thoughts to blog

Just an FYI:

That last post was for work. :) I’m involved with the “Make Our Employees Happy” committee. Imagine that!

One of my functions is to provide movie advice and reviews to our employees.

So there ya go… I’ll continue to post the other reviews as I write them.

Whether it’s at Target in the DVD section, at Eden Prairie 18, or on a couch with a remote digging through the latest On Demand Movies trying to find the latest interest, you’ll always ensure that I have the scoop on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of moving images.

Some describe it as an obsession. Some as a hobby. Others just shake their heads and slowly take backward steps. However you decide to describe it, you just can’t beat a good guide to the movies.

Here’s the part where I come in. Walk with me through the landscape of film as I casually discuss newly released DVDs, movies in theaters, and those seasonal blockbusters everyone has to watch.

This month, we’ll take a look at the giant footsteps of theatrical releases, the hilarious anecdotes of DVD releases, and everything else at 24 to 30 frames per second.

Coming Soon to Theaters…

King Kong - Peter Jackson’s remake of a classic featuring Adrien Brody, Jack Black, and the beautiful Naomi Watts.

Hyped as being the next Peter Jackson classic, careful eyes will notice a typically-comical actor being cast as a main character in a not-so-comical movie. We’ll have to wait and see if Peter Jackson’s rare talent can bring back a classic tale of adventure.

View the Trailers

other notable releases: The Chronicles of Narnia, The New World, and Aeon Flux

New on DVD

Wedding Crashers - Vince Vaun and Owen Wilson

Hilarious comedy involving two bachelors trying to make their way through life, one wedding reception at a time. Laughter-invoking dialog, a decently filled cast, and lots of “I can’t believe I’ve never thought of that” humor round this DVD off as a MUST BUY on January 3rd, 2006.

other notable releases: The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Island, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith

In Theaters Now…

Jarhead - Jake Gyllenhaal leads the cast along side of Jamie Foxx through the deserts of Iraq.

Nearing the edge of documentary, Jarhead teases the mind with details of Desert Storm. With a somewhat slow plot and little action, the two hour long movie proves that Gyllenhaal thrives on serious roles while Jamie Foxx is versatile. Peering into the minds of jarheads in the suck, directors Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher give us a glimpse into what it’s like in the daily life of a soldier in active combat.

View the Trailers

other notable releases: Walk the Line, RENT, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We all know that I’m not the most grammatical writer in the world… but hopefully if you’ve made it this far, you’re either enjoying what I have to say or you want to continue to laugh for a few more minutes. Either way… the next time you consider buying/going to a movie, give me a call. I’ll be glad to give you my thoughts.

Happy Viewing…

events described in my last blog entry… prompted a friend (who still doesn’t have a blog) to send me this message this morning.

I smiled.

From: Neil
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 9:16 AM
To: Jake Good
Subject: Iowa steal you from me?

You don’t call, you don’t blog…when do you come back?

<3,
Neil

Terms of endearment? or “Where the hell is my favorite Mario Kart opponent?”

… drinking Jameson whiskey on a Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Little did I know that the actual time in Burlington would be great and the return trip would be a nightmare. (psst. it wasn’t quite as fun last year)

The summary will be quite different. Last year, if you can think back that far, I ranted for a bit about Burlington. This time I tried my hardest not to think about any of that and focus on being home. My mother would probably disagree, but I tried to spend some more time with the family (notably my brother and sister) and spent less time worrying if I’ll see any of my good friends.

My schedule essentially followed these rules. Morning was for sleep, lunch with family, afternoon was for screwing around, dinner with family, and nights with friends and/or family. It worked out pretty well.

The good.

• My family is actually happy. I love it! There was 10x less tension, arguments, and it was a really good time.


• Eating chicken lips at Martini’s and burritos at El Taco Casa.


• Drinking with Mick on his birthday.


• Drinking in Burlington in general. Who can beat $4 pitchers, $2.75 mixers, and $1.50 bottles?


• Seeing Jackie, Kim, Jessica, Molly, Joni, Rebekah, Jessica(s), Tadd, Mom, Dad, Mike, Val, Cynthia, Dennis, and my dogs. If I missed you, you probably don’t read my blog and wouldn’t know anyway.


• Playing street games with hustlers in downtown St. Louis cause I was bored (read the ugly part for an explination)

The bad.

• Seeing people that I didn’t want to see.


• Everyone, including my mother thinking that it’s cool to smoke. It smells, it’s bad for you, and it I try to keep away from it as much as I can.

The ugly.

• Waking up at 4AM on Wednesday for my flight.


• Having my return flight on Sunday being cancelled, thus having to stay overnight in St. Louis and not for sure knowing whether or not my new flight would actually take off the ground. Thus causing me to miss another day of work.

The strange

• Coke is the new “in” thing in Burlington. DUMB


• You have to pay $3 cover charge to get into a bar. Even more strange is that the bar is actually a B-A-R-N with a bar in it.


• I sat next to a transexual of some sort in St. Louis on the Metro.

That pretty much sums up my trip. I’m still trying to catch up at work and life back up in the cities… yikes.

So in .Net 2.0 they added nullable types to the CLR. Which essentially equates to value types having null value instead of a default value.

Which is great and not-so-great.

