September 2004 archives
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Sunday, September 19, 2004
news and notes
These two things aren't nearly as cool as having gotten engaged, but they're pretty nifty nonetheless.
The first is the addition of a new Java solitaire game! That's right, kids, I've done it again. I call this game Sequence; it doesn't have a common name that I know of. I learned it from a book a long time ago, but I'm not sure it's a very common solitaire game. Nevertheless, I think you'll find it entertaining, and a little more skill-oriented than the first Java solitaire. It was done pretty quickly after my updates to the original Java solitaire game and uses very similar code in a lot of places. Give it a try, and see what you think!
The second, geekier thing, is that pressing on... now has a live RSS feed. This may mean absolutely nothing to you, and if it doesn't, that's okay. Think of it as something akin to a crawler on Fox News or CNN or ESPN or whatever. Essentially, it provides a link to my most recent postings.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
the proposal
I had known how I was going to propose to the woman I was going to marry for over eight years.
When I was in 12th grade, as part of an English assignment, I wrote a short allegory describing myself as a house. Included in this house was a place that housed my hopes and dreams. But many of those dreams were locked away in boxes, to which I didn’t have the keys. I wrote about how this part of the house was locked away to most, but I would give keys out to those I thought deserved them, and one day I would give a key to someone who would help me open those boxes.
It was a selfish teenager’s definition of love. And it was just tonight that I realized that.
My original idea was to present the lady with a key that symbolized the master key to all of my hopes and dreams, and then present her with the ring with which to hold that key. When I was seventeen, I thought it was a clever idea. In fact, in some ways I still do.
It just wasn’t right for my proposal. I’d realized that before my revelation tonight, though, as I’d already told Kelly about the story. I had given her the key that I had up unto that point kept in my wallet for that time.
But the other reason that I knew that it wouldn’t be right was that I had missed the point all along. The important thing in the story tonight, as I finally realized tonight, wasn’t the key.
It was the boxes.
I realized that Kelly had opened a lot of those boxes that I wrote about as a teenager. I knew that she was the love of my life. I knew that she made me very happy. But those weren’t the only types of boxes that she helped me open. She’s tested my faith and encouraged me to share it more freely. She’s taught me to know money more as a means than an end. She’s made me happy, to be sure, but she’s also made me joyful and content, which are very different from being happy. Happiness is temporary, but joy and contentment are lasting.
The reason that Kelly was different is because she added to the story. Not only did she open those boxes with me, she opened others that I didn’t even realize were there.
Kelly and her parents came to Birmingham yesterday to evacuate from the path of Hurricane Ivan. I took them to dinner tonight, and afterwards we went to my grandparents. During dinner, Kelly’s mother had inquired as to how my parents were doing, and I said that I would call once we got back from dinner. What no one else knew at that point was the primary reason I’d be calling!
After we got back and watched a little bit of footage of the storm’s oncoming wrath, I held up my phone and said that I was going out, and asked Kelly if she wanted to come with me. She said yes, and we went outside. I knew that I was going to do it, but I didn’t know what I was going to say.
As we walked out to the street, I started talking with her about how I remembered coming out to the street and the cul-de-sac when I was younger and kicking a football around. I told her also how I remembered thinking about finding someone and what she’d be like.
I asked her if she remembered the story that I wrote back in 12th grade, and she said that she did. I asked her if she still had her key. She said that she had it in a safe place.
And so I told her about the boxes that she had opened for me in my life. With an inquisitive look, she asked, “Like what?” I gave her the example of the time that I had done 30-Hour Famine with her. She mentioned about how we couldn’t do that anymore…I still don’t think that she knew at that point.
But I knew…the light had come on…it was the boxes, Brandon…
I told her that she had done things that I would have never thought about as a selfish, 17-year-old boy. It was implied that as a man of almost 27 years, I had learned a lot more about love, and about life, and that all of these things were coming together, culminating in one moment where I’d ask a question that I hope I only ask once in my life.
There, under a streetlight in the cul-de-sac, I pulled out my box, and said that since she had helped me open up so many boxes, I wanted her to be able to open one.
I got down on one knee, and held the box out to her, and asked her if she would do me the honor of being my wife.
This time the answer was only one word…”Yes”.
Monday, September 6, 2004
Java Solitaire 3.1
I obviously haven't written anything in a while, and if you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance that you know why. If you don't, that's okay. Just know that right now is a pretty rough time for me, but it's a lot rougher for someone that I love very much. Maybe one of these days I'll write more about it on this space, but this is too much of a public forum for it right now.
So, because I have needed something to keep my mind semi-occupied when I'm not at work, I decided to write a major revision of Java solitaire. The game itself hasn't changed a whole lot, but the look and feel definitely has. If you haven't played it in a while, give it a spin. I'd appreciate any feedback.
What follows is a list of changes that I made, if you're interested.
New to version 3.1:
- Added session statistics, under the "Information" (formerly "Help") menu.
- Fixed a bug that I introduced in some of the new 3.0 logic.
New to version 3.0:
- Converted entire application to Swing (Java's new way of designing GUIs).
- Gave all of the applet the "native OS" look and feel. In other words, if you play this game on Windows XP, it will look a lot like a Windows XP program. If you're a Mac user, hopefully it will look good there, although I have no way of testing.
- Converted the help interface to Swing and changed its interface to a tabbed pane.
- Other changes:
- New, more colorful card images!
- Smoother card selection. Now the card doesn't "snap to" the cursor; instead, the card is selected from the point where it is clicked. Makes it look more professional.
- Optimized the imports (which should result in quicker loading).