Blustery Day

It is blustery and cold and it snowed last night. All very exciting for a temperate marine climate like ours. We've had more snow events this year than in the last ten that I've lived here. Two years ago there was one big snow event. The kids loved it. It hit the day after they returned from Christmas break and kept them out of school the entire rest of the week. I think we had 8" of snow or something. Hampton Roads was paralized. It just wasn't ready for it. They've gotten much better about the whole thing now.

In any event, today is a holiday for me, this was supposed to be a snow-make-up-day but school is closed because of the snow and dangerous roads. The irony is almost too perfect to contemplate. I'm sure the administration is steaming mad. I wouldn't give two cents for it at all if I didn't have 75% of my immediate family dependent on whether the schools were open or not. Two teenagers, and Kent teaches high school.

The alarm went clicked on at 5:30 this morning. Bomp Bomp Bomp, went Blue Man Group, and my first two thoughts were:
1. Gotta change that CD, it's been out wake-up music for six months.
2. Gee, wonder if NPS finally posted a "school closed" notice.

Didn't change the cd. NPS did post. Kent asks: Do you really want to get up now? I answer: sure, why not. I make a pot of coffee. I can get ahead in my homework. It's all Access2002 anyway, it's a no-brainer. If I don't get an A in this class I will realy have been lazy. More than lazy. But it's quiet, I can listen to streaming WRHV, one of the local NPR stations, and do homework.

Problem with a new computer....

...Is all the software you have to RELOAD. And all the software you realize, Oh, Shit, I didn't actually PAY for that...d'oh! Like WinZip. $29. Easy. So off I go with my little blue and silver check card in hand from site to site making sure that I'm a REAL, LEGAL software owner.

Yes, I'm a reformed, recovering leech. Mostly. Ok, pirate. Whatever. I don't have a parrot on my shoulder and you'd be surprised at just how many average middle class Americans have "pirated" their friend's copy of, oh, Adobe Photoshop for instance.

I reformed when I realized that I was getting bitchy about MY creative property but didn't give two snaps for Adobe or Microsofts software. This was about....oh....two years ago. But I'm not perfect. I speed. I tell white lies occasionally if it will get me that extra 10% discount (Why yes, I'm a senior citizen - NOT!)

Let's face it, though, the really dedicated pirates do it because
(a) they can
(b) they can proove that they can
(c) they can't stand Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia, Sierra, Sony, and whomever else for actually, gasp, charging what the market will bare for a piece of very good programming effort.

Hello? Did it ever occur to anyone that programming is HARD WORK?

Actually, it's a piece of cake. What isn't easy is debugging that slick code you thought you wrote. Been there. It's like a little detective journey which some people (me) like and which others (K) steer clear of at all costs.

To My Valentines

Happy Valentines Day
to my friends,
my family,
my kids,
and,
especially,
Kent.

Wow, Vaio, Wow

I bought a Vaio this week. Wow. This has got to be the best laptop I've ever used. The best computer I've ever used. I'm a walking talking advertisement for Sony Vaio. Go. Run and get one. Now. You won't be sorry. It's a GRX670, which is a recently discontinued model but who cares, it's still faster than the P3 that the boys have completely taken over. Funny, it's a lot like a MAC. Or wait, is that the XP Operating System? Hm.....

Actually, XP is much nicer than it has any right to be, and I'm surprised I like it so much. Microsoft finally got plug-n-play right and mostly handles it in the background.

The sound and video cards on this machine are to die for. Beautiful sound on my headphones which aren't the greatest. SonicStage is a neat little piece of software. Not enough visualizations.

Moving right along. Starbucks recently opened a store located on the route I take to work. Hee hee. 8:30 every morning finds me getting my venti Breakfast Blend with extra room for cream. Nya Nya Nya.

I feel overwhelmed at work and in school right now. Work has me on the merger technology transition team. I'm taking on more responsibility than I'm used to and it's kinda scary. I talked to my boss about it and of course he is more than willing to mentor me along. That's good, too, because I need it. My challenge is that I'm barely keeping up with both the transition activities, my regular stuff (like one-on-ones with my directs, taking care of escalations, managing processes), and the application I support and maintain and program and tweak.