If you've just dropped by or random'ed into me, please leave a comment and say hello.

Let me know how you found me, where you're from, why you're here, a little about yourself, recommend a book, recommend a movie, tell me a secret, tell me something, ask me a question, etc. =)

Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

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weather	:		sunny
outside	:		18.4°C
mood	:		amused

Whee! I was invited to my first pick-up group in WoW and we nearly wiped trying to summon. It wasn't my fault, but my nubbage was all kinds of sticking out. XD

My Warlock Girl was fishing at Thunder Bluff when I was whispered and offered money to help summon a Mage.

"Sure!" I say. I had never done this before, so I was curious enough even before I had the money. I figured if they were going to rip me off, I'm only out one Soul Shard which is easily replaced and I learn how to summon people.

My first question was "So, where's the Summoning Stone at TB?" Buh. Yeah, I'm a Warlock. I _AM_ THE SUMMONING STONE. =D I tried to save it by saying that I'd never played a Warlock before, which is entirely true, I've just never played much of any class before either... I don't think that convinced anyone, anyway.

So, she's walking me through what to do. I have the Summon spell, I have a Soul Shard. It's all ready to go. I need to be grouped with her and two others. Okay, we're all partied up and ready.

I don't see the others around. Do I cast the portal, then wait around? Or do I wait until everyone's gathered first? ... Ah, there's a time limit on the portal, so I should wait until everyone's here before I start.

Okay, I cast the portal. The second person clicks on it. A bystander says to us "Do you need a third?" ROFL! He was thanked kindly, but told that we already have a third.

The third person disappeared, either dropped the connection or went AFK. That left the two of us standing there looking like git-fish, straining to hold up a big black hole in mid-air, with the clock running down, right in front of the Thunder Bluff mailbox.

"Arms getting tired... LOL", I type into Party Chat. Lawls all around. Some other bystanders start gathering around us, staring, pointing and laughing at us.

We're starting to get desparate that we're going to wipe. =D

I see a confusion of messages go by in Party Chat and General Chat, yelled in red and dully roared in white and mauve. The flurry of messages were both asking for help from someone in the crowd and loudly imploring our last person in the party to "OMG CLICK IT!!!! NOWNOWNOW1111111111"

By this time, we've drawn a much bigger crowd. They're probably wondering what the hell we're doing and why it's such an unusually long summon.

At nearly the last possible second, our third person finally reappeared and clicks the portal. The summon was successful, but I was informed that it doesn't usually involve THAT much drama. XD

She did pay me which was great, but the entertainment value was well worth it. =D

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		24°C
mood	:		content

Thus ends a nice holiday week. *bittersweet* =) W and I took the week off together. We didn't go anywhere, just caught up with errands and did random stuff that we wished we had more time to do during the week.

Girl: Finished Mansfield Park.

The fascinating thing about Jane Austen, I find, is that she's made the same plot tell six entirely different stories. They're all nearly the same, but you see very different themes and social commentary in each one.

It's like looking into several different bowls of water. They're all only slightly different bowls and, water is water. But you scry a different universal truth in every one.

---

Geek: I went scabbing as a hobo healer in Alterac Valley.

English: I played WoW.

At 64/m/shammy/cow, I can't do a whole lot. So, I don my Int gear and go heal the tank or any other DPS who has aggro. And I'm not overhealing as much anymore.

The Summer Solstice Festival is on in the WoW, so we're constantly ribbon dancing and doing the festival dailies. The torch catching is the bane of my existence. I have to get Husband Guy to do that one for me. =P The most infuriating thing is that I can see exactly what to do, but I still fail before I can do 10 in a row. I can even describe to someone how to do it and they succeeded with the first 4, but I get to about 6 or 7 and then wipe. Gaaaaaahhhhh...

We're quickly running out of alt character slots to make pack mules... =) Because I don't play nearly as many characters as W does, I have all the pack mule alts: one auction house alt and another food alt that's named after a large grocery store chain =D When the food alt ran out of bag space AND bank space AND bank BAG space, we had to form a guild to get the guild bank.

We have a whole tab of just seafood. XD

Geek: I also ran around as my own little party with my 25/f/lock/blood-elf, blueberry and netherwhelp out.

English: I played WoW some more.

It's fun to be my own party of three =) Although, it's annoying that your pet gets dismissed when you use public transportation.

I get questions about my Netherwhelp and where I got him (Limited Edition Burning Crusade) =D Sooooo looking forward to 40 when I get my felsteed and felpuppy.

Geek: On a different server, I started another character, 17/f/shammy/cow.

English: I played WoW... even more.

