The Landlord

This had to take an eternity to film. That or she is a born natural.

Recommended Tool: CopySourceAsHtml

Now that I am working on trying to put some usable information on this blog I need an easy way to transfer the code from the rich-text world of my ide to the html world of the browser. I remembered seeing a tool a while back for doing just that and thinking, "that's neat" only to return to whatever overwhelming concerns I had at the time. You never know when something you stumble over something, today it's a pointless novelty, tomorrow its a life-saver.

CopySourceAsHtml is sooooo easy. Simply select the text you wish to copy, as you've done a hundred-million times before, but this time you will select "Copy As HTML...". A dialog will display, take a moment to check out some of the options. Then just click 'OK' and the tool will perform some programming magic. POOF! When you paste your code will now be browser friendly html instead of plain old text.

It does a nice job of picking up the default settings of your ide and translating them to their HTML equivalent. If you want to be real slick, you can easily override many of your default settings in the options dialog. Experiment.

private const string SimpleMessage = "Frog's Brain";

 

/// <summary>

/// Write the simple message to the Console.

/// </summary>

public static void Simple()

{

    Console.Out.WriteLine( SimpleMessage );

}

Here're the changes I've made to make my code easier to read (and copy) in the browser.

• Disabled "number lines" option.


• Changed tab size from 4 to 8.


• Changed font from Consolas to Courier New.


• Increased font size from 8 to 10.


• Enable "strip line breaks" option.


• Enable "remove indentation" option.


• Added CSS rules to "File Style" tab.
  
  border: solid 1px black; padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; overflow: auto; white-space: nowrap;.

WoW Summer Hiatus

I don't know if World of Warcraft is actually addictive. I do know that it is too easy to spend egregious amounts of time playing it. Actually it's less 'playing' than satisfying an overwhelming urge to get to the next level or get the next item. It's like a virtual version of Keeping up with the Joneses. Oooo, that sword gives me an additional +5 to spell damage, too bad it's only for level 24 characters and I'm only level 22, only 12 hours of grinding to go!

Here's the fruits of my addiction, they are going to gather some dust for the summer though.

Pocio
Zagloba
Dajbuzi

I'm kind of neurotic for creating new characters in the game, but these are the highest level characters I was still using.

Being stupid has never been so funny.

My Name Is Earl

It's nice to see a skateboarder gone good. I cannot describe how much I loathe the Jackass guys. "My Name Is Earl" is so well shot and written that almost no other show currently broadcast can compare. Only Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Heroes are equals in quality.

Look what we can do on only a $2000.00* budget!

*Not including the cost of a real-estate appraisal, a dedicated team consisting of one professional home designer, and two or three professional contractors/carpenters for about two to three weeks.

Designed to Sell is my wife's newest obsession.

I wonder how far that two-grand would go if they had to include the labor in that budget? Two days, TOPS!

Granted, they seem to do good work, and if the follow-up information is accurate they do help people make money above their original asking price. That and the host seems like a decent chap and the crew is more personable than most of the home improvement shows.

I just make sure to remind my wife exactly what the two-thousand dollar budget isn't counting.

Whenever you think you have the toughest, nastiest and unpleasant job ever then you may need to watch a show that my wife and I have been enjoying for a while now that I think will put those thoughts to rest permanently.

Dirty Jobs

The show is about the backbreaking, nasty, gross, yucky and usually very interesting jobs that are performed to keep our civilization running smoothly. The host, Mike Rowe, is no fainting flower journalist who only observes from afar. Mike gets in and sticks his hands into some of the most unpleasant places and substances.

Each episode usually consists of Mike traveling to various locations around the country to showcase 2-3 different industries. He's been to cattle breeders (the hands in unpleasant places) to sewage treatment plants (the unpleasant substances) to alligator farms. And he seems to do his best to try to do the work of whatever occupation is being spotlighted, usually with humorous and sometimes successful results.

What makes the show good and makes my wife and I fans, is not just the topics and locations. It's how Mike treats the people that are being showcased. He really seems down-to-earth and doesn't condescend or look down his nose, nor does he kiss their butts either. He gives as good as he gets and sometimes the banter with the hosts is the most entertaining part.

Chances are there are jobs being done in America that you have no idea about. Watch Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and find out what happens after you flush.

Okay, a film, albeit highly-stylized, about an actual historical event is "moronic", a "sword'n'sandals" "dumb audience-friendly" romp.

Yet, a gimmick laden movie about strippers, zombies and psychotic stuntmen is to be considered high-art.

Hmm.

Let's compare the cultural contributions of Herodotus (Histories) and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, 300, etc.).

To Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Grindhouse, etc.) and Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, etc.).

Hmm. Unless I think that the height of cultural contributions is clever, hipster, 70's references and cheesy faux-exploitation rip-offs then I think I'm going to just stick with being a fan of the "moronic" and "dumb".

Just because the director is a pretentious, eccentric weirdo does not make the film fine-art.

I wonder how much history information has been sought out due to the over-whelming intellectual stimulation of Grindhouse? I guess I missed the History Channel special.