Trying out wordpress

I recently started a new blog at http://spugbrap.wordpress.com, which may replace both of my blogger.com blogs soon. I'm trying out wordpress, comparing it with the new blogger beta, and will decide from there.

At this point, I will probably be posting all new entries over there, so you may want to go ahead and subscribe to it via the Entries feed, and possibly the Comments feed. I may cross-post a little bit, for the sake of comparing blogger beta vs. wordpress, but the wordpress one will be my primary outlet for all things geeky/personal/both (sometimes it's hard to draw the line).

Does Michael Jackson like Irish midgets?

From a post [last week] on the Dilbert Blog:

Today I heard on the news that Michael Jackson is going to open a leprechaun themed amusement park in Ireland. Seriously. If you don’t believe me, go Google yourself.
[...]
I won’t accuse Michael Jackson of being a child molester. You can never fully rule out “disturbed weirdo of galactic proportions with astonishingly bad judgment.” However, the question I wonder about is what would happen if someone such as Michael who enjoyed sleeping with children (as friends) suddenly couldn’t do it anymore. What would he do?

Well, he might start a business that has a perfectly good reason for hiring hordes of midgets. They’d all be over 18-years old so there are no legal problems. As far as I know, you can hump the living crap out of a midget all day long and it’s totally legal, assuming the midget is onboard with the plan. Or you can just share your bed with midgets as friends. That’s legal too.

I flagged this in my feed reader last week, because it's one of the first things I've read recently that actually made me laugh out loud at work. I was sick, so I was trying extra hard NOT to laugh, because I knew it would hurt my throat and make me cough, but every time I read one particular line of that post, "As far as I know, you can hump the living crap out of a midget all day long and it’s totally legal, assuming the midget is onboard with the plan", I just couldn't help it!

Finally, a contractor that doesn't suck!

First, some info about the contractor, taken straight from his business card:

Mountjoy's Remodeling
Carl Mountjoy
Cell: 540-379-0324
Email: mtjoyremodeling@aol.com
Decks, siding, windows, etc....


Now, the story behind how we found this guy, and why we're so glad that we did:

For quite some time, now, I've been meaning to post about companies that I've had good/bad experiences with. I've been trying to avoid bitching and moaning too much, though, so I've shyed away from posting about companies that have screwed me over (although I do intend to, in due time, but want to do it right when I do).

Anyways, pretty much everyone I know has been screwed over by a contractor doing work on their house, at one point or another. We've had our fair share of bad contractors, which made our recent search for a good contractor to repair our flood-damaged basement very difficult. Finally, after about 2 months of trying (half-heartedly, though, because we're so paranoid that it takes a lot of motivation to actually deal with finding a contractor), Lacey's parents hooked us up.

They're friends with a guy, who used to run a contracting company in northern Virginia, but who now lives in southern Virginia, somewhere near them (I think). They've known him for a long time, and he has done work for them several times over the years, and they even have him over for dinner from time to time. Apparently, a real good guy, who is trustworthy and does high quality work. Well, he's got a son, who currently works as a home inspector for Centex Homes (and evidently, a good one), but who has also been working on getting the family contracting business going again on the side.

He came over, gave things a thorough look (both from a home inspector and a contractor's perspective, I presume), talked to us for a while (and was not pushy or shady in any way), and wrote us up an estimate. He gave us a very reasonable price, and said he could get it done in a week.

Being skeptical, based on past experiences of getting screwed over, I still made him sign a modified version of a 6-page contract addendum that my lawyer wrote for me several years ago. However, based on our meeting wit him, we could see his friendly nature, vast array of relevant knowledge, and attention to detail. Those qualities, plus the fact that he and his father are friends of the family, made it pretty clear that this was an honest guy we were dealing with.

He was able to start the work a day earlier than he originally expected, and finished it within the quoted time frame, despite running into a few surprises (not his fault, it was the house's fault), which he handled very well, and with very minimal additional cost to us. The work was done very well, and we're determined to refer some business to him, because we were just so impressed. We're going to have him do some more work for us in a couple weeks, too.

* edited 04/23/2007 to update contact info

Multiple keys for rental cars

It's nice that they give you more than one key for your rental car, kind of like having multiple key[cards] for hotel rooms. But what's the point, if the keys are attached via a permanently-closed keyring?

When it rains, it pours (part 2)

This is a quick, but long-overdue followup to my 06/26/2006 post, "When it rains, it pours."

There are all kinds of things I could say about this, but the task of putting it all into words has been kind of daunting. So, I'm just going to post the emails that I sent to my coworkers and school learning team members when I was dealing with water mitigation/cleanup/etc, and link to the 300+ pictures that I took along the way...

