3MF

One leg at a time

I got through my first day in a long time wearing a pair of jeans. I went out yesterday shopping with Rachel to help me pick out a pair after last week's unsuccessful attempt. She patiently guided me thought the in's and out's of choosing a color and fit (including boot cut's dirty little secret). After trying on a few pairs, we finally found a winner. I saw my sister today and she gave the thumbs up to the pants as well. This could be the start of something interesting.

Free food

Today i didn't have to pay for a single thing i ate. First i used a gift certificate for lunch at Applebee's that i had acquired probably six months ago after completion of a big project at work. Then for dinner, we had a work party in one of the banquet rooms at Celebration Cinema where we had a full meal with prime rib. We also had a raffle at this gathering and i got a $25 gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings. (I'm not sure i'll ever have the urge to eat $25 dollars worth of seasoned chicken parts; it seems a bit excessive.) It was a nice change of pace from the microwave popcorn i've been living off the past few days.

Spring break

Apparently my spring break starts today. I had no idea until my teacher mentioned that my homework is due in two weeks rather than the usual one. I think it might be too late to make arrangements to hop off to Florida or some Caribbean Island so i'll have to find a way to amuse myself here in GR, same as every previous year. Maybe i should planning for next year and book a beer cruise now. Yeah, good times.

RT-427

Random thought #427 - How does your stomach know when to vomit?

Let's say you eat some bad shrimp. Are there things in your belly that determine whether or not the bolus it's digesting is spoiled? It seems like an awfully harsh environment for the required sensitive instruments. Maybe it's the intestines that give the signal to blow chunks. I guess we know when things taste "bad;" has that sense evolved over the years for that purpose? Lets say these prawn were covered in a wonderful garlic cream sauce and nestled in a bed of linguini. If you didn't taste the spoiled flavor, would you not get sick?

In my jeans

This weekend i bought a pair of jeans. For most people, this would not be a newsworthy event; however for me its a big deal. Ever since i started dressing myself, i've never really worn them. I buy khakis in bulk. I'm not exactly sure what lead me to give demin another chance. I think i was inspired by the recent acquisition of a smart pink shirt. I got to thinking that maybe clothes can be fun after all.

When i tried the jeans on again a few days later in the comfort of my home, i wasn't as impressed. The fit turned out to be not quite right so i went back to the store to grab a different size but i found nothing that would be appropriate. I figured it was a sign from the universe so i gave them back the pants and they gave me back my money.

Perhaps i'll try again soon. I might even keep the jeans for longer than a week next time. And, gasp, i might even wear them in public. Watch out.

Pray for toner

If your printer is in need of some help, check with the Laser Monks. Not only can they hook you up with ink, they can also heal your printer's soul. These faithful brethren are saving the world and they won't even void your warranty.

Back online at last

Apparently my web host's database server bit the dust this weekend thus rendering this blog disabled. Everything seems to be OK for the moment so i'll keep my fingers crossed. It was torture not being able to update.

Fridge 2.0

When i was young and did well on a test, i'd posted it on the fridge. So when i recently got back my Calc mid-term with not a single error, i wanted to show it off. However, posting it on the fridge doesn't have quite the same effect when you live alone. I therefore decided to post in my "corner of inspiration" in my cubicle at work.

By the way, my stuffed friends are called "little thinkers" and came from
The Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild, (a website with a unique collection of gifts for the literate). Can you name all six?

Ragtime

I was at Civic yesterday for opening night of Ragtime. I had really been looking forward to it because i had seen the show a few years ago at Devos and really loved it. After the first time i saw it, the songs got stuck in my head; I had to go out and buy the CD the next day. Unfortunately i think the CD and the previous production set up very high expectations of enjoyment that the Civic production just did not hold up to.

I was disappointed by most of the vocal performances. When the cast sang as a chorus, they sounded great; but when just one or two people were singing at a time, imperfections were noticeable and distracting. Of course, the exception to this was Edye Evans Hyde who played Sarah. Each one of her songs was incredible. None of the male counterparts came close to being in the same league.

I'm really glad that i didn't end up crewing for the show. There were so many set pieces that i can't image there was all that much room off stage. Obviously they were tight on space because when a big wagon would go off, you could hear it bumping into things and making other loud noises. Things must have been crazy because i saw hands popping out from behind set pieces and heads getting in the way of the projector.

My only other complaint was that it was pretty obvious that some things got more attention than others. For example, the train wagon seemed so unfinished; as though it had been thrown together last minute. In addition, Harry Houdini's magic wasn't, well, magical. Once again, i guess it just came down to expectations. I know that community theatre doesn’t have an unlimited budget to spend on sets and props; i just don’t like it being so noticeable.

This was a very big show and it’s obvious the entire cast worked very hard to pull it off. I’m sure they’ll hit their stride with a few more performances as the clumsiness is replaced by confidence. Ragtime is a great show full of wonderfully melodies. The show runs though March 17 and tickets are still available.

Create table

Most of my work these past two weeks has been "adjusting" a database we originally made six years ago to store our customer information. The big problem is that every group in our company has a different definition of what a customer is. I've been moving fields across tables and adjusting queries to update the data model to a more mature state to accommodate all the requests for reports we now get. It got me to thinking how in the heck did i learn about database design? I guess it's just something that i picked up a long the way because there was no one else to do it. I'd love to find a site with some database "practice problems" just so i can test my skills. The problem with being on a very small development team is that you don't get to see others people work on a daily basis to learn from it.

