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And he’s off to camp

I dropped Evan off at Camp today. Last year I had the pleasure of being a campsite host. I passed on being part of the staff this year. I had the pleasure of seeing several adults and scouts who were part of campsite #8 last year. Really enjoyed speaking with them again. Some were staying at camp and for half a moment I thought how fun it would be to simply hang out with the other adults (the parents are being kept away from the children); however, duty calls.

It was bittersweet dropping Evan off and just leaving. I didn’t even wait for them to hike away from the check-in. He was laughing with new faces, new friends, and didn’t need me around. They grow too fast. I’m quite happy for Evan.

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The long weekend has ended

Why are holidays and vacations always exactly one day too short?!

This weekend entailed yard work including progress on what will be the foundation to the storage shed. The grandparents bought fireworks for the children and we took an evening to dine with them then have an explosive show. And computer work of course. I don’t take vacation from my clients so there was computer programming.

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PSA: Bras make your breasts sag

Jean-Denis Rouillon has been studying breasts for 18 years (I’ve been studying them my whole life! *wink wink*). His technique? I slide ruler, a caliper, and 330 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35. Holy Hell I’ve lived my life wrong! Why didn’t someone tell me this field of research existed?! I would have gotten my PhDD!

"Medically, physiologically, anatomically — breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity," Rouillon said, as quoted on TheLocal.fr. "On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra."

[Source, Livescience.com, Bras Make Breasts Sag, Study Suggests, 2013]

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Programmers lament

I use a standing desk but I have never completely lifted my keyboard to the ideal height. I think I’m beginning to pay the price. After extensive typing, my right elbow (my mousing hand) is so sore that I am not sure I’ll be able to type today. ugh.

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How to switch to metric?

How do you begin using the metric system? You just start using it! I use Waze as my navigation aid. Been using it since the very early days. Cathy and I were the original #wazedate people. Today, as I drove to work, Waze announced a turn in "1.6 miles" and I commented to myself that I didn’t realize that section of road was that long. Then it occurred to me that if Waze was going to speak distances and I was going to learn them that I might as well do it in metric…and now Waze speaks to me in kilometers and meters.

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Time to upgrade Redmine

I use a tool called Redmine to help manage my projects. https://redmine.dougmccaughan.com/ My first task today is to upgrade it to the latest version.

Update: And here is an example of the day to day frustrations that drive a computer programming into the fields of construction and bartending…something that should take moments potential becomes hours as it evolves from a simply upgrade to a research project.

[psxxxxx]$ bundle install –without development test
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/………
Resolving dependencies…
Installing rake (10.4.2)
Installing i18n (0.6.11)
Installing multi_json (1.11.1)
Installing activesupport (3.2.21)
Installing builder (3.0.4)
Installing activemodel (3.2.21)
Using erubis (2.7.0)
Using journey (1.0.4)
Using rack (1.4.5)
Using rack-cache (1.2)
Installing rack-test (0.6.3)
Installing hike (1.2.3)
Installing tilt (1.4.1)
Installing sprockets (2.2.3)
Installing actionpack (3.2.21)
Installing mime-types (1.25.1)
Installing polyglot (0.3.5)
Installing treetop (1.4.15)
Installing mail (2.5.4)
Installing actionmailer (3.2.21)
Installing arel (3.0.3)
Installing tzinfo (0.3.44)
Installing activerecord (3.2.21)
Installing activeresource (3.2.21)
Using bundler (1.2.4)
Installing coderay (1.1.0)
Using fastercsv (1.5.5)
Installing rack-ssl (1.3.4)
Installing json (1.8.3) with native extensions
Installing rdoc (3.12.2)
Installing thor (0.19.1)
Installing railties (3.2.21)
Installing jquery-rails (3.1.2)
Using mysql (2.8.1)
Using net-ldap (0.3.1)
Installing pg (0.17.1) with native extensions
Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb
checking for pg_config… no
No pg_config… trying anyway. If building fails, please try again with
–with-pg-config=/path/to/pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h… no
Can’t find the ‘libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
–with-opt-dir
–without-opt-dir
–with-opt-include
–without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
–with-opt-lib
–without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
–with-make-prog
–without-make-prog
–srcdir=.
–curdir
–ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
–with-pg
–without-pg
–with-pg-config
–without-pg-config
–with-pg_config
–without-pg_config
–with-pg-dir
–without-pg-dir
–with-pg-include
–without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
–with-pg-lib
–without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/lib

Solution (as I expected): commented out references to postgresql and sqlite in Gemfile

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And today a refresh

2015 has been an interesting year. As we reach the halfway point, I am not disappointed. However, I am unnecessarily stressed. Stressed to the point of near dysfunction. Starting today, I am focused purely on removing stress from my life. For me, a major part of that is putting finances on auto-pilot. This means that I will be working on my own websites, something I have ignored for 20 years. And I will be seeking more freelance work for evenings and weekends. And so it is written.

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RIP LiveNinja

I love getting emails from sites I apparently signed up for but never used. https://www.liveninja.com/ is shutting down.

When we started LiveNinja in 2012, we set out on a mission to use real-time technology to allow people to make a living doing the things they love to do. In essence, we believed (and still believe) that real-time technology can play a major role in the way the worldwide economy operates and does business online.

Two and a half years later, it’s clear that it has…just not in the way we expected it to.

When we first launched LiveNinja, the initial response was incredible. Within months, we had thousands of sessions occur on the platform, and featured over 3,000 experts across a variety of fields — music, art, therapy, venture capital, fitness, and more — all sharing their knowledge on the site.

On June 18th, we’ll be closing down the LiveNinja marketplace and moving our Katana service to LiveNinja.com to concentrate these efforts and bring you the best experience possible.

[Source, LiveNinja Blog, The Evolution of LiveNinja]

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Missed opportunity or saving money by procrastination

Udemy periodically has a $10 sale where most of their classes are simply $10. Their sale is similar to the Steam sales. I purchased one last time this came around. This time I had bookmarked about 6 courses. And waited. Then I fell asleep forgetting to make the purchase. Once course on sale was $10. Today it is $300. Oh well. I suppose I didn’t need that anyway. Next time.