return void;

lame post title, but basically, this is about my experience finding a decent online photo album generator.

i wanted something slim, dynamic, skinnable, and required little to nothing as far as additional packages. first, i came across ids. IDS fit most of those categories. it was dynamic (managed via an admin interface), has shutterfly integration, and is skinnable. however, it is a masked package in gentoo and even when unmasked, it requires apache and mysql.

then i stumbled across JAlbum. jalbum is great. it is a contained java application requiring only a current JRE. it is very skinnable (via BeanScript) and was slim. you can download a tarball and execute the jar file without needing to truly install it. it is not very dynamic however as it generates static pages, but the developers came up with a clever way to work around this. to prevent the user from having to regenerate an entire photo album to add a few photos (which can suck if you have 1000+ photos like i do), they track which photos have been added (metadata) and only deal with the “new” photos.

the skins are very nice (even though some people’s web design skills are deplorable) and can be easily modified. in the end, i ended up choosing BananAlbum. the flash is smooth and i liked the menu system. the only thing it lacks is shutterfly integration. i’ve looked through some of the skins that use it, and i think i should be able to hack this into the skin.

without further ado, here is the initial photo album. enjoy and let me know of any feedback. this is of coarse an initial dry run. it took me a while to get the image size correct, but the default sizes screw with how they come out on the actual page (giant black gap around the image). all in all, i’m very pleased with this program and the resultant photo album. considering how many photos we seem to collect, a digital photo album just seems like a natural progression.

gotta love that time before a major console war where all companies are scrambling to share all the details fit for the public. here’s some noteworthy news items.

first, i stumbled across rouge galaxy, which looks like the first RPG to pique my interest since the days of xenogears.

next, the new gameboy micro was priced today at $99. not too shabby, but its an old system with a new look. funny, that look is awfully similar to that of a psp or a ds cut in half.

next is the news about hd-dvd. basically, it seems that hd-dvd is losing steam in its battle for the format war. this is not good if microsoft intends on integrating this technology into their systems, eventually. looks as if sony may finally rectify it’s betamax problem.

next, i stumbled across this jewel and it looked interesting; very nice artistic design.

it also looks like nintendo may be setting themselves up for serious disappointment with the hype around their new controller. with all of the hoopla about the controller, i seriously hope that it is actually innovative, else nintendo will simply be written off as a hype-shop like sony. that would be very bad for nintendo’s reputation (they’re known for sticking to awkward technologies unlike their competition).

surfing around some more on 1up, i found this article about psp losing steam. this was actually an interesting read because if you look at the history of all systems, they all start out that way. sony seems to have an advantage with this system though. rather than sitting through a christmas with many lackluster titles, it seems that they may have worked through the “awkward” stage (6mo after a launch is when the systems usually pick up pace) by christmas time. nintendo seems to have blown that awkward stage to pieces with the ds. the most likely cause of this problem is due to the coming console war. if you check ign, you find that there are many plans to release many new games, most of them do not appear to be EA-style rehashes either.

also, zelda was pushed back. this is a shame, but from nintendo, it means the game actually will be better. few companies can actually say that.

lastly, i saw a news article about a game on the ps3 called project force. this is made by the same folks that brought us armored core. if you actually watch the videos, you’ll see that the mech is VERY similar to one in armored core. i just hope that they get off their asses and add network play to this version. i’ve been clamoring for it for years, and the lack thereof has convinced me to stop buying these rehashes that lack innovation.

so that’s it, lotta news today. better start saving for an expensive christmas :)

i finished reading “red dragon” by thomas harris today. the book took approximately 2 weeks (that’s about 20 hours) to complete, which was much longer than it should have taken if not for the annoying talk radio that is played at obscenely high volumes in the vanpool.

no spoilers here, the plot was almost exactly as retold in the movie of the same name. i had seen the movie prior to reading this book, but was still slightly fuzzy on the details (the only thing that i could remember was the end scene).

the book however, focused a large portion of the book on 2 things: will graham’s and francis dolarhyde’s grip on sanity. both characters struggle with their demons and in the end, only will is able to overcome them.