After months of waiting

Today i finally got around to seeing Lost in Translation. I've been wanting to see it ever since it was in the theatres but never got around to it. I was begining to worry that i was building up my expectations too high and when i finally got to see it, i would be dissapointed. Luckily that wasn't a problem. I really enjoyed it. I watched this movie with my friend Meg and we picked it out ourselves. I still haven't gotten around to seeing What's Eating Gilbert Grape which was scientifically choosen by computers to be a good rent for me. I'm holding out beacuse its just not resonating with me. I'm not sure if i should trust the computer or not.

Out sick

Day two of my first illness of 2004. It started yesterday. I had a sore throat, runny nose and achy body. I went to work against my better judgment but around noon found myself unable to be productive so i went home. I basically slept the rest of the day. I don't get sick all that often so i feel really silly. Hopefully my plan of sleeping a lot and eating bags of Valentine's candy (mimi Reese's pieces are soooo yummy) will get me well again soon.

Jeopardy Junior

I like it when Alex invites the kids over to play Jeopardy. I always feel smarter during the "Teen Tournament."

Valentine's day whatnot

I thought i'd share some links in honor of the upcoming holiday. Having trouble finding just the right card for that special person? Try printing out some of these unusual ones. Perhaps you just need the perfect romantic poem to score you that special kiss. If you have a secret about love, confess it. If the cosmos are keeping you single, you can celebrate anti-Valentine's Day.

Pass

I got my calculus skills test back today marked simply with the word "pass." That was the teacher's muted way of letting me know that i got all of the problems correct. Go me! Go me!

In an effort to sway my college major choice in the mathematics direction, my teacher gave me a copy of a book called "101 Careers in Mathematics." It's filled with short bios of people that majored in Math describing how they make a living. Many if the individuals found themselves programming software at some point in their career; in fact, i bet some of these folks probably would have majored in computer science had such programs existed at the time they attended college. I've got 82 more to go: I'll let you know if anything sounds interesting.

XML writer for VBScript

I was working with generating a bunch of XML data today at work and i created a little class that came in quite handy. It copied much of the functionality of the .NET XMLTextWriter class into VBScript. I wrote up a little explanation and threw it in my code lab to share.

Today i miss the rain

Today i miss the rain. I've forgotten the feel of an attack of disorganized drops against my face. I'm craving the cloud and gloom before the storm. I want to feel the boom of the thunder that shakes muscle from bone. My eyes eager to follow a bolt of lightning from top to bottom before it fades out of site and becomes long forgotten. I would gladly exchange my gloves for a broken umbrella. For now the storm clouds lie frozen just beyond the horizon waiting for spring's thaw. Today i wait for a friend to return. Today i miss the rain.

Fruits and veggies

The other day in calc class, my teacher cut up a pear into a bunch of circular slices. We then approximated the volume of the slices to get a good guess of what the volume of the pear was. It made me realize just what a funny thing a pear is. Its a fruit with which i have little experience. I already knew about this volume by integration technique she was trying to teach, so my mind decided to explore the food pyramid some more.

I became troubled when i thought about coconuts and pineapple. My limited recollection of biology told me that a fruit has seeds and vegetables don't. I've never seen seeds in a pineapple before. I've also never seen a coconut with seeds; i thought it was a seed - so does that make it a fruit or a nut?

My quest for answers led me to the fruit page of Wikipedia. It was able to calm me down by explaining that only the pineapples with vestigial seeds are generally commercially available and that coconuts are in fact fruits because they come from the flowery part of the plant.

If you ever get bored, Wikipedia can be a fun place to go. They have a lot of intersting lists or you can just check out a random page.

This is just a test

Today i had my first Calculus exam of the semester; actually it was more of a "skills test." If you don't pass the test, the hightest grade you can get in the class is a 'D'. It turned out to be like good ol' times. For some reason i seem to always be the first or second one done with my test. It still unnerves me a bit, like i must be missing some thing, but it usually works out fine. I never get 100%, its' usually around 91-97% and i'm fine with that. I usually miss a minus sign here or there or forget to copy down a two. I enjoying solving the part of the problem that makes it a "problem," and then i may get sloppy with the details because i want to move quickly onto the next one. We'll get the scores next week, but i feel good about the test.

Blogging about blogging

I recently came across articles written by someone who still believes blogs can be great [this one is a bit long, but well written, so click when you have time] and someone who thinks they're stupid. It's not easy to tell who is right, but i'll play along until i make up my own mind.

I want free music

I need to find a good source of lucky Pepsi bottles. I think it would be fitting if i start with the Green Day song featured in the ad.

Quiet on the set

My old improv teammate Greg has a job editing instructional videos. He put out a request for some actors to be in his latest film project and i thought i'd give it a try. I get to play the part of the "biology tutor." He set up a makeshift studio in his bedroom. It was basically: a desk, some lights, me, Anjie (the "student"), Greg, and a Canon GL1 camera. We only got three scenes done in a four hour period. That includes the time we had to wait for Greg's roommate to take a shower because you could hear the noise. My biggest problem was getting the lines down. I got the script yesterday and i started looking at it and then studied again this morning but it wouldn't stick. We did lines over and over again and had to take time out to set up for new shots. We have six more scenes to shoot in the coming week; i think i'll have a lot more fun ones i have everything committed to memory. I definatly have a healthy respect for actors that film new shows each week.