04.29.08
Posted in health at 22:12 by swong
Been wanting to take up running again, but knee problems have kept me off of the road.
Looking to remedy this, I did a morally despicable thing. I called my doctor and scheduled an exam. They managed to squeeze me in the next day, and after a 20 minute wait in the waiting room and a 30 minute wait in the exam room, I was speaking to a doctor.
He prescribed an x-ray, though they don’t do them at that facility. The hospital a block up the street might do them. Hopefully they are approved by my health plan. Seems like an awkward thing to call around for, but I’ve had to do similar things in the past.
He suggested an MRI. Ok? I didn’t ask for one, but maybe it will help, and I heard lots of people demand them, so they must be good.
The office staff was nice and seemed efficient. I’ll get a referral to an orthopedic specialist in the mail in a few days. If my plan covers it. (This was explained to me).
All in all, good value for my $25 co-pay and Zeus knows what my insurer is picking up. Beats the hell out of waiting 3 months for an appointment in Canada or Tokyo. I’ll post more as more happens.
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04.23.08
Posted in development, work at 11:17 by swong
When you’re building something on a deadline, testing is not a magic fairy dust that you sprinkle on your product at the end.
You have to be prepared to deal with new findings. You have to be prepared to flip the switch and have the light bulb not turn on. You can’t stand around looking stunned, muttering “…but we tested it. It’s supposed to work, because we tested it. I don’t understand why it doesn’t work.”
Testing is a tool to help make stuff work, but not if you go through tests like rosary beads.
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04.22.08
Posted in the road at 21:21 by swong
New ride. A Suzuki V-Strom DL650, aka the “Wee” Strom. So I got a Wee. A black one. (The yellow ones are called “Bumblewees.”)
Good machine so far. Quiet, sounds a little like a car from the Jetsons. Silky smooth transmission. It’ll be nice once I get past the break-in period and can really open it up. Might need a new saddle; my crotch was going numb after 30 minutes. Updraft under my helmet threatened to rip my jaw off. I adjusted the windshield and will see if it helps tomorrow.
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04.21.08
Posted in work at 18:30 by swong
Gah… been stuck doing testing and documentation on the same set of HTML pages for the past two weeks. Every little change to the CSS spawns a fresh round of testing. It’s intricate, tedious work with little reward, especially when you get the same results every single time. I literally take screenshots of web pages and count pixels between lines and letters.
Three test cycles today. Started testing at 9AM, finished, and a noon update invalidated all of my morning’s work. Worked on another project for a while. Resumed testing, and a 4:55 update invalidated the next round’s work.
Tomorrow I’ll go in and generate documentation on this version that will be read between zero and one times. What? New comment in the CSS, you say? Guess I have to throw out all of the work I did and start over for the fifth time in two days.
Work like this is giving me serious second thoughts about my career as a web developer. I didn’t need a degree for this shit.
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04.17.08
Posted in pondering at 11:55 by swong
A quick primer on the hedonic treadmill. From Lexx.
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04.16.08
Posted in tech at 11:44 by swong
The thing that sucks about a prepaid phone is that every wrong number costs me a quarter. Every call for “Pedro” or “Jorge” or “Louis” or “Manny” (I field their calls on a regular basis). Every collections agency looking for one of those guys. Every time someone’s phone accidentally dials me from their pocket, it’s a quarter out of my pocket.
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04.10.08
Posted in best quote at 12:06 by swong
From this:
SIMPLICIO: Then what should we do with young children in math class?
SALVIATI: Play games! Teach them Chess and Go, Hex and Backgammon,
Sprouts and Nim, whatever. Make up a game. Do puzzles. Expose
them to situations where deductive reasoning is necessary. Don’t
worry about notation and technique, help them to become active and
creative mathematical thinkers.
(emphasis added)
*addendum: I wonder if this technique could be applied to other subjects, too.
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