Yesterday was fun. Although I spent the majority of the afternoon waiting around for the car repair place to call, once they did I got to head over and go to the ARGS graduation. It was really nice. Then afterwards I went with Twyla and Jessica to Hooters for a graduation celebration dinner. That was definitely interesting. Hula hoops and sugar packets. Also our waitress, Melanie, yes I remembered her name, was really nice. (She even slipped me a note on a napkin *wink wink*) Hehehe.

In different news I do have all my stuff packed to head to UVA tomorrow morning. I'll be there for a month and then come back home. So I won't be gone for tooo long, but still. Oh, and today I'm going to some cookout thing at Elijah's house so that should be fun.

Later. *kiss*

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Today was a Harry day. Harry as in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I went with Scott today to see it at Southpark. I thought it wasa really good movie. Though it strayed from the book in more than a few spots and some of them *major* plot points, but still the main ideas were all there.

************ Harry Potter 3 Spolier Alert *****************

Some parts of the book were entirely skipped like the big feud between Ron and Hermoine, large amounts of Hogsmeade stuff, and flashbacks of Lupin and James Potter. Plus I think the biggest thing they COMPLETELY left out was that on the Marauder's Map it said "Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs." Those were the nicknames of the four people that made the map.

Mooney = Remus Lupin
Wormtail = Peter Pettigrew
Padfoot = Sirius Black
Prongs = James Potter

They were the best of friends when they went to Hogwarts when they were kids. The whole friendship between the four of them was entirely skipped! This helps explain why Lupin and Black were so mad at Peter Pettigrew for giving up the secret, because he was one of the four. Plus the movie forgot to mention that these four friends were mischievous much in the same way Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are. And the four friends favorite target to pick on at school was Severus Snape. James Potter used to humilate Snape when he was a boy. That's one reason why Snape dispises Harry, because of how his dad treated him when he was a kid. BUT... the movie told nothing of this backstory and left the audience guessing. Which could be expected I guess since not everything can make it into the movie.

Well.. I didn't expect this to be an exposition on Harry Potter, but I really like the books. If you couldn't already tell. ``

Later. *kiss*

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Contrary to popular belief I am in fact alive. The rumors are not true. Although dormant this blog became this weekend do no fret for I am back. Well.. blogging that is. I never really left... but anyway. Now I must write about what I was doing this weekend so you don't think I skipped away to Bermuda or something.

Friday was the ARGS Athletic Award Banquet. That was pretty fun. Got to see Twyla and Heather go up and get their awards. Also saw Tyler (Southall) and his family there. Still the same old Tyler not much has changed.

Saturday was spent a lot at the mall. Went with Heather and Twyla. Also got to meet Billy there. Heather couldn't go into the mall because of their stupid no one under 18 rule. So her and Billy went elsewhere. The cops did card me and Twyla in the mall. "Excuse me but can I see your identification." I pulled out the first card in the my wallet, my military ID card. Which is definitely identification. But I doubt this cop had ever seen one before because he was looking it over like I was trying pull something on him. Then I think he saw "Department of Defense" written somewhere on the back and figured it looked official enough. I could have been more mainstream and pulled out my driver's liscense, but maybe... just maybe... he thought I was some undercover government agent because I had a special Department of Defense ID card. Maybe....

Sunday I went with Twyla and Heather to a robotics picnic in Richmond. And OMG I about died with laughter. JL got joked on sooo bad once he left. "What is that boy's problem?" "He's just this little white thing." Lol. It was great. A little mean, but still funny, hehehe.

Monday I got a new ID card. Yay! So now I actually look like my picture. And I don't weigh 130 lbs anymore. It's all shiny too. I also got a summer haircut. Just a trim but thinned it out so the summer heat won't be so bad. I have really thick hair so now its all light and fluffy, lol. Oh, and the streak ended, awww. 9 days too.

Today I ran some errands. Not my own, but someone else's, hehe. Never did I think I'd see the day when I'd be going over to someone's house just so I could run errands with them. That and the fact I don't mind helping fold clothes while I'm there. `` That must tell you something. *grin*

So as you can see I have not been hibernating. But doing some things. As such I neglected this blog for far too long. Back to daily postings now. Oh, by the way I am leaving for UVA summer classes on June 12th. I really really don't want to go. But I can't change my mind now. I don't want to think about it. I need to savor these last few days at home and spend some quality time with the people I really care about. *smile*

Later. *kiss kiss*

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Well this will be a shorter entry than the last one. Seeing how the last one basically read like a mini-programming textbook. Sorry to all who were utterly bored out of their minds by the last entry. ``

Out of a lack of a new book to read I decided to do some programming. A new web site. Dynamic ASP and VBScript. Cool stuff. Besides that not too much. Oh, had some good barbeque, hamburgers, hot dogs, and such today at Twyla's. Mmmmm.

