Blogging using Live Writer, from MyPrecious – I think I’ll change the machine name tonite to reflect that.

Essential Software (links will be added later):

• Avast home free – with web and p2p only. I don’t use any other stuff.
• Visual Studio 2008 Express editions Web, C#, VB, MSDN Xpress, SQL 2008 Xpress.
• Notepad++
• PageFour
• Firefox
• XMarks set up in both Firefox and IE. I keep different bookmarks in each browser, and each browser is set up with their respective xmarks account.

I will be purchasing a cordless mouse. I’m not the touchpad kind of person. I seem to be typing this okay, so we’ll see how long term use when I have to do documentation or coding on site really works. But right now, this is cool.

It’s gonna be called ‘my precious’ – I just know it.

 

Loading all the essentials I’ll need for a mini/net book. And I’m interested more in the BOOK part, rather than the NET part. At least for now. I may or may not get a wireless plan for it. We shall have to see. But the opportunity to work on docs and code (with VS Express) wherever I am is the important part.

And it’s my favorite color. It matches my car, actually.

Well, nothing like realizing the talk you're giving the next day is based off a completely wrong interpretation of the main article used for inspiration. At 11:45 the night before. No wonder the demos didn't work. It would have helped if I hadn't been so swamped for the last three weeks at work with server STIG-ing. (I'll tell you where to STIG those servers!)

Well. Nothing for it. Time to re-invent. I went to bed @ 2:30 AM Friday night/Saturday morning, and got up at 6:15.

I checked in, listened to the start up talk, then headed for the nearby starbucks. I hate coffee, but I ordered two venti Tazo ice teas, claimed a table with a plugin, paid for internet access ($3.99 for 2 hours, not bad, in my book), and went back to 'work'.

I only missed two talks.

At 3, it was my turn. Wouldn't ya know, the laptop wouldn't go into dual screen mode, so I could only use the main projector screen.

There were about 8 people there, and one left. The rest were fairly interested. It was a high level ish talk, very niche. And I hadn't done anything like this in at least 11 years.

Negative: I could have had better demos. I could have been a little more polished with my words. I used 'um' and 'okay' way too many times. My powerpoint deck sucked (way out of practice). One person left the talk about 10 minutes through.

Positive: I stayed engaged for 50 minutes out of the hour. Only one person left the talk. I answered questions without freaking out. I vaguely remembered how to stand up there and make eye contact and present without looking like a nervous idiot.

Conclusion: I definitely want to keep this up. I don't want to go back into training as a regular gig, but I do want to reacquire my presentation skills so I lose much of the nervousness I had last week. I'll be working on a set of interesting but unique topics that I can submit for code camps that won't be like everyone else.

In other news, the fam damily is coming for the spring birthday/memorial day shindig. I don't know that we'll be swimming, though - depends on the weather. Also, now that code camp's over, I'll definitely be moving my PC from the family room to the yarn room, and finally installing Windows 7 RC. 8.5 days left of kindergarten, and 9 and 2 half days left of first grade.

Disclaimer – this is an opinion piece (and not even a well organized one, at that).

There’s a recent discussion around the internets about something specifically offensive, and the discussion has also segued into various talks about women in IT, specifically programmers.

Guys, there are females who program. Girls, yes, you too can be a programmer, if you like logic puzzles and can describe clearly how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I’ve been programming since I was 12. Back then, I was one of two females out of about 40 students (5% ) in the summer school computer class (way back in the late 70s). Any computer clubs I went to, I was usually the only girl.

Now, 30ish years later, I’m speaking at a code camp. Out of 24 speakers, there are two females (looking at the names). Which my ms calc says is 8.3%. Not much of an increase there. At my current company, the split seems to be about 50/50 company wide, but at the last several places I’ve worked, I’ve been the lone female developer, often the lone female in IT. (It’s a good thing I like action movies and football.)

This is my opinion, but for most, programming is a solitary task, and for the most part, women are social creatures (Myself not included – I wouldn’t have a social life if not for my kids). And until “social programming” emerges as a viable methodology, IT and programming will remain populated by those who don’t mind the long silent hours populated by the occasional outburst or the required social interaction when getting a drink from the fridge.

