Fairweather Zealot

Well, it took almost a month, but here they are – my future broken resolutions for the year (√ = a stretch goal) Continue reading

It’s been a long year. I don’t know that I have ever worked this hard day in and day out to make it through a year. But at the same time, I gave me the opportunity to do a lot of great things. Among the highlights: Continue reading

Well, I finally feel like I’ve gotten somewhere with the projects that I have been working on, both at my ‘real’ job and the side projects. A big shout out to VanK, Man of JavaScript Mystery for his work on my UPenn project, aka the Polls from the 7th Level of Hell. Now, I just have to put to bed the Project That Shall Not Be Named, Continue reading

I’m feeling pretty down and stupid at the moment. I’ve really been stressed about a project that I’m working on, and it seems like I can’t get my head around the most simple of concepts. Van has been a life-saver so far, happily making up for my coding naivety with fix after fix because I’m just not getting it. Continue reading

I had a situation yesterday that I was unsure what to do. I was in the men’s room and suddenly heard somebody retching in one of the stalls. What does one do in this situation? Do you ignore it – to save that person’s dignity? Or do you ask if they are okay? Continue reading

This has been another really long week … and it’s not even done yet. It looks like it’s going to be the second straight week that I’ve put in 65+ hours between my ‘real’ job and the side job that Van and I are working on (I knew that I shouldn’t have let my XHTML/CSS skills get rusty). Continue reading

It’s been another crazy week at work – both the day job and the side job I’m working on with Van. I can’t seem to get caught up, and I’m exhausted. But there’s a lot more to do – I’ll be working on the UPenn stuff all weekend. It’s a bit depressing how much I’ve forgotten code- and CSS-wise since I have been doing so little of it. I feel like a rank amateur trying to code these pages to make them look nice… *sigh*. Hopefully I’ll have something worthwhile to show on Monday Tuesday.

The Next Signs of the Apocalypse

• Dog-chewed Vick Cards Sell for over $1,000 on eBay – Ya have to laugh
• Haddonfield Teens Get Off Easy For Trashing Home – This sickens me that these kids not only aren’t being punished, but have ZERO remorse and parents who cover for them
• The Happening by M. Night Shyamalan – they’re shooting this across the street from my office.
• Elizabeth and the Catapult – a new singer that I’m currently digging – a cross between Sarah McLachlan and Nellie McKay. Check out songs 1 & 4

I’m currently working on a project for a hemophilia product from a major pharmaceutical company. In the midst of working on it, there is a reference to another product that triggered a memory of a past project – one that I did when I was working for Waresoft. Back then, it was a project coming up with a combination of Flash, HTML and JavaScript tools for Humate-P, made by ZLB Behring.

In this project, I was tasked to do three things:

1. Update a flash animation comparing Humate-P and other products
2. Create a dosing calculator that allowed a user to put in their weight and the amount of Van Willebrand factor (VWF) they wanted in the bloodstream
3. Create handy chart for the doctors to see a complete list of comparable weight and VWF levels

Well, since I was thinking about the old project, I went to see how it was looking – and it’s up and running on their site. It works pretty well, too. You can see the different aspects of it here:

Humate-P Densitometric Analysis – click on the “Click here” link at the top of the page to launch Flash.

Dosage Calculator

Complete Dosage Chart

Granted, I only adapted and improved the first, and got a TON of help from Van in creating the JavaScript for the Dosage Calculator, but I think it turned out pretty well. I remember that trying to sync up the voice and animation in Flash was a major nightmare; ironically, knowing Flash 8 a little better now, I realize that there was a much easier way to do it than I did. Oh well, stuff happens.
Aahhh, the salad days…

Big excitement at work yesterday when the place started filling up with smoke. The conversation between my co-worker and I:

ME: Hmm, do you smell smoke?
Chris: Yeah … I think I do.
ME: But not an unpleasant smell – is it … is it…?
Chris: It smells like incense.
ME: Do we do that around here?
Chris: Who knows … could be.

[ chatter from outside ]

ME: Wait, are they talking about the smoke out there?
Chris: Yeah – maybe we should be concerned?

[ from outside: "it's like a fireplace at Christmas" ]

ME: She’s right. Kind of odd to be smelling here, though.
Chris: Think we should be concerned now?

[ from outside: “Hey, is that smoke coming from your office?” “Yeah, I think it is.”

ME: Yes.

Continue reading

Well, this was NOT the best Sunday I’ve ever had. I wasn’t feeling well most of the weekend – some sort of ear infection that’s been intermittent for the last month or so – and we still had a LOT to do on Saturday, along with a particularly unsavory task set up for Sunday. Continue reading