Later. *kiss*

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LWell I got one thing accomplished today. I finished "The Da Vinci Code", yay! It was a *really* good book. I was right about it being the Holy Grail, but it was something much much more than that! *grins* I love books or movies that make you really think or get your gears in motion when you read it. This book definitely did that. I'll never look at the Last Supper or Leonardo Da Vinci the same again. Read and you'll understand.

OBesides reading, I did a few other things, not very interesting. Then I just kind of laid around and watched some TV with Twyla. Well.. that is when I wasn't being mercilessly tickled! But that's another story. ``Deranged Tickler! Until I come up with a better name, hehehe.

VOooooh, ok I love programming problems! Haha. I read Heather's latest entry and she wanted to know how to let console programs recieve input from the keyboard besides standard I/O mechanisms like "cin". I've got an answer for you, one that I find works fairly good. Here goes.

EThe answer to your problem (as are most in Windows programming) is solved via a Win32 API function. I don't know if you've used the Win32 API before, but its basically a set of functions that access the core kernel of the Windows OS. Meaning the API define the basic functions that makes Windows work. The function you want is called GetAsyncKeyState. This is its definition:

YSHORT GetAsyncKeyState( int vKey );

OThis function will return a value telling you whether a specific key is pressed or not. It takes as an argument an int specifying what key to test and returns a non-zero value if the key is pressed and returns zero if the key is not pressed. A list of the key codes can be found here. Use the chart on that site to find the numeric code of the key you want to check. Be aware that the numbers on that chart are written as hexadecimal numbers not base 10. The only prerequisite to using this function is to include the "windows.h" header file. This header file contains the function definition and all the key code constants used in the funtion.

UThe best way to show its use is in a sample program. In this program a console screen will appear and stay there. Whenever the user presses the "C" key on the keyboard the message "Hello Chris!" will appear in the console window. Pressing the escape key will close the program.

-----------------

#include <iostream>
#include "windows.h"

using namespace std;

int main()
{
   // Check for the escape key
   while (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_ESCAPE) == 0)
   {
      // Check for the "C" key
      if (GetAsyncKeyState( 0x43 ) != 0)
         cout << "Hello Chris!" << endl;
   }

   return 0;
}

-------------------

This compiled for me under Visual Studio.NET 2003. If if doesn't work for you try:

#include <iostream.h>
#include <windows.h>

*smTry that and make sure to delete the "using namespace std;" line if the original code listing doesn't work. It all depends on if your compiler uses the STL library or not. Let me claify a few things. One, as you can see it uses an infinite loop to keep checking the two key presses. Since the user can press the key at any time, you have to enter into an infinite loop waiting for the user to enter a key. Second, in the line checking for the "C" to be pressed, the argument passed to GetAsyncKeyState is "0x43". Notice the "0x" preceeding the numeric code. The "43" comes from that chart I gave to link to earlier, the prefix "0x" tells the compiler this is a hexadecimal number (which it is). Thirdly, notice how to check for the escape key the constant VK_ESCAPE is used. This is listed on the key code website and this constant is defined inside the "windows.h" header file. Lastly, if you run the program you'll notice that when the "C" key is pressed the message is written quite a few times to the screen. This is because the GetAsyncKeyState function only checks the key, but does not halt execution. So.. each time through the loop the key is pressed it prints the message. For example, if the loop runs through in 1 millisecond (a reasonable estimate) and you have the key pressed down for half a second, the message is printed 500 times. Beware of this behavior. You may have to include guards to make sure this behavior doesn't happen if it's undesirable.

ile*You can probably see how to extend this to use in your own programs. Let me know if you want to know anything else, ok? I love this stuff!

Later.*kiss kiss*

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This is becoming a habit it seems. Typing my entries on other computers besides my own. First I typed one at ARGS, then on my dad's computers, now this one on Twyla's computer. To keep this up I must find more and more computers to write entries on. Must find more computers.. mwahaha!

So I've been reading my new found book now. I like it. Its a cool mystery book about some secret society leaving messages about a hidden secret through clues found in the works of Da Vinci. Something about finding a lost treasure which my guess is the Holy Grail, not sure though. Must read on.

Besides that I guess things are going pretty well. Did some yard work outside the other day moving some mulch around and doing other various things. Just a week or so more until school starts back up. How come this time before school is moving too fast and too slow at the same?

Later.*kiss*

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