But, hey, that’s just me.

<geek alert>

In my quest to learn something well enough to give a talk, I’ve been looking at WPF and Silverlight, and XAML which governs both, and all this whole new paradime (mistake intended) for programming front ends/user interfaces.

I submitted a proposal for code camp, and they accepted. I will be speaking at Nova Code Camp on Saturday, May 23, at 3. (No pizza for me, this time!)

So, I’ve been busy with working on the demo, and I’ll be doing some practice talks here at work. I’ve also decided to do the demo in C#, so I’m in the middle of a re-write. I may make the sample code available in both flavors, but professionally I need to begin programming full time in C#. I’ve been semi-promoted to developer team lead for a major webification effort of an existing ugly winforms system, and the target language is C#. I’ve coasted with VB.net, and now it’s time to get serious.

</geek alert>

 

There was a rumor a coupla weeks ago, when I had difficulty in installing SPD on a standalone, no internet system (gasp!), that MS would make SharePoint Designer 2007 free on April 1. Well, considering the date, I was semi-skeptical, but optimistic to the point in suspending my attempts to check.

On April 1, you still had to buy it. On April 2, it was indeed, free. I have now installed on the disconnected system with no issues.

You can get it here.

I entered a proposed presentation for Nova Code Camp. I’ve been attending for years, and I’ve been looking for something I thought I could either know enough about to give an interesting talk, or to find something that I could talk about that wouldn’t be more of the same.

And I’m nervous. If I get picked, I’ll have less than two months to perfect the talk, then speak in front of a bunch of guys (and a few girls – typical code camp ratio is 5–10% female), some of whom may know much more on the topic than I do, without looking like a complete idiot. (And if I don’t get picked, I’ll forever wonder why.)

Early on, I started in this crazy profession as a trainer, so you’d think I’d be okay. But it’s been over a decade since I’ve done any regular stand up and talk in front of people.

But it’s time. Time for me to start publicly declaring my technical knowledge I’ve accumulated. And continue to.

BTW, the book purchase dry spell is pretty much done. On Sunday, I picked up two Linnea Sinclair paperbacks from Barnes and Noble – in the store – and Tuesday I ordered WPF in Action (w/vs 2008). Book links below. However, I’ll still be keeping the actual purchases of new books to a minimum, since we’ve got disney world at the end of June.

Book Links

Linnea Sinclair – Gabriel's Ghost

Linnea Sinclair – Hope's Folly

Arlen Feldman and Maxx Daymon – WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008

<geek alert>

Hi, I’m Leah and I’m a bookaholic.

In my quest to tame my addiction, I’m working on a little app to keep track of what I have and what I want. Kind of like Library Thing without any of the social stuff. And not necessarily a browser based system.

So, I’ve got a WPF client that will go out and touch four (so far) different web services to get the xml about a particular book – based on isbn or isbn13.

Getting the Data

There are some other choices out there, but I concentrated on the main ones, as far as information is concerned. In alphabetical order: Amazon, ISBNdb, Library Thing, and Library of Congress. Here’s how to get the XML from each service.

(note – blog jet is not the best at formatting the xml, and this is my first time at a serious tech post, so pretend all is properly indented until I get it cleaned up)

Amazon

First, get a key. Then make your url like this:

http://webservices.amazon.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&SubscriptionId=YOURKEYHERE&Operation=ItemLookup&ResponseGroup=Medium&ItemId=0441172695

