For some reason, I'm more interested in the passing of Millvina Dean than Arturo Gatti, neither of whom I had heard of before today. Of course, it seems like The Washington Post had never heard of Gatti either, because their reporting of the story is a tasteless 'double feature' with a picture of Steve McNair's mother attending the football star's funeral.

The reason I bring this up is to point out the ridiculousness of public grief over celebrity deaths. Now of course I understand that Ms. Dean's passing, though notable, was pedestrian (she was 97) while that of Gatti, McNair and Michael Jackson were tragic. No, I don't share the view that 'all death is a tragedy', nor even the stronger 'all human death is a tragedy'. Personally, I believe that death is intrinsic to the very existence of life, exactly as winter is to summer. I don't fear death, for I believe that an infinite time of human consciousness would be worse than any Hell human religions provide. This belief forms part of my rejection of Christianity, since in this view Heaven is only the lesser of two eternal hardships. The fact that humans couldn't possibly enjoy eternal existence of their consciousness in any reasonable manner that would also preserve it, for me, exposes the foolish belief in anthropomorphic gods and goddesses. Although, technically speaking, death is a privilege reserved for those who have lived, it seems clear to me that we will be no more dead after we are buried than we were before we were born. And it didn't seem to bother anybody then!

The real tragedy is the importance that people seem to place on death. Although funerals and memorials are important parts of the grieving process, and quite useful in preserving (and in most cases, shaping) recorded history, I can't help but feel some form of pity for those who would place a paid death notice. Meanwhile, I can't help but feel the same disdain for those who show excessive remorse for the death of celebrities as I feel for those who consume gossip news (though I imagine it's the same contingent). The lives of those who perform for us on the field and on the stage, while notable, are really no more important than those of the rest of us.

As the title of this article says, I want you, oh humble reader to stop. Stop right now.

Because if you are an average American, then the odds are nearly 1 in 4 that you're currently watching television.

That's right. Somehow, some way, Americans manage to spend a quarter of their day watching TV. ON AVERAGE. So please just stop.

Listen, I'm not the most educated, insightful, creative guy out there. I'm not toiling away at inventions and ideas that benefit the whole of mankind. For someone who has a crumb of musical talent (a minor in music, to boot!), I don't spend much time practicing it, or even listening to it. When I read, it's largely articles on web blogs, wikipedia, and online equivalents of print publications.

But I certainly don't spend anywhere near-- checks website-- 353.1 minutes ON AVERAGE watching television. Here are a list of things you could do, Mr. or Ms. Joe Average, if you turned off the television for even a single day:

• Write 4 blog posts


• Learn jQuery


• Burn 300 Calories and subsequently significantly reduce cancer risk


• Save the planet a couple of times


• Advance the visibility of atheism in America


• Learn to play the guitar


• Hug 765 people


• And still have 10.1 minutes remaining to listen to Bit Bop Three 2.62 times

Not to mention all of the time you could spend keeping up with local and national news from your local newspaper or its equivalent website, keeping track of the actions of local politicians, checking in with friends and relatives, telling a story to your child, learning more about a cause that you care about, etc etc.

I'm sorry, but television is simply one of the greatest wastes of time there is. Which, I imagine, is probably the reason why so many Americans spend so much time with it. I have the impression that people largely don't like their jobs and when they get home they'd rather 'veg out' in front of the television because they can't motivate themselves to do anything that would be productive or enriching to their own lives or those of others. Please, please...I want to challenge myself and everyone out there to fight the urge to passively consume useless media like television, and instead take up an activity or two that actively engages your mind, talent, and personality.

We'll all be better people for it!

Funny thing, I'm a programmer but this is my first fully nerdy technical this-is-how-I-did-xyz-task post. Go figure.

