I haven't been to a movie theater since I was dragged against my will to see Gladiator. Before that I was drug against my will to see Star Wars:EP1 and Happily Ever After. I don't give money to cartels, err, the MPAA if I can help it.

But tonight, I went to see S.o.a.P.

IT WAS MOTHERFARKING AWESOME!!!

No spoilers, but I will say, it was twice as good as I expected, and I figured it'd be good. The only complaints I have are:
      1. It starts REALLY SLOWLY.
      2. They never show the actual killing the witness saw, but show every other gruesome death.
      3. The only death I coulda done without is the guy who gets trampled to death.

Those are just little things, over all the movies was great. I give it 4 out of 5 snakes up!

-Ab

ps. don't bother staying for the video for the theme sone afterwards. It's awful. The highlite is a few, slight "side of boob" shots of the emaciated female in the band who looks like an anorexic Courtney Love in the middle of a heroin bender.

Ok, thanks to those that responded. I'm using Eclipse right now and following the "Thinking In Java" book (just finished chapter 2.

Some observations so far:

• Is there any difference in Syntax from C++? I mean besides the obvious as Java lacks pointer notation (so no *p references), but from what I've seen so far, the syntax is exactly the same as C++, except that it's case sensative.

• One thing frustrates me to no end in Eclipse: Whenever I type out an object, class, or method and get to the "." to call something else inside it, it pops up all possible matches. This I like, but is it possible to change it so that when the match I want is the first in the list that I can hit "tab" instead of "enter" to select it. Just a pet peeve as all of the IDEs I used for my other languages used the tab button and it's getting a bit frustrating :)

  ***UPDATE***
  Figured it out. Window-> Preferences-> General-> Editors-> Keys-> Edit-> Word Completion-> Add "Tab"

• Here is my first bit of code from scratch:

  /* Thinking in Java 3rd ed. r4.0
  * Chapter 2 Exercise 5
  *
  * Write a program that includes and calls the storage( )
  * method defined as a code fragment in this chapter.
  *
  * Fragment:
  * 1. int storage(String s) {
  * return s.length() * 2;
  * }
  *
  * StorageTest.java by Abmoraz
  */

  class StorageSize {
  /* A string requires 2 bytes for every character.
  * StorageSize.storage() returns this value.
  */
      int storage (String s) {
              return s.length() * 2;
      }
  }

  public class StorageTest {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          StorageSize S = new StorageSize();
          String str = new String("ThinkingInJava");
          System.out.println("The string: ");
          System.out.println(" " + str);
          System.out.print("requires ");
          System.out.print(S.storage(str));
          System.out.println(" bytes of storage.");
          return;
      }
  }

-Ab

Ok, I'm taking the plunge. I'm leaving comfortable box that is C++ and VB and am going to try and learn JAVA.

My questions are:

      1. Where do I start? Keep in mind that I have *0* budget. I can't even buy a book, more or less an expensive IDE. Are there free things available (like F/OSS)? I prefer Windows environment, but also have a Debian box at home that's kinda beat up. Even if the stuff isn't free, recommend it anyways. I might be able to come up with the ability to get it.

      2. I'm a fairly advanced programmer already. I understand things like sorts, searches, OOP, loops, decision statements, stacks, queues, linked lists, variable types, pointers, etc. I'm not looking for a void main() {printf("hello world!/n");} type stuff. Some of those that played GalaxisOnline with us (planet FSoF RULED!) have seen some of my programming ability and level with the psuedo-browser I integrated into Excel.

      3. My main goal is to take a few of the games I wrote in VB and recreate them in JAVA. This is mainly just to show my different programming skills. I.e.: This is how I handle user input. This is how I call a database. This is how I move sprites. etc...

My big problem is that I will have been un(der)employed for a year on friday. I've gone on several interviews but most of my skills are outdated (VB6, and such) and I need to update.

Thanks for any help.

-Ab

I fail to see the big deal about showing an image of Mohammed on South Park. They've pictured him before standing next to Jesus. He can even shoot fire out of his hands. How cool is that! All Jesus could do was build a mold for a giant John Wilkes Booth.

Noone complained then. Hypocracy is great, no?

-Ab

ps. if you want to see the new image of Mohammed, he's visible in the opening credits/sequence of "The Return of Chef" and "Smug Alert!". They've since editted him out. Anyone that's got them TiVo'd/MythTV'd can catch it.

