Logan’s Run Online

So this summer’s BHCSI session started! I was lucky enough to be chosen as an undergraduate TA for the camp that first brought me to UCF as a high schooler, so I’m glad for the opportunity to experience this now on both sides of the line, as camper and counselor (essentially). I’m really excited for what the next three weeks holds!

That said, I’m severely disappointed it’s not a residential program this year. It was for the nine years before last (all of the times it had run), and due to financial constraints they canceled it entirely last year. At least they had enough to bring it back this summer, but they had to cut the residential portion, which majorly saddens me.

See, when I attended as a camper, those three weeks staying here on campus in Flagler were a blast. There’s just so much community building and bonding that goes on late at night, or through playing card games in the pod, watching movies, etc., that you just can’t get from a daytime-only program. I can only imagine how much more fun both I and the campers would have if we were able to have that available to us this year. That whole sense of belonging is why I briefly considered applying to the O-Team this past year–I’m very jealous of them now and how they get to have that entire experience. Sure, every three days a new group of FTIC students come in for orientation and they’re only with each group for two days at a time, but they still get the pod, they still get to build a community, they still get to hang out with each other and develop their own social circle, etc.

So I’m kinda bummed about the whole aspect. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be an RA in grad school or get to do a residential program like this later in life. Or maybe they’ll bring that portion back for BHCSI next summer. I can only hope!

Because he complained too much that I never update my blog.

Be happy.

Ever get some text that looks strangely bizarre, foreign, and incompregensible? Undecipherable, even? Maybe like this:

Ó̡͖͖̘͂͂͑͂͆́Ḫ̵̛̹̖̘͖̍̃ͤ͒͂́ ̬̟̦̹͈̯͒͌̽ͤĜ̘̰͚ͥͮͩ̅͝͞O̷͔̦͖̬̦ͦͥ̆̌͂͛ͭ̈́D̡̮̯͚̞̻̾́̋͑͆ ̛̥͎̹̣̥̜ͥ͛ͬ͘Ţ̤͓͎̜̩̩͍͇ͣ̉͒̍̉͛H̥̟̯̞̬͐̀͌̅̐̒̀͢E̸͓̝̤͉̰̩̥͛̊͑̆͗ͮ̊͌͘͘R̵̢͇̩̄̋̐̽͊̀̕E̸̽̉ͥͧ͗͑ͫ̚҉̦̬̻͍͓̹͔’̭͕̥̘̳̌͡͝S̥͖̰̿̾͢ ̑̃ͧͥ͆ͪ̔͏̝̠̬͙̹̫̳̹A̝͕̖̠̜͚̪͙ͣ̏͛͌ͤ̓ ̜͙͖̝̠̤̳̣͑V̶̨͉͓͙͖̟̙̮͙̉̅̉̏͋̂̊̓I̟̯̲ͯ̉̑̉̑͗ͥR̛̛̺̪̗̩̺̊̎͂͑̌́̈́̂͠U̴̮̜̼̫̲͛ͦ̿ͯS̵̱̖̮͉̍ͬͨ̾̾ͤ́ ̟͊̑̃ͧͥ͊ͦO̞̯͇̯̲̤͔ͭͣ͋͘N͇̲̈̌͢ ̱̠͕̰̩͔͑̇͌ͪ̆ͦ̈́ͩͅF̨̟͙̟͙̮͙̪̲͗̚͠ͅA͚͂ͭ̋̏ͩ̕͟C͔̦͓͈͚͎̻̘̮͑̂̈͑̋͗͐ͧ͘E͈̝̠͙ͣ̓̽ͫͧ̓B̴̳̭͕́̀ͤͮ̑͝Ö̧͉̝͙̳̬̻̺̘̮́ͮ̇̓͌͞O

Then use my tool to fix it! Over here at http://logansrunonline.com/dezalgo.php, you can just input the text and have it output a proper rendering, stripping everything but letters and some punctuation (. , !). Should be enough to get you to figure out what’s going on. As an example, the above run through my tool reports back:

OH GOD THERES A VIRUS ON FACEBOO

Happy days for all! Code is given freely away with no license (i.e., in the public domain) over here: http://pastebin.com/f308de256

And right here, if you’re too lazy to click a link:

1. <?php
3. # Character un-obfuscator
4. # really, really simple
5. # Just put the text that’s all weird in between the two EODs, and run the script
6. # replaces http://pastebin.com/m7079017c
7. # Add 0-9 into the preg_replace first argument (right before a-z) to keep numbers
8. # working example at http://logansrunonline.com/dezalgo.php
10. ?>
11. <form action=“dezalgo.php” method=“post”>
12. <textarea name=“badString” cols=100 rows=30></textarea><br />
13. <input type=“submit” name=“submit” value=“Un-obfuscate!” />
14. </form>
15. <?php
17. if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
18. echo preg_replace(‘/[^a-zA-Z.,!() ]+/i’, ”, $_POST['badString']);
19. }
21. ?>

Getting an error along the lines of “this form was installed as part of a XXXXXXX feature” and you can only remove it by “uninstalling that feature”?

This blog was SUPREMELY helpful in me figuring out what to do. Maybe it’ll help someone else out in the future.

http://blog.qumsieh.ca/2008/01/30/removing-a-form-template-from-central-admin-generates-an-error/trackback/

So Rodrigo first played a brief clip of this for me like three weeks ago, back during the second RHPS trip this summer. I had heard of Auto-Tune the News previously; back during Spring semester (I think mid-to-late April) I had first seen coverage of one of its videos on digg about gay marriage and something like that. I didn’t really pay much attention to it until Rodrigo showed me this (as of when this written) current installation #5, about unemployment, smoking lettuce, and American exceptionalism.