Then, here’s what your xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <ItemLookupResponse xmlns="http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2005-10-05">
- <OperationRequest>
- <HTTPHeaders>
  <Header Name="UserAgent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; 
InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)" /> 
  </HTTPHeaders>
  <RequestId>38eed815-71e3-420b-902f-ade8746fb3ca</RequestId> 
- <Arguments>
  <Argument Name="Operation" Value="ItemLookup" /> 
  <Argument Name="Service" Value="AWSECommerceService" /> 
  <Argument Name="ItemId" Value="0441172695" /> 
  <Argument Name="ResponseGroup" Value="Medium" /> 
  <Argument Name="SubscriptionId" Value="YOURKEYHERE" /> 
  </Arguments>
  <RequestProcessingTime>0.0165120000000000</RequestProcessingTime> 
  </OperationRequest>
- <Items>
- <Request>
  <IsValid>True</IsValid> 
- <ItemLookupRequest>
  <Condition>New</Condition> 
  <DeliveryMethod>Ship</DeliveryMethod> 
  <IdType>ASIN</IdType> 
  <MerchantId>Amazon</MerchantId> 
  <OfferPage>1</OfferPage> 
  <ItemId>0441172695</ItemId> 
  <ResponseGroup>Medium</ResponseGroup> 
  <ReviewPage>1</ReviewPage> 
  </ItemLookupRequest>
  </Request>
- <Item>
  <ASIN>0441172695</ASIN> 
  <DetailPageURL>http://www.amazon.com/Dune-Messiah-Chronicles-Book/dp/0441172695_
      %3FSubscriptionId%3YOURKEYHERE%26tag%3Dws%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26_
      creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0441172695</DetailPageURL> 
  <SalesRank>8349</SalesRank> 
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
- <ImageSets>
- <ImageSet Category="primary">
- <SwatchImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL30_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">30</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">18</Width> 
  </SwatchImage>
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
  </ImageSet>
  </ImageSets>
- <ItemAttributes>
  <Author>Frank Herbert</Author> 
  <Binding>Paperback</Binding> 
  <DeweyDecimalNumber>813.54</DeweyDecimalNumber> 
  <EAN>9780441172696</EAN> 
  <ISBN>0441172695</ISBN> 
  <Label>Ace</Label> 
- <Languages>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Original Language</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Unknown</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Published</Type> 
  </Language>
  </Languages>
- <ListPrice>
  <Amount>799</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$7.99</FormattedPrice> 
  </ListPrice>
  <Manufacturer>Ace</Manufacturer> 
  <NumberOfItems>1</NumberOfItems> 
  <NumberOfPages>336</NumberOfPages> 
- <PackageDimensions>
  <Height Units="hundredths-inches">120</Height> 
  <Length Units="hundredths-inches">670</Length> 
  <Weight Units="hundredths-pounds">35</Weight> 
  <Width Units="hundredths-inches">410</Width> 
  </PackageDimensions>
  <ProductGroup>Book</ProductGroup> 
  <PublicationDate>1987-07-15</PublicationDate> 
  <Publisher>Ace</Publisher> 
  <Studio>Ace</Studio> 
  <Title>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</Title> 
  </ItemAttributes>
- <OfferSummary>
- <LowestNewPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestNewPrice>
- <LowestUsedPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestUsedPrice>
- <LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <Amount>1000</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$10.00</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <TotalNew>42</TotalNew> 
  <TotalUsed>441</TotalUsed> 
  <TotalCollectible>10</TotalCollectible> 
  <TotalRefurbished>0</TotalRefurbished> 
  </OfferSummary>
- <EditorialReviews>
- <EditorialReview>
  <Source>Product Description</Source> 
  <Content>Paul Atreides, genetically bred and trained to become the leader of his planet, is still subject_
 to human frailties. The second book of the series.</Content> 
  </EditorialReview>
  </EditorialReviews>
  </Item>
  </Items>
  </ItemLookupResponse>

 

ISBNdb

Get a key. Then make your url like this (for isbn):

http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=YOURKEYHERE&index1=isbn&results=details&value1=9780441172695

Here’s what they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <ISBNdb server_time="2009-03-16T19:38:39Z">
- <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
<BookData book_id="dune_messiah" isbn="0441172695" isbn13="9780441172696">
  <Title>Dune Messiah</Title> 
  <TitleLong>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</TitleLong> 
  <AuthorsText>Frank Herbert</AuthorsText> 
  <PublisherText publisher_id="ace_charter">ACE Charter</PublisherText> 
  <Details change_time="2004-12-24T01:24:17Z" price_time="2009-03-16T16:59:06Z" _
            edition_info="Mass Market Paperback; 1994-11-01" language="" _
            physical_description_text="4.2"x6.9"x0.9"; 329 pages; 0.3 lb" lcc_number="" 
            dewey_decimal_normalized="" dewey_decimal="" /> 
    </BookData>
</BookList>
 </ISBNdb>

