Since I'm due to be moving again here in a couple of weeks, I suppose it's high time I put together a list of my needs. Being the computer nerd I am, I have put together a list here using my PHP and MySQL skills. Please take a look at this page and see if you are able to contribute.

Anyone who has ever moved knows the kind of headache and stress involved in this. Money is tight enough with the moving process that buying the "needs" is almost financially impossible. That is why I'm asking you for help. I know a lot of people have stuff laying around that they don't use any longer, or they're looking for an excuse to upgrade their current stuff. What better opportunity?! :)

For anyone international who is wanting to help out, I've included my PayPal "donate" button on this list. If you're wanting to help but can't seem to afford the shipping for that kitchen table you're trying to get rid of, drop some cash on the form! :) For any furniture that I'll be purchasing to fill the gaps, I'll be visiting the local Goodwill or Salvation Army. I just can't seem to bring myself to spend the money for a brand new kitchen table, when places such as this have quality items for a very low price.

I want to thank everyone ahead of time, as I really appreciate your help with this. Keep an eye on the list, because I'll be adding to it as I see what I need.

Again, thank you for helping out! :D

It couldn't have been put any better: Outsourcing, by The Simpsons.

The Spam Project got hit rather hard today. I had 50 messages make it to my inbox that were incorrectly marked as clean, which I had to manually enter in the database. Since it's such an ugly structure, spanned across 3 different tables, I messed the stats up pretty bad, which made the graph appear incorrect. I think it's correct now, but I make no guarantees. There are actually only about 150 bans, supposedly, because of duplicate entries.

I really need to restructure the database and the logger for this project, because it's highly incorrect. I can tell you though that I've set up an XML feed of the banned IP's. You can access this feed here, and you're free to integrate it into your projects for now. My only real request is that you at least keep a cached copy of it, and update it every 12 hours at the most. If I find this is getting abused, I'll have to set up some sort of authentication scheme for it.

For now though, SPAMMERS MUST DIE!

I've really been starting to think about back surgery here lately. Will it solve my problem? Is it a viable option at this stage in the game? Will my health insurance cover it?

I don't know exactly how it happened (though I thought I did), but my back is a total wreck right now. I could barely get out of bed this morning, taking a shower was next to impossible, and I'm trying to figure out how in the heck I'm going to put my socks on. I feel like an old man. :( I just hope I can make the 5-block-trek to the office today.

Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry - the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America.

Elsewhere in the article:

If the asteroid Apophis hits Earth in 2036, it could slam into the Pacific Ocean, generating a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America (Illustration: Don Davis/NASA)

The picture that the above text surrounds shows a mass, sized about like the moon, smashing into Earth. I'm sorry, but if something this large hit the planet, I don't think tsunamis would be the primary concern.

Okay, so it's Saturday night, going on 10:00PM. I've got the house to myself until Tuesday, and I am b-o-r-e-d!

I went to the shooting range with some of the guys from the office this afternoon, which was fun. Now, though, I'm just about to go crazy.

I went to Wal-Mart and got some food, but didn't eat it because I'm really not hungry. I got some "hard lemonade" but didn't care for it (and I don't really drink in the first place), so it's probably going to become my roommate's property. I've already watched the two movies I got from Netflix. I don't feel like spending time coding. I don't want to sleep. Video games will eat my soul. I'm pretty much screwed for now. :-/

So yeah, everyone on AOL and MSN is currently gone or away, so I'm just about to go out of my mind!

This is really getting on my nerves. People keep saying things like, "The storm back in the 70's was much worse than this, blah blah blah." The thing that people don't seem to mention is the difference in transportation between then and now.

First off, consider the fact that there are many more people driving now than there were back then. The population density is much higher now, so there's a lot more cars on the roads.

Second, consider the vehicles. Today, automotive manufacturers are more concerned about keeping initial and operating costs down, so they make the cars as light and small as possible. Part of this is keeping the car low to the ground. Guess what that means... You can't clear the snow drifts on the roads very easily.

