Couple Grammes of Soma

Very late to the game I’ve installed the Google Analytics script in a few places. Here as well as the intranet. Our intranet at work is a secure one as most are and I’m a little worried that will cause me difficult to solve problems. I’ve already adjusted my settings to receive in the words of Google Help, “a personalized” version of the urchin script so we’ll see. Came up from this site with no problem. Although I didn’t use the PHP installation instructions so I may have to adjust the way I’ve got it installed to collect more accurate data. I’m fairly certain the people who work there would know which way works better than moi.

This is on my wish list. I have got to wake up more.

The more I read lately I come across EE being used for decent sized sites.

Tapes N’ Tapes and I’m from Barcelona are great bands.

Now to look for cheap tickets to Boston in two weeks.

Do this, plan that, play those, see them, go there…

MOVE OUT! of state???

I’ve been trying out Pidgin. I like it much better than the old Gaim interface. Icons make a big difference to me.

Is there really any reason even to bother worrying about stuff?

I’ve decided I will stop slacking. We’ll see what comes of that.

Today I was asked if I knew anything about Apache web server. Later it was revealed that in fact I knew nothing about using Apache to serve requests to a Tomcat cluster. Good to know. Poor guys got stuck with an app they didn’t build and can’t figure out how to deploy the thing. Frustrating no doubt.

I’m getting a lot more familiar with Drupal. I can see why some people would be frustrated trying to accomplish something with it under pressure and in a short time. Having a relaxed pace to get familiar with it has been nice. Lots of little things to figure out along the way as always. I must say it’s quite a bit more complicated than installing WordPress. That may only be because I was also configuring the server it was running on and setting up the database myself. That stuff makes a difference. PHP configurations and all that jazz I’ve never touched before. Good to know how.

Administering a server remotely through a shell is nice to know how to do. I cannot do anything complicated yet, but I did get a new user added and configured a virtual host for them with the help of a Linux pocket guide from Reilly’s, and the already configured virtual hosts above the new one.

Windows Vista is exactly like the Mac commercials make it out to be. Kinda funny.

I managed to sign up for activeCollab beta testing before they closed it out. I really hope I get to test it out. I have a feeling I’m going to redo a lot of the interface though. It’s not fluid…. though neither is this site. I think fluid layouts feel more friendly. Like they notice you and your window size. Not apathetically ignore you, as those kids in high school did when you walked by.

I’m dying to learn python. Dying. I can feel it’s power whiz by me, just out of my grasp, every time it’s mentioned. I need to start small and just learn it. Just learn it.

The same goes for PHP. If I could code my own PHP I could do ANYTHING I want. I keep reading about SOAP, LDAP, REST and all that stuff and I can not even write PHP! Well I can but just not very quickly. And I have no idea why the stuff I get to work works. The syntax is still elusive. Bleh.

That’s today for now.

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.

Work

I got a job this past Friday. My first week was pretty nice. We are working on a global web site project and there are some very solid deadlines for a beta version they want to show at the company meeting in two weeks. That’s a run on sentence. It’s fun jumping into something like that though. Lots to do. Lots to catch up on. Got pretty familiar with browsing shutterstock.com for photos to use in the flash banner.

Our next big project after the global site launch is to implement a CMS for this big contract they just got. They’d like to have different contributors be able to post things that follow the same styling and keep it all organized and still be simple enough for people to post to without being an expert at the interface. I’ve been doing a little bit of research about that and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of picking the best solution and then customizing it to match the brand of the company and the feel of the project.

I may also be getting a copy of the Adobe Creative suite. But that is still up in the air.

I did get this pretty sweet lappy though.

It’s hard to believe it was just a few months ago I went looking for work and now I’ve got a job. Full-time. Here I am. I appreciate the value of my aptitude for technical things now that it’s gonna be paying my bills. Previously I saw it as a rather irritatingly expensive hobby to maintain.

We had champagne at work for the second time in a week. Not bad. I could get used to this.

Not Work

I went to Barnes & Noble after work today. I hate that store. Honestly I do not enjoy it. Although they do have a Starbucks inside, since going to CR I really don’t have a particular fondness for any brand of coffee. Thus I am left to only consider the actual store. And I hate it. Not only could I not find books on typography there, I couldn’t even find a section of books on art. Now I know there was a section that might of been close to what I was looking for but a woman was sitting there and I think she spoke to me when I walked by and so I didn’t want to go back. I just don’t like the way the store feels. Enough.

I did see some books on usability though. I was a little bit disappointed on the fact that they were from ‘02 though. Looked like they had some pretty decent ideas and process for analyzing usability though. Thufte or Tufte, however it is spelled, he’s got cool info in his book. I was just getting a bit of the value of spark lines. I still think I’m missing quite a bit of their value, since I’ve never been trying to convey data like that. Interesting phrase he used though was “activated negative space,” that one is definitely going in the vocab for common use. I should get some time to read those books.

Some deaf people have a cool attitude I think. But I have a pretty limited exposure to them so my impressions are very shallow.

I’m hard to convince.

I need a little pick me up so I don’t stumble down tonight considering staying alive hitchhiking on the disco drive

When I was a swear word the hours were shot-gunned
the hours will get you
the hours will get you