a large section of the book is devoted to explaining why D (as he is referred to in the book) is the way he is. they spent several chapters on his youth and several events that led him to his current mental state (namely: his time in an orphanage after his mother deserted him in the hospital, his grandmother threatening to cut his johnson off for wetting the bed, and his step brother beating him for being the bastard child of the family). in fact, i felt this urge to even feel empathy for the character; we all have feelings of rejection. as with the movie, D changes near the end (culminating in his eating of the painting) and its almost as if i was rooting for him. once i realized he was a brutal murderer and no long doubted his intentions, it became clear that he was a monster of fair intellect.

there were two major differences from what i can remember from the movie (there may be more, my memory is lacking). first, harris seems to focus on D’s strength and stature. it’s almost as if D is an intimidating and intellectual man. i remember 2 scene’s in particular which were cut from the movie. when Reba McClane first ‘dated’ with him, she bumped into him and said ‘[i]t was like bumping into a tree[,]” and that his arms “felt like an oak banister.”

also, there was the scene with the gas attendant. this was the other major difference. upon filling up on gas, D noticed the attendant staring at Reba. he then made a threat that he could easily snap his back and catch him if he tried to run. this was crucial because in the end of the book, this gas attendant was the person who’s face was blown apart by the shotgun (not D’s). in the movie, i don’t remember if they every actually indicated who was shot. in fact, i remember being outraged at not finding out. again, i could be wrong because it has been a while.

all in all, it was a good book. i enjoyed the part that focused on the forensics in the beginning. the book had a much lower reading level requirement than anything by clive barker, especially imajica. i feel that the details of the story were written as if they were a nonfictional listing of events rather than an emotional roller coaster of vivid descriptions. because of that, i feel the book should have focused more on the forensics rather than the psychological aspect; it would suit the author’s writing style better. i enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the next part in the series.

my rating (of 10): 7

lastly, i wanted to note that one of the things i’ve always wanted to be was strong. i don’t want to be like the guys tyler durden (of fight club) want to avoid who pack into gyms, as i am not shallow. the description of D as sturdy as a tree and as sturdy as an oak banister is what i have always wanted to be. that is my motivation for going to the gym; i want my wife to grab my arm and think “oak banister.”

for the last 4-5 weeks, i have been running at fairly regular times. 2 weeks ago, i started training for a 5k. every other day i run 3 miles; my goal to achieve a total time of approximately 25 minutes (that’s about an 8:20 per mile pace). after the two weeks, i am able to complete the three miles in 33 minutes, down from 36.

i also do not suffer from runner’s cramp and the main problem i have in completely the three miles is occupying my mind and ignoring the pain in my shins (too large of steps tire me out early and treadmills are notoriously small).

to keep my mind busy, i have been listening and getting motivated to a minidisc containing Lamb Of God (As The Palaces Burn), Meshuggah (Destroy, Erase, Improve), and In Flames (Soundtrack To Your Escape). i would like to make one that has some The Haunted and Hatebreed. the minidisc player will last for many hours with a single rechargeable AA battery. today was especially difficult because half way into the run, the battery died.

anyways, the major announcement is that i finally achieved a goal i set forth for myself to achieve by the end of this year. in fact, this is a goal i had when i was running at Sendero Ridge. on monday, i ran a sub-9 minute mile (8:35 to be exact). this is a major deal for me, as it is the first time i can remember, ever, running a sub-9 minute mile. i think given more effort and will power, i could have met my sub-8 minute mile goal at the same time.

in a matter of 4 weeks, i have become significantly better at my running, and the results are visible everyday.

it has been a while since i posted mainly because i went out of town on thursday. technically, if i had posted then, it would have been only 2 days. instead, my wife and i went to austin for a wedding; crystal was a maid of honor. so the weekend was chockfull of weirdness that i just have to blog about.

basically, the world is a vast place, with many people inhabiting it. for all of mankind’s advancements, it seems funny that there are so many morons on this planet. maybe it was just my sample size (limited to DFW and Austin), but i encountered several people who slept-in while God was handing out common sense.

