It looks like I'm going to have to implement a list of "can't be in the URL" or "can't be in the text" rules for my guestbook. Some people keep putting in either plugs for prescription drug sites, or for porn sites. There are more ones for the drug sites, I guess thinking they'll improve their search engine rankings. (Hint: They need to stop and realize this probably only works if they're linked by lots of sites that also get high visibility and are highly ranked, and mine isn't.) However, this latest one was for the site URL of xxxtoyjoy or something. Of course, the "cute" name input was amber*69* something. How blazingly original. And in the email, which I always munge anyway (I stick a bunch of long-ass crap in brackets right after the @ in case someone puts in a legit one) had a domain of prescription-drugs or some shit like that.

So, I guess I'll have to create 2 lists. One to fail on message, link name, and URL containing such things as Vioxx, Viagra, etc. (If you look, I didn't type these; rather they're in here in character-entity form so they don't get found by search engines.) Another to add to the list of URL fails, screening out things like XXX and such. Probably won't give 'em an error, but instead just go right back to the guestbook page without ever submitting to the database.

I shouldn't have to do this to keep my guestbook clean of that crap, y'know?

Not actually gonna post what I said here, just on the off chance it gets read by someone I don't want to see it, but if I have you listed as a friend on my LJ you can read it here (or if you're not, but you know me personally, you can shoot me an email).

I haven't felt very chatty lately, but a lot has been going on. And so I have a whole heckuva lot to say.

First: J and I went to a wedding last weekend. It was J's best man getting married, so he got to do him a turn and was his best man. We went out Friday afternoon, and found out at the rehearsal that it was going to be a full Catholic mass wedding. Whoa...

We went bowling with his friend and two other groomsmen that night, which was a blast. Two of the groomsmen have the same first name, and got the exact same bowling score on the second game. Funny stuff.

The wedding was beautiful. I saw most of it through a video camera lens, which was a new experience for me. Hopefully I did OK, though I zoomed too fast a few times (tried to nudge it, but nudged too hard I guess). The batteries ran out just as the happy new couple got to the end of their walk down the aisle. Better than it could've been, but I'd been hoping to get the rest of the wedding party as they departed. Ah well, at least I got the newlyweds, right?

The reception was fun. We got to talk more with the other groomsmen and their wives, and other family members. They're all really cool. One couple lives not too far from us, as it turns out, so we talked about maybe getting together some time. Another we're hoping to see some time when we're in Jeff City again, which we do somewhat often.

Second: J's birthday was Wednesday. Since he wants a new chest of drawers, I told him we'd go shopping and pick him out one for his birthday gift. However, I still wanted to have something to give him on the day itself, especially since I couldn't take him out to dinner that night. However, I could come up with absolutely nothing he wanted (there aren't any PS2 or computer games he wants, no CDs, etc.). So I went with what he needed, plus some chocolate and a nice card. What he needed was rather disappointing, though, which kinda sucked. He needed some black dress socks, so I got him 8 pairs of 'em. I put those in a gift bag that had pandas on it (he likes 'em some, though not anywhere near as much as polar bears, which of course I couldn't find), put the candy on top, then added the card. I tried...

Last night I took him out to dinner, and he picked Kobe's Japanese Steak House. Woo-hoo! We both had a ton of fun. For those not in the know, this is a place where they have 10 people per long table, all seated to the ends and one side. Most of the table is a big solid metal grill area, and the chef stands on the other side. Basically, they put on a show while cooking everyone's food orders, with such things as making a flaming volcano with thick-sliced onion rings stacked just so and some oil. It's great fun, and awesome food, though not somewhere to go really often unless you have that kind of spending cash 'cause it's more expensive than a trip to Applebees or whatever. Anyway, after that we got up to some nice private shenanigans, and had a very good evening.

