Now I'm Crazy Uncle Russ

06.06.2002

Jerry and Elaine had their first kid last night (More details at Jerry's Site). Everything went well, everybody is happy and healthy. I guess I was excited too, I kept waking up every hour and a half last night.

Now then, what's the first thing I should teach the little newborn Poplin child? Perhaps it should be to teach her what her alternate name is! After all, when it comes to Poplin's, I never call any of them bytheir given names, and that includes pets. So, much like was done with the cats, Helen Chandler Poplin will now be subject of Russ' Name of the Week contest, where we try an alternate name out just to see how it sounds. I think the first nominee will be the shortened form of Helen: Hel! Welcome Hel!

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Enter The XBox

06.03.2002

About 2 weeks ago, while surfing eBay, I came across an auction for the XBox version of WWF Raw for half price. Thinking it was a good deal, I bid on it, and actually wound up winning it. The funny part is, I don't have an XBox, I've got a PS2. But, I've got access to 2 XBoxes (XBoxi?) that I can use, so it's not a totally stupid purchase.

Except over the weekend, I thought it would be cool to actually have an XBox. They've dropped the price. There are a couple of XBox exclusive games that would be nice to have. On top of it all, I've just paid off a credit card so I've even got the money.

So I got one.

And I played it over the weekend.

And Gina keeps kicking my but on the fighting game (Dead or Alive 3) that I got with the console. Curse her limber fingers!

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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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