1 Month Left

05.31.2002

A month from today will be my last at Invitrogen. It's kind of weird to actually think about it, to know that in a month you're going to be out of a job (well, a steady paying job at least). This will be the first time since I've been on my own that I'll be facing unemployment and all the fun that goes along with it (like worrying about paying the rent), but I think there's enough stuff lined up that I shouldn't have to worry about it for a while.

And now as a teaser, I'vebeen working on a little 3-part camtoon story. Yes, a new camtoon! With a little luck it might be up sometime next week....

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Subconscious Web Programming

05.24.2002

After my little epiphany yesterday, my brain has been working harder than I'm used to in order to solve problems (maybe something about setting the floodgates open?). Last night I was making some good progress on a site and I noticed that the monitor was looking a little fuzzy. 18 hours off and on of looking at a monitor will do that. So I jotted down a few notes so I could pick up where I was leaving off and headed home to catch a good nights sleep.

Problem #1: The drive home woke me up. I managed to listen to various old cds for a good 2 hours before finally falling asleep sometime between midnight and 1:00.

Problem #2: At 4:45, my brain starts yelling at me. "Hey wake up! Wake up wake up wake up! I know how to fix one of those programming problems!" Seeing it was 4:45 (in the AM), I said to my brain, "Good, we'll fix it when we get there later. I'm going back to sleep." At that point, my brain kept yelling at me for the next 20 minutes until I relented and got up. At 6:15 my brain was typing the solutions to my problems that it came up with while I was trying to sleep. I'm glad my brain can solve problems, but I wish it would let me sleep.

Problem #3: My 4 hours of sleep (after a fitful night before) has left me a little groggy. Right now a nap sure does sound good, and it's only lunchtime....

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Web Programming Reborn

05.23.2002

For a week or two now, I've been trying to get a handle on how to use objects and arrays in a PHP session. Last night it all finally came together. One of the best parts of programming is when you're trying to grasp a new concept or new way (for you) of doing something that you've been doing for a while that makes life easier. A little light bulb goes "ding", or maybe that's a bell, and the code just starts to flow.

It also makes me more goofy once I breach a problem like that. I just sang Lynn the "You Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" blues. I ws rocking in my chair approrpiately like an old blind man while singing.

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Hunting Web Typos Season

05.17.2002

Today has been my day for finding and hunting down typos on various websites, which wouldn't be so bad except I'm the one making all these stupid mistakes in the first place. The first batch was on the chiropractors site at Wellness Depot. It seems there were a few (ok, 5) typos on the forms people can print out before they come in for their first visit. I've got them changed on the actual web pages, but I still need to update the PDFs (note to se've just go tto sort through my nested tables and find out where the problem is.

Today was also the day I learned that I shouldn't tar files. Somehow I managed to corrupt a file while I was trying to make a backup of a directory (just in case I did something stupid - like corrupt a file). The corrupted file managed to have most of the contents of each file in the directory, seperated every once on a while by a strip of binary gobbledy gook.

God but I'm glad it's Friday....

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What's a WWE?

05.14.2002

I've been asked (twice now) what's up with the WWF becoming the WWE? Well, highlights of what happened are:

• Back in the late 80's/early 90's, a dispute arose over who had the right to use "WWF" between the World Wrestling Federation and the World Wildlife Fund.
• An agreement was made to where the World Wrestling Federation could use "WWF" withing the US, while the World Wildlife Fund had rights to use "WWF" internationally.
• World Wildlife Fund brings suit against World Wrestling Federation (sometime last year, I think) in court in England stating that the World Wrestling Federation breached the agreement by using "WWF" to promote events in Europe, Asia, and their websites.
• English court rules in favor of the World Wildlife Fund. Obviously I'm skipping a lot here, but this is the result of what happened.
• With their stock listed as World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, they drop the "Federation" and become World Wrestling Entertainment.

See? Long story short. Court made Vince change the name.

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