I had a very geeky weekend. For the most part I sequestered myself in my apartment and computed the weekend away. Stuff like that makes me feel good; like eating a cake for dinner because I can (not that I do).
Seeing that I can't make any sense out of .NET, I've gone back to plan A and decided to have a go at PHP and MySql. I went out Saturday morning, found a good text book and swiftly returned to my plush, well-lit apartment to delve into it. Actually, I grabbed a paper and sat on my patio to enjoy the sun and heat for a while. After sweating in the sun for a good while, I decided it was time to go at it.
I still don't fully grasp what's going on with Linux at times and it remined me of what it was like when I got my first computer. Everything was going reasonably well, but there was one error message that I just couldn't figure out. In trying to find the answer, I ended up downloading Red Hat 9 and jerking around with the ISO's for a good part of the night.
After realizing that the hard way was the wrong way, I got my CDs burned and installed v9. Very nice OS and it's better than v8 by a good margin and v8 is pretty cool. It detected everything perfectly and the GUI is really slick. It also seems to be laid out in a bit more organized fashion to boot. Anyway, I'm now running v9 and am not really any further along with the installation/configuration of Apache, PHP and MySql. Whatever, I'm sure it will be up soon as I'm getting pretty handy with the command line and I think I'm making some progress on the understanding Linux front.
I did finally go out to get some groceries this afternoon. I wasn't going to as I didn't think I needed all that much given that Tuesday is a holiday. Don't ask me why I don't figure eating is important on national holidays... A bit disappointing to see all the clouds today after the scorcher yesterday but it wasn't like I was going anywhere so it didn't make any difference to me. At least it's still warm out and that's all that matters.
Right, I'm going back to Tux...
This Friday has an odd feel to it. It doesn't feel like a long weekend when I have to work on Monday and yet a lot of folks have bailed on work already.
Walking home tonight, I noticed that there was some really loud music coming from somewhere and I assumed it was some poser in his 'phat ride' but it wasn't. It was Shocore playing in front of Sears. How odd that was to see when a jazz band is what you'd expect. I hung out and watched for a bit before walking past the Art Gallery to see some jazz. Much larger crowd today at the gallery and I noted a nekid man being photographed on the sidewalk. Those jazz fans...
I also noted with some interest that someone from the Credit Union had a look at my page today. That was just about a year ago that I put in my four shifts and I still contend that IT WAS THE WORST JOB I HAVE EVER HAD! EVER! IN MY ENTIRE, STORIED CAREER!
[GEEK] So I had a look at Visual Studio .NET last night and was pretty much lost... Really different from what I was doing back in school and even the tutorial confused me. Not good.
With that in mind, I fired up Linux and downloaded MySQL. Notice that I downloaded but make no mention of installing it. I'm still working on that... I figure that I can do some ASP in Dreamweaver and take a run at PHP in Linux. We're running Workbench at work as our bug tracker and my plan is to install it here and learn to program it.
I learn PHP and MySQL and be able to do some stuff on my own at work. Mmmm... open source. [/GEEK]
FYI, the Sobig virus has been upgraded so make sure your anti-virus software is updated.
Not much for news... Work is going fine and the sun is out. Life is good. MiHwa and I went out to catch the jazz festival at lunch today. Big crowd which meant we were lucky to get a place to sit though we couldn't see anything. Ten minutes after we get there, the band takes a fifteen minute break. Of course they started up just before we had to hoof it back to the office.
Andrea has a new look: Muted Green. She popped onto MSN this afternoon to ask my opinion (I am in QA after all...) and was gone in a flash. I still need to hook up with her and get her professional fashion opinion on a new suit. It's a nice arrangement... I QA her site and she keeps me from looking like a dork at formal social occasions.
[GEEK] I have now installed Visual Studio .NET; what a damn ordeal that was. I'm not really sure what I will do with it though I'm starting to get a few ideas. I really wanted to give it a go as it would help me a lot at work if I were more familar with it. I've gone so far as to install VSS as we use that as well and I'm tired of feeling like an idiot when I need to do something. It's been since the Stockhouse days that I used VSS to any extent. I guess I'll eventually start doing the page in Visual Studio and drop Dreamweaver all together. I'd really like to write my own comment manager even though they are freely available on the net.