Third: I got my black belt Wednesday. I think I'm still a bit in shock. My sister surprised me by being at class, and even dressed out in her gi and wearing her own 3rd degree black belt. That was a very nice surprise, indeed. Then class was her warming them up, which they definitely were not accustomed to (our warmups are way more lax -- and probably shouldn't be -- and they all got a taste of what things really ought to be like); then I got to be the "bad guy" (read: beat-up dummy). The scenario was, what if you're standing in an open playground or field or something, and you have someone standing ~6 or 8 feet in front of you, and you hear some other voice yell "Get him!!" (or, "Get her!!" in the case of the girls). What do you do? So we posed that to them, got a couple suggestions, then I got to run at our volunteer. After a bit of that, the other students got to take turns getting run at by me. So of course I earned quite a few bruises and other such fun.

After that, at 8pm when the regular class usually ends, another student who just returned after a lengthy absence and who was allowed to resume as a red belt, was awarded her brown belt now that she's back up to speed. They actually let me hand her her belt, which I was surprised by. Then I was called in front of all three black belts (sister, dad -- 5th degree black, and grandmaster John -- 10th degree). That was a rather emotional experience, getting my black belt. Not gonna go into ceremonial details, but it was... wow. I was surprised neither my dad nor I had tears streaming down our cheeks. After I got hugs and congrats from all three black belts, I then went around the room to shake hands with or hug all the other students. Then everyone got to "tighten my belt" -- every time someone gets a new rank, the tradition is that everyone grabs onto the belt, some on one side and some on the other, and they all pull as hard as they can. That was followed by lots of pictures and then my dad brought out the awesome cake he'd picked up. It had white icing and the words were in blue -- my favorite color, and there was a black belt in black icing underneath. Awesome. And it was a chocolate cake! Then we got into the bubbly (alcoholic for the adults, nonalcoholic for the underaged). And of course we didn't do an adult class that night. Ooh, and my mom was there to see me get my black belt and take pictures. That was awesome.

This weekend's going to be busy too. J's aunts Kathy & Sarah are coming in to St. Louis around 5 or 6pm tonight, so we're going to visit with them there and probably go back to Holts Summit with them and J's parents to hang out until Saturday night or Sunday morning. And J's stepdad said something about helping fix our toilet (something about a flexible instead of rigid pipe for the one that goes from the tank to the valve, getting a slightly different sized apparatus inside for the one we'd had to replace instead of the one we got, in addition to the lend of a wrench or two and the use of the special tape J got). I guess that'd be this evening before we head back home, but I've no idea if that's still in the works.

I don't know when we're going to get time to shop for J's dresser, especially since it's not like we can guarantee just going to one shop and finding exactly what he wants on the first try. All I know is we'll probably get a lighter wood to go with the other oak stuff we have, though of course if we find the perfect one otherwise that just happens only to come in a dark wood, that'll be fine too.

Well, it turns out that last week's move of Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital from Wednesday at 9pm CT to Thursday at 8pm CT wasn't just a ripple effect from the president's press conference. According to this site, which is quoting directly from Stephen King's site (I checked just in case), ABC decided to move it for at least 8 episodes, starting with last week's:

Dear Kingdom Hospital Viewers,

ABC may understand what they are doing with the schedule for Kingdom Hospital; I do not. All I can tell you for sure is that we will be telecasting new episodes 6-13 starting next Thursday, April 8th at 9 E/PT, 8 CT (check your local listings).

So, if you were watching or taping it, it isn't returning to the previous Wed. night timeslot, so change your VCR program or your sticky note so you don't miss it.

I know I've taken this before, though I'm not sure what I got, or whether I posted results, etc. I'll have to look.

