- Just had a sip of bad milk. Hate it when that happens. It hadn't even reached its expiration date yet... #
- Time to get some sleep #
- Ick, Monday and hardly no sleep. #
- Today's @woot podcast was HILARIOUS! #
- Just heard a loud peal of thunder. The rain is just beginning to fall. This may be a big storm.. Hope Lorien's plane will be on time tonight #
- Woah! Crazy rain! #
- It's about darn time it rained again. My allergies have been bad the last few days... #
- Thunder is still shaking the heavens, but the rain stopped. I hope it rains some more. #
- Wow, the rain is really angry now #
- Saw lightning overhead a couple of minutes ago #
- The rain isn't quite monsoon-style, but about the closest we see around here. In Taiwan it could rain harder than this for 3 straight days #
- Whew. I can open up the windows and breathe outside air for a little while. This is nice. #
- Latest sourdough loaf came out epic. Seriously, this stuff is awesome. #
- Only downside is you have to make it 24 hours in advance. This dough takes forever to rise. #
- Listening to the Ayepodcast (Scottish Music) from FootStompin.com #
- Oh hey. @FootStompin is on Twitter now. Woohoo! #
- Trying to track down a software bug. It's being very elusive. #
- At the in-laws' b&b getting some stuff. Just heard really loud thunder crack #
- Traffic signals out at I90 and NW Blvd in Cd'A and at I90 and Seltice in Post Falls. Avoid if possible! #
- Sorry, Seltice and Hwy 41 not I90 in Post Falls #
- Making rice. I use a Tatung rice cooker I bought in Taiwan for $20 8 years ago. It's awesome. Perfect rice, every time. #
- My Linux Twitter client (Qwit) quit working. Ironic, that. #
- Just invited little brother to lunch. My treat. #
- Tracking down another software bug. This one is harder to find. Having to write out to a log file to debug it remotely (no debugger) #
- Yay! Bug squashed. Chalk it up to an obscure C API issue. #
- Thinking about velociraptors again. Man they're cool dinosaurs #
- Was in bathroom stall today when someone came in, used toilet, then turned out lights as they left. At least I had my iphone for light. #
- Sat in the dark about 3 minutes before someone else came in and turned the lights back on. I said "thanks," and he laughed at my misfortune. #
- Heading over to Sarah and Frank's place to talk about their wedding. I'm marrying them! #
- Was sent a file in Rich-Text Format (.rtf) today. It only loads in MS Word. Why not just send it as .doc then? Independent file format FAIL! #
- Look upon it and despair that you didn't get one #invaderzim #gir http://yfrog.com/0dkq5j #
- Saw Sarah and Frank's cat puke 4 times. Never seen a cat honk so much before. Well, so often anyway. Mr Pookies horked giant gobs up as gift #
- Up early again. Hate the fact that, most of the time, I just don't sleep good. Or enough. #
- Mom sent me Amish Friendship Bread starter. It cannot be made in a metal bowl. Why? My guess is because metal is the Devil's technology. #
- Just informed of a lunch posse going to MacKenzie River Pizza Co for lunch. Sounds good to me! #
- Made a change to my backup list and now the backups are running 25% faster, 2.2Gb/sec. They used to be this fast. Must have fixed something #
- Cannot explain the change in speed. I _added_ files to the list. Files on remote servers! #
- Currently have 16 tabs open in my code editor. This is a relief. Usually it's more. Digging down more than 20 layers makes my brain hurt #
- Got shopping list from wife for grocery trip after work. She's going to see a movie. Not sure I got the better part of the deal here... #
- Nobody told me @carbonleaf was on Twitter. Or that they are playing Seattle tonight, and Portland tomorrow. Jake = sad. #
- Just caught up on Burn Notice. Lorien's uncle is here watching some of our TiVo'd anime he missed while in Alaska #
- Looking up some stuff about the MySQL C API. Yes, the same one that's been giving me a little trouble lately. #
- Rewrote extended query function to be safer and work better. No more data clobbering! #
- Time to get some sleep. After I read for a while. Already pretty tired though. #
- Just about done rewriting SQL wrapper code for my MUD project. There are more lines devoted to error-checking than anything else... #
- Having fun with standard containers in C++. Dereferencing iterators and using array accessors at the same time. #
- It'd sure be nice to automatically squelch anyone that uses more than one trending topic in the same tweet... #
- Facing the Gazebo....alone #munchkin #
- Woohoo the MUD driver is back up and working after being torn apart for a long time. Haven't re-enabled MySQL support yet, though. #
- Added rooms to my MUD over 2 years ago. I guess it's time I added a world map, too. Not sure I'll ever finish this project. #
I've been thinking about the error checking issue I mentioned the other day. And I've talked to several of the other people at work, and they agree that the best thing to do is to ensure that the error-causing issue doesn't come up. I think the easiest way (thanks, Jeff) is to return all the information that the query generates immediately. So I spent some time yesterday evening and today rewriting two different MySQL wrapper classes (one for work, one for a personal project).
I'm much happier with the code now. If anything, it's cleaner than it was before. Certainly easier to use, as well. I was also able to cut out a lot of excess functionality that became obsolete. So, by my calculations, more stable + faster + easier to debug + smaller codebase = WIN.
