Remember when you were young (the vast majority of people who would read this, anyway) and you were in kindergarten? You’d get a good 30 minutes to an hour of naptime a day. You’d get to run around for 45 minutes or MORE of recess, socialize with your friends, learn how physics worked (*snicker*).

Napping — keeps kids focused. Keeps “stress” levels down. Provides a time to process thought for what’s already happened that day or what’s going to happen the rest of the day.

Recess — provides social interaction and exercise. Learning how humans naturally form groups and what kinds of people fit together and how different kinds of people interact with each other. Kids are FULL of energy, and need a chance to move around!

*sigh* Stupid Florida. Stupid FCAT. I remember when the schools were much more quality than they are now. Now in kindergarten there are no naps or recess, and children are being diagnosed with ‘ADD’ and put on medication. Gee, I wonder why.

The FCAT is some stupid Florida Government/School Board attempt to hold all children to the same standard. For fck’s sake — THEY’RE KIDS. You can’t hold all children to the same standard. All children have different home lives. I know one little girl who has to go on stress medication for that stupid test, and she’s in 4th grade. I HATE FLORIDA.

I used to love it. I really really liked all my teachers in middle school and high school (with the rare exception of a few, and those were either so few or so not memorable that I can’t even think of them right now). I looked forward to learning. Now all the learning is in preparation for a test that teaches you nothing of how the real world functions or about skills you might need for a job.

I need to end this rant. I have another post to finish.

Tip: Don’t raise your children in Florida.

I love (VideoLan) VLC Media Player. I love Firefox. I love mp3s. I love oggs.

However, I do not love VLC’s browser plugin for listening to mp3s in Firefox. It gives no playback controls.

Quicktime Alternative, however, gives options up the arse and offers to do your dishes as well. The specific file that offers MP3 support is npqtplugin4.dll

Mine is at: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins\npqtplugin4.dll

Installing VLC and its Firefox 3.0.5 plugin will set the audio/mpeg association to the VLC plugin in Firefox. Subsequently installing QuickTime alternative will make the plugin available to Firefox. The plugin will broadcast audio support for audio/mpeg and mp3. However, Firefox will refuse to give you the option to choose the new plugin!!!

I cannot find the place to force the new .dll file to be associated with the mime type. But there’s a way around it!!!

Choosing audio/mpeg and audio/x-mpeg and setting them to “always ask” will NOT make the browser ask you what to do with the content. It will, however, suddenly force the browser to use the new plugin dll.

I’m guessing it’s some sort of strange bug where Firefox refuses to list the plugin as an option in the “action” menu if there’s already a plugin that deals with that mime type. Oh well… workaround found! :)

I was driving down the main street of Tampa today to take a coworker to pick up his vehicle. Several hundred protesters were on either side of the road carrying signs that said “Israel is the real terrorist.” and “Bring peace to Gaza.” They were shouting mantras to that effect as well.

It was a nice evening out. I had my windows down. I was talking to my coworker about where to pick up his vehicle and doing my best to ignore all the shouting. I would be by the protesters soon enough.

Other people had their windows down. Some of those other people were shouting back at the protesters. Traffic had slowed down so people could read the signs.

Some of the Palestinians ran out into the road and started hitting and kicking vehicles that had their windows down. I was freaking terrified.

I think I can buff out the scuff marks on the truck with no problem. How can a group have a message of peace when they’re attacking innocent bystanders?

Tip: When driving near protesters, make sure your windows are up.

Hi there!

Here’s a helpful tip.

In order to relieve work week stress, try tenderizing meat with your fist instead of a gavel or mallet. It is infinitely more satisfying.

ZSNES has one of the coolest little easter eggs built in!!!!!

I’m sitting here playing Wizardry V for a bit before bed.

I pressed “ESC” to get to the menu to change a setting in the emulator, and what do I see in the background except

SANTA AND HIS REINDEER DASHING ACROSS THE SCREEN!!!!!!!!

Happy Holidays to all of you who have made ZSNES possible:

Main Coders

* zsKnight
* _Demo_
* pagefault

Contributors

* Pharos
* teuf
* relnev
* prometheus
* theoddone33
* EvilTypeGuy
* stainless
* aaronl
* MKendora
* kode54
* zinx
* amit
* Khan Artist
* hpsolo
* Kreed
* Neviksti

And the same to the rest of you out there as well

edit: I just read the ZSNES message boards and have edited this post to make it a *little* less obvious. I can’t spoil *all* the fun…