People love to complain. People don't necessarily love to change the things they are complaining about.
I am, like most others, a person.
I happened upon this article, and think Comcast has found quite a nice solution to those "non-action" sort of folk.
Its someone's job to google "Comcast" and find complaints people post all over the Internet! Complain all you want about Comcast in your blog or twitter, they're listening! You don't even have to contact them yourself...crazy.
I think that's technology at its finest. And also a good way to remind people that they are not alone on the Internet. As, for some reason, they seem to think.
I hope he finds this! (Hi, Frank Eliason)
Good things come from Philadelphia...
Going to conferences about things I care about instead of getting wisdom teeth out!
Biomedical Informatics Without Borders
In exchange for an agreement to wear a retainer, I get to go learn cool things! I'm excited. Also, this will probably enable me to go visit Brandeis before I depart for Edinburgh.
Thus concludes "things that are exciting," sponsored by the agreement of Mom & Dad. (:
Finished my second week of work & am excited for what I hope will be a fun-filled weekend!
I've been having a really good time exploring the city and riding my bike and finding cool things. Last week I went to two concerts (one at the Rock & Roll Hotel, the other at a park where shows are free--Fort Reno), hung out in some bookstores, ate some good food, and spent a good chunk of time with Marti & Evan. (Hooray!) Jenny came over the weekend, so I spent time with her on Saturday.
This week has been more of the adventuring fun. I got a flat tire on my bike on Sunday, so I tried, in vain, to fix it on Monday. It didn't work out so positively, so on Tuesday I brought it to the bike store after work and they fixed it for me. Tuesday was the second of Marti & my endeavors vegetarian cuisine. We had vegetarian soul food, which was definitely something I've never had before. Wednesday was the second of Mary (roommate) & my endeavors in new ethnic food. We had Peruvian, which we both agreed was quite excellent and afterwards I hung out in Dupont with Evan. Last night, I went to another show at Fort Reno and then biked down into Georgetown and sat outside with some fro-yo and read my book.
I've been doing a lot of reading of The Golden Compass series, as per Danit's suggestion, but I'm ready to move on to other books! I'm halfway through the third (and last), so that will be great. Next is A Brief History of Time, I'm really excited for it. Missy is here this weekend, so I'm sure I'll be seeing her at some point. Life is good!
I finally feel like I'm doing something, which is great.
For the past week or so I've been struggling with figuring out where I'm headed. I know what my project is, but have been having trouble figuring out how to even begin to learn how to implement it.
Then on Friday there was a meeting regarding the next release of the database in which my project will be completed. And I finally had a chance to discuss what it is that I am supposed to be doing. And they gave me something to work on. I was to create a mock-up (or, wireframe, as they call it) of what my new module of the database will look like. Well, that seems simple enough. It's just playing with the layouts they already have in Photoshop. But, buyer beware: How do I know what it can look like if I don't know what information it is capable of displaying? As such, I started going through the Developer's Guide of the database with which we would like to connect ours. And there are a lot of words I don't know. A lot of acronyms I've never seen. Now's when I ask questions. I get through a good part of it, but get stuck at this concept of "SOAP." And as soon as I ask someone, he gives me a look...like, really? He had no idea how SOAP works, but knows one of the other developers has been researching it for the past month in an attempt to understand the best way to implement it with our database. It's incredibly complicated, but is basically the primary method of communication between databases online using XML files. What are XML files? Well, I've been learning! They are basically documents with a language that the writer creates in order to organize information. Basically, a databank of information. I found these positively excellent tutorials through w3schools.com and I've been actually learning...what a relief.
So, I'm now pretty convinced using XML is the answer to all problems web related, and it's exciting!
Now I'm going to do the XML Schema tutorial. Then WSDL. Then SOAP.
Working my way up.
Update about the rest of my life at some other point.
I have to read these "diversity training" things for work, enjoy this diagram:
The primary and secondary "dimensions" of diversity.
and,
"They both give meaning to our lives by contributing to a synergistic, integrated whole -- the diverse person"
In case you were wondering. (:
I arrived in DC on Friday & moved into my apartment. Though slightly farther from the metro than I thought, it's a great place.
In Cherry Hill, impatiently waiting to set out for DC. Google says it will take 2 hours and 48 minutes to get there, the next step is just getting everyone in the car...which with my family, is never an easy feat.
Hello and Welcome!