Great

1. Database integration. Databases have nullable columns, so why not let classes have them?




2. Nullable dates. DateTime being a value type in .Net, has always been a pain for keeping nullable dates. Using object as the type (breaking strong typing) or using MinDate or MaxDate as null dates (BAD!).




3. When you have a class that actually needs nullable types. It’s one of those conveniences (almost syntactic sugar)

Not So Great

1. When you see a value from a class that could be a nullable type, you have to check and prepare for that.




2. More work for the consumer of your type isn’t always the best way to deal with things.

There are a few .Net tricks to overcome some of these obstacles and make nullable types useful.

for instance…

String has a static method to help…

String.IsNullOrEmpty(randomString)

System.Nullable has…

type.HasValue

null coalescing operator (default value if null)

int? x = (random potentially nullable int);  
int? y = (random potentially nullable int);  
int? z = x ?? y;  
int i = z ?? -1;

Sam, the world’s ugliest dog… died today at the age of 14.

R.I.P. Sam

:: tips a 40oz for my home dog ::

:: sigh ::

There’s good reason for my feelings of emptiness. See… I grew up owning every game console I ever wanted on launch day. No, I wasn’t spoiled by my parents, it was my hard work washing dishes at Scotty’s Restaurant and Dairy Bar for $3.50/hour. My sister even text messaged me this morning to check to see if I had gotten one, with my brother checking up on me last night.

And now, with the Xbox 360 out in the wild, I don’t have one, nor would I be able to get one if I really wanted one today…

Hi, my name is Jake, and I’m addicted to videogames.

:: presses the Power Button on his DS ::

Well… after careful consideration, I’ve decided to put the whoisjake.com blog archive up as a single html file.

There are several reasons for this decision, but at least the content is still there.

Images will be taken care of eventually…

WARNING.. SPOILERS, NSFW, ETC

A cruise down memory lane…

I’m in desperate need of a theme for my blog.

I have specific requirements AND $$ MONEY $$

Apply within

p.s. A good job on the blog theme will land you 2 more site designs.

With the Xbox 360 Launch being tomorrow, a small part of me is whimpering because I’m not in line and don’t have a preorder. I’ll try to casually get one, but I’m definitely not stressing it.

I remember the original launch (November 15, 2001) like it was yesterday… I went to the Cedar Falls EB Games at 8am, picked up my Xbox… and stayed at home all day playing Halo and Project Gotham Racing. Complete gaming bliss!

This year, I expect to be sitting at work, writing code, and playing my Nintendo DS with Neil (which is just as fun).

And if you’re curious about my opinion of these next-gen consoles… I’ll just say that Microsoft and Nintendo will definitely pwn Sony.

Have Xbox Live? Here’s my Gamercard. Feel free to send me a friend request!

What an amazing season 1 finale episode of HBO’s Rome. I have watched the entire season and look forward to purchasing it on DVD.

Don’t fret, there’s no spoiler for the episode other than it was probably one of the most dynamic episodes of the season.

All I have to say is… Brutus, Vorenus, Pullo, and Octavian have NOTHING on Servilia of the Junii.

Look for Season 2 coming 2007 (yikes) with production starting in March (2006).

I know you’re all wondering… so if Jake blogs, what blogs does Jake read?

Here’s your answer (Thanks to Bloglines and some javascript to dynamically create it)

p.s. Bloglines is far better than any desktop aggregator that I have ever used. I suggest that you at least try it out.

It’s amazing. my blog has been up for less than 24 hours and I have 3 of my faithful readers already pimpin’ the new site.

Val the C# Gal says… “Jake, how we have missed you”

Kindohm says… “It’s a virgin blog. There are zero posts. I can’t wait for the first one. The anticipation is so thick you can cut it with a knife.”

Blame Mike says…”Typo looks really sweet… it’s probably one of the better blogging systems I’ve seen to date. Anyway, check out Jake’s blog now!!!

You guys make blogging worthwhile! As well as my other peeps out there like Tom Johnson, Mac, and too many others…

Tonight… I’m going to grab some grub, bust out some Mario Kart, Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land, and maybe even a little GUN, and test out my new colognes: Acqua Di Gio by Giorgio Armani and Romance Silver by Ralph Lauren

The wait is finally over… No longer will you all suffer the void in your life that my witty, sarcastic, humorous, and perpetually perverse comments used to fill.

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” -Voltaire

I used to think that people actually wanted to know: ”Who IS Jake?” Boy was I suprised. The experiment ran for a year, wandering through various aspects of my life including software development, images of the female form, and my favoritism towards the Green Bay Packers. This time around, I hope to spend more time posting on my thoughts rather than reposting links, images, and stories from other people. Thus the name and URL of the blog being Thoughts to Blog

So you’re probably asking… what are the REAL changes to this site?

• Obviously the look and feel is different (and will be different, watch the gradual change from the default theme)


• The site is AJAX-i-fied. Check out the comments and live search. Welcome to the Web 2.0. heh


• There will be tags to posts now. They will still be categorized… more meta data to play with! yay


• You can use Markdown (with SmartyPants) for comments!


• Eventually the old content will make it’s way back to the page…


• RSS feed will now be RSS 2.0


• The site should be XHTML 1.0 and CSS compliant


• All of this thanks to Typo


• and the BEST PART is that it’s driven by Ruby on Rails - quite simply an amazing web framework

That’s about it… Welcome to my blog faithful readers.