Email to Work #1 (06/26/2006 1:46am):

Basement flooded tonight due to nonstop heavy rain.. yard is saturated, sump pump couldn't keep up.. other drainage not efficient either, so water is coming in from at least 3 locations. After spending all evening/night recovering from the initial flooding, now the sump pump has given out completely, so I'm dreading what the night will bring. I will probably not get any work done tomorrow either, as I try to salvage/clean things and deal with kids and stuff.

Email to Work #2 (06/27/2006 11:38am):

Yesterday, I fought with the rain as long as I could, carrying 10gal shopvac buckets full of nasty water from my storm drain up the outside walk-out stairs, while the rain just kept pouring down, and throwing it out in the yard, but in the end, I did not make a very good sump pump replacement. So the water started pouring in from the sump pump pit and the outside storm drain, and quickly filled the whole basement with 1-2" of water.

At some point I gave up on getting the water out, and switched modes to salvaging whatever belongings I could. I spent all day yesterday dealing with that, and eventually, in the late afternoon, a plumber made it out and replaced the sump pump. So now there's no more flooding happening, and hopefully it will survive the high quantities of rain we're supposed to get tonight, but I still have a lot to deal with down there, especially washing and drying all the clothes/towels/blankets/etc. that were down there, and trying to suck up as much water out of the carpet as possible.

We've got water mitigation people coming on Friday night--that was the soonest anyone could come out--but in the meantime we need to do as much as we can, ourselves, because it's going to get pretty gross between now and Friday.

Anyways, I'm going to have to take today off as well, in case that wasn't already assumed. Hope to be there tomorrow. As long as the new sump pump can keep up with tonight's rain, that should be possible.

Email to Learning Team #1 (06/26/2006 8:01am):

hey guys.. Basement flooded last night due to nonstop heavy rain.. yard is saturated, sump pump couldn't keep up.. other drainage not efficient either, so water is coming in from at least 3 locations. After spending all evening/night recovering from the initial flooding, now the sump pump has given out completely, so I'm glad to see that the rain has stopped for now. Gotta try to salvage/clean things and deal with kids and stuff today, and try to find a replacement sump pump (probably in short supply now), a shop vac (borrowed a neighbor's but need our own), and a plumber to heavy-duty-snake out our storm drain...

Email to Learning Team #2 (06/26/2006 3:08pm):

yeah, I thought yesterday was bad. now we've got over 1" through the entire basement, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

i bought lots of stuff at the hardware stuff this morning, but nothing i bought is any match for the continuing rain. plumber should be here soon to replace the sump pump, but there's concern that he may not be able to do that since it's immersed in several feet of water and all.. i hope he has some kind of pump, but the lady on the phone didn't seem to think so. if it can't be replaced today, i will be crafting a homemade water pump->pipe->sprayer solution.

Email to Learning Team #3 (06/27/2006 12:17pm):

sorry for my silence.. been working on basement water issues all day
and late into the night. i will really try to get my part done today.

Email to Learning Team #4 (06/27/2006 12:21pm):

Oh, but the good news is that the plumber WAS able to replace the sump pump, so at this point it's a cleanup/salvage effort only, and I'm no longer trying to act as a manual sump pump. :) Let's just hope that this pump holds up during the heavy rains tonight, since we're supposed to be in for another doozy.

Here are the pictures:
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_25/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_26/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_27/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_28/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_30/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_07_01-basement/

Oops. I broke wiki.com's registration...

I read an article a few days ago about a site that's been getting a fair amount of buzz lately, particularly due to its $2.8 million purchase agreement: wiki.com

I thought to myself, "What the heck, might as well go grab a couple of subdomains while they're still available." So, I went to http://www.wiki.com, and clicked 'Start a Wiki', which took me to http://reg.wiki.com.

The registration process was simple -- maybe even a little bit *too* simple:
1. choose a wiki name (subdomain: something.wiki.com)
2. enter your name, email address, zip code, and captcha text
3. submit

Well, for some reason I got the bright idea to enter 'reg' as my wiki name, just to see if it would let me, and if so, what would happen. I didn't expect to actually WORK, and certainly meant no harm to the site. I expected some form of confirmation prompt after submitting that registration form, but it immediately broke reg.wiki.com.

For at least an hour or two (I didn't notice when they fixed it), you could not register on wiki.com. I thought, for sure, they would delete the wiki that I'd created, but instead, they created http://registration.wiki.com, and changed the 'Start a Wiki' link to point to the new URL.

I've posted a message on http://reg.wiki.com, explaining what happened, and linking to the new registration page. I still can't believe that actually worked! I do think it's pretty cool that they left my wiki alone, even though it broke their site for a while. I'm assuming that they've got a sense of humor and weren't too pissed off, since I didn't even receive a Cease and Desist letter. :)

Can anybody think of any legitimate use for 'reg.wiki.com', or should I just leave it as-is, with a note directing people to the new registration page?

