Octubre Surprise

No, no estoy muerto. Estoy estudiando. I’m chilling out. Thanks for the concern.

Man, I had such a week.

Monday I kicked ass on a Spanish test. I studied, and did well.

A little client work, but not a whole bunch, actually.

A bit of friction at the part-time gig. Communication is hard man. I don’t do as well with HR as I do with my tech co-workers.

Man, I really love building websites. even ones I’m never going to see in action, behind passwords. Even ones I’m never going to put in a portfolio of mine. It’s gratifying work. And man, I’m so happy I’ve started doing “Daily reports” at the p/t gig. What’s a “Daily Report?” Okay here goes… I worked at Jamison/Gold for several years. It was a wonderful time for me. I got to work on HTML at a time when the technology and browsers were changing and dynamic.

Part of that job was delivering, via email, a “daily report” — as I remember it, we were asked to tell the two founders and the main project manager what we had done that day, what ideas we had, what frustrations we had, what successes we had, how we worked with others, everything. In retrospect, I loved that. It was a way of venting off the frustrations of the day for me. It was a way to keep a tally of our thoughts, for the managers, it was a way to keep track of what we were up to, what ideas we had, and when we left for the day.

These days it’s a way for me to keep the promise to myself that I leave the p/t gig at work. When I walk out of there I’ve committed everything to CVS, I’ve put all my thoughts into bugzilla, and I’ve reported status to those there. If I got hit by lightning they know what I was up to. It’s so cool to go in there and listen to my Steely Dan, Ben Folds, Frank Zappa, The Cars, et. al., work like crazy. When the time’s up, I’m out of there and on to my life. Off to my studies. Off to my Leah. Off to the next part of my life. For so long my work was my life. No longer.

Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true. Web technology is a big part of how I program, interact with people, and get news. But the perspective I’m gaining lately in personal and educational areas of my life is splashing over to professional areas.

Right now Leah is working on some gifts for her kids for Christmas. It’s so cool to watch her work. Earlier she was painting. I love that woman.

I have some bad news. My sister’s cat — Ferris — died this week. Eighteen years old! My mother had to put her down. It must have been 17 years ago or so that I drew this: ferris in repose. Ferris could have had a whole blog on her own. The cat cheated death several times. Sometime maybe I’ll tell you about the time I pulled Ferris out of the engine compartment of a 1985-ish Toyota Camry.

Time marches on y’all. Sorry for the light posting. I obviously can’t promise that this blog will be up-to-date the way it once was. But suffice it to say that my life is interesting.

Take care you guys.