July 2002

saran-warped world of code

Given that mySQL and I have decided that we are each equally stupid (link), maybe I should stop both coding and talking about coding and do something else for a change.

Self, to Brad: Oh yeah, massive ugly brain death today. I can't even get stuff that WORKS on the command line to work in PHP. So much for my soaring glorious code-fu of yesterday.

Brad, to self: My troubleshooting suggestion: go read a book or watch a movie. Or pet your cats. :)

Must you all be so obnoxiously right all the time? It's really annoying…

I had two code-related goals today: get the database-backup page working properly and set up the edit-yourself page so that when you change your own password, an email is automatically fired out to the address on record.

all tags: 
coding
movies

Composition, composure: hurricane's eye

Two-forty-five. A raging case of insomnia if there ever was one, and oh, what a night to have it. The soothing cup of tea and my most recent read were both finished two hours ago. The ink that's flowed out of my pen for the last thirty minutes has formed itself into words centering mostly around the idea of 'forgiveness.'

After finishing up on code work for the night, I did something silly. Utterly stupid, in fact. Something that I know better than to do, and yet I did it anyway: I looked at the sites for other bits of journaling software.

all tags: 
anger
cancer diary
insomnia
forgiveness

Mini-tutorial: 'I've got this little site...'

While I'm working on finishing up Quarto's admin interface, I thought I'd toss out this unfinished little mini-tutorial and let the world throw some commentary its way.

For lack of a real title, I've called it "I've Got This Little Site…"—it's supposed to be geared toward the casual website creator who is thinking about putting a bit more effort into their site. It's four pages of snips and tidbits and things I've learned along the way.

all tags: 
coding

grocery gunslingers

We stared down the aisle of jarred spaghetti sauces. "Well, if you don't mind my asking, what does squashing insects have to do with whether or not you cook dinner?" We exchanged looks—I, the look of blinding obviousness; he, the look of complete confusion—for a few moments before comprehension dawned.

"Oh. You mean squashing bugs in code. Ok, I get you now."

all tags: 
marriage
shopping
tennis

Four pigs' worth of ribs

Friday afternoon.
Amy, to Jeff: "I think I'll do ribs tomorrow night, since Gareth is flying back in."
Saturday morning.
Amy, to Jeff: "Hey, Tim said he was free on Saturday. Want to give him a call?"
all tags: 
food
friends
quotes
cooking

Many Tentacles Pimping on the Keys

In the living room, Gareth works on code and listens to David Gray. In the computer room, I switch back and forth between working on code and working on this post, hoping that no one is noticing that I've been gradually notching up the volume on the techno every few minutes.

The walls just need to shake a little bit. A little bit of shake and the code shall flow forth.

all tags: 
coding
friends
news
incredulity

This is your brain on mySQL

Well, it would be, if I had one left. Really. Last I saw of it, it was marching out the door with a suitcase and a beer, muttering an obscenity-laden set of phrases that sounded like "See you later!" and taking my code with it. That was after the cats napped on it for an hour or two this morning.

It was, apparently, squishy and warm. The cats like that.

all tags: 
quarto
coding
knitting

A cat and her hat...

(Apologies to everyone who knows how to pronounce 'New Orleans' correctly, including myself.)

Heather and Jess:

Oh, domesticat,
you should have seen
this knitting shop
in New Orleans!

We saw the yarn
and thought of you.
You love to knit
(and crochet too)

So…

We bought you just a little bit.
We thought you'd have such fun with it.

This single skein
was Japanese
(and cost a lot,
forgive us please

all tags: 
photos
knitting
hat

Weaving in the ends

My grandmother never expected me to stick with yarn work. When I asked her to teach me, I think she was surprised, and even moreso that I persevered and became good at it. Later, I added knitting to my repertoire, but was never able to master the art of tatting (using carefully-crafted knots to create delicate lace).

all tags: 
arkansas
yarn
knitting

Hello, Aphrodite

10:13 a.m., Eastern time. If anyone else is awake in the house, this would be the first I'd know about it.

