Here's something fun for you Java programmers out there, all one of you.
TopCoder runs a bunch of programming challenges, and right now, Oracle TechNet is running one there. The language, naturally, is Java, and the practice rooms are open. Simply go to the Oracle events page, sign up for a free account (if you don't have one), and enter the practice rooms. Challenge starts on Wednesday, so get some practice in. In practice room one, I scored 214 on the first challenge (max 250) and 326 on the second (max 500, I suck).
So go give it a shot and prove that you are more 1337 then me.

Weekend Plans
Free movie weekends are almost always a good thing. The theater is only a few miles from where I live now, so I could ride my bike there. Sounds like a nice theater, and the lineup of movies playing is impressive. Between that and the lounge serving drinks and meals, it sounds like a winner to me, but I am in the niche market that goes to way too many movies in a month. I hope it does take off so I don't have to drive to Scotsdale when I want to see a good movie. Speaking of good movies, I went to see The Good Girl this week, and was quite impressed. Jennifer Aniston showed some real talent in the film. I would recommend it.

I went to Arby's for lunch today, down Dunlap on 43rd Ave. Across the street was a church of some sort, I couldn't see the sign from the drive-thru. What caught my attention, though, was the ringing of the bells. I don't know why, but church bells always sound good to me. And for a minute I was caught up in the whole church bell moment, almost wishing I was religous. I caught myself wondering what it would be like to belong to something much bigger then myself. Something with a meaning, a purpose. Then I got my roast-beast sandwitch and went back to work.

I feel slacktacular today. I'm tired and in a crappy mood. I back hurts, for some reason and I have a headache. And the batteries are dying in my walkman. And I just can't get myself motivated to work on the project I am working on at any real speed. blah.
So, what are everyone's feelings on online dating services, a la 'match.com'. Any opinions, experiences, etc?
Plus, I have a couple of ideas brewing in my head, and when I get them all sorted out, I will have to tell someone about them.

A good spam filter means realizing just how much mail you don't get.

Yet another uneventful weekend. Nothing much to report, as I didn't do much, but here goes.
1) Family: Called the mother this weekend to catch up on thing family. My uncle tipped a four-wheeler over into a ditch, and laid there for 4 hours until someone noticed. I guess he couldn't feel his legs or his one arm. My dad fell down and hurt his knee a little. Two of my nieces have jobs. My mom sent another manuscript to editors.
2) Reads: Strangers in Paradise. If you don't read comic books, then you should read this. And if you do read comics and haven't read this, then shame on you. Plus, Herobear and the Kid. That stuff is just cool.

16
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff
that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the
largest the same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and
hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest
joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin
leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger,
Buckeye;
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen
off Newfoundland,
At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and
tacking,
At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the
Texan ranch,
Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving
their big proportions,)
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands
and welcome to drink and meat,
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,
A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,
Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.

(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,
The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their
place,
The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.)

decisions, decisions...
do I, after work, run on out and get Fellowship of the Ring or, do I wait until November for the super-duper platinum smack-my-ass-and-call-me-shirley edition

Just when you thought it was safe to design web pages....
XHTML 2.0 first public draft.
Many interesting changes, such as the removal of the <img> tag in favor of the <object> tab

So I haven't been able to sleep lately (what else is new). I suppose I should really stop making soap. And because of this, I have been testing methods of getting to sleep. Heavy drinking, exercise, and sleeping pills. Now, if I don't have to get up the next morning, drinking seems to provide a pretty good sleep. Sleeping pills provide the best sleep, so far, but I always have freaky dreams. Nothing I can remember, but I wake up with vague images and a 'woah, that was freaky' feeling. Exercise doesn't seem to do it for me. How do you get to sleep?

Found in a Usenet discussion of Y2K bugs from 1985:
"In 1978, when I was working in banking, I
ran across a curious date storage format. It seems that transaction
dates were coded with the last digit of the year in one nibble, the
month in hex in the next, and the date (in packed decimal) in the next
two. I asked one of the more senior systems analysts about this and
she informed me that when the record was originally designed, only the
month and day (in packed decimal) had been included. This caused
sorting problems on statements printed in January, because checks
written in the December of the previous year would sort after checks
written in January of the current. So the format had been modified to
the one I just described.

"Good grief!" said I. "What happens in January of 1980?" She turned
pale and admitted she had considered that before but managed to put it
out of her mind. "So why not go ahead and fix it now?" I asked.

She pointed out that fixing it would require expanding the demand
deposit master record format, a mammoth undertaking. About a billion
COBOL programs would have to be recompiled. At this shop we were still
on cards and a rush compile took about a week. "You want to do that?"
she inquired. This time I turned pale. We considered our options,
knowing that one or the other of us would be called upon to fix the
problem. And you know what we did?

First, I modified the daily demand deposit program with code that
checked for the date and about mid-1979 started printed warnings on the
console of what would happen come new year. Then the systems analyst
and I got new jobs. This is known as stepwise interactive development."

The hardest thing about not smoking is the not smoking. Being able to get up and walk outside for a smoke when stuck on a problem or when having trouble getting things moving is a nice thing. Now, going outside to clear my head feels like I am goofing off.