Was it worth it? Absolutely. The detailer hand washed, waxed, and repaired the painting of my car. He used special care and compounds that only a professional fond of his career could. I watched him as he spent over an hour on my car and with meticulous detail cleaned every inch, every crevice, every thing in my car. From the inside, he vacuumed every carpeted spot, even going far beneath the seats, cleaning places that probably haven’t seen the light of day in a decade.

And it looks good. And it feels good. And I’m proud to drive my newly cleaned car.

I’ve previously talked at length about my feelings of customer service, but to summarize I believe that if you’re going to do it, you should do it well. If an employee doesn’t do their job, it’s not worth my time or their time to even show up for work. I’ve even mentioned previously that I’m fine with paying a premium price for premium service. I do it with my computer (Apple), my hosting (MediaTemple) and now my car wash. But my recent experience really reaffirms this. Paying for premium is totally worth it, every time.

I’m extremely proud of you. Good luck in your future endeavors and may the Spirit of LSMSA be always with you.

Being controversial, I got a lot a few comments via the blog but as well as Twitter and Facebook. My friend Elyse and David both seem to get this, but I got other comments from people who didn’t seem to. Here are two examples:

Tired of your bullshit — spamcollector2008@yahoo.com Masturbatory, largely false. Only the sheer magnitude of your arrogance (coupled, perhaps, with a total lack of self-awareness) is extraordinary. Please grow up soon.

da illest killa — powerman@yahoo.com I’m better looking than few. I’m smarter than uneducated loafs. I’m funnier than a pile of dead babies. I’m more driven than a gay guy’s b hole. I have vision, which the blind will never have. I’m immensely unhappy with myself, which most people aren’t.

And this is just a sample of the other kinds of comments I got. I didn’t publish them because it violated my terms for commenting (which just really boils down to don’t be an idiot). But I wanted to use these as an example of how to be a bad member of the online community. If you want to respond to a controversial blog post, in either a positive or negative fashion, by all means do so. That’s the beauty of blogs: they’re an open media. However, do so without being vapid and incendiary; in short, don’t flame people because it doesn’t do anyone any good. Both of these people might have had legitimate claims—I’m not really sure the second one has a point—but they obfuscated it by proffering those inane comments. Instead, they should’ve posted a well-formulated response so that I could’ve engaged in a conversation with them. Seriously—I do have personality flaws and I would at least take an opportunity to have a discussion, but not with them. Basically, as long as you offer good comments, you’ll be a happy member of the online community and you’ll get the respect you want. If you don’t have the volition to make your comment publicly with your own name and email address, then it’s probably not worth your time to even write it. Go comment on Youtube if you want to make a fool of yourself.

In only one and a half semesters, I can already tell that most college professors are ridiculous. But, up until now, I haven’t had any that were so ridiculous that I felt the need to write about them. Enter my C++ professor this semester. I wrote this simple program very quickly, because I’ve had C++ before, but it took my easily twice as long to comment every freaking line. That’s absurd. As if the graders don’t know what’s going on and as if I don’t know—I wrote it, after all. I mean, just look at that code—it’s ridiculous.

QED

[sourcecode language='cpp'] /************************************************/ /* Widget Inc. Weekly Production Report / / Logan Leger / / CSC 125331 Section 1 / / Assignment 2 / / Instructor: Douglas / / Program due date: Feb 3, 2009 / /***********************************************/

/************************************************/ /* Problem specification: Create a method / / for making a weekly production / / report for widgets / / / / Problem analysis: Get user input for / / produced widgets and computer / / report and show data / / / / Inputs: Number of widgets made each week/ / from site 1, site 2 and site 3 / / / / Outputs: Number of widgets from each / / site; production cost and total / / earnings of each site; / / overall number of widgets produced; / / overall average units of each site; / / overall total production cost; / / overall expected earnings / /***********************************************/

include

using namespace std;

int main () { int counter = 1; //counter for counter-control repetition structure int widgets = 0; //number of widgets for use in aforementioned counter-countrol repetition structure double prod_cost = 0; //total production cost per site for use in said structure double earnings = 0; //total earnings per site for use in said structure int total_widgets = 0; //total widgets produced; sum of site1, site2 and site3 int average_widgets = 0; //average widgets produced; sum divided by three double total_prod_cost = 0; //total production cost; sum of each prod_site double total_earnings = 0; //total earnings; sum of each earnings_site const double PROD_COST = 2.59; //the cost to build each widget const double SELL_PRICE = 5.99; //the selling price of each widget const int i = 3; //number of iterations = 3

cout.setf(ios::fixed);
cout.setf(ios::showpoint);
cout.precision(2);
//above action statements format all number output to two digits--for showing it in price format

