I’d just like to not thank the person who did this to my car and did not leave a note or tell the manager at the apartment complex where it was parked.
Don’t be that person. Take responsibility. Especially if you are driving a company vehicle near a construction site.
The trunk won’t open. I’m so sad. This was going to be a good car for my daughter, a single mom.
After a long break, I am working on the novel* again.
Apparently I have a tendency to “tell”, not “show”, so I’m trying to remedy that with some actual scenes that attempt to show what the characters are thinking and/or doing.
It’s like I’ve written a nice plot summary for certain portions of the novel and now I have to figure out how it all happened.
Because when they go to make the movie, it will be a lot more interesting to have the characters acting than have a narrator telling you what they did. Right? Right.
Niagara River
* The novel I am working on is “Bridge Over Easy”, the last NaNoWriMo novel that I ‘finished’ by the deadline. It clearly needs a lot of work, but I’m pretty fond of it. It is not the only novel I ‘finished’, nor is it the only one I’m fond of.
I learned that English is important. I learned that reading is part of life.
My mother is the kind of person who doesn’t get stressed out, mostly. I’ve needed this to balance out my tendency toward high stress, which I’m sure comes from my father.
I learned that it is important to have hobbies and friends that you can count on. I learned more about button collecting than I ever thought possible.
I learned to cook, do laundry, and other chores.
I learned about three meals a day, always having a vegetable and a meat for dinner, and rarely having super sweet sugary cereals.
I learned that it is possible to get through losing a spouse. I learned that you have to be yourself and do what you like to do so you can be happy.
I learned that Mom was more than just a mother, and I’ve loved getting to know her as an adult.
Here’s another geeky favorite:
The author says xkcd is “just a word with no phonetic pronunciation”. Don’t worry about it. It’s a webcomic that makes you think, laugh, groan, and wonder.
Enjoy!
It was because of my father that I eventually became a software engineer. I learned Basic, and how to use a modem, when most kids were just playing games on their Atari systems.
We never had Atari. We didn’t have a normal TV. We had a Heathkit. I learned that it was okay to build things and make things and not have what everybody else had. I’m so good at putting together IKEA stuff.
I learned how to drive . He took us to parking lots and put empty cups out for us to drive over and around, to learn where our car and tires were. He was a very patient teacher. I learned to be calm when teaching someone else how to drive.
I learned how to feel special. I’m pretty sure each of us kids felt special, and my dad had figured out some trick that worked for all of us.
I learned how to cook in a wok, catch a fish, and water ski.
I learned not to take things for granted, because he died young, and you never know how things will work out.
“The things I fear the most have already happened.”
– Deepak Chopra
Our tree broke in high winds a while ago, and now that part is dying.
Every week or so we get new pieces of the tree on the lawn, usually branches about five feet long or longer, and the leaves have been coming off.
When I decided to go back to school, there were only a couple of colleges that were near enough that I was interested in them.
I decided to visit both schools to check out the Computer Science departments and meet the professors.
The first one I visited was less than ideal. The computer science classrooms were in buildings that reminded me of cheap mobile homes.
Still, I was willing to see what the staff was like. Sometimes that can make the difference.
“C++ is very difficult, very difficult,” said the professor. I remember it like that, the way he repeated it to emphasize that this was possibly the worst language I could choose to study.
Whatever.
Advice for professors who are looking for students who are passionate about programming: don’t discourage them.
I went to the other school. The professor there didn’t doubt for a minute that I could master C++. I was one of the top students and graduated Magna cum Laude.
When I get one of these little eggplants, I really like to make something where I can taste it, so I don’t always want to fry it up in thin slices. Plus I don’t seem to have any parmesan cheese.
I thought I’d try something new this time and roast it in the oven.
Oil your baking pan and put your eggplant on it. Put it into the oven with the broiler on.
Ideally, this should go about 10 or 15 minutes, turning it every few minutes, but in reality you pull it out when the smoke alarm goes off.
Open the window and turn on the fan. You could start with a fan on in the first place, clever readers, that would probably be a good idea.
By then, it should be pretty far along, so you should be able to peel the skin off and cut up the eggplant into chunks.
Put the eggplant in a small baking dish.
Chop up the tomato, grate the cheese, and add them to the eggplant. Change your oven to the Bake setting and set it at about 375.
Put the tomato sauce over the top and add spices to taste.
Bake this in the oven until the cheese is melted. It’s like a mini casserole.
The Daily WTF is “your how-not-to guide for developing software”.
This is one of those opportunities to learn what the right way is by seeing examples of what others have done wrong.
You’ll cringe. You’ll laugh. You’ll rage. You’ll find something familiar.
You will try to protect your legacy by never making these mistakes.