 

Library Thing

Another key needed. Make your URL like this:

http://www.librarything.com/services/rest/1.0/?method="librarything.ck.getwork&isbn=0441172695&apikey=YOURKEYHERE

Library Thing’s response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <response stat="ok">
- <ltml xmlns="http://www.librarything.com/" version="1.0">
- <item id="8183" type="work">
  <author id="54" authorcode="herbertfrank">Frank Herbert</author> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/work/8183</url> 
- <commonknowledge>
- <fieldList>
- <field type="13" name="disambiguation" displayName="Disambiguation notice">
- <versionList>
- <version id="848067" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230621463">Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:17:43 -0500</date> 
- <person id="501960">
  <name>alexdaw</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/alexdaw</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ A shorter version of this book appeared in Galaxy Magazine for July-September, 1969 ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="26" name="lastwords" displayName="Last words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827623" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087264">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:54:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ She led him back across the qanat into the darkness at the base of the massif and its Place of Safety. ]]></fact> 
  <fact><![CDATA[ Epilogue . . . He strides through the long cavern of time, Scattering the fool-self of his dream -The Ghola's Hymn ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="25" name="firstwords" displayName="First words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827605" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087106">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:51:46 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ Excerpts from the death cell interview with Bronso of IX- Q: What led you to take _
          your particular approach to a history of Muad'dib? A: Why should I answer your questions? ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="2" name="placesmentioned" displayName="Important places">
- <versionList>
- <version id="672922" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1224171231">Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:33:51 -0400</date> 
- <person id="61056">
  <name>amweb</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/amweb</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Arrakis (Dune)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="23" name="series" displayName="Series">
- <versionList>
- <version id="581299" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1220475254">Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:54:14 -0400</date> 
- <person id="47275">
  <name>PhoenixTerran</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/PhoenixTerran</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune (2)</fact> 
  <fact>Dune: complete chronology (9)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="3" name="characternames" displayName="People/Characters">
- <versionList>
- <version id="289511" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205984261">Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:37:41 -0400</date> 
- <person id="138345">
  <name>jmjackson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/jmjackson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Paul Atreides</fact> 
  <fact>Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife)</fact> 
  <fact>Chani</fact> 
  <fact>Princess Irulan</fact> 
  <fact>Duncan Idaho</fact> 
  <fact>Stilgar</fact> 
  <fact>Gaius Helen Mohiam</fact> 
  <fact>Edric</fact> 
  <fact>Scytale</fact> 
  <fact>Hayt</fact> 
  <fact>Bijaz</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="21" name="canonicaltitle" displayName="Canonical title">
- <versionList>
- <version id="278019" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205206730">Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:38:50 -0400</date> 
- <person id="118708">
  <name>ATimson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/ATimson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune Messiah</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="16" name="originalpublicationdate" displayName="Original publication date">
- <versionList>
- <version id="96006" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1194630684">Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:51:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="303911">
  <name>michaelhehir</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/michaelhehir</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>1969</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
  </fieldList>
  </commonknowledge>
  </item>
  <legal>By using this data you agree to the LibraryThing API terms of service.</legal> 
  </ltml>
  </response>

 

Library Of Congress

No key needed (yay!). Your URL like so:

http://z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=9780441015610&maximumRecords=100&recordSchema=dc

