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Warren Shea

Archive for April, 2012

Dawson’s Creek: Quotes and thoughts

Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 2:13 am

I recently rewatched Dawson’s Creek. There are a few quotes that I really liked throughout the series. I’ve added them below…

Joey: So what is the best ending in all of literature? Don’t say Ulysses. Everyone says Ulysses.

Professor David Wilder: That’s easy. Sentimental education by Flaubert.

Joey: And what happens?

Professor David Wilder: Nothing, really. Just two old friends sitting around remembering the best thing that never happened to them.

Joey: How do you remember something that never happened?

Professor David Wilder: Fondly. You see, Flaubert believed that anticipation was the purest form of pleasure… and the most reliable. And that while the things that actually happen to you would invariable disappoint, the things that never happened to you would never dim. Never fade. They would always be engraved in your heart with a sort of sweet sadness.

Lily: What’s a soulmate?

Dawson: It’s like a best friend but more. It’s the one person in the world that knows you better than anyone else. Someone who makes you a better person. Actually they don’t make you a better person, you do that yourself because they inspire you. A soulmate is someone who you carry with you forever. It’s the one person who knew you and accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did or when no one else would. And no matter what happens you’ll always love them and nothing can ever change that.

Note that Lily is a small girl. What an obvious writer’s set up to…explain what their interpretation of a soulmate is!

Joey: Stay away from the life and death of it all.

Dawson: It’s interesting how people use that expression, ‘life and death’. As if to imply that life is the opposite of death, but birth is the opposite of death… life, has no opposite.

This was one of the most interesting quotes that caught my attention. The opposite of death would be birth.. So…what is life’s opposite? There are an infinite number of opposites. So why can’t I think of an opposite for life? Isn’t it a spectacular thing that life has no opposite? The life is just so…complex that there would never be anything comparably equal?

.
.
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I think one of the reasons I like these dramas is (if they have) good writers. That someone more intelligent and philosophical can give me something to think about, that I haven’t considered. That they could word things so perfectly in that they make sense, without being inhuman. I really liked the definition of soulmate above. That definition, in itself, inspires me because while I don’t believe in soulmates…I believe in that definition. Does that make sense?

Site Updates: warrenshea.com & IE8

Thursday, April 26th, 2012 at 2:02 pm

warrenshea.com uses HTML5, which isn’t supported by IE8. Which is unfortunate because IE8 is used pretty frequently.

I didn’t wanna do another stylesheet/javascript and update both…so I used one of my favorite things: my proxy.php file

This is my default.php for warrenshea.com. Unfortunately, I did have to do a big IF statement but that’s okay because this code never changes. So what it does is check it it’s IE8 (ie. doesn’t support HTML5), and then changes some of the tags: <header> to <div id=”header”>. I’ll likely change the IF statement to something better later…but that’s not the point of this post.

<?php
$srvr_http_user_agent = $_SERVER[‘HTTP_USER_AGENT’];
if ((stristr($srvr_http_user_agent,”MSIE 6.0″) == true) ||
  (stristr($srvr_http_user_agent,”MSIE 7.0″) == true) ||
  (stristr($srvr_http_user_agent,”MSIE 8.0″) == true)) {?>
<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”common/proxy.php?url=stylesheet.css&type=css”>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id=”header”>
      <div id=”nav”>
        <ul id=”nav-text”></ul>
        <ul id=”nav-background”></ul>
      </div>
      .
      .
    <script src=”common/proxy.php?url=scripts.js&type=js”></script>
  </body>
</html><?php } else { ?><!doctype html>
<html lang=”en-us”>
  <head>
    <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”common/stylesheet.css”>
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <nav>
        <ul id=”nav-text”></ul>
        <ul id=”nav-background”></ul>
      </nav>
    .
    .
    <script src=”common/scripts.js”></script>
  </body>
</html><?php } ?>

Doing this gets rid of some HTML5 tags but the CSS and JavaScript/jQuery still reference the HTML5 tags. So I like to use my proxy.php, which loads a URL, and gives me the option to manipulate it.
FYI – For XML, I use it for my twitter XML (I used to have it done through JavaScript but I found that it hindered load time).

<?php header(“Expires:Mon, 31 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT”); ?>
<?php
$page_contents = file_get_contents($_GET[“url”]);
if ($_GET[“type”] == “css”) {
  header(“Content-type: text/css”);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“header”,”#header”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“##header”,”#header”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“footer”,”#footer”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“##footer”,”#footer”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“content-#footer”,”content-footer”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“nav”,”#nav”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“##nav-text”,”#nav-text”,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(“##nav-background”,”#nav-background”,$page_contents);  
} else if ($_GET[“type”] == “js”) {
  header(“Content-type: application/javascript”);
  $page_contents = str_replace(‘$(“header”)’,’$(“#header”)’,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(‘$(“nav”)’,’$(“#nav”)’,$page_contents);
  $page_contents = str_replace(‘$(“footer”)’,’$(“#footer”)’,$page_contents);
} else if ($_GET[“type”] = “xml”) {
  header(“Content-type: text/xml”);
}
echo $page_contents;
?>

Yes, it’s very hacky and likely not efficient but it does the job.
It changes:
http://warrenshea.com/common/stylesheet.css (HTML5 good) to
http://warrenshea.com/common/proxy.php?url=stylesheet.css&type=css (HTML5 bad)
and
http://warrenshea.com/common/scripts.js (HTML5 good) to
http://warrenshea.com/common/proxy.php?url=scripts.js&type=js (HTML5 bad)
but I only have to edit one file and it’ll make the non-HTML5 version automatically. Sweet.

Anyways, I thought this was worth sharing. Someone might find this technique useful.

