One Busy Week, One Busy Weekend...
I've been up since 5am this morning. I was at work by 6:30am. I left work at 5pm and got home just before 6 due to bumper-to-bumper traffic on 28-north. I woke up my laptop and set it on my desk... not ten minutes later, Vicky called to tell me she's leaving work, could I make dinner, and that an aunt had died.

Another day... the hits just keep on coming.

Servers, Applications, Databases, Message Queues, Clustering... Procedures.

The past month has been a crash course in enterprise Linux, LDAP, MediaWiki, MySQL, JBoss, Subversion, and CVS. I haven't read Washington Post or Penny Arcade in weeks. I haven't had time for news or television in almost two months. My work and my home projects have dominated my time.

I've learned alot in the past month. I've been working about 50-60 hours a week, not charging that many but only because I feel it makes up for the weeks I'm underworked. Subversion with WebDAV, a highly-customized MediaWiki with MySQL, optimizing SUSE Linux 9.2 Enterprise, and keeping a crippled CVS running until Subversion can replace it has been dominating my time. Writing build scripts with Cruise Control, Maven and integrating it into Wiki/WebSVN was another 10 hours today.

The end of the day was a bit disheartening... I hope it's ok to talk about a little office tech here, I don't divulge anything but the basic concepts. Likewise, I won't talk about co-workers or procedures... like our office tech, it's a work-in-progress (we're all learning, but a co-worker's minute of criticism is easier than twenty minutes of understanding).

Jump, Aim, Shoot, Dodge, Run... Adrenaline

Coded Arms is a fantastic game. By far, it's the definitive First Person Shooter (FPS) for the Sony PSP. Switch to "Control Type C" so that it plays like a PC: left joystick to look around, right WASD (u/d/l/r) to move. It's the control type for lefties, but it's also the control type for anyone who's ever played Halo, Doom, or Unreal on the PC.

In order to play Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition for over ten hours, I had to play in my "spare time" between a 50-hour week, weekend errands, and 3-5 hours of sleep a night. Less sleep so I could play Coded Arms for seven hours, still work 60 hours, and do errands.

Next Up...
If you're a close friend or family, you know what Vicky and I are trying to do. The first phase was without success. The second phase isn't covered by Aetna.

Just trying is going to cost $30,000... upfront, cash-please. It's coming out of our home equity, but Wells Fargo informed us they're a mortgage company, not a bank. So our Line-of-Credit will be going to PNC Bank, and our equity is being adjusted to nearly $150K. But that'll be this week... so between the stress of trying, the daunting tasks ahead, and refinancing, it's no wonder Vicky's stressed-and-depressed.
Ken Foreman 6:53 AM