Creative ad campaign for Snakes On A Plane movie

Get a call from Samuel L. Jackson

Who can resist clicking a link like that? This is one of the coolest movie marketing campaigns I've ever seen. Here's what the home page says:

Send a free personalized talking "Snakes on a Plane" message in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson to someone you know.
Just give us a few details about the person and tell us whether you want to send your message by phone or by E-mail. Then sit back, relax and enjoy the fright...

Samuel L. Jackson is one of my favorite actors, and my wife is an even bigger fan of his, so I went ahead and entered some info into a series of form inputs, which customized the message for my wife. I'll probably play around with selecting different options, tomorrow, to see what the funniest combinations are. I haven't read much about the movie, yet, but I am already compelled to go see it. :)


try it out | digg story

New York Times wants your money

I was doing some research for a paper I was writing, a couple days ago, when I must have accidentally clicked something on a New York Times article page. I think it was some kind of "Save" button, or something. In any case, I found the resulting page humorous:

People I would like to make contact with

This is a short list of various people I'd like to make contact with for one reason or another. These include former co-workers, people I went to school with, etc. I haven't talked to any of these people in at least 4 years, and some it's been as long as ~23 years. This is just a wild stab in the dark, in case one of these people happens to Google their name some day, and stumbles across this blog post. Highly unlikely, but it would sure be cool if it happened.

If your name is on this list, please consider that I've always lived in Northern Virginia, so if you've never lived or worked in that area, it's not you that I'm looking for. If you think it might be you that I'm looking for, please email me!

Stephen O'Brien
Geoffrey Plumbley
Keith Landsdowne
Ba-Huy Duong
Lance Deffenbaugh
Eric Schmitt
Greg Highsmith
Jeremy Turner

IE javascript error: 'null' is null or not an object

I got this javascript error in IE 6, while trying to read about how to use the Microsoft Script Editor to debug javascript in IE:
MSDN : 'JScript debugger Statement'

Dunkin Donuts: The last remaining restaurant that requires cash

This morning, I didn't have enough bread to make my usual breakfast: a peanut peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with toast. Plus, I was extraordinarily sleepy.

So, I decided to stop at Caribou on the way to work, to get a mocha latte and a chocolate caramel muffin.

I decided to take a Vivarin instead, and wait until I was closer to work to get food; specifically, at the drive-thru Dunkin Donuts in Manassas Park. As I pulled into the drive-thru, I realized that I can't buy donuts that way. I wanted two donuts, but I needed to check what kinds they had, and what looked good to me today, which is something I could not do from the drive-thru.

So, I parked and went into the restaurant. After picking out a drink that looked and sounded interesting, and waiting in line for a few minutes, I ordered two donuts. With the drink, the total came to $3.something, so I handed the cashier my check card. She handed it back, and said that they do not accept credit cards.

This boggled my mind, since this is 2006, and even temporary Fireworks stands, off-brand gas stations, and parking garages accept credit cards. I used to always look for the VISA/MC symbols in a store's door/window, or ask before ordering something, if I wasn't sure. But the thought never even crossed my mind, since it's so rare to encounter a place that does not accept credit cards.

Well, I only had $1 in my wallet, and was not about to try to decide which ONE donut to buy. So I walked out, and continued down the road to the Giant Food grocery store. I thought that might actually turn out to be a good thing, since I could get Krispy Kreme donuts from the bakery section, there. I was bummed to find out that this particular Giant bakes their own donuts. I could have bought a pre-packaged box of Krispy Kreme donuts, but I really only wanted to get two donuts, not 6 or 12, so I went ahead and bought two Giant bakery donuts.

The donuts were too sweet, and not as tasty as Krispy Kreme would have been, so I feel like all of that time and effort was kind of wasted. I think Dunkin Donuts would have satisfied me as well, but unfortunately they are still living in the Stone Age or something.

A few minutes ago, I realized that this is not the first time I've been disappointed by Dunkin Donuts. A year or so ago, I stopped at the one in Herndon, and even had my kids all psyched up about getting some donnuts. No credit cards. I do not carry cash much, at all, because I prefer to use credit/check cards to keep track of where money goes. So I had to find a different place to get donuts that day as well.

So, I am hereby doing a "lazy boycott" of Dunkin Donuts. Lazy, because I very rarely go out with the intention of buying donuts, and rarely carry [much/any] cash, so I will avoid buying Dunkin Donuts without expending any actual effort. However, if the opportunity ever *does* present itself (cash + donut craving + near a Dunkin Donuts), I will go out of my way to buy some [pre-packaged if necessary] Krispy Kreme donuts somewhere else instead.

