Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged c#
A Very Welcome Weekend
Apr 27th 2009
Last week was pretty darn crappy, so the arrival of the weekend was very welcome. A chance to catch my breath a bit and do a little relaxation (while still getting some work done) was needed.
The fun started on friday when Wassy hinted she was working on a little art related project for me. She had just gotten a set of Copic Sketch Markers and she wanted to try them out on something. So she took one of the sketches she had been working on for an upcoming piece for me (using the markers) and did a ink and marker test run with it. Of course she didn't tell me that right off the bat. Just hinted she was up to something and made me guess what it was. I'm really impressed by how it ended up looking using the markers. I'm looking forward to the full piece and to seeing more copic colored pieces in the future.
It's just really nice to have a crappy week end with a little gift artwork. I really appreciate it because she was extremely busy with her school work and other commissions, so to take that much time out of that stuff and work up something for me means an awful lot to me.
Techy paragraph time: I decided this weekend that I wanted to learn C# and .NET. I never really got around to looking at .NET seriously and C# seems to be in demand these days, so I figured it was time to update myself. If you're into software development it's really necessary to update your skillset every couple of years to keep up with the ever advancing march of technology. So I figure it's time to get on the bandwagon and check it out. Went out to the store and picked up a hefty book and I've been working my way through it pretty quickly. It's a cool language and I'm starting to see why people like using .NET so much.
In less techy news, my friends and I were going to have this braised chicken recipie and I was sent in search of the fresh vegetable type ingredients on friday evening. I had some trouble finding a chili pepper though. I've never had to go buy one, you see, and when I went to the store nothing was labled correctly. I ended up getting two peppers, neither of which ended up being the correct peppers. We had no idea what they were, so naturally, we made Jay try them out. He's got a high tolerance for spicy foods, so we figured this was the best option.
He took one bite out of the first pepper and was fine. Then one out of the second pepper and was fine again. And then…he took a second bite and dove for sink for a glass of water. It seems that this pepper was "really f'ing hot". I thought he was kidding for a second there, but then realized that his eyes were watering…oops. I do feel bad about it, but it was EXTREMELY entertaining. I need to bring more random peppers home sometime…
Overall, a very nice relaxing weekend.
Settled In? Maybe?
Apr 4th 2009
It seems like we're pretty much all settled into the new apartment. We've got some wall decorations going up now around the various areas. I need to do some more organizing in my room and in the spare bedroom/office but we've got a fully functional apartment now. I'll try to take some pictures once the wall decorations are more finalized.
It's weird. It feels like we've been living here for longer than a week. But this past week seems to have gone by very quickly as well. So…time is just all screwed up in all sorts of ways.
Last night we had a little party deal to celebrate being settled in. We broke out the Rock Band and played through Perl Jam's Ten album which was purchased for the evening. And a late night abandoned game Trivial Pursuit (we started it a bit too late and then ran out of energy about an hour in) rounded out the activities. A fun and much needed evening of relaxation.
This weekend I want to finalize my room and get some of my various art stuff hung around the apartment. I also want to get some work done on my C++ chatbot that I'm making. I finally got the basics working and now I hope to actually get it to do something resembling actual chatting soon. Hopefully this weekend. But first, the cleaning.
Long Weekend Wrapup
Feb 17th 2009
Here in the US, Monday was president's day which means that some people have a 3 day weekend. And this year for some strange reason, I was one of those people. We usually don't get president's day off (at least I can't ever remember us getting it off) so I was a bit surprised when they came up with the holiday list this year.
So my 3 day weekend started by going out to the movies with my friends. We went off to see Coraline in 3D and it was very good. Excellent visual style, engaging story and very nice use of the 3D factor. There were no old people talking like the last couple movies which was a very, very good change of pace. And it was a nice non-thinking type movie after having the brain work overtime while watching Revolutionary Road and The Reader. Highly recommended.
I also received an omelet lesson on how to make them all fluffy and good. So that should help my breakfast for dinner aspirations.
Sunday was a half relaxing half working day where I did my chores and a little bit of C++ programming and then I did some relaxing City of Heroes playing. I also spent a good portion of the day watching episodes of Firefly on DVD. Wassy mentioned Sci-fi had Serenity on the other day which made me want to watch Firefly and Serenity again. Which I did.
Monday was intended to be a programming day but instead of working on C++ stuff like I had intended, I ended up spending a good portion of the day (while watching firefly) moving Wassy's website from one host to another. It took about 2 hours longer than I expected it to take, but it ended up all going smoothly in the end. After that I was pretty much programmed out, so I just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Hoping I can get through another chapter in my C++ book this week and maybe get started on a small little project with practical applications.
Rusty
Aug 14th 2008
Personal reflection time, as well as some (limited) technical computer stuff ahead. You have been warned
A couple of recent experiences have brought into light a very simple and yet disconcerting fact about myself. I used to be able to program better than I can now. I used to be able to do complex things, come up with solutions to problems faster…all that good stuff. In the past several years since I last took a serious programming class in college, my programming skills have deteriorated through non-use to the point of being one of those things where you say you can do it, but you have to add a few "but I can't…" phrases if you're talking to somebody else.
Sure, my current job requires me to program, but in the grand scheme of things it's only using a limited amount of my abilities, and honestly it's not really experience that can be translated very well into other applications, due to the nature of the work. And I've just gone along with it and let all the other important skills nearly vanish through disuse.
It feels an awful lot like I've just been going through the motions, just doing enough in life to kinda get by. I've spent so long waiting for something interesting to happen to me that I totally forgot that I have to make that interesting thing possible in the first place. And now I want to do something about it, so I've embarked on a quest to re-learn C++. I bought myself a recent book and now I'm working through it again from start to finish, remembering things that I had lost to time.
I really hope I keep this up and don't fall back into my older ways. I miss challenging myself, trying to solve interesting problems and doing something other than just hanging around after work. I tried learning how to play the piano/keyboard/things with keys but that didn't seem to hold. I still want to keep that up…I just haven't spent enough time practicing to make any headway, which is really my fault. Anyway, I hope this doesn't turn out like that. I don't think it will. Those recent experiences have just made it clear that I've let myself go, mentally speaking, and I need to work to regain what I have lost.
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