Blog of Josh Hall

There are a lot of adult LEGO enthusiasts who just enjoy LEGO as a medium to recreate scenes from movies or popular history.  Here’s a guy who likes to recreate scenes from Oscar winning movies in LEGO.

Checking out BoringPGH.com the other day and stumbled on this gem.  I’ve never heard of the band Formula412 before, but I dig it.  The video is pretty decent, and I really like the concept.  Might even make PAT Transit look cool…if that’s possible.  It was done by Bill Paladino, who you’d recognize as the guy behind Wiz Khalifa’s Black and Yellow video.

The only time you talk about your old job is at a job interview.  Once you’re in, they don’t care anymore.  Don’t be that guy that dishes out diatribes on how he used to do this, or how things were when no one really gives a crap.

You may have noticed the new page – Words With Josh

I play words with friends (a scrabble rip-off basically) with a few people on my iphone, and I wanted to wrap some intelligence around finding the optimal word based off what letters were already played.  Now, I do not condone the act of cheating when you’re playing the game.  I was more intrigued at the logic that your brain does to determine what words to play.  Scrabble is a measurable science, and there is always a best word to play, it’s just a matter of whether you know that word and whether you recognize where to place it.

I at first wanted to write a complete scrabble game, that would track the entire board and value changing tiles, so that you could play against a computer.  I could still do that, but I would think that no one really wants to play scrabble by themselves, right?

So I set off to at least code what could be useful -IF- you decided to use it as a reference tool.  I made a version available through the blog but also a better mobile version for iphones and such here – http://sixf00t4.com/wordswithjosh.  Give it a shot.  It will help you find anagrams, words with letters in specific places, and even includes the option for blank tiles.  I was thinking about adding the functionality to set letter spaces as score modifiers (triple letter, double word, etc), but I got lazy and really just satisfied with what I have now.  It’s all php and mysql.  Let me know what you think!

You don’t need to be the best. You’re already the best -you- there will every be.

Don’t ever buy from Skate-buys.com.  Ever.  Kallie is a size 11 figure skate and no stores carry that size.  I couldn’t even find a decently priced pair on amazon.com.  On Monday, Januar 17th, I bought a pair through Skate Buys for ~$80.  I was billed the next day. 

On Friday the 21st, at 2pm in the afternoon, I received an email that said the skates were on backorder and to let them know if I want to cancel my order or if I just wanted to wait the estimated 2 weeks to receive them.  I replied expressing my frustration that it took all week for them to tell me that, but then I asked for my options, ie free expedited shipping when they come in.  I received no response.

I emailed them again on Feb 2nd, telling them I never received a response or options.  I received no response back from that either.  I called them on Feb 5th, after hours, and it just said “no one can answer, good bye”.  No message system or anything.  I called back during business hours the next day, and the person who answered was so offensive and rude, raising his voice at me that he just checked with the manufacturer and the skate will ship directly from them.  He offered no explanation or solution or estimate on how long it would be.

I waited a few days, and filed with the BBB for poor customer service.  Now, I’ve left a voicemail for them during business hours saying I want a refund and also sent them an email saying I want a refund and have yet to receive a response back.

ridiculous.