I'd been harrassed =) into starting a character on a different server where a co-worker is a 70 Priest. I swear, Husband Guy and I are only there to watch the guild drama scroll by in gchat XD LOL =)

It's been painful levelling with no Main to help with money, mats, bags or anything. When you're used to having your backpack with four 16-slot Netherweave bags right from level 1, having to scrimp and save and sell all the greys you get, then hemming and hawing at the Auction House for even that stupid 6-slotter, you realize how spoiled you were.

I've been all WHEN THE HELL DO I GET MY GHOST WOLF?!?!? for the last 10 levels now.

---

Girl: I got a professional French manicure.

I went to a spa so that someone could do it once while I watched. Square nails are not as good as oval nails for scratching itches.

As much of a hassle as it is to do my own French manicure, I bought a kit and re-did it myself because I'm just never really happy with the results _anywhere_. I tend to have a very fussy eye for detail and the reality is, I know my own nails better and I know how I want them done.

I also got nail jewels =) I don't put them on every nail, I just put the smallest pinky pattern on the two thumbs.

---

Geek: I learned to drive stick.

The Brother Boy taught The Husband and me to drive stick shift with his car.

I've always hated sitting in a standard. I could never stand the herky-jerky-ness and I've always attributed that to standard transmission cars. I found out in the last few years that it's actually the drivers, themselves, being buttheads.

So, the Brother Boy has grown up to be a huge car buff and instructed us both on how to start the car, drive, shift, and rev matching. Neither of us stalled although we made his car very unhappy a few times.

Driving standard is extraordinarily busy. There were so many other things to deal with. Clutch down. Make sure it's in Neutral. Put it in first gear. Let go of the clutch. BUT SLOWLY. And step on the gas pedal at the same time. Make sure the clutch isn't halfway up for too long. Don't hold the clutch down too long... aaaaiiiieeeeeeggghhh...

Several times, I forgot to signal and shoulder check. I know it's only because it was my first session. I'm sure it will get better with practice.

My left leg and my left butt cheek were super sore the next day. =D I'd like to be able to practice, but we can't afford an extra car. I think we'd have to get a fairly nice 2-3 year old standard for it to be a good practice car. Gas prices in the state that they are and insurance make it completely out of the question.

And I'm not sure if we'd be willing to switch to a standard entirely.

---

Girl: I tried on dresses.

There's another wedding in the family coming up. =) No, it will never end. =)

We're desparately trying to convince someone to forego the hullabaloo and go with a destination wedding. But no dice this time. *sigh*

"Dear Auntie 1, if you could please make sure Cousin #5 gets engaged to a someone from Italy, that would be cool beans. We'll all be there. Thanks!"

The dress I wanted wasn't actually in the store, I had to special order it. But I did try on the same size in a different style from the same designer. I told them I wanted it for this September, just so that I wouldn't have to wait.

The designer apparently won't start manufacturing the style that I want until this September. That means I may actually not get it until possibly October.

The store staff were all worried for me, but the ladies still cracked up when I said "well, if it's not here by September, I'll have to go to the wedding naked." I said I have a back-up plan and I still wanted this dress.

weather	:		mainly sunny
outside	:		12.2°C
mood	:		amused

I'm such a n00b that this year was my first Children's Week. I took pictures of us and the two boys we had with us... Grunth and Grunth =} It was great fun and a very endearing quest... I actually cried when I read the last quest text from Grunth as I was handing him back to the Matron.

The pics are all in this gallery =)

We picked up the kids from the orphanage in Orgrimmar from Orphan Matron Battlewail. I think I will refer to all children as "Non-Combat Pets" from now on. Let's see how many friends, family and cow-orkers I can offend with that one... XD

We hung around the orphanage for a while just to get acquainted with the boys. They wanted to show us something and took us over to the waterfall. It's A Secret™ so I can't tell you what it is. But it was REALLY COOL. =)

We brought the boys down to the docks at Ratchet to watch the boat come in. They were delighted to see the ship that goes from here to and from Booty Bay on the other continent. We would have brought them over there, but couldn't risk them getting hurt in a gank-fight.

There was another tourist there who couldn't get a clue and wound up in the foreground of our picture =P We had to be a good example for the boys, otherwise we would have pounded his ass so far into the ground.

We then took the boys to Crossroads on the way to Mor'shan Rampart. At Crossroads, we suitably annoyed the hell out of Apothecary Helbrim by using his tarp like a trampoline. The four of us were in a serious fit of giggles from climbing, running and jumping all over it.

From there, we walked with them to Mor'shan Rampart. They had to run to keep up with us and stumbled every once in a while. That was so cute =D They were very keen on learning about it being a strategic location defending against Alliance forces from Ashenvale to the North.