This song has been stuck in my head for the past 3 weeks.

I can’t get it out of my head. I can’t stop listening to it. I even frakking bought it on Amiestreet.com for $0.98 (not a bad price, really) so I could put it on my iPod and listen to it my car!

WTH did they do to this song?! Put nicotine in the audio waves?

It’s really amazing what the Gregory group has done with this concept. The videos are funny, the songs are addicting, and it’s really a terrific idea, too.

For those interested, here are the lyrics to #5 (along with a link to watch it):

ML: Any world order
That elevates one nation over another
Will fall flat
SG: Ah, snap
ML: I think that goes against the idea of American exceptionalism
SG: Exceptional fast food and exceptional dance moves.
ML: Most Americans believe that this country was gifted by God, a blessed nation, and that we are better.
SG: Yeah, we the promised land, a sacred place, gettin blessed by Joe Biden in space!
JB: God bless America!
All: Ay!
JB: Gah-awd bless America!
All: Ay!!
JB: God bless, God God bless
God bless America!!
All: Ay-men!!!
SB: Do you realize if you were to take that lettuce, dry it, and roll it, and smoke it…
MG: I know, it tastes like goat shit.
SB: You smoke your lettuce.
MG: Believe me, I’ve tried.
SB: You’re gonna end up with similar problems than if you were smoking tobacco.
MG: I know, fo sho, you should try it with tomato - burnin salad in my throat!
RM: Steve Buyer, warning complacent Americans about the risks of smoking lettuce.
MG: You can warn me all you want, but you’ll never stop my leafy green fetish.
SB: It’s not the nicotine that kills! It’s the smoooooke! The smooooooke. Cancer: it’s the smoke. Heart disease: it’s the smoke. Respiratory disease: it’s the smoooooooke! It’s the, it’s the inhalation, it’s the smooooke, the smooooooke. If they wanna obtain their nicotine, it’s okay. It’s the smooooooke, the smooooooooooooke!
SG: The more produce we come across, the more problems we see.
KC: Some companies say they’ve received hundreds of applications for just a single opening.
One man sent a shoooooe to his prospective employer
EG: Shawtayee, don’t you know
That Air Jordan was from meeee?
KC: I wore a long, white eyelet dress and a floppy white hat
And carried a walking stick
EG: Oo-wee! Am I crazy, am I trippin on shrooms
Or you singin bout pimpin on the late night news?
Katie Coo, baby boo, you got swagga like a star
Don’t stop, real talk, we gon take it to the charts!
You can be
KC: Lady Gaga
EG: I can be
KC: T-Pain
EG: We can be
KC: Bringing on the boogie
EG: Droppin rhymes like rain
You can be
KC: Lady Gaga
EG: I can be
KC: T-Pain
Both: Bringing on the boogie
EG: With floppy hats and pimp canes
LC: We’ve got some breaking news
Let’s go to Tracy Burns–she’s got all the news
TB: Actually, Liz, I think you wanna jump up to Robert
Robert: Tracy, baby, you crazy
I don’t know what the hell’s goin on
Or where the camera belongs
Let’s go to Nicole
NP: Me?
Robert: Yeah, you
NP: Me?
Robert: Baby boo
NP: Me?
Robert: Whooo-ooooooooh
NP: Me?
Robert: Nicole don’t know; let’s throw it to Joe
Joe: Uh, you know, I’m, uh, tryna get a hold of this myself
Breaking news guys, um
I, I don’t have it, Liz, I have to send it back down to you
I’m afraid
LC: Okay, that’s okay
But the basics of it is
Clearly this is a fascinating story

OK, it turns out I’ve kinda forgotten to post here…a lot…for the past month…even though a hell of a lot happened!!! Here’s the list of things I’ll be writing about sometime in the next day or so as I play “catch-up”:

• Sickness at the beginning of the semester
• Bike troubles
• FIRE
• “25 Things” on Facebook Done! Check it out here.
• Rainforest Cafe
• Campus Movie Fest and my YOUTUBE VIDEO! w00t! Click here!

Did I forget anything? Something big happen in the life of me and/or my friends that you know about and you think I should write about? LET ME KNOW!

*Update(s): finished the “25 Things on Facebook” post; look for the link above. Same for the CMF and YouTube video. Click the “FIRE” link for its post.

Edit: sorry, guess I never posted about my sickness, bike troubles, or Rainforest Cafe. Let’s sum those all up for those who care:

• I was sick at the beginning of the semester. I missed the first two days of classes and felt bad for a week.
• My bike was stolen sometime mid-semester and I walked around for the rest of the semester. I lost some weight by doing this.
• I went to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney with my friends and easily spent too much money through marketable consumerism.

This week’s note board is specially made for you XXX-freaks, courtesy of whoever came by and drew a ****. :-/

Click through for the full pic!

Don LaFontaine died. Yes, the “in a world” move-trailer announcer guy. It’s quite unfortunate as he was undoubtedly the best in the business–sure, others like Hal Douglas are well-known, but no one will match the renown that LaFontaine held. The movie industry sure suffered a huge loss tonight.

Right, the post with the “allusive details”? It was a remote control…hope the game was fun for a bit!

(I just lost The Game).

Sorry I haven’t updated for a bit; I kinda forgot about the blog. This is why I never really had a blog before–my bad memory prevents me from being able to keep content fresh! I’ll try harder this time, so we’ll see what happens.

In other news, I leave for college Friday–that should be fun! Hopefully I can update the blog with college move-in news. Until then, happy, er, Tuesday!