I guess the geeky, open source thing to do would be to write it in PHP and use MySQL. Of course then I'd have to learn PHP and MySQL and while I'd like to do that, I can get sorta get around with ASP and SQL, so maybe I'll start there and see what happens. This would also be a good work exercise and I do kinda wish I was a better programmer. Given the run-on nature of my sentences, maybe I should work on my English skills...[/GEEK]
It's funny, I've always tried to use correct English around MiHwa and today she reminded me that I was going to teach her some swear words in English. I told her that I'd do it if she taught me to swear in Korean. We have a deal, so now I might start peppering my entries with foreign profanities. Is it any wonder that you keep coming back?
For fun, I thought I'd share some search terms that people have entered into various search engines and then ended up at my site...
To further attract hapless search engines users, I'll now shamelessly pepper this paragraph with the following words which are mostly unrelated to the site and mostly taken from Google itself. Foobar, biff, sex, wankle rotary engine, lil kim, boobies, Fed shaves rates, shuttle, spam, Allegheny, Rusedski, and Tom.
Now that this entry has completly fallen apart, I'll end it with two great ways to begin any sentence:
I finally dragged my ass out of bed in time to go golfing this morning. Despite the rain and my poor performance, it was a good time. In fact, Brian got a hole in one on the fifth hole!
It didn't start out well... he smacked a worm-burner that flew about three feet into the air and just rolled. We all stood there going "Well, at least it's straight... actually you're looking pretty good... holy shit, it's in!" That's his second, Neal has one too so I guess Ardie and I need to get our act together.
I've also wasted a good portion of my weekend shopping for a new phone/air time package. What a pain. Fido's phones suck for the most part while Rogers has a decent selection but their plans suck and everyone knows that Rogers is evil. I'm pretty sure that Saddam is on their board or something. As a last resort, I'm going to call Fido and tell them to sell me a cheap phone or I'll walk and see what happens. Given their current state, I figure I have a decent shot of getting a new phone and keeping my plan.
Now I know I spouted off about using Opera as my main browser before and then went back to IE with my tail between my legs but this time it's for real. I found a version of Mozilla called Firebird that is really cool. Cool enough that I use it for 90% of my browsing these days. It's still in beta but it does work really well and has all the cool features of Opera and fewer of the downsides.
Speaking of betas. MSN 6 is officially in public beta (thanks for the heads up Karan) and it nice. More evolutionary than revolutionary, but worth a look anyway. I got my copy at Neowin.net, though the link seems to be gone. If you want it, I would suggest that a quick visit to Google would set you up in no time.
Well, time to eat. Mmmm... lemon chicken.
Good time at the second Infoslave reunion last night. I left work a bit early and caught a ride with The Andre's where we went in and spanked Biff and Bubbles on the foosball table. I have to say I played one of my best games ever, so I now resolve to play once every 11 months.
It was really strange going back in there now that the office so small; most of the office space has been sublet though both my cube and Angelo's are sitting empty. Very odd... Everyone talked about how they missed it but everyone knows they miss how it was, not how it is.
There were the traditional complaints about everyone's new job as well. I had a funny conversation with Tadek; he was mentioning that they might be looking for a QA guy at his office and then as he hands me his card he goes "...but you really don't want to work there." Biff had the same conversation with him.
It was a smaller crowd this time but some faces that didn't make it to the first one showed up, so that was nice.
I caught a ride back to the safety of the West End with Biff and Rachel but not before we stopped off at her office to pick up some water. Very nice digs, though oddly and perhaps tellingly, there is no room to expand.
Work was good today as it's not stupid busy these days. I went out for lunch with MiHwa and took her to Canada Place to look around. We've been going for lunch together quite a bit lately and having a good time doing it. She's pretty funny herself and she's starting to understand my sense of 'humor'. We still need to explain things sometimes, but we understand each other most of the time.
