In keeping with my common theme of modifying Facebook with custom CSS rules, this post will explain how to turn off the rounded corners on images which have suddenly appeared all over Facebook with the new homepage design.

For the majority of the procedure, see the post Blocking Facebook Ads. The only thing that will differ in blocking the corners is to add this line to the userContent.css file:

`.UIRoundedImage_Corners { display: none !important; }`

If you prefer not to block the ads on Facebook, you can leave out what the other post says to place in the userContent.css file. Once you tell your browser to use this file as explained in the Blocking Facebook Ads post and restart your browser, the rounded corners on profile pictures and such will be banished forever.

Firefox users: Firefox works rather differently than Safari and Internet Explorer when creating a usercontent.css file. You must first locate your profiles folder using information from this article. Then open the “chrome” folder, and create a file called “userContent.css” (capitalization is important). Edit this file and add the line above, then save it and restart Firefox.

I suppose its probably been long enough between posts to this blog that I can safely update it now without annoying anyone with overposting

I’m now on fall break, after about 8 weeks of classes at the Colorado School of Mines, and so far it has been incredibly awesome, but its incredibly crazy, and sometimes difficult.

Orientation week was a breeze, and with the number of barbecues, games, activities, and parties, it seemed more like summer camp then college. The start of class made everything get more down to business, but for the first week or two classes were easy, with minimal homework and easy or nonexistent labs. My first exam – chemistry – came on only my 3rd week of classes, which was a bit soon for my tastes but I did very well on it nonetheless. In the following weeks I’ve had tests in calculus, economics, and earth science (my only real classes excluding PE and freshman seminar).

Even though homework and studying take up a lot of time, I’ve definitely found myself spending the majority of my time in innumerable non-academic pursuits, from rock climbing and Parkour to intramural ultimate frisbee and Bible studies. Probably my favorite out of all these activities is rock climbing, particularly due to the massive indoor wall in the Mines rec center. I also went on my first actual outdoor climb on rock last thursday, which was awesome, even though we didn’t get down from the cliff until after dark when it was already about 45°. College definitely does tend to encourage actions that might seem to lack common sense, such as climbing Mt. Bierstadt overnight (I summited around 1:30 am, and didn’t get back to campus until 5).

The people at Mines are absolutely insane, but in a good way. I doubt that anywhere outside of may be MIT or Caltech will you find people who make more jokes about calculus (”your Δbeard is low”), chemistry, or physics, or who will try to identify the kind of rock on the side of the road while driving to a retreat (”Are those batholiths igneous or metamorphic, since they appear to be foliated?”). One consequence of this general atmosphere is that if you ever called a “nerd” at Mines relative to the general student body, you are really in trouble

In a nutshell, college is crazy, the people are nuts, finding time to do homework is nearly impossible, but I love it. Now if only the food were better…

I suppose it really is time I posted something to this blog, just to make sure everyone knows I haven’t spontaneously combusted or anything…

Two weeks ago I was gone for a week up at our church camp, Camp Elim for a Servant Leader Training week, which is essentially a work/prep week for volunteering as staff there during the summer. Everyone split up into teams for the week and rotated through various jobs at the camp (maintenance, kitchen, dining room, cleaning, etc.) along with learning how to run the various activities the campers can participate in (obstacle course, canoeing, archery…). I’ve worked as staff there for two years, and I went to most of the training week last year, so not much of it was new to me, but I still had a blast making friends, working, and hanging out.

The next week I went to the CHEC conference on Wednesday and Thursday to help set up and make sure registration was working fine, which it did, causing me to rapidly become very bored. So I left Thursday evening (and then got food poisoning Friday from the food they gave to volunteers, but lets not get into that)

The past week and next week I’m not really doing anything besides trying to finish up the last bit of school and work on some software projects. The week after next week (the 29th) I’ll be heading up to Summit (a kind of worldview/leadership/college prep camp) for a two week session. After that I’ll be working as a counselor at Camp Elim for a week, then going on a week long backpacking trip with them up around Leadville, followed by another week of either counseling or maintenance at camp. Then our family is leaving on vacation up to Oregon to see some of my mom’s old friends, and once we get back I have about two days before heading up to new student orientation at the Colorado School of Mines, and then class starts.