Anyway, this is what I got:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (98%)
3. Liberal Quakers (86%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (84%)
5. Neo-Pagan (77%)
6. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (74%)
7. Non-theist (70%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (68%)
9. Taoism (67%)
10. New Age (66%)
11. Reform Judaism (63%)
12. New Thought (54%)
13. Bahá'í Faith (50%)
14. Sikhism (48%)
15. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (46%)
16. Jainism (45%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (45%)
18. Scientology (42%)
19. Orthodox Judaism (32%)
20. Hinduism (30%)
21. Islam (27%)
22. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (27%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (22%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (15%)
25. Roman Catholic (15%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (14%)
27. Jehova's Witness (7%)

I'm rather irked that Christian Science and Scientology didn't both fall even lower, closer to the <20% group, but then again I guess maybe they don't have a problem with men and women as equals, or something. Even a dead clock can be right twice a day, right? But as far as the top few, or at least the ones I know much about, they sound about right. And several of the low-end ones of course don't surprise me either.

I'm currently working on adding back in the "remember/forget me" code in the comments form that will allow whatever you type for name, email, and URL to be saved as a cookie so you don't have to keep filling it out if you don't want. So if you see stuff that looks weird, that's what that is. The code will probably work right away, but I'll need to change all my CSS files to style the text for the darn things, so it'll look a little weird till I get that done.

I've been trying (albeit badly) to keep up with Kingdom Hospital, which is carried by ABC. I'm not home when it's on, so I have to record it and watch it later. I've managed to forget to record it 3 times now -- episodes 3, 5, and 6. I've been using eDonkey links to grab what I missed, hoping I can still catch up, since they don't reshow it at another time. So far, I have 3 completed, have 4 on my VCR still, and am working on getting episodes 5 and 6.

It's been slotted for Wednesday nights at 9pm Central time. The last two episodes, I remembered a day early to set the VCR. However, I didn't set the satellite receiver to it, because what would be the point if we're going to be watching something else between now and then? I figured I'd just remember that afternoon to set it before we left. Oops... forgot both those times. So yesterday, I finally remembered specifically to not only set the VCR, but put the satellite on the right station. However, I was only 99.9% sure what channel to put it on, so I brought up the guide to double-check. Lo and behold, I couldn't find it listed anywhere. I knew it was probably ABC, but that .1% was that it could be Fox. Or maybe I didn't have the time right. So I looked at both networks between 7pm and 11pm -- nothing. Grr! Finally came to the conclusion that it must not be on.

My mom guessed they're probably just holding off a couple episodes and showing other stuff, to get them viewed during May sweeps. Makes sense, in a TV exec warped mind sorta way, I guess. However, I just checked the TV listings on a hunch, and guess what? It's showing tonight at 8pm. Damnit! How the hell was I supposed to know that? I would've missed yet another one through no fault of my own this time, had I not had a feeling and checked anyway. So, yeah... I'll still record it since I'm 4 episodes behind, even though I'm home all night. But it still annoys me. Only thing I can think of, is that it got ripple-effect shifted because of stuff pre-empted Tuesday night by the President's press conference, and since they moved that stuff to Wednesday, they shifted some Wed. stuff to Thursday, etc. At least I saw it in time though, eh? Now I just have to keep from getting sidetracked and actually go rewind the tape in the VCR, set the program, and put it on the right channel.

*whine* I only got 5 hours of sleep last night, so I'm really tired (that's 2 nights in a row now). Plus, I forgot to grab some PopTarts to take to work for breakfast, so I'm really hungry. And it's another 2.5 to 3 hours before we'll probably be leaving for lunch. Gawd, that's a long time.

*whine*

First: Ria has been awesome enough to provide an LJ community for St. Louis PVPers. He's even given it a really nifty icon. This way we can all plan meets more easily than relying on just forum threads that drop off the 1st page rather easily, PMs, etc.

Second: Current meme going around is to let people ask exactly 3 questions and then give answers to 'em. So, ask away.

I just finished implementing MTPaginate on the individual categories in my Outside Links section. All but 2 of my sections are only a page long, usually much much less than that, but two were getting quite unwieldy, and now they're multi-paged. PvP forumites' webpages is now split into 4 pages, and web comics is now split into 2 pages. And it's all dynamic, so as I add or remove stuff it'll adjust accordingly. Yea!

