Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Busy Busy Busy

It has been quite hectic the past couple weeks. In fact, I wouldn't have had time to write this had I not been waiting for an email. I will start my second project with VALID next week on Monday and I can't wait. I am actually working on a mock-up on and off tonight and will work on it more tomorrow so I can have something to show them on Friday, as well as finishing the last bit of the project I am on now, which should be done by Friday.

I fixed my computer desk chair tonight. Used some duct tape and a guitar strap to fix the back of the chair so that it is upright now and _very_ comfortable. I also put together the computer desk Nigel got me for my birthday/christmas present. I have actually done quite a bit today.

I know most of you probably wouldn't care, but the ClamAV Live CD got over a hundred downloads this month, which rocks. Also, I need a watch.

It is just Geppy and I in the apartment now.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Things I learned entirely too late

1. What the "Mile High Club" meant.
2. That "twat" and "twit" are not the same thing.
3. Girls do not find movies like "Revenge Of The Nerds" romantic.
4. Girls do not find movies like "Dead Alive" romantic.
5. Girls do not find any good movies romantic.
6. There is a reason they are allowed to sell cooking wine to minors.
7. Quoting movies around people that have no idea what you are talking about just makes everyone else awkward.
8. Just because I would or did do it probably means I am the only one that would or did do it.
9. I should not consider myself normal by any means.
10. No matter how much I tell myself otherwise, running Linux does not mean I will pick up more women.

Monday, February 18, 2008

I think too much

I guess some could say it is a mixed blessing, but I think way too much about everything. Not that it slows me down in life really, but I am sure it gets annoying (or creepy?) for someone to be talking to me, and I am staring into space (generally something like the ceiling or something). On mornings that I wake up earlier than usual, I will just lay in bed, stare at the ceiling, and just think about things. A lot of times, I am not exactly sure what I am thinking about, which sounds crazy, but if you ask me what I was thinking about, I will probably just say nothing because I can't answer the question truthfully. Either that, or ninjas. I was thinking about ninjas.

Anyway, it can get in the way of personal things and make them quite difficult and sometimes a bit embarrassing, but I can get over those pretty easily as long as I realise what I did wrong in the past.

I guess what I am asking is, how do you not think as much, or stop your self from thinking about stuff?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

My workspace setup

I have gotten my laptop as efficient as I can. I have no internet distractions outside of email (no AIM, Yahoo!, IRC, etc...). I have a Windows VM running in seamless mode on one virtual desktop and email, epiphany, etc... on the other. Inside the VM, I have a network drive pointing to my home dir on the host OS (Ubuntu), so any data that I need and can't get to from Windows, I can get to it on Ubuntu, stick it in my home folder, then grab it in windows.

It just works.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

I demand it!

Why are there no Quake 3 Zombie mods? You would think that would be the one of the highest demanded mods, especially since the Quake 3 engine is GPL'ed. The Quake 3 engine would probably spit out some amazing zombie mods. I would love to write one, but the most OpenGL I have ever done is spinny things on a pictured background. I demand someone make one, now.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

What if....

I have an uncanny ability to memorize the most random things in the world. Richard says that I can name 5 random facts about any movie and list everyone that was in it, as well as the crew that helped film it. This is obviously a stretch on things, but I do know a lot of pretty useless stuff. I am not sure why, but after I read an IMDB article on a movie or actor/actress, it just sticks. This works with anything I read, but for some reason, trivia like that tends to be much more prominent than the mating seasons of the Peruvian Seahorse or something. I have covered this before in an earlier post, but tonight we were watching I, Robot and, of course, I am just saying random facts throughout the movie. I really wish I could pinpoint what allows me to do this, it would be really interesting to see why I can do this type of thing and other can't.

I think one of the reasons (I don't know I have this, but it seems logical) might be a larger prefrontal cortex. Pathological liars generally have a larger prefrontal cortex as it aids in a longer "storage" of short-term memory. The only problem with this is I have a horrible short-term memory. And, yes, I read that in a book in Mrs. Shipley's class.

Anyway, not sure if anyone would be able to help me figure this out, but if you know of any articles or books on it, please suggest them.

EDIT: My dad also has this, so it is quite possibly genetic.

Friday, February 8, 2008

If words were wisdom, I'd be talking even more

I start programming for VALID Systems next week. Rock. ASP.NET/C#

Part time, more contract than anything. Can't wait to see what my first project is.

The interviews must have gone better than I had previously thought because Mr. DeGray said they really liked me. I didn't actually know I was talking to the CIO of the company until he gave me his card, and even then I didn't make the connection. I am playing some REM now really loud in celebration.

I have to work tomorrow. Suck. But after that, some rockin' movie time at UTA for the rest of the weekend. Rock.


50 points to who ever can tell me who sang the title to this post.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

I can't believe I said that...

I went to what I thought was a "meet and greet" type thing at Trent DeGray's father's work, since he recommended that they take a look at me for some of there projects. It turns out it was more an interview, which I guess makes sense in hindsight, but the thought didn't cross my mind until it was happening, not that it is a bad thing.

I am pretty sure I made a good impression on the first two guys I talked to, as well as the big boss there...except for one thing that I said which probably made me look like a complete idiot. He was asking me questions about how I would implement such and such. I don't know why I thought this, or why I didn't catch it, maybe I was a bit nervous after realising that this was an interview, I don't know. He asked me a question about "many-to-many" databases, I thought he was saying "mini-to-mini". I figured this was some inside term that they use for bank transactions that had slipped out or something, so I look at him and "I am sorry, 'mini-to-mini'?". So he starts describing "one database with rules, one with locations". I am pretty sure I answered the question right, without realising he was saying "many-to-many". I was at my apartment when I realised what he was saying, so I emailed Trent's dad and explained what had happened, hoping to gain a little bit more dignity out of that question. We will see what happens...

By the way, I hate Texas for this exact reason. I wonder how many people have not been hired because of mistakes like this...

Monday, February 4, 2008

I am bored of many things...

Does anyone know if Debian comes with the Chlorophyll theme? I will be reloading my laptop sometime this week with Debian and am hoping that Chlorophyll will be there. If not, does anyone know where I can get the Chlorophyll theme? I checked art.gnome.org, but to no avail. Perhaps Fedora...

I read a very good article on identifying good programmers a bit ago. I suggest anyone who enjoys the Tech industry read it, it is fairly universal.

I am having trouble deciding what my next project will be. I have quite a few ideas, but time is a bit limited and I don't want them to interfere with work. I was writing an intranet for work that would have been it, but that fell through when the guys at work changed their minds. I might keep working on it, get some more PHP experience under my belt, or perhaps take the PHP I have written, port it to C#, and do a Mono-powered intranet.

Birthday was a blast, met some really nice people I hadn't met before. This weekend they are having a movie-weekend type thing that I can't wait to go to.