evanroberts.com

One of the extensions that I have installed for Firefox has proven it’s worth time and time again, with the most recent being ever since I started my blog again.

Here is the official site:

http://www.getfirebug.com/

Basically, this plugin will let you inspect the code for whatever page you’re looking at (in this case, mine), and allow you to see how the page is laid out, what part of the HTML (or PHP, CSS, etc) does what, where certain calls to other files are made (which occurs frequently in PHP), and it even allows you to make on-the-fly changes to the code to see what it would look like if you were to actually make the change.

As I didn’t write this theme from the ground up, and also seeing as how I’m fairly green when it comes to CSS, yet have a partial understanding of PHP, I have found Firebug very useful in figuring out what part of the theme’s code to change as I customise it. When something doesn’t display as I would think it should, for example, when I was putting together the “Foods” page of all the foods I can and can’t have during this diet, I have been able to figure out what was wrong rather quickly by trying out a certain change to the code within Firebug, and when all looked well, made the actual change to the files. Very useful.

Anyway, for those of you who code pages from scratch, I’m sure this won’t be useful to you as you already know what the hell you’re doing. But, if you’re clueless like me, and want to change the look of your site slightly, or want to make a few changes to it’s layout but don’t know where to begin as you didn’t write the theme, then this tool is for you.

Breakfast / Lunch

• Two Black Diamond Cheestrings - part skim mozzarella
• Omelette with cheddar cheese and red onion

Snacks

• One Black Diamond Cheestring - part skim mozzarella

Dinner

• One and half buttered dinner rolls
• Three chicken drumsticks
• Veggies (peas, green beans, baked potatoes)

When Molly and I lived in our one bedroom apartment last year, I rarely heard anything from our neighbours. Sure, there was the odd thing dropped on the floor upstairs, or the occasional muffled sex cry from one of the girls in the apartment to the north, but other than that, it was pretty quiet. In this building, the walls are made of concrete, which is quite nice for containing sound. In the one bedroom apartment, I could blast my music or play games really loudly until 1am and not have to worry about anyone complaining.

Ever since moving into this two bedroom apartment, I’ve noticed that either sound carries a lot easier, or the neighbours are a LOT louder. Upstairs, there must be a family with at least a kid or two, as they are constantly running around, yelling, stomping their feet, and doing what kids to. Below us, now, that is a different story.

There is a couple living below us, and I think one of them is a DJ, as they are constantly blasting their music. It’s not so bad, as I can only really hear the bass beats, and they are usually playing either house or techno, so it doesn’t matter to me; I happen to like either. However, I think the guy might be a little off-kilter. He is constantly screaming at the top of his lungs about trivial things, and once in a while will get into a shouting match with his girlfriend. It’s actually kind of like listening to a soap opera, and since I don’t have TV anymore (I canceled it as I was never watching it, so there is no sense paying for it), I find it quite entertaining.

Previous episode plots from “The Neighbours Below”:

• The dude is high on something, angry and upset, and he cannot find his winter jacket which he needs for tomorrow as it is going to be freezing outside. He frequently begs his girlfriend to help him find his jacket, or make him one out of some scraps of material they have.
• The dude and the girl are shouting at each other for some reason (I tuned in too late), and he rants and raves how she has ruined his life, and that he is constantly doing things for other people and just needs an hour or two to himself.
• The dude is yelling and screaming about how tickets were there two minutes ago, but now they have quadrupled in price, and frequently shouts “WHO THE FUCK DOES THIS??!! FUCK!!!”. Occasionally rants about how they should have gotten up earlier, and then starts pounding his desk.

When we first moved into this apartment, we heard some yelling from below, but thought it was our fault and a one-time thing. We were setting up Molly’s desk in the Nerdlab on Saturday morning, and we figured we would wait until after 10:30am to do so. It’s a weekend, and generally you should be allowed to sleep in, so we were thinking of our neighbours. It was almost 11am, and we were almost done with the desk (just a tiny bit of hammering) when we heard a shout from below: “FUCK!!!”. We paused, wondering if that was directed to us or just someone smashing their toe against a table or something, and after a few minutes, continued. Shortly afterwards, we heard shouting again from below: “FUCK!!! IT’S 11AM!!!”. Molly and I looked at each other and snickered, as we were *almost* done. Instead of hammering the last piece home, I just shoved it in (hey, that sounds pretty rude, but not intentional). With the desk done, we attempted to quietly pick it up and put it into place, but there were a few bangs on the floor. Thankfully, we weren’t shouted at again. However, once in a while when we make a loud sound, like accidentally drop something, we’ll look at the other and quietly yell “FUCK!!! IT’S (whatever time it is)!!!”. Too funny.

