New Blog Time 2011

Well if you are reading this you are looking at my new blog site.

The old blog was hosted under Blogengine.net and the new one is using WordPress. WordPress is pretty much the top dog now in the world of blog engines.

I predict three posts before I grow lax and have a gap of many months in my posts. I’d like to pretend that won’t happen, but that’s the real world for you.

As of this writing I have gone with a photo of two alligators for the header. I took that picture several years ago at Busch Gardens in Tampa on a day that a tropical storm had just passed through.

That was a fun day. For anyone who hasn’t been through a tropical storm on the coast just think of a hurricane and dial back a few notches. Wind whipping palm trees, the ocean looking very angry, rain dumping by the truckload.

Here are a couple of pictures of the day before the storm:

2006 Florida Trip 031

2006 Florida Trip 033

These were both on the beach in St. Pete looking back towards the pier.

Note the seaweed monsters crawling ashore.

This was the beginning of the storm. It was late in the night before the bulk of the storm rolled ashore, and it was still leaving when we showed up at Busch.

It turned out to be one of the best days at a theme park ever. Most folks think “near disaster == no going to the park today”, but that just meant that we didn’t have the crowds or heat that normally plague such parks.

2006 Florida Trip 087

This was outside one of the restaurants… ba dump bump.

Actually it was part of the excellent Rhino Rally ride. Remember the lessons taught in Jurassic Park with the jeep ride and wild animals that ate the passengers (oh, wait spoiler alert), well this ride pretty much thumbs its nose at those lessons. In a really good way. I like this ride when the line isn’t so long (see: tropical storm).

2006 Florida Trip 112

Probably shouldn’t let kids drive, though.

Any way,  let’s see how the new blog works out.

jeffa

Web Forms vs MVC: How To Choose

This is the PowerPoint presentation from my session at Code Camp Atlanta 2011.

WebFormsVsMVC.pptx (379.18 kb)

Here are the links from the end slide:

http://www.asp.net

http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-music-store-part-1

http://www.asp.net/web-forms/samples/tailspin-spyworks

Here are my various websites:

http://ggmug.com

http://galacticbeacon.com

http://givecampatlanta.org

http://funzietown.com

Here’s the Intro To jQuery talk I did at GGMUG last year:

http://ggmug.com/page/intro_to_jQuery_01

Man In Chicken Suit Shot In Front Of Burger Barn

For the latest we go to the news desk of KWCH and Ace Reporter, Dave Roberts:

ManInChickenSuitShot

Police have named the following “Persons Of Interest”:

PeterVsChicken

Peter Griffin, who seems to have a long-standing feud with “Guy Dressed As Chicken”, and

chikFilACowchikFilACowchikFilACow

The C10 gang of anthropomorphic cows who represent rival restaurant Chik-Fil-A and are violently opposed to the eating of themselves by other creatures, especially those who can read their native patois.

GunBaby On The Moon Hunting Dinosaurs

GunBabyMoon800

Rob made the comment that he didn’t care if someone did a story with GunBaby on the moon hunting dinosaurs, so…

This was my first attempt at inking on the computer, so be gentle…

I used Microsoft’s Expression Design followed by Paint.net. No fancy Wacom tablet for me, neither. Just a good ole mouse. Bleh!

I clearly have a loooong way to go, but it was fun.

Gun Baby, PI

GunBabyPI800

Several of us at Webcomics Community are playing around with an idea called Gun Baby: The Baby With A Gun.

It started as a phrase KidGalactus tossed out and Rob picked up. Rob’s idea was a community character we could each interpret and play around with.

Obviously mine is a film noir detective version of Gun Baby.

Rob is doing a western version and other folks are doing different variations.

RealBigNuke did a great one here. I love the dialog!

Yamino did a futuristic version here. Best… rocking horse… ever!

I also did a quick pencil sketch of the church-turned-saloon for Rob’s western:

HolyDyper

I hope we can eventually turn this into an anthology.

Visual Studio Tip: Add Existing Directory

How many times have you wanted to add a directory that already exists to your project only to have to create the directory (and any subdirectories) and then Add Existing Files (one directory at a time)?

Annoying isn’t it? (Almost as annoying as someone who uses too many parentheses.)

Why, oh why, isn’t there an Add Existing Directory function?

Because it isn’t needed.

What? You’re crazy!

If you copy the directory and all its subdirectories into the project (into the directory you want them) with File Explorer (or xcopy from the command line), then go into VS and click the little Show All Files icon at the top of the Solution Explorer pane (second icon from the right for me), voila! There are the directories that you want to add.

Now just highlight the grey little directory and right click. Next pick the menu item that says “Include In Project”.

Bam! You just kicked it up a notch! (Man that’s a tired catch-phrase, isn’t it?)

Does that ever save some time.

Today I needed to include Tiny MCE in my scripts folder in jeffaBlogger (MVC blog engine I’m working on). It finally was annoying enough to go Google up a solution.

Thanks to NitriqBlog for that little life-saver.

 

Mouseketeers Assemble

Here’s my idea of the most awesome possible outcome of Disney buying Marvel:

MouseketeersAssemble800

This is my homage to both companies. They of course own all their copyrights, trademarks, etc. If they want to use my idea for a line of comic books, they can sign me up as the first subscriber.

I did this completely with a brush instead of my usual pen/nib. I need a smaller brush so it meant REALLY having to be steady to do the fine strokes. The shading on the shield was especially difficult with the brush.

Most people who care about this issue seem to be upset that Disney is buying Marvel. I really loved the Disney comics when I was growing up. They tended to have far deeper stories than the cartoons.

I had a lot of fun doing this one. When I heard Disney was buying Marvel I immediately began thinking of which Disney character would be good in which Marvel role. Donald is obvious since his anger management issues rival the Hulk’s any way.

Mickey as Captain America seemed obvious as well. That cast them as the Avengers right there, so the next two who had to be there were Thor and Iron Man. Goofy’s taller than the rest of the characters and I thought with the appropriately “goofy” equipment he’d work out.

Ten points to anyone who knows who is under that Iron Man armor! Should be obvious to anyone who read the Disney comics, pretty obscure to everyone else. He did appear in the Duck Tales show I hear (but that was after I had stopped watching cartoons because I was too old, but before I was old enough to have kids and start watching them again!).

Guess what? I ticked off Facebook by posting links to this drawing on the various Disney related groups, and they blocked me! I guess they figured anyone who posts links must be selling something. If anyone came here under the assumption I would be selling something, then I’ll try to dig up something around the house to sell. I have a bunch of really old broken computers! Um, how about a 10 MB hardrive for one of the original crop of Macintoshes? Pretty rocks?