first, we left the house at around 7pm and headed down 75 South. somewhere near 635, i ended up behind a white van hauling a flat trailer bed with supplies (mostly fairly large machines). apparently, one of the workers packed in the van had loaded a small flat square sheet of aluminum loosely into the trailer. this sheet of metal flipped out of the trailer, as i was following it, and headed towards my car. i was mostly worried about it either shredding a tire or cutting into the body. the scrap headed under the car, barely missing the tire but scraping the lower part of the front bumper. furious, i tried to tail the guy to get the license, but only managed 4 of the characters.

then when we pulled over in hillsboro, i met the next weirdo. while pumping gas at the diamond shamrock (for a meager $2.29), i noticed the redneck next to me reach into the outside trash. he dug in this trash can for a few seconds and pulled out a newspaper, or what was left of it, and proceeded to read as if he had just bought it off the newsstand. never seen anyone frugal enough to dig newspapers out of the trash to save 50 cents.

we went to the rehearsal, which lasted all of 20 minutes, and drove downtown to enjoy a free rehearsal dinner. they were scheduled to eat at moonshine’s, which was a fairly nice restaurant. but this is where i met weirdo number 3. this one was known as the “watch-licker”. we sat at the table that was U-shaped, crystal and i sat on in inner left side. since the entire meal was paid for by someone else, i decided to get a nice $9 glass of pinot grigio. across the table sat the bride’s cousin (or the bride’s sister’s son) and next to him sat her father (her cousin’s grandfather). the father of the bride put his arm on the shoulder of the boy and started talking to him. the boy turned his head and licked the band of his grandfather’s watch. i starred for what seemed like minutes, trying to reassure myself that it was the wine. this however was not the case because the boy proceeded to lick the watchband 2 more times. words cannot describe my bafflement.

that brings us to the next weirdo, number 4, the father of the bride. he was a nice guy, from what i could understand. that is to say, his redneck accent was so thick, i could barely understand him. i’d say that i am pretty forgiving in my ability to understand broken English, but this accent was beyond my abilities. he talked to me at one point for 20 minutes, none of which really registered with me. i vaguely recall talking about fry’s. when he led a prayer during the reception, i could have sworn he said “amen” about 10 times.

the next weirdo, number 5, was discovered at the reception. just before the food was dished out, a heavy-set fellow sat down next to me along with a few of his friends. he had some of the longest sideburns i’ve ever seen. jenny (ford’s faux date), ford, another married couple (i forget their names, they were nice), and myself were engaged in a conversation when this fellow next to me kinda leaned his head in and make a comment / joke about what was being conversed. he did not turn his head or acknowledge that we had not included him in our discussion, but simply starred at his friends as if that’s where the conversation was originating. he did this several more times throughout the night.

lastly, the biggest weirdo, number 6, of them all was the bride. the wedding was very non-traditional, but i suppose that’s what to expect when the couple had lived together for 5 years, had 2 years to plan the wedding, who’s proposal story entailed the bride waiting in the car while the groom bought a ring at the mall so he could propose in the car, and who were just plain weird. crystal had mentioned 2 weeks prior that we had watched (tortured ourselves is more like it) manos: hands of fate. well, she made sure to bring the movie up, not once, but three times the day before and of her wedding. that craptacular movie should be the last thing on her mind. the best part happened during the reception dinner while she was sitting next to crystal. near the end of the dinner, she leaned over and asked crystal if we wanted to go see a movie after this. i couldn’t make this up if i tried. apparently the idea of having wild and crazy sex with your new husband wasn’t even on her mind.

you would think that the human gene pool would’ve weeded these people out by now but apparently not. good to see mother nature sleeping on the job.

so on saturday i bought a PSP. i’ve been saving some spending money and birthday money since i moved to dallas. i also bought a copy of lumines and the EB 1 year warrenty for $345 after taxes ($250 for the psp, $40 for lumines, and $20 for the warrenty).