Then, it was off to see the Throne of Lordaeron. It took us a few tries to get a good picture. They're boys. They're not always going to look at the camera when you're taking the picture, they're not always going to be standing still for you. That's the way it goes =)

As a matter of Horde Pride, we had to tell them all about ousting the Alliance. And this throne was where the human king sat in his reign.

It was the most appropriate place to teach the boys how to do the Chicken Dance (cheep-cheep-cheep, flap-flap-flap, wiggle-wiggle-wiggle, clap-clap-clap). We taught them to make rude gestures and generally taunt their enemies. Because all warriors know that it's not how well you fight, it's the rudest gestures that win battles and wars.

They promised not to tell the Matron about this =)

The boys had never seen rocket racing, so we went out to the Mirage Raceway in Shimmering Flats. They were so cute with their wide eye, open mouthed gaping at the Goblins jetting down the path. One of them seemed to have an aptitude for engineering. I could tell by the way he looked at the race car parts strewn about.

But nothing made them happier than getting ice cream =D We took them to Brivelthwerp for strawberry ice cream.

Seeing Cairne Bloodhoof over in Thunderbluff was a little boring for them. I guess it was getting late and they were a bit tired after all that excitement, but they were still very respectful and being exceptionally good nonetheless. We didn't stay too long. Just long enough to get a picture, and a hoofprint, then headed back to the Orphanage at Orgrimmar. Here's a view on the Wind Rider just over Red Rocks with Husband Guy and Grunth in front. Grunth and I are behind them.

We got a few more pictures with Orphan Matron Battlewail before saying our final goodbyes. One of the other kids was running around and got in our way just as the picture was taken =D

We were given two pets as a Thank You - Speedy the turtle and Mr. Wiggles the piglet.

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		7.2°C
mood	:		...

You know how they say that married folks need to do "Date Nights" every once in a while?

So, we decided to try it. We had a really great time. I put the pics up in the gallery.

Go take a look =)

I like taking pictures now. =D I think I'll take more pictures wherever we go. =D

weather	:		clear
outside	:		8.8°C
mood	:		...

I had today off in lieu of overtime. I dropped off Sid at the vet, dropped off The Husband at work, then sat on a couch at Blenz with a no-whip mocha and read for a good while (Persuasion). Yes, Chick Lit for Fuddy-Duddies. Nevernevernevernevernever see the Hollywood movies based on these books, alwaysalwaysalways see the BBC productions, if at all... but that's a whole other rant. >K{

I ran some more errands and then, like the über-nerd that I am, I went home and played WoW. XD

I usually only play when Husband Guy plays with me, but I thought I'd catch up by clearing out some of my quests. I'm at a level where a lot of them have become green (easy) and grey (booger flickingly easy).

I had never read quest text or instructions before. The Husband had always told me exactly where to go, how to move, what to click, what to attack and was basically, in between getting annoyed at me, managing both of us along the way.

So, now I had to do this all on my own. It's like learning to drive. You'll never really know the directions unless you drive somewhere by yourself. I knew what to do from playing before, but this was the first time I had to read the quests, understand what I was supposed to do and was in charge of everything myself. It was a very different game.

I finished off a bunch of quests the help of Thottbot. I only died a few times. =D

I was up on top of Darkcloud Pinnacle doing the Arikara quest. I got lost in the maze of suspension bridges and tiny pin-point mountain peeks. I just wandered around trying to find the peek I needed, killing Grimtotem Taurens as I went. I killed Arikara and then got horribly lost trying to get back out. XD I had actually found the right peek to exit a few times but thought it was a dead end peek, turned around and went back the other way. The ramp down was on a sharp decline like the hilly streets of San Francisco. It was on the opposite side of the peek from me, so I couldn't see it until I watched something else walk down.

Of course, being me, I couldn't do a grey, booger flicking easy quest. XD

I had to go to Tarren Mill. I've actually been there before, but never having navigated it myself, I mistakenly thought the boat at Ratchet would take me there. NOPE... not by a long shot. =D It took me to Booty Bay instead where there was a huge gank-fest going on right on the dock. I tried to hearth out, but couldn't because I had already been dragged into combat and of course, died.

Then, I tried again. I found out that I needed the zeppelin outside of Orgrimmar. And I got on the wrong flight that took me to Grom'gol. LOL... XD

*sigh* At that point, I gave up. I resolved to stay on Kalimdor for a while. At least until my Hearth cool-down ended. =D I'm kinda kicking myself now that I know how close I actually came to finishing it. Ah well.

I did a few more quests, finished some, failed at others. Then I thought that if I couldn't do any more quests solo, I'd just try to find more flight paths. I got the Camp Mojache flight path, but not without being chased bears. XD

These were big mean Question Mark Bears. I didn't pay attention to what they're actually called, but when I looked at them, they were level question-mark-question-mark. Which means they're at least ten levels above me. I'd probably die if he stared at me too hard.

