What Are You Working On (And How Are You Getting There)?

[mimic]

I guess my goals are as follows:

-Be a great teacher - Three years in, I am pretty good at my job, but I want to be one of the best. I am putting in a lot of extra time this term and trying a few new things.

-Improve my climbing - taking some classes at a local gym with a friend, and trying to climb as much as possible.

-Start caving - there's a few local grotto clubs I want to join

-Stay on good terms with my ex - He's a bit of a mess right now and in desperate need of friends. Without support he'd probably fly off the deep end and completely ruin his life. It would be hard to cut him out anyway, because I regularly see him at the rock gym, and he's not a bad guy when he's not being an idiot. (for the record, he's not a mess because of anything to do with me - lost a parent recently, and license suspended due to reckless driving)

 

[thestrangequark]

I'm...
- Trying to learn to use my insulin pump to its fullest potential so that I can have better control of my diabetes.

- Trying not to lose my temper with my dad while I plant some seeds of skepticism so that maybe he'll stop blaming me for having diabetes and stop recommending stupid fucking naturopaths. There is little in this world that causes me as much disgust as alternative "medicine."

- Trying to learn the ukulele.

I used to say never a larger scam was put into play than "natural medicine" until I met the Leahman Brothers.

Seriously. And the really clever bit is that the scammers convince their victims that it's really everyone else being scammed, so all the reason they fail to write off with magic they can write off with conspiracy theory.

and I saw your ukulele vid, not bad, but could use my ocarina

Haha, I had an ocarina when I was a kid! And the guy at Pike Place Market in Seattle who I bought it from is still there selling!

Oh, and I'm much better at the ukulele than I was a couple weeks ago -- I can play that song without halting between chords, and I've got a few more complicated songs under my belt. Still getting there, though. It's certainly not a difficult instrument, but the tuning is a little counter-intuitive for me as a cellist, and I really don't have any right hand technique as I'm used to holding a bow. It's fun, though!

 

[SmoothieX]

I'm moving 2,000 away in the next week. Good career opportunity indirectly related to the oil/gas boom in the Upper Midwest. I work in land development, public works, infrastructure, etc.

The demand there for engineers is huge and they are bringing people in from all over the US.

 

[mari]

I'm working on my wedding! Using theknot.com checklist so I don't miss anything, and using the hell out of my iPhone calendar with reminders and alarms and alerts and everything. Lots of dinging so I don't forget appointments or deadlines. Also enslaving my fiance and family for making centerpieces and stuff. That's my longest-term project right now. Also trying to clear out some old crochet projects before I start any new ones, which of course I have failed at, because I had the overwhelming urge to make a hyperbolic plane this past weekend.

I've written some fanfics as well and have some that are incomplete, but its hard fo rme to write now because I can't do it at work on the computer and all I have out here with me (I'm in the Army and deployed) is my new sony tablet and I don't know any good android apps that are like Word.

I try to write everything on Google Docs. Drive. Whatever they call it now. And I have it on my Android tablet. I like it because even if something happens to the tablet, my laptop or my work computer, it's still out there in the cloud thing.

 

[thestrangequark]

I've decided to put some effort into my dad. I had a long talk with him about his crazy and stupid ideas (though I was kinder with my choice of adjectives), and he seems at least slightly open to a more rational perspective. I think the biggest problem is he is getting a shit-ton of propaganda, misinformation, and nonsense in the form of my half-sister's antivaccine, "all-natural", raw milk hippie ramblings, and broadcast idiocy like "Coast to Coast" and "Ancient Aliens." I have launched a counter-attack in the form of knowledge. I sent him Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World, a nice presentation by The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe on being a savvy healthcare consumer and not falling for the natural/alternative medicine scam, and each morning I've been sending him a Science Daily article.

