In response to Kent (view post):

I'm finding it very hard to keep track of things. I've subscribed to the "main" feed, and I get about 100+ messages a day that I normally just delete due to people just wanting to know why something is the way it is. In reality, I just wanted to get a feed of when new videos are posted...maybe I should narrow the feed down? Oh well, I've not really gotten around to it and it doesn't bother me to hit Ctrl-D 5-10 times an hour.

I guess the major thing that I would like changed, is if Channel9 did start posting a CommentsRSS feed, and then have NewsGator be able to grab those too. But, until either of those happen I guess its just very little surfing to & reading actual complaints/rants on Channel9 and waiting for those new videos to come across.

I just realized today that my home server (which hosts Vault for me) has been up and running for quite some time. In fact, I believe it has been up and running as long as I've moved into my latest apartment (middle of February). Going under this assumption, I checked it out with a little tool called "uptime" from Microsoft, and I was right...its been up and running for 53 days and counting. Nice! I don't think I've ever had a server (even at work) be up this long without needing a reboot. And yes - it is updated with all the latest security updates.

Preface: This post is in no way trashing or slandering the men and women that serve our country. I have great respect for those men and women serving our country during these frivolous times. It is, however, slandering the media and their recent attempts of providing "the best news around."

This morning, I woke up to do my morning routine - check email, get updated on blogs, take shower, etc.  During which, I usually have the TV set to the Today Show on NBC.  Unlike every other day, today I was enraged on what I heard. No, it wasn't a touchy story they were covering, but it was just the overall content of a interview with a family member of a man who was killed in the fighting in Iraq. As I'm listening to it, my mind starts to crank out hateful messages towards the media in these dire times. I started thinking to myself, why am I even watching this current story, why does anyone? My thoughts then shifted to completely hating NBC at that current moment as Matt Lauer probed more and more personal information out of this man, who just lost his brother, all because "it makes good news."

Why must the media cover stories like this? Why must they single out individuals who have just lost family members.  I'm sure these family members want to get their story told, however, bringing them on national television the day after their relative died is not the way to do it. Let the families grieve, let them go through the normal process that any other person in this world would go through when loosing someone they love. Why should the media make their loss "special" just because they died in combat? Do you even realize that there has been approximately 600 US men and women that have died in battle in Iraq since we invaded? Why must the media choose one person or family to "portray", when there are so many others out there that have experienced the same situation.  In reality, I don't care about these stories. Let the families grieve and get their stories published in books.  Maybe then I'll care and read them...but I don't want my morning slammed with sorrowful stories that have no relevance to me.

I further extend my hatred towards the media circling around Princess Diana and Kurt Cobain.  I have nearly the same feelings towards both of these stories as I do above.  I find it absurd that the media still digs up pointless information about both of these great individuals years after their deaths.  The whole fact that every year on (or around) Kurt Cobain's date that he passed, the media (especially on MTV) hosts "specials" concerning his life/death/music.  I mean come on, the man has been dead for 10 years now, let him rest in peace. Then, there are the issues with the media constantly spouting more and more "theories" on what actually happened to Princess Diana the night she died. I remember watching (again) the Today Show awhile back, on how there were "new, never undisclosed tapes" of conversations with Princess Diana.  Again, I state... so what, let her rest in peace.

So, why am I so adament about these issues? Well, it just drives me insane on how impersonal the media is. They don't care about the person, sure it may "seem" like that when they do a story, but in reality, they're just looking for the "best story." If that involves bringing on someone who has just lost a family member just the day before, so be it...its good news, right? I'm just waiting for the day when the media fails, when it starts reporting non-biased news, or even when they report news that I give a damn about. But, I think it'll be a cold day in hell before that even happens.

Okay, okay...I know Strongbad isn't real, and could never make an appearance anywhere (well short of a costume)...but I met the real life version at Walmart this eve.  This story is true, it happened in front of me and my girlfriend, and in no way do I have any relation to HomeStarRunner.