**edit**
Oh yeah, in a quick effort to see if this was a company-wide anti-cc policy, I ran across this funny story, in which (among lots of hiliarious stuff) I learned that some Dunkin Donuts stores do accept credit cards. Definitely worth a read!
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card

uhhh... this just CAN'T be what it looks like.

sleep deprivation...

In the past 96 hours:
I should have slept about 32 hours.
I normally would have slept about 24 hours.
I've only slept about 13 hours.
Ugh.

Name your own price on dental products

1. go to http://www.dentist.net


2. find the product you want


3. enter in address bar:
   javascript:void(document.onmousedown=ra)
   


4. firefox web developer toolbar:
   Forms | Display Form Details
   Forms | Make Form Fields Writable
   


5. edit text input named 'price'.
   click 'add to cart' button
   


6. laugh

---

---

---

Of course, I would not really proceed through checkout with any cart created inappropriately, but it was fun to play with a little bit.

Ordinarily, I'd contact a company to let them know about a gaping security hole like this, but...

1. I'm still bitter about them crippling my browser
2. My blogs don't have very many readers
3. I'm confident that they would catch even the slightest modified order parameters, because, "We are Fraud Smart and pursue fraudulent orders to the full extent of the law." (from checkout page)

Pointless, intentional browser crippling - why??

I was browsing an online store earlier, trying to find a certain orthodontic product that I didn't know the name of, when I finally found it.

There were no useful details about it on that site, though, so I just wanted to copy and paste the official product name into a google search. My efforts to do this simple task were denied, though, which confused and annoyed me.

I thought my Firefox may have been choking on the fact that I had a lot of windows and tabs open, but decided to view the source anyway. As it turns out, there was some javascript code (shown below) to intentionally [attempt to] prevent printing or text selection. WTF?!?

---

//Disable Printing
document.onselectstart=new Function('return false');
function ds(e){return false;}
function ra(){return true;}
document.onmousedown=ds;document.onclick=ra;

---

This was easy enough to defeat, though, by entering this in my location/address bar:
javascript:void(document.onmousedown=ra)

In IE, an additional step was required:
javascript:void(document.onselectstart=ra)

I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish. All I wanted to do was research the product before buying it from them, but intentionally made that difficult for me, so I will not be purchasing anything from their store.

Batmobile drove by this morning...

I was on my way to work this morning, sitting at a traffic light, when
a huge Batmobile drove by. I wish I could have been stopped next to it
at a light, instead, because I was only able to catch a glimpse.

But I saw that it had all of the Batmobile trim, from front to back,
and it was pretty long. I'm guessing it's a novelty limousine or
something, but I have no idea where to find out. A couple google
searches didn't turn up any useful explanation for me.

I'd love to post a picture, but I don't have a cameraphone at the
moment, and even if I did, it all happened too fast. Just had to say
something, though, because that's just not something you see every
day.

Compensating for broken appliances becomes habitual

Several years back, my refrigerator door was slightly broken. When closing the door, it would not make a complete seal until you kicked it. We let that go for months and months, if I remember correctly, because it was still fully functional; it just required a silly extra step. This became so habitual that I started to find myself kicking ALL fridges, not just our broken one. I kicked poor, innocent fridges at work, at friends' houses, etc.

Eventually, Lacey's parents were kind enough to get it fixed for us, and eventually I stopped kicking it. But I always thought it was funny how that habit carried over into inappropriate places.

Fast-forward a few years to 2006, and this same funny behavior showed itself again. Our kitchen faucet had a minor leak, and unless you turned it off just right, it would drip-drip-drip all day long. Everyone had their own way of turning it off, but my preferred method was to turn it almost all the way to the 'off' position, but not quite. This would effectively turn the water off, and would usually prevent the dripping.

Again, we let this go for way too long, and I had a good laugh when I found myself turning the kitchen sink at work off the same way (not quite all the way to the 'off' position). Eventually, I found the manual for my kitchen faucet, and my buddy Dallin fixed it for me. I'm not a handyman, at all, so it's nice to have friends that are good at fixing stuff.

Donut call cancelled...

I saw this sign posted at work for a couple days, this week. The actual call that it refers to is completely irrelevant to me, as I am not involved in it. Still, every time I saw the sign, I couldn't help but feel sad.

I got bored and did a google search for "donut call", and was mildly amused by some of the results.

When it rains, it pours

... and when it pours, for days and days, it kills my sump pump and
floods my basement. More on that after the water level in my basement
falls below 1". :-/

New Futurama episodes coming!

Saw this on slashdot this morning:

"Good news everyone! Straight from a one-eyed alien's mouth - 13 new episodes of Futurama have been confirmed by Katey Sagal on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show. All the original actors have signed up too."

Apparently there are 13 new episodes coming to Comedy Central in 2008. Nice to see another one of my favorite shows come back from cancellation!