Nobody told me that Carbon Leaf was playing in Seattle tonight, or Portland tomorrow. Dang it, Internets, you FAIL!
I'm working with an older C-style API in a code project, and it often unexpectedly invalidates pointers it has returned to me. Inevitably, it's because I've used the API in a way that it's supposed to do this, but it's not well documented. But short of copying everything out of memory at the time the function returns, how can I make this safe. And even tougher, how do I make this thread-safe?
We've had some thunderstorms lately, and today the first real problem from them. Several city stoplights are just blinking instead of directing traffic. This is problematic, because it only seems to have happened at really busy intersections. Murphy wins again.
Today was a fairly quiet day, as far as the job goes. I'm working on fixing a problem with a printer dialog box uncovered last week. Among my normal tasks, I also had a special one: buy three A/V cables for my boss. He left town this morning to attend a trade show in San Francisco and didn't have time to find the cables he needed. At home. For his TV. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't mind at all. He pays me, and I'm happy to help out. Happy to be trusted to get things done. But there were two special conditions: cables must be at least 25 feet long, and they absolutely must be at his house by Thursday at the latest.
This meant checking out local stores first. Want to venture a guess as to how much Best Buy wants for a 30 foot HDMI cable? No, you really don't—$200! For 25 foot RCA component? $89! Wow!!
So I did what anybody would do, went online. Prices are much more reasonable, but you never know when they're going to ship. Amazon would have been great, but the way their partners work you don't even always have the option to overnight ship. Anyway, I ended up calling a contact I have at PCConnection, who got me all three cables (two 35 foot RCA and one 35 foot HDMI) for $181, including overnight shipping. And a guarantee that they would go out same day because I called early enough.
So, aside from IT Manager, Refrigerator Installer, and the many other titles I hold (or, more precisely, have been held to) I now get to add Cable Gopher. Woohoo!
Lesson learned? Never be in immediate need of a cable like that. It will cost you dearly.
Today Lorien gets home from the airport. I had to call her earlier today and find out what time, for some reason I thought I had entered it into my phone's calendar application but it wasn't there. I hope that this crazy thunder and lightning is over so her plane can land without delays. It would suck to get all the way there (about 40 miles) and find out it had been rescheduled or delayed.
There is still some lightning around, in fact I just saw a flash as I am typing this, but the thunder is far off now, and the rain has all but completely stopped. Should be fine.
It will be nice having her home after two weeks though.
Yesterday was my niece Scarlet's birthday. I wanted to go to Portland for the party but just couldn't make it.
- I hate waking up early. #
- Minotaur movie on SciFi had no minotaur in it, just some undead bull. FAIL! #
- Back to being a code monkey. Hope to finish this up today for an easy day at work tomorrow. I hate having to work on Sunday... #
- Got serious about coding finally. Brought up my second monitor and full-sized keyboard. Working this much on a laptop cramps my style #
- Inlaws are playing Scrabble. Why does this always happen when I'm not around? #
- Party's over. Played Boom Blox Bash Party. It's the bombizzle. Or whatever kids these days call cool stuff. #
- Well now that the Zim marathon is over, time for a new one. Looks like it's going to be Firefly. Go browncoats! #
- I've had an allergic itch in the back right of my throat all day today, it's been making me crazy! #
- Mal just told Simon "Kaylee is dead." So hilarious! It's one of my favorite parts..#firefly #
- Home Internet connection was shut off at 7:30am this morning. I blame Verizon. And it was just upgraded, too. Meh! #
- My brother Sam (@marvinsyracuse) just joined Twitter. #
- I hate my life. ISP wants me to "check settings" on the DSL modem. Have to drive home. I already told them where the problem was located #
- Finally! It's raining! I can go outside and breathe normally! Yellow rivers are starting to form in the parking lot. #
- ISP gave me a new modem. Like that's going to work. Actually, I hope I eat these words, but I'm sure I know where the problem is... #
- Surprise surprise, the new DSL modem didn't make a difference. I so called this problem this morning bit nobody listens to me, noooo... #
- Well well, ISP just called in after hours. Nice service. They're now convinced Verizon is at fault too. Unfortunately it may take 24 hours #
- Watching an old Stargate SG1 rerun with Murdock from the A-Team in it #
- Tweeting from my iPhone, in case you were wondering how I do it with no Internet connection #
- RT @thinkgeek Good news everyone! Just heard Comedy Central's ordered 13 new Futurama episodes. Glorious details: http://cli.gs/h240jL #
- Dish Network just called my cell phone with a recorded message to use the guide button to find shows I want to watch... WTF?? #
- Anyone know why bread splits when you bake it? Did I not let it rise long enough?? #
- Putting together a new i7 computer. So fast.... #
- Computer is ready to be formatted and deployed. minions are nowhere to be found... #
- Should have Internet again at home. I SO called this problem yesterday morning. Verizon shut down the line _after_ it was upgraded. Morons. #
