mobileCategory: computers
07/11/06 12:04 - 68ºF - ID#21066
Wrong Steve
I meet Steve.
I show him my program that downloads all the NCSU online course registration web pages and searches them. The program I stayed up two days straight working on to get finished before he arrived and which caused me to receive an F on my Anthropology paper the following Monday.
No intercession from Steve whatsoever.
He comes back to visit NCSU again a year later to get his honorary doctorate. I show him my Shakespeare note-taking program. He tells me "that's what computers were meant to do!".
Again, no intercession of any kind.
After reading the posting by (e:Twisted) and the comment by (e:Zobar) , I realize the error of my ways; I was petitioning the wrong Steve. I guess I'll have to e-mail the other Steve if I want a job in Apple's social software division or their super-secret death-ray department.
(p.s. I'm kidding. I'm actually quite happy with the way things turned out, for the most part).
I show him my program that downloads all the NCSU online course registration web pages and searches them. The program I stayed up two days straight working on to get finished before he arrived and which caused me to receive an F on my Anthropology paper the following Monday.
No intercession from Steve whatsoever.
He comes back to visit NCSU again a year later to get his honorary doctorate. I show him my Shakespeare note-taking program. He tells me "that's what computers were meant to do!".
Again, no intercession of any kind.
After reading the posting by (e:Twisted) and the comment by (e:Zobar) , I realize the error of my ways; I was petitioning the wrong Steve. I guess I'll have to e-mail the other Steve if I want a job in Apple's social software division or their super-secret death-ray department.
(p.s. I'm kidding. I'm actually quite happy with the way things turned out, for the most part).
Permalink: Wrong_Steve.html
Words: 165
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: life
07/08/06 10:44 - 70ºF - ID#21065
Taste Of Things To Come
I was all set to go to the Great Blue Heron festival. Then last night, I totally ruin the whole thing by hanging out with a coworker at Goodbar and getting really wasted and waking up late in the afternoon when half the day's Blue Heron acts had already finished.
I suppose that my choice of activity last night was actually more healthy (mentally, not physically) than what I had originally planned. I got a large dose of outside-of-work human contact with people my own age, which isn't something I've had a lot of these past several months. And at the end of the night, I had some of the $20 I withdrew from the ATM left over in my pocket; going to the festival would have cost me at least > $50. Having walked to Goodbar and back got me several miles of walking, too.
To make up for my sin of not seeing the Avett Bros, I went to Taste Of Buffalo to get my local activity fix for the weekend. The food was overpriced, but still tasty. My favorite part was all the Indian food, which IMHO is the bestest kind of food there is (I really need to learn how to make a decent saag paneer).
Tomorrow is going to be "The Mother Of All Housework" days. There will be no sleep till everything is in its appropriate place, all the laundry is done, and every room in the house smells "pine fresh".
I suppose that my choice of activity last night was actually more healthy (mentally, not physically) than what I had originally planned. I got a large dose of outside-of-work human contact with people my own age, which isn't something I've had a lot of these past several months. And at the end of the night, I had some of the $20 I withdrew from the ATM left over in my pocket; going to the festival would have cost me at least > $50. Having walked to Goodbar and back got me several miles of walking, too.
To make up for my sin of not seeing the Avett Bros, I went to Taste Of Buffalo to get my local activity fix for the weekend. The food was overpriced, but still tasty. My favorite part was all the Indian food, which IMHO is the bestest kind of food there is (I really need to learn how to make a decent saag paneer).
Tomorrow is going to be "The Mother Of All Housework" days. There will be no sleep till everything is in its appropriate place, all the laundry is done, and every room in the house smells "pine fresh".
Permalink: Taste_Of_Things_To_Come.html
Words: 245
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: life
07/06/06 08:31 - 69ºF - ID#21064
Taking One For The Weekend
I've decided to stay late at work tonight. More done now means the less I have to worry about later. I'm kind of on a roll, and I might just have located a significant show-stopping bug. The way I figure it, if I get something major accomplished tonight, I'll be less stressed over the weekend.
I'm not totally voluntarily giving up tonight, however. The PHP group that I was supposed to hang out with tonight cancelled again for the second time in a row. Given that the Buffalo PHP folks are continually cancelling at the last second and that Buffalo Geeks never got off the ground, I'm gettng the feeling that if I really want to participate in an honeset-to-goodness technology networking organization, I'm gonna have to freakin' start one myself.
