Four Island

Wasn't Christmas fun? Yay! And a lot of people want to fulfill their dreams. Well, it didn't work for me, but I hope it does for you! :)

Also, with "uggglay", people were complaining that there was no "other" option. I pointed them at "Something else very cute!" and they said "But I don't want something cute!" So I decided to laugh and make "Something else very uggglay!" LOL. :)

An adorable Fourie toy! - 0 vote(s)! All my dreams come true - 8 vote(s)! Something else very cute! - 0 vote(s)! Something else very uggglay! - 1 vote(s)!

If you can see this, either CSS is dead or you like conspiracies!

Anywayz, the password is "cutefish".

This post was originally posted in a page by itself, and is being moved here as an attempt to move everything to the main blog.

HTML Validator

When I was first learning HTML, I leart it all using a book called "HTML Quickstart Guide 4th Editon" (by Elizabeth Castro), which, for some reason, stated differently from the other editons (I know this because it said about previous editons in the book, and I also have acquired HTML Quickstart Guide 5th Editon a couple of years ago) that the <!DOCTYPE> was a useless tag that had no purpose other than telling HTML Validators what DTD to use.

Because I learnt HTML this way, the non-usage of the <!DOCTYPE> tag grew into a habit, and aside from just being hard to change that habit, I don't want to have to fallback from my anti-<!DOCTYPE> ways. I make a big fuss about not using the <!DOCTYPE> tag, and there's nothing you can really do about it.

Go try it now. This link goes to the Validator Results for the Home Page of Four Island.comp. Go to it. Notice that it has only one error. Look closer and notice that that one error is the lack of the <!DOCTYPE> tag. Click on the "Doctype" drop-down menu, choose "HTML 4.01 Transitional", and click "Revalidate". Notice how there are no errors now. See?

So why not join me? Please add one (or more) of these images to your website/blog/whatever. Please show that you do not believe in the evil <!DOCTYPE> tag.

• No-!Doc Favicon
• No <!DOCTYPE> Userbar
• Wikipedia Userbox! Use {{User:Hatkirby/Userboxes/No_Doctype}}.

Ok, I think I'm going to have to make a tag for "rants" because this is another one. :)

Anyway, while you're all enjoying Christmas, I'd just like to make a stupid rant on some Christmas songs. Not all of them. Some of them are great. Like Do They Know It's Christmas Time by Band Aid. However, a few are just strange.

This rant is on rock-n-roll'ized Christmas songs. You hear them all of the time on the radio, things like "Yo, Frasty was totally a snaman with a LAVA jolly soul-man!" The thought of such a thing is not only hilarious, but kind of bothering.... :)

Anyway, that was the short Christmas rant from yours truly. I hope that gave you a chuckle and now enjoy Christmas!

I couldn't think of what I should do for Christmas. A story? A picture? A song? An extremely complicated article about how to implement something, such as the MetaWeblog API? No.

Then I thought of it. I could lie and attribute it to Gryphic's Christmas Stories prompts and say the line "We can't be the only ones to celebrate Christmas. How do aliens/fictional characters/animals celebrate?" inspired me to do this, but that's not exactly true as I did this two days before Gryphic wrote that post.

I've been wanting to bring KFM back for a while now and thought that while I'm pondering that situation, I'll post one more KFM comic. I give to you "'Twas The Night Before Kirbymas": And, because I feel like doing what Gryphic often does, I'm going to post a song. It's called Do They Know It's Christmas Time by Band Aid and it's featured in the previous KFM comic:

It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time

But say a prayer to pray for the other ones At Christmas time, it's hard, but when you're having fun There's a world outside your window And it's a world of dread and fear Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears And the Christmas bells that ring there Are the clanging chimes of doom Well, tonight, thank God it's them instead of you

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time The greatest gift they'll get this year is life Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Here's to you, raise a glass for everyone Here's to them underneath that burning sun Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Feed the world Feed the world

Feed the world; let them know it's Christmas time And feed the world; let them know it's Christmas time And feed the world; let them know it's Christmas time And feed the world; let them know it's Christmas time

Band Aid

Merry Christmas!

This post was inspired by Gryphic's Christmas Stories prompt "What is the true meaning of Christmas? Love, presents, or just plain celebration?*"

As of this, this is not a true story, but actually a fictitious, short story.*

Tamara looked out the window at the billowy, white snow that covered everything the eye could see. Though she and her family were snowed in their house for a few days, tomorrow was Christmas. And the snow hadn't knocked out their Internet connection.

Tamara remembered back to a month ago when she sat, writing her Christmas list. It was full of "wants" and "needs" and "retroactive lollipop machines". She couldn't wait for those things to arrive. At the time, anyway.

Now, however, she thought differently. It wasn't some magical leaf turnover like in A Christmas Carol, but she was actually starting to think that there could be a meaning of Christmas further than material happiness.

The many family reunions they had gone to within the last week had prooved that, if anything. But the thing that had done the magic was the snow. The snow that had trapped her and her family in her house for half a week (according to the weatherman).

Without anywhere to go, she spent most of her time with her family. It was actually fun. Everyone was being joyful and happy, not at all upset that they couldn't go and buy more EggNog.

