So, We Meet Again
Yes, it's been forever. Once again: sue me.It's a cold Sunday in Minnesota. It snowed most of yesterday, and at 10 degrees, that'll stay with us for a while. Kristi's at work, Emma spent the night vomiting, and I spent the night at her side (since it really wouldn't be fair to the blood donors for Kristi to be poking for veins without something approaching a decent night's sleep). To add insult to whatever it is you add insult to, I'm sick as well -- slightly queasy, and a sore throat.
In short, it's a carry-the-tv-into-the-kid's-room, stay-indoors sort of day. Alphabet soup and hot tea for those who can keep it down; Glaceau Vitamin Water for those who can't. Emma has watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Toy Story 2" so far, and is taking a nap; she's also had me (and my sore throat) read three chapters of our current Lemony Snicket book (book 9: "The Carnivorous Carnival").
Here's a picture of her, accompanied by Smudge. Smudge has been a good friend to her today; maybe it's just that the house is cold and she's warm, but he's been sticking pretty close. Nice to see that.
You can also see a bit of Emma's bed in this picture. I'll probably take another one of the bed in the next day or so, because it'll be gone not long after that. We bought her a captains bed, with storage underneath; this will allow us to get rid of her chest of drawers and replace it with something else -- probably Kristi's old dressing table, which is in the basement awaiting restoration.
Kristi and Emma are also planning on moving our old Gateway computer into Emma's room -- which is weird, because as I was telling Cyn the other day, Kristi is a neo-Luddite and doesn't want Emma becoming computer-addicted Be that as it may, they agreed we would move this old boat-anchor (Pentium 166 MMX) into Emma's room. But she forgot to factor in the size of the monitor; it's about 18" deep, meaning it won't fit on the teensy computer desk she'd picked out for Emma at Target, which was probably designed for either a flat-panel or a laptop. Maybe we can swap this monitor for a smaller one at Computer Renaissance; I don't know. Emma won't need a big screen for what she'll be able to do with this computer (Win95-compatible games and MS Paint).
This is where I'd tell you about work, but I don't blog about work anymore. A shame, really, because it's both very hectic and very interesting, with a new project as well as continued maintenance on my old systems.
I could talk about technology generally without going into specifics, I guess. But the technology I'll be dealing with on the new project is kind of run-of-the-mill; I'm going to writing a Java component that wraps a third-party web service, and coordinating the development of a larger component that uses my new wrapper. Maybe Scooter could squeeze 500 or so words out of that, but there's no way I can.
Still, I've had some fun getting started on the new stuff. Since I'm trying to use only Linux (Ubuntu) at home, I figured I'd install a Java development environment, and the logical choice was Eclipse -- sophisticated, extendable, native Java, open source, and way cool. This was a bad idea, as multiple efforts to install it have failed to get the thing installed correctly with all required help files. More my fault than Ubuntu's, but still, no Eclipse. But then I remembered that Oracle JDeveloper10g (which I use in Windows, and just love) is also virtually pure Java, and runs happily in Linux. So I installed it, no sweat. Yippee! As a bonus, I also installed Sun's NetBeans4.1 -- yet another pure Java IDE I can run in either Windows or Linux, and one that I could come to love, particularly since it, like Eclipse, is open source.
Have I mentioned that I love Ubuntu? Thank you, Sean -- both for prompting me to make the switch, and for helping with the DVD issue. The only problem I'm having with it right now is getting the pressure sensitivity working on my Wacom tablet, but (as with Eclipse) I think that's mostly my own newbishness. I'll get it worked out eventually, some day when I've got the patience for it. In the meantime, it's not like I'm chopping a lot right now, so it hardly matters.
posted by MeanMrMustard @ 11:00 AM
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