And they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <zs:searchRetrieveResponse xmlns:zs="http://www.loc.gov/zing/srw/">
  <zs:version>1.1</zs:version> 
  <zs:numberOfRecords>1</zs:numberOfRecords> 
- <zs:records>
- <zs:record>
  <zs:recordSchema>info:srw/schema/1/dc-v1.1</zs:recordSchema> 
  <zs:recordPacking>xml</zs:recordPacking> 
- <zs:recordData>
- <srw_dc:dc xmlns:srw_dc="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" 
       xsi:schemaLocation="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/resources/dc-schema.xsd">
  <title>Dune messiah /</title> 
  <creator>Herbert, Frank.</creator> 
  <type>text</type> 
  <type>Science fiction. gsafd</type> 
  <publisher>New York : Ace Books,</publisher> 
  <date>2008.</date> 
  <language>eng</language> 
  <subject>Dune (Imaginary place)--Fiction.</subject> 
  <identifier>URN:ISBN:9780441015610</identifier> 
  </srw_dc:dc>
  </zs:recordData>
  <zs:recordPosition>1</zs:recordPosition> 
  </zs:record>
  </zs:records>
  </zs:searchRetrieveResponse>

 

Conclusion

Library Thing’s api is useless to me in this format. LOC is good, but a little terse. For my purposes, I’ll probably search ISBN db first, then if I can’t find it, look at amazon. Amazon’s info is designed, and licensed, for marketing purposes, so you’re supposed to be linking back to the website for purchases. If this becomes a public app, I may reverse the lookup order.

Feel free to let me know if there are other reliable, and sizeable, databases with web service access out there.

Next up, sometime – building an app in WPF, and LINQ to XML.

</geekalert>

… You walk into the ladies room after it has just been cleaned, and you think “First!”

… By the time the news headline reaches CNN, you’ve seen three different accounts and read the first hand accounts from either the twitterstream or the blogosphere.

… It’s not surfing, it’s User Interface Trend Analysis.

… Google Skillz – U haz dem.

 

I will be upgrading the site engine and making a few cosmetic changes this week. Hopefully, this effort will spur me on in regularly updating the blog.

(Warning, geek content ahead!)

Microsoft SharePoint (tm) is a collaboration platform that enables quick collaboration setup and usage within the MS Windows platform. It is built upon .net, and integrates MS Office, and can often be deployed and customized without any code.

Sample sites built on SharePoint include Viacom, Canon Technology Solutions, Florida’s Orange County Public Schools, and Spinebreakers.

Custom “web parts” – the sections that make up a page – can be created, including many codeless solutions. Searching across diverse sources – including databases, excel files, word docs, pdfs – can be set up.

Collaboration – shared work – is a cornerstone of SharePoint, and its major selling point. If you’re doing a significant amount of collaborative work within MS Office, SharePoint may be a boon to your productivity.

 

I went to Code Camp on Saturday, and won a license to JetBrains Resharper, and Dot Trace Profiler. Retail value 6 hunnerd bucks. All cause I had tivo'd and watched Hackers recently, and could identify the soundtrack.

Anyhoo, I started a new job on Friday, and so far, so good. Lots of good stuff to learn and do. I may be posting geeky bits more and more. My goal is to learn enough about something interesting to be able to give a presentation at the next code camp in March.

And the monsters got up extremely early. Still working on adjusting the time clock. We’re up, had breakfast, and the kitchen has been cleaned. I cleaned the microwave, and hand washed the glass plate. Hubby is now cleaning off the formal dining room table – the repository for all the stuff we don’t want to put away since pretty much Easter (or even last Christmas).

I finally decided that until I was happy with the knitwhit prototype, I wasn’t going to port it to the web. Also, whatever job I end up having, the web version will be my practice area. Currently, there are four web versions, all using different methods of programming, with pretty much the same database. So, it’s in Access for now, until I get the pattern database stuff finalized, and then I’ll make it multi-user, then I’ll port it to the web and start asking for beta users. It WON’T be another ravelry – purely a project management app, not a social one.

I have two packages to get in the mail between now and Monday – one for my knitting secret pal, and one for my sister.

I’ve made a little progress on my NaNo project, but I’m behind, and I’m actually using it as a reward for my must dos, rather than the other way around. Otherwise no laundry would get accomplished.

I’ve lost ten pounds, also – mostly by not eating or eating one or two of the one-hundred calorie snack packs. And drinking gallons of iced tea.