With Christmas fast approaching tomorrow, she knew that, over the presents, her family would actually mean something this year. And that is the true meaning of Christmas.

Recently, I was going through some of my old stuff and I found this play I had written. Goodness, I must have been very young when I wrote that because it's very silly. However, some of it is stupidly hilarious, so I'm going to go through how sane I may or may not have been at that age by analyzing Kirby's Slippers, revision 3.

Kirby: Oh, today has been so boring. Nothing has happened. Voice: Hi, my name is Kirby's wall. That's Kirby. (Kirby leaves stage left)

Kirby's Living Room

Ok, what? Kirby's wall talks to him and he walks away as if nothing strange had happened? ....weird.

(Kirby says some random things and reappears up stage left in his PJ's) Kirby: I'm so tired. (ISAC Representative enters up stage right) ISAC Representative: Excuse me, but is there a Kirby in the house? Kirby (startled): Um, yes. I was just getting ready for bed.

Kirby's Living Room

So.... A random stranger, representing some random organization, walks into Kirby's obviously unlocked house and catches him getting ready for bed? That is just weird. Like, a lot.

ISAC Representative: I am from the ISAC. I was sent to tell you that the conference takes place tomorrow. Kirby (surprised): Uh, ok. ISAC Representative: The ISAC are great people and expect good behavior from you and the other person from Dreamland. See, the others are foreign. Kirby: Oh, great! I love foreign!

Kirby's Living Room

....what the negative? There are so many random things wrong with this that I'm not even going to bother.

ISAC Representative: Goodbye. (ISAC Representative leaves) Kirby: I need to go to bed. (Kirby trips on chair and tumbles over it) Kirby: Ouch! (Kirby leaves right stage)

Kirby's Living Room

Ok, that's the entirety of Scene 1, "Kirby's Living Room". I'd like to ask, A: How likely is it to trip over a chair? And B: Who on earth is Kirby talking to? The wall? ....actually, it could be possible, if you think about the first snippet....

Let's continue with the second scene, "King Dedede's House". It's a little longer, but there's only two snippets I'll be posting:

Kirby: Let's watch a movie! King Dedede: I'll get the candy! Kirby: I'll get the popcorn! (Kirby leaves stage left) (King Dedede leaves stage right) (Sound of getting things)

King Dedede's House

S-s-sound of getting things? ....I'm just going to.... um.... walk away.

All: Later.... King Dedede: Hey, come on! What's taking so long? Kirby: I'm getting my coat on, but it stuck to the dresser and now I'm wearing a dresser instead of a coat. (Kirby reappears left stage with coat on)

King Dedede's House

giggles

Ok, time for Scene 3, "ISAC Meeting House".

Kirby: Hurry up, we don't want to miss it! King Dedede: I'm only walking so slow because I brought all of the peanuts!

ISAC Meeting House

....in this play and the other I found (maybe I'll post about it sometime), there are a lot of references to peanuts. I really don't know. Such as this one:

ISAC Representative: Hi, glad you could make it. Come right in. Kirby: I'm so hungry. King Dedede: Have a peanut. (Kirby & King Dedede sit down)

ISAC Meeting House

This next part is implying something strange....

(Lights turn off) Kirby: Aaaaah! The lights turned off! King Dedede: Look, I think I see someone over there! (Lights turn back on and Kirby's slippers are gone) King Dedede: Look! Someone stole your slippers! Kirby: OHNO!

ISAC Meeting House

Why does Kirby have his slippers at an international conference? I mean, really. And Captain Obvious to the rescue with Kirby's first line there.

ISAC Representative (talking into microphone): I guess the party's over. Maybe there will be another meeting next month. King Dedede: But at least there will be another one next month. But what if it's also short? And they need another next month? What if there is a chain of meetings all the way until December? Would they all add up to 1 annual meeting? But what if that one is too short for short? Is there are a never-ending chain of meetings when they are too short? I guess a P.O. box could in theory break the chain....

ISAC Meeting House

Oh dear, I've ripped off Spongebob. Next, let's examine Scene 4, "Church". There's only one snippet I find amusing:

(King Dedede enters) ISAC Representative: King Dedede! Come on here! Voice (softly): You may now kiss the bride. ISAC Representative: I love you.

Church

Not only is he yelling during a wedding service, the ISAC Representative has spontaneously come out of the closet. This is getting pretty strange.

There is a quote or two from scenes 5 and 6, but they're mostly impulsive decisions and peanut quotes and this post is getting long. However, the play ends with Scene 7, "Creative Castle", and it rather amusing.

ISAC Representative: I just remembered! ISAC stands for International Stuffed Animal Conference!

Creative Castle

....not only have they been saying ISAC the entire play, he works there too and he only just remembers? However, this play ends with the funniest quote in the play:

Kirby: I want to take a vacation in Saudi Arabia! King Dedede: That's too far away. Kirby: So? I have airplane insurance. All: The End

Creative Castle

LOL. Literal lol.

Thank you for enduring my rant about my childhood and the randomness ensured. I've transcribed the entire script to HTML for easy viewing here: Kirby's Slippers v3. Have fun!