So, at Walmart, this tall lanky old geezer was checking us out.  Why he wasn't at home in bed is beyond me, but sure enough, he was working late and had an interesting way of entertaining himself.  Normally when an item gets scanned you hear a "boop" noise (and if you've never heard this, then open your ears next time!), and this noise plays a major role in the story.  So, here it is...the real life Strongbad story:

Strongbad: "Hey there, umm...alright, lets see there...doo doo doo, what ya got there"
Me: "Hi"
Strongbad: "Boop"
Strongbad: "Boop"
Strongbad: "Ohh, another one...Boop"
Strongbad: "This makes three...Boop"
Strongbad: "Boop"
Strongbad: "Okay, how about $17.25"
Me: "Umm, how about we shoot for $15?"
Strongbad: (chuckles, then turns towards the register - randomly points to some gift cards hanging there and mumbled) "Looky here, got some gift card for babies"
Strongbad: (still mumbling) "They got duckies on them...mmhmmhmm...thats weird"
Me: "Huh"
Strongbad: (still mumbling complete nonsese)
Me: "...Thanks..." (and I walk away astranged)

So yeah, if you improvise Strongbad's voice for whatever the Walmart man said, you'd get a good representation of why me and my girl friend laughed for about 10 min. all the way home.  I think they're hiring anyone at Walmart thesedays, even cartoon characters.

If anyone would ask me that question right now, I would respond with "I'm insanely bored."  But here I am, sitting at work, doing nothing. Not because I choose to do so, but because there's just nothing to do. Normally I have some bit of a programming project I can work on, like WebDeploy or Resizer, but recently I've come across no more items to add into these.  Well, I'm sure Resizer could be beefed up a bit, I just don't feel like it right now.

So - here I am, writing a blog entry about what I do when I'm bored. Well, most of us would say "I program when I have free time"...sure, so do I...but like I already said, I don't have much to program right now. 

Then, there's the ever allusive surfing the internet.  Ohh, what I wouldn't give to see a "You've reached the end of the internet, please turn around" webpage.  Maybe I should create one?

Don't we forget another time waster at work, getting away from your desk and wander around the office aimlessly.  I never realized how relaxing an aimless walk was.

So - what do you do when you're bored out of you're mind?

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As a side note, since BlogJet currently doesn't have spell checking, I generally use Dictionary.com to check those iffy words.  So, when checking a few out on this post, I noticed that http://www.dictionary.com doesn't point directly to the "search & retrieve" page anymore.  Nooo, instead I have to go to http://dictionary.reference.com. You realize how much harder & longer that takes to type?
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Here comes the obligatory 100th post -- 'This is #100! Its been a long journey to get to this point.'

Okay, since that was cheesy as hell, I guess I should fill the rest of the post with an obligatory canned plug: Channel9 is live!

One of my goals this year, is to earn my MCSD for .NET, however training in the Central IL area is very spotty, and damn near impossible to get.  I recently signed up for 2710: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures through Levi, Ray, & Shoup (LRS), and I was just informed today that my class had been cancelled due to the lack of interest.  What am I? Am I not interested?

This just reminds me of when a co-worker went through LRS earlier this year for some training, and he got a one-on-one training course only because they forgot to cancel the class.  Lucky him, I guess...but still, why do they need to cancel classes when you have at least 1 interested person trying to further educate themselves.  If you started a public school, and only had 1 kid, would you turn them away because you're class wasn't large enough? No, because that kid would not get the education he or she needs.  Why is this any different?

I'm really not pleased with LRS right now about this, and as such I may have to go to Peoria or Chicago to actually get my training...at least in Chicago they assure you're class won't get cancelled.  Which, unfortunately means that its going to cost me/my company more $$ to send me off to training.  Oh well, its all for the good of me, right?  LRS doesn't think so.

My team at work is starting to look into using the Extreme Programming (XP) model, and as such I've started to do some reading up on it...and determined that its driven highly on TDD. This is something, unfortunately, I've had no experience with.  So - I downloaded NUnit and started working with it, and (like always) I was trying to find the most streamlined way of running my tests.

The NUnit GUI wasn't bad, it does what it needs to do...however I wanted something integrated into VS.NET.  Sure enough, my praryers were answered when "NUnit Testing Integrated in Visual Studio" came out on TheServerSide.NET. So - I downloaded TestRunner, and started giving it a whirl.  Its a bit cumbersome to figure out how to make it work...its not too intuitive, as the buttons don't have any tool tips, but the FAQ does give you a description of what each does.

Anyway, I suggest using this tool, its very cool and allows you to not leave the IDE at all.

In response to Adam Kinney's post on Ego-Building Google Searches:

• NNTP NewsGator Plugin
• Empty Datagrid
• WebDeploy

Are using my pet projects cheating?

Thanks for the links Graemef! Definately wasted about 30 min of my time...god I love April 1st.