Small Joys

So today has been a day of small joys. Little things keep making me happy.

For one, Google updated the style of their custom homepage to give everything a border and some tighter margins. It's just more visually appealing, and I find myself looking at my homepage for no other reason than that it's pretty.

Secondly, I ran across this (rather old) post about "real databases" that I thought was priceless. If only I could go back in time and hand this to my bosses at work when they laughed at me for suggesting we move our app to MySQL. We pay well over $100k a year for database licenses, and frankly I don't think MySQL lacks anything we need. Oh well, I am mainly bitter about being laughed at in the meeting, the fact we are wasting a ton of money isn't really my problem.

Also, now that I understand how to user rdoc at a basic level, I managed to generate the rdocs for various plugins I have installed, as well as the ruby standard library. This means I can accomplish more programming without the internet.

To top that, I found that hostal in Nerja that I like online, and sent them an email. Hopefully we will be able to get a room there. I was just happy they had a website.

Ademas, (I'm running out of synonyms for 'also' so I'm using some Spanish ones), I'm slightly less sick than yesterday. On the upside, I used my sick time today to read up on acts_as_ferret, and now have a general grasp of how to use it. Just found a page defining the query language used by ferret (FQL) and was delighted to find it already does prefix queries, which is what I was prepared to implement. Overall, I think using acts_as_ferret will be easier than my existing MySQL search.

Anyway, I'm off to find other fun things to read about. Happy Birthday (in a couple days) Bob!

Aire Comprimido

Note to everyone: Using compressed air to remove dust from your laptop's heatsinks can lead to a 40 degree celsius (72 degree fahrenheit) difference in your CPU and GPU core temperatures. I highly recommend doing this once every six months.

So yeah, my laptop is much happier now. It took me an hour and nine stores to find compressed air in a can, and it cost me an absurd $13, but it was worth it. My laptop no longer turns off during DotA games (it doesn't even break 60C anymore), and my left hand no longer rests on a furnace when I type.

Also of interest, I am withdrawing from classes here for the month of May to focus on Magic site stuff. Hopefully some good will come of this!

Contraption

So the new Magic set is on Gatherer now. The cards generally look sweet, and since it is supposed to be a set of cards pulled from future Magic sets, there are a ton of new keywords and weird abilities. Fortifications for one... and hints of strange new card types like 'planeswalker' and 'tribal' (in addition to creature, enchantment, land, etc). Also, one card mentions 'contraptions' ... but the set itself has no contraptions. Quite mysterious, but well themed.

Anyway, it's about to pour here, so this will be a quick one. I have mainly been working furiously on my AJLA stuff to get it done in time, and it has been going well. Magic site has sadly been on hold as a result though. I have been writing down ideas as they come to me however.

Holy Cards Batman!

So a new Magic set comes out in two weeks! I wish I was back so I could participate in the joy of opening boosters. Oh well.

Stayed up late last night (a whopping 2am, how weak) working on the site. It was fun times. I hope to get some more done this weekend. I am trying to get it together enough to deploy a test version to another machine so I can do payment integration. That should be a fun problem to solve. Also a few big areas to rough out, and some general prettying up to do. Hoping to show it off to Bob and Mark soonish.

Also, to continue my drewishness, I added a sheet to my spreadsheet to track the balances of my credit cards, in an effort to control spending like I used to. My freshman year of college, I lived on $600 a month. I know that is impossible now (my rent was a paltry $188 back then), but I'd like to try and shave $100/mo or so.

Of course, I could just go back to Ramen and Spagetti-O's and shave a couple hundred right there. But I like Chipotle and I like Taco Johns, and recently I have been quite proud at my fledging ability to cook. For instance, yesterday I took drum sticks and covered them in garlic and oregano and cooked them. That is an accomplishment for me. I also found that fruit is good when you don't let it rot on the counter.

But I still miss Chipotle.

Rain

So it has been rainy and cold for about two weeks now. It has rained nearly every day. I just want some warm weather!

Just read this excellent article on hiring and retaining high quality programmers. It reads like a laundry list of complaints I have about my current job. I have been working away on my work requests, trying to get stuff done in time enough to not get fired. Sadly at this point I almost kind of want them to make the decision for me. If only it weren't for money and my need of it. Just hoping to stay employed through the end of May.

In other news, steadily improving my Ruby-Fu. I desperately need a graphic designer though... harry? I take comfort in the fact that Google is so minimal because Larry and Sergy were bad at graphic design too, but I'm not trying to create the next Google either.

Yesterday I was reading a wiki about blocks and procs in ruby. I'd forgotten how much fun this stuff was. It brought back my Scheme and I'm resolved to read through Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs again. Need a way to not have to worry about money and just nerd it up again. I'm determined to find a way!

Anyway, back to coding.

Examen y lluvia

Today was our monthly test. Considering I only studied for about 5 minutes before they handed it to me, it went really well. Pretty sure I aced the Conversation, unless she grades my essay down a bit for the usual gramatical mistakes. I think I write at about the 8th grade level, so you can picture the red that covers my papers when I get them back.

Grammar went pretty well too, but I'm only seeing maybe an 85 on it. Oh well, a 50 is all I need.

Last night I finally straightened out my subversion issues, and can move forward on the site again. Only problem is that I really need to get my AJLA work done this month, so I should probably just start on that and get it out of the way.

Bob: Since I never see you online anymore, if you read this, you should think of ways you think it would be easy to add cards to your collection/deck on the magic site. My current thought is have search results with a link to 'Add to Collection' ... but I didn't know if this would be clunky. I don't want the user to have to go a million places in order to accomplish something like adding new cards to his collection or finding cards to build a deck with.

Anyway, the battery is about dead on my precious computer, so I'm going to tromp home (in the rain) and do some chores. Adios todos!