Now I just have to do it on the front page of my Funny Forwards. I list all the different categories and all the forwards under each, and since that's a full list and it's quite long in spite of not having update time for it the last few months, I'd like to break that into pages as well. Hell, I can probably get that done this afternoon.

First, I finally finished my Grey Windows theme I've been working on. I had the last little bits to do, and I think I've gotten everything in it that should be. So it's now in the list, near the end, if you want to try it. It, like the Cherries theme, has issues in IE 6 (probably 5 too, I dunno), but that's 'cause IE's positioning handling sucks major ass, and there's not much I can do about it. (It screws up the side menus, drawing them inconsistently, sometimes overlapping them depending on whether you've scrolled the page, and how much and up or down, etc.) No idea why it's doing it, and I'm not spending the potentially large amount of time trying to find out. (It'd probably involve changing to a fixed pixel size layout, rather than one that scales to fill the page, and I really, really don't like doing fixed layouts. Plus it'd probably require some shitty hacks and extra & potentially crappy rules added into the CSS, which could break everywhere else and bloat the code. So I wouldn't do it even if I had the time to spend on it.)

(I just realized, if you're choosing the Netscape 4 theme, every time I add a new one it gets horked 'cause I like to keep it as the last choice. Sorry 'bout that, but that's the way it is. I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of it altogether anyway. If you use it, let me know in the comments or something, but my guess is that it isn't used and isn't needed.)

Second, I changed my "email me" page to use the main site layout and themes, and am generating a dynamic image of my actual address in an appropriate color using PHP. I still plan for it to be a temporary measure, until I can get a properly secure email form up in its place, but it's a better temporary page than the one I had, which had no site nav, no nothing except the brief description of why, a link to my forums, and a static pic.

Yes, this is late, but I haven't had time at all to do them till now. So there.

1. What do you do for a living?
   I'm a programmer, who writes mostly in Java at work, with some occasional Perl or very rare shell scripting, who also has to know both generic SQL and Oracle-specific database stuff.
2. What do you like most about your job?
   I get to write code, and I have full web access (not for abuse of course -- porn surfing is a no-warning-you're-fired offense, etc.). Plus, it's a very casual environment so I can wear jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.
3. What do you like least about your job?
   The occasional political BS that occasionally affects my assignments (what they are or aren't, why stuff has to be changed to make XYZ people happy, etc.). The occasional ISO-9000-mandated paperwork I have to do.
4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
   Well, uh... I don't recall ever having any really bad days at work. I hardly ever have to deal w/ phone calls from our system users, and when I do they're usually not that bad, the political BS has never affected me that directly or badly, etc. Usually a bad day at work means I spent all day trying to figure out why such-and-such code wouldn't compile, and find out at the end I was staring at the typo the whole damn time. Or having a few days in a row seriously lacking sleep, and then the whole day sucks and not just work specifically.
5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
   None, really. I like writing code. I'll never be an ubercoder goddess, but I like to think I'm decent at it. Unless, of course, "independently wealthy" is a career -- if that kinda money fell into my lap I could quite happily quit working and live a nice cushy lifestyle of travel and leisure. I'd probably still write code and spend lots of time with computers, but it'd all be whatever the hell I felt like writing or doing, and with no deadlines unless I felt like imposing them.

Finding a nickle-sized wolf spider rapelling down the front of your computer in a monitor-illuminated dark room, 10 minutes after waking, is not a good way to start the day. I briefly saw something go ducking behind the hinge of the door to the front of the case. I just looked at it for about a half a minute, then I figured I'd just get the flashlight from the top of the tower, aim it at the door, then swing it open really fast (after checking that nothing was crawling on that side of it). I had just gotten up and was going to grab the flashlight, when the little fucker went zooming down the front of my case from its buttweb. It was landing on my table and making a break for it when I grabbed a tissue to smash it with, and almost went under the table when I mushed it. And mushed it. And mushed it.

Gahhh!!!

I just implemented icons in place of category text for showing the category each post is in. Let me know via comments on this entry if you find anything horribly amiss. Next, I'm planning on putting the corresponding icons next to each listing in the menus as well.

