What is this crap? The CSS broke. I don’t know if it’s only here at work with IE6 and it’s idiosyncrasies, or it’s actually broken… Nothing changed on the codebase that I know of, so this is curious.

I’ll have to investigate, so in the mean time, my apologies for a crappy looking site

Saturday morning was horrible, horrible, horrible.

It all started at 4:30 a.m. when Ame dropped by to say hello to me while I slept. This wasn’t odd at all though as she likes to stay up late and play video games sometimes. The little tickle in my throat from the night before had blossomed quite a bit so I was feeling a little bad. Ame went to get me some water and cold & flu remedy, and, on her trip out to the kitchen for the glass of water, she discovered her computer was unexpectedly off and wouldn’t turn on again. Enter: Steve, the home sysadmin.

After doing the simple stuff, like checking the power cables and discharging the capacitors with no resolution, it was time to open it up. Oh, lovely, the only point of failure I’ve ever experienced on that particular board had failed again - I call it the northbridge fan, but who knows what it’s called. The problem was, there’s evidence this was not a new issue. I called it as a red herring at the moment and looked for something else, but I couldn’t find it so I shelved it and resolved to look at it later after more rest.

By then the dog was going nuts because we were both up and that’s the signal to go outside and potty. Remember, I’m still under the weather at this point, and for extra bonus points also hungover - we had Bobby over for dinner the night before and I had “some” wine. Ame was understandably upset her computer was toast, so after taking care of Snickers’ urinary needs, she wanted to toast up some Eggo waffles to chill out.

She popped in a couple frozen waffles into the toaster, and placed the remaining waffles back in the freezer. The act of closing the door caused a bottle of hazelnut booze to fall and smash on the floor. We were both in the kitchen, and one of the great things about owning a small dog, is they are your ever-vigilant shadow. The bottle smashed right next to him, simultaneously scaring the shit out of him and soaking him in hazelnut flavored alcohol.

He jets off, we’re all freaking out, I checked him for wounds, ask if Ame’s okay - thankfully they both are. It’s time for an emergency dog bath and a cleanup in aisle one. We wrestled the dog into the tub and I started cleaning up the mess - not without some difficulty though: I cut my hand on some broken glass, and had neglected to put a mop pad on the swiffer so that wasn’t so effective until Ame corrected me.

It’s 6 a.m. at this point and guess what? The animals were hungry! I was pretty rocked at this point, but this went off without any problem, and after taking Snickers down and up again with no incident - he even pooped as per his bowel schedule, all great. Ame, The Unlucky Beast, was ready to try again with waffles upon my return. We’re nervous that something else was going to happen. Things went fine, she had her waffles and we went to sleep.

That’s the account of the whirlwind of that accursed Saturday morning. Ugh.

I’ve been bothered by my latest project. Without going into detail, it’s a web-based programming project that leverages MySQL and PHP. I know how to design and code, but I’ve hit a wall of… I don’t want to say creativity, more like, philosophy. There’s a problem, and it may not be a problem at all, that I simply don’t have a solution to. Hopefully, it’s just a matter of time.

I wish I could discuss the project here more, but I’m well aware it breaks a lot of license agreements. The goal is to make something cool to show off to people and impress them with my ability to make a finished product. It is not intended for a wide release, but I won’t rule it out entirely. I also want to use and rely on it myself, and making it web-accessible is a major plus.

Usually, when a programmer makes an app, it works great, but looks like shit. Don’t ask an artist to make an app. Just don’t. I must not be an artist, but I know I’m not a programmer. Ame tells me I’m a designer at heart, but nobody wants just an “idea man.” Sometimes I advertise myself as a “jack of all trades,” and keep to myself the rest of the phrase: “master of none.”  I fully expect the more intelligent people to whom I give that line to breathe in what I say and internally mumble my own omission in unison.

Perhaps I need a new slogan that still says, “hey this guy can do an awful lot of things pretty damn well. He can put out fires, and even build water towers.” A horrible analogy, but hey, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here.

So that’s me talking about the app, and around the app, but like I said, I wish I could go into more detail about what the app actually is. More on the snag though: it’s like I don’t know how to think about the problem at hand. The least bad solution I can come up with is to put the problem aside and keep working on the things I do know how to solve. That thought keeps me less discouraged, and that may just be the pick-me-up I need to continue. Something else encouraging is I have a couple friends that know how to think like I need to think, and they’re quite approachable, even if they have to dumb things down to my level.

When I fret about the fact I can’t solve a problem, especially an important one (not just struggling with a particularly difficult Sudoku), I question my whole ability as a human to function in society. In some ways I need to chill out and relax, but I take so few things seriously, that I fear my entire motivation to do anything would collapse. I get so caught up in the problem though, that I get cranky and depressed, worst of all distracted and inattentive - and that’s never a good thing, especially when it negatively effects into other areas of life.

By the time this post goes live, hopefully I’ll be back in the swing of things, and banging away on the project.

I’ve made a convert out of Jason. Ever since he learned of my own public journal here, he devoured just about every post I’ve got, commented on a few, and felt hungry for more blog. I pointed him over to wordpress.com, and now he’s got his own corner on the Internet.

Jason’s a co-worker here and we regularly chat about this and that, many times worth discussing with the wide world. So go check it out, already! It’s also over on the list of links on the side for your consumption later.

Regarding the hard and fast DTV Transition today, /.user ObsessiveMathsFreak had this to say:

REPENT! Repent ye geeky sinners! For the end of days is upon ye!

Lo! As it is written, there shall befall a great and terrible calamity upon all the kin of the nerdy, and their most precious gadgets and devices shall be laid low by the machinations of the wicked! And they shall lament, and make agitated phone calls even in the early hours of the late morning!

And there shall be a great moaning as the geeky rise to diagnose the woes of their parents and uncles and aunts and cousins and neighbors and co-workers and friends and even children! Naught will your warnings save you as the wretched shall pay no need. And ye shall be swamped with piteous wails and whinges as the masses of humanity beat down thy doors and fill up they inboxes with useless protestations and opinions and heed not thy councils.

Thou shalt spend thy last days overseeing the procurement and installation of countless digital devices. Yea, in peoples very living rooms! And thou shalt be condemned to maintain and provide unpaid support for each and every one of these cheap and buggy imports till the end of thy unhappy life.

Repent geeky sinners! Give up thy sinful social ways and cast off thy connections to society, like the mathematicians and programmers of old! Give up thy internet and telephone connections and families and social life! Give up and repent, lest ye be danmed! REPENT!

Unapologetically stolen without permission from here in this discussion. Misspellings included!