It's surprising how many of these hold true for me

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

- I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

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- I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

- How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

- Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

- There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

- I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

- That’s enough, Nickelback.

Recently, George updated his site. I think it looks pretty good. His previous version of the site wasn't too bad at all but it had a few small display issues.

Also related to George's update, I released version 2.4 of ReedGal. This version brings a few nice additions including making it easier to integrate the gallery into a pre-existing layout. George's gallery and Mike Aubin's gallery are good examples of how it looks when integrated. I will say that Mike's gallery reminds me that I need to add a pagination style setup for the gallery so all images aren't on one page.

The gallery still has some ways to go, adding some sort of authentication for the "admin" page, etc, but I'm pretty happy with how it is currently working right now.

Check out the ReedGal page or go directly to the SourceForge page.

Some New Year's Resolutions (that are bound to be ignored like everyone else)

• Stop procrastinating and earn my CCNA
• Actually continue working out every week instead of stopping and starting 20 times a year
• Possibly look into new job opportunities more toward the south (I'm not a cold weather kind of guy and wouldn't mind changing things up a bit)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure I'll add a few on by the end of tonight.

Teek mentioned his granparents would likely allow a few of us to stay at their place in the city for free, which would be awesome. So now we're planning a trip to out to Amsterdam for sometime in late March, early April. I know it is going to be a tad pricey but I really think it'll be well worth it and an awesome experience.

So yeah, that's the plan. Should be fun if we follow through with it. Updates to come in the near future.

Note: The Gallery is back up. Yay...

I am a tad disappointed in the bird picture. The shot could have been a lot better but the lighting was pretty crappy, I wasn't really ready for it, and I didn't really mess with the settings enough on the camera. Next time I'm in Knoxville, I hope to grab a better shot.

This was also the first design that I modified on my home server first so that I knew exactly what was going to happen when I implemented it. It was a lot easier then the previous design where I was editing in notepad, uploading, and refreshing to see if the desired effect took hold.

If you notice any issues, definitely email me. I've been trying to check everything but you just never know.

Note: I am aware that the site doesn't display perfectly in Inter Explorer 6. The sidebar shows itself below the body. I think I know why but I don't care enough to fix it. IE7+, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are currently supported

Before I left for TN, I decided that the best place for my car was the parking lot at work. It would be pretty safe from vandals as the place has security almost 24/7. But I did recognize that it could snow and I was not there to move the car for the plows. I decided that I would leave the key in my locker at work and ask a friend, Jason Lomba, to move the car if needed. This may have been a mistake.

When I got back from TN, Brian Roy had offered to pick me up. Pretty cool as otherwise I would have just grabbed a taxi. When we got to the parking lot, I noticed my car was in a different spot and the plows had packed me in pretty good. I chalked up the new parking space to having to move the car for the plowing, nothing weird.

I end up grabbing a shovel from work and starting to shovel out the front of my car. Brian suggested starting the car up just to get it warm. Not a bad idea, I thought. I hop over to the driver's side and notice 4 of my friends, Joe Webster, Jason Lomba, Chris Lomba, and Jim Stergiou, hiding behind the car. I immediately knew something was up. I looked in the car and saw that my car had been completely filled with packing peanuts.

Now when I say "filled with packing peanuts," maybe you're thinking "must have filled up the seats and floor." Not sir/madam, that is not really what I meant. The peanuts filled up the entire car and were put in place through the sunroof of the vehicle.

A couple things to note:

1. Joe spent $120+ on biodegradable packing peanuts.
2. My boss, boss's boss, and boss's boss's boss were all aware of the prank. They were concerned I'd be upset. I definitely was not.
3. The name Operation Blockhead came from George Simon's son. I went to a BBQ at George's and his son asked him "why does he have such a block head," referring to me. Yup...
4. The peanuts start to biodegrade as soon as water is introduced. This causes them to get really slick and stick to the bottom of shoes. They were really annoying to get off.
5. I had to drive around for a while, looking for a gas station with the large nose vacuum hoses and not the narrow, easy to clog noses.

I must say, it was an interesting experience. Check out the pictures after the break. (Higher quality pictures will be uploaded later this week)

The car prior to peanuting

Truckload of peanuts

Teek filling up balloons for to fill in spaces in the car

Teek and Dan filling up ballons

Teek and Dan filling up the car

The car filled with peanuts

Grace can't believe it

This prank is Jim Approved

George, Joe, Dan, and Teek

The GLI waiting for its owner

Brian Stewart sacrificing himself for video of the event

Me realizing what's going on

It was pretty funny

That's a lot of packing peanuts

More peanuts

In front of my car

Ready to drive?

Ryan Approved

Passenger side airbags?

I thought donuts with all windows down would clear them out...
It didn't work

So, what's so great about the script? Well, I'm actually proud of making it myself. The script has a few key features:

• Just upload a new directory to a defined image_gallery directory and it'll automatically be displayed on the gallery page
• The icon for each album is automatic. It uses the icon.png file that is placed in the directory with the new images
• The "rebuild script" will create the thumbnails for each album
• The "rebuild script" will also extract the exif data from the images (currently, only date, title, description, camera type (not displayed), and apeture (not displayed)
• If no exif data, the filename is used as the title of the image

Unfortunately, there are some minor "limitations" to how I'm doing things but I don't think they're a problem

• Limited to jpg files. This is more by design and wouldn't be too tough to fix
• Using the GD library to create the thumbnails takes a bit of time. It took about a minute to complete the thumbnail/exif-file creation. Unfortunately, php by default will stop a script from running after 30 seconds. An easy fix if you have access to the php configuration file but not all hosts will allow modification of it
• The album icon is not created automatically. I'm considering a way to do this but it would probably be the toughest part of the script
• The sorting of the images and albums is done by filename. I could probably find a different way to sort but I like the current method. I leave my images with their default names (DSC_0001.jpg, DSC_0002.jpg, etc) and the album folder names always start with the date (20091021 - Something).

Who knows if I'll put the script online for others to use? It was mostly just created from boredom. I'll have to think about it.

Check Out The Gallery

More updates to come in the near future, I would hope. Been pretty busy with a few projects at work and home so sorry for the lack of updates.