i was largely afraid of the dead pixel problem. crystal and i were scheduled to meet her uncle (the one who helped get me employed), so i rushed to open the box and test the system. stupid EB clerk forgot to put the UMD disc into the lumines case. finally, unsheathed the beast and checked the entire screen, all working.

the system’s user interface is far greater than that of the PS1 and the PS2 but reminds me of the E3 videos demonstrating the PSX. there is a top bar so to speak; it is a horizonally scrollable list of icons. each icon pertains to a certain system menu item such as games, movies, music, configuration, etc. from there, a drop down menu (always present on the current icon) appears with different options such as play game, view memory card game saves, play movie, play music, change the time. much clean and works much better with the limited buttons on the console.

the hardware works well. the wifi out of the box is nice, as well as the game-sharing feature (you can play a game through wifi when you don’t actually own it, someone else on the wifi shares it). lumines even has a feature that by powering it down actually puts the system in a hybernate mode. the disc tray pops open with a not-so-reassuring click. the discs awkwardly fit into the tray and the tray doesn’t exactly make a perfect fit (slight movement when closed and pressed on). the widescreen is very sharp and clear. the buttons press with no problems, but the analog stick moves very laterally making it’s usage slightly odd. the handheld is very glossy and fingerprints do serious damage to the its sleek appearance. i’m afraid that the handheld isn’t as sturdy as a gameboy; i’ve dropped one before and it did not break but im not very willing to try that with the psp.

all in all, the handheld is pretty spiffy system, but not sure it’s worth $250. lumines however, is worth my weight in gold. its a twist on the classic tetris. im sure everyone on this planet has played tetris or a variant of it. all blocks are 2 by 2 squares, each square can have one of 2 colors. the blocks fall as far to the ground as they can, meaning they will split if you drop one half of the block on higher level than the other half. there is a timer bar that destroys block collections (like puzzle fighter, similarly colored blocks join together) as it passes by them. you can even earn different skins, so the game doesn’t go stale. 2-player mode is much like puzzle fighter, the more blocks you destroy and the faster you do it, the more it moves the split screen over to shrink your opponent’s side of the screen.

well worth the money. i look forward to buying wipeout pure next month.

so i read (or tried to anyways) a book this week and watched a movie. both are on a new level of suck. the book was a collection of short stories by h.p. lovecraft. the movie was “bridget jones and the edge of reason”. the following are my brief reviews.

on monday, i tried to read the first of 16 stories in a book written by h.p. lovecraft called “rats in the walls.” the author wrote the story in the first person about some boring guy who inherited an old home. the last book i recall reading in the first person was r.l. stine (enough said). personally, i find that writing style reminding me of the crappy stories i read when i was 12. the story revolved around a man who was remodeling a home that was willed to him. the home apparently was VERY VERY old, and apparently the home to some old pagan worshippers. the author droned on and on about the bloodlines of the main character. after having read about all the boring family members who owned the home before, the author failed to advance the plot. instead, he wasted many pages babbling about useless characters and useless dates/facts. by time he actually got around to describing the rats that actually appeared to be in the walls, i was dying of boredom. i forced myself to read this story for 2 whole hours and i knew there was no way that i would be able to do so again the next day.

there was no way this could be described as horror except for the thought of having to read it again. torment your enemies by giving them this book.

my eye gouging review (of 10): 2

now on to the latest bridget jones’ movie. the first movie was kinda ….. cute for a chick-flick. the last movie didn’t leave much room for a sequel, but that didn’t stop those greedy assholes in hollywood.

there was no plot. in fact, if you took the worst moments from the first movie, magnified them, and that was the entire movie. i wish i could have a spoiler for this movie, but there just isn’t anything to spoil. there is no story to tell, the characters are old, and they try repeating the same crap from the last movie. the characters are even thinner than before. no wait, i recall that last statement. mark darcey, the man bridget drooled over last time, is actually kind of an ass. in the first movie, he had this mystique about him. in this movie, you learn too much about him and that he’s a boring ass. neither crystal or i could give this movie the time of day. shame on you hollywood.

my rating (of 10): 4