The Jazz Festival kicks off tommorrow which should make work interesting given that one of the main stages should be in front of the office. We can hear the steam clock going off, so I imagine the bands will be quite clear. Should be cool...
Do you ever get mail that makes you laugh? I did yesterday. The first piece that made me laugh was the Infowave annual report that turned up along with the notice of the annual and extraordinary general meeting. Obviously that provided a good giggle. What had me actually laughing out loud was the record of employment that I received from Safeway. Apparently my employment there has been terminated! "Oh no! What will become of me?" Reason given was that I "Failed to report to work - Not heard from" Yeah, that is my reaction to not being scheduled. My last day of work was December 10th, so I guess they finally figured it out after six months.
Speaking of employment issues, or lack thereof in this case, today makes 53 weeks since I was shown the door at Infowave. This time last year the condo was for sale and I was already starting to pack up. No job and no desire to have one. All I could think about was getting the hell out of Burnaby as fast as I could. That was the best summer of my life; except for the four days that I worked at the credit union.
Tomorrow marks three months at ResponseTek so assuming that I'm not forceably denied access to the office, I guess I'm in. I'd have to say that I'm happy about it too. It's not a perfect place and I had my share of doubts over the past months but I'm glad that I've stuck it out. The people are great and I think it was a combination of new guy jitters and the growing pains that the company continues to deal with. The weeks fly by, I'm learning new stuff all the time, have tons to learn yet and I'm excited by it. These days, that seems to be something to be thankful for.
Tomorrow is also the Infoslave reunion which should be fun. I'm bailing a bit early from work so I can stop by the office (Yes Biff, your office...) beforehand and see what's going on there. I think it was July since I've been there. It seems like so long ago and yesterday all at the same time.
How nice is it to have made it to the weekend? Work has finally wrapped up for now though some interesting developments have occurred. Everyone was in late on Thursday seeing that it was nearly Thursday by the time we had left on Wednesday. Four of us also agreed that come 5 PM, we were out of there. We left at the agreed time and no one said a word though there were some odd looks.
What's interesting is that there is an increasing division between those that have been there since the start and those, like me, who have recently joined. I thought it was just me feeling it but as we talk amongst ourselves, we find that we all feel the same way. Not that there are any personal feelings entering into it; everyone really gets along well but there is a gap between the two groups that is quite profound.
Enough work talk. Yesterday was Friday the 13th. I'm not of the opinion that it means anything except that it's Friday and the date happens to be the 13th. My watch died. The same way it did almost two years ago when I had to send it back to Bulova for a 'cleaning' which set me back $90. I'm not sending it back again so I guess I need to look for a new watch. I really didn't need that bill right now but I enjoy having a nice watch and don't want a Timex. Man, I wonder if I'll ever get that digital camera.
This weekend is also the LeMans 24 Hours though there is no full coverage this year which is annoying. It's also the weekend of Canadian GP and instead of live qualifying, there is bowling on... Nice.
There's really nothing like putting in a good day at the mill and coming home to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Of course, I jest. I'm just home after over 14 hours at the office. Yes, that's correct, 14 hours. Every night, we stay a little bit longer finally ending up with 'the final push' tonight.
Now they say that this is it and that things will be 'normal'. I'm not sure I'm drinkng the kool-aid; been around too long to believe anything any more. After almost three years in tech, I've noticed a pattern and the pattern tends to indicates that this is normal.
It wasn't really that bad, it's just that you know, even I have a life, sad as it may be and I'd like to enjoy it from time to time. I guess I'll crash and go back whenever I finally wake up in the morning. Ah, I was a wise man to hitch myself to the technology star. Though to be honest, I do really enjoy it. Enough for now, sleep calls.
Where were The Red Shoe Diaries when I was a kid?
