My Geeked-out Laptop

A fairly boring iPhoto of my Alienware laptop, but this post does serve well to test upload capability from the Blogger app on my iPhone.

Same Old Story

I hate that I can't keep a blog going long enough for it to grow and catch on with a core group of people. I say that not to be down on myself so much as to simply state the truth as it exists. It is the truth. I actually love to write and share with people. A big part of the lackluster blogging on my part is due to the lack of interaction from other people. A chicken-and-the-egg scenario, if you will. As another year winds slowly to a close, however, I find myself looking longingly at this blog and instantly thinking of the possibilities. Not to mention that I have a longing in my soul to keep it going. This blog still has the potential to be unique and fit a niche, I believe. I simply need to put forth the effort and "finish the course."

In all honesty, a lot has happened this year. I left my job as the graphic designer & web developer for a small, international ministry to take on a job as an Application Support Specialist (read: ASP.NET, C#, and SQL programmer) in the Student Enrollment Services Project Management Group at the University of Texas at Arlington. It was a major move, and it was not a decision that was made lightly, but it is the fulfillment of a long-standing dream in my life so, in the end, the decision was a no-brainer. And now I look to the future.

As my life comes into what I believe is a rich and full "summer season", I find I am thirsty for other outlets. It is time for me to really focus on something that is so radically different from what I've always pursued as a hobby in the past. I believe that the only way I can "succeed" as a blogger is to be real and simply combine my core passions into one large, cohesive whole and share my story with the world without any thought of receiving anything in return, aside from meaningful and intelligent conversations with anyone who discovers me here. I need to give serendipity a chance to find me. That means, ultimately, that I must set forth with no rules and keep this as a free-form experiment for now. I need room to grow and make mistakes so that I can learn and grow, but I do hope that you will stick around and hang on for the ride!

New Passion Discovered

I know. I am late in posting to the blog this week. To say it's been a crazy week is an understatement. I am working on a few posts, including a concept for an on-going series and, hopefully, getting some tools in place to enable me to record my own thoughts about current tech news, and maybe even some reviews. In addition to all of that, I will confess that I have discovered Magic: The Gathering.

Actually, the game is not a new thing to me. I've known about it for years, but have never played it until just a few weeks ago. I am thoroughly hooked, to say the very least. It's scratching an itch that, until quite recently, I didn't really know existed. So, I will undoubtedly begin an ongoing article series covering my love of one of the greatest geek games in existence today.

Stay tuned!

Birth of a Geek, Conclusion

I couldn't stop looking at it. In all actuality, I couldn't really believe that I was seeing what I was seeing. And I couldn't stop looking at it. A brand new computer was sitting on a desk that wasn't there the previous day in our family living room. It was Christmas and I was so excited I simply could not speak, nor do anything but sit there and stare. That Commodore 64 was my virtual best friend for the next 4 years. I hated that I had to share it with everyone else, but oh how I cherished those times we did have together. For a while, I even learned how to create very basic programs with it.

Then, in seventh grade Computer Science class, I was introduced to the Macintosh, and so I learned how to create simple, basic programs for the Mac. The next year, my parents upgraded the aging Commodore 64 to an AMD-based 386 machine, and it lasted well into my high school years. By that time, I had moved on and was well on my way to becoming a graphic designer. I had forgotten all about my days as a fledgling computer geek. Shortly after high school, in late 1997, I became friends with someone who would become one of the most valued and most influential people in my life. We are still best friends today, and he is still very influential to me as a geek. He introduced me to many "Ways of the Geek", quite a few of which were very new to me, including a passion for coding.

After we had been friends for a few years, in 2002, my friend introduced me to the joys of web development. Back in those days, we created God-awful, table-based designs using Macromedia's Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks software. Even so, those designs were cutting-edge when compared to other sites on the web, and the entire process spoke to me as a graphic designer and geek. Of course, I would go on a few months later to build my first PC, and so the seed that was planted began to sprout and grow. A few years later, in late 2005, I would finally begin to teach myself how to hand code HTML. I still created table-based sites, but the next year I was introduced to standards-based coding with XHTML and CSS. I wrapped my head around CSS and quickly became an expert standards-based coder.

I was always thirsty for more, though. I wanted to dive into PHP and MySQL, so I did. I still don't have a full grasp of those technologies, but that is from a lack of coding with them on a consistent basis. Real life necessities such as work and family filled my free time, along with spending time with my best friend. Yet, here I am, a decade later, still harboring a craving for all things software development and programming. I love my current job as a graphic designer, but beginning later this year, in August, I will be going back to school to learn software development and programming. I have not yet decided on a track, but it will be either Java and open-source oriented, or purely .NET and SQL Server. I will say that, at the moment, I am leaning heavily toward .NET, for reasons which I will not detail here.

But, that is where this blog comes in. So, now that you know my history, as well as my future aspirations, won't you stick around and see what else is on tap? I am, after all, only just truly beginning my journey!

Restore Deleted Bookmarks in Chrome

Here's a quick tip that just saved my bottom. In Chrome, if you accidentally delete a bookmark, or bookmark folder, you can easily recover it by utilizing Chrome's automated Bookmarks backup file. Here's how.

On Mac OS X:
Open Finder and navigate to your user account under Places, if not already there. Then, go to Library > Application Support > Google > Chrome > Default.

On Windows 7:
The process is the same, but the directory structure is different. Here's how to find the folder.
Open Windows Explore, then go to Computer > OS (C:) > Users > [your username folder] > AppData > Local > Google > Chrome > UserData > Default


On Linux:
    *Note that I tested this in Lubuntu, but it should be the same for all users. If you are using Chromium, the directory name will be "chromium." If you are using Chrome, the directory will be "google-chrome."
Open a terminal and navigate to the following:
    For Chromium:


    user@hostname:~$ cd .config/chromium/Default

    For Chrome:


    user@hostname:~$ cd .config/chromium/Default

Inside the Default folder, you should see two files: Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak. Make a backup copy of the Bookmarks file in another folder on your computer, then delete the existing Bookmarks file in the Default folder. Make a copy of the Bookmarks.bak and rename it to Bookmarks.

Restart Chrome and you should have your deleted bookmark(s) back!