Frank's World Updates

8 Insane But True Things About Frank's World

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:10:00 GMT

I had some fun posting some funny headlines to Twitter that were generated by the Link Bait Generator. Despite what I may have posted from the @SilverlightDC account, the user group has never appeared in a music video.

At least not yet.

One of the other “uses” of the Link Bait Generator is to inspire actual blog posts and so here it is:

The 8 Insane but True Things About Frank’s World

Frank’s World was originally a fake news site modeled on the Weekly World News.
The first “issue” of Frank’s World was a one page sheet posted on my dorm room door in 1991. The idea was to irritate an obnoxious roommate further by posting ridiculous stuff like “Elvis is alive and living in New Jersey” and “Bruce Lee frozen until economy improves.” There’s even a Flash movie intro sequence depicting the events.
Frank’s World moved to the web in October 1995, with a lead story on how Bigfoot killed Nicole Simpson, complete with Photoshopped “proof” of her relationship with him. Despite my best efforts, I’ve not been able to find that image.
Aside from the fake news site, Frank’s World at one point included:

a prank call humor site
a satire e-zine
a Schnauzer site, complete with a 3 virtual dog park done in VRML
a Mac fanboy site (yes, you read that right. I said Mac)
an Adobe Atmosphere showcase and developer resource site
a site promoting a video game I was writing (a Mortal Kombat style game for the Mac)
a site for the video game company I had planned on starting.
a site called Junklets that showcased useless Java applets.

On 9/11 I posted an “I’m alive and trying to get out of lower Manhattan” message once I got back to my apartment. I also uploaded photos up to the site right away in case something happened to me or my camera.
In 2000/2001, the site became a travel blog of sorts as I’d post to the site my whereabouts when I lived in Germany. In 2001, I used an FTP/SSI hack to use Blogger as a blogging engine. In 2004, I installed .TEXT locally. Sadly, the site still runs on .TEXT. ;)
In the early 2000s,I had an altercation/running feud with a soap-opera-star-turned-real-estate-agent when I lived in North Jersey. I blogged about it. I even named names. I hear it got picked up by a soap opera gossip site. I never was able to confirm that, but the whole event unfolded like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
When I first blogged about expecting our baby, I called the post “Project Neo-Natal,” a play on Project Natal for XBOX. More than a few people forwarded the post, writing excitedly about a “release date” (aka due date) of December 2009. I’m sure someone somewhere freaked out about NDA related issues until they read the post a little more closely. :)

Looking back, it’s interesting to see how the site has evolved and grown over time. I wonder where it’ll go next. :)

Shoulder Injury

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:39:00 GMT

In case you’re wondering what’s been going on in Frank’s World in the longer than average gaps between blog posts, I severely hurt my shoulder last month.

Since then, I’ve been doing physical therapy and healing. I’m out of the sling now and (mostly) out of pain. The doctors say I’ve made great progress.

When you hurt any part of your body, you quickly realize how often you use it and rely on it. This injury makes holding my son an excruciating experience. I still do it anyways, because he’s worth the trouble. :)

Snowpocalypse Now

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:02:00 GMT

The snow storm so bad, even the weather man has a breakdown.

Weatherman Freaks Out - watch more funny videos

And here’s a time lapse of the snow storm of the century (so far).

Technorati Tags: Snowpocalypse,DC,Snowmageddon

SlideShare Metrics for 2009

Frank La Vigne — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:36:00 GMT

I just received this email from SlideShare, which summarized the amount of traffic my slide decks on their had during the past year.

Not surprisingly, the slide deck I presented at last year’s Microsoft Developer Conference in DC on building data centric apps in WPF.

Clever on their part to send out these kinds of statistics. I need to put more stuff on SlideShare.

That could be a good resolution for 2010.

It is always exciting to bring in a new year. Taking a look back, here's a quick summary of your year on SlideShare, in 2009.

In 2009, you uploaded 10 presentations and got:

8520 views

852.0 average views per presentation

5 favorites

6 followers

Your most popular presentation was:

Building Data Centric Apps in WPF

2120 views

1 favorite

View Your Popular Presentations

Technorati Tags: SlideShare,Random Thoughts

14 Days Between Posts? What the?

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:04:00 GMT

Things have been a little hectic here in Frank’s World.

