Working at Home

For the past 10 days I've been working at home (actually only 4 of those days, since I was depressed part of the time) on an APROM project. So far I have put in 16.33 hours on that project, which consists of writing the design specs for a new feature of our Guard Patrol Monitoring software. The new feature lets the guards use a cell phone to automatically text message our server (in the cloud, if you will) instead of using a wand-reader connected to a modem in order to transmit checkpoint data. Just 20 minutes ago I finished writing the specs and the next step is to lay out fake screens using Delphi (our development tool), which our programmers in China can use to develop the software. I'm currently waiting for Arvin to approve the specs I wrote.

Last Saturday I was depressed, and also last Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday (I had a job interview at A-Way Express that morning, which I canceled at the last minute, making the depression worse). A-Way is a courier company run by consumer/survivors, and I was on their waiting list for about a year. I had trouble sleeping last night, and tonight I couldn't sleep at all (not sleeping goes with the territory, i.e., switching from depression to being normal). I will probably work on my multi-player web-based Scrabble game in a little while.

Today (after the sun comes up) I'm going to read the Globe and Mail, pick up my meds, and buy cleaning supplies for Maria, my cleaning lady. Sunday I'm going to wash my hair, buy groceries, and get a haircut. Monday I'm going to trim my beard. Tuesday my sister arrives from Victoria for a 9-day visit. Two days ago I ordered a toner cartridge for my printer, which was delivered yesterday, and it cost me $90 before tax (or 5 cents per page, assuming it lasts for 2000 pages). I must email Susan, my brother's partner, who is doing my taxes, as I received a tax receipt for a charitable donation in the mail recently. I will give the receipt to my brother when we all get together after my sister arrives.

I am eager to finish my Scrabble game, so I can start working on the first version of the Clixmaker game engine (w/o missiles), which will largely be implemented in JavaScript. Missiles are animated objects. All other game objects are confined to grid cells or table cells, and are not animated. In 4.5 weeks I will attend the next monthly meeting of PyGTA, a local user group of Python programmers. Afterwards I will send an email to their mailing list, asking for Clixmaker-related feedback along with a link to my Clixmaker project forum (hosted by SourceForge). I need to email Myles Braithwaite first, as he is in charge of that user group. Hopefully I'll be able to recruit Python programmers from PyGTA to help me implement Clixmaker. Being the Clixmaker project leader will be a new role for me, and I'm not sure if I'm really up to the challenge, but I intend to give it a try.

Now I think I will retire to the couch and admire my design specs, which I have printed out (it's 5 pages long), and then I must psyche myself up to start doing some JavaScript programming (for my Scrabble game). It's been a long time since I have done any heavy Delphi coding, and I don't miss it that much. I used to like it, but now I have left Delphi behind, for the most part. Bye-bye, Delphi. Hello, Python/JavaScript. Only 5 hours to kill until the sun comes up and I can eat breakfast (I'm not allowed to eat breakfast when it's still dark outside).

Aerosmith -- Dream On in my head. I've discovered Jango, which lets me play free music. Google "lyrics", name of artist if known, song title or a lyric, click on Play, and it takes you to Jango (without logging in). I fear eventually Jango will wise up to my music-thievery scheme and then it will cut me off. I did sign up for Jango but after I log in it's hard to make it play the songs I want it to play. Well ain't I the long-winded one. Give it a rest, Mike. Have pity on the poor wretches who feel compelled to wade through these interminable blog posts I keep churning out. Au revoir, until next time.