He was the person who first got me interested in science, and one of my earliest memories is of watching "Cosmos" with him as a kid, but I think the daily assault of massive amounts of THC starting at the age of 15 has left him a little...pliable...and he just wants to let other people think for him -- and the people he's choosing range from just silly to downright dangerous in their idiocy. So, I don't know whether or not my attempts will be ultimately futile, but my new thing to work on is to try to give my dad at least a slightly more balanced worldview, so that maybe he'll stop saying hurtful and ignorant things to my mom, sisters, and me about our health/mental health, beliefs (and lack thereof), and lifestyles.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

top priority for me right now is to get Professor Tibatong, my hamster, through the surgery tomorrow. He's a charming elderly eccentric and unfortunately has developed a swelling of unknown origin in one of his cheek pouches. It could be anything from a tumor to an abscess and we shall have to open him up and have a look which at his age is a risky business.

I have an important daeadline to meet at my office but to hell with that - a living being is more important than paperwork.

 

[Captain_Nick]

What a terrific idea for a topic!

Right now I'm coding up a little gem to help me manage the retail store I work at more effectively. Without going into too much detail, it'll manage stock levels, cost of goods and various other measurables. By automating certain functions I'll make my job easier and produce the sorts of data that HQ want to see. And it'll have a neato speech synthesiser too!

 

[Captain_Nick]

I have an important daeadline to meet at my office but to hell with that - a living being is more important than paperwork.

That is so true. I hope it isn't anything too serious.

(I like his name!)

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I've decided to put some effort into my dad.... I have launched a counter-attack in the form of knowledge....

Sounds like a worthwhile but difficult project! I just sighed at your description of your half-sister.

top priority for me right now is to get Professor Tibatong, my hamster, through the surgery tomorrow. He's a charming elderly eccentric and unfortunately has developed a swelling of unknown origin in one of his cheek pouches. It could be anything from a tumor to an abscess and we shall have to open him up and have a look which at his age is a risky business.

I have an important daeadline to meet at my office but to hell with that - a living being is more important than paperwork.

Wishing the little guy well.

What a terrific idea for a topic!

Isn't it!

 

[Mary Ann]

I've decided to put some effort into my dad.... I have launched a counter-attack in the form of knowledge....

Sounds like a worthwhile but difficult project! I just sighed at your description of your half-sister.

Seconded. Good luck with helping your father see the truth about diabetes.

top priority for me right now is to get Professor Tibatong, my hamster, through the surgery tomorrow.

I hope everything went well.

As for what I'm hoping to accomplish in the near future, I'm really, really hoping that the house renovations will finally be completed this year. We bought our fixer-upper house almost seven years ago, and while we love the house and its location it will be fantastic to get everything completed. The big jobs left to do are a completely new bathroom, including the replacement of the original lead plumbing, and the replastering of all the downstairs walls and ceilings, which will then need to be decorated. I'm not bad with a paint brush, but we're leaving the plumbing and plastering and such to the professionals. I know my limits.

Also, I'm giving the local RSPCA centre a call tomorrow to enquire about two five-month-old puppies they have up for adoption. We've been looking for a second dog for ages, as our dog would love a companion and we're crazy pet people, but there have been no dogs available for adoption that meet our criteria (medium sized, as we can't fit another large dog into our car...or our house, gets along with dogs, gets along with cats). We were ready to get another puppy from a reputable breeder, as we'd done with our Golden Retriever, but we've had rescue dogs before and really wanted to give another abandoned dog a forever home. We're only looking for one dog, and both puppies are Lurcher crosses and get on with other dogs and cats, so we're crossing fingers and toes that one of the pups will come home with us soon.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

(I like his name!)

The name is taken from a popular children's book. Professor Tibatong is basically a kind of Dr Doolittle. He teaches all animals to talk like humans. He is devoted to researching the Urmel, a missling link between dinosaurs and mammals, and to proving the existence of the invisible fish. He's a genius but terribly absent-minded and highly eccentric - much like my hamster.