Accomplishments – April.8 2012 Edition

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 1:32 am

Shows / Movies
The Walking Dead S1-S2 – Complete
Dawson’s Creek S1-S6 – Complete
Titanic…x2…one 3D, one not – Complete
Scott Pilgrim [Rewatched] – Complete
Battle Royale [Rewatched] – Complete
Currently watching: Glee, Young Justice, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, House, Thundercats, Avengers – Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – In Progress

Books & Manga & Comics
The Art of Racing in the Rain p150/310 – In Progress

worldofwarren.com / warrenshea.com / secretproject [to be renamed]
worldofwarren.com – cleaned up a lot of content
worldofwarren.com – updated JavaScript libraries
warrenshea.com – almost finished….1 more thing to do
warrenshea.com – updated JavaScript libraries

Gaming
Tiny Tower – Level 130

Web Development and Design

Other

Notes
I know this post is…9 days late. SO WHAT. No, the truth is that I wanted to wait until my vacation was over so I could list more accomplishments. Also, my focus during my vacation was web development.

What If: Prince of Tennis: Nationals

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 3:29 pm

I’m re-watching Prince of Tennis: Nationals OVAs right now. As I was falling asleep last night, I let my mind wander…what if the other Nationals teams played each other? Now, it’s complicated to switch the orders around so to be fair, I left all the orders the same. Also, for Shitenhouji, I put Oshitari back in over Chitose cuz Chitose is a single’s player so having Chitose and Zaizen as a double group would be weird. Anyways, this is how it all went down (in my head).

Hyotei VS Shitenhouji

S3 – Oshitari VS Shiraishi
Winner: Shiraishi
Shiraishi’s good enough to beat Fuji Shusuke. He’s more than good enough to beat Oshitari.

D2 – Hiyoshi & Mukahi VS Koharu & Yuuji
Winner: Hiyoshi & Mukahi
Hiyoshi & Mukahi are far too serious to fall/be caught up in Koharu & Yuuji’s pace.

S2 – Kabaji VS Ishida
Winner: Ishida
Kabaji would try to copy Ishida’s hadokyu…which is basically one move, with strength variations. But Ishida’s stronger than Kabaji. This would be like Ishida VS Kawamura but without Kawamura’s drama and miracle ball.

D1 – Shishido & Ohtori VS Zaizen & Oshitari
Winner: Zaizen & Oshitari
Is Shishido & Ohtori that good? Shishido has no real skill/moves. Ohtori has a fast serve…which I bet the genius Zaizen and the Speed star Oshitari could handle that no problem.

S2 – Atobe VS Toyama
Winner: Atobe
Toyama can return any ball that Echizen can hit. But even Echizen…Sanada, or anyone can’t hit Atobe’s World of Ice. But Toyama can’t do the Tezuka Zone. Basically, I’m saying that Toyama isn’t smart enough to beat Atobe’s World of Ice.

Overall Winner: Shitenhouji


Rikkaidai VS Shitenhouji

S3 – Sanada VS Shiraishi
Winner: Sanada
I won’t lie. Sanada’s pretty damn strong. Regardless of how Shiraishi’s bible plays, I don’t think he can defends against the FuuRinKaInZanRai.

D2 – Kirihara & Yanagi VS Koharu & Yuuji
Winner: Kirihara & Yanagi
Yanagi and Kirihara are…pretty damn strong. Each of them is individually strong. I don’t think Koharu & Yuuji have a chance.

S2 – Niou VS Ishida
Winner: Niou
This one’s tricky because Ishida is SO powerful. But Niou’s an ingenious trickster. He’s also the best copy person in Prince of Tennis (beating Kabaji, and Wakato). I’m sure Niou would find a way to win.

D1 – Marui & Kuwahara VS Zaizen & Oshitari
Winner: Marui & Kuwahara
This is the trickiest of all matches because I don’t know either side too well. Simply based on who Rikkaidai and the rest of their team is, I’ll give this to Rikkaidai. Even if Marui & Kuwahara lost, it doesn’t change the rest of the outcome.

S1 – Yukimura VS Toyama
Winner: Yukimura
Not even close. Yukimura.

Overall Winner: Rikkaidai


Hyotei VS Rikkaidai

S3 – Oshitari VS Sanada
Winner: Sanada
Sanada’s on a whole other level.

D2 – Hiyoshi & Mukahi VS Kirihara & Yanagi
Winner: Kirihara & Yanagi
Kirihara & Yanagi are on a whole other level

S2 – Kabaji VS Niou
Winner: Niou
Copy Genius matchup. Except Niou is WAY better in terms of technique. Also, he can copy anyone whereas Kabaji can only copy the guy he’s playing, generally.

D1 – Shishido & Ohtori VS Marui & Kuwahara
Winner: Marui & Kuwahara
Marui & Kuwahara are on a whole other level.

S1 – Atobe VS Yukimura
Winner: Yukimura
Yukimura is on a whole other level.

Notice the trend? Overall Winner: Rikkaidai


So basically it stands that Rikkaidai is #1. Shitenhouji comes in #2. And Hyotei comes in #3.
Just like the real anime!

It was nice spending 3 hours making a blog post whose conclusion was that predictable.

Site Updates: Content Review of worldofwarren.com

Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 2:31 am

As I finish warrenshea.com (seriously, there’s only one more thing to do), I realize that my professional site links to my personal, unprofessional site and that I might need to clean it up a bit. As such, I’ve done a slight content overhaul of worldofwarren.com.

Actually, to be fair, I only:
Removed content from About Me. And added that snazzy picture of me back
Edited Hobbies
Edited Projects

I didn’t touch the Blog, Gallery, Resume (warrenshea.com), or Links.

I’m contemplating on switching my warrenshea twitter to worldofwarren and having warrenshea more professional, for the twitter on my professional site. Or maybe removing the twitter portion from warrenshea.com. I don’t know yet…