Looking back, looking forward
News ·Thursday April 19, 2007 @ 19:11 EDT (link)
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The first entry (hubris much?) in this system is dated November 11, 2000, and I've been keeping an online journal since 1996, then using a static projects.html page on my University of Waterloo math undergrad account; that's over ten years of being on the web. In 1996 I was 18, and the world my oyster; I wouldn't mind being back in school again, although working with smart people to design new things at Microsoft is comparable.
If I may segue: the features we're designing for Word 14 are so new that I probably shouldn't write about them in detail here, but I do want to commit some thoughts about them. Enter private entries: I can now set a private flag on these entries and only view them myself; after all, the main point of this journal was record-keeping, and if nobody ever looked at it I'd still write in it. There are also topics I want to wrestle with without publicizing them, and since converting an entry to public is easy, it makes a good place to save drafts (against accidental tab closure or Firefox dying). The new entries show up locally only and have a different colored heading, and no, they won't show up even if you fish for them by index.
Get Rich Slowly, a site I've been reading, advises having a long-range financial plan, which sounds like a good idea. Right now they're highlighting a series of videos on investing—what are stocks, what are mutual funds, why diversify—which are interesting albeit basic.
Much progress has been made on the house: at the end of March when I wrote last they were finished structure, roofing, and siding, and mostly done drywalling. Now the drywalling is complete, they've replaced the broken windows (left of the front door, garage, bathroom, and one bedroom), and painting is nearly complete. There are some dents in the (new) siding that need to be resolved, and the new bathroom door seems slightly crooked, but aside from that it all looks good. Also, they painted our spare bedroom the same as the rest of the house, rather than the bright yellow it was before, which is great and I am sure will make Honey very happy.
Packed garage
The mortgage company has been very slow at returning our checks (they come from the insurance, who also won't win any speed awards, in our name and the lienholder, so we need to pass them through the mortgage company first, and slice off bits and pieces and send them to us randomly as thanks for the interest-free loan we're giving them). They're sending another 30% today, and then want an "affidavit of completion" to send the rest.
It's been an interesting time here; it's very quiet: I haven't been yelled or fussed at in ages, and I can go to sleep without anyone needing to make sure the covers are perfectly aligned. It reminds me of when I was single, when my pockets did jingle. Ha ha! Honey's been gone since the 6th and will be returning in just over a week (if I pick her up at the airport. I kill myself, I really do).
I started writing about code here, but it got so long that I moved it to its own entry. Enjoy. Next thing on my plate at work is to write some design documents for the new features I'm working on: collaboration and (to a lesser extent, at least in milestone one) server.
I picked up some implements of mass bamboo destruction at the hardware store, using the $250 Home Depot card our insurance gave us: a shovel and a hatchet, as well as some topsoil and bark to cover bare spots and holes (especially those caused by the windstorm; I have three trees tied up now, all of which need more earth), a rake to remove moss, and some grass seed and weed killer. Now I just need a sunny day and a clean garage.
Get Rich Slowly, a site I've been reading, advises having a long-range financial plan, which sounds like a good idea. Right now they're highlighting a series of videos on investing—what are stocks, what are mutual funds, why diversify—which are interesting albeit basic.