Anyways, here is some detail about accessing Java classes from within an XSLT stylesheet, so long as you are processing it with Xalan. (For yummy syntax highlighting, here's the post as a Pastie)

The main gist is that any built-in Java class can be accessed by using the 'xalan://java.package.name.ClassName' syntax. It is easiest if you 'import' the classes you need into your stylesheet using a namespace declaration at the top of the file. For example:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:cal="xalan://java.util.GregorianCalendar"
  xmlns:tz="xalan://java.util.TimeZone"
  xmlns:fmt="xalan://java.text.SimpleDateFormat">

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <!-- Stylesheet goodness goes here -->
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Then later on in your stylesheet, you can call functions on the class using the defined namespace. In this context, static members (aka 'class functions', such as Calendar.getInstance()) are called simply using the namespace and a colon. Other member functions (such as Calendar.set(int field, int value), which operate on a specific instance), take the instance variable as the first parameter, and all other parameters are shifted (so the first parameter becomes the second, the second the third, etc).

Here's an example of this which parses a string that contains a GMT time and outputs it as a PST:

  <xsl:template name="FormatDate">
    <xsl:param name="date" />
    
    <!-- incoming format: YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ -->
    <!-- outbound format: MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM -->

    <xsl:variable name="tz_pt" select="tz:getTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles')" />
    <xsl:variable name="tz_utc" select="tz:getTimeZone('UTC')" />
    <xsl:variable name="fmt_in" select="fmt:new(&quot;yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss&quot;)" />
    <xsl:variable name="fmt_out" select="fmt:new('MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss a')" />

    <!--  Set the output time format to PST, and the input time format to GMT.
          These statements don't actually output anything. -->
    <xsl:value-of select="fmt:setTimeZone($fmt_out, $tz_pt)" />
    <xsl:value-of select="fmt:setTimeZone($fmt_in, $tz_utc)" />

    <xsl:if test="$date != ''">
      <xsl:variable name="src_date" select="fmt:parse($fmt_in, $date)" />
      <xsl:value-of select="fmt:format($fmt_out, $src_date)" />
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>

Note the use of 'xsl:value-of' statements in order to call an instance method on our variables. In XSLT, you have to wrap your method call in a 'select=' type statement, either in a 'xsl:value-of' or as the evaluation of an 'xsl:variable' in order for them to be executed.

You could call this somewhere in your style sheet by selecting the date value you wish to convert.

  <xsl:template match="first_president">
    George Washington was born on <xsl:call-template name="FormatDate">
        <xsl:with-param name="date" select="birth_date"/>
      </xsl:call-template>
  </xsl:template match="first_president">

Looking back, I probably thought that if I didn't blog about it, it would go away.

2009 has not, so far, been kind to Travis Briggs (Travis Briggs' blog, this is the blog of Travis Briggs).

My main problem is that on January 12th, I was laid off from my job. With a conciliatory tone, my boss explained that my work was exemplary, that he was thoroughly impressed with my contributions, but that there simply was no longer room for me at the company. Another developer got cut at the same time as me. It turns out that they let me go exactly on my 2 month 'anniversary'. The most crushing immediate impact of being laid off was that they cut off my health benefits immediately (not at the end of the month). I ended up having to pay over 200 dollars for prescription drugs later that week-- and that was only for a half month's supply! I read through my options, and COBRA would cost me like 415 dollars a month, so I should probably get that, seeing that my prescriptions would then only cost 45 dollars and I would be covered for other ailments (at about the same cost as a month of drugs now).

Notice that I introduced the above as being my 'main' problem. Additionally, I have recently turned twenty-four (on the 13th, the day after losing my job). I'll admit there was the passing joy of celebrating the occasion with my family (my mom baked an awesome double-layered peanut butter chocolate cake) and some friends. However it seems the main function of this date was to call into relief the fact that the past 2-3 years have been wasted. I've given up a great job (Brightcove) had multiple failed romantic relationships, failed at saving any money I've earned and barely made a dent in my student loan payments, and failed to accomplish anything significant or worthwhile outside of my professional life, which in itself has not lived up to its full potential. My social circle (friends and acquaintances) has shrunk rather than grown, besides the fact that I am a fat, unemployed computer programmer living in his parents' basement.

Mother. Fucker.

I'm a generally optimistic person, though, and I'm convinced things can get better. Not that they necessarily will-- I know it will take work and dedication and of all things luck on my part-- but that they can. Here's hoping.