So, in the meeting I had today, that I talked about in my last post, one of the main things we discussed was using some code that I wrote as a starting point for new projects. My company is awesome at graphics and layout work, and my boss is pretty good at PHP. However, between him being busy with running the company, and the fact that he typically writes for function over form, the baseline coding for websites we build (that don’t use a CMS) is downright bad. Horribly structured, redundant queries all over the place, tons of redundant code, and a templating engine that, most of the time, actually increases the amount of work necessary per-page. It looks nice to the visitors, but not to us as we’re working on it.

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Yesterday, my sister picked up the latest zero-day exploit for IE. This seems to happen to her computer every few months, because she keeps going to these nasty websites that are so popular with teenage morons. This one she picked up because she searched for song lyrics to a recent song, and clicked on the first hit Google gave her. Bad idea.

I spent a few hours working on the system yesterday, ran an overnight virus scan, and cleared out some trojans. Everything seemed to be fine.

Today, she said it was still acting up. I’ll spare y’all the details, but I basically spend my entire evening after work trying to chase down this virus and get rid of it. After three hours, and with my entire evening pretty much gone, I finally had it taken care of. And of course, I don’t get paid for maintaining systems on my own network, nor did I even get a “thank you” this time (an unusual occurance). And, the computer that I am being paid to fix (my favourite kind of customer, with more money than sense, and who throws big numbers at me before I can say how much I’m charging) is now delayed by another day.

I’m tired of this. I disabled IE in Group Policy for her account, and told her to use Firefox. That didn’t used to be a catch-all fix for stupidity, but it’s starting to be. If she manages to get infected by a virus again, I’ll fix it when I feel like getting around to it.

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Work isn’t particularly inspiring this week either. Our client for this current project is never satisfied, and keeps coming up with stuff that needs to be changed. After taking a week to finish the massive bug list he dropped on us last weekend, and spending my weekend adding a feature that was a pain due to the way the site is coded, he came up with a dozen more on Monday. This put me into “I’m going to finish this as fast as absolutely possible because I hate this project” mode, but I ran out of steam for today, and couldn’t quite get going on anything.

For anyone who didn’t notice, I kinda disappeared this weekend

I really wanted to spend some time with symelion, so I headed up to his place on Friday. I had a full two days of overtime saved up, and we had nothing to do at work on Friday anyway. Didn’t do much when I got there, though, it was a little late.

Saturday was really fun! We went out to an Indian restaurant for lunch, first time I’d been to one of those in over a year, and then went to a Best Buy (a rare treat for me, since the closest one is over an hour away). We picked up a gift card for our boss, since he’s so incredibly awesome, then met up with kelbypup, makuus, swiftfoxfire, and vu1pes for a lovely Italian dinner. It was really nice to spend time with some different people, too - no offense to anyone in the NoVA/MD area, but after years of seeing so many announcements for lame furmeets on the area mailing lists, and going to the awesome ones in Pittsburgh, I kinda forgot that NoVA was an awesome travel destination as well. Needless to say, I won’t make that mistake anymore, especially if I keep up my increased pace of road trips.

Oh, and I think I was the only one at dinner who didn’t have an iPhone/smartphone to play with ;-). At one point, something in the conversation prompted everyone to want to look something up, and on that cue, half the table whipped out iPhones to look up the topic at hand. My $20 dumb-phone and I were amused

Anyway, after dinner, we played Rock Band. I’ve never played it before, nor have I played anything similar like Guitar Hero (my opportunities to play console games are very limited). But, this was the most fun I’ve ever had playing a video game! See, for most of my life, I’ve had idle fantasies/daydreams about being a rock singer. And, while I lack the skills to be a pro, I have spent most of my time on road trips practicing my singing for the last 8 years (as well as occasional “jams” in the house). So, for the songs that I actually knew, I got really good scores with the vocal part, even surprising myself a few times :-P. I gave the other parts a try, and enjoyed the drum set (an instrument I’d like to learn to play someday, though if this game was any indication, I may lack the coordination for it). The guitars were a little weird, but still fun. Overall, a really fun experience

Sunday was fairly low-key, with the best pizza for dinner that I’ve ever had (even better than Sarpino’s at MFF that was oh-so-yummy). Jerry’s Subs & Pizza in College Park is incredible, I highly recommend it!