Thanks for all teh good wishes and thumb-ups. The surgery will start in 3 hours. I'll keep you updated and if all goes well maybe I can get the Professor to blog a bit His predecessors started a blog at livejournal, some years ago: http://huggles-hamster.livejournal.com/?skip=10

 

[Robert Maxwell]

If no one minds me being a bit more detailed about something work-related (and if you do, skip this post):

We have a bunch of SQL databases with about 10,000 stored procedures. For those who are unfamiliar with such technology, they are programs stored inside the database itself, so they don't exist as external files you can open up and edit. There is currently no version control on them, so it's difficult to know which ones were modified, when, and to what extent. A daily process dumps all of the procedures from each database into text files--one file for each database, so all the procedures are lumped together. Not exactly conducive to figuring out when something is changed, right?

So, I wrote a little program that scans the archive each day, breaks up the files into their constituent procedures, and then commits all the changes to version control. There were some challenges involved since the archive files are not marked up in such a way that it's very easy to determine where each procedure begins and ends, and the name of the procedure is inserted numerous times into the text of the procedure itself (I have no idea why, frankly), so I have to do some massaging and parsing to make it all work correctly. But work, it does! I am pretty happy with it, and it doesn't interfere with anyone else, which is a good thing.

I love automation.

 

[SmoothieX]

We're only looking for one dog, and both puppies are Lurcher crosses and get on with other dogs and cats, so we're crossing fingers and toes that one of the pups will come home with us soon.

Not at all familiar with the Lurcher, what are they like?

I'm moving next week to the country. Once I get settled in at home and work, I'm really considering buying another Lab. There's a retriever club in town and while I'm looking to train my existing 3 year old (and myself) to bird hunt, it'd be nice to train one from the start.

Plus North Dakota is chilly; a second big, soft, warm dog in the bed wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Sephiroth]

I'm...
- Trying to learn to use my insulin pump to its fullest potential so that I can have better control of my diabetes.

- Trying not to lose my temper with my dad while I plant some seeds of skepticism so that maybe he'll stop blaming me for having diabetes and stop recommending stupid fucking naturopaths. There is little in this world that causes me as much disgust as alternative "medicine."

- Trying to learn the ukulele.

I used to say never a larger scam was put into play than "natural medicine" until I met the Leahman Brothers.

Seriously. And the really clever bit is that the scammers convince their victims that it's really everyone else being scammed, so all the reason they fail to write off with magic they can write off with conspiracy theory.

and I saw your ukulele vid, not bad, but could use my ocarina

Haha, I had an ocarina when I was a kid! And the guy at Pike Place Market in Seattle who I bought it from is still there selling!

Oh, and I'm much better at the ukulele than I was a couple weeks ago -- I can play that song without halting between chords, and I've got a few more complicated songs under my belt. Still getting there, though. It's certainly not a difficult instrument, but the tuning is a little counter-intuitive for me as a cellist, and I really don't have any right hand technique as I'm used to holding a bow. It's fun, though!

It's the only instrument I can play, I can...sort of...play the piano, but I don't actually own a keyboard right now. I'd really like to hear you play the cello sometime.

 

[Mary Ann]

Not at all familiar with the Lurcher, what are they like?

Here's the Wikipedia article on Lurchers. They're not really a recognised breed, so come in various shapes and sizes, but as a rule they have a whippet/greyhound-type body. Most of the Lurchers I've known have been on the big side, and they tend to be sweet dogs.

Well, after speaking to the RSPCA it turns out we live in too much of an urban area for these pups. They've not been socialised properly, and are spooked easily by cars and too many people. It sounds as if they'd be better off in a more rural home. At least we tried.

I'm moving next week to the country. Once I get settled in at home and work, I'm really considering buying another Lab. There's a retriever club in town and while I'm looking to train my existing 3 year old (and myself) to bird hunt, it'd be nice to train one from the start.

Plus North Dakota is chilly; a second big, soft, warm dog in the bed wouldn't hurt either.

