It took me two days to write all this.

August 11, 2004

For some reason Google has me on the 9th page of results when searching the web for “andrew self” instead of at LEAST the first page where I belong. That’s pretty much a slap in the face, and I’m not sure what happened for me to deserve that dubious honor. The 9th page? Ouch. Heck, I even found references to me from other websites listed before my own website! I don’t understand how their page ranking system works, but I’m trying to figure out a way to get myself back on the first page. I was number one once, gosh darn it I can do it again! I guess it’s not really that important, but you know, when I search Google for something, I usually give up after the fourth or fifth page. Maybe that’s just me.

After all the rush to get one of the projects finished, we’re still working on it. Apparently that was an arbitrary deadline, and I’m doing more work now than I was prior to the deadline. It’s not that I’m slow or didn’t know what to do beforehand, but the problem is that the company we’re working for keeps changing their back end, which then breaks our software. They seem to be breaking things more than fixing them, though, which is a real pain in the ass for our programmers. Thankfully, my job is to call in the programmers and not do the actual programming, so I can pretty much just tool around with the software and make sure that things are working properly. The most frustrating is that bugs are being reported that I know used to work. Most of the time it’s due to some change they made, but occasionally we have a slip-up here. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to repeat any of the test suite.

Frankly, we should have started our testing about a week from now. That is, when they get their back end in a place where it could be considered stable and feature-complete.

My speakers on my desktop computer decided to quit on me. Well, that’s not entirely true. The speakers themselves are fine, but the subwoofer decided to start crackling. That seemed a bit odd to me. Whenever it’s plugged in, though, I hear lots of popping and crackling coming from the sub, and that happens even with the sound muted. So I had to buy a new set of speakers, and even though the model I have now is four-speaker, I’m only currently using two. So I just bought a $25 pair of speakers that people really like, but since I’m not using my desktop as much I don’t really care about sound that much anymore. I mean, it IS important and it IS my stereo, but I’m not watching movies on it anymore. If there $25 speakers are half as good as people say they are, I’ll be satisfied. Plus, I don’t have room for surround sound in my room, alas. I was able to do it in my dorm room at Beloit because I oriented my couch across the room from my computer, which meant that I could use the back of the couch as a stand for the speakers. But since behind my computer is my dresser…well, that won’t work. And besides, there just simply isn’t room in my, er, room.

Makes me wish I hadn’t given away my excellent Microsoft speakers to Dan when I got new ones in college. What a shame. Those were the best speakers I’ve ever owned. Oh well, c’est la vie. But if I visit you and you still own those speakers, Dan, you might find them missing when I’m gone.

I used up a bit more of my gift card for Kitchen Kaboodle that I got for my birthday last year from my Dad. I bought a juicer–one of the kind where you twist the orange/lime/lemon/whatever over a cone and it squeezes the juice out–and a nice, new chopper. One of those “As Seen on TV” kind of things, where you place the item to be chopped underneath it and press down on the handle on top, and blades come down and chop, then twist so you get an even chop. It’s handy for doing garlic so you don’t have to get your fingers messy, and it’s especially good for dicing things like onions that tend to fall apart and spread out on the cutting board. I had one that I bought at Fred Meyer before, but it was kind of crappy and so I left it for my Mom when I moved out. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly good and chops well, but the blade didn’t always rotate like it was supposed to. I used it a lot, and so I noticed things like that, but if she even uses it it’s fine for what she would do with it. But since I haven’t used my own new chopper yet, I can only assume it works well. The only other purchase I’ve made with the gift card was a pizza paddle to go along with my pizza stone, but after that and my two most recent purchases I still have $30-something left to go. I can ALWAYS find something I want, but the real trick is getting something I NEED. Since I don’t have my own kitchen at the moment (that is, my kichen stuff is still mixed with someone else’s) I’m not sure what else I need, but I just want to make sure that it doesn’t expire before I can use it all. It’s a conundrum. But thanks, Dad. Since I haven’t used up the card completely, it’s the gift that keeps on giving….

Come to think of it, I haven’t made pizza since I’ve been living with my sister. Maybe it’s time to give that a shot, especially since Walla Wallas are in season, and sweet onions go very, very well with the kind of pizza I like to make. Hmmm….

And that’s about all I can think of to write about for now. My head feels like it’s swimming, though I’m not sure why. I haven’t really eaten today, so that may have something to do with it. I’m off to lunch in a bit, so I’m sure I’ll fill myself up with something at least partially nutritious.

Until next time.

Posted in Beloit, Geekery, General