kampers.net

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

We’re taking urgent measures against clear vulnerabilities, and now we must also prepare our government and our people for the long-term vigilance that the new threats will require. I say “long-term” because this is a determined enemy we face. This isn’t just a one-battle war; this is a war that will occupy not only our time, but will occupy the time of future Presidents and future members of the United States Congress and future agency heads. The number one priority of this government and the future governments will be to protect the American people against terrorist attack… Protecting American citizens from harm is the first priority, and it must be the ruling priority of all of our government.

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Looks like I’m leaving Friday afternoon. On one hand, I can’t wait to get going. Of course, I have a ton to do. And I’d probably sign up for another week or two in Orlando if it was feasable, considering my apartment plans and such.

Spent a while working today. Did a few chores on bannerworksfl.com, and started working on fsutribe.org. I’ll be working tomorrow, of course, what with Monday officially being a weekday these days.

Some wrist and back pain at the moment. Time for bed, so I can get up early and do all the things I need to do before I leave.

(Today’s title: semi-obscure Tom Petty/Los Angeles reference.) #

Today, sandwiched between a beneficial physical therapy session and a depressing lunch hour, I wrote a 100-line PHP script that parses RSS. The O-Sen is going to be providing a feed to be included on the local Clear Channel websites.

I’m pretty good at PHP, and I think things like this are what a solid computer science education should entail. Although CS (not Counter-Strike, ha) provides a good fundamental background, you don’t learn too many marketable skills along the way. For instance, it would be nice if I could have a solid class on XML (the current hot r?sum? item), one for Flash, etc. When I was in high school, I thought that college is the place where you learn enough to get a job in your field. In the rapidly-evolving world of the Internet, however, I think you’re supposed to just figure everything out along the way.

I think I’m doing a good job of that so far, but the system seems a little backwards.

(Anyone get the geek joke in the title?) #

Today’s Accurate Social Commentary Award? goes to Boondocks. #

/me complains about wrist pain #

I’ve got roommate(s)!

My ad on the Conquest website was successful. I have one new roommate down, one to go — and she thinks she’ll be able to sign up one of her friends. Cool.

I played NWN for a while tonight. It’s a great game, but I just can’t afford to pay for it right now. I need to save money so that I have some to spend this coming semester. Maybe I’ll buy it once it comes down from $55. #

Apple has quietly added a black and a hispanic to its stable of white switchers. #

Today’s Accurate Social Commentary Award? goes to MacCommunist. #

I spent all my time this week working. I’ve been working on the new Drew Show website, which should go live in maybe 10 days. I spent most of the week doing creative stuff, but I spent six hours on Friday doing drone work. That can get a little tiring. On the other hand, being creative all the time can be difficult too.

I’ve been downloading a lot of jazz albums. Thelonious Monk’s “Brilliant Corners,” John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.” Pulled down Victor Wooten’s solo effort “What Did He Say?” — Wooten is the bassist for B?la Fleck and an occaisional guest of the Dave Matthews Band. Good stuff.

I also watched Ronin last night. It gets points for convincing Irish accents and good chase sequences, but that’s about it.

Parents are in Stuart, sister is at work. I’m going to Patrick’s new place later today to play Xbox.

My wrist is killing me. I can barely write this. Oww. Time to severly cut down on computer usage. #

OK, OK, you win. You see, I have a staring competition every night with this little button on my browser.

I have a quicklink button to the “new entry” page for this site. When I browse the web, it gives me a glance now and then. pssst… time to post… And then I’m about to go to bed, and it’s really staring. Come on Chris, you know you want to, people come to your site! The least you could do is keep them updated!

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I’m back from Captiva. It was fun, but that’s a horse of a different color. We’re here to talk about geek stuff!

Back in the days of kampers.net v1, I was so proud of my hand-built content management system. Structured database tables in MySQL, and carefully-crafted PHP. I did everything myself. When I made the switch to Moveable Type for this version of the page, one of my biggest reservations was that I would lose control of my content. With MT, things happen behind the scenes in some weird database that I can’t even directly control. As they say in a certain Dreamcast fighting game, the soul still burned.

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