- Trying to listen to latest @StarShipSofa episode at work, but I'm getting interrupted too much today #
- Just got a present from a cow-orker. 810 feet of Cat-5. He's done with it. Sweet... #
- Woot! I have teh Internets again! #
- Just finished re-watching Bender's Big Score. Turned DVD player off, and TiVo was recording....Futurama!! FTW! #
- FINALLY got BackupExec to connect to a remote UNIX host through a firewall. What a hassle. Need better backup software! #
- RT @Frauenfelder Best dog costume: http://bit.ly/2kaqfZ #
- The sploogesplortch's underbuggy hartkles my hackwoggle in the gorckiest way. #vogon #
- Downloading new nVidia driver at 890KB/sec. I love my 10Mb fiber. #
- Have to run to Spokane at lunch for a quick errand #
- Two days in a row, chatting with two old friends in Taiwan. What are the odds? #
- Had some of @sarahthepark 's lemon cake earlier. It was real good. Couldn't leave without a piece of the banana chocolate cake though #
- My microwave is very polite. When it stops, the screen says "ENJOY YOUR MEAL." I guess the "it will be your last" couldn't fit on screen #
- Now BOTH of my Taiwan friends are online and chatting with me! #forthewin #
- Sweetmeats! Bacon Gumballs available from the @thinkgeek store. #forthewin #
- Up too early. Didn't go to sleep until nearly 1am #
- For the Lose: Dell Mini 10v says it comes with 16 Gb SSD http://bit.ly/2Zne4D but then you have to add it for $30 more. @Dell_Mini #
- Listening to Tom Smith. Why didn't anyone tell me about Tom Smith?? #
- Just got out of the weekly development meeting #
- Jeff bought Taco Bell for lunch today. Tacos FTW! #
- Cthulhu jokes never get old. Nice Elric reference, too: http://bit.ly/FQ7v0
@Tavisha # - Hehe. Facebook has an "English (Pirate)" translation... #
- Must finish last 20 pages of book 5 in saberhagen's Books of the Gods series. Almost went to work late this morning to finish #
- Book's done. Probably going to read China Mieville's Un Lun Dun next. It looks good #
- Another day of work. Wish it was already over... #
- Listening to Irish music, writing code. Working on a printer dialog problem #
- Making some cinnamon rolls this morning #
- Syncing some of my music between my work and home computers. #
- So many things to do at home and so little Saturday... #
- Dishes are done. Need to run to the post office today before noon... #
- Good timing at the post office. Just one overly-chatty lonelymlady that wanted to talk to the postal worker in front of me today #
- Websites with ANY sound attached to them = FAIL. Only exception is a video you're trying to watch. #
- Cinnamon roll recipe: Put cloves in me. Me: No! #
- Did I fail to mention how fantastically tasty this morning's cinnamon rolls were? Yes? Well they were nom-licious! #
- Making cookies to freeze so we can cook them up later, a couple at a time. Today's flavors: milk chocolate chunk, oatmeal, heath bar crunch #
- Woohoo. Cookies are in the freezer. Kitchen is clean again. #
- Cookie tip: mix cookies when you have spare time. Shape dough into balls and freeze on cookie sheets in the freezer. Put in bag after frozen #
- That way they don't stick together, and you can pull out one at a time. Works good for freezing berries, too. Anything that sticks together. #
- Google Blogger has some funky issue with my OpenID login. Left a comment at a blog and it used the login server URI as my name... #
- I suppose it could be my OpenID server, too, but I use it all the time and have never seen it do this before. #
- Playing more Boom Blox Bash Party on the Wii #
According to this post by Richard Bartle, I'm only three handshakes away from Einstein. And only two from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. I can only assume I'm also just two away from Roy Trubshaw and any other various virtual world developers (I'm sure Raph Koster is in there somewhere).
- I've shaken hands with Marc Singer, the actor. I saw him years ago in Seattle at a Martial Arts exhibition.
- In 2001 I met Jon "Maddog" Hall at ApacheCon. We talked about the Chinese language and he brought me a root beer.
- My mom has met Patty Duke. Actually I think she worked for her. Patty is Sean Astin's mother.
17 Jun 2009 Update: Raph Koster has met Stephen Chow. One more for the list 
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of.
Happy Birthday, John!
Just upgraded to WordPress 2.8. The admin interface is, what's the best word here? Smoother? Calming?
Will it stop my insane ranting? Nah.
Today and yesterday I've had the chance to chat both in ä¸æ–‡ and in English with a couple of old friends in Taiwan. I'm surprised I haven't forgotten much Chinese over the years. I mean, I try to keep up with it sometimes, but it's not like I get the chance to speak very often. By all rights, I should have forgotten more than I have. I can still type in Chinese (I use the 注音 method with the 倚天 layout). The soft keyboard looks like this:
I memorized it when I was living in China in 1997 and typing all the time. Somehow, 12 years later, I still know where all the keys are. Typing in zhuyin is nice for me, because it solidifies my knowledge of the correct sounds and tones. Typing is also (IMHO) somewhat easier than using a Chinese dictionary. Ask me about that some time, it takes a little explaining.
There is a God in Heaven and He does love us. As proof, we get (at least, according to what Ben heard) 13 new Futurama episodes!
Looks like there are going to be 26 new episodes! For the win!
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