I kinda wish I were on a PVE server instead of a PVP server though. The Husband only ever plays on PVP, so for convenience, I'm on a PVP server too.

Anyway, I stopped after a few hours when I had to go pick up Sid from Night Owl again. =D

weather	:		clear
outside	:		3.3°C
mood	:		amused

The Husband and I had some family photos taken with the birds. I'm really pleased with the results.

The photographer was awesome and was phenomenal with the birds, making them look in certain directions and generally guiding all four of us in the posing.

Take a look:

• Pic 1 - from left to right: Husband Guy, myself, Sid and Skippy
• Pic 2 - everybody looking out towards the horizon.
• Pic 3 - a great action shot with all four of us running together, symbolic of moving through this life together. =)

And there were some funny outtakes =D

• Outtake 1 - just as Husband Guy turns his head to look at Skippy doing something weird.
• Outtake 2 - everything was perfect, but I got tired and as soon as I shifted my stance, *click*
• Outtake 3 - Husband Guy's body language indicating that he's super annoyed with the birds.
• Outtake 4 - Husband Guy wasn't supposed to run that far ahead of us. He nearly lost us =D

weather	:		mixed rain & snow
outside	:		3.6°C
mood	:		...

Facebook sues Ont. porn company over alleged hacking

A) The porn company already has the information and could have already sold it to any number of other parties by now.

Some of those Facebook apps require credit card information.

B) Facebook is suing this one company for hacking, but ALLOWS a frazillion other companies wide open access to your information through those apps. You are required to select the box that says "Allow this application to... Know who I am and access my information" for every single one you add. You can't add one without selecting this. They already have access to everything.

Whatever "binding agreement" these app developers have with Facebook to not do horrible things means almost nothing. I used to work as IT staff for a marketing firm, there are always ways to get around those.

They can give the information to their parent company or an affiliated company, for example. The other company is not bound by the same agreement.

From what I remember of the meetings and conversations with the business stakeholders, they can meet certain requirements and it would be completely legal for them to do things to you that still felt like it ought to be illegal.

weather	:		mixed rain & snow
outside	:		3.6°C
mood	:		impressed

Wow. OMG. British Airways.

I am agog and impressed over the fact that they actually listened.

Earlier this summer, I had written to the Contact for the British Airways website feedback. They have an incredibly impressive list of Titles available for their Executive Club online registration.

However, they were missing a few. So, I wrote to them to say that they were missing "His Excellency" and "Her Excellency" for current Canadian Governor Generals and spouses.

They were also missing "The Right Honourable", abbreviated "Rt Hon" for retired Canadian Governor Generals, current and retired Canadian Prime Ministers, and current and retired Canadian Chief Justices.

Lo and behold.

Those are now in the list!! =)

weather	:		snowing
outside	:		-1.9°C
mood	:		hmmm...

Every now and again, my imagination runs away with me.

I saw something that mentioned Mars on TV. And I thought...

Wouldn't it be frightening if, the further they investigated Mars, they actually find an intelligent industrial civilization that fucked up the planet with their pollution and over-use of natural resources?

Yes, I even think in great big long — but grammatically correct — sentences.

weather	:		showers
outside	:		6.0°C
mood	:		...

I communicate with all walks of life within the corporate environment. They can be VPs all the way down to fellow peons. They can be über-technical or complete n00b-tards (of course, I'm a complete n00b-tard in their domain too, so we all balance each other out). They have every single personality type possible =)

Most of them don't read your entire message. This is just the reality of our world and I've long since given up on any feelings I have on the matter. What's left is to structure my messages accordingly.

I write e-mail in layers.

If they don't read past the Subject line, what do I want them to know?

If they only read the first sentence, what do I want them to know?

If they only read the first paragraph, what do I want them to know?

And after the first paragraph, I go into detail. But at that point, it's actually a reference for myself. I'm prepared to have to say it or write it again in smaller chunks. I crack all the jokes about it that I can. Because, see, it is for my own health. =)

I'm always elated when, on the off chance, they do read carefully to the end. I've taken to embedding little funny turn of phrases or something funny, just as a Thank You to those who do. =)

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		24.3°C
mood	:		amused

Because kvance did it too.

Because I am required by law to take this quiz. I didn't think I had much hope of beating my Nerd Test 1.0 score, but I had to anyway =)

It wasn't very hard... I'm actually not that nerdy and I scored pretty high.

I was miffed at the triple integral question:

∫ ∫ ∫

"If you encounter the above symbol while doing work, what should you do?"

