Hooray for Birthdays. For some reason I always expect them to be special in some way, but really, it’s just a day. Still, this was a good one, more or less.
The Lord of the Rings exhibit was spectacular; the films barely do justice to the quality and intricacy of the costuming and weaponry. I spent far too much time gawking at Theoden’s armor. Every major character’s costumes and accessories were on display, as well as models, drawings, and miniatures. The One Ring had its own darkened room where it lay suspended in some mysterious liquid.
I was asked today if I’ve been out of the posting spirit lately, in reference to my sporadic updating over the past fortnight. In a sense I have, as the particular flavor of busy I’ve been has lent itself to total concentration on one thing. That thing was, sadly, not writing, or eating, or sleeping. I’ve been living with blinders on, and I had to do it to get the job done. I envy those who can multitask really well, those who are able enter into this sort of deep focus and just as easily get out of it.
So I’m slowly working my way out of mono-land, and getting back to the mindset where I’m constantly distracted. It’s hard to smell (and post about) the flowers if you don’t notice them. Still, I’ll take how I’ve been recently over the overpowering blackness of last year.
My 29th birthday is on Saturday, and I plan by to celebrate by hanging up my code hat about noon tomorrow and living the dream of the weekend bohemian. The Lord of the Rings exhibit is this weekend, so after paying my respects we’ll go scrounge up some sort of incredible food and enough alcohol to get me intent on the nuances of the Magna Carta.
It was a beautiful day, and I was delighted to able to enjoy it. I worked human hours today, taking some time to take everything off the back burner and get my head together for the coming month or so. After about three solid weeks of mono-thinking, it’s back to juggling between projects; I welcome the change.
Having my horn here at the ready is pleasing me more than I imagined it would.
Well, the launch on Friday went off. The heat’s not totally off, as the next week or two are bound to have their incidents, but the days of working 17 hour days are hopefully over for a good long while. It’s nice to do now and then, just to remind one how bad it can get, and that one can rise to the occasion.
If you’re wondering what I’ve been up to, I can show you the tip of the iceberg. The Tinctoris Store is online and ready for orders. It’s an example of a retail store that can be put together by a non tech-savvy user; under the covers it has a WYSIWYG interface, and under that, well, tens of thousands lines of code. I get a wee portion of every sale, so if you’re feeling hungry, buy on; I won’t stop you. And yes, the chocolate is absolutely fantastic. I wouldn’t work for a company that sold bad chocolate.
Yesterday, after a lot of well-deserved sleep, we drove down to Pier1 to pick up a new bookshelf. Unfortunately, it was too long for the car and we ended up carrying it home, about a mile and a half. Good for the muscles!
I also played the first note on a french horn in over four years. It could have been worse.
I’ve been a wee bit busy this week, and I apologize for falling off the face of the earth. The end is in sight, and the work is paying off. I, for one, am looking forward to not dreaming about data structures for a few days.
In a pinch, Tinderbox has come through as a worthy task management system; I don’t think I’d be sane without it. My organizer document keeps track of the hundreds of loose ends, and it allows me to spend me more time coding and just the right amount of time documenting.
I briefly had the opportunity to play with Booxter yesterday, and was very impressed. If only it would export as XML (everything should export as XML; it would make the world a better place).
Okay, back to work.
I’ve given myself a serious case of emacs pinky.
I finished An Intelligent Person’s Guide To The Classics during the trip to Oregon, but haven’t managed to find time to discuss it as of yet, and that’s a shame.
My least favorite part of the book is the title, which seems to suggest that the reader becomes a bit more brilliant by merely owning the book. It is, however, accurate, in that there’s very little reader coddling in what proposes to be an introduction to the wonders of the Classical world via a series of essays on culture, politics grammar, gender relations, and so forth. An appendix blissfully explains not just that Caesar said “Weeny Weedy Weeky,” but why we know this (it’s worth reading for the Appendices alone; Appendix 2, “The Rationale for Classics in Schools,” is brilliant).
Does it serve its purpose as an introduction? It’s impossible for me to say, as I’ve had more than a few classics courses, and was familiar with most of the topics beforehand. I can say that I learned a great deal, and was entertained by the anecdotes and examples peppered throughout the book.
To its great credit, it did such a good job explaining Classical architecture, columns, architraves and all, that even I understood it. Intelligent indeed.
The work project enters its final week, and things are really heating up. I think we’re going to pull it off, and we might not even have to have a soul-breaking Kyrathon to do it.
I took a sanity break last night to enjoy the manic 4th season of Red Dwarf. In particular I enjoyed episode featuring a planet of animated wax dummies gone horribly wrong. Watching Elvis, Gandhi, Pythagorus, and Einstein armed with machine guns charing toward Caligula, Hilter and Rasputin was more fun than ought to be allowed by law.
Speaking of law, little Mitsubishi passed the Massachusetts vehicle inspection, thanks to a bit of time with the mechanics, and is ready to transport us to and fro. I am a bit surprised that they passed the horn; it sounds like the resigned sigh of a bitter old man, triggering more ennui than alarm.
We celebrated with french (freedom) onion soup, crepes, wine, and Gigi.
I’ve chained myself to the computer and will be coding as furiously as sanity allows for the next week or two.
On the way to dinner, as we ambled through the Boston Common and public garden, we heard a young boy rapidly hollering “I Iove you Nork!” over and over again.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on. He was trying to tempt the fates by yelling “I love New York” in public on a Red Sox game day, but was apparently nervous, and as such was swapping syllables. Bad for NYC, but good for the unloved Norks of the world.
There was a bit of a problem with the comments system, namely that submitted comments were logged, but not mailed to me, and hence never entered. I went through the log and rectified things, so all gems of wisdom are in their proper place.
