Koebbe.com

I do a lot of coding at my job. Most of it is in PHP and MySQL. My projects are fairly visible in the company so I like to do my best at coding things properly and make them as slick as possible. I was never really good at organizing my code or choosing a coding convention and sticking with it. In addition, I’ve grown tired of typing the same three lines of code to get a MySQL row. I knew there had to be a PHP framework that would make coding easier, scalable, and give me a convention to stick with. Enter CodeIgniter…

CodeIgniter is an Application Development Framework - a toolkit - for people who build web sites using PHP. Its goal is to enable you to develop projects much faster than you could if you were writing code from scratch, by providing a rich set of libraries for commonly needed tasks, as well as a simple interface and logical structure to access these libraries. CodeIgniter lets you creatively focus on your project by minimizing the amount of code needed for a given task.

I’ve also been getting on the AJAX bandwagon with the rest of geekdom. I started using Prototype and Script.aculo.us, which were very nice, but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t need in both of those. Recently I heard about a similar javascript package called MooTools. Just going to the website tells you this thing is very cool.

MooTools is a compact, modular, Object-Oriented javascript framework designed to make writing extensible and compatable code easier and faster. Mootools lets you get the job done efficiently and effectively.

Just a few useful tools for you web developers out there.

I got to spend some time with my cousin Mark a couple weekends ago and he told me about a site that takes karaoke music and put the voices from dictionary pronunciation audio to the music. Say hello to Dictionaraoke. Never has it been more apparent how dumb these songs are. Filibuster Dave, you’ve got some competition…

Oops…I Did it Again…

Rock and Roll All Night…

I’m sure many of you have heard this before, but it’s that time of year to hear it again.

O Holy Night by some guy who can’t sing.

Yes, I know. I’ve been neglecting the blog.

Okay. This one is pretty self explanatory. This is a song about a guy who has a mullet and recounts the history of how his hair style became what it is today. I was a little self conscious when I sang and should have turned up the twang to 11.

Favorite lines:

• “So it’s business in the front and a party in the back”
• “Front looks like a man, back looks like a girl”

Enjoy.

Wow! I’m so proud! I actually remembered (or lucked out) how to log in and post without Andrew’s help!!

Well, at least I warned you in my first and only blog to this point that I wasn’t much of an online journal type, but a rehearsal of mine got cancelled today, so I guess I’m feeling particularly happy and adventurous.

Hmmm….things are going well. BUSY. But well. TCU is same old, same old. I have a few students doing a competition this weekend and so are on a recital tonight to have a run through of everything. They should do well if they remembered to practice everything I told them:) We’ll see how it goes tonight. TWU is good, but pretty overwhelming. I just wasn’t used to the pace before I got there, so after 9 weeks, I’m starting to settle in and not feel like I’m behind every single day. Hopefully the rest of the faculty is extending me some grace! They seem like it, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk with anyone yet, so we’ll see. The NATS (yes, it sounds bad, but stands for the National Assoc. of Teachers of Singing) regional voice competition is in Waco this year, so I get to play for all the Wesleyan kids who are going and that’s been fun. I like playing and performing advanced vocal lit. At least it’s a challenge! What I have discovered is that I still don’t really care for accompanying for choirs. I thought after my disastrous experience at MU when I was a sophomore almost 10 years ago (had a vicious lesbian conductor who felt it her life’s mission not to conduct a choir, but to spend the time making life miserable for anyone in it who was straight) that I might try it again and perhaps like it. Well, I guess I don’t MIND it-it’s just not something I’m crazy about. But it’s ok. It’s part of the job and I’m willing to put in my dues. Heh, it’s not like refreshing my brain on how to read open score is a BAD thing!

Onto other things…

We just got back this past weekend from Julie M’s wedding!! It was AWESOME to go back to Lawrence (hadn’t been back since our own wedding) and see people. It was such a comfy feeling to go back because Lawrence really hasn’t changed a bit. I like that in certain towns. Anyway, we saw Toni B. at the CC house, John and Andrea H., Joe and Trisha P. and baby Sandra, of course the Mealiff clan, Lanny M., Bill and Stacey H., Jessica and Isaac H., and many others. It was a blast. I’m really excited and happy for Julie-Mark is a great guy.

Our only other trip from the latter half of this year was to Austin back in August. Andrew surprised me by planning (yes, actually planning it himself-heehee!) an anniversary trip down there. It was great. We rested and totally slept in, walked around Austin, went to the TX history museum, drove around the UT campus, etc. We also got to see Brett and Diana W. there which was really fun! We had dinner with them and then went back to their place to play Scrabble and laugh hysterically at their cat who put on quite a crazy show:)

Well, that’s about it for now. Only 7 more weeks till my wonderful month off! I’m definitely counting down.

As Matt reminded me, I haven’t posted the next Wannabilly in a while. Sorry about that.

All right. Next up is a song I’m calling “Fishin’” (I’m not sure that we ever came up with a name for this one). This one is about a guy heading to his fishing pond/lake and needs to buy a new fishing pole. He runs in to Mable and an argument ensues.

I was just listening to this one and is it just me or does that interlude in the middle sound a lot like some Johny Cash?

Enjoy.

In this song, a man tells the story of finding his “House of Wheels” after going through many other trucks and large vehicles. Though it needs to be said for our Texas friends who may be unfamiliar with the slogans, “Chevy, Like a Rock” and “Built Ford Tough”. These are the slogans for the rest of the country.

Those outside of Texas may not know it, but everything is Texas branded down here. The slogans are rewritten “Chevy, Driving Texas” and “Ford is the Best in Texas” (used to be “Ford and Texas go Hand-in-Hand”… not very manly). And on a side note, Dodge is “Bigger in Texas, Better in a Dodge”. Plus there are larger “Texas Edition” trucks down here to with the Texas flag somehow incorporated in to the manufacturer logo.

Anyway. This is a much slower song that the rest. The harmonies aren’t as good as the others, but still a good song.

Best line: “I may be leaving my place of birth, but I’ve never left home”

Enjoy.

A co-worker sent this to me. I’m not even sure what to say.

Armor of God PJs? Yes, the Christian merchandise industry has gone that far.

Before I even start this post I have to give a disclaimer:

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental… and kinda sad.

Ok now that that’s out of the way. This is probably my favorite song we did. The chorus is my lyrical contribution in this one. It’s about a persistant woman of unfortunate look and smell who has fallen in love with a man (the singer) who wants nothing to do with her. Its kinda got that “O Brother” feel to the backing vocals.

Enjoy.

KU has a number of fine museums. Many KU students have become very famous art critics due to this fact, including some of our friends. Here is a live critique of a piece of art by one of our friends.