so officially on vacation now. the “big thing” that was maybe going down at work actually is going down - they decided to do it now that I’m out on vacation. it’s in capable hands though so no worries. tupelo is a quite small town, it seems, and there are now pictures floating around of me in a tuxedo. VAST is going to be in nashville on the 17th - damned tempted to go. it’s a thursday, anyone wanna come? more later, tired now.
So I actually felt bad enough today to take a sick day. Doesn’t happen very often. I’ll have to remember that I did so that I report my time correctly.
Almost done with moving. This upcoming weekend is the last bit of it - I have a few more things to toss and then it’s just mop/vacuum duties. It’s been a long process but it feels pretty good to be able to complete it - I’m horrible about actually finishing stuff, so this is a decent ego boost. Come September I’ll be really enjoying not giving the oil companies a ton of cash. I’ve been doing well with walking to work, even to the extent that I’ve been walking to/from to get lunch too most days.
Speaking of work, there’s way too much going on there. I got a bit of a bombshell dropped on me a few days ago with some additional hosting stuff they’re trying to work through - if it goes through, it’ll be a hectic month to be certain. People seem to be happy with me, which is a plus, and I do like that they trust in me enough to drop relatively high-profile things like this on my desk. It’s good to be needed and good to be given an opportunity to really prove myself beyond the homegrown stuff. (While I’ve done well with the homegrown app thing, I do sometimes wonder if it really matters that much.) I’ve been working on adapting my workflow to make things easier - I’ve actually started taking notes in meetings that are important, which is a change for me.
I’ve gotta get some training set up - I wanna go for my MCDBA and/or something Oracle related, just to say I’ve got ‘em. Plus, they want me to do some leadership-type stuff, so I need to find some of that out there too. (Not that I’m objecting.)
Next week, I’ve actually got some vacation time coming. It’s a horrible time to be taking it but it’s needed. I’m off to Tupelo for a wedding and then off to see the parental units- 10 days in all. Really looking forward to it.
You know, I may never get tired of moving.
Ok, sarcasm off now.
Move into the new place went/is going fairly well, I suppose. I finally have my computer area set up and all that, so I can finally get some work done. Most of the big stuff is in, and we’ve gotten the appliances we need (since I’ve got a roommate now) and all that so hurrah. I still have a lot to move but at least it’s mostly just crap I can shove in a box and be done with. Now, if only I had more boxes.. on the minus side, however, I’m dead broke for the rest of the month. So that sucks. While we’re on the subject of moving, I got switched over into a new cube as well. I now have a window (and, the kitchen, unfortunately), so that’s nice. I also have desk space, which is a weird and foreign concept to me.
I also managed to get some new shoes (Chuck Taylors, even) and put OpenWRT on my Linksys with good results. I had to; this house is big enough that the wireless flakes out and I needed to be able to use the Airport Express to extend it.
And so, life continues.
So I suppose I should update this once in a while, eh? Here goes.
I’ve actually managed to secure residence somewhere besides where I’ve been living for like the past 3 years. So now I’ll be living a block away from the school and on the edge of midtown/east Memphis. Really looking forward to saving the gas and having a real kitchen. Being nearer to the action (so to speak) is nice too.
Work progresses.. I actually managed to get a bit of a promotion, so now I’m running a large, visible server that’s kinda critical. This could mean good things. Plus, I’m still doing all the web stuff I was doing. All in all, too much crap going on. I’m trying to work a student into the process though.
Next month is going to be rough, I think - lots of moving and buying stuff (the house doesn’t have a washer or dryer). Ready for a change.
So yeah, it’s been about a month, right? Right. In reality, it’s been a rather uneventful month - more code, not enough sleep. I’m darn near ready to deploy an inventory app that I’ve rewritten for the 3rd time now at work, and then I get to start on another new one, though the second is more focused on ordering instead of just inventory management. I’m getting really comfortable with qcodo though, and that’s kinda nice. It’s gotten a fair bit more mature lately - there’s built-in crypto now, and RSS, and more web services type stuff. It still feels fairly heavy, but that’s (I guess) fixable to a degree and it makes designing forms way easier. I’ve also moved into using Subversion and Eclipse for development and it’s making my life easier. I realised this today when I started working on stuff in another part of the building and all I had to do was check out the code and start working. It was spiffy. Now, if only Eclipse would run a bit less like a bloated hog (or if someone would get me a nicer computer)… I’m kinda thinking of buckling down and actually learning Java. There are some cool things going with that lately too - Zk and the new Google dealie and such - so I want to get on that bandwagon now.
