Month: March 2008

03/30/08

Ghosts Own the Night

Last night was freaky scary.

Around 2:30am, I was lying in bed playing Neves on the DS. Then I heard two distinct voices scream out. One was crooning off-key while the other was wailing in sorrow. The two voices clashed and the volume rose as they became more distressed.

I lept out of bed and scrambled to the window. This was a once in a lifetime event; seeing ghosts, that is.

I looked to the right. Nothing.

I looked to the left. Nothing.

Maybe my ears were playing tricks on me. The night was absolutely silent.

I climbed back into bed and the voices came back at an even louder decibel. They were angry. The crooning became shouts; the wailing became cries.

I was tempted to take a look; but, I was afraid of what I would find. Besides, ghosts should stay ghosts. We shouldn’t interact with them unless we want to become ghosts ourselves.

BOO!

03/27/08

Missing Fast Food

I was down near the Embarcardero Center today having finished an errand and I had the sudden craving for a Carl’s Jr burger. I knew there was a place nearby having gone to the fast food restaurant while working at a previous job.

I could already taste the triple decker burger as I headed to my destination, only to find the fast food chain gone. The horror! In place of Carl’s Jr. was a Mexican placed called Rubio’s. The place seemed packed which is good for them, but bad for me. Especially during the critical lunch hour. Time was ticking away.

The only place I knew in the area for a decent lunch was two blocks away; a sandwich place called Gambino’s NY Subs. Suprisingly, there wasn’t a line out the door like all the other times I’ve been there. I usually get the Boston Bulger with east coast-style condiments, but today I had to get back to the office so I went with the Italian. Either one is a good meal so I wasn’t disappointed.

03/26/08

There can only be one…

Sandwich Shop.

If the sandwiches from the various sandwich places around SOMA were to duke it out, the sandwiches from The Snack Depot would reign supreme.

Hidden inside an office building on the 300th block of 2nd Street, The Snack Depot is a small convenience type store which sells one of the largest sandwiches you would find in SOMA at an unreasonably low price. Finding the place is probably the most difficult part.
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03/26/08

Using POST and XML in AJAX

In an earlier entry, Missing Data After AJAX Call, I threw a hack together to return multiple values which required parsing based on a separator on the client side.

After testing, I realized using a character as a separator is a bad idea. The data returned could have the character as part of its value and screw up the parsing later on the client side. Storing the data as XML and returning the data as such makes for a more elegant solution.

I also wanted to send a large amount of text through AJAX and the GET request was not getting the job done. Using POST instead of GET works well; the reason behind it is similar to why it works for forms or forum postings.

Talking about the what’s and why’s does not make it very clear. That is why I brought an example with me including the corresponding code. w00t!
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03/25/08

Pet Peeve #4

I am not sure what triggered my peeve-ness this past week; but, I seem to be getting unusually frustrated during the day especially when using public transportation is involved.

Today I was in line to take the escalator from BART to the street. There is an unwritten rule when using an escalator. The right-hand side of the escalator is for those who want a stationary climb. The left-hand side are for those who want to walk up to expedite the process.
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03/24/08

Pet Peeve #3

People who exit the train and stand in front of the door deciding which way to turn.

Not only should they have already figured it out beforehand; the least they could of done was move further into the middle of the platform instead of blocking the exit way.

There are signs all around the subway station imploring passengers to “keep a look out” and “be aware of your surroundings”. Yet, there are still a stubborn few who believe the world revolves around them.

This problem isn’t localized to just the subway. This phenomenon  occurs at department stores, elevators, escalators, restrooms, airports, etc.  Wherever there is a chance to annoy others, these people will be there.

03/22/08

Movie Review: Bee Movie

bee_movie.jpgBee Movie is an enjoyable coming of age movie through the eyes of a bee. The lead character, Barry B. Benson, is about to start the rest of his life as a worker bee. But Barry doesn’t want to live the boring, monotonous life of a honey-making bee. He sets out to explore the rest of the world, including the treacherous humans.

As with most animated animal or creature films, the animal species are given human traits and abilities. The bees speak English, work blue collar jobs, and of course, will sue anyone and anything that moves.

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03/20/08

I don’t pretend to know anything

English is a tough language to learn when you’re learning it as a second language.

Take for instance this phrase, “I don’t pretend to know anything”.

What does it mean?

“I know” means “I have knowledge about a subject”.

“I pretend to know” means “I have no idea what you are talking about but I am just going to fake it and hope no one sees through my charade”.

“I don’t pretend to know” means “If I have no idea, I will not lie about knowing the subject at hand”.

“anything” means “what people really mean when they say everything”.

Thus, “I don’t pretend to know anything” means “I have no fricking clue what you are talking about and I won’t even waste an ounce of energy faking that I do”.

So what have we learned today, class?

If you are drawing a blank when in a conversation, just visualize them in their underwear and zone out.

03/19/08

Pet Peeve #2

I am not sure if this is just something done in San Francisco, but is there a point in putting sparkling dust into the concrete on the sidewalks?

In the mornings when I am heading towards my workplace, the sidewalk reflects the rising sun’s light right into my eyes forcing me to squint as I walk.

Walking in San Francisco in the morning is like snowboarding without goggles.

03/18/08

Pagination with PHP

The other day, I was looking for a decent tutorial on creating pagination using PHP. I did a couple Google searches, but the results did not fit my criteria. I was looking for a caterpillar pagination where there is a head, a tail, and a middle section that moves along as you click through the pages.

Previously, the site I was working on had used a previous/next deal where the user would just keep clicking next to get further through the records. But, this type of navigation takes too long to get to the end and is not very search engine friendly.
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