Thoughts From Eric Archive

Happy Valentine’s Day, or whatever.

Okay, I’m not actually bitter this year (for once!), but the holiday still drags at me a bit.  I think it’s the obligatory nature of the whole thing, the sense that if I don’t observe the holiday then I will suffer mightily for it.  And that’s not even coming from Kat, who is perfectly happy to buy herself a present and then say, “Look what you got me!”  I love her for that (and a whole lot more).  What I’m talking about is the general all-pervasive air of expectation which the holiday creates all on its own.  It isn’t nearly so bad as the anti-joy field which Christmas seems to generate, but it’s still there, taunting me.  Like, I don’t know, some kind of taunting thing.  Hm, apparently today is not a day for brilliance in letters.

Anyway, time to fill in the blanks in what’s been a very blankless life.  Kat started a new job two days ago, working as a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital in Bedford, and is interviewing for midwifery positions in and around the Cleveland area.  So she’s exchanged the stress of having no job for the stress of having to get up early in the morning.  She’s also been doing some volunteer work which takes two nights a week, so some days are fifteen hours long.  You’d think she was in my line of work.  Not that I pull fifteen-hour days, of course, but I hear that some people do.  She’s also been asked to write an article on Kangaroo Care for an online resource, and I suspect that once it’s done we’ll be reprinting it here on the site.

Speaking of writing, I’m wrapping up two books in the next week.  The easy one is the CSS Pocket Reference for O’Reilly & Associates, which required not much more than repackaging portions of the first book, polishing the text a bit, and running with it.  The second, the CSS2.0 Programmer’s Reference for Osborne/McGraw-Hill, required substantially more work in many ways.  For example, I had to figure out some of the nