6:15ish. Start loading up at around 6:50. We get out of the car and they hand us Release forms. I beep the car alarm and put the keys in my pocket. I tell blonnie to sign the form as Charlotte. They start collecting forms and checking IDs. We are first in line. Just as I hand them my form, one of the coordinators says from around the corner of the bus "It's cold out here, lets let them get on the Bus and we'll collect everything then."

We board.
I take stuff out of my pockets, except for wallet and contact lens case, and put it in the bag. I then attempt to stuff the bag in the overhead compartments. No good. Blonnie keeps tugging at my jacket requesting that I just put it on the floor. I comply and have a seat next to her. We depart. A little bit later they come around and collect the forms (and ask us to write upon them if we will be needing rentals, or if we have brought our own equipment). We turn in the forms. No ID checked.

Fairly long trip out west. We are travelling to Seven Springs ski resort somewhere in western Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh. A couple of guys (a bit younger than myself), probably just around 21 or 22 years of age are sitting in the back with us. They have been snowboarding before. In fact they brought their own equipment. They couldn't wait to hit the slopes and roll a big fatty. Along the way the 98 crew was throwing out some promotional items. I snagged a fuzzy winter hat out of mid-air. Nice catch. "Ken!" Blonnie said, "You just grabbed that from in front of that boy behind us". So I handed it to him. *Grumble*

These two were the epitomy of Beavis and Butthead, no.. perhaps Bill & Ted (sans the excellent adventure). Quite possibly it was the Bogus Journey. We'll see.

We arrive. We get a 30 second speech from a representative of Seven Springs, welcoming us to the resort and letting us know the current weather conditions (20 degrees, expected to climb into the high 30s). He also mentions that the slopes will be quite full today and to be courteous to other skiiers and snowboarders.

Blonnie and I change into our long-johns and put on our extremely sporty snowboarding clothes. We at least look the part.

On the way to exiting the bus we are handed lift tickets and rental cards for skis.

Starving! No food in the gullet since last night and it is now 11ish. First Stop. Ski shop. Two hats($20 each), one pair of gloves ($14.99) and two pairs of goggles ($35 each) later we make our way to the cafeteria. 2 slices of Pizza, 1 Apple juice, 1 Strawberry milk, 1 Hamburger, 1 hot dog and 1 French Fry for a total of $15 (well spent).

Downstairs from the cafeteria were the rental facilities. In order to rent snowboards we had to pay $10 each to upgrade from ski rentals. We did so and journeyed to the place to pick up boots. Boy these things are ugly. I always thought snowboard equipment was quite kewl looking. DOH! We are looking at ski boots. I grab blonnie and head down to the end of the racks to a place under a sign that read: Snowboard Boots. Bingo. "One size 10 and one size 7 please."

Now these look much better with our spiffy new outfits. I rent a locker with a token, dispensed to me by a machine that ate a George Washington. Two pair of shoes, one white baltimore ravens hat and a contact lens case in, one orange locker key taken.

Snowboards. We get fitted for snowboards and I mention that we are new, In case our clothes threw him off. Where can we learn. "Well there are lessons over to the left as you exit the building which will cost ya, but to tell you the truth the school of hard knocks is not a bad place to learn." he replied. "Gotcha", i said.

Out the door we go and head up the hill to the right. There is a small hill with a medieval looking device on the right side that has a rope with rungs attached to it. This is the primitive ski lift. We make our way over to this device and I grab ahold. It pulls me towards the top, slowly but surely. It is difficult to maintain balance because there is a a rut that the boards want to swerve into. Blonnie finds it impossible. I don't blame her. We both try this vertical idea on the boards a few times down the hill but end up horizontal more than anything. This is going to be a sore tushy experience I can tell already.

Good News! Our $600 plus dollars that we spent on clothes has proved to be very useful. We are not getting soaked or cold or anything of the like. With that good news, we decide to just sit our fannys down in the snow and park it for a while.

Snow Tubing. Snow Tubing. Snow Tubing. Blonnie really wants to do the snow tubing experience. I would like to do that as well. We still have *plenty* of time. Still having trouble with the (Sub)Bunny Slope, we venture over to the Bunny Slope/Training Area. This is dangerously near the lifts. I coax Blonnie into getting on a lift. It's not that she is afraid, she just does not know how she is going to get back down to the bottom of the mountain. *Funny Note* She wanted to know what the lift was all about but did not want to actually have to snowboard down the hill to get back. Yeh, you girls might have guessed it. She wanted to ride the lift to the top, then stay on it and ride it right back down to the bottom. *Giggle* I just -couldn't- do that. I would actually be embarrased, if it was even possible to do such a thing.

We get on the lift and have a very peaceful ride up. It was a little bit of a struggle making our way down the face of the mountain but we did it. Towards the end I was doing just fine, and starting to enjoy it quite a bit. I couldn't understand it. I couldn't stand up on the (smallerthanbunnyslope)RopePullupArea, but i was doing 360s and backflips out on the big hill. Okay, didn't buy that one eh? Well, I was doing great, just without the 360s. Okay, the backflip too. But I hardly fell, whereas on that little piddly slope I couldn't stand up. I asked Blonnie if i could go back up and she said that she would wait for me at the bottom. Whee!!!

I went right to the bottom, got in line, got on a lift went to the top and came down the face and only fell one time (when i had built way too much speed). And it wasn't really even a fall I just skidded to a stop and kind of plopped on my bum.

Alrighty, our snowboarding had come to an end. That was fun. I found blonnie and we turned in our snowboards. I gave the locker its orange key back, in exchange for my two pair of shoes, one white baltimore ravens hat and contact lens case.

Returning to the Cafeteria was priority on the list. I was completely parched. 1 Powerade, 1 Bottle of water, 1 yogurt, 1 bag of Swedish Gummy Fish, 1 bottle of something for Blonnie to drink.

Rest a little bit.

It is now 3:00. We are to board the bus at 6:00. Doing good so far. Off to the Tubing centre we head. Our trip, release form filling out and all, was spoiled by the fact that the 3:00-5:00 tubing timeslot was all sold out! :( I'm sorry Blonnie. They had some spots for the 5:00-7:00 run. Uhm, No. So we now have 3 hours to kill because we have turned in our rentals and can't do anything else. No fun.

Back down the hill. What else is there to do in a tourist trap besides snowboard/ski, snowtube, or eat? Shopping of course. First store we made our way into had a floppy hat. I had a floppy hat (Gilligan style) that was my favorite hat from Oyster Bay golf club in myrtle beach. I lost it. :( Ever since then I have coveted any floppy hat replacement that fits the bill. $20, Sold!

Moving along we come to a variety gift store (aren't they all?) that we found a shot glass with the Seven Springs logo on it. $3, Sold!

Moving along we find out that there is a man that draws caricatures, minature golf downstairs, a man that draws caricatures, a swimming pool, a man that draws caricatures, a bowling alley, a man that draws caricatures, and an arcade. Did I miss anything? Oh okay Blonnie we can get our caricatures. Sheesh.

The Caricature man was very nice. It says that they can be done in under 3 minutes. He talks to Blonnie for about 12 while drawing. Nice conversation from what I could hear. My turn. 2 Minutes later we have our masterpiece. $13, but i gave him $20.

Next? Dinner. We found a nice restaurant with a table by the window with a view of the entire South Face of the mountain. Yes there was a North Face that we never even saw. "Two orders of the Crabcake dinner please, with Iced Tea and Baked Potatoe avec Sour Cream." $50 later and completely satiated we leave to make our way to the bus. In the corridors of the shopping facility we pass Lopez (you remember him, one of the guys from the morning radio crew KML). We get on the bus at 5:15.

I really should get off the bus and go use the facilities before we leave. Nah, too much hassle. I can wait until we are under way. I'm comfortable right now. I get up and move to the front of the bus and converse with Lopez for a few minutes. Found out that he and his wife Trixie did get to go snowtubing and then went into a hottub.

Back to my seat. Slowly people start to load up the bus. The two characters who sit behind us return. They had a productive day. Drank, made a pit stop into the woods and rolled a big fatty, and so on and so forth.

Off we go. Homeward bound. Swordfish (The edited version) comes on the bus tv's. This is pretty neat. Well, the idea of a movie, not the movie itself. It had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. No Halle Berry nudity and no profane language. Edited version??? Who ever heard of that?

Uncomfortable. I think I better make my way to the indoor outhouse at the back of the bus. What??? No TP. I can hold it. No big deal.

Man this movie has to be going somehwere with this plot. Mmmm, massive migrain setting in. Upset stomach accompanies it.

Return trip to the closet with a hole in it. Err, the bathroom. I spy, Wetnaps! Okay, its not quilted charmin, but its going to have to do. Three wetnaps later I am finished and have that fresh cool alcohol feeling on my rump. Stand up, Turn around and deposit all of the wonderful crabcake dinner that I had consumed only hours before.

That was the first of 3 trips to the bathroom to purge myself. I try to sleep along the way. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to fall asleep and sleep off the migraine. Swordfish is now off, so maybe I have a chance. Remember the Titans is the second half of the double feature. Oh great. Sleep is down the toilet along with whatever else I had to eat that day.

We arrive at the Dorsey Park & Ride (MARC Train Station) and begin to gather our belongings.
PART II
-------
No keys. Keys with 1 car key, 1 car alarm remote, 1 garage door opener, 1 superfresh tag, and one "I love shetland sheepdogs" pewter keychain. Gone. Everyone is slowly making their way off the bus yet we remain, searching every pocket, every nook and cranny, every compartment, under every chair. Nothing to be found. As Blonnie heard the guys behind us grab his keys, she thought they sounded familiar. Like the dull sound of our keys. She looked at him and they quickly proceeded to exit the bus after lolligagging around later than most. Did they grab our keys?. Hrm, they were gone before I finished searching under the bus seats.

We continued to look everywhere. None to be found. The bus left and we were at the Dorsey Park & Ride (MARC Train Station) with Josh from 98Rock, our car and no keys. I called my parents. Josh was kind and offered to drop us off somewhere so we could be indoors. I figured that this was the easiest place for my parents to find us so we opted to stay put. He gave us a blanket from his trunk even though I refused it many times. Blue with grey fuzzy backing. He left and we suited back up into our ski clothes to wait for the arrival of my parents who were not at all happy about the situation and the fact that I didn't have forward enough thought to put a spare key on the car somewhere.

1 1/2 hrs later the parents roll in. Hurrah. I had asked them to (and they did) bring the alternate Car Remote that we had at home. That allowed us to gain access to the car and remove all valuables and important information, in case the perpetrators decided to return later that evening and steal the car or our belongings from within it.

Long quiet ride home with the parents. $5 toll along the way. I notice the clock turn 12 midnight and I mumble. Goodbye to *that* day.

Sleep, Finally.

Set the alarm and wake up at 8:00 the next morning to place a call to Seven Springs lost and found. No keys have been found but they will keep our name for 30 days just in case. I then place a call to hyundai roadside assistance and they are able to send someone out to the car to make a key for us! The service call is free, the key will have to be paid for. Five minutes after the call to Hyundai, I get a return call from the Hyundai automated system stating that Auto Rescue is on its way and that they will be there in 45 minutes. That is 25 minutes sooner than we can get there. We jump in the jeep and head out. In transit something falls from a truck in front of us and goes under the Jeep and really thumps the bottom. Damnit!

About 10 minutes from the site I get a call on the cell phone. Its Hyundai's automated system stating that the service has arrived. Please press 1 if they are there, 2 if not. How am I supposed to know? *I'M* not there to tell if they are there. This happens 4 times. A call comes in from someplace else. It is someone from AutoRescue, I let them know that we will be there in less than 10 minutes.

We arrive. There is a little blue Geo sport/utility. Joy! "Whaddya need?", he asks. "I need an ignition key made." I replied. "Oh, I can get you into the car." I turn around and press the remote. BEEP BEEP. "*I* can get us *into* the car, i need someone who can make a key to start it." "OH, well we don't do that".
He leaves.
I call Hyundai again.
Its not their fault, AutoRescue was listed as a locksmith.
They say they will get back to me when they find someone.

Blonnie and I head to Subway and have Turkey Subs with Honey Mustard. 40 Minutes later we still haven't heard anything from Hyundai so I place another call.

Nobody in the area can create a key.

Pop a Lock can do it for $100 but will take 2 hrs to get there. Allied can do it for $150 and be there shortly. Harold is your man.

An asian voice answers the phone.
"Pardon me" I said.
"Can I speak with Harold please?"
"Hold ahn pweeze." the voice on the other end replied.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Harold"(and I explain my quandary).
"Well, this is a home based business so I don't like people coming here, but ..."
"...I'll do it for 95" he stated.
"Thank you!"
We got directions and make the 25 minute jaunt to Harolds House.
Harold creates the Key.
Blonnie Plays with the dogs.
I stare at his laptop Desktop Background of an asian woman.
"95 dollars please" Harold demands.
I give him $100.

25minutes back to Dorsey Park & Ride (MARC Train Station). Passing along the way Arundel Mills Mall.

The Key works!!!

We head out and make for Arundel Mills Mall. Man, this place is gigunda! Very nice place. We walk around in Jillians for awhile and Blonnie pleads to get dessert. No dinner, just dessert. We wander some more but can't find anyone to direct us to find a seat.

On the way back to our parking lot exit we pass a Johnny Rockets. 2 Malts, 1 Coke, 1 Hamburger. $15. Waitress screws up bill so we have to wait for manager to fix something on her computer. Blonnie pays, we leave.

We exit to the parking lot. I have a few $100 bills, 2 One Dollar bills and a Ten Dollar bill. We have 2 tolls to pay along the way. $1 each for the Harbor Tunnel and $4 each for the Perryville bridge. I give Blonnie the $2, I take the ten and instruct her to pay her own toll at the tunnel and I will pay for both of us at Perryville.

Pay the toll at the tunnel.

15 Miles from home, in Aberdeen. Blonnie is listening to a Kenny Rogers song and thinking about us and how much she loves me (so she told me later). I'm listening to the final play of the Eagles/Rams game. Cruising along just below the speed limit in the far right lane.

BAG!. I swerve. Probably because of that thing hitting the Jeep earlier. I wasn't going to let the bottom get tagged twice in one day. Couldn't tell what it was at first but I'm pretty sure it was a bag in retrospective.

Blonnie is following me and sees me swerve so she does the same. A bit too much. I attribute it to the deep rumble strips on the side of the road. She fishtails to the right, corrects it and fishtails to the left, then back to the right while heading more towards the shoulder. The car then spins rear end first up into the embankment and comes to a halt. I watched the entire thing and would rather not remember it after this.

I jammed on the brakes, made it to the shoulder and started to jump out of the jeep. I then decided I could back it up faster than I could run to the car. I did so. Exited the jeep and ran to the car. As I was getting to the car, the passenger door swung open and I heard Blonnie voice say "I'm alright." I get to the car and there is a dollar bill on the ground that I pick up and then proceed to hug her. She is understandably upset.

I step back to assess the car. A couple of dings on the back left quarter panel (where she wiped out a large orange road pylon during the slide). The front right was ripped away a little bit, headlights and all. Other than that. not too terribly bad.

Police arrive. I have blonnie in the jeep at this time for warmth and safety. They ask for License, Registration and Insurance. Everything was taken from the car last night. We took it all out so that nobody could steal it from us. She did however have a License. Two of them as a matter of fact. I sure am glad that she had her wits enough to give them -her- ID and not Charlotte's.

I explain the series of events to the police and they understand. They look at the car and think that it may be drivable as well. I get my tow rope from the jeep and attach it to the rear of the car and proceed to pull the car onto level ground. It starts and the left lights still work. I pull it out of the ditch with a 3 point turn and get it facing the correct direction. Something is grinding however.

At this time the firetrucks started rolling up. The police notified them of the situation and they left.

Looking at the back of the car it becomes apparent that the rear left wheel has sustained some damage.

Law requires that we get the car off of the highway so a tow truck is already on its way. The tow truck operator hooks the car up and starts to move away a little bit. The back wheel is turning under. The rear axle appears to be broken. The tow truck operator leaves to get a rollback.

While waiting for the towtruck operator, all but one of the State police leave. I talk to him and he says that they are not going to issue any tickets or traffic violations. Thank goodness.

The tow truck operator returns and loads up the car.

In the meantime I'm talking to Nationwide insurance getting my claim started.

He takes the car about 1/10 of a mile to the nearest exit (85) and charges me $95 dollars for the trip. I give him $100.

Nationwide will have Porter Hyundai pick up the car and take it to their body shop in Newark. Fortunately this is where we purchased the car. If it is fixable, I will have a $500 deductable. If not, then????

I finish the conversation with Nationwide, hang up the phone, take one last look at the car and we depart for home.

$4 toll at perryville.

Anyone care to total up our Trip so far?

So the moral of the story is that while this is by far the most expensive free thing I've ever received, we saved $4 in tolls on the final trip home.

test01

post from html

Just a test entry from a jsp page.

Just a test entry from a jsp page.

I want to start gathering ideas for implemeting a
web-based livejournal client (in Java).

Who wants to help out?

No job too small.

We need to start throwing out ideas and seeing
what kind of a plan we can come up with.

This is a Chat Server that I wrote a couple
of months ago, spent a day or so on it.
Many of you were asking about sockets and threads
and what not and I just thought about this.

( CAUTION the following is very long.Collapse )

 * Command line jLiveJournal
 * 2001 Sevensoft (Ken Brooks)
 *
 * GPL License, blah blah blah.
 *
 * This is about as basic as you can make a livejournal client.
 * There is no formatting of the LiveJournal server response.
 * I didn't add in another cl argument for subject, but feel free.
 *
 */

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.util.*;

public class Jlj {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

	String modeString = new String("");

	if(args.length == 3)
		// should have usename password "post message"
	{
		String usernameString = args[0];
		String passwordString = args[1];
		String postStringFromArg = URLEncoder.encode(args[2]);

		Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar();

		modeString = "mode=postevent&user=" + usernameString +
					 "&password=" + passwordString +
					 "&event=" + postStringFromArg +
					 "&year=" + calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) +
					 "&mon="  + (calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH)+1) +
					 "&day="  + calendar.get(Calendar.DATE) +
					 "&hour=" + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY) +
					 "&min="  + calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
	}
	else if(args.length == 2)
		// should have username password
	{
		String usernameString = args[0];
		String passwordString = args[1];
		modeString = "mode=login&user=" + usernameString + "&password=" + passwordString;
	}
	else
	{
		System.out.println("Usage:");
		System.out.println("  loginMode:  ");
		System.out.println("  postMode :   \"Post message\"");
	}


	URL url = new URL("http://www.livejournal.com/cgi-bin/log.cgi");
	HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();
	connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
	connection.setRequestProperty("Host", "www.livejournal.com");
	connection.setRequestProperty("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
	connection.setRequestProperty("Content-length", Integer.toString(modeString.length()));
	connection.setDoOutput(true);

	PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(
                              connection.getOutputStream());

	out.print(modeString);

	out.close();
	System.out.println(connection.getResponseCode());

	BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
				new InputStreamReader(
				connection.getInputStream()));
	String inputLine;

	while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)
	    System.out.println(inputLine);

	in.close();
    }
}