It might be fun to blog about their shouting matches below, or rather, just when he flies off the handle. Some of you might be thinking this is a breach of their privacy on my part, but I’m of the belief that if they are going to scream and yell, they obviously want to be heard.

Breakfast

• Two hard boiled eggs
• Two light Babybels

Snacks

• One Babybel
• One Black Diamond Cheestring - part skim mozzarella

Lunch

• Strip loin with Montreal Steak spice

Snacks

• Two Black Diamond Cheestrings - part skim mozzarella

Dinner

• Chicken Caesar salad from Pizza Pizza
• Used a light Caesar dressing pack I had left over from my Dominion salads

Breakfast

• Three hard boiled eggs

Snacks

• Two light Babybels

Lunch

• Grilled chicken Caesar salad from Swiss Chalet
• No croutons (bastards kept them in)
• Used a light Caesar dressing pack I had left over from my Dominion salads

Snacks

• One light Babybel
• One Black Diamond Cheestring - part skim mozzarella

Dinner

• Strip loin with garlic salt
• Veggies (red and yellow peppers, red onion, zucchini, mushrooms, Cajun spice, olive oil)

It’d been a while since I’d last checked Internet Tablet Talk, which is a site all about tablets, software for them, etc. It’s basically all about the Nokia n810 right now, which is what I have, so I try to go there once in a while to see what new things are available for my n810. This recent visit did not disappoint!

I’ve seen demos of 2D physics engines before, where you can draw a slope, and then a ball over it, and then gravity will kick in, letting the ball drop to the slope and roll down. Or, you can draw two wheels, and then a car frame, and the software knows to link them all together into a vehicle that can roll around. I find the concept fascinating as I’ve always been interested in physics, and love taking advantage of games that use the Havok physics engine. You better believe I had a blast with Portal as well.

Anyway, there is this very rudimentary game for the n810 called “Numpty Physics“. Even though it is the very early stages, and doesn’t have much in the way of levels, or the ability to draw pendulums, or make vehicles, it is a TON of fun. I can’t wait to see if anyone takes on the task of making this game better, and creating a suite of levels.

Still, it cannot compare to “Crayon Physics Deluxe“, which while not out yet, just blows my mind. Watch the YouTube video on the site, and you’ll see what I mean. I have yet to try “Crayon Physics” though. I’m sure it would be just as fun.

…and, while checking out some videos of Crayon Physics, one of the dudes talking about the games at the Game Developers Conference mentioned “Desktop Tower Defense“… so I decided to check it out… and I just spent the last 40 minutes playing it.

It is almost 2am! Fuck!!

Across the street since I started at easyDNS, we have always been treated to posters of various musical celebrities. Some have been good, and some have been bad, but they’ve been nice to look at when I happened to gaze out the window.

As of this past weekend, Sony BMG apparently moved out of the building without even saying goodbye, and they took their posters away with them. The wall looks quite empty without those posters there.

Goodbye Carrie Underwood. (Damn!!)

Goodbye Alanis Morrisette. (Meh.)

Goodbye Celine Dion. (Yuck!)

Breakfast

• Three hard boiled eggs

Snacks

• Three light Babybels

Lunch

• Small chicken Caesar salad with real bacon bits - (Dominion - 250g)
• Light Caesar dressing

Dinner

• Small chicken Caesar salad with real bacon bits - (Dominion - 250g)

On April 29th, I will more than likely be at work, itching for the day to end, so I might embark upon my journey around the city to see if I can find the latest of the Grand Theft Auto series: GTA IV.

If you haven’t heard of the GTA series, then you obviously are not a gamer. If you are a gamer and you haven’t heard of the GTA series, then you are obviously not a gamer. Here is something to help you out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto

I’ve been a fan of the GTA series since the first game, aptly named “Grand Theft Auto”. This game was all the rage when I started at Interlog, and back in those days, we had more workstations than employees in the Support Dept., so we had a work machine and a gaming machine. The calls were steady, but I rarely needed to use my work machine to assist customers on the phone as I could pretty much walk them through configuring their machine while I played Grand Theft Auto; it’s called “multitasking”, and yes, I was THAT good… and still am.