You'll need a big bed if you're going to share it with two retrievers. Good luck with the move.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

a little update on Professor Tibatong, the hamster:
He didn't get a surgery after all today. The vet is ill and his assistant doesn't dare to perform a surgery on such a tiny animal. Fortunately, there's an animal clinic near the town where my parents live. It was closed today but I'll try to call them tomorrow and if I get an appointment I'll rent a car and bring the hamster there. Fortuately, he loves travelling by car.
Atm our little hero is sleeping - he had a big battle with the assistant and took a hearty bite out of him. LOL serves him right: the hamster warned him 6 times before he bit.

So, back to square one. But we'll get to the goal in the end. Fortunately, this tumor or whatever it is appears to be of the slowly growing sort and as far as one can tell is not painful. That gives us time to do something against it. Surgery in such tiny animals is always a bit risky - you can so easily overdose the narcosis and elderly animals are often type 2 diabetics which has a negative effect on wound healing.

Well, one step after the other: Tomorrow I'll call the animal clinic and try to get an appointment. Then I'll rent a car for that day, take a day off (LOL my boss will freak out) and then we'll see what the other vet says. At an rate getting a second opinion is always good. (Plus on teh way back we can drop in at my parents and raid their walnut supply - Tibatong loves walnuts =) )

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm hoping to arrange in the coming year to take a masters and become an archivist. I'm sure I'll have further news on that front before long.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

In 14 days we're moving, so have a lot going on in the short term and I'm under a lot of stress.

Have to get fully packed by March 14th, when the movers are coming.
Under a major deadline for a client because of the move.
I also have a business trip to Phoenix Arizona to fit in before the move.
Close on our new house.
We have less then two weeks to unpack, paint several rooms in the new house. We are creating an apartment in the basement for my mother in law, I have to rip out a wet bar and install a kitchen. Including installing new floors and cabinets. While I have assisted others in these tasks, never accomplished on my own before. So this has me a little nervous.

For something more personal. I really need to loose some weight, I'm horribly out of shape. About 10 years ago I had a bad accident, where I tore my groin muscle. I never had it repaired, it did heal on its own but not fully. So I can feel the twinge of pain every so often. This caused me to gain copious amount of weight because I stop exercising and and of course settled in to some bad eating habits. I want to changed this, I want to really start exercising, I miss it. With moving, I believe this is the perfect time for a clean start. So I will start slowly, see how far I can push the leg. If it isn't to far, maybe look into surgery. I need to do this not only for myself but also for my three kids. I want as much time with them as I can wring out of life.

 

[RevDMV]

If no one minds me being a bit more detailed about something work-related (and if you do, skip this post):

We have a bunch of SQL databases with about 10,000 stored procedures. For those who are unfamiliar with such technology, they are programs stored inside the database itself, so they don't exist as external files you can open up and edit. There is currently no version control on them, so it's difficult to know which ones were modified, when, and to what extent. A daily process dumps all of the procedures from each database into text files--one file for each database, so all the procedures are lumped together. Not exactly conducive to figuring out when something is changed, right?

So, I wrote a little program that scans the archive each day, breaks up the files into their constituent procedures, and then commits all the changes to version control. There were some challenges involved since the archive files are not marked up in such a way that it's very easy to determine where each procedure begins and ends, and the name of the procedure is inserted numerous times into the text of the procedure itself (I have no idea why, frankly), so I have to do some massaging and parsing to make it all work correctly. But work, it does! I am pretty happy with it, and it doesn't interfere with anyone else, which is a good thing.

I love automation.

Good work, that can be such a nightmare.

I've moved all my MSSQL stuff into Visual Studio projects and version control from there with SVN.

 

[SmoothieX]

You'll need a big bed if you're going to share it with two retrievers. Good luck with the move.

Used to have two, lost one in the divorce. I still have the one I connected with best. As does she. It seemed like an amicable solution.

So, I've had a wife and two large dogs in my bed before, so I'll manage.

In 14 days we're moving, so have a lot going on in the short term and I'm under a lot of stress.

8 days and 1,500 miles further for me, so quit your bellyaching.

Good luck, we'll follow the Mets from afar.