Mizblog

As the title of this post implies, I’m now coding in Actionscript 2.0. This is the scripting language used by Flash MX 2004 through Flash 8. It’s Macromedia’s attempt to add object-oriented design tools to their scripting language, and I’m appreciating their efforts in this direction. The parts that are wonky for me are the points of interaction between Actionscript and the graphical symbols on the stage. I’ll figure it out though. Just gotta keep tweaking on it.

I’m coding Actionscript because I’m creating a web-based PLM architecture to support this and all our future learning modules. We’re getting a dedicated server this month too, which should help. The server’s problem sequencing procedures can get kind of complicated, and I’d hate to have to rely on a massively shared webserver to support all our projected users.

Today I made the login screen. Again. This time as an object. I’m not sure how to integrate it with the rest of the framework, because as yet the rest of the framework does not exist. I’ll leave that for tomorrow though.

It’s Monday again. I haven’t written here much lately because I’ve been pretty distracted.

I’m developing a new program at work using Flash and PHP. This is surprising because I barely know how to do anything in both of these realms, and yet I’m planning to rebuild my application framework using these two technologies by the end of next month.

It’s been getting colder. Not compared with other parts of the world maybe, but sub-70F feels cold to me and I don’t like it. I prefer 90F or more, to be honest. More chaos.

Saranya is getting easier to manage and also cuter.

It’s Tuesday again. Maintenance day. Yesterday Joel installed and configured phpBugTracker on our lab server. This involved hours and hours of puzzling over why Apache wasn’t responding to changes in its config file (answer: there were two versions of apache installed and guess which one wasn’t running), wondering why php pages were being served raw and unprocessed (answer: php wasn’t installed), struggling to get phpBugTracker to connect to the database (surprisingly, MySQL wasn’t installed either) and a long list of more trivial disconnections and missing dependencies. At the end of the day, it turned out that several hours of hacks and soft links and reinstalls could have been replaced by three config file adjustments. That’s computers for you.

It’s been getting colder. Seems like I write more blog entries during times like this. The dropping temperature seems to put me in a morose, contemplative mood. Watching the world begin to die.

My daughter is fussing in the next room. My wife just walked out of that room and went back in with a tool of some kind. My sense of self preservation is keeping me from inquiring further.

It’s time to get back into writing a regular blog.

Saranya is getting bigger and better developed. This morning she rolled over onto her tummy (with a little help) and held her upper body off the ground by resting on her elbows! Before today she’d just lie on her face with her arms lying limp at her sides, and she’d kick her feet and arch her back to lift her head off the ground a bit. This was a big step for her.

Work is going pretty well. Today I finally converted my main coding project from VC6 to VC8 and got it to work! I’m finally using a modern compiler again.

We’re about to get a new contract with a major corporation. I’m not supposed to talk about the details, but it’s going to keep us quite busy for some time. Mainly me, since I’m doing all the programming. I’m going to need a new computer system soon though, since VC8 doesn’t run on my old work computer (Win2k). I’d better get shopping.

Last night I found out my dad has colon cancer. I’m not worried though. I’ve always known he’d die of heart disease, and a little colon cancer isn’t going to get in the way of heart disease. Still, you know what they say: “Everyone dies of cancer, unless something else kills them first.”

I’ve been spending most of my free time playing WoW, though I’ve been especially careful to always take care of work first. I’ve started getting back to guitar playing every day. I may even be getting tired of WoW, though I still play it. It’s an addiction.

Tonight is the release of a new experiment we’re making. Testing algebra transformation recognition skills in high school kids, and seeing which of our approaches results in better learning (faster/more accurate/least drudgery). I’m ironing out the last kinks right now, and it’s compiling while I’m writing.

You know, it sucks when your character dies to mobs for whom you receive no xp for killing. It’s embarrassing. :(

So yeah, I played a lot of WoW this weekend. I also saw the latest Harry Potter movie. Quick review: good but poor flow. Oh, and Hermione was whiny and (true to the books) Harry and Ron were jerks. I also thought the parallel between the Death Eaters and the KKK was a bit overdone, and Dumbledore’s violent attack on Harry was also too much. Still, for all that, it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday was supposed to be the day when I finally got to play music with Mark and Teetee. Mark writes really neat, folksy songs with very unusual key changes, and I’ve been dying for some tutoring from him to see how he does it. Teetee is an amazing singer and just an all around pleasure to be with. I was really looking forward to it.