Fire

GLUTEN ... FREE ... BEER

-Ab

A shock to the system. Someone I know was arrested today for brutally bludgeoning a man to death. (link 1 and link 2) I had played poker with him quite regularly. He was a short tempered man whom many of us started trying to avoid. He was a coke-head* and frequently played when severely drunk. I have seen him lose over $140 in a single sitting when we were playing $20 max buy-in. I disliked playing with the man so much that I've skipped a few games just cause I knew he'd be there. The last time we played, I was up $70 for the night (most won from him) and he started gunning for me. It was so bad that if he was in the hand, I folded automatically cause I didn't want to deal with him, even if he limped into my big blind.

He was a manager at one of the nicer bar/restaurants, but was recently fired (2 weeks ago) for doing coke** on the job. The bar/restaurant crowd here is rather close knit. For the most part, we all know each other and get along. It's almost like a fraternity of sorts. When you walk into another person's place, you get better treatment (extra drinks, free stuff, no cover, discounts, etc...) because you're part of "the bar crowd" (phrase coined by a friend of mine that owns a bar in town). To see something like this happen is really ... trying to find the word ... disconcerting. It's not the word I'm looking for, but it's close enough. Especially considering that another of our own died 2 weeks ago after being stabbed in the heart while trying to break up a fight.

There are others that do coke (I do not), but none seemed anywhere near the problems that Andy had. If you read the second article, "Dan" (someone I play poker with much more often and talk to more regularly) was quoted as saying that Andy never raged or blacked out. This HAS to be a pure P.R. move on his part, as he's been there when we had to kick Andy out before.

As for 'Sweet', I think I might have met him before, but I can't be sure. I don't want to speculate because if it is who I think it might be, I couldn't even ID him if I wanted to. After reading the description, I think the 3 of us (me, Dan, and Andy) played poker at his place this summer. I thought his name was Tony, or Anthony, or something to that nature. I don't believe he was ever called 'Sweet' once, but the description fits and he was the one that introduced us to Andy.

As for the dead guy... never met him or heard of him. Don't even think he was part of the poker or bar/restaurant crowd.

All in all, this REEKS of a cocaine deal gone bad. I'm glad I seperated any ties I had with him about 2 months ago. I don't want to have anything to do with this.

-Ab

* I have never seen him actually snort. Just what I've been told by friends.
** Again, just hearsay through the bar/resaurant grapevine.

*****************UPDATE***************
After reading the article in today's paper, I realized I had played poker with the guy who was killed.

Watch this.

Here is the original (linky linky)

-Ab

Bye-Bye French-Canadian Guy

Long, long time ago
I can still remember
For a dollar you could sit real high
I knew if we got our chance
We could make Lord Stanley dance
If maybe we could draft a big French guy
For 16 years we sat and shivered
In one draft pick it was delivered
Good news on the doorstep, the Stanley Cup just one step
I can't remember if I cried when I read about that big French guy
Something touched me deep inside
The day Lemieux retired

Chorus:
Bye Bye French-Canadian guy
Drive your beamer to the Igloo past the parking lot guy
And vendor boys will sell you their I.C. Light
But this will be the day the Pens die
This will be the day the Pens die

Do you hate a scoreless tie?
And do you have faith in Stan and Guy
When they're on the radio?
And do you believe in the breakout pass
Do his hattricks knock you on your ass
And can you teach me how to skate real fast
Well we know his back is pretty sore
And he's not a young guy anymore
When he kicks off the skates
He leaves us second rate
We were knockin on the basement floor
When we drafted him in '84
How in the world can we endure
The day Lemieux retired

Chorus
Bye Bye French-Canadian guy
Drive your beamer to the Igloo past the parking lot guy
And vendor boys will sell you their I.C. Light
But this will be the day the Pens die
This will be the day the Pens die

I met Grant Fuhr of the St. Louis Blues
And I asked him for some happy news
He said Mario has gone away
And I know if I had my chance
And I sounded like I came from France
Maybe they just might let me play
But coach saw me and he said: No, Not, Never
My boss said: Your pay I'll sever
I sit and watch the playoffs
KNOWING FLYERS ARE ALL JAG-OFFS!
And the 3 men I admire most:
Stan and Guy and Myron Cope
Skipped right by with my remote
The day Lemieux retired

Chorus
Bye Bye French-Canadian guy
Drive your beamer to the Igloo past the parking lot guy
And vendor boys will sell you their I.C. Light
But this will be the day the Pens die
This will be the day the Pens die

We'll miss ya, Mario.

-Ab

In the vein of Super Mario and the Acapella medly ...

I give you Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!

-Ab

****UPDATE****
Link is fixed. That's what I get for trying to hot-link directly to the media file.