As I grow older, I find myself generally incapable of sleeping late in my own house and completely incapable of sleeping in at other people's houses. At least last night I had the presence of mind to grab one of Suzan's books to take with me, so that I could stay in this room after waking up, entertain myself, and not have to tiptoe into the living room to find something to read.

all tags: 
cats
trips
atlanta

Lacework

We all have holes in our psyche to fill, you see. Holes that sometimes we talk about, and holes that sometimes announce their presence because we can't (or won't) bear to mention them. Sometimes, given the fortuitous combination of personality and circumstance, another person comes along. Another person with holes in their life. Given the right time of day and phase of the moon (or kindly guiding force, depending on how your world works) their emptiness lines up with yours.Sometimes the holes of one cancel out the holes of another, forming a stronger fabric.

all tags: 
philosophy
memories
movies
personality

solitude

In the past two weeks I've migrated from "having a cup of tea in the evening when Gareth makes it" to "time for my evening cup of tea."

"The house is quiet," I said when Jeff called this afternoon."Well, it wasn't as if it wasn't quiet before. Gareth probably wasn't making a lot of noise while he was here. But I know what you mean." Over the line, I could hear the smile. Stay married long enough and you start to automatically translate what your partner said into what they actually meant to say.

By my watch, Gareth is probably home now, or close to it. The typical mammalian brain, even when saddled with a working understanding of the vagaries of air travel, sometimes has trouble grasping that the damp towel left in the bathroom this morning was left by someone who went halfway across the world today.

all tags: 
tea

Wobble, wobble

Few things are more difficult or more tiresome than trying to come up with something halfway interesting to say on a Friday night when you're tired, quite possibly coming down with a bit of a cold, have nursed the beginning twinges of a headache for several hours, and can't think of anything else better to say than "Hey, I made chicken stock tonight."

Yes. That's it. That's the full extent of it: another two figures accomplished on Kat's scarf (each figure is approximately four inches long) and a nagging, throbbing pain centered square in my forehead, like a third eye. The good news is that the chicken stock, given time to cool and solidify, will be strong enough to stand up under its own power and … well … do whatever chicken stock does whenever it's strong enough to stand up under its own power.

all tags: 
cooking
knitting

Your forecast

"Isolated showers around the area will die a slow death overnight as lows fall to the lower 70s with patchy dense fog developing in areas that recieved rainfall. Expect more isolated showers and thunderstorms on Monday again with highs in the low 90 s. Hope for some rain it will cool temperatures off and create a nice breeze. About midweek it looks a tad drier with temperatures slipping into the upper 80s and low 90s."

all tags: 
fiction
weather
television
extemporaneous
south
idiocy

Code dreams

Ahab had his whale.
Quixote had his windmills.
I have a content management system.
But I will finish mine. 

A year ago, this was a quixotic task; something to be talked about in the realm of what-if with Jeff on a trip to Birmingham.  A movie—one or another—after all, we see many.

"What if," he said, after listening to me go on for quite some time, "you wrote something yourself?  Have you given that any thought?"

all tags: 
quarto
coding
movies
planning

Can't fix this. Might as well fix dinner.

At four p.m. on Monday afternoon, I lost my mind.

Standing in the laundry room with a pile of temporarily-dirty clothes, with a cat twining between my feet and a half-finished song lyric bubbling through my vocal chords, I was completely unprepared for anything out of the ordinary.

BANG!After gravity reasserted its hold on my feet, the Panic List took over my mind. OhmyGod…burglars-gunshots-mutant-furry-cockroaches-in-the-garage-ohmyGod-ohmyGod-hiiiiiiiiiiiide!

Tenzing continued to twine himself around my feet, purring. We like to joke about how they wake up in a new world every thirty seconds or so, but it was so plainly obvious that he'd already forgotten that the noise even happened.

all tags: 
cats
silly
laundry

Arrival

Today, arriving in an airport an hour and a half south of me: Monica, for a visit that's been in the making for several years now.

It becomes difficult to explain a friendship when you realize that you can barely remember why you became friends in the first place. A quick bit of mathematics tells me that we were off just a bit when we did some phone calculations the other day; we were fourteen when we met. She might have been fifteen. She had the neatest handwriting I'd ever seen, had far curlier hair than I did, and she knew the worst puns in the world. Loved them. Gloried in them. (All these years later, I still remember the punchline "Kicks are for Trids!" even though I cannot remember the joke itself.)

all tags: 
arkansas
memories
friends

Potential future silences

Lately, the constant struggle between the need for privacy and the need for release through writing has been tilted strongly toward the "need for privacy" end of the spectrum. The end result: sporadic entries, many about Quarto, and relatively few about the actual events taking place in my life.

all tags: 
privacy