9:26a
We’re partway through the first module and I’m kinda bored. It’s the
same “overview” module they have in every single other class I’ve been
in and I can almost recite it along with the teacher.
It’s amazing, though, how few folks in here have really done any web
development. In a class of six, only two of us really have done
anything. Some folks don’t know HTML even, which could be an issue
considering that’s a prereq.
This guy Albert is in my class, and he’s been in two other classes.
It’s cool to see him again; he’s a nice guy and it’s good to see a
familiar face when you come to these things. Sort of “small world”-ish.
He’s on a certification track, too.
9:40a
We just finished the first module, and so far, so good.
Let me quickly go through the weekend. Actually, there’s not much to go
over. Um… oh! I found the dinette set I want, but now I’ve got to find
a couple of different places that carry it so I can get the best price.
It’s called the Bordeaux Bistro Set by Hillsdale House,
Ltd. Jenn
digs it, too, so I think that’s what we’ll end up with. It’s free
shipping right now, so maybe I’ll just go for it.
Went to a barbecue at my friends Dmitri and Holly’s house on Saturday.
It was good to see them (and some other friends) there, and met a couple
of new friends. They have a poker night at their house every couple of
weeks. I suck at poker, but it might be fun to get together with them
anyway and lose a couple of bucks.
Oh, and remember the meager drink selection we had in class last week?
This week there’s no drinks. You get to pay $0.35 for a $0.25 can of
Diet Pepsi if you so choose. I’m not a big coffee drinker, but it’s
free, sooooo…
My friend Aaron has started a blog.
That’s pretty cool; I’ll have to stop by regularly so I can keep up with
him. I’ve found that I don’t keep in touch with people very well, so
it’s hard to catch up with folks. I’m telling you people, this is the
best way to go if you want to make sure folks know what you’ve been up
to. Centralized, easy maintenance. Plus, from a time perspective, you
can put a LOT more thought into your entries online than you can into 30
different “hey, what’s up?” email responses.
10:07a
We’re going through the “how to start Visual Stidio.NET” section. Yawn.
I guess that’s good for some of these folks, but I’m surfing.
10:30a
I’m pricing computers at various online places and I’m finding that any
computer with the stuff on it that I want will run around the $2000
range. Sigh. More than I really want to spend for a machine that won’t
get too much use, but then, when I do use it, I want it to be good.
11:09a
Looks like I can get a decent machine from HP for about $1700. Better
than $2000, but with a few less features than the Dell $2000 machine I
was looking at.
11:53a
Lunchtime! I think I’ll head over to the local supermarket and get some
lunch on the cheap.
12:30p
I went to the supermarket down the street which is supposedly some
sort of gourmet place (you know the type - they cater to the well-to-do
so they charge too much for everything and offer weird products you
don’t want) and ordered a half-pound of their lasagna.
It’s Chef Boyardee if I’ve ever tasted
it. Seriously. And that’s not complimentary.
Tomorrow I think I’ll try something different, or maybe just buy
ingredients to make something myself.
So I thought of a few projects that I need to get on, and maybe will
work a bit on one of them tonight.
First, we need a really cool home page at the MildPeril top
level and I have a cool idea, so I’ll see if
I can get something together for that.
Next, I use Greymatter right now for blogging, and while eventually I
want to move to Movable Type, I need to do a little customization on
Greymatter to hold me over. For example, when you add a link to a site
while you’re editing your blog entry, you can type CTRL-SHIFT-A and it
will automatically insert the link. I need the link to be inserted with
a **attribute, though, so links will open a new window instead of taking
you out of my site. Also, I add links to stuff I buy (a la Amazon) and I
want to add a hotkey combination to automatically generate those links
so I don’t have to. That’s probably like 10 minutes of work, but it’ll
save me some time in the long run.
Also, I have a couple of t-shirt designs in mind that I want to do. One
is the “I (Heart) Toxic Waste” shirt like the one you see Val Kilmer
wear in Real Genius. Another is the Turd Ferguson shirt I’ve spoken of
previously.
Finally, I have a really cool idea I’ve been toying with for a
configuration file editor in .NET. I think that if I could get it to
work, it’d be really, really handy, but I am lazy. I won’t lie to you.
It will probably never see the light of day, but it’d be pretty cool.
I’ve been studying for my next test and while it felt very complicated
at first, now that I’ve been through the questions on the practice tests
a couple of times, it’s feeling much more familiar. I think I will
schedule the next test for sometime next week so I can get it out of the
way and move on with life.
12:49p
I just went looking at some different Flash animation products out
there and…
You know, I used to be totally into Flash and front-end technology. I
was pretty decent at it, and getting better all the time. That was,
like, two years and two versions of Flash ago. Now I look at this stuff
and all the things it can do and feel completely overrun. Which really
feels bad because when I got into web development in the first place, it
was specifically to do the front-end development. Now I spend so much
time coding and doing the back-end stuff, I can’t remember how to do the
fancy front-end stuff anymore.
Further and further away from where I wanted to be when this started
out…
And now I don’t see that there’s really any way to go back. I’ve got
too much experience programming and not enough practical design
experience to get a job doing anything but programming. I’d do it at
home for my own benefit, but I’m so wiped out when I’m done with the day
at work (programming well and truly takes all of my energy) that I don’t
even really turn on the computer at home.
I wonder how many people this sort of thing happens to - trying
desperately to go down one career path but being dragged by your ankles
down a totally separate path.
Huh.
I went to this La Femme Nikita web site and it looks like (as of July
27) they may or may not put out season two on
DVD. I really hope they do; I
love that show. Right up there with
Alias in the
“suck-me-in” factor. I can’t not watch.
1:05p
I found a shirt for
Jenn.
And one for
me.
1:21p
I just got some more web site stats from
Marty and it seems my average visits count
just keeps going up. Who are all you people?!
1:34p
Well, that 30 minute lab just took about eight minutes.
People might ask, “If you already know this stuff, why are you in the
class?” I have an answer for that.
This beginning stuff - the first, say, five or six modules out of 17 -
are definitely review. The rest, though, are going to be complementary
to my existing knowledge: reinforcing the stuff I already know and
filling in the gaps for the stuff I don’t.
Plus, it’s very validating to see that I’m so familiar with this stuff
- it shows that I have, in fact, learned the stuff I’ve set out to
learn. That’s a good feeling.
Besides, not being at work is almost the same as being on vacation.
Isn’t it?
2:07p
We just started the next module, and I just finished with the lab for
it. Maybe I’ll get out really early…?
3:50p
I just wrote a really cool VBScript that I can use in these classes to
quickly set up a machine’s environment for use. It automatically adds
the “Command Prompt Here” functionality (like the Windows Power Toy),
updates the registry so the command prompt will automatically set up the
environment for Visual Studio.NET when you run it (rather than having to
use the “Visual Studio Command Prompt” all the time - what a pain!),
adds a shortcut to Notepad to your SendTo folder (so you can right-click
on things and send them to Notepad), and sets the path completion
character to TAB. I’m stoked.
Looks like we’re way ahead today, so we’re outta here. Rock on, man.