I really dislike starting the day behind the eight ball. I’ll be on DND until I get a couple of things off my plate.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Spent the night trying to wake up.
Master: Exhausting way to sleep.
When I die
I want my tombstone to read: "He spent his entire life looking for something."
Take a 20 seconds today to vote for Aunt B
Air America is sending one of America’s progressive bloggers on a cruise to meet the Air America hosts. Our very own Tennessee blogger Aunt B (Betsy Phillips) of Tiny Cat Pants is in the running! She is currently tied in position 13 with Jamie Sanderson, The Politics of Jamie Sanderson; Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos; Matthew Filipowicz, Huffington Post, Headzup; John Amato, Crooks and Liars; and Jane Hamsher, FireDogLake. She needs to be in one of the top 5 positions in the next 3 days! To vote, simply go to the nomination form page and nominate Aunt B or Betsy “Aunt B” Phillips of http://tinycatpants.wordpress.com. We can get her on that cruise. Please vote for Aunt B and spread the word.
Thank you!
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli. Replies. mp3
Poetry at 70 mph
I tapped this out on my phone after cresting the hill south bound before the I-40/Pellissippi Parkway exchange. My normal glance at the peaks of the Smoky Mountains was obscured. The weather inspiring.
There are no mountains today. A cloud blankets the horizon. More so, it blankets us all. @djuggler
Theo Aukerman suggests this could become a Haiku.
With slight mods, could be a haiku: … @knoxcoder
So how’s this?
No mountains today
Cloud blankets the horizon
It blankets us all.
Hmm. I may have a thing or two to learn about meter versus moras ("on").
One on is counted for a short syllable, an additional one for an elongated vowel, diphthong, or doubled consonant, and one for an “n” at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word “haibun”, though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n). Source, Wikipedia, Haiku
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Self-doubt.
Master: No doubt.
Project Done
I just put the wraps on one of my projects. This one was a site scrapper and a site rebuild. Scraping means the site which controls the data did not provide an API or other means to get the data so using PHP, cURL, and AJAX (in this case, jQuery), I retrieved the data, used PHP and regular expressions to parse the data to use only the parts I needed, and CSS to present it correctly. The rebuild was applying a new design, furnished by the client, to the rest of the site. Overall fun, albeit with some speed bumps and hiccups.
Today’s Work Related Links
I work in an ever changing industry. New techniques, new standards, new languages, new buzzwords are always developing. These changes are why programmers must be constant learners. I learn principles. Specifics of a language simply require a decent reference. I rely heavily upon Delicious as my own personal search engine and reference tool. To date, I have bookmarked 10024 websites. I can spent hours researching a problem and clicking through search engine results to read misinformation or bad links but when I find the resource I need, I bookmark it at Delicious with keywords which will help me find the information easily. The next time I need that info, I can find it in seconds.
Links I have used in my work today:
The Magic is Gone
One of the thrills of the single digits is raiding my desk. Often I come down to find my organized chaos in a disarray. To Amy and Evan my clutter is their treasure trove, as it should be, so I try to keep it child friendly. I fidget with my magic from time to time. My nickel to dimes trick currently lives on my desk in a ziplock bag so the money doesn’t accidentally get spent. I found the ziplock open. The nickles and dimes are accounted for but a critical piece of the trick has gone missing. Nevermind…I’m stupid. This reminds me of the time I purchased my first rainbow rod. I was in Disney World and the magician at the magic shoppe performed the trick so well that I understood exactly what to do. I purchased my own. I was so excited that back the hotel I pulled the wand from its container and tossed the instructions aside. I had enough prop magic to understand how these worked. I did exactly like the performer from the magic shoppe and my heart wrenched from my chest as I immediately broke the wand! The result of my actions had produce an outcome unlike anything the magician had done. It was totally unexpected and nothing I did seemed to fix it. That is, until I read the instructions and laughed myself to tears. So, the nickel and dime trick…it’s kinda like that.
How does Sunday work?
This is Sunday. The end of 5 day vacation from school for the children. Five sticky notes cling to my monitor screaming for the completion of the tasks scribbled upon them by this evening. 
Today is also family picture day. Today we torture the children to get the ideal photo for our holiday card. Naturally, we will look to KristyK for inspiration. These photoshoots are not always without pain. See if you can spot the less than cooperative teenager in 2006. Bonus points if you can find the Photoshop error in 2006 (hint: the uncooperative teen refused to wear black pants and there should not be a bow tie in the Christmas tree).
I’ve blown this day away
The title is a leaf blower joke. Well, the wind making machine has been returned. My wrists hurt. I concede this year to Mother Nature but I put a hurt on her this time. She knows next year I have a new trick. The tide of this war is changing! The children enjoyed pouncing into the piles of leaves. The yard looks more like a yard than it has in over a decade. That feels good. The driveway received a major cleaning too.
Saturday
I have to return the backpack blower today. So today is interspersed with moments of yard work, moments of housecleaning, and moments of programming. Overall, a productive day so far!
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I have purpose again.
Master: You’ve always had purpose.
That blows!
A friend of mine loaned me 2 rakes and a backpack leaf blower. I believe this may be the first time in over a decade I come close to actually winning the War of the Leaves!