I’ve actually been getting back into reading lately. I got a copy of High Fidelity and tore through it, and then moved on to About a Boy (both Nick Hornby books) and read it with near-equal voracity. I don’t usually read, or for that matter finish books, so it was a nice change of pace. (Not that I don’t like reading. I just find it hard to get my brain into a state that’s conducive to it.) I’m halfway through Sideways and need to finish that now. I’m kinda thinking of doing nanowrimo this year. Need to get the creative juices flowing again, I suppose.
Stuff and things. Gas prices suck, and therefore I’m looking for new housing. Which also sucks. Laziness means I don’t really want to be bothered with moving. I also gave in and tried one of those subscription-based music services - I’ve got an account on Rhapsody now. I’m actually liking it pretty well; they have a lot more music than I do, and a good selection of the more off-the-wall stuff I like. (That was a concern of mine. I don’t really much care for the top-40 kinda stuff. There’s plenty of that on here, but right now I’m playing some Belle and Sebastian.) I’ve kinda come around to the idea of subscription music; it’s a good way to find things, and it’s inexpensive enough that it’s worth paying for. It definitely doesn’t beat actually buying and having a copy of the thing though - if the internet goes down then I can’t get on rhapsody, and CDs have better sound quality than rhapsody (though I’ll admit to probably not being able to notice). Yep.
I’ve been playing with the Altiris Software Virtualization Solution a bit in a VM. It’s neat, you can make layers and install software in them. The layers are kept independant of your actual system so any changes the application makes (including you saving files) are kept seperate of the system as a whole. So, I had an idea: there needs to be a portable version of SVS. Then, you could make any application portable. Just take the portable SVS and your exported layer with you and there you are.
My cold knocked me the hell out on Monday so I got a 3-day weekend, which actually kinda sucked because I spent maybe 5 hours on Monday actually being awake. Wasted an entire rainy day. I kinda wish it would go away. It’s just making me.. hot. And not in a good way.
Been giving more thought to redesigning the webpage. Maybe split things out into more sectional kinds of things, and using WP just for the blogging aspect of it. Also, maybe integrating more of the feedable stuff into this - I just remembered that I had a last.fm account (it was one of those things that you set up the dealie and you forget you have it) so I should probably roll that into the site. Speaking of, I’m finding the way the plugin works to be kinda interesting.. it’s actually a visualization. Kinda intrigued by that.
And so wobbles the thingy down the street. Forgot to put this in my last post. During the training, I got into using portable apps. The basic premise here is that you have an application that’s customized to run without making registry changes or placing files outside of its directory. There are a few apps that are set up like this on the site - I used Thunderbird, Firefox and Gaim - and it was nice to be able to have mail and stuff open without having to have RDC open to my windows box. Very handy. Evidently qemu doesn’t make much in the way of changes to your computer either - a few registry keys but that’s it - so you could theoretically have a VM set up on an iPod or something for use when you’re “out and about” so to speak.
Bought some new CDs. Finally got that engine7 CD I’ve been meaning to get - you can download it for free from legoego but I’d rather have an actual CD. Also got a disc by Benge (goes to record label). Benge is kinda in the same vein. Looking forward to getting those.. eventually.
Finished a week-long training course in SQL Server 2000 today. It was really more based around performance optimization and available facilities than a deeper look at Transact-SQL or ER diagramming. Still, managed to learn a good bit and found a bunch of things I may actually start using when I design databases and whatnot. (The goodness of views and triggers and stuff.) As a bonus I got a certificate saying Yes I Did Show Up For Class. Handy and dandy! Actually considering seeing how much it would be to become a MSCDBA, and then seeing how much it would be to do it for Oracle. I kinda like training more than school, simply because the stuff you learn you can apply right now. There are, of course, two sides to everything though.
The UofM beat Oral Roberts today (no surprise) so we didn’t lose in the first round. Reason to celebrate! We should win the next game too. Hurrah for basketball!
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