Well, it's been a while. Finally midterms are done, the last was
the worst, but I think I can still pass. I did pretty well on the
assignments and quizzes and so forth in that class, so I should be
ok. This is one of great flaws, part of a general lack of
organization; the inability to keep track of my grades. So I don't
really know. I'll have to be more anal about it next semester. It
would be a good thing.
So after that midterm, I went home and scanned some pictures of my
niece for my sister. She wants me to put them on a
website so friends and family, such as those in Jakarta, can see
them. I had been kicking around ideas in my head for a database
backended site to do this, so I spent Thursday afternoon slapping the
basics together. I used PostgreSQL for the database and PHP4.
I've now got it so you can upload pictures and add comments, but I
need to add some stuff so editors can edit and delete comments and
users and so on. It also needs some more structure, such as arranging
pictures into photo albums. Some may wonder, myself included, why I
would spend time writing such a thing when I have finals fast
approaching. Especially considering there are several packages for
doing web based photo albums out there already. It comes down to
curiosity I guess; I just wanted to do it myself to see what I could
come up with for tables and code. The database structure needs work,
there's no referential integrity, so I'd like to implement that and
timestamps and so on with triggers. As for the code, PHP is
versatile enough to get the job done. I think my source file is
approaching 1000 lines. It's time to break it up into more granular
pieces. There's even room for an OO methodology,
which sort of surprised me, because I've I seen web apps as being
basically stateless, so in that case OO doesn't really make sense
because you're just calling methods in objects and not really
operating on data. Or so I though; I mean, sure, it's stateless
between page loads, but OO still works when you're processing the
page. Of course there are ways to save state, but you can have
problems when you have more than one server.
So anyway, I've become sort of obsessed with getting this website
done to my satisfaction, and it's not even a paying job! I could be
writing VB code for cold hard cash, but nope, playing with PHP
instead. This is my anti Windows sentiment coming into play a
bit. Windows has its place, but I don't like having to use it. So I'm
considering quitting my current job and finding a job doing Java
serverlet development or something. Anything not on Windows. I
haven't got a lot of Java experience beyond my University courses,
no beans experience, no serverlet experience, but I've got proven
experience with MTS and COM and PHP
and various databases. I can learn! Anybody need a web developer in
Calgary?
With finals fast approaching, I need to get studying again. So I
have to cut out the PHP tinkering. Argh. But soon finals will be over,
and then it will be Christmas, and I can tinker and make enough money
to buy Christmas presents and pay the January rent. I'll only have
three courses next semester, I think, so I can work. That will be
good. I really need to work on my organization skills...
We haven't been to Akido in about four weeks. Three at least. Last
time I went, I was really tired and stressed from studying for
midterms and doing assignments. I was getting even more stressed out
because the instructor is a bit impatient, and I was sort of
distracted and tired, and I was thinking that my chosen recreation
should be relaxing and fun, not more stressful. So I had to spar with
Sensi, and was in lala land and got poked in the eye. My fault, I was
supposed to be paying attention, but I was a complete wreak after
that. I had to go compose myself. It was very embarrassing. Normally,
if I'm not tired, it is fun, and not more stressful. I decided not to
go if I'm tired and stressed, so I haven't been for some time. I
wonder if the instructor thinks that jab to the eye was very
discouraging?
Well, the control systems lecture begins in fifteen minutes. I
guess I should go get some lunch.