Well... I do those by hand. To be fair, the ones I did were cooked up to solve nicely to prove a point.

But a) there's nothing to do in this case. There has to be a whole lot more written out than just those three esh symbols. And b) I'd much rather optimize a linear objective function subject to linear equality/inequality constraints. Although it's not that nerdy, it was by far the most fun undergrad Math course I did.

weather	:		19.5
outside	:		mainly clear°C
mood	:		...

Today was comical. One preference check box was causing confusion in Live. It affected the way some data was being fetched, so it had a big impact on performance depending on how it was used.

The label on the box was three giant sentences and written in the most confusing way with made-up technical buzzwords that made no sense to anyone. Users didn't understand it and people didn't use the option correctly... which was why we were receiving complaints about performance.

I'm asked what the label should say. I wasn't even supposed to get involved. I was asked so that my opinion could be officially ignored. =D =D It's okay, it happens all the time. And therein, I get sucked into a whole vortex of e-mail threads debating what the label on the box should be.

It was just so ridiculously much attention heaped onto one little goddamned box that made me think of the One Child policy in China. =) When there's a kid in the family, there are a whole pile of adults all fawning over the kid. Two parents and two sets of grandparents, makes at least six adults to one child.

Except, it involved development, QA, tech writers, managers and folks from the business side. It was all eyes on the Princess Tickybox.

This tickybox is going to grow up to be a spoiled rotten, brat-assed, selfish prick supreme of all tickyboxes. You mark my words. XD =D =D

Some random thoughts on labels and tickyboxes:

There is a difference between negating a verb and a word that has a negative connotation. I agree that it's generally good practice to avoiding verb negation, but it is absurd to refuse to say exactly what you mean just because the word has a negative connotation.

For that matter, if using a negated verb makes for a more clear and concise message, then DO IT. Style Guide be DAMNED.

NEVER say "click here to do X" unless user is actually supposed to click on the word "here". And even then, it's clumsy wording and usually not necessary. It's also inaccurate. The user doesn't have to click on a check box. They can press TAB in the dialogue until the focus is on the box and press then the spacebar. No clicking involved.

Instead, I'd use "select" and "clear" for check box actions.

weather	:		partly cloudy
outside	:		16.8°C
mood	:		...

I am now enrolled as a customer of Work. I feel like a cheesy low-budget daytime TV commercial... not only do I work here, I'm also a client! *aigh* =D

I asked about it years ago and was given the contact person's name, but I've only recently worked up the courage to ask to enroll. I don't know why I was so afraid of being rejected. The regular "worst they can do is say no" kind of pep thinking wasn't helping. But they were happy to have me on board and I could really use first hand experience for real life scenarios.

I didn't say anything about the bank machine incident, just in case. XD

And Holy Mo! I knew we had some usability issues, but now that I have to do things for real, the wonky spots are jumping out at me like never before. It's a bit of a shift in feeling to use it for real and not just for testing purposes. I definitely have ideas on how to help the UI and supporting documentation.

There's one data field that is particularly insane. What the answer is, depends on where you are, what you're doing and where your bank account was born. It really isn't our fault that it's so bananas. It's the banking industry and their bajillion and one codes to route payments in different ways.

The net result is, the label on this data field won't match any vocabulary that your bank's customer service folks would be familiar with. It's this if you're in Canada, it's that if you're in the US, and it's the other thing if you're in Europe. *bzuh* That's confusion that we should try to alleviate.

We could do a better job explaining what we want in this field, what the data we're expecting looks like, how many digits, what format, what magic words to use when asking the bank, etc. The folks at one bank of mine took a guess based on as much as I knew to tell them. I'm not sure if it's entirely right. It's probably close enough, but I won't know until I ask. My other bank told me to "just give them a void cheque and they'll figure it out for you" =D

There are also silly things like a secondary window that only appears if there has been a modification to the main window. I found myself wanting to see the secondary window without making changes, so I wound up having to make a tiny non-modifying change and saving the form to bring it up.

This is not really an acceptable workaround because the Audit Trail will be a sea of stupid little flips and farts which obscures the consequential changes I've made.

I could go on, but I think everyone's dead from boredom now. =) *sigh* One day at a time. One change at a time.

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		19.6°C
mood	:		...

Meet Pip. =)

Short for Philip Pirrip, of course. =) He's slightly less than 3 pounds, from Osaka and is a Fujitsu Lifebook P7230. Not terribly exciting really. I just wanted something smaller and lighter. Pip has a lot of things that I'm not sure I'll use... like the built in webcam and the fingerprint sensor.