Well, the clock is chiming the hour, so the girls have to be given their cleaning instructions. We’re all working this morning.

Well, I had a vested interest in this update, since I grew up with the originals. In fact, COL Steve Austin was my first intended fiance. So I Tivo’d, then I watched as soon as I could.

The characters have been updated to reflect today’s American culture, and have their own conflicts. Jamie has to take care of a younger teenage sister, obviously not without some conflicts. And there’s this guy, a genius professor.

Then the car accident, and “THE CHANGE”. And yes, I jumped at the car accident. Hollywood’s getting good at these surprise things. It was scary.

The bad guys are a mix of stereotypes and updates. I liked Mark Sheppard as the bad father (and inventor of the technology) of the genius professor. But then, I’ve liked Mark since SOF.

They set up Jamie as a reluctant operative, which is interesting, and similar to the original, either dropping or replacing the memory loss story line all together.

Pilot Pronouncement – it will go on the TIVO list.

What a week it’s been. We had an intense time at the beach, then came back to the week not quite from heck, but from somewhere pretty close. So now I’m finally mentally and physically ready to resume blogging. Unfortunately, I haven’t any pictures for you, yet, but I’ll get back into that soon.

Below is a list of all the stuff I have in the works in various stages more solid than dreaming about.

Knitting Projects Currently On The Needles:

• Green Sweater for 5.5 yr old (needs one sleeve, and body)
• Christmas Sweater (not those colors) for 18 yr old
• Kittyville hat for Youngest Sister (by request)
• Not a Kelly for Me
• Various Dishrag / swatching

Knitting Projects Soon To Be Cast On

• Tank/Tee for Middle Sister
• Sweater for 4 yr old
• Sweater for Cousin 4 yr old (by request)

Knitting Projects Being Planned

• Layette for BOSS (due Jan 1 – Baby’s Due Jan 15, gender unknown)
• Layette for Youngest Sister (due Feb 1 – Baby’s Due Feb 14, male)

Website Projects In the Pipeline

• Updates to this site
• Writeaholic resurrection
• Codemom deployment

Writing Projects In my Head

• Divine Right to Rule (exploring a physical manifestation of this belief)
• Magic Tigers
• Warriors

I swear, she’ll talk you to death. Sheesh.

Got the SP 11 package and Michelle’s package in the mail on Tuesday. When Michelle acknowledges receipt, I’ll post the knitting pics. The other baby due in Sept is actually a preemie, so after I confirm sizing, I’ll prolly send them something this coming week. SP11 Recipient has acknowledged, but I can’t put a link here, just in case.

Blogging and tight coding deadlines don’t mix well. But my code went live today, and I haven’t heard about any issues with it. While I had the logic down pat, I know the code wasn’t well formed, but I’m new to the language, and a lot of the finer points that others fully trained in the language would code automatically I either ignored, didn’t know about, or took awhile to track down the syntax. I’m open to a code review when we can breathe again, and I said so to my direct boss, the integrator. So, hopefully, they still like me as much as I like them.

Here, have a kitteh.

 

 

Deadline for day job fast approaching, and I’ve been tracking down an issue, which seems to be a stupid programmer issue, for the most part. I forgot I had included a step in a routine, then called that step outside the routine, then the routine itself, so of course it wasn’t working. Duh! Logic 101, time to refresh.

1. Unzip
2. Untar
3. Send email

In that order. Silly Programmer, kicks are for trids.

Sorry, it’s late, and I’m rambling because I have no real knitting progress to update – between kindergarten, and tight coding deadline, knitting has crawled for the last two days. However, since I have to send package on Saturday, once coding furiously is done, knitting furiously will resume.

Here, have some cute kittehs.

Someone has gone and made some links. I’m not the only one, it seems, who would be interested. I’m not that into HP, but the other stuff looks interesting.

Brian May, of Qeen fame, has done it. He’s a PhD. As someone who couldn’t tolerate college (most likely due to asthma-medicine induced ADD), I’m both congratulatory and jealous. And, it’s in astrophysics, no less. Something I have a passing interest in – I follow the headlines more than most people would (same with quantum physics).

