greyduck.net

Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Databases are annoying. Flatfiles are worse.

    I’ve spent most of the day dealing with out-and-out frustration. I’m experimenting with some website code for a project I have in mind, and while the bulk of the work turned out not to be too difficult (with some very good help), there’s one part of it that’s driving me bonkers.

    I’m trying to get a few hundred small text files turned into entries in an existing database. Nevermind why, just understand that this has turned out to be non-trivial for a non-programmer type such as myself.

    Ah well. You can’t win ‘em all, can you?

  • Only an idiot on days ending in ‘Y’…

    All discussions about plans for New Year’s Eve have taken place through a bizarre filter in my mind. It took every reference to “Saturday” and turned it into “Sunday,” because obviously it’s Sunday that we’ll all be staying up the whole night to party, watch balls drop and that sort of silliness.

    Right?

    Yeah. I figured it out when I got about two blocks from home tonight. Apparently I need to walk around more, ‘cause I do most of my best thinking on my feet. I’m not kidding, there. To those of you I’ve conversed with on this topic recently: Just take all of my idiotic blather about “Sunday” and translate it to “Saturday” and we’ll all be good, mmkay? Thanks.

  • Winter Cleaning

    This week, our hardy engineering-and-eye-tee staff is concentrating on cleaning up this dump place. I’ve moved a half dozen old rackmount chassis into the “go to Freegeek” pile. I’ve stored a couple boxes’ worth of connector cables (audio, USB, Firewire) into drawers. I even got rid of that broken-down old chair that’s been taking up valuable space in my server room since the first building expansion project. (Wow. Let’s not even think about how long ago that was.)

    Heck, there’s almost even some room in my office to move around a bit. Will wonders never cease?

    I’ll get some more cleaning done on Thursday… after my day off… Heh.

  • A day without shoes on.

    I gave myself a belated Christmas present today. I slept in ‘til about 10:30, I relaxed a lot, I rested, I goofed off, and I made a deliberate point of not leaving the house at any point. I figure if I get another good night’s sleep in, I may even be a tolerable human being tomorrow.

    Anything’s possible, right?

  • Dumb, But With Clean Laundry

    Well, I had to do something stupid, didn’t I?

    I started my laundry rather late, having filled my basket during daylight hours but spacing out on actually putting clothes into the wash until, oh, close to 10pm. I just hauled the clean, dry clothing out of the dryer and… noticed with considerable chagrin the number of fortune cookie slips in the lint trap.

    Yep. I washed my wallet. My license is slightly warped, now. My bus pass is almost completely shot to hell. (And how glad am I now that I didn’t buy January’s pass while I was passing by Safeway this morning!) The money? Oh, it’s designed to take a bath or two, so no worries there. I can only hope that my bank card wasn’t adversely affected, let alone my Social Security card. The wallet itself is a goner, though. Dammit. I liked that wallet. I’ve never washed one before, so why did I start now?

    Merry Christmas, everybody. May your holiday start out better than mine…

  • Channel 42 Action News

    I love it when R’Bender gets fed up with his local news coverage, ‘cause it tends to result in howlingly funny satire on his blog…

    SHARON CHIFFON: Thanks, Rhonda. Still to come on the Channel 42 Action News at 6:00

    [pause while tape rolls]

    SHARON CHIFFON: [behind assorted images of products on shelves] What are the hottest gifts this season? [cut to image of Xbox 360] You’ll be sure to want to stick around [cut to image of an iPod] after the break to find out [cut to image of Bratz dolls] what the good boys and girls will have on Christmas morning.

    TROY MERINGUE: [cut to Troy standing over various important-looking computer monitors wearing the most hideous Christmas tie you’ve ever seen, complete with a blinking light for Rudolph’s nose, that was purchased as a Christmas gift ten years ago by his then five-year-old son, Spence, and Troy still thinks it’s the greatest Christmas tie ever, despite the fact that his now fifteen-year-old, disaffected teenager is utterly and completely embarassed by the fact that not only is his Dad on TV every night, but then he insists on wearing that stupid tie every year and GOD, I can’t WAIT until I’m 18 and then I’m SOOO out of here!] Will we be having a white Christmas this year? We’ll have your seven-day bonus local forecast and maybe we’ll even catch a glimpse of Santa on our radar! More about it coming up.

    [Cut to commercial]

    Go read the whole thing, won’t you? And tell him the waterfowl sent ya.

    Radical Bender: Channel 42 Action News

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