Perceptions, Programming and Pollution

The word of the week is renewal.

April 1 - Foolish

Most of today went by in a blur at work.

So it wasn't until the evening that I realized that the entire day had gone by and I hadn't seen hide nor hair of any jokes whatsoever.

Is April Fool's Day dead?

Do you or anybody you know still keep the tradition of the day alive? Does anyone out there even know the origins of April Fools' Day? I do, but I wonder if one of the reasons that people don't seem to care much about keeping it alive, though I have to say that if it means that if you are cruel jokes are played on people then I won't be too sad to see it gone.

What do you think?

April 2 - SQL?

Right now there's a yellow book sitting on my coffee table, glaring at me.

It's a copy of 'SQL For Dummies' and I'm only a little way through it but already I am rather intimidated.

The reason I'm reading this book is because a member of my writing group thinks that I'd be perfect for a position they're looking to hire for. Said position's requirements include logical thinking, the ability to analyze things thoroughly and of course being able to understand SQL - I have two of those three, you see.

I'm not a programmer, I'm a writer and there's a world of difference between the two. I could barely make Telly Turtle make a pattern on the screen back when we were programming the ancient UNIX machines in high school. C++ code is beyond me, but I do have hope that I'll be able to get my brain around SQL as it's an English-based language designed to deal with databases. At this point, that's all I really know and I've been struggling to get my head around the simple terminology that the book starts out with - but I like a challenge and this one comes with the reward of a steady, well-paying job.

Talk to me again in a few weeks and will see where I'm at with SQL.

April 3 - Renewal

The last three days have been very bad ones for me.

A lot of things came to a head this past weekend with family and personal matters, so much so that it all overwhelmed me. Normally I have the ability to deal with major issues but these past few days left me feeling almost literally stunned: it felt like I had a 5-foot distance from everything around me and I was walking in a bubble. When I went out to shop today, I distinctly recall getting an odd look from the cashier as she gave me back my change and wished me a good day; she looked uncertain as to whether she should or not and uncertain as to what I would say. Given the 'bubble effect' that I was experiencing, I still plainly recall wishing her a nice day as well and heading home, wondering what expression was on my face that was different from what I thought was there - that's an odd feeling, too.

But tonight my ship rebalanced myself, taking me back from the edge of capsizing, thanks in part to my sister and in part to my own inner core of confidence, self and sheer stubborn willpower. The little voice inside my head that chuckles at the notion that things will improve spoke up after being absent for the last little while and I listened with a careful ear once again.

Progress.

April 4 - Firefox and Me

Firefox used to be my friend, but we've parted ways this year.

Sure, that sounds strange, but I've been using Firefox for a decade now and it's been my go-to browser of choice for its flexibility and cutting-edge features.

Unfortunately, sometimes I cutting-edge can cause you some grief and that seems to be what's happened yet again with Firefox on my system. It continues to crash consistently every time I run it for more than 5 minutes, sometimes even mere seconds after I start it.

Why is this important? Well, I used to look things up during the week and leave their tabs open for me to refer back to when I was writing my blog. Not anymore, thanks to the crashes. Now I leave a note here and there about what I might want to cover in the blog and don't refer to the things I found via the web using Firefox. Sure, it's a little disappointing but that's why have more than one browser installed on my computer: to be flexible just in case things like this happen.

Eventually I'll manage to figure out what's wrong with Firefox but for now it slumbers on my system. I already miss it but there's not much I can do until I work out what's the matter.

April 5 - Light Pollution

I'm not an astronomer, but I do like the night sky - full of stars, mind you.

Most nights, I can't see any but the brightest stars in the sky above; living in urban areas for most of my life has meant that it's been very rare that I've seen the sky as it is in full dark.

The sad thing is, most people in North America, Europe and other industrial areas of the world see the same thing: sky obscured by light pollution.

For most people, this is such a small issue compared to so many of the things we have to worry about that it usually doesn't make it onto their radar. That's a shame, as there's more than a few good reasons to ensure that we aren't wasting things these days, including outdoor lighting.

There's an organization in the UK that sprung up to try and raise awareness about light pollution across the world: Need-Less.Org.UK is their site. It's worth noting that they have a simple message and start out by saying that it's quite true that few people really give thought to the issue, which is refreshing.

As for me, I just want to be able to take up astronomy without having to travel for hours to get away from urban areas; I think that's why I never really seriously pursued stargazing, which is a shame.

April 6 - A Real Tricorder?

I thought I had already posted about this years ago; apparently not!

Ever since Star Trek hit the airwaves back in the 1960s, the word 'tricorder' has been with us. It's been the dream of many to make a real tricorder and we've seen quite a few things that Star Trek first proposed on television come to pass in reality( see How William Shatner Changed The World ).

Yet a working tricorder has eluded being created, until Peter Jansen decided to tackle it.

He recently had a great interview over at Tested.com, where he talks about the FOUR tricorders he's built in the last few years, Mark I through Mark IV. These are all cutting-edge, high-tech devices that replicate most of the functions of the tricorder we all know from television, even down to the visuals and sounds. Check out the video below and be amazed at how one man has made fiction into reality:

April 7 - What hours?

It was a short shift today at work, which was nice as it was very busy.

Right now I seem to be in flux when it comes to schedules, as shown by this week having me on for a total of 13 hours split among three days - kind of lucky, eh? A catch-as-can attitude seems to be the prevailing one when it comes to designing the schedule and that means that I have to keep my days open in case they want to call me in to work. As it stands right now, I've been told I'm working tomorrow and will likely have to keep checking each day to see if they want me to come in again on the following one. Seeing as I have over a month to go until my 90-day probationary period is over, I'll just have to wing it day to day and week to week until I'm finally fully-trained and able to be scheduled with full-time hours. 

I have to say that I'm really enjoying working with everyone there, including all the managers, and that the overall attitude of the location is very positive. The sheer busyness of each day means that there's not very much time at all for one to socialize with one's coworkers; a few minutes a day seems to be the norm to catch up on how other people are doing.

I'm tired... this week took a LOT out of me, between my mental and physical states. I'm hoping that this coming week will let me have a more balanced experience, where I can get things DONE instead of having to deal with other... stuff.