Archives for October, 2004
Another Soggy One
It was another wet one last night, which is very odd for SoCal. Here it is, not even the end of October, and we’ve nearly hit our normal rainfall amount for the year. I bet we’re in for a damp one.
I get a late start today due to having to stay after hours at work to update “Ella”, the huge FileMaker solution that has been my life for the past 3 years. Since the solution is so heavily relied upon (job security), it can’t be taken down during the day, even for a few minutes. That means waiting until everyone has gone home for the night to do what I have to do. Thankfully, I’ve gotten the need for this down to once every month or two. When the system was growing like crazy, it seemed like I was pulling the late shift every week.
Still no progress on Yasu. I’ve had to put it down in order to deal with a couple of paying gigs. However, they are coming to a point of completion, so I should be able to get back to development soon. And with that, the clock on the menu bar tells me it’s time to hit the road.
Storm Watch 2004…
Yes, it’s raining. Yes, it’s raining hard at times. And, yes, it’s raining really hard every once in a while. But seriously…
The way the local news makes things sound, you’d think we were barely living through some kind of a major natural disaster here on the West Coast. Ever since the El Ni̱o year of ‘94, it seems any time more than a few drops of rain fall in Southern California, we’re suddenly on “Storm Watch [Insert Current Year Here]“.
It’s all kind of amusing really, since I grew up in the mid-west (Colorado), and had to trudge a quarter mile (no joke) from the road to the farm house and back in howling blizzards (again, no joke) in order to keep the car from getting snowed in. That was just a fact of life back there, and you dealt with it. Out here, if a little water collects in an underground garage due to poor urban planning, it’s worthy of “up to the minute coverage”.
C’mon. Let’s get real…
Photolog Added
Since a picture says a thousand words, I took a little time this afternoon and integrated a photolog into the website. If you’re keen on seeing the sights of Surf City, this is the place to do it. Enjoy!
When It Rains…
It certainly pours. I’ve managed to load myself up on a hefty portion of projects that are all due in short order. That means Yasu moves to the bottom of the to do list (for now anyway). I’ve just picked up a commission to design a web site for my board shaper, Larry Myers of Harbor Isle Surfboards. He’s taking his shaping business to the next level, so he hopes to get a web presence going. Payment is a new board shaped for Kyle. A fair deal all around if you ask me.
On top of that, I’ve got several things going on with the HB Int’l Surfing Museum. I managed to volunteer for about 5 different small tasks relating to the monthly newsletter that will eat up most of this coming Saturday. It’s cool though, as it’s good to be back helping them out. I took most of the summer off because there were so many other home things going on. I’ve still got to wrap up the asset manager changes, and then work on getting the software to the Surfing Heritage Foundation for when they open their new place in San Clemente next month.
Then I’ve got the Mac Meet Up group that I’m organizing. The first meeting is tomorrow evening. Five other people have rsvp’d to meet. We’ll see if that gets off the ground.
Call me crazy for taking on so much at once. I know I will be before it’s all over…
Time To Take a Breath
It’s been a hectic week as I’ve done a major push to put the finishing touches on the asset management FileMaker solution that I’ve created for the HB Surf Museum. It was a project that was started back in June and was my first foray into the world of FM7. The learning curve was steep, so I put off making the needed changes until last week. Good thing they’re not a paying customer. But, once I got rolling, everything fell nicely into place and I’m getting more up to speed with the new version of FileMaker. I like it much better than v6.
In looking at my site stats today, I got a major blast from the past. It turns out someone (I don’t know who) from an old employer surfed around my site for a solid 20 minutes late this afternoon. It’s getting to be Super Bowl time again, so I wonder if they’re looking to track me down to help out in some way. That’d be interesting. We’ll have to see what happens with that.
Otherwise, all is good, but hectic. The finals for the CCSA surf organization are this weekend at the pier. Even with his dismal performance at the last contest, Kyle still held onto a third place overall. If he does well Saturday, he may come home with a nice trophy. I’ll be sure to post pics (for real this time).
That’s it. Gotta head to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a kicker.
