So, I was watching RoboCop last night, and I noticed something a little peculiar. During the scenes where RoboCop is being tested before use, his prompt screen shows some MS-DOS like boot sequences. Here, check this out:

For those of you who don’t immediately see what I’m talking about, look at the lines on the screen ‘command.com’, ‘config.sys’, ‘bio.com’, ‘comspec.exe’, and ‘memory.dat’. Those are all very MS-DOS like files that run under typically Windows operating systems.

Seems appropriate, I suppose. Just think about it: “Police states of the future choose Microsoft!”

Some of you might not be aware of this; but I play the guitar. I’m not bad either. I’ve been playing for a really long time. My buddy, Austin, is an amazing drummer. Problem is, he lives in West Palm Beach, and I live in Orlando. What’s worse, he’s gonna move to San Deigo. That doesn’t make it easy to get together to play.

So, below I’ve attached a video of me playing the guitar. If you’re into Death Metal, and you also play, hit me up.

thx
[youtube U3K2Z1zAM-E 500]

And another video..

[youtube JM7yUfosT6k 500]

Last week, Melissa and I went on a vacation with her family to Swan Quarter, NC for her family reunion. Her family has a reunion every 2 years during the summer at some location in the US. The last time we went, the reunion was in St. George, Utah. Her family is pretty cool, so it’s usually a good time.

The Drive There.

Did I mention, we decided to rent an E-150 8 passenger van to get us up there? Well, that was the transportation idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time. There were 6 of us going up there from Melissa’s immediate family (parents, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and us). 

We left Thursday evening, around 6:30 from Altamonte Springs, heading to Savannah, GA for an overnight stay on the way up to NC. That was probably the most fun the drive was the entire time. We played the alphabet game on the way, and that’s always awesome (Thanks Molly for introducing me to it). 

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Part of my transition to independent web developer, is to put on a hat I’ve gotten used to letting someone else take care of. That would be the designer hat.

:/

I’ve done some massive modifications of some of the older sites I’ve built in the past. Those sites, oconnorandtaylor.com, socons.com, and tradeproconstructionservices.com (go ahead and catch your breath), have taken up a substantial part of my life in the last couple weeks.

There’s not much coding going on in those sites. I built them on Drupal, so most of my work revolved around configuring the CMS, and getting everything setup in remote subversion. The task consuming all my time though, is the designing.

When I design a site, especially one that I’m getting paid a nominal fee for, I usually base the design off of some template, or theme to one of the more popular CMS packages. I know Drupal pretty well, so It’s not too much to hack a Wordpress or Joomla theme and make it work for Drupal.

The interesting thing about all of this however, is my keen interest in Flash. It’s funny to me, since I’ve been pretty anti-flash for a while. Actionscript 3 really provides a framework that I can get comfy in. I’ve yet to actually put anything out there that uses some of the more OO type patterns (observer being a quite common implementation). I suspect I will in the coming months though.

Anyways, I’m not a designer, so I’d like any feedback on the sites mentioned above. Some of y’all are pretty good at that kind of thing, and I could use the advice.

Thanks in advance.

Dr. Doom.

Today is Independence day, and I’ve a few things to reflect on today. I’ve officially announced my departure from NFi Studios, thus going independent myself. So, today has a sort of meaning for me, in a personal light, that it hasn’t before.

That’s not to take away from the incredible significance of what July 4th is to everyone else. I suppose it’s easy to forget, or take for granted, the awesome opportunities we have in the United States. The bravery and commitment it must have taken, to violently break from from an oppressive government, is awe-inspiring.

But that’s exactly what is inspiring me to go ‘indie’ …

While I certainly don’t have to resort to war, or worry about death as a consequence of my own ‘liberation’, I do have a mortgage, and all the other associated bills that so many Americans struggle with every day. By leaving a steady job, I leave the security of steady income. The consequences of that, often feel like impending death. I’ve had a hard time sleeping lately. I wake up in the night, with pain in my chest, from the stress of it all.

But with consequence, comes the potential for great reward …

When the US declared it’s independence, and successfully fought to keep it, we opened the door of opportunity to become the most amazing country in modern times, possibly ever. Despite what you might hear on CNN tonight, or what the regulars on Digg like to say about this country, there truly is no better place to live in the world. The reason? Opportunity. There simply is no other government in the world that provides opportunity on a silver platter like this country. It may sound cliche, but if you can dream it, this country won’t stop you from doing it.

So, with my own departure from a stable job, at an up-and-coming startup, I’ve opened the door to a level of opportunities that I simply wouldn’t have otherwise. I don’t know what’s in store for me, but I do know I’ve met some amazing folks, who I hope to work with on projects that will change the world (hopefully).

I’ve no illusions about what this means for me. The rewards that may come my way, aren’t without stupendous amounts of work due to realize them. That’s fine with me. I’ve come from a family of working types, and I’ve done more than mine (and your) fair share of work. The difference between before, and now, is that I’ll be the one deciding how I’ll get it done.

I’ve leaned on a few folks for advice in making the decisions I’ve made lately. You know who you are, and I’ll never be able to repay all of you for all the help you’ve been to me.

Monday I stayed at home sick. I had a pretty serious stomach flu (and I still ain’t all better yet). It just so happens that was the day my house was struck by lightning. I was sitting down on the toilet when it happened (you can fill in the terrible details).

The way it happened, a bolt of lightning hit a tree behind my house. The saturated soil acted as a conductor and the voltage from the strike traveled to my irrigation system, causing severe damage to the irrigation system, as well as my cable and power.

The current blew up my sprinkler control panel, sending pieces of the device into my roof. I was just on the other side of the wall when that happened (in the bathroom, sick) , so the noise I heard was probably the scariest thing I’d ever heard.

I was screaming “OH SHIT!”

How ironic …..

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