foreach ($things as $i => $thing)
{
  $things[$i] = strtolower($thing);
}

You can reference the values of the array:

foreach ($things as &$thing)
{
  $thing = strtolower($thing);
}

It’s a small difference, but it comes in handy once in a while, especially when you’re doing more significant processing with each item.

Bad decisions:

1. Continued serious relationship for 3 years – which turned out to be between 1 or 1 1/2 years too long.
2. Moved to Tampa (3 1/2 hours away from kids) to make relationship work logistically.
3. Bought a house, shopping club membership & timeshare with the woman.

Bad news:

1. Relationship went into toilet – got worse and then worse.
2. Was laid off from big $$$ job.

Good decisions:

1. Finally added up red flags & the toilet & ended the relationship. Hurt like hell then. Doesn’t hurt now.
2. Got into therapy & found a drug that worked at the start of the year – and have stuck with it – making huge progress. Emotionally I’m wayyy better off now.
3. Decided to go full time freelance after layoff instead of scrambling for another job I don’t want. Loving freelance – days are adrenalin filled.
4. In addition to professional brain-care team (the psychiatrist, therapist – both of whom I love – & the right drug) – I have begun to think more positively with some tools & games that help a LOT.

Good news:

1. Clients came out of nowhere when I went freelance.
2. One “client” became a “part owner” situation – no to low money for now – but when it starts to pay it will be big $$$ and passive.
3. Other big client who pays well has ongoing work through the new year. New clients, might go part passive there too.
4. Same client is mentoring me professionally into better things – managing sub-contractors, etc.
5. After the break-up made a really, really great friend – not romantic – but raised my expectation for friendships and has been a life-saver at times.
6. Found a tenant to rent a room in the house. Working out very well.
7. Started playing in a rock band (technically Nov 2008, but who’s counting?). We released an EP on CD which is now available on iTunes (in 2009 so that’s how it counts).

The Current Situation:

1. For a variety of financial factors, I am keeping the house for myself – love the house – ridding it of ex gf mojo – and making it my home.
2. Freelancing is tight for now, but jobs continue to materialize out of nowhere.
3. Seeing the kids infrequently due to finances, but those are improving, and I keep in touch via phone, plus txt & email with the older one.
4. Somewhat renewed sense of spirituality, just about made peace with my former Christianity – moving on from it still, but I’m very happy where I’m at – and where I’m headed.
5. Trying to get back on the exercise and diet.
6. Was worried about my health but a recent update revealed that other than some minor cholesterol issues, I’m perfectly healthy

That’s really it. It’s been an amazing year. Learned a lot. Was sad a lot at the beginning, got way happier than I’ve ever been by the end of it.

My 2010 Goals

1. Make more money – get 1429 people giving me $7 a month.
2. Bench twice as much as currently – 200lbs.
3. Release a CD of Matt & Phil’s Band material.
4. Release a web-app all my own and charge for it.

Decisions

1. Nothing is stopping me from having anything I want, except occasionally myself.
2. There is no reason why I should not kick as much ass as possible in the coming year.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society
— Krisnamurti

You Must Listen to Radio Constantly

This happened a while ago. I was out at the gas station, pumping my gas, at one of those stations where for some reason they feel the need to play the radio from overhead speakers at people pumping gas. Some shopping centers also play music in their parking lots, especially around the holidays. For whom, exactly? The cars? Can we have some quiet for a while?

The radio station was having a news update, probably from a news wire source. I would like to think that the station did not deliberately cause this unfortunate juxtaposition. If so, this is truly replusive, but I still maintain some shred of hope for humanity.

They’ll Be Killing Babies Next

What happened was this: A pregnant woman was attacked by a friend who was unable to have children. The friend used a knife to cut the mother’s womb open, killing her in the process, and pre-maturely delivering the baby, who she then stole. I believe the baby later died.

Let that sink in for a while.

To add to my disgust, I actually attempted to Google News for this story so I could link to it here. The problem was I couldn’t pin-point which story to link to, because I can’t recall when I heard the story, and there have been several along the same lines at varying times. In other words, this apparently happens occasional. Once was too many.

Leona Lewis, Play Us Out

This alone would warrant a ’sick society post’, but… The very next song to play on the radio was:

You cut me open, and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love (repeats)…
You cut me open
— Leona Lews, ‘I Keep Bleeding’

Q.E.D.

Quit complaining that Facebook changes things. Embrace the new. When web developers work hard all day on a new feature only to have the community poo-poo it – for a site that’s free to begin with – it feels crappy. I know from experience. You don’t like it? Fine. Go build a better one yourself.

Web Nerds are Funny

But looks aren’t everything! (rimshot) In regards to “English (Pirate)”, people seemed surprised that ‘the people behind Facebook have a sense of humor’. Of course they have a sense of humor! Do you think they could put up with all the pithy complaints if they didn’t?

Don’t be Surprised! Web developers, in general, are hilarious. I’ve noticed that the level of hilarity seems to be relative to the level of skilz.

Mutual Friends?

Do you ever see a ‘Suggested Friend’ and think, “who the heck is that?” Then, to get a feel for who they are, you look at your ‘Mutual Friends’, and you think, “who the heck are these people?” Happens to me more than I’d care to admit.

LOL

Finally, for the love of all that is Holy, please stop commenting solely: “LOL” or “LOL!” or “LOL…” or all of the lower/mixed case versions thereof. Can you please think of something better to say? If that’s your only comment, just click the ‘i like this’ link already.