Basically, starting in two weeks I’ll be gone solid the entire summer until I start college. So I suppose you could say I’ll be pretty busy

If you’re be willing, I’d be very grateful if you would pray that I wouldn’t get sick or completely exhausted, as my downtime is virtually nil

So that’s my summer, what does yours look like?

This isn’t so much of a post about anything in particular, as post about the everything and nothing. I guess what I’m referring to is the way life tends to run so many things together and tie them up with so many knots, that its impossible to untangle them and isolate specific strands. You can try pulling on a string at random, but you’ll probably only make the problem worse, and one can only hope that what comes out of the mess is relatively orderly. But perhaps the most aggravating part of life is the way everything can seem so clear at one moment, and the next day you realize that your newly found order was nothing but an illusion.

Enough with analogizing. In a nutshell, life is confusing, and oftentimes feels more like a game of whack-a-mole than a race to the finish.

Before I kill anyone with this overly philosophical post, I will end it with a quote I read yesterday that may hold the key to some of the chaos.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Updated: Now blocks the social ads which show up in the news feed as well.

Updated x2: Updated for the new Facebook, and now blocks the sponsor ads on the homepage as well.

Updated x3: Blocks new sponsor ads in the sidebar.

I just received a request from a friend on Facebook to join a group petitioning that the stupid x-rated ads it shows be removed. Nice as it would be if Facebook would do this, realistically, I highly doubt they ever will. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you still have to look at them.

A few months ago I became so fed up with these ads, that I wrote some CSS rules that will work in any browser to block these ads. If you don’t know what CSS is, don’t worry, it doesn’t matter, just follow the steps below and the Facebook ads will be banished forever.

Note: These steps are only necessary if you are using a browser other than Firefox. If you are using Firefox, simply install Adblock Plus and you’re done. For those using Internet Explorer or Safari, read on.

1. Open a new text file in Notepad, Texmate, or a similar program and past the following line into it:

   #ssponsor, .footer_ad, .banner_ad, .social_ad, .ad_capsule, .sidebar_ads, .adcolumn, .admarket_ad, .sidebar_item.sponsor, .emu_sponsor, .home_sponsor, .UIHomeBox_Sponsored { display: none !important; }

2. Save the file to your user directory or My Documents folder, and call it ‘usercontent.css’.

   Note: If you are using TextEdit on a Mac, you will need to go to the Format menu and click “Make Plain Text” before you save the file. Otherwise, you will not be able to save it as a .css file.

3. Depending on what browser you are using, this step will vary.

For Internet Explorer users:
Go to Tools->Internet Options, the click on Accessibility down at the bottom right. Then under User Stylesheet check the box ‘Format documents using my stylesheet’, and then click browse. Locate and select the ‘usercontent.css’ file you saved earlier. Hit Open, then Ok, and Ok again, and you’re done. Once you reload Facebook, the ads should be gone.

For Safari users:
Go to Safari->Preferences->Advanced, and select ‘Other’ from the Stylesheet dropdown near the bottom. Browse to where you saved the ‘usercontent.css’ file, select it, click Choose, and you’re done. Once you reload Facebook, the ads should be gone.

Enjoy an ad-less Facebook!

Pol-i-tics
plural noun
from the greek “poly”, meaning many, and “ticks”, meaning blood sucking insects.

I know this saying is overused (at least by me), but I still love it.

Tomorrow is the so called “Super Tuesday”, when who knows how many states hold their presidential primaries, including Colorado. And guess who is 18 in time to vote in the caucus? Yes, yours truly. And guess who has no clue which candidate to vote for? Yes, yours truly again.

