all things me

I’ve been doing that database application for 101,5 hours and that’s most likely an underestimate cause I didn’t dare mark all the hours I’ve spent on it. The course gives 2 credits which equals 80 work hours. We had to print out a work hour list with letters assigned to different parts of the process and I wrote a note at the bottom that there should be a letter code for pedantry (or pernicketiness or perfectionism, they’d all go under P!)…

Sigh. It’s done. It’s actually done! “Tomorrow” we have to demonstrate our applications (I’m sure something goes wrong even though I think I’ve checked everything) and then this whole burden of a c(o)urse is finished. Next I have to start dreading and waiting for the grade. I want a 3 [i.e. the maximum]. I so want a 3.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a lot of fun, but trying to cram 1333 lines of PHP code, 13 PHP/XHTML pages, a JavaScript file and a stylesheet into a documentation… not fun. Oh yeah, it ended up being 105 pages. I printed it as 2 pages per paper on a PDF which I’ll be printing today at the department. They make the crazy documentation instructions, they lose the stack of paper.

For the first time in my life my shoulder, elbow, and wrist ache from typing and it’s on my left arm only. Weird. Now I’m going to not-document yay!

Whoever wrote “include source code in the document” in the documentation instructions must’ve been insane!

\o/

I just got this morning, and as the job isn’t current (it will be current in early autumn) they said my CV would be filed under “Very Considerable”.

Hmm… I hope they don’t say that to everyone…

I’m very optimistic though. They were impressed by my studies.

I just sent off my CV (resumé, thanks to Chriske for reminding me of that word — I thought I was only forgetting Finnish) to . My puny CV…

They wanted to know about my interests too, but I didn’t mention I like to read horror (I put “reading”); I didn’t mention my fascination of first person shooters and gory games, but I did mention games and homepages (no URL, though, gosh) under “computer” hobby, so I hope they’ll just think my motor skills are excellent. At least it’ll make me stand out of the skirt people (sorry Jafer, you’re the only female FPS player I know besides myself); don’t know if that’s good or bad though. I don’t know if I should’ve mentioned my fast-as-a-lightning touch typing… I didn’t, that is. But I also don’t have any proof of that, just urban legends…… I probably underestimated my language skills, but I think I’m crap at everything but Finnish and English, so I wrote that (not *crap* per se). Then again, I shouldn’t have. But then again, there it would be soon evident that I lied if I had exaggerated.

Luckily, I guess, the job thing was postponed to early autumn, so I can work in the project without worrying I’d have to turn down the one or the other. So, now I’m just waiting for the verdict — Bonkers.

• Login
• Form checks with JS
• Confirm before delete
• Checks for no rows in query results
• Prevent default category from being deleted (change default to ‘1’)

After this time consumer (20+ hours during the weekend, ok, that’s not really a lot is it, but I didn’t do much else!) is over and done with I’m going to play Bloodlines until I turn into a vampire! … when I’m not working or studying for my summer exams, that is…

Don’t know if I’ve mentioned, but I’m making a blog application in the database application project course. Today (Sat-Sun) I’ve been doing coding for about 11 hours. First I fought — for 6-ish hours — with Oracle trying to get things out of other tables than the users table. No luck. Then it took a while to get the MySQL base up and running (we have to install it to our home directory and start the server when we need it) with the correct socket specified somewhere.

Then, I got properly into business, aka The Fun Stuff: First I coded pages on the public side, that is, archive pages and things. Then I ventured into updating the database (ahhh, hazard zone — not really) and I got as far as finishing the code for articles. I made the form ready for adding topics, but I’m too tired to keep going. I’m going to continue “tomorrow”, happy knowing that I don’t have to fight for 6-ish hours with the stupid Oracle database.

I’m very proud of the “portability” of it. I’m making an effort to do all the database stuff in one file so I can define the settings (user, password, etc.) in one place. I’m sure there’d be lots of cool things to “rip” from WP, but I’m going to dabble this on my own. Of course, I’ve been influenced by the way WP works, a little.

Look what Mum found on our backyard, tanning itself (or freaking out) in the corner of a window ledge.

I’ve been busy doing anything but what I should be doing. I should be doing a lot. I have a database application due in two weeks (I’ll get it done — please don’t wish I get it done or I’ll ) which will require many nights of coding (but I’ll love it when I get the inspiration), and I’ve been trying to decide if I should contact the prospective new working place this week or next. Apparently I already have a contract for the project job, June and July, even though I wasn’t supposed to get paid in June. Bah. I know it’s just an evil scheme to keep me in the project; they’ll never allow me to do the extra month.

So, not much else. I finished reading Bare Bones today. It was horribly translated! With books like that I remember why I read in English even though it doesn’t do good to my Finnish vocabulary. I should try reading books by actual Finnish authors some day. I’m just afraid they’re all bad.

Ahh, a potentially heated discussion at the WP forums — again (it’s like should you or shouldn’t you target external links to _blank). Table layouts and the importance of CSS.

Well, you know I think people who can’t write HTML by hand are not supposed to make homepages either, but they do (I don’t know about electronics so I don’t go fixing my TV! I know borking your code doesn’t kill you, though). They get into something like WP which, to satisfy their grandiose ideas, requires some knowledge of PHP, CSS, and HTML. If they don’t know about those and are scared to get elbow-deep in them (I think I hadn’t seen any PHP before WP, but because I know a few programming languages, the syntax came naturally), they flock the forums with lots of things they want to achieve and need help to achieve them (“Help!!!!1 this is very important! I need it done today!”).

But I do understand people who are just starting in the wonderful world of web design, who maybe know the basics but not the more “advanced” stuff like CSS. It maybe be too much to them to get an all-CSS layout, especially if it needs to be a bit on the complex side. Layouts with tables are easy! You aren’t supposed to make them, but boy do they scale nicely and you can do all kinds of cool images for the layout and just slice them up and whack ’em in a table. I know I’m maybe just trying to justify my own table layouts which I have been too lazy to change, but CSS gets frustrating at times. Maybe I should just get a few recipes up my 3/4-length sleeve that I can happily type around without going through the trial and error from scratch every time.

The X-Files starts from the pilot episode today!

They show 3 episodes per week!

(I honestly look like this: )

This is so funny it’s either adorable or sad! There’s this girl in the WP forums who always spells plugin as puglin. It’s not a typo here or there, it’s a braino. A very annoying and funny one, I might add.

Ah…. good laugh.

I’m amazed no one has pointed it out. I would if I was in a mean mood (which is never?) and feeling really really pernickety (which is always?).