“And posting ‘me too!’ like some brain dead AOL-er”
— Weird Al Yankovic

I’ve made it my personal policy – in chat or otherwise – to never type LOL unless I have actually LOL’d. I’ve never ROTFLOL’d. Well, not over a stupid comment on chat anyway…

Of course, Facebook could address this in code… (I’m sure their code is much more advanced than this, but you get the idea)

// jkeeler would do it better.
$comment = preg_replace('/LOL([\.\!]+)?/i', '', $comment);
 
// check for an empty comment after replacing the lol
if('' == $comment)
{
  // and so on ...
}

Just sayin’… Oh, and Joseph Keeler, as I said, would do the regular expression much better than me, or anyone I know. He would have addressed “LOLOL”, “looool”, and so on and so forth.

As a nerdy aside…

The e modifier makes preg_replace() treat the replacement parameter as PHP code after the appropriate references substitution is done.
— PHP Manual – preg_replace

Holy crap! I had no idea! How cool is that?!

Updated! 17-Nov-2009

Friends

One: I curate my friend’s list every few months or so. Yeah, like in a museum. I drop people like 3rd period French all the time. This is something I do – sorry – mercilessly.

I believe in being friends with people I’m really friends with (obvious?). This goes against the popular wisdom that the broader your social network the better (ala a Wired mag article a few months ago). In that vein, if new people show up and we become friends, I’ll keep them on my list as long as we start to interact once in a while. Beyond that, buh bye.

I don’t add recruiters, and I don’t accept ‘I’d like to network for business’ type requests. Go on LinkedIn already. Or if I do add them, I consider it a trial, and fall back to the previous idea.

I remove (or do not add) anybody I would purposefully not be friends with in real life. I mean this not in the ‘We’re not really friends’ way, but in the ‘I do not want to be your friend’ way, if you catch my meaning. Why have their face popping up in my book all the time if it only brings up negative feelings?

Using my mouse like a machete, I’ve unfriended friends who I’ve fallen out with, ex-girlfriends, friends of ex’s, and so on. I never friended the ex-wife. No point to any of it. I’m there to have fun and enjoy the people who are in my life now.

Two: When I get a friend request from someone I don’t know, or don’t remember, I don’t add them right away. Instead I message them from the invite, and say ‘My apologies, but I’m forgetful. How do we know each other?’ Nine times out of ten they don’t respond, and I can ignore the request guilt free. My brain is forgetful. I’ve accepted this, so I work with it.

Apps

Three: I do not add many apps. I think apps are a colossal waste of time. A titanic waste, even. Herculean. I have a few that I like, but I hardly use them. If you’re into them, groovy. Enjoy. Not me, boy.

No, I do not want to be handed a skunk, get involved in a mob hit, find out which Care Bear I am, collect virtual knick knacks, or any of that crap. People are important. Web developers jerking off with the apps platform are not. If you want to connect with me, connect with me on a personal level. Call me a spoil sport (You’re a spoil sport, Phil!)

Four: When my friends invite me to join annoying apps, I don’t click ‘ignore’, I click the ‘block this application’ link in the invite. I never get a request from that application again.

I find that several goofy, well meaning friends will invite you to the app du jour. The ‘ignore’ link will not stop multiple invites to the same app. I’ve blocked probably over 30 apps.

The Wall

Five: I think the ‘wall’ is pretty much the killer app of Facebook. I use the ‘Live News’ view since it’s got everything (that I haven’t blocked) and it updates realtime. The difference between ‘Live News’ and ‘News’ is that ‘News’ is selective. I get the difference, but yeah – I don’t get the point of having both either.

Six: On the wall, if you hover over the top right corner of a post, you can select ‘hide’. It’s a drop-down menu.

If someone has posted an update from an app (farmville anyone?) you can choose the second option in the drop-down which hides all posts from that app (hooray), regardless of what friend posted it. This second option is only on posts from an app (and maybe some other things too? Not sure.)

With the first option on the drop-down, you can hide posts from a particular friend. This is a polite way to do ’sure, we’ll be friends on facebook’ but not really. But, if you’re going to hide them anyway, consider un-friending them.

Fans/Groups

Seven: I’ll be a member of a group or fan of something a friend suggested, if it’s something they are actually involved with. Being a fan of their band, their Etsy shop, and so on.

If I become a fan, and if I really can’t stand it, I’ll simply quietly drop out later. I drop groups or stop being fans of things who never update.

I have fanned/joined a bunch of groups, mostly for the sake of stating preferences and aligning with things I identify with, but I’m re-examining this concept (the concept of identity in general), and I’ll probably leave/un-fan a lot of these things.

Photos

Eight: You can un-tag yourself from a friend’s photo that you don’t want to be tagged in. In this way I can keep my ‘Photos of Phillip’ area clear of old photos. Or I can use this if, God forbid, I end up in some photo of a drunk moron doing goatse (not that I’m often invited to those kinds of parties ).

Notifications

Nine: This is where I differ from the above noise reduction. I have turned on all of the email notifications, especially the ‘when someone comments on your stuff’ or ‘when a friend comments on something you’ve commented on’.

This helps me keep up with the conversation. To me, this is what makes Facebook so fun.

Mobile

I use the photo upload of my Palm Centro’s Facebook app quite frequently. No real tip here, It’s just fun.

Opinion: The ‘Dislike Button’

C’mon, people. Seriously? Either scroll past, or hide the person or app. How demoralizing would it be to see notifications like, ‘Fred dislikes your status update’, or ‘157 people dislike this’. Complaints are pure ego.

Down with Summaries!

Let me know if you find these ideas useful.

Update 17-Nov-2009

To put it bluntly, after a period of time, I remove people who have died from my friend’s list. I don’t agree with memorials in tacky or inappropriate places, which I’ll blog about another time.