me talking out loud

According to my husband this blog is hard to navigate around in… the links are hard to find and follow accourding to him. I honestly have no problems with it - but then I am the one who works with it all the time.

Anyway - you may (or may not) notice that the right side with all the link is a little different now. The links are green and now underlined and the “groupings” are in a darker grey. Hopefully that will help it stand out more.

Let me know what you think.

Saw this on bash.org and laughed my ass off

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in an accident”.

“OH DEAR GOD NO!!!” George W. Bush exclaims. “That’s terrible!!” His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the president sits, head in hands. Finally, the President, devastated, looks up and asks………. “How many is a Brazillion??!”

It would be wrong not to acknowledge the passing of Rosa Parks. With her strength she changed a nation and helped usher in the civil rights movement. I may not be African American but I can definately appreciate what she did.

It is offical. Jason and I are now Padi Open Water Divers. We finished our class this past weekend with dives at San Luis Beach and Gab Gab Beach. Jason loved it and had a great time. I did as well - but on the second day I managed to get sea sick underwater. Don’t ask me how - but I did (and yes i hurled). Anyway while I was sick the instructor took the rest of the class to Gab Gab II ( a spectacular reef with some truly huge fish - from what I have been told) to finish their certification. Later in the afternoon when I was feeling better, the instructor took me out again to finish my certification. All I needed at the end was a 20 foot dive for 15 minutes - everything else was done.

Unfortunately I missed Gab Gab II but then - we can always do it later. And since I still feel like crap today (ended up getting a cold)- I’m glad I chose the wimpy ending.

Well we finished our confined dives last night… and it was a long night. We were all there by 6PM and eventually get into the water ( had to do some stuff outside first - like learn how to put everything together, review some safety stuff, and well you get the point).

I have to admit that breathing underwater was VERY different then I thought it would be. For one, breathing in was easier but breathing out was harder… never had resistance that way before. Eventually get used to it. Unfortunately one of our class was having a really hard time. He was very uncomfortable and just could not relax (hadn’t swam in years and had never gone snorkeling so he was not used to breathing through his mouth). After about 45 minutes he decided to skip the rest of the class, roll back to the next class, and get out into the ocean and snorkel/swim to help him become more comfortable. I felt bad but in many ways it is the best solution.

Anyway - most of the stuff we did was pretty cool , but I really hated where we had to take off our mask, put it back on, flush and clear. The water in my eyes really irritated them, and making myself breathe only through my mouth took real concentration. Also, having ones air turned off (simulates running out of air) and having to use your buddies alternate air source was a bit disconcerting at first. The only place I really goofed was when we had to simulate a free flowing regulator. I guess I wasn’t getting in close enough to “sip” the air, cause I got a mouthful of water. To my embaressment - I surfaced. But I did immediately come back down and do it again - that time finally getting it right.

We finally finished up ~11PM and were on our way home by about 11:15PM. We got to bed about midnight. I had a great time though I was ready for it to be over when we quit. Jason on the other hand absolutely loved it and was willing to stay for more if the instructor wanted.

Our first open water dive will be Saturday at oh-my-god it is early at one of the local beaches. I am not looking forward to taking off my mask in salt water. My eyes burn just thinking about it. Oh well.

I have really been over extending myself recently. Between the scuba diving class, going to China, learning Perl, and working on the sourceforge project, I have been neglecting what I really need to do… study for the MySQL Core certification. (And yes Aaron - I also want to get back to your little script.) It has been about a month since I last picked up the study guide. I am hoping to take the test around the time of the new year, but at the rate I am going… Must quit screwing around and get to business.

Next Month TODO List:
the scuba diving class will be over soon so my nights will be free again, I am definately getting a handle on Perl so it isn’t as time consuming and brain exhaustive, coming up with the ERD for the sourceforge project shouldn’t take that long - a night or 2 of work I hope, write my next article for the December PHPC Gazette (all I need now is a subject), and do some final christmas shopping (everything needs to be shipped out by mid-November). Somewhere in there I will get back to reading/studying for the certification. I think I can do it and still not go too crazy. Wish me luck.

How the heck do some people juggle all this stuff, make it look easy, and get everything done? And still have a life?!

OK - I am a little slow but I just found out about Pro-PHP Podcast. Have only had a chance to listen to the first 2 episodes and I have to admit - it is pretty cool. If you are intrigued I sugest you go and have a listen (I have been doing it during my workouts).

Well i finally figured out to how to access the sourceforge cvs account. Turns out I have to use ssh rather then ext as my protocol. Amazing how something so little can screw up everything.

Last night Jason and I had our first scuba diving lesson. Why you ask are we learning how to dive? Well since Jason won a free trip to Caines, Australia for 4 days, 3 nights - How can we not learn to dive. Diving the Great Barrier Reef is on our life’s TODO list.

Anyway last night was a class room night. We started at 6 PM and didn’t get out of there until 10 PM. But we did go over chapters 1, 2, and 3. This Thursday will be a pool night where we do some of the confined swims.

We will get Kayla certified when she comes out this summer and yes we are waiting on taking the trip so that she can come.

We are so pumped.

Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me.
Haappy Birthhday to meee..ee.
Happy Birthday to me.

Stanford team clinches top spot in robot desert race

4 actually finished this year - Outstanding! Congratulations to all those who participated.

Well I have volunteered for a sourceforge project… mostly doing DB work to start with. Keep trying to access the CVS and run into problems (think the admin forgot to give the read/write perms needed) if I try to enter it as myself rather then as anonymous. It will all work out in the end I’m sure. After the DB work - maybe some PHP coding.

Well since I have been offically taken off of my latest project - I decided to turn my hand to something else in Perl to try to use these new skills. Was doing pretty well got the CGI module to work and then - I hit a bump in the road. Go to Perl Monks and seek their wisdom for this little problem. So far - all their suggestions haven’t worked. Guess I have to wait a little longer and see .

My biggest problem seems to be the error message returned doesn’t (at least to me) give me any information I can work with. Hate waiting around.

CNN.com - Bush: Military may have to help if bird flu breaks out - Oct 4, 2005

I’m sorry - but the US Military has no right to play police officer in the US. They are there to defend the country, and support local authorities - not take over. The National Guard is is the military force in country - not the Army. I can too easily see this “power” being abused.