Author: Andrew

Andrew is a web developer by day. He has played drums nearly all his life, creates music whenever possible, and always needs a hug. He has worked as a level designer for a small online video game, as the grim reaper in a haunted house, and traded web design for concert tickets and tattoos. In years past, he could be found performing improvised comedy or stage magic in the south side of Austin, Texas.
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PostWorlds, Viewing Pages, PHP Classes

I looked at this giant post about to hit Facebook and thought it might be better as a blog post.  I’m working on a Play By Post site in the style of the site I once loved, and spent a while working on how to view a page that had been stored in the database.  There were multiple “hard way”s to write one of the pages.

All of the code here is very simplified from what I’m trying to (except the HTML examples), and the variable names are not the same as in my real code.

The easiest way was to intermingle the programming language and the HTML/web page language at every step of the way.  The PHP scripting and HTML code would be so intermingled that none of it could be easily re-used, or even understood after any time has passed.  I’m not even going to write that here.  It would have been a piece of script to open the database connection and connect to this “row” of data, followed by enough HTML to get to where the next piece of data is needed, followed by PHP script to retrieve that piece of data alone, followed by enough HTML to get to where the next piece of data is needed.  Everything would have been horribly tangled up, and a pure nightmare to look at.  Where I separate my scripting code and my HTML code by creating objects.

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The Matthew Lillard Paradox

I have always loved watching Matthew Lillard act. Even before I knew anything about the acting side of acting, I latched onto just how honest he was. He wasn’t acting for a screen or for camera, but acting with something a lot of people don’t let us see. His characters react to sadness and horror with an honest manner. His face contorts. He is genuinely ugly. He reacts to happiness with honest silliness that is difficult for most people to admit they feel.

He is emotional instead of pretty. It’s amazing.

That is why I have a Matthew Lillard Paradox. I love watching Lillard act so much that any movie he is in runs the risk of not being good enough for him. He brought depth and charm to a Uwe Boll movie.

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Right Ear: Red, Left Ear: Blue.

I wear a sapphire stud earring in my left ear. There is a matching garnet stud earring in my right.  There are a few reasons for this.

I was performing magic in the Hell and Back Cabaret. I had already been wanting to pierce my right ear.  My left had been pierced for just over twenty years, and a test with an old zirconium stud let me know it had not grown over.  So, I pierced the right ear and wore matching silver starter studs to perform for the cabaret.

Incidentally, I have performed with a cabaret show.

So, why one red and one blue?
Why, indeed?

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Weight Loss Confession

Sunday night was the last show of the third “season” of Thinning the Herd. I have been to all but their very first show. In the very first season. (I WAS outside the theater, waiting for the first Rubber Room to start.)

The cast asked me to play a brief game with them. The theater owner, Tom Booker, asked me how much I’ve lost playing at home. Tom was the “winner” of the first season. He has been in Thinning the Herd all three seasons. I was on stage with an audience watching. You don’t really get to say “no” or clam up when doing this kind of thing.

“About sixty eight pounds.”
Coming to terms with the number 68

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Weight Loss Goals

I’ve lost about 37 pounds since roughly March of 2012.   If you believe that the BMI charts are set in stone, then I have another 36 pounds to go before I’m in the healthy range.  However, I have about 7 pounds to go before I can shake the “obese” label.

 

I want to lose weight.

According to the BMI chart and mathematics, I should weigh no more than 161 pounds.  As much as I hope to some day actually hit 160 again, my long term goal is to stay at or below 170 pounds.  If I can enjoy life in the 150-160 range then that would also be very awesome.  170 is my ceiling.

The thing is, I’ve started making goals: Continue reading “Weight Loss Goals”

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I’m Still Not Cutting My Hair

I’m keeping my long locks.
 
I’m sitting on my hair right now. An old friend asked if I would consider donating to Locks of Love. A new friend challenged me to cut it in order to make something new. I admire both of them and am glad they brought up the question, even while I make the decision to keep this part of myself.
 
Let’s start with how it got this long. It’s really long.

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Nightly Update: On The Wheel, A Haunted House

I’m in one of those moods when I want to keep harassing Facebook with updates.  Instead, I’ll consolidate into this one post.

I’m writing for the Dark Arcanum Podcast again.  I wanted a haunted house.  This seems like a good start:

Haunted House image

 

It may need to be toyed with a little.  I don’t want it to appear completely cartoon-like.

Twenty two more minutes on the exercise bike with the bloody headphones.  My ankles seem to be taking it better.

The office is quiet for the next couple of weeks, so I’m catching up on the Robert Jordan audiobooks.  Wow.  I think at one point, a three and a half hour stretch of audiobook actually covered two hours of events in the story.  But, this is why I’m taking advantage of the fact that someone else read it for me.

My formal night ended by giving a tarot reading.