Right now I have to build business objects for this project, while also coming up with the Integration Requirements and the Detailed Design. I also have to learn and understand strongly typed datasets being used in leiu of data objects, and when I write code, I have to use c# - which I'm not at all familiar with. I'm out tomorrow and monday, and it's all got to be done by next Friday. And the front end developer needs my stuff before then so he can build the pages. It's not stress, it's supreme frustration and annoyance. I don't even completely understand what a Business Object is. Oh yeah, and everyone else knows what they're doing.

I'm hoping I can look back on this paragraph in a short amount of time and laugh.

So I was going to Grand to meet the 8:22 bus when I thought I heard a bus going up Grand, past my stop. I get to the corner and sure enough, there it is, gone by a block. So I look at my pocket schedule and it seems I was looking at the wrong column, and was one minute late for the bus. The next one came in 20 minutes, which would get me downtown at about ten after nine. Blargh.

But I see a guy standing on the corner for the "express" bus I'd never taken because it comes too infrequently and it's an express so it's $2.25 and I have a $1.75 pass. With no change I grabbed a dollar and headed over, ready to eat the 50 cents and see what it was like.

Turns out it's not an express, it's only a limited stop. And it was full of hip yuppies from Uptown. And it wasn't crowded. And quite literally ten minutes later I was dropped half a block from the front door of our building. I was actually at my desk with juice and donut at the same time the "next" bus on Grand would have been picking me up.

So I'm going to have to check it out on the way home, but I'm really a happy camper at this point. Yay!

Culture shift. Someone noticed my certificate stating that I am an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church (http://www.ulc.org) and after some conversation I kidded that people were probably using ULC ministers in Everquest. Ha ha funny, right?

Well, funny if you've heard of Everquest. "Everquest? Huh?"

I then got the "I haven't played games since 1996, too much to do -- play softball, waterski, whatever. Gaming is a waste of time, go outside" speech -- from EVERYONE.

I can handle being the alpha geek, and having people think I'm more nerdy than everyone else, but other developers should certainly KNOW about geek culture.

And I'm one of the only people I know of in the organization that has a personal web page/site. And I've looked. Pretty strange for an ONLINE UNIVERSITY.

I'm so pathetic. I just used the freakin' paperclip office assistant to find out how to do something in Word. The really sad part is that it worked and I found out how to make my change quickly and easily. Dammit.

My hand hurts. A lot. I think I bruised it chipping ice last weekend, but it's got me thinking about "What if I got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" and that's a horrid horrid scary thought.

It's probably ok, as yesterday it hurt in one place and today it's in another, so it's moving. And I only have today and tomorrow to be typing for 10 hours (7-8 at work and 2-3 at home) a day.

And I have to pack for New York tonight, so I think I'll be okay. Might have to go out and get a brace or something at lunch. It hurts even when I'm not moving it.

Ever feel like you got hired to do something and they completely misunderstood your qualifications? "Do you know how to make Business Objects and understand Terribly Complicated Stuff?" "Uh, nope." "Great, you're hired!"

My web site is done. Yes, done. All future content can be integrated using administrative interfaces or ACDSee for labeling descriptions of items. All sites have error reporting and rerouting options, all have statistics reporting systems, and there are common controls among them all to manage 'new' items, navigation, style sheets, etc.

I feel so.. completed.

There is still a bunch of stuff to be moved in/built, but it's all additional content, nothing that's crippling any portion of the site. I'm quite pleased.

Yup, Jill and Eli home today, maybe again tomorrow too. I'm fine thus far, crossing fingers, sacrificing chickens, etc.

Getting into some cool stuff at work, but of course it all starts with Documentation, doesn't it? :)

New York this friday! Woo!

What a weekend! Eli sick with a feverish cold, Jill sick with a feverish cold and cough. Jill's Mom just back from African Safari, lots of interesting stuff, and she watched Eli while Jill and I went to C&J's housewarming. Was fun. Today Ann and Erik and Gatsby (Erik's dog) came over and we played Nascar (it's Ann's birthday) -- lots of fun, but at 7:30 Jill and Eli were in bed, and by now I'm sure they're both fast asleep. Time to play my new game -- Harry Potter.