I've considered going to the Great Blue Heron Festival, which I've really wanted to catch for the past two weeks since I found out that the Avett brothers were playing there. I really wanted to see them at one of the local venues (e.g. Cat's Cradle) back home but never got the chance to because I came up here. They definitely do some interesting things with bluegrass. If I make significant progress tonight, I could feel a lot more laid back at the festival.
I'm not totally voluntarily giving up tonight, however. The PHP group that I was supposed to hang out with tonight cancelled again for the second time in a row. Given that the Buffalo PHP folks are continually cancelling at the last second and that Buffalo Geeks never got off the ground, I'm gettng the feeling that if I really want to participate in an honeset-to-goodness technology networking organization, I'm gonna have to freakin' start one myself.
I've considered going to the Great Blue Heron Festival, which I've really wanted to catch for the past two weeks since I found out that the Avett brothers were playing there. I really wanted to see them at one of the local venues (e.g. Cat's Cradle) back home but never got the chance to because I came up here. They definitely do some interesting things with bluegrass. If I make significant progress tonight, I could feel a lot more laid back at the festival.
Permalink: Taking_One_For_The_Weekend.html
Words: 216
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: party
07/06/06 01:03 - 63ºF - ID#21063
Isn't She Beautiful
After a week and a half of longing.....
It's so lovely it's almost a pity to have to drink it.
It's so lovely it's almost a pity to have to drink it.
Permalink: Isn_t_She_Beautiful.html
Words: 22
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: life
07/03/06 11:42 - 73ºF - ID#21062
July 4th Follies
There is good news and bad news about this weekend.
The good news is that I've had a four-day weekend, as my workplace has been nice enough to give me both monday and tuesday off.
The bad news is that I don't know anyone in Buffalo and all the family and friends I would have spent the time off with are 700 miles away. So the net effect of the break has been close to nil, and I'll probably spend the rest of it bored out of my skull.
However, four days off is too much time to do nothing, so I've tried to make the best of it and turn life's sour milk into life's gourmet cheese. In fact, I've made a list of stuff that I've wanted to accomplish before I have to go back to work on wednesday:
1. Clean the house. And I do mean *all* of it.
2. Do *all* my laundry that's accumulated through procrastination and not having my own washer/dryer.
3. Get more exercise. I need to be more regular about working out when the JCC gym is open, and finding other means of exercise when it's closed.
4. Get a haircut and stop looking like a caveman.
5. Do something for the 4th of July. I don't care what it is, but just something that is interesting, worthwhile and that I can be proud of myself for doing.
6. Work on programming stuff, both for my own projects and for a few things at work.
7. Obtain and drink substantial quantities of Goldschlager.
-- Progress so far...
Warning: non-English spoken below
I also began work on programming my open source PostgreSQL C ocoa framework. I finally downloaded every existing Postgres C ocoa framework in the hope that I can combine the best parts of them into some well-maintained gold-standard that everyone can rely on; right now, there's all these little 'fiefdoms' and the situation really sucks. I wrote the initial resultset and connection API, so I should be able to test the stuff pretty soon.
The good news is that I've had a four-day weekend, as my workplace has been nice enough to give me both monday and tuesday off.
The bad news is that I don't know anyone in Buffalo and all the family and friends I would have spent the time off with are 700 miles away. So the net effect of the break has been close to nil, and I'll probably spend the rest of it bored out of my skull.
However, four days off is too much time to do nothing, so I've tried to make the best of it and turn life's sour milk into life's gourmet cheese. In fact, I've made a list of stuff that I've wanted to accomplish before I have to go back to work on wednesday:
1. Clean the house. And I do mean *all* of it.
2. Do *all* my laundry that's accumulated through procrastination and not having my own washer/dryer.
3. Get more exercise. I need to be more regular about working out when the JCC gym is open, and finding other means of exercise when it's closed.
4. Get a haircut and stop looking like a caveman.
5. Do something for the 4th of July. I don't care what it is, but just something that is interesting, worthwhile and that I can be proud of myself for doing.
6. Work on programming stuff, both for my own projects and for a few things at work.
7. Obtain and drink substantial quantities of Goldschlager.
-- Progress so far...