Then Mark crashed his scooter and injured his hand. Our music plans went up in smoke.

To help cheer Mark up, and to have an excuse to hang out with those guys, Sangeeta and I decided we’d make them some momo. Momo, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is a Nepali dumpling (wonton wrapper filled with ground turkey, vegetables, and spices, then steamed and served with chutney (sort of like salsa)). We decided that Teetee’s apartment was most convenient for all concerned, since she lives about midway between us and Mark. So we went to her place and cooked. She and Mark bought all the ingredients, and we brought the hardware and some of the spices.

It went really well. The chutney was tomato heavy but was probably the best I’ve had. The turkey that Mark got was very high quality organic turkey, and it made for very delicious momo. Everyone helped, and making them was almost as fun as eating them. Afterward, we hung out and helped Teetee get ready for Scott’s birthday outing. When she left, so did we.

Sunday we visited my parents and their new pets. After Georgie died, they adopted his two dogs and one cat. The cat’s having some adjustment problems, but the dogs seem happy as anything. I enjoyed playing with them. Rob and Jenn (my brother and his new wife) also hung out, and we all went to dinner where we met Greg and Sam. I found out that Greg got a job as a school teacher! That’s just about the most unlikely job I could imagine for him, but as I think about it I find that it makes a certain kind of sense. He’s a good guy, and maybe he really does like kids after all…

So that was my weekend. It was good. I can tell because yesterday (Monday) sucked really bad. Sarala spent the day at my place while Sangeeta worked, and it was all I could do to not go postal. I ended up hanging out in the lab all afternoon. Sure enough, she was still there when I got back. *sigh*

Today’s a little better. I sent off some files to Phil, which will hopefully solve some problems he’s been having with my vocabulary application. I’m crossing my fingers.

Finally I got a real desk! Well, it’s a workstation desk and not a business desk, but that’s perfect for me.

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/54/546553.jpg

I had to remove the keyboard tray to make it comfortable, but it’s awesome! Both my monitors and both my speakers fit on the top shelf, both my computers fit in the right side rack space, and all my music rack gear fits in the bottom 1/3 of the left rack. I haven’t put anything on the middle shelves yet, but give me time.

The desk took almost 3 hours to build. Before that I spent an hour deconstructing my old setup, moving everything out of the room, and vacuuming where until today was behind the immovable kitchen table.

Once clean, I dragged the 185 pounds of new desk parts into the room, unpacked them, checked them against the parts manifest, and started assembling. I had heard that some of the quality control of these desks was a bit lacking so I was very careful to make sure everything was right before did anything that might cause damage.

Turns out everything was in order, and I got the desk assembled with a minimum of trouble. I spent the rest of the afternoon putting my computer systems on the desk and firing them up. Once they were hot I showered and had a short nap. My hands and back are exhausted and sore.

After the computers were up, I tore all my music rack gear out of the mobile rack and mounted it in the lower left rack. I’ve got a tiny 3′ power cable running from my amp to the back of the power sink, and it’s limiting where I can put the head. I should have splurged and got a longer cable. My speaker cables to the speakers are 20′ long and only need to be about 4′ and 8′ respectively. Maybe 5′ and 10′. Who cares? At least they reach!

Tomorrow’s going to be long and painful. I’d better get enough sleep tonight.

It always seems to happen. Once the massive pressure is lifted off my shoulders, I enter a phase of creative productivity. I also figured out how to solve a problem that stumped me for half of last week. Nice. :)

I’m also catching up on my sleep a bit. I don’t yet have a regular routine but at least I’m sleeping a lot. Note the correlation between sleep and productivity. Also note the negative correlation between stress and sleep. I need less stress. For a while it was so much that it was debilitating.

Much better now.

The weekend is half over. I’ve just posted a new software release. I feel much more relaxed now than I did before.

Sangeeta is stressing over her accounting though. I hope it’s not contagious. I think she wants to go to Thousand Oaks today to look at a new shopping center. That’ll be nice except for the drive. It’s a beautiful day.