Sure, there’s the newborn baby boy who likes to sleep all day and party hardy all night.

Then there’s the final edits on my forthcoming book.

Last, but not least, in the line up of craziness is my shoulder injury, which has pretty much taken me offline.

I’m still not quite sure how I did it, but I do know that it hurts like you wouldn’t believe.

Yes, all excuses, I know.

But if you’ve been reading this blog long enough to know I post quite frequently, you’ve noticed a bit of a drop off.

Normal programming to resume soon. :)

Technorati Tags: Blogging

Deep Thoughts on This New Year’s Eve

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Time magazine calls the time between 2000-2009 the “Decade from Hell.”

I don’t think that’s a totally fair assessment.

To be sure, the last ten years have seen momentous and tumultuous change.

There were terrorist attacks, wars, economic meltdowns, and natural disasters. We also saw people reach out and help those in time of need. Tough times can bring out the best in people.

To be sure, this decade was a tough one, but what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.

For me personally, the decade had its challenges and its high points.

I’ve learned countless life lessons over the past ten years-- one of which is: “Change is constant and mandatory. Growth is optional.”

Now, as I sit here reflecting on the last ten years, older and (hopefully) wiser, this Charles Dickens quote makes so much more sense to me now than it did when I read it in high school:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness;
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity;
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness;
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair;
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us;
we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.

The decade in which my father passed away also saw the birth of my son.

In the same decade that I nearly died on 9/11, I met and married the most wonderful woman in the world.

Prior to this decade, I had lived in or near New York City my entire life. In 2000, I was eager to get out and see the world. Since then, I’ve left my hometown to live in places as varied as Frankfurt, Germany, Richmond, VA , and Washington DC.

The last ten years have been more tragically messy and fantastically awesome than I could have imagined in 1999, proving that making a omlette requires a few broken eggs.

Tonight, on the eve of a new decade, I enter it ten years wiser, now as a husband and a father, and I can’t help but wonder what the future holds.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Technorati Tags: New Years Eve,2010

Double Fail

Frank La Vigne — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:58:00 GMT

This happened about a month ago: my XBOX 360 red-ringed and my laptop blue-screened within 5 minutes of one another.

Upon witnessing this technical carnage, my wife forbid me from going near her laptop.

Fortunately, everything ended well: the laptop recovered and the XBOX came back from the shop all fixed up.

Technorati Tags: Red Ring,Fail,Blue Screen of Death

Merry Christmas!

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:59:00 GMT

I’d just like to take this time to wish everyone out there in the blogosphere a very Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season, from all of us to all of you.

Hopefully, by now you’ve got all your shopping done.

And here’s to getting exactly the gift you want.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Technorati Tags: Merry Christmas

Blizzard of 09

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:51:00 GMT

Last week, the Washington DC area had the worst December snow storm ever and the storm ranked as the sixth worst on record.

In order to avoid getting stuck in the hospital all weekend, I drove my wife and newborn son home last Friday night/early Saturday morning.

I’d also like to thank our neighbors for doing all the shoveling for us while we got used to having a newborn baby around. They’re the best neighbors ever!

Jacob was all bundled up for his first car ride.

Once the sun came up, we saw how much snow we had gotten:

Even the dogs couldn’t fathom the amount of snowfall.

Our youngest dog (and our largest dog) was freaked out by all the snow.

Our little dog, discovered the wonders of walking around on two legs to get some extra height and see what was going on in in the yard.

Our car was content to enjoy the winter blast from the comfort of the great indoors.

It’s a Boy!

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:41:00 GMT

Last week, we had a new addition to our family: a bouncing baby boy of 6lbs 6 ounces named Jacob.

Mom and baby are doing well, and it’s been quite a week adjusting to the “sleep” schedule of a newborn.

We had a little bit of excitement bringing the baby home during one of the worst blizzards in DC history. My wife went to the hospital wearing sandals. Little did she know that she should have packed boots!

Jacob didn’t really mind the blizzard ride home, but he was not thrilled about his car seat when we put him in it for the first time.