So far, it's a little cramped, but I think it will be okay. It gets interesting if I'm on AC power and need the USB port and I want to eject the CD slot. I much prefer to use my USB mouse over the touchpad, so I plug it into the other side. But that means I'll have to figure out how to plug my memory stick in. =P

I opted for XP. I've finally gotten the environment to a point where I've stopped having the urge to dig my eyes out with a spoon again.

Office 2007 looks like an ass clown shat all over it. Holy cripes, I hope whoever designed that has long since OD'ed on whatever they're snorting, smoking or shooting rather than have to live with the embarrassment of being credited with that piece of shit.

On top of the eye-bleeding ugliness, there's a big fat yellowy-orange Office button that DOES NOT STOP BLINKING and couldn't be turned off easily. There is no way to revert it back to a "classic" UI without buying and installing third party utilities. I uninstalled it, I didn't even want to try it for the whatever duration free trial I have. I would use OpenOffice in a heartbeat, but there are too many quirks with trying to open/edit/view/save the same files between MS Office and OpenOffice. You either can't fix certain things or you have to keep fixing them every single time.

Speaking of pieces of shit (it never ends, does it?), IE 7 is somehow displaying images from domains that I have redirected to 127.0.0.1 in my /etc/hosts file. I've saved changes, cleared the browser cache, deleted cookies and temp files, restarted the browser and even rebooted (shut down, count to 10, power back up). I know it's been done correctly because SeaMonkey behaves as it should with those blocked domains.

Anyway, my Mother-in-Law will be using my Dell.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		24.5°C
mood	:		...

... for certain values of "fun". =\

I won the Totally Weird & Convoluted Bug Award at Work. Well, I win that all the time, but today's thing was particularly whacky. I saw a bizarre symptom of the problem that seemed to only happen to me and no one else. It took a whole day and a half to hunt down the exact conditions (very specific species of butterfly, very special sneeze).

I also crashed an ATM.

It ate my card, rebooted itself and barfed BIOS settings all over. Did you know that they're still running OS/2 Warp? =D

I've seen/heard about the ATM card scam. I'm fairly sure it wasn't that. No one tried to help me, ask for my PIN or anything shady like that. I always use the same machine at the same branch and the card slot didn't look odd or different to me.

I think I'll go back later this evening to see if it finished rebooting or what it's doing.

Anyway, I will be going to a bank branch tomorrow morning, but I wrote to the online banking support folks about the incident. I wanted to have a written record of things (branch, bank machine, date time stamp) so that I wouldn't be held responsible for usage of the card after it was eaten.

[Update - 2032h]

I went back out to check on the machine. It had finished booting up and was cycling through the "Please insert your card" screens. That worried me at first. I thought someone might have fished my card out. But I tried my credit card and it wouldn't accept it, so I think my card is still stuck inside.

I would have cancelled before I went through with that transaction because cash advances are loan sharking. I'd rather not have money than use my credit card for cash.

So, now the bank has security surveillance of me jabbing and then peering into the card slot. *sigh*

[Update - 2053h]

The Husband told me to change the PIN. Yeah, you need the card to change the PIN, Smart Guy™ XD

[Update - Friday, August 03, 2007 - 1328h]

I have a temporary card now... and cash for the weekend... and laughed at uproariously by cow-orkers for crashing a bank machine. S'all good. =)

weather	:		clear
outside	:		11.8°C
mood	:		squeeful

I have a new phone. Well, I've had a new phone for a while.

I now tote along a Sony Ericsson W810i with a crystal case. My phone is white, but the crystal case shows up better on a black phone.

I got a Nokia 5300 for my Dad. He hates flip phones, but he also wants something small. That narrows down the choices considerably. The Nokia 5300 is a bit of a compromise — a slider. It's still a good size brick, but we'll see what he says. If he likes the Sony Ericsson better, I'll give him that and I'll take the Nokia. I like the sliding thing better, but the Sony Ericsson has better features.

In the meantime, I've discovered that I can't use MP3s for ring tones. That was supremely poopty for a while. So, I've finally gotten around to searching for good MIDIs of my favorite songs.

Thus far, I have:

• Congratulations, Ah My Goddess
• The Secret of Monkey Island Opening Theme
• Danny Boy
• Picard's Ressican Flute Piece, The Inner Light
• Star Trek: TNG Theme
• Star Trek: First Contact Theme
• Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Theme
• The Legend of Zelda Theme
• Kakariko Village, Zelda III

The first four made me very very squeeful. =) The Congratulations from Ah My Goddess was a particularly exciting find because it's the adagio arrangement and it's more rare than the regular upbeat allegro arrangement.

Not all of them are good for ring tones though. Some of them start off too mellow. Good ring tones really need to start with a burst of sound.

