I just got tagged by the BAMF Chris Cornutt, creator of the (in)famous site PHP Developer.org to participate in the “Seven Things” blog tagfest.

• I’m barely 21 years old. For some reason people are always surprised by this. I’m convinced it’s my beard. That and how many 21 year olds ask for money to attend ZendCon ’08 for their birthday?
• I was a state science fair finalist in 8^th grade I did my science fair project on Artificial Intelligence and refuse to release any more details or information on my project. Let’s just say it was an early point in my programming and computer career.
• I am an Eagle Scout as well as hold my Vigil Honor in the OA. I was very involved with Boy Scouts in my youth (and plan to continue my involvement in the future when time, money, and internal BSA politics allow), grabbing my Eagle Scout, hiking Philmont twice (65 miles the first trip, 110 the second trip), and getting my Vigil Honor in the OA posthumously.
• I originally came to Texas A&M to be a CG artist (focusing on SFX). I picked A&M because it had a great graduate CG program (called the Viz Lab) and figured grabbing a CPSC with focus on Art at A&M would help out. I still am fascinated by computer graphics, but realized I was more interested in software architecture when I had more fun planning the OOP design of my ray tracer than actually filling in the guts of the ray tracer.
• I used to play “teacher” with my younger brother. I would come home from school excited about the math and science I learned (everyone yell NERD) and teach my younger brother (3 years younger) what I learned on this badass little chalkboard in my room. I probably should regret this because my brother just showed up to college taking Calculus 3 his first semester (and acing it).
• I love Psychology. It was my favorite class in High School (aced the AP test with a 5) and my only regret about college is I never had the time to take any psych classes (though Human-Computer Interaction was an awesome class). If I didn’t do my degree in computer science, I would have picked Psychology as my major.
• I was an avid trumpet player in Highschool. We’re talking top 2-3 chairs, section leader, All State Solo and Ensemble, $2,000 hand made horn, and 7 years playing experience under my belt before I retired.

Now I kinda got tagged late in the game, but I still need to tag some people:

• Jeff Carouth, a former co worker, recent php|architect contributor, and the first proof that there were developers that were actually smarter than me in College Station, Texas (but certainly not the last :P).
• Chris Weldon, the man who started/ran the local PHPUG and the man who showed me that Jeff and I were not the only PHP users in College Station.
• Ben Floyd, a really great developer I’ve had the pleasure of meeting through refreshBCS. Though he’s primarily a .NET developer (with some serious skills, the Texas A&M Campus Maps site is basically all him), he has done some PHP projects (and even though he gritches about it, I know he’s enjoyed working in the language, even just a little bit).
• Ben Burket, I would like to see him blog again (he’s another friend I meet through refreshBCS), he’s “my ruby friend” (but a merb developer, noone throw lettuce). I poke fun at his language, he pokes fun at mine, and we both meet at the middle with python.
• Andrew Ellis, a former coworker who is a security guru. No doubt he will exploit some obscure vulnerability in wordpress to take down my site for tagging him.
• whurley, the “hey look I know someone famous” friend who’s been exceptionally nice to me. The guy’s an evil genius and he scares the crap out of me, but hey, you only get better playing a smarter opponent. I don’t know if he’ll ever see this or have time to post, regardless you should follow this link and read his stuff.
• “Henrick”, I read his blog and he posts regularly with some pretty interesting stuff. I have no idea who he is and now officially call him out!

And, of course, the rules to pass on:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some wierd.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

So some friends of mine started talking up a new website/company some guy brought to them to work on. Basically it was a Threadless clone but far more upscale, better designs, and socially conscious. They named this experiment “Desired Hearts“.

After seeing a few preliminary screen shots and some pictures of the packaging from Roby Fitzhenry, I started getting a bit excited. Then the day finally came when the site launched. I ordered The End Of The World shirt because I thought it looked badass.

The checkout process was a bit bumpy, but considering I jumped on the site a day or two after it opened, I’m going to give them a pass on that one (plus I couldn’t duplicate the weird error I got anyways). The only real complaint I have is a lack of an order status/order history page for the accounts and the form fields were a bit messy during the check out.

However none of this was in vain when I finally got my package earlier today.

(You can visit the flickr set directly)

The box came as you see it, no superfluous external packaging, nothing except a USPS shipping label. The box opens up to Gucci-style tissue paper with the Desired Hearts logo on it wrapping the shirt delicately.

I can say that this shirt is of the highest quality, manufacturing wise. The shirt feels amazing, nothing feels cheap, and everything about this shirt feels custom. To sum it up I’m super freaking stoked!

All in all, from start to finish this was an amazingly well executed idea that I can definitely see going places. I mean, seriously, who expects a sexy unboxing experience when you order a shirt?

If you like the idea of Desired Hearts, please Digg this article, upvote this on reddit, or just pass this along to your friends!

from indiana import jones
import whip
import ruins

cave = new Ruins()

trap = indiana.steal( cave.treasure )
indiana.escape( trap )

ImportError: Snakes? I hate snakes!

At the risk of being marked as blog-spam, I got some pretty funny spam messages in my junk folder recently:

Annoyed by fiasco in bed? Light up now! Leave tiresome experience behind! nice escape is attainable! Flood of feelings is just a few clicks away!

Had enough of problem in bed? Cheer up now! Leave harrassing experience behind! urgent rescue is almoust there! Wow emotions is just minutes away!

Bored about trouble in bed? Liven up now! Leave tedious experience behind! quick help is within reach! Awesome bedtime is just a blink away!

Feeling uneasy about problem in bed? Cheer up now! Leave unnecessary experience behind! emergency is almoust there! Perfect date is just minutes away!

Frustrated disaster in bed? Perk up now! Leave odd experience behind! your magic remedy is available! Emotional breakthrough is just inches away!

Bored about problems in bed? Liven up now! Leave monotonous experience behind! your salvation is accessable! Unforgettable sensation is just inches away!

Disappointed at troubles in bed? Get up now! Leave worrying experience behind! helping uplift is within reach! Emotional breakthrough is just a few steps away!

It’s a fun game trying to figure out what each message is peddling. Is it mortgage refinancing, watches, or penis enlargement pills? It’s like a mystery!