Hats off, to you, Brian, for finishing what you started long ago. Maybe I’ll go back to college in 30 years, and just graduate.

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com. This may or may not result  in more entries.

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents. (Nathaniel Borenstein)

It seems blogger/blogspot is down this morning. None of the blogs (okay, most - I got one to work) I usually read from there are working. From a technical perspective, it will be an interesting read when it's back up and the explanation is posted. From a blogosphere perspective, it will be interesting to see how the overal web society responds to the outage.

Okay, enough geek musings.

I'm taking the baby sweater to visit my grandmother this evening. While she didn't teach me to knit (I actually took a knitting class in elementary school), it has been another thing we share, and it seems I'm the only one in the family who enjoys it as she does. Since she's ninety, and her body's starting to complain, she doesn't get out much - if at all. So we'll marvel at the techniques, and discuss a few things, and continue our bond, while the little gels run around the back yard of my mother's house. (At least, that's the plan.)

The Not A Tulip Sweater, she has been finished! Finally! Although, it really only took 11 days, and I was sick the last five, so it was a fairly quick project, but WAY too much finishing work for me. The I-cord around the neck - I worked it separately then sewed it on, since I couldn't wrap my head around the applied directions (doing I-cord while attached to the sweater) - is now complete, and and all ends woven, knotted as needed, and snipped. The hat is done. The blanket is about half way done. I found a good set of seamed booties, so the layette will be complete.

Once this set is done, I need to finish the blanket and booties for the other Michelle, and I'm done with baby stuff for a couple of months. (Pics will be forthcoming after Labor Day - both boxes must be in the mail by Sept 1.) My boss and my sister are due in January and February (in that order), so they'll be the next baby layette recipients.

Next up on the priority list is finishing the green sweater for Cailin, and doing one each for the other two daughters. My husband doesn't wear sweaters, and I'll work on mine as I work on the girls'.

In the meantime, have some LOLCat cuteness. And if you're a geek, you might enjoy LOLCode.

[Geeks, be patient. I have some good marriage tips coming up for you - whether you are one, or are married to one, or both.]

In Kid News, the the five year old starts kindergarten next week, so that's our big building up to event. We did some homework a bit tonite, to warm up brains. Both the 3.9 yr old and the 5.5 yr old did two pages in the little books I got for them from AC Moore. We're setting up the routine before the school year starts, and easing them into it.

That's what the husband has. The doc said he might get it when the 5 yr old got her shot, so we postponed her shot, and his doc told him to get vaccinated, and he did, then two weeks later, she did, and now he has chicken pox. So it's either from his shot or hers, no one knows. He's pretty miserable, and pretty disgusted with the medical advice, and I'm exhausted from sole care of girls, and they miss their dad.

(New Paragraph, finally.) I have knitting pics, but I haven't taken the time to sit at the computer in the evenings and upload them from the camera. Today is Thursday, which means Grandmother gets them from daycare, and keeps them until about 8-ish (ish can be anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes, BTW), so I can work late or relax. So maybe I'll get stuff done then. Don't count it.

At the day job, I have to rassle with InstallShield script - who knew how complicated a progress bar could be?

I saw this on a blog, somwhere, and had to try it...

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I finally had an hour to kill, without kids or husband, on the way home from work, so I went by the LYS. I'm a cheapo, but I found something new at a price I could justify for my expectant sister (due valentine's day). (excuse the crumbs).

Cotton/Acrylic at $5 a ball. This will make either a nice blanket-bootie set, or the tulip sweater and a hat. Or something like that. Plenty of time.

All my yarn is now getting ID'd per skein/ball - yes, these have been duly marked and entered into my current knitting organizer. I'm back to doing my organizer in MS Access to save time on tweaking. Once I'm happy with the final output, I'll  port it to either a fancy desktop app - in Mono, I hope - or I'll webify it. If I webify it, it won't be social, like ravelry, but datacentric, like basecamp.