I watched this, and it's just amazing. Granted, he's got the help of an extra appendage via his crutches, but this guy has style when he plays.

I'm done. All I have left to do to earn my belt, is do kata next week as far as finishing up. Bo-shan (sp?), 8-man attack, and up to the roughly 83 or so moves of the black belt kata we've all been learning. Possibly this "T kata" as we called it (it's a Palgwe, pronounced PAL-gee, kata that I actually had down pat for the most part). That last one we ended up leaving behind, so I'm not sure whether I'll need it, but I'll probably practice it anyway since it's shorter than any of the rest and was pretty straight-forward. Even if it does have an inside crescent kick in it.

But yeah, two weeks from tonight I'm to bring a couple bottles of champagne, plus at least one bottle of sparkling grape juice for those students underage. Probably two. (Anyone who is to get their black belt, brings the champagne for after-class celebration on that night.)

I'm still stunned. But... I'm almost starting to believe I earned it.

And Jen? I didn't get a chance to respond, partly because I didn't see it right away, but I saw your comments, and I'm going to save them so that I can come back and read them any time, as often as I need, even well after I'm accustomed to wearing the black belt.

I didn't get a whole lot of useful stuff done yesterday, but I feel OK anyway. We had a pretty damn healthy dinner, and very tasty. J took some stewing meat, and marinated it in this ginger teriyaki marinade (dry stuff that you add water, veggie oil, & vinegar to and mix it around). Then, it got browned, and in another pan went a small chopped onion, pre-sliced carrots, and fresh broccoli. Once the meat was mostly browned (including the marinade so we'd have a sauce of sorts), sliced fresh mushrooms went in that. Then we put it on plates & mixed it all around, pouring some of the marinade from the pan over the veggies. Mmm! And I even had a glass of (chocolate) milk with it. Very good, very filling (just right!), and pretty damn healthy too.

After that J and I had some fun, erm, "quality time", after which I was so content and drowsy I just said "the hell with it" and went to sleep for the night (it was about 9pm). So I didn't floss 'cause I didn't get up, didn't take my allergy meds & stuff till this morning, but damn I needed the sleep, and that was an awesome way to end the evening.

I'm not sure what kind of workout I'll be doing today, since walking isn't an option until my thighs stop hurting (they still have tiny red welty spots even today!). But then we also pushed up the instructor meeting tonight (last minute, darnit! -- hafta remember to record 24), so I'm not sure I'll have time for anything anyway. Maybe right after I get home today. If I do, it'll probably be black belt kata practicing, plus maybe some crunches & pushups. That way I won't get too grossly sweaty and don't have to worry about fitting in a shower before dinner & going to the meeting, and can do it later after we're back. (I also will be watching that recorded 24 ep. afterwards, to free up the tape for yet another try at recording Kingdom Hospital tomorrow night while we're in karate class.)

I think that's enough rambling for the moment.

I spent about 40 minutes on the treadmill (going just over 2 miles), flossed last night and Friday night (skipped Saturday 'cause I had my teeth scraped then anyway). I munched after work, but it was carrots instead of Cheezits or something.

I'm starting the week off pretty well. And even with the time change, I think I managed to get a whole 5 hours of sleep last night. Way better than recent Sunday nights.

Only one thing bothers me. And no fair making (too much) fun. I was going to walk 3 miles today instead of 2. You know what stopped me? It wasn't my heel, and it wasn't fatigue.

It was my goddamn thighs chafing because they were rubbing together too long. Grr! How fucking stupid is it that my thighs are fat enough that my uppermost thighs were starting to hurt because I'd been rubbing them together too long?? I went for about 5-10 minutes this way until I couldn't stand it any longer. I even tried walking feet apart, bulldog style (well, except for the toes-pointed-in thing), and that just sucked to keep doing.

So... yeah, ya think I really need to spend this much time or more on the treadmill every day, instead of when I get rare inspiration to do so? Just maybe...