Brain Damage

by James Classen

I have PHP and Django working, finally, with sockets, even. Now, that’s on my other local computer, not on my server in DFW. But it gives me hope that I’ll soon be able to resurrect that beast. I plan to rebuild it from scratch, get rid of all the junk, and start with Quantal Quetzal. The configuration I have started life as Natty Narwhal. I’m not going to worry right now about the fact that Raring Ringtail is coming around at the end of April. If, and I stress that “if”, my server can handle the load of WordPress and a Wiki running on PHP with fastcgi, as well as my quote database on Django (also with fastcgi), then my first real interactive site will appear. Well, again, not mine, but a client. And it means money! Actual dollars in the pocket! Not much, but six times more than I was originally going to charge, every year, plus development! And they’ll be saving $200 by going with me instead of an apparently aptly named company called “Narcissism, Ltd.” Okay, I changed the name to protect the, well, me, from the possibility of legal stupidity. Anyway, I figure a couple of days of serious development, now that I’ve got the hard stuff out of the way, should be enough to have a functioning demo, and a couple more days of work to make it look nice. Also, when I’m done, I should be able to put together an up-to-date tutorial on making everyone play nice together, and how to fix the problems I’ve run across in doing this.

He’s 15 weeks old, give or take a couple of days. My plan was, and currently still is, to keep Corvi around at least until July, if not for the rest of his life, but I’m worried that I might be allergic. There are very few things I’m allergic to: penicillin being the only thing that comes to mind (and probably certain kinds of pollen), but every time I pet him, I get a rash within a few minutes. It goes away with sufficient soap and water, but washing my hands so much dries them out, requiring moisturizer. It’s rather worrying. I also know he’s not getting his fair share of socialization, so I’m going to take him to doggie day care on Tuesday. I hope this wasn’t a very, very expensive mistake, but I’m really in far too deep to back out at a whim. It’s not fair to either of us.

With the weather improving (warming up, anyway), and light at the end of the day, I’ll have more useful time after work to exercise. Walking, and hopefully running, with Corvi, cycling at some point (not with Corvi), and Lindy Bombers (dancing—Lindy Hop/East Coast Swing) on Mondays, hopefully I’ll start shedding weight again. Back in early February when I had the flu, I dropped 4.5kg, and have managed to keep it off since. My goal is to lose another 11.5kg by summer’s end. That’d put me at 113kg, just 6.4kg above what the U.S. military expects soldiers of my height to weigh (well, 14.1lbs), and since I’m not a soldier, I think that’s a more reasonable goal for an engineer who sits at a desk all day.

Now, Kickstarter. I heard about the STRIPPED project from Howard Tayler (of Schlock Mercenary Fame), and I’d encourage others to support it. They’ve met their first goal of “The Final Push”—to get a few licenses for “in perpetuity” use. As it stands, they could still use another $14924, for scenes from the 1965 Jack Lemmon film “How to Murder Your Wife” (which incorporated comic strip art by Mel Keefer). What I’m most excited about, however, is the interview with Bill Watterson—the first ever with the reclusive creator of Calvin & Hobbes.

Another project I’ve backed which is still raising funds is Tayler’s Schlock Mercenary Challenge Coins. He’s also hurting for cash, at “only” 5517% of his goal. No, that’s not a typo. Interest was rather overwhelming. But if you know any military personnel who have stories about challenge coins, they’re looking for submissions for an unofficial storybook/history of challenge coin traditions. That stretch goal is a mere $693 away, but they plan to make the PDF freely available when it’s compiled.

A little bit of work cleaning my office here on Tuesday, and I’m going to make a serious effort to catch up on my comic book reading. After about two weeks more or less stuck inside (I missed dance tonight, but it’s now on my calendar so I should remember next time), British TV is wearing thin (I’ve finally caught up on Sherlock, watched half of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and more than my share of Top Gear reruns), I am out of Brandon Sanderson books to read (read them all, except Wheel of Time, and there are 11 books of Jordan’s before he picked up the reins on that one), and I can only do actual work on this website for so long at a time. But I always feel a bit better when things get sorted out/organized. And I think I need to make one of these, too.