cout < < "\nWelcome to Widgets Inc Weekly Production Report System.\nPlease input the number of widgets produced per site.";
//welcome message
while (counter <= i) {
    cout << "\nNumber of widgets for Site " << counter << ": ";
    //print heading for each site
    cin >> widgets;
    //input number of widgets
    prod_cost = widgets * PROD_COST;
    //compute production cost of site
    earnings = widgets * SELL_PRICE;
    //compute earnings of site
    cout << "\n" << "Site " << counter << ":"  << endl << "Production Cost: $" << prod_cost << endl << "Expected Earnings: $" << earnings << endl;
    //output the information of the site
    total_widgets += widgets;
    //add up total widgets
    total_prod_cost += prod_cost;
    //add up production cost
    total_earnings += earnings;
    //add up earnings
    counter++;
    //increase counter for loop
    cout << "\n";
    //make the monkey go up the tree and bring down coconut
}

average_widgets = total_widgets/3;
//compute average widgets

cout << "Widgets Inc Weekly Executive Report\n" << endl;
cout << "Overall total widgets produced: " << total_widgets << endl;
cout << "Overall average widgets produced: " << average_widgets << endl;
cout << "Overall total production cost: $" << total_prod_cost << endl;
cout << "Overal total expected earnings: $" << total_earnings << endl;
cout << "\n";
//above block of code prints the executive report

cout << "End of the weekly report." << endl;
//sign-off message -- operation take over the world complete

return 0;

} [/sourcecode]

“10, 9, 8, 7 . . .” The familiar countdown was being chanted by my family in the living room. As we watched the ball drop in a particular elegance that only an 11,875 pound ball sliding down a 77-foot pole can[1. Wikipedia], I paused a moment to quickly reflect upon 2008. It was a big year for me and I feel satisfied as the fireworks light up the New York City skyline. Now that all the celebrations are over, I’d like to take a more formal look back on my year and think about what is in store for 2009.

2008

It was a very big year, indeed.  In May, I graduated from the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts.  My experience there was very rewarding and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It did more for shaping who I am today than anything else in my life.  The breadth and depth of my knowledge and the sharpened keenness for scientific inquiry is due totally to the quality and quantity of intelligence found there—truly su generis talent.  During my last year, my speculative essay about the future of technology was published in Folio, the school literary magazine.  My last semester was the best yet and I took many classes I enjoyed—including two Dr. Beier and Dr. Dalling classes, Dr. Feske, Dr. Findley and, of course, Mr. Hennigan.  I was bestowed the great honor of delivering the graduation speech.  Entitled “To Buddies,” I reflected upon my LSMSA experiences and the transient friends at my previous school compared to the true, lasting friendships I made at LSMSA.

This year also marked the beginning of my college career.  Initially, I had planned on going far, far away, but money kept me close to home.  I enrolled at LSU in the honors college as a computer engineering student.  One of the unique things about LSU is that it’s totally free and I was able to transfer in with about 32 hours of credit, effectively eliminating almost two semesters.  So far, I’ve become an active member in the LSU College Republicans and Purple Haze, the LSU Ultimate team.  I’ve also enjoyed working on campus at LSU’s award-winning Information Technology Services.  I work in the Network Infrastructure division where I help out with DNS and DHCP.  Mostly, I work on the web applications they use—some open source, some in-house productions.  I’ve even been a part, albeit small, of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, an amazing supercomputing project in Louisiana.  This has been a very rewarding experience and I’ve learned a tremendous amount.  My employment there was the inspiration for my first major article, “How to: Introduction to Splunk Indexing,” and I’m sure many more to come.

Outside of academics, this year saw an increase in my freelance work.  I thank my wonderful clients for their business.  If you need any voice work done for TV or radio, see Scotty Mac, the 175 a month man, for some wonderful voice acting.  I also worked with Chase Swindler, an old friend of mine, on the Mardi Gras Ultimate site.  The Mardi Gras Tournament is one of the biggest in the country, and my friends from Turbodogs, the Baton Rouge Ultimate Club, asked me to help build them a site.  Chase did the design work with me.

I also got involved in two projects.  The first, NewAperio, is a startup company I founded with fellow LSMSA student Evan Cordell.  We plan on releasing a few web apps, so stay tuned.  The second is Noteflood, which is a ongoing project that I was invited to join as the SEO manager.  I’m really excited about the direction that project is taking and we have big things planned ahead!  You can follow the project on Twitter and fan it on Facebook.  I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions for Noteflood!

At the beginning of 2008, I made a resolution to raise my GPA and get into a decent college.  LSMSA killed my high GPA because it’s a top 10 school.  After I acclimated,  I was able to raise it back up.  Check part one.  While I was fairly disillusioned with LSU at first, I’ve accepted it as a decent school—all of my honors professors were incredible and it finally made it into the top tier of schools [2. US New and World Report].  Check off 2008′s resolution.

2009

While there won’t be any major transitions as in 2008, there are a few things I’m excited about.

At LSU, I’ll be starting my major courses, which is always exciting.  Finally I’ll be able to move into true engineering courses.  I’m also looking forward to the Ultimate season, which should be a good one for LSU.  My goals here are to keep up my first-year GPA (good start already) and be one of the vital freshmen for Purple Haze.  For sophomore year, I plan on studying abroad.  I’m not sure if this will fall in 2009 or not, but it’s definitely a goal of mine for this next academic year.