Its not as if I can’t agree with any of the republican candidates, its more that I agree partially with some, and partially with others, but not entirely with any of them.

Mike Huckabee: Appears to be a very committed christian with whom I have a lot in common with morally, but not so much fiscally. He’s a nice guy, but not really very conservative in the classical meaning of the word, particularly in the area of taxes and big government. I can’t help but think he would be just another Bush, which I don’t want. He also believes in global warming and ethanol.

Ron Paul: About as radical as I would be if I was elected president, (ie: abolish everything), but without much of a chance of winning, and somewhat lacking in certain moral issues, that is if you believe in constitutionally banning gay marriage and abortion. I am also highly uncertain about his position on the war. If he was leading the poles, I’d vote for him in a second, but I’m not sure if giving him a “protest vote” is really going to accomplish anything.

Mitt Romney: Ok morally, although I’m a bit dubious of his pro-life stance because of his recent switch. Not what I would call a conservative fiscally, due to RomneyCare and support for agricultural subsidies. He apparently supports the “assault weapons ban” as well, which in my mind classifies him as a bit of a gunaphobe (as if a flash suppressor and a pistol grip really makes a gun any more capable of killing people). The more I read about him, the less I like.

McCain: Oh boy, lets not get into him, NO! Ok, I guess I should say something about him, but where to start? He support embryonic stem cell research, is against a federal ban on abortion or gay marriage, somewhat supports “hate” crimes and affirmative action, believes in global warming, and is, shall we say, extremely militant in the opinion of someone who just got their selective service papers a few months ago. I’d agree with him on education, gun rights, unions, and ethanol being stupid, but that’s about it.

So the choice for me is between a fiscally liberal, hopefully christian Huckabee, and the extremely conservative, yet most likely unelectable Ron Paul. Dang it, why isn’t George Washington running?

“Hey dad, remember our car?”
“Mhmmm… Wait, what do you mean remember!?”
-Calvin and Hobbes strip

Yes, its true. On monday we dropped my car off at the mechanic to have it checked out as it appeared to be losing oil, but wasn’t visibly leaking. Instead it turns out that it blew a headgasket and is essentially fried. I’m not really certain when or how it happened, the mechanic had some theory about a gas bubble forming around the thermostat so that the car overheated without showing any visible sign. It may last the rest of the winter without seizing up because of the cold weather, but by the summer I’ll have to buy a new one. It could have happened because of some residual damage from the previous owner, but I’ll never really know…

So much for buying used cars

By popular demand, I shall now proceed to update this blog. The bigger question is, with what…

Well, first off a few weeks ago I finally release a (mostly) complete version of Flowpad, the tournament registration software I’d been working on since spring. That was a big relief, as I was beginning to think I’d never finish it. That isn’t to say it really is “finished”, metaphorically speaking, but its worked fine for about 6 tournaments so far

As for Christmas, I received a black iPod nano from my parents, along with a ton of stuff for my car from my aunts and uncles (jumper cables, antifreeze, fix-a-flat, snowmelter, emergency oil, a tire pressure guage, emergency blanket… you name it, I got it).

There hasn’t been much else going on, aside from being lazy and playing battlefield 2142 for about 4 hours today (which I gave to patrick for christmas)

Well, this has officially been the most boring post I have ever written, I just don’t feel terribly humorous at the moment

I have been extremely lacking in updates to this blog (as has been pointed out by coughnatecough), so I shall now proceed to actually post something.

Anyway, as I am no 18, I have finally acquired both a drivers license and a car!

Its a 97 Buick Century with about 112k on it, which we bought from a lady who lived less than a mile from our house. Its in very good condition, and only has a few problems, such as an leaking oil pump and a nonfunctional rear window.

Here are some more pictures of it:

Yes, that is a Harley-Davidson steering wheel cover, and no, I did not buy it, it came with the car, and no, I don’t plan on getting rid of it either :p

I love it