I'm such a geek. While I like ravelry.com, it's a little too social for my taste, so in my spare time, I'm working on my own. I was going to make it a plain desktop app, but what with Vista, and Mac and Linux ppl, for now it's browser based, in vb.net 2005 and sql server. When I'm happy with the overall usage, I  may make it multi-user, and do more with it. The big thing I want it to do is price my projects and keep track of my yarn inventory based on yarn usage.

In other news, the teenager is moving out today. I'm trying not to be too mushy ("oh, mom!"), but she's been my life for the last 18 and a half years (including gestation). She turns 18 in September, and she'll only be six miles away, but still.

On the diet front, over the winter and chaotic spring I had gained back all my weight loss, so now I'm back on medifast. I'm gonna use up my existing supply, then order more. The girls and I took a walk to the playground this weekend and the next morning I could barely get out of bed. And, since the 5 yr old was signed up for fall soccer, I gotta be able to teach her some basics in the next 30 days.

So far, no actual writing has occured, but now that I'm no longer at the overtime-crazy job, maybe I'll be able to better utilise my free time for more than just making sure the kids have clean clothes and snacks for tomorrow. I'm slowly but surely recovering.

BTW, I haven't read HP 7. I stopped after 2.

I didn't realize it had been that long.

We made it back from the trip, I started the new job the next day, and I've never looked back.

New Job: No timesheets, no client support, learning Install Shield's script (kind of like Javascript, but not), C#, Dot Net 2.0, the new portal, SFTP (Secure FTP, which is implemented completely differently than FTP), packets, and buffers and streams, oh my!

The 5 yr old graduated from Pre-K (January kid, poor thing, can't wait for kindergarten, reading already). The 17 yr old graduated from High School (not looking back, either), and turns 18 in Sept. The 3 yr old turns 4 in Sept and got her own room. All three are enjoying the new pool.

I turned 40. My Dad turned 60. My surviving grandmother is still kicking at 90.

I've gotten back into knitting in a big way. It's amazing the free info now found online. And the yarn. Beautiful lovely yarn. Aha, aha.... Sorry, you prolly don't get the reference (Disney's Robin Hood).

Anyhoo, I'll be trying once again to get the site(s) regularly updated. Keep your fingers crossed.

I start my new job on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to learning new things, and doing something the public (well, more than just classified Navy Users) can see and use.

Hubby will be changing his job schedule with the new month - he'll be working evenings, for most likely the month of May. He's not looking forward to it, but I am. He can take the girls to school when they're nice and cooperative, and I'll pick up the cranky monsters and feed them, and put them to bed.

I've started Intermittent Fasting. Eat 24 hours, Fast 24 hours, from 6pm to 6 pm (In my case it's more like 7 - 7). Today is my first fast day. I will most likely be fasting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I didn't weigh today, and we have the road trip to the inlaws this weekend, but I'll get a baseline tomorrow morning if I can, and I'll try to repeat every week.

On the writing front, not much is happening. Current job ends tomorrow, which has basically been all consuming of any free time (hence the job change). I have several stories in the various mental stages, that I'd like to start putting down on either paper or electrons.

By the way, does anyone know if reflected light is different than direct light? How does the reflection alter the light wave/particle makeup? Anyone? Anyone? ... I guess I'll have to look it up, then.

I was futzing around, and bought StarDock's Object Desktop. So, of course I'm playing with skins, customizing the look of my pc. Here's' what I have at the moment. It's kind of mac like, and the window title is in a weird font, so I may be changing it.

My mother took the littel gels for the morning, lunch and nap. So what am I doing? I'm putting xubuntu on an ancient winbook laptop, then I'll be wiping and re-installing windows on my sister's PC. All this is definitely laundry avoidance.

The little laptop will bring the number of running PCs in the house to 5. Teenager's, my old one which is for the littel gels, mine, hubby's, little laptop. Also, I have the work laptop in a docking station at the moment. But right now it's off, so it doesn't count. If this install goes well, I have another old machine I may tackle, and see if I can put together a little linux network to play with. I want to get some experience with the LAMP stack - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. And the software cost is perfect - zilch.

Teenager will be home by 5, and I may ask her to post something as a test. Be warned.