tfl: The Flatiron Life

Way To Go Joscelynn!
My very good friend Joscelynn received her Practice LSAT score today. She earned 167 out of 180. She said that is in the 80th percentile! I am really proud of her! I am not surprised though because Jos is a very smart woman. I know that she will do even better on the LSAT when she takes it in June.

Great Work Jos! I am really proud of you!

Computer 2003
Yesterday I bought the memory for the new computer. I bought it from Monarch Computer. I have never bought anything from them before. The part has not yet been shipped so that is bothering me a little. The modual I bought is from Corsair. I am pulling out all the stops for this new computer and buying name brand memory! This module is two sticks of 512MB PC3200 DDR memory! One of the things that floors me is that memory is becoming so small and fast that this memory comes with a heat spreader! I would not be surprised if by the time I am replacing this machine it will be standard to have full fans and heat sinks on the memory.

I still have a little trouble overcoming the fact that computers have 1GB of main memory. I remember when the 1GB Hard Drives came out. I though no one would ever need to have that much storage, let alone memory. (Note: 20 GB Drives are the smallest Drives that pricewatch lists and are only $36! And is larger than the drive on both my work and home computers.

HQ
I am working at HQ now in Northern Virginia. I will be here until 31 July. After that I assume I will be going to Madison Wisconsin. It is nice here. The project is well structured. The project is much better thought out than any project in the Chicago office. I am not a big fan of the framework we are using though. We are using Versata, but with some pretty heavy modifications. These modification basically make the execution more like PowerBuilder. This is because we are porting the project from powerbuilder code and many of the developers do not have Java as a first language or were not as proficient in it when they started. I hate powerbuilder and for a Java purist the level of indirection can be mind boggling sometimes. I will persevere!

Sorry
I know that many of you use this site for work and other commercial purposes. I am sorry that I have been remiss in reporting the facts of my life.

Let the testing begin
Today System Test began for my project. Katie and I are not very involved with the testing because we are only on the project through tomorrow. I am fixing many of the incidents that are found. I have openly predicted that only 4 errors will be found with the code I have produced. So far zero has been found. Now this does not mean that no incidents will be opened against my code. I am not a graphics designer. If a font needs to be changed here or wording changed there this is not an error, simple an oversight. I had 10 oversights to fix today. The rest of the time was used upgrading the bulk data creator I have made, it is a beautiful thing!
Tomorrow is my last day stationed in the Chicago Office for a while. I will be on travel to HQ for up to 6 months, and then traveling to Madison, Wisconsin for up to 1.5 years. I am planning on flying back and forth to HQ as much as possible to rack up the frequent flyer miles! And I am sure I will have a lot of fun driving north of the Cheddar Curtin latter on this year also.

Cubs!
Last night I went the Friendly Confines and watched the Cubs loose to Cincinnati. Aside from the lose it was a great night at the ball park. After the game it was a bit of a different story.
The Addison Red Line stop becomes overcrowded quickly after games. The CTA has installed a strobe light that indicates to the workers when the platform is full. This is for the riders own protection because there is nothing physically preventing you from leaping or being pushed onto the tracks. The light is the only indicator though and most people, including me before last night, have no idea what it is for. As my friend and I approached the turnstile the light went off and the CTA workers stopped us from going through. I quickly understood, but many of the hooligans behind us did not and were harassing the workers. These hooligans really had not room to say anything about the CTA because many of them had no idea even how to use the fare card and some were trying to pay cash that the turnstiles! Eventually the light went off and people starting going through the machines. There were four guys in front of my friend and me. They were all using the same fare card. The first guy went through the machine with no problem. The second had a little trouble using the card. The third had no idea what to do so I ran his card for him. The fourth guy could run his car, but it was either out of cash or there may be a limit on the number of people who can use a single card. I could tell he was going to be there a while just running this bad card, so I swiped my 30 Day pass in. He went through. My friend ran her card and went through. I then ran my 30 day pass. I know that the cards are only to be used by one rider, but I did not realize that the CTA has a system in place to prevent people from using the card twice. So I was not allowed through. I had no other way to pay, and I know it is wrong, and I had just said the “Turnstile jumping is not a sport” to my friend, but I did it. I jumped the turnstile…
Or should I say I tried. I went up over, lost my balance, and came down hard. I could have and probably should have broken my arm or neck, but I did neither. I am ok except for some bruises and a bent fare card (that still works!). The whole L station erupted in laughter, but I am sure that for most, all they saw was some drunken fool tripping. (Note: I was not drunk and it is not for me to judge if I am a fool.) I am still not sure if what I did was right or wrong, but at least now I know to be stingy with my card.

Last Call
I cannot normally watch late night TV, and when I say late I mean anything after 10 So I am lapping it up tonight. I am watching Last Call and the lovely Shannen Doherty is on. My level of respect for her increased several levels. She just flatly said with not restraint that she is a Republican. She also said that her brother works in political and she was at a press dinner at the White House lately. Pretty Cool! So watching Charmed has now become a patriotic act!

Java
I am looking at investing in a Java 1.4 certification book. Does anyone have a suggestion? Email Me!

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats!, ThunderCats!
No much has been going on with me.
Yesterday I went to a bar in Wrigleyville for some ribs! They were really good! During dinner we had a great discussion of the war and what should and will happen after total victory. Some of the discussion degraded into a “but they might attack us again because of this.” I of course pointed out that the terrorist might and probably would would have attacked us again if we did not destroy regimes sponsoring terrorism.

At work I have just been testing here and testing there. Tony asked me to develop a little application to create flat files of bulk data to be loaded into the database for system testing. I am having a lot of fun with it. It is small application I am thinking 10 classes at the most. It is nice to get out of the Web Application world for a little while and write a regular application with a main method and all! (I am such a nerd.)

Reading, I am half way through NRODT! On track for my Saturday prediction.

And this weekend! I am heading to Louisville via Bloomington tomorrow morning!!!! Thunder over Louisville is this weekend. I am excited to see though crazy Kentuckians blow up a bridge, but I am more excited to spend quality time with my great friends.

I am watching FNC and seeing downtown Baghdad with Iraqis cheering. Could today be VI Day?