Monday was a work day, and it was really nice to be in the same room as Syme while we working. Especially since we were working on the same project, a huge bugfix list. We made a significant dent in the list, got dinner, and tried to come back and work awhile longer. An hour into the last part of our shift, and we both said “screw this” and got out Rock Band again. I tried to really challenge myself on the vocals this time, and still did pretty darn good, even on songs I didn’t know. Apparently, my years of singing in the church choir, coupled with my complete inability to read music (ironic, since I was in marching band for seven years), really improved my ability to follow along on-the-fly with a vocal part. There was a song I beat on Expert that I’d never heard before

And, today (Tuesday), I came home. Wee!

So, after a week of preparing for a con, a week of working my tail off after said con, a weekend of working to meet a deadline, and half a week of working all waking hours, things have finally settled back to normal at work. The project I was working on today is something I can’t work on anymore until tomorrow, due to a server move, and I don’t have any other work-related projects to do. Yet, here I am, with all the time from now until midnight or so to myself, and I haven’t the slightest clue what to do with it. I’ve apparently forgotten what free time is.

On the plus side, I have over two full days worth of extra hours this week, so I’ll either have the ability to take a long weekend without penalizing my paycheck, or it’ll be the crazy paycheck of doom. I’m betting on the latter

And, yes, I’m in a much better mood today than I’ve been earlier in the week. Kinda helped that I had a fun, laid-back day at work today; we were bug-hunting, and using Google Docs (the spreadsheet one) to compile our list of things to fix, which was fun to play with. It’s interactive, so you can see what the other people editing the document are doing in real-time. Combined with the layout/copyediting I did yesterday, it was a nice switch from the heavy-duty application writing I did over the weekend, and really helped me get back in my groove.

Now, if only I had people to spend time with tonight, I don’t really want to be in front of a computer right now…

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This post doesn’t really have a point, I just felt like posting

There’s an article floating around the internet about how to write a college term paper, which basically consisted of how to procrastinate it all night. That’s kinda how my evening has been, except that I’m not writing a term paper. At this point, I’m sleep-deprived and delirious, so I figured I’d write some of this down.

1. Curl up in bed with laptop, nice and comfy, and get ready to start coding.
2. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
3. Realize that I’m thirsty, and grab some water.
4. Make a few posts on a forum I admin, because something needed to be dealt with there.
5. Curl up in bed with laptop, nice and comfy, and get ready to start coding.
6. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
7. It’s too quiet in here, let’s play a movie on the laptop in the background.
8. I wonder if there are any new messages on FA or DA? Let’s check.
9. Laptop’s whining about battery, go find charger.

10. When the movie’s over, read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
11. I’m not getting squat done, let’s try a change of scenery. Relocate to living room couch.
12. Thirsty, need more water.
13. Curl up on the couch with laptop, nice and comfy, and get ready to start coding.
14. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
15. Oh hey, my desktop computer just got a bunch of emails, let’s see what’s going on.
16. While I’m at it, let’s check LJ, as well as FA and DA again, just in case something happened.
17. Someone IMed me on AIM several hours ago, let’s see if they’re still around.
18. I’m hungry, let’s order pizza.
19. I’m not getting squat done, let’s try a change of scenery. Relocate to mom’s living room.

20. Pizza’s here! And, oh look, a cool movie’s on TV, and it’s one I’ve seen a million times, so I can use it as background noise.
22. Start writing LJ post.
21. Movie’s over, LJ post is posted. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
22. I’m not getting squat done, let’s try a change of scenery. Relocate to office desk.
23. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
24. I haven’t checked my watchlist on Wikifur all day, let’s see if anything major happened there.
25. I should check LJ, FA, and DA again.
26. Oh hey, tomorrow is trash day. Take out the trash.
27. Read over notes, and start planning in my head what to do next.
28. Chug a 20oz Coke, and pop a few pieces of caffeine gum, something I haven’t touched in years.
29. Commence marathon coding session, amend timesheet to exclude my ~10 hours of procrastinating. This is all overtime anyway. Oh look, daylight.

Work Stuff
I really need to stop taking naps in the afternoon. It feels good, but I end up having to work ’til midnight to get my hours in. Lame.