Network multiplayer was a lot of fun in Grand Theft Auto, but when Grand Theft Auto 2 came out, with the spiffier graphics, I felt that the game sort of lost it’s multiplayer edge. There was nothing like screaming down a long stretch of road in a fire truck and plowing into a friend online in Grand Theft Auto; the thing was like a tank, and you could do that a few times before the vehicle blew up. In Grand Theft Auto 2, they toned it down, which took some of the fun away, in my opinion. Sure, it was a little more realistic, but damn…

I first saw GTA3 when I went down to Los Angeles for E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in 2001. I heard that there was going to be a playable demo there, and that was one of the games that I really wanted to see. Not many people were at the booth playing it, as back then, the GTA series wasn’t as mainstream. There was this European girl playing the game and she kept dying, and asked if I knew how to play. I said I’d give it a shot, and proceeded to try and jack a car with a Mafioso in it. I got about two feet down the road before the Mobster caught up with me, ripped me out of the car, and kill me. I asked if I could give it a go again, and this time was more successful: I jacked a car, and was driving like a madman down the streets. I soon opted to start driving on the sidewalk and run over pedestrians (something I used to do in the first two Grand Theft Autos; yes, I am a twisted fucker, I know), and then I crashed the game.

In this build, there were elderly people with walkers, and as I hit an old man, he started to fly over my hood, and the walker when flying the other way… and it froze. I was delighted that I had managed to crash a demo game, especially of GTA3, and one of the dudes at Rockstar came over to ask what happened:

That was the coolest thing in my mind: The guys who put together one of the most violent games out there (at the time) were telling me that **I** was too violent for this game! It sounds silly, but I had a grin for hours on my face.

(Flash forward to when the game was released: No elderly people with walkers! I guess they couldn’t fix the bug!)

Anyway, GTA3 is the reason why I bought my PS2. I was newly in Calgary, and I was anticipating the game SO much that I realised “Hey, perhaps now is a good time to get this console.” and so I did. In fact, I played so much of GTA3 that for a time, I knew how to get around Liberty City better than I knew how to get around Calgary, and even gave friends directions of where to go in this virtual world. How sad is that? Wait… don’t answer that.

I never did see what all the fuss was about certain aspects of the game, however. Sure, you could pick up a hooker, drive to a secluded spot, fuck her to get some health back, and if you were so inclined, kill her afterwards to get your money back. But, in the grand scheme of things, with all that you can do in this game (hey, I was running over seniors, remember?), I think that that was small potatoes. If parents are THAT concerned about a video game, then how about flexing some of that parental muscle and ensuring they don’t play the game? People are all too keen to not take responsibility these days.

The next two GTA games, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas were good, and stood out on their own in a lot of cases. For example, GTA: Vice City was the first GTA to offer the ability of bailing out of a moving vehicle, which came in handy if the car was on fire and about to explode, or if you were leading a bunch of cop cars towards the edge of a cliff and wanted to watch them fly off unable to break in time. It was also the first to introduce functional planes and helicopters, unlike the plane in GTA3 that flew like it’s wings were clipped. GTA: San Andreas took all that to the next level with a MASSIVE area to explore. You also had new vehicles at your disposal such as trains, full 18 wheelers (complete with a detachable trailer), sea planes and helicopters, and… oh yeah, you could swim.

All in all, I can’t wait for the new game. Part of the fun of the GTA series is the “sandbox” aspect of it; you can do what you want, when you want, and how you want. If you want to explore the city, you are free to do so. If you want to jump right into a mission, you can do that at any time. Feel like causing some shit and seeing how many cops you can get involved in chasing you and taking you down? Have at it. The amount of detail in these games is astounding, and as gaming hardware gets more and more powerful, that attention to details goes up with it. Personally, I can’t wait to drive around the city and try and find out where all the jumps are hidden.

April 29th. Only 19 days away. Starting April 30th, Molly is going to be PISSED.

…a question popped into my mind:

Do anti-abortionists eat eggs?