No one has a good conversion of the Ba'ku Village Theme from Star Trek: Insurection. The best one I've found still drops too many notes =P But I've tried converting MP3s to MIDI myself, so I can appreciate how difficult it is to compensate for the loss of data. Just doing "Congratulations" had me fuming so hard.

Anyway. Very. Squee. Yes. =D

[Update]

HOLY SHIT!!!! I just found the Moderato and Andante Semplice movements to the Danse Russe suite from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. WOW! Wowowowow!!! And it starts off really nicely for a ring tone too!!! =D =D =D

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		9.8°C
mood	:		pissy

Dear Company That Gives Me Web Access to My Records,

<a href="javascript: DocViewWindow= window.open(' DocViewWait.asp?DocViewIndex=0 &Hash=74a1bf22274e4d157910f304494de904 &OpenWindowType=1', '_blank', 'scrollbars=yes, resizable=yes, status=yes, width=785, height=575'); DocViewWindow.focus();">Link</a>

This is the most phenomenally bad idea.

This is how I'm supposed to get a pre-generated, archived PDF. The first time I log in, I have about 30+ of these PDFs to download for my own records.

Serving them to me this way means that I have to left-click on each hyperlink individually, wait for the PDF to open in Acrobat, then click the Save button. Because they are Javascript links, I'm forced to left-click. I cannot right-click, Save Target As. That also means I cannot go middle-click, middle-click, middle-click, middle-click, down the list and let each of them load while I read or do something else.

Because that wasn't annoying enough, all the files are named "DocView.pdf" by default. So, I have to manually change the file name myself if I want to save them to the same folder.

If there were dynamic content generated on the fly in these PDFs, I can maybe understand. But these are pre-generated, pre-archived, static content PDF files. There's no reason why you can't just give me a link to a uniquely named PDF file so I have the choice of either viewing it online or just right-click, SaveAs, ENTER.

Either HIRE some Quality Assurance Analysts, or START LISTENING TO THEM when they tell you that the usability is shitty and do something about it.

This is exactly the kind of thing that customers don't complain about, but causes them to just stop doing business with you.

-- Me

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		14.8°C
mood	:		...

So, the latest toy is LinkedIn. I'm in there under my maiden name. You're very welcome to add me if you're so inclined. The e-mail address is my first name at gmail dot com =)

I caved. *bibble* I was resisting joining yet another online toy just to play for a while and then have no idea what to do with afterwards. But it seems to be very accommodating for resumé-like info and I've always thought it was a good idea to have a copy of the resumé ready to go at any time anyway.

I've found a lot of people I know/knew... including a lot of LJers on my Friends List and people not on my Friends List. Yeah, I'm connected to a lot more people than that, I'm just not sure what the protocol is for adding people. Granted, the user base should be a lot more mature than certain other networkie sites, but still... when I go to add someone, I hesitate, like "What if they don't _want_ to be associated with me? What if they don't want my piddly recommendation?" =P

I took the opportunity to write some recommendations for people I'd worked with in the past, people who I enjoyed working with and who I wanted to thank for making work interesting. I plan to write some for current colleagues next. That's somewhat more intimidating to me.

It's also made me pause to wonder when might be a good time to switch to my married name entirely. "Not now" seems to be the only conclusion I can come to.

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		9.1°C
mood	:		...

Because I have nowhere else to put this:

Software user interface buttons should not contain more than one single word (two in extenuating circumstances) and, as a rule of thumb, it should be a verb unless it's an OK button. Make an exception if the situation warrants it, but be sure it actually is an exception.

Aside from being tidier, we have to translate the button text into French and Italian. French always takes up 1.5 to double the amount of space that English does... sometimes more. French words are longer and French grammar takes more words to cover the same thing. Italian is not quite as verbose, but it does tend to run a little longer than English in general.

An example of this is a button that says Save Bank Information which is technically inaccurate because it's actually the Bank Account Information which includes the Bank's Information. This ends up being Sauvegarder l'Information de Compte Bancaire in French and Salva l'Informazione di Conto Bancario in Italian.

There's just no way. XD

And for the nerdy linguaphiles (okay, just me):

The verb for button text should be in the present imperative second person singular form in English; infinitive form in French; and the present imperative, formal second person singular form in Italian. If you want to be ultra-formal, use the infinitive in Italian... but that tends to be very very impersonal as well.

Warning or error messages that ask the user to "please [do something]" should be in the present imperative, formal second person singular form in French ("veuillez [faire quelque chose]"), and the present imperative, formal second person singular form in Italian ("[faccia qualcosa]"). And the word please (s'il vous plait; per favore) is generally omitted because the sentiment is included in the formal form of the verb conjugation.