On the plus side, I’m only a couple hours short of my goal of averaging 8 hours a day for this pay period, so I’m doing much better than last week (did I mention that I fail at time management?). Darn election (which I feel no need to post about here, since the entire world knows what the results were) distracted me too much

My first project was completed ahead of schedule, and my boss was very impressed, so that’s a good sign. Working on the next one now, which is less complex, I’m hoping to have it done by early next week.

Laptop
My new laptop (Dell Precision m6300) is in production, and is scheduled to arrive Nov. 11, if not earlier. Not in time for this weekend, like I hoped, but it will be here in time for MFF.

Travels, and Furry Events
I’ll be in Pittsburgh this weekend (leaving tomorrow, actually), and two weeks after is MFF, where I’ll be in Pittsburgh for a few days before and after (and attending the after-con festivities hosted by firefoxbc and lildobe.

I will not be attending FC this year. I wanted to, and could find the money to do it, but considering that I only know of one person who actually got a room (not counting the SL pricks who got rooms from the huge block Raven Welesa reserved), my chances of finding a place to stay with someone I trust are pretty slim. Plus, the money for that trip would be better spent to help build/rebuild my finances, since I’m still hoping to relocate within the next year or so.

Who all is going to the New Year’s Furry Ball in Philly? I hadn’t really thought of going, but I’m considering it now.

Is there anything going on in December? Furmeets, parties, etc? I know there are no cons (at least, not in this country, I ain’t flying to Australia for a furry con).

Also, who’s going to Megaplex? It’s in July this year, which blows, but it looks like it’ll be one of the better cons they’ve held, and worth standing the Orlando summer heat for. I’m planning to go, and I’ll be driving down, and a 14+ hour drive alone sucks, so if anyone wants to carpool, that’d be awesome (I know it’s early, but I loathe last-minute planning). Convoying would be fun too, I’ll bring radios

Car Stuff
I’m currently trying to get my Rover to run, I think I might know what’s wrong with it. I still plan to sell it, probably after the winter, and I’m thinking about replacing it with a Ford Bronco. Taking my mom’s Blazer out off-roading reminded me of just how much I missed it, and it also reminded me that not just any 4WD will get me where I like to go, despite my occasional thoughts to the contrary.

On the other hand, if I can find a really good deal on rust repair (it’s only worth a grand or two at the absolute most, I don’t want to spend that kind of money to patch holes), the thought of keeping it has crossed my mind. It really means a lot to me, and I love LRs anyway. Plus, I already know exactly how it performs in extreme situations,

I’ll be selling my Crown Vic sometime after January, most likely. It’s starting to show its age, and I’d really like to get something smaller and sportier. So, if anyone reading this might be interested at that time (I’ll need to replace it first, since it’s my only vehicle that runs and is legal to drive at the moment), let me know, and I’ll give you a good deal. I’d really like for it to go to a good home, someone who’ll enjoy it as much as I have, so I don’t plan to use it as a trade-in on my next car.

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I think that’s about it for today. I haven’t made a real post in awhile, and most of these bits weren’t quite full entries on their own, so you get a mega-post

Today, I say goodbye to asshole customers.
Today, I say goodbye to driving 100 miles a day.
Today, I say goodbye to 9 hours a day of city traffic.
Today, I say goodbye to constant near-wrecks.
Today, I say goodbye to mysterious Asian food spilling in my car.

Because today, the delivery company I worked for closed permanently.
And tomorrow, I start my life anew.
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My web design classes have been going quite well, I’m actually a bit sad that they’re ending so soon (this Tuesday is the last day). I completed the Javascript class and learned quite a bit, and since it was a very small group, the pace was very fast, and exactly what I was looking for. I’m about to finish the CSS class, which hasn’t been quite as helpful as the previous class, nor as fast-moving, but it is helping me advance my technique. It also gives me an excuse to mess with the styling of my site, though I rather like the simplistic layout as-is.

I haven’t neglected my PHP studies in all this, they’re just a bit more disorganized. I successfully wrote my first class last week, with suprisingly little trouble, and I’m currently working on a project to practice working with complex applications and database-driven sites. More on that later.

