Zoo, and all that other stuff.

I’m trying to find an outlet for all my nervous energy. Looking at me, you might wonder what nervous energy I could possibly have. Well, I have it. Believe me on this. I’m trying to become less of a burden of those around me, you see. That is one reason why I’ve been cramming another programming model into my skull, so that I have an outlet. Well, not actually. I’m really trying to find a way to dynamically present data to my company in a meaningful, comprehendible manner. So that is why I’m trying this Silverlight application stuff. That and a professional curiosity is driving it. It is making me delve into graphics, which I have historically sucked at, as well as animation and other items. I’ve always wondered how flash worked but I couldn’t afford the tools to do it, or at least, do it right. Buying a Microsoft product at work is an easier proposition, plus I can leverage all that I already know.

So here comes the disappointment. I’m banging away, getting a handle on what all this is about and I get to the part about data presentation. That is what I want. I knew that it uses web services to bring in data, and that is fairly straight forward. Javascript is the underlying mechanism the client uses, I think, to bring in the data into the object without forcing a server call, like traditional html or scripting. So most of the examples I see use SQL Server, of course. I like SS, however it costs about 5k a pop where I work and we have a site license for Oracle. I hate Oracle. Still, it is what the company uses if it can, so I have to accommodate my training for that. Then most of the examples don’t merely use web services, but things like the Entity Framework, or more advanced web services, like WCF and WPF. Great, I finally have to figure out what that stuff is. Can’t delay that any more. So, I crack open my Books24x7.com account and start searching for a good text.  I start reading about it and conclude that I can really use this. This is actually some very good stuff…Wait for it…BUT, oracle doesn’t support it. I’m frustrated and ticked off. Once again, Oracle comes through and sucks. Now I have to think about what my alternatives are and how to change my thinking back to the more traditional .Net scripting and procedures. Keep that Silverlight in my back pocket for now.

It has been warm all week, relatively speaking. All that snow we had from the blizzard is now gone. Only a few spots and piles of snow remain. I figured that since Thursday was going to be so warm, that we could take advantage of the free admission at the zoo. So off we went. We had a good time. The last time I was there, I think, was another free day. I took the three kids and off we went. We had 6 inches of snow that day. Had a miserable time. This time was significantly different. Hayden was his moody self and the other kids were bouncing all over, like normal. They had moved the bears around to the other side of the park and created a decent habitat for them. Bennet was completely freaked out by the tidal pool in the Seas pavilion. They have greatly reduced their bird displays, which was disappointing. They did see the dolphins and Bennet saw his dolphin toy being made in those plastic press machines they have scattered about. The lion roared frequently, and while Hayden was “standing” by it, no less. We have that on video somewhere and I’ll post it when we find it. Overall, it was a good day.

Friday I had a surprisingly simple day of mirroring databases. I guess that is what happens when you become more familiar with a piece of software and can see what it is doing conceptually. Databases used to scare the crud out of me, mostly because it is so simple to screw them up. Now, I can handle most of the day to day stuff. The rest of the day, aside from a database failure that was easily remedied, was devoted to report generation for some customer that we have coming up. It requires a whole new set of servers and, of course, reports, and I’m just beginning to see what the data and background processes need to be. Boring stuff for most anyone, I’m sure. It’s my job to be interested in it, so I am. Once again, I collapse at 8:30 and once again, I’m up at 3am. Sometime I will get some sleep, at least more than 6 hours. Some wonder why I get to work at 6am. This is why. My whole internal clock is off.

One of the more amazing things is with Bennet. We’ve been having trouble getting him in bed, or rather, having him stay in bed. Tracy figured that maybe he needed a pillow, and that seems to have done the trick. Yeah, maybe he’s just getting older and doesn’t want to wake up as much anymore, but we’re sticking to the pillow story. Tracy, for the first time in over a decade, is finally getting to sleep through the night. At least, on those nights where she isn’t running around at all hours with certain people from the ward, that is.