I also plan on picking up several more freelanced clients.  I’m already looking at one and two more potentials.  NewAperio should finally get off the ground once Evan finishes at LSMSA and we should release at least one major product.  I expect Noteflood to finally launch and to instantly capture a fair market share, despite the fierce competition.  I’m also looking for an internship.  For this, I’m diving into the extensive network of LSMSA graduates on LinkedIn.  I’m hoping to find one at a major technology corporation.  If not, my job at LSU ITS remains.  My goals here are: grow freelancing; startup NewAperio; see Noteflood flourish; intern somewhere.

Conclusion

I’m looking forward to 2009 and I know it’ll be a great year.  What are your plans and resolutions for 2009?  From me and my family, I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Several years ago when I first came of age on the internet, I had a blog. It began as a Blogger account and was then upgraded to a full-fledged WordPress blog on my newly purchased domain—loganleger.com. The blog was a living historical account of my progression through the internet phenomenon. Moreover, you could see my maturation in writing and thought. Some of this data has been lost—some in part to my carelessness, some in part to time.

Now, as I enter a new stage in my career, I decided to reopen the blog. When I went to LSMSA, I decided to shut it down and make my site a static portfolio because I simply hadn’t the time to devote to it. Now that I’m out of the hectic bubble of Natchitoches, I finally have time to write again. This time, I plan to fill this space with all sorts of content. I’ll discuss whatever is on my mind, and these days it’s far more than just technology. There will be thought-provoking articles that’ll make you think and there will be funny articles to lighten your day and there will be technology discussions and tutorials. This time through, I plan on sticking to it and making regular posts. Nevertheless, I’ll never sacrifice quality for quantity. I care about my writing, so you can expect to see nothing less than some of the best writing on the internet. I also plan on bringing in some of my colleagues to make guest posts. These colleagues are friends that I have accumulated in my academic circles and I assure you that their writing will be nothing less, if not more, than my own.

Design

Recently, I’ve really invested in the minimalist aesthetic. From the arrangements of my living space, to the designs in my portfolio, everything is done with one thing in mind: simplicity. One reason for this is my love for Apple, but I’ve found a great quote to support this. You can see it in the footer on my website, but here it is: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein said this. Einstein was unequivocally a genius and when geniuses speak, you listen.

So, I knew from the beginning that I wanted a minimalist design. I did some reading around and perused some minimalist galleries. I drew lots of inspiration from Khoi Vinh Subtraction.  My site is even in more or less grid-form, which Vinh created. I also drew inspiration from the newly redesigned http://www.criterion.com/, the online home of the Criterion Collection. Once I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, it was just a matter of sitting down and coding.

Now, I have a confession: This is the first time I’ve ever coded a WordPress theme from scratch. Yes, I’ve used templates before and modified them—that’s how I learned HTML, CSS, and PHP to begin with—, but I’ve never gone from start to finish with my own acumen. I won’t lie: It wasn’t an easy task. I began locally using Coda and MAMP in basic HTML. 37signals recommends this in their book Getting Real, which I highly recommend for anyone, much less those building web applications. They call this process “wireframing,” and it’s basically to get a feel for what the site will feel like.

After the wireframing was complete, I still had to build out the WordPress template structure. To do this, I downloaded a blank WordPress theme as a guide and began filling in the template.  I thought using the blank theme as a guide would be relatively easy, but the structure of my site is much different from a traditional blog. This required lots of time to translate, if you will, to my structure. I had to do lots of research into using multiple loops and custom fields for the homepage (more on that later). The main post title is one loop; the recent blogs is another loop; and the quotes is yet another. I had to exclude the quotes from the other two and make sure that if one post was at the headline, then it wouldn’t be in the others. I also used custom fields for the source of each quote and used CSS3 specifications to open and close the quotes around it, so this might not be visible in your browser. All of these were explained in the WordPress Codex. Another CSS trick I used was a “sticky footer,” which I got here.  This was really helpful and while I think it’s broken on some of the pages, it works quite well.

Conclusion

Because I’m new to this, my CSS is probably not as organized as it could be and my HTML is riddled with comments. In the coming days, I plan to go back through the files and clean this up a bit. Also, my content thus far is lacking, not only in posts, but also in pages. If you notice, a few of the pages are missing content. In the coming days, this will be filled out as well.  But, I’m really loving WordPress 2.7.  It’s a big step up from when I last used it.  One last thing: I haven’t even checked this site in IE.  From what I can see in my site statistics, a majority either uses Safari or Firefox, which, on my computer, both render this excellently.  Also, if there’s anything that you were wondering how I did, please let me know and I’ll explain. But, I would like some feedback. How do you like the design? Are there any improvements you could suggest? How does it feel for you? I’d like to improve the design as best I could and, potentially, release it for the community. But, I think I’m a long way from that.