And third, there's the political aspect. State and local governments don't have the allocated funds to properly deal with the snow, so it just accumulates on the roads.

Merging these three ideas, you'll find that 5 inches of snow today is just as bad as 12 inches were back in the 70's. Therefore, people just need to drop this argument when they're debating the weather.

(I stole that from a guy at work.)

The county declared it a "Snow Emergency", meaning the roads and all that were closed. They made this call sometime late this morning, while I was at the office. We still had to work, though. The people that make the internet run still work, because "it snowed" isn't a valid excuse for the internet being down. Honestly, I think we're more important than the postal service.

So anyhow, 5:00PM rolls around, and the streets had hardly been touched. The city of Lafayette has this idea that a 3/4 ton pickup truck with a snow plow on it is going to serve the needs of this metropolitan area. WRONG! I got almost home and found that the road to my house hadn't been plowed. I could have parked a block away, but it would have been in the middle of the street. So rather, I had to drive 2 miles away and park at the Wal-Mart parking lot, and have my roommate come give me a ride. Luckily he had 4 wheel drive.

So here I am, sitting at home with no way to get out. My boss said that if it's still nasty like this in the morning, I need to call the other boss to come pick me up. That should be interesting. I realize that our job is important, but when the weather is this nasty, there should be allowances made, IMO.

So for now, I'm putting on some dry clothes and getting some food. Who knows how long the electricity will last...

Tonight: Periods of snow, mainly after 1am. Low around 23. Blustery, with a east wind 11 to 14 mph increasing to between 21 and 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Tuesday: Periods of snow with areas of blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 25. Blustery, with a east northeast wind between 22 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible.

Tuesday Night: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 10. Wind chill values between -5 and 5. Blustery, with a north northeast wind between 17 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Wednesday: A chance of flurries. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 16. Wind chill values between -6 and zero. North northwest wind between 14 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.

When I left for work this morning, it was pretty much clear and dry. All the snow that was around was what little was left from the previous storm. During the day, the guys at the office kept walking to the window and looking, but I just stayed where I was. When 5:00 rolled around, I was out the door and headed for my car...in ten inches of snow.

I got to my car, brushed off the door so I could get in, and started it up. I got my snow brush out and cleaned the car off, then proceeded to head home on the same streets I normally do. No dice. I got about half way up one of the hills here in town and my light car wouldn't go any further. I had to turn around and find another route to take. I finally got on some relatively clear streets and got home, but found the driveway in the condition I fully expected.

Knowing my buddy's wife is pregnant, and that he works mid afternoon to early morning, I reached straight for the snow shovel. Half an hour later, the driveway was clear.

I have a feeling it's going to be a little work getting my car out in the morning. I hope the city plows go through sometime tonight, so I can get up at the same time tomorrow that I normally do and dig my car back out. For now though, I'm passing out. Cardio is exhausting.

I woke up this morning to about 60 new messages in my inbox. All of them were from this blog, and had no content. Then I get back here to the site, and there's an equal number of spam submissions needing blocked.

I might take the contact form offline when I get home tonight, depending on how bad this gets.

Have I ever woken up this angry before? This sucks. :(

...will the warmer weather be here?

Tonight: A chance of flurries. Partly cloudy, with a low around -5. Wind chill values between -13 and -22. West northwest wind between 15 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Very little needs to be said about this, except:

1. Boston: You're stupid.
2. WTF?!

So tonight after work I decided to drive around town a little bit, since I've stuck to the same beaten path for the last month. I ended up on the other side of town, near a sports store that specializes in hunting and shooting supplies. I decided to go in and see about the price of trigger locks and a speed-loader for my revolver, and I was pleasantly surprised.

The speed-loader was about $8, which is an average price. But the price of the trigger lock was even better: Free! Turns out, this is a part of "Project ChildSafe", which is all about safe storage and use of firearms and other weapons.

If you have any guns and there might be a chance of kids getting a hold of them, go to your local gun store and inquire about this. It's a very responsible thing to do, if you ask me.