Kids are the reasons I still remain focused in this physical realm.
I love them dearly.
And Christmas is mostly for them.
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And some days I could kill them.
I have no idea how moms do not end up crazy, alcoholic, and bitches. Really. no.idea.
And I love my kids.
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Now that I’ve written this, I remember saying the same thing to myself last Christmas.
So, here I sit, in a chair, at a desk, that I haven’t occupied for a couple of months.
It is comfortable, but it isn’t home anymore.
I am *eagerly* anticipating moving into my new home. I’m going to get my address changed, I’m going to decide the furniture, the smells, the temperature, the decor (for the most part). I will have an environment that I can spread out into. I’ve always shared space with someone else. Even with the new home, I’m going to be sharing a building with someone else because it is a town house. But it will be better than anything I’ve ever had. Some day, I’m going to have a home where all of the space is filled only by me. If only for even a little while, my energy will have full expansion. I’m really looking forward to that.
It is a bit chilly up here. It is unoccupied, so it doesn’t get much heat. It is the first house I remember, but I don’t have any mushy feelings about leaving it behind. It is time for me to go. I’ve got so much to do in my life and I can’t stay here and do it. So I have to let this go. I’m attached, but not to the extent that it will keep me here. I’ve got to let this place go. Love it as much as I do, I’ve got to go.
This is going to be a week with friends, family, and memories. Next Christmas will be different. (Technically, each Christmas is different, but that’s a metaphysical point. set aside) So I will be saying hi and bye to so many people and things. Some I will never share energy with again. Not here and not like this. I may never sit in this chair, at this desk, looking out this window ever again.
And I’m ok with that.
This really bums me out.
In February, Yahoo! is going to switch their music streaming site over to CBS. I love Yahoo’s LaunchCast and listen to all kinds of music on it every day. For at least 12 hours a day, I have it playing. I’ve paid the $3 per month for years now. The *best* feature is the unlimited skip. I can skip as many songs as I want. And sometimes, I would skip 10 songs in a row. That is going away. The note said that under CBS’ “ad supported” system, listeners will be able to skip up to 5 songs in a day. That really blows. That is what Pandora does and it really sucks.
Yahoo’s note suggested Rhapsody as an alternative, but they want $13 per month and it is run by Real. That company is not one I want to do business with. Their software is invasive. Ugh. And $13 a month is a lot, meh thinks.
So, I’m *really* bummed about it. I’ve got a huge music collection that I haven’t touched in years because I’ve always had Yahoo and Launch. I guess LimeWire is going to become my best friend….. (I’ve never used it on my computer.)
Because of the random playlist of Launch and their introduction of new music, I’ve found myself really enjoying songs I would have never considered listening to. But they’ve also played songs that I dislike immediately, but they play it 5 times a day.
Another feature that is going away is “My Station”. This was a feature that allowed me to define what kind of music I wanted to hear. A customize play list. The first artist I banned was Led Zeppelin. I’ve never heard them on My Station. Now, I lose that.
(Yes, I think $1 per song is too much.)
I’ve seen that Amazon is selling songs now – no encryption either. I’ll have to start looking around.
What a bummer.
I think Congress and the RIAA’s draconian licensing rules are to blame. I might have to do something about that.
Yeah, that was me.
I didn’t mean to sound critical of him. On second reading, that’s what it sounds like to me. I meant my note as a comment that he wasn’t reaching his stated goals. I figured that some topics are entrancing and if I were not doing what I had said I’d wanted to, I’d appreciate it if someone were to nudge me. (Hence the reason I’m blogging more – people have nudged me.) So I was just passing the idea along.
I hope he takes it that way.
(I hope you’re proud, daddy.)
So, in a couple of days I will begin driving north.
And – just announced – 6 to 8 inches of snow for the “Mid-West”. (How the heck Michigan & Ohio are “Mid-West” is beyond me…)
But I am forecasting a little path of good weather along I-75 just as I am traveling. That will be nice.
I plan to bring a laptop on my trip, so I’ll try to blog, but no promises.
And I am very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends again.
Yay! I got to write code today!
It is kinda like a CPA being able to audit someone’s account.
Or a salesperson being able to go out and sell.
My first month+ of this job I have been documenting and learning. The documenting sucks. Well, and the liberals, but I won’t go there today.
But I got to do what I was hired to do – write code. That felt good. Now I wanna do more! I can’t wait for tomorrow.
(Yes, really. I love it that much.)
This is just an awesome pic right here.
I spent the weekend surveying the new place.
I took measurements and made drawings of how the rooms and hallways are.
There are several things I want to change. A couple of people have reminded me that “It is a rental”, so I shouldn’t do too much. But on the other hand, I remind them that it is my home, and I want it to be nice. I want to do things like sand down the railings to wood – right now they are primed in a nasty flat off white. The suggestion is to paint them. I don’t like the thought of how that would look. I’ll do it if the wood is crap, but if possible, I want to restore as much of the wood as I can. The same goes for the cabinet doors. Painting them may be the cheap way to make them look decent in a hurry, but I hate it. So I plan to work on the cabinet doors.  So now I’m going to hold my cards close to my chest and do what is in my head.
Also, I took pictures. Some nice outdoor pictures. The indoor ones aren’t that great. When I get them all uploaded, I’ll post a link.
I should be able to convert the internal layouts to an image, which I’ll post as well.
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Isn’t this fun?!
Wanna see what I’ve been doing for the past week?
I’ve attached a picture of someone else’s program that I am documenting. This a ‘flowchart’ of his program.
It isn’t very pretty. A good flowchart is short, clear, and mostly vertical. Everything that branches should return to the center and continue down – like it does on the left side of the image. Not this. This is something else. The light blue boxes are calls to other programs – they go do something and return.
This is actual, live code that runs every day. And – internally – the piece that I am posting here is run hundreds of times a day. It is a small piece that is inside two larger pieces. And it is ugly. u.g.l.y.
(I am documenting the code so that I can reverse engineer it and write a replacement without losing any of the functionality. This code does 90% of what we need, so I don’t want to lose any of those little ‘extras’ that long-standing programs have adapted to include. Like saying goes “I don’t like to pay for the same thing twice.”
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This is a great article about small businesses cutting back and why.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/blame_me_for_job_losses.html
