The Time Sink

Whooeee. ...and it's back to work to see about putting the pieces of the pre-Christmas puzzle together. Yeah, there are still things that Have to Happen; but about this time each year, the shipping infrastructure gets a bit overloaded. ...and then there's my annual attempt to stay as far away from Costco as I can <g>!

The weekend turned out pretty productive though, even with the lingering effects of the cold and a couple of sleep-interrupted nights: The front yard got the full treatment this year (pics later this week) and I even got some inside stuff up. Yeah, somehow the clearing away in the garage from the attic download the boys and I did Friday ended up with moving most of that inside. ...and since we'd picked up Shelley's tree from storage (man, I hope the price on the side of that box was from something else!), we figured we might as well get started there also...

...and get started we did! ...and nearly finished the inside of the house too! ...at least as best I can tell. Shelley did her part of the tree, then left the ornaments to the guys to handle as she went though box after box and emptied them hither and yon. Man, there's a lot of bric-a-brac around.

I had one of those learning experiences yesterday... It started out simply enough: I was going to help someone by FTPing the homework assignment for their "Basic Web" class to the server so they didn't have to wait until they got to the classroom to get a look at it. Uh-huh...

Sounds simple, -neh?

Okay, I knew we'd have some work to do, but not as much as I thought: all the files were referencing lower case directories and lower case file names, but all the directories had the leading character in upper case. ...as did all the files. ...except of course the IMAGES directories. WT??

"What program are you learning on?"

"Dreamweaver..."

Oh.

Let's see... Now we have directories we cannot change that are in the wrong case. ...and html and image files that lead with the wrong case, even though the program generated them. What else? Oh, yes! The buttons were generated in Flash. ...and the links from them are hard coded in the flash file. Great.

An hour later...

Struck a chord there, -eh? Yeah, that was supposed to be just a quick upload; only it turned into a lesson in servers, FTP, HTML, linkage and all sorts of "just plain hacking a site to make it work regardless of what the code looks like". Not that I've ever resorted to that, mind you. I mean, even the blog is readable in Netscape 4. ...unless I hose a tag. ...but even then, Marcia is right on it to let me know.

...but sheesh. Looking back, what made it work was having the ability to edit on the fly in EditPlus (or CoffeeCup's FTP client). Without that, we'd have been in a bit of trouble. Ah, well, it was a good exercise for both of us. ...and it turned out the assignment was due that night, not Thursday as had been thought! Oh, my...

Just kickin' it for a moment. ...and glad the week is almost over. No, not for the normal reasons; I've actually done okay for the week after a short week. What hasn't fit into my schedule is the hanging on effects of that cold; somehow it's managed to get into my lungs and slowed my recovery. I'm just not able to keep my focus and I'm tired constantly. ...and there are Things To Do!

Earlier today, I was reviewing things with a couple of people who have a broader knowledge base, and I think a good plan is to see if things keep clearing at what is to me a very incremental rate. If not, I'm off to the doc-in-the-box for some antibiotics and a chest film. I don't go for the meds much unless I need them as I'm trying to defer my desensitization until I'm much older. ...especially since I used up some med-karma in my past bouts with bronchitis <g>.

Ah, well... It's a good excuse to take it easy.

...and watch the game on the tube this evening!

...and coming home all tired and beat and depressed last night, just wanting to have my brain back and be all perky and able to do things.

But:

The team went down to Louisiana, knowing they had a bowl game sewn up, and didn't let down and played well and won. Excellent.

Daniel's math homework was an absolute bear for him because he didn't quite grasp the concept. ...and I managed to not only get the concept locked in, but gave him a factoring shortcut he'll be able to use all through college. Yeah...

...and sadder news when they announced Roone Arledge had died earlier in the day. Man, that guy did some incredible things on his watch...

...and a night of planning with a friend about how to provide a bit more service to the community. That worked well also.

I forgot one of my most basic rules this evening: "Anything and Everything is saved to the server"! No, I didn't forget to save something there; I forgot to look there...

'Cause one of my other basic rules runs like this: "If the box is open, then I've already lost the driver disk (or it's filed so perfectly away that the result is the same)."

...and after I went web hunting for the drivers and found them and went to save them on the server, guess what I found? Yeah, when I opened up the folder for that particular brand, there was the driver already waiting there. Sheesh.

...and when I went to bang my head against the wall in the library, I found it already dented from the last time I did this one <g>!

Good morning! Let's see if some coffee will allow the a ray of hope to gleam through the fog that is my brain right now <g>...

Yesterday somehow turned into kid's day (Ahem, Mr. Markowitz, take notes; but I suspect it's already started <g>)... The day commenced with mutually exclusive soccer games (two different locations and overlapping times) which precluded the boys from watching each other's closing game of the season. It also precluded my sleeping in. ...and I soooo wanted to. Not to be! Up and at 'em and off to soccer as the fog burned off the fields.

But hey, Brad's team played well and won a hard fought game. ...and Shelley brought Daniel by from his game when it ended and he was able to watch about ten minutes of Brad's. ...and he brought a friend along to spend the day with. Hey, that's cool: I lose a helper; but these two play well together, so things will be quiet. ...and I'll have Brad to help me with things.

Not. Brad ended up at another friends house for the afternoon; and after a few hours, Daniel and his friend went to the friend's place. Okay! We'll go for quiet and take a nap! ...and have a quiet evening? Uh-uh. It turns out Brad was at a party (Doh-) and now was home to change and head to the hockey game and then would spend the night at the friends. Okay... But now that opens the door for Daniel to return home with his buddy to have him spend the night at our place (cool, 'cause the friend brings his GameCube and they play until they pass out).

Still with me? Okay, now we're doing the Christmas thing ("All is calm...") and I'm hacking away here trying to pull off an unlikely combo with the router and the wireless, at peace with the universe, and finally get ready to pack it in about 0030 or so. ...and Brad calls. They're just back from the hockey game and dinner and he's no longer interested in spending the night. K'... I'm off to pick up the kidlet. ...who proceeds to give me the blow by blow description of the evening's events (including the sobriety checkpoint (no, no problem; just a random sweep)) but is only up to the third period of the hockey game by the time we get home. Oh, yeah, Dave, get used to this: their <rewind> button gets activated every time they have a break in the action, like going into the house. So Shelley and I listened to the story until sometime around 0130. ...when he put a tape on so he could fall asleep in the living room with his brother and the friend.

Confused? Try it from this side of my eyeballs...