Status names in English, French and Italian should to be the past participle of a verb and should grammatically fit into the phrase "it has been ____".

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		1.8°C
mood	:		exhausted

My week has been a frazillion of these little things.

I fought with IIS6 today... I think I won. But I feel very wounded nonetheless.

We install our system with Windows shell scripts. I know we could have picked a real scripting language, but we were limited in choice to A) things that don't require installing anything extra and B) easily understood and modifiable by SysAdmin who, at Work, are all black belts in Windows shell scripting.

They're the ones actually using it, so that's what we're doing.

We need this because as the system scales out, there will be more and more different components to install.

An installation involves uninstalling and installing 5 services, backing up and upgrading 3 SQL Server 2003 databases, uninstalling and installing 4 web applications, one of which is a Web Service and one web app has three locales.

And, ... there ... will ... be ... more. One service and one web app is already waiting in the wings. And I'm quite positive there will be more services, more web apps, possibly more databases just because of the projected work coming up.

So, anyway, we need something to automate the installation.

We're also moving the entire suite from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0, so we're in that painful in-between time right now.

The web applications have to have their ASP.NET version set to 2.0 in IIS otherwise, nothing works. No big deal. %windir%\system32\aspnet_regiis.exe will do this for us.

My installation suddenly fails. That's REALLY not a good thing. I have an entire team of QA who are waiting for the morning build. I have to balance it between figuring out exactly what's wrong versus tweak it however I need to to get it going.

aspnet_regiis.exe takes "the path" of the application. Microsoft uses the backslash as the separator for paths. The VERY MOMENT I had gotten used to this, I'm hit with an "path not found" error and the thing barfed electrons all over my new pants.

For example: Aspnet_regiis.exe -s W3SVC/1/ROOT/MyApp

FRAAAAAAAA!!! So, this is the ONE situation that Microsoft decides to use THE FORWARD SLASH for paths.

So, that's dandy. UNTIL. Until I have to try to hammer in the web site name passed into the script as an environment variable. That example only shows you how to register your app under the Default Web Site. QA does install to the Default and some environments install to Default, but not all. And SysAdmin names them different things; we won't really know what they can be or will be.

aspnet_regiis.exe takes, as a parameter, "the path". But this is the Metabase path where one of components is the ugly-ass nine-digit Instance ID of the web site name. It's not displayed anywhere in inetmgr... at least, I couldn't find it. I only knew because I ran iisweb /query and it listed all the local IIS web sites with their Instance IDs. Microsoft couldn't be sane or anything and let you just use the web site name. No, that would be no fun. *eye roll*

ASP.NET Support had released ASPNETMapping_norestart.vbs to scry the Instance ID from the name and do it all for you.

That's wonderful. EXCEPT. Except it hooped itself up badly enough that it took me a while to unhoop it. It works fine, but it can't exit. When it hangs like that, it keeps a handle on the folder. Which meant I couldn't delete the folder.

It took me a while to find that both wscript and cscript were still holding on to it. As soon as I killed the the wscript process, it was fine. If I killed the cscript first, nothing happens. I changed the default script host to CScript and it worked like a charm. Even though we're always running it as %windir%\system32\cscript ASPNETMapping_norestart.vbs ..., ASPNETMapping_norestart.vbs makes a call to aspnet_regiis.exe, which then uses the default script host. And in WScript mode, I'm betting it popped up a confirmation and was waiting for me to press "OK". Only I'd never see it because I'm running a remote script. Even if I logged in with Remote Desktop, the popup is not in my session so it wouldn't have appeared.

Now I'm torn.

I could just making the ASP.NET version set to 2.0 as a prerequisite for installation. This makes it SysAdmin's responsibility to do it. They're okay with that as long as we tell them ahead of time and document it... which I think I do a decent job at.

But, I feel like I'm so close to getting this done. I'd just have to set it in the script — %windir%\system32\cscript //H:CScript //Nologo //B. The danger in doing this though, is that it's a global setting for the machine and I don't want to blast it, in case they had other scripts that needed to be run with WScript.

I could even set it to CScript, then set it back to WScript afterwards. But there's no way to see what it was before changing it, so I can't be guaranteed that I would be putting it back to what they had. Ah well. I e-mailed the SysAdmin crew explaining it and leaving the decision up to them. I haven't heard back. I'm guessing I'll talk to someone about it on Monday.

Oh wait, I think I just found a way to do this. I'll have to try that on Monday.

Hmm... I don't think that will work either. Scrying for WScript needs human intervention =\

Oh, duh. I wonder if I could just explicitly make the aspnet_regiis.exe call a CScript call in the ASPNETMapping_norestart.vbs... Yeah, I'll try that on Monday.