Anyway, my weekend was OK. I worked both days but today was a short stint. Things really seem to be improving for me there. I can't really explain it but I feel a lot better about it lately. Maybe I'm just more comfortable with what I'm doing or maybe I've just come to realize that there's a lot of potential there and I should jump on it. Now if I could just get my hours down to 40 a week... Wednesday is release day, so at least in the short term I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
I missed golf again this week. I'm going to be sucking worse than normal when I finally get back out there. Hopefully next weekend as this weekend I was just too damn tired to get up that early. You wouldn't believe how many people are on the course early on a Sunday morning so you need to be teeing off by 8:30 or it's crowded. I should try and get a twilight game in one of these evenings.
There's not much else to tell at this point unless I'm to ramble about work stuff. Even I don't want to do that so I won't go into detail. It really seemed that when I was out of work I had more to say. I guess I just had more time and energy to note blogworthy events in my day.
[Evening Report] Well, it's like 27 degrees down here and I just got out of a hot bath as it's the only thing that will give me some relief from my stuffed nose. I am feeling better but I think it might be a day or two before I'm 100%.
So I do need to work this weekend but it shouldn't be too bad. I know what I need to do and I think I whould be in good shape once I get in. Speaking of work, one of the bright spots is a new girl that started last week. Her name is MiHwa and she's a Korean student in Canada to study English. She's also quite the programmer and they have her working on a project for us over the next eight weeks. No one really has the time to pay any attention to her and I wonder if they even know that they should. I've tried to help her as much as I can but she's in a very isolated position in the company and I'm sure it's very similar to what I felt when I started.
For the geeks in the crowd, Wired has an excellent article on the SQL Slammer worm that hit a while ago. Worth a read if you're so inclined.
I guess Biff should be back from the UK today. I need to have a word with him as I suspect that he is behind the fact that I've started to get the Victoria's Secret catalogue. At first it was amusing but now that I realize that they send almost two a week, the bloom is off the rose. I guess I'll need to resume submitting his email address to herbal viagra spammers.
Sweltering days such as these remind me of how unpleasent the Burnaby apartment was. It's 12' ceilings looked great but the total lack of opening windows made summer unbearable. Man that place was so hot in the summer and in the winter, I speant a small fortune heating the air 6' above my head. Down here it's a bit sticky, but it won't be long before a nice breeze rolls off the water and life will be good again.
Well, 9 minutes until the final season of OZ! Lame to be so excited about it but it really is a kick-ass series. [/Evening Report]
I haven't had much time to update these days. Damn work is taking over my life and I've been doing really long days all week. I'm getting home at 7:30 or 8:00 and then going to bed a few hours later because I'm so tired.
Now they've asked us to work at least Saturday and maybe Sunday too. *ponders career change* We are doing resonably well as a company and all the business staff that they've brought on are doing the job and getting us new clients. The problem is that they don't figure that they need more engineering staff to actually build what the others are selling.
To add insult to injury, my flu is now a nasty cold and I have no one to blame but myself. Earlier this week I thought I was pretty much back to normal and decided to fire up the rollerblades. Bad idea. That seemed to trigger the cold and now I'm paying for it.
What I really wanted was to be able to rest this weekend and enjoy the heatwave that we have going on down here. I figured a little time to rest on the beach with a good book would be just what I need and it is what I need. Instead I'll be in the office nursing a headache. At least I have the new season of OZ to look forward to tonight. That is if I can stay awake that late. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when TV is something to get excited about. Such is my life these days.
I got an email about the latest Infoslave reunion next week which is great. I'm going to try and get out there and see everyone again. Work will probably shit when I leave early as they figure everyone likes to work eleven hours a day all the time. Tough, I want to get out and see the old gang.
Apologies to everyone that I haven't talked to in a few weeks. Hopefully I'll have some more time in the near future.
I can't believe that I haven't blogged since Saturday. This flu/cold thing is refusing to go away and in the past couple of days, it's been getting a bit stronger. I crashed early last night and it was a good idea as I'm feeling better today.
Anyone else having trouble with Shaw mail? All my Shaw accounts are timing out and I'm not getting any mail.
I was chatting with Biff yesterday and his stay in the UK has been extended to three weeks. He did post some 'action' shots that he took with his phone and they tell the storey.
OK, this is obviously a posting for the sake posting, entry so I'll wrap it up. No point in rambling on just to take up space.
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