You may hate me now.

[da]

I can't wait to go in to work tomorrow. The stuff I'm working on is awesome. On Thursday I met with $boss for our second weekly meeting, which made me quite happy. He asked excellent questions, and we determined that my original task was actually subsidiary to a bigger task, which might make things much easier- and lo, I'm seeing about rewriting our (much maligned) inventory front-end. Rubber, meet road! I just need to get myself a decent PHP book, because I'm tired of learning PHP by experimentation. (Is there a standard dead-tree book everyone uses? Just curious.)

And on Friday, I spent a good chunk of the day essentially exit-interviewing a staff member who has been using this same inventory system for the last many years; I didn't expect our discussion to take two hours, but he had that many suggestions about things that would make the job easier (in the end, he suggested I might be automating him out of a job, which I had been thinking was the case, but that's not out of line what the facility wants to do as well). I spent some time transcribing notes and prioritizing changes, all 95 of them. Look at me! I'm a requirements engineer!

Dinner tonight was lobster, cooked by melted_snowball for his mom and for me. It was so good. And dawn_guy and catbear brought by a sugar pie that was so sweet I think I'm still on a sugar high. Hope I can sleep tonight. ;)

Comments

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

MAKES:10 Servings.
This version of butter tarts (a Canadian speciality) is easier to prepare than the traditional individual tarts. It is very rich and best served in small pieces.

Consider the minions of the evil empire willing to put in effort to help your back end join the collective. If you need clarification on anything or an API change, it can be done. Heck, with a guarantee of your users being authenticated and data checked for errors, I could give you your own side door into our database.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

"best served in small pieces."

They've got that right.

Things have gotten a bit more interesting around here. The dark side has had a bit of a coup, a new manager of telecommunications services... who also holds title as my boss, at least for the next three weeks.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

I'd figured J would be the man if the powers decided they really wanted an internal candidate. It makes life more interesting over here, too, as it opens a door in somebody's glass ceiling and might push some deadlines around.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I bet lots of things move around when you put a door in a ceiling. (Which is linked in my head to an ad for running shoes, though their ad failed in that I wouldn't be able to tell you what brand until I re-watched it).

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

Is there a standard dead-tree book everyone uses? Just curious.

I do most of my work in PHP these days, and have yet to bother to buy a book. The comments on the online docs are useful often enough that I just use that. And whatever I can't immediately do otherwise in PHP, I do using the preg_* functions :)

I do miss Perl, though.

[sulle-stelle.livejournal.com]

I've always found the "animal" books (O'Reilly) to be good, but I've never looked at the php ones. Looks like there are several.

[beartalon.livejournal.com]

I have two PHP books that I'm not using right now. One is PHO and MySQL for Dummies, and the other is one of the "animal" books. I have no idea how good they are, because I never started the project i bought them for. You are free to borrow them, just tell me where to deliver.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer. Can you check the copyright date and title on the animal book? If it turns out to cover php4 or php5, that could be handy.

[driftingfocus.livejournal.com]

Hi there. I found you through the quakers community, and I took a look at your journal, and you seem rather interesting! Any chance of being LJ friends? If you want to get a feel for me, my profile is a good place to start.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Hi! just friended you back. I'm rushing around a bit, but it looks like you're rushing around even more. (when do you leave for Korea?)

[driftingfocus.livejournal.com]

I leave next Wednesday, for a tiny little island on the tip of South Korea. I'm supposedly going to be one of only 4-5 English speakers on the entire island (which has a spread-out population of about 45,000). Should be quite an experience, especially considering I speak basically no Korean! But, hey, that's why I was trained to teach people English even though I don't speak their own language.

I've read more of your journal since I first posted this comment, and I have to say that you really do seem like a neat period, and you have a good writing style. Just thought I'd tell you. :)

I friended you on my general list, but I also have two opt-in filters, so let me know if you want to be on either of them. One is for topics regarding sex, both personal and academic, and the other is for my posts in French, German, and Swiss German. I also have a second journal which I use for writing about more personal things, relationship-squeeage, etc, so let me know if you want to be added to it as well. I rarely post to it, and it's only separate because I like to know that the people who read it actually are reading it and not just skimming it, but it often gives a bit more insight into various things.

Anyway. Hi! Glad to have you onboard.