- 1 -- I still have yet to do #1; a few passes with the swiffer here and there don't count. As I'm probably not going to have a lot else to do tomorrow, #1 will be the main thing on my dance card.
- 2 -- has been accomplished, although in a less-than-satisfactory manner. My laundry is all done, but it took me 5+ hours to do it all, and that was with multiple machines at a laundromat. And again, as proof that laundry detergent can be as messy as the messes it's supposed to remove, the cap fell off the bottle and my bed sheets got soaked with Tide. I'm sure they'd really look cool under a blacklight, but they wouldn't be much to sleep on. So I had to run to Target before it closed and blow $70 on 300 thread-count sheets. If things hadn't been so desperate, I'd have found a better deal on 400-count, but I want to be able to go to sleep tonight.
- 3 -- I did some yesterday. I finally got up the gumption to walk all the way down Richmond from my house to Forest and look at all the beautiful houses along the way. Walking briskly, it only took me 20 minutes, which shocked the heck out of me as I had originally pegged the journey at 40 min. At the destination I rewarded myself by trying out Cole's. The food was good, but the Belgian ale on draft kicked ass; jeez, 8% ABV isn't beer, it's like fortified beer! I then walked/stumbled back home on Elmwood, which brought the round trip to approximately 4 miles.
- 4 -- Accomplished at Ricci's in Orchard Park. I wanted to go to Chick's just down the street on W. Utica, but that unfortunately closed a week or two ago.
- 5 -- Hope I don't blow this one. If I do, I guess I can still think positive and do a real kickass job on #1.
Warning: non-English spoken below
- 6 -- I got a decent amount of programming done. More progress on the bar geocoding project. I wrote a python program that converted converted the list of restaurants (e:zobar) sent me to Google Earth's KML format. For some reason, Google Earth is importing enough so that I see this list of establishments in the sidebar, but the establishments are still not showing up on the map. I choose to blame Google for this, as their XML abilities and design for Google Earth hasn't exactly been up to snuff (insert snippy comment about Google only hiring 4.3GPA computer science grads here, "best and brightest" my ass...).
I also began work on programming my open source PostgreSQL C ocoa framework. I finally downloaded every existing Postgres C ocoa framework in the hope that I can combine the best parts of them into some well-maintained gold-standard that everyone can rely on; right now, there's all these little 'fiefdoms' and the situation really sucks. I wrote the initial resultset and connection API, so I should be able to test the stuff pretty soon.
- 7 -- I'm really upset with myself that I've been too lazy to run by an open liquor store and pick up some Goldschlager. Hodge's liquor is just up the street, so I really have no excuse. None at all.
Permalink: July_4th_Follies.html
Words: 797
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: work
06/29/06 11:06 - 63ºF - ID#21061
I turned permanent!
Today the HR person from my company called me into their office and told me that after several months of temp-to-hire status where I was the "temp" I am now basically a "hire" once I finish the paperwork.
This is going to be a big load off my mind. It's never easy thinking "what if suddenly find myself unemployed next month", and now I probably won't have to think about that unless I do something really stupid. Getting permanent status is also nice because I've put off so many purchases for so long, trying to save up as much money! as possible for the possibility of not being hired on and having to move back to NC.
I wanted to go to the Layette square concert to commemorate the occasion, but I was feeling so tired I had to pass. But I should definitely find some small way to celebrate this weekend--perhaps I should invest in that bottle of Goldschlager that I was so craving last weekend.
This is going to be a big load off my mind. It's never easy thinking "what if suddenly find myself unemployed next month", and now I probably won't have to think about that unless I do something really stupid. Getting permanent status is also nice because I've put off so many purchases for so long, trying to save up as much money! as possible for the possibility of not being hired on and having to move back to NC.
I wanted to go to the Layette square concert to commemorate the occasion, but I was feeling so tired I had to pass. But I should definitely find some small way to celebrate this weekend--perhaps I should invest in that bottle of Goldschlager that I was so craving last weekend.
Permalink: I_turned_permanent_.html
Words: 167
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: projects
06/27/06 02:48 - 71ºF - ID#21060
Best laid plans, take II
Technical-ese
Tonight I made a big breakthrough in my use of CoreData to build my Cocoa based bulk geocoding app that will let streamline my workflow of converting city commercial establishments into WGS 84 decimal coordinate values.
Plain English:
I'm one step closer to knowing the exact location of every bar in Buffalo and I'm one step closer to improving my pitiful situational awareness that's caused me to miss a lot of cool events. Entering the addresses en-masse and converting them all-at-once will be a lot simpler than locating individual addresses in Google Earth and hitting the "marker" button 500 or so times (once for each bar).
Tonight I made a big breakthrough in my use of CoreData to build my Cocoa based bulk geocoding app that will let streamline my workflow of converting city commercial establishments into WGS 84 decimal coordinate values.
Plain English:
I'm one step closer to knowing the exact location of every bar in Buffalo and I'm one step closer to improving my pitiful situational awareness that's caused me to miss a lot of cool events. Entering the addresses en-masse and converting them all-at-once will be a lot simpler than locating individual addresses in Google Earth and hitting the "marker" button 500 or so times (once for each bar).
Permalink: Best_laid_plans_take_II.html
Words: 105
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: buffalo life
06/26/06 03:00 - 69ºF - ID#21059
Postdiluvian
Apparently somone forgot to tell me that in Buffalo when it rains really hard, the roads turn into rivers.
Elmwood was pretty bad. Since my escape route back home was cut off and I was on the north section of Elmwood, I thought that I'd fare better on Sheridan. Since Sheridan's a big, heavily used road I thought that its storm drains would be more effective.
Apparently not.
Yes, those are waves. Lucky for me the moon wasn't out, otherwise I'd never get back home.
It's a bird, it's a SUV, it's a jetski, it's...it's...nope, it's just a SUV.
When roads become rivers, sidewalks become roads. I was not proud of what I did and the grass that I and everyone else in Buffalo ruined. But sometimes ya gotta do what'cha gotta do.
Elmwood was pretty bad. Since my escape route back home was cut off and I was on the north section of Elmwood, I thought that I'd fare better on Sheridan. Since Sheridan's a big, heavily used road I thought that its storm drains would be more effective.
Apparently not.
Yes, those are waves. Lucky for me the moon wasn't out, otherwise I'd never get back home.
It's a bird, it's a SUV, it's a jetski, it's...it's...nope, it's just a SUV.
When roads become rivers, sidewalks become roads. I was not proud of what I did and the grass that I and everyone else in Buffalo ruined. But sometimes ya gotta do what'cha gotta do.
Permalink: Postdiluvian.html
Words: 147
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: entertainment
06/25/06 02:12 - 81ºF - ID#21058
Making the best of it
Last night, I was really bored. I don't know anyone in this town, so hanging out with friends wasn't an option. There were no movies playing that I wanted to see save Da Vinci Code, and I'm trying to finish the book before I go see the movie. And I looked over a listing of the day's music acts, and nothing looked very interesting; of course, I don't really know the music scene is like up here and which bands are any good, so I usually look at genre and make my best guess.
By some miracle, I had overlooked English Beat's free concert at Gateway Park (apparently Buffalo has more than just one free concert at Lafeyette Square). After 45 minutes of trying to find the place (and missing the previous band(s), I got to see most of English Beat's main act, which was pretty good and really energetic. I didn't see no rude boys, but quite a few people at the front of the stage were skanking.
Overall, I think I'm proud of myself for not having given into the temptation to either see a lame movie I didn't really want to see or to spend the entire night blasting the ficticious residents of San Andreas.
By some miracle, I had overlooked English Beat's free concert at Gateway Park (apparently Buffalo has more than just one free concert at Lafeyette Square). After 45 minutes of trying to find the place (and missing the previous band(s), I got to see most of English Beat's main act, which was pretty good and really energetic. I didn't see no rude boys, but quite a few people at the front of the stage were skanking.
Overall, I think I'm proud of myself for not having given into the temptation to either see a lame movie I didn't really want to see or to spend the entire night blasting the ficticious residents of San Andreas.
Permalink: Making_the_best_of_it.html
Words: 208
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: food
06/21/06 08:52 - 73ºF - ID#21057
The verdict is in
I had originally dismissed my Foreman grill-owning friends as members of a kookie brand-worshipping cult. But after 4 months of living up here with a harried work schedule and having to make a variety of quick meals, I have come to the conclusion that these devices are in fact "The Bachelor's Swiss Army Knife".
Permalink: The_verdict_is_in.html
Words: 53
Location: Buffalo, NY
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