You must be looking at this post and thinking, "Ok, what?" Yes, probably. I really don't know.

Anyway, this is just a rant. And it's about my iPod. It's a new (well, two months new) Chromatic (yellow and pretty) and works pretty well. However, randomly, during arbitrary songs, the music will suddenly STOP.

And then, you know you have to hurry if you want to keep listening to that song. When that happens, I have to rip the headphones off of my ears and unlock (take out of HOLD) the iPod. At that moment, the iPod will make a very loud noise. So loud, you can hear it quite clearly even without the headphones on. "Oh, goodness," you should think to yourself, "I just saved my eardrums."

Immediatly after I do that, the music starts playing and the pause button doesn't respond for a few seconds so I miss some of the song. :( This is really annoying, and I don't know why it happens. Does anyone know? Knowing Apple, is it a feature or a bug? :)

Anyway, yes, you can say it.

"Ok, what?"

YAY! People seem to be much more interested in Kirby Week this year! :)

YES! - 6 vote(s)! No. - 3 vote(s)! Maybe.... I haven't decided.... - 2 vote(s)! What on earth is Kirby Week? - 0 vote(s)!

Well, thus ends Kirby Week 2008. I hope you've all had fun! And, yay, I messed up yesterday! Stupid me!

It's nearly Christmas, so don't be sad, only a few more days until we're all glad. (That was a terrible rhyme)

Um.... not really. Just trying out another Nonsense script! Well, I guess it's the teensiest bit relevant because Four Island went down.

Don't blame Linux you peoples! It was actually my fault. Yesterday, frustrated with Debian's.... um.... not-up-to-datedness-with-packages thing, I stupidly added the Ubuntu APT repository to /etc/apt/sources.list.... and tried to sudo apt-get upgrade. Oops.

The upgrade broke halfway done because it tried to install a package that used "Breaks", which Debian's old dpkg couldn't handle. So I was left with a mutant system, half Debian, half Ubuntu, completely unstable. I was afraid that if I turned it off, it'd never turn on again.

Exasperated, I backed up all of the data, downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 Server Edition, installed it and here we are! Four Island is back and better than ever! Ubuntu always used to work for me before I got a dedicated server and it seems to be working fine now.

And yes, I am a lazy person to the extreme. I'm sorry to everyone that I forgot to write the final article of Kirby Week 2008 :(. So instead, I'm just going to redirect you to a previous article.

I wrote an article entitled How To Implement Pingback a while back (in fact, on June 17th 2008, though since I changed time zones it says June 16th) that explains how to implement Pingback on your blog. You should do that because Pingback is a very useful thingy and I'm crazy about it. :)

And to end off, I'm going to include a few more results from that Nonsense script I mentioned:

Tamasys destroyed Color Pencils
W. B. Sarel thinks Wikipinia is thick sticky
The Fourm is taken over by Chofox Hudper
Tamasys wants to have plagurized Smiley
Four Island is parodied by Color Pencils

The last one is disturbing as Gryphic (or Drifty, as she now calls herself) actually has done this. :) However, she's purged all articles on her site before Four Island finished its extended downtime, so I can't link to it. Sorry! :)

On the fifth day of Kirby Week, Four Island gave to me: An way of making URLs look prettier.

As I promised yesterday, today I'll be showing you how to use prettier URLs to reference your blog posts. We'll be removing the query string.

In this tutorial, I'm assuming you're using the Apache web server with mod_rewrite enabled. Otherwise, you'll probably need to read more elsewhere when we get up to the .htaccess file.

Speaking of the .htaccess file, let's do that now. In your kirbyweek08 folder, create a file called .htaccess and put this in it:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*)/ read.php?slug=$1 [L]

Well, that's yummy-yay-yay, but the read.php file does not yet accept a slug parameter. Let's add that functionality now with an upgrade to the read.php file. Find the line that says:

$getpost = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE id = " . $_GET['id'];

Replace it with the following:

if (isset($_GET['id']))
{
 $getpost = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE id = ";
 $getpost .= $_GET['id'];
} else if (isset($_GET['slug']))
{
 $getpost = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE slug = \"";
 $getpost .= $_GET['slug'] . "\"";
}

This will allow read.php to parse slugged URLs. Now that Prettiful URL support has been added, you think you're done, right? Wrong. We have to fix the links to read.php in functions.php and rss.php.

Within functions.php, there are two occurances of this partial line of code:

<A HREF="read.php?id=<?php echo($sqlOutput['id']); ?>">

Replace both with:

<A HREF="http://example.org/kirbyweek08/<?php echo($sqlOutput['slug']); ?>/">

Of couse, remember to replace http://example.org/kirbyweek08/ with the path to your blog.

In addition, the following partial line of code appears in rss.php:

/read.php?id=<?php echo($getposts3[$i]['id']); ?></link>

Replace it with:

/<?php echo($getposts3[$i]['slug']); ?>/</link>

And there! You're done! You've added prettiful URL support to your blog! YAY!

Tomorrow we'll be discussing other small improvements you can make to your homebrew blogging system.