As for my career/job situation, I’m currently in a state of flux. In case you weren’t aware, I currently work as a delivery driver, and I wish to pursue a career as a web designer. My original plan was to continue working for this delivery company and take some classes to get an Associate’s degree from the local community college (they actually have a decent web design program, much to my surprise). However, I recently found out that my company’s owner wants to retire (it’s a very small business), and since he didn’t want to charge a reasonable amount when soliciting for someone to buy the business, he decided to give up and just shut the place down, effective March 31. This basically killed all my plans, and after evaluating my options, I decided to just jump straight in the deep end and attempt to get a design job without a real degree. I think I can build a strong enough portfolio to do so in a couple months, and with the courses I’ve already taken, I’m confident I can pull this off. If not, there’s always Plan B. So, if anyone needs a website, or just a bit of PHP or Javascript coding, let me know, I may have some time to do stuff like that for free (portfolio material!) once I finish up the projects I’ve already started.

And no, I will not be working for this company.

Woot! Today was the first day of my second class, “Practical Javascript”.

Since the last time I posted, I’ve gotten to “talk shop” with my instructor quite a few times, and while he doesn’t really know PHP, he’s very interested in learning it, so I gave him the source code for my entire site. Unfortunately, I recently discovered he’s a hardcore bible-thumper, so I hesitate to talk about anything other than web design/scripting topics. But, he’s a nice guy, and really knows his stuff about HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

The last class ended on a pretty good note. I had a really bad cold on day 3, and I was so doped up on meds I barely knew what was going on. Thankfully, I already knew everything that was covered that day (as far as I can remember, anyway), it was all CSS stuff. Day 4 was introductory javascript, and for the first time, it actually started to make sense.

This second class is much nicer than the first. There are only 3 people in the class, and all three of us work with web stuff on a regular basis, in some form. There’s the old guy from the last class, who apparently does a lot of web design/maintenance, but somehow doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He catches on quickly, though, and he’s pretty cool. The third person didn’t take the last class, and based on her questions and such today, she probably should have. She’s has a small business as a web designer for individuals and small organizations, and while she’s a bit behind on standards and such, she’s a fast learner as well. We actually finished class over a half-hour early today, and that was with the instructor trying to stretch things out. I hope we’ll cover extra material next week

After class, I asked the instructor to help me figure out the CSS issue I was having with my new email form, so he took a look, as well as the woman in the class. It turned out to be quite the ego-stroke for me, because she was utterly blown away at how nice my site looked. Our instructor agreed, and said that my site looked better than anything he’d ever designed, with far more dynamic functionality. And he’s designed sites for several fairly large companies, which looked pretty damn nice in my opinion. I spent the next 10 minutes or so showing them all the scripts I’ve written, and how the site is actually assembled (neither of them have any real experience with PHP, although the instructor works with Apache SSIs on a regular basis at work). It was fun

I’m really looking forward to next week, this is so much fun! It’s like, the more I learn, the more I want to learn, and it’s been YEARS since I’ve truly enjoyed any sort of class. I don’t plan on blanketing my site with javascripts, if anyone’s worried about that, I rather like the efficiency of PHP (the new email form I made, for example, only uses Javascript to launch its popup window when not on the Contact page), but there are some things that just can’t be done server-side.

Yay, I had class again last night! The evening didn’t start out as good as last time, though, I was almost late for class, and the professor wasn’t quite as cheery. We also started getting into more complex material, namely tables, images, and forms. Still stuff I already know how to do, but I did learn something genuinely useful, which was how to make the alt text of an image appear as a hover-tip in Firefox like it shows up in IE (if you don’t already know, you do it by using the title= attribute in addition to the alt= attribute on img tags, because Firefox doesn’t like alt attributes for some reason).

Redneck Boy appeared to have been studying this past week, because he seemed to be catching on very quickly. His mom, on the other hand, still couldn’t figure out how to save a file in Notepad [rolls eyes]. Everyone else was doing pretty well, too, I wasn’t the only one answering questions this time

Coding forms was a painfully boring experience. For those who aren’t familiar with HTML, the forms I’m referring to are the ones that you fill out for things like online stores, LJ comments, forum logins, and so forth. And coding them by hand is practically mind-numbing, because there are a LOT of attributes to set. I have Dreamweaver, which I use for all my work regardless of what I’m doing, so I plan to never again hand-code a form. Ugh.

Anyway, this prompted me to do some work on my own site, so all of my images now have hover-text in IE and Firefox, and I rewrote the Flash code on my site, including making my first actual function in PHP. It’s browser-sensitive, and outputs standardized code regardless of what you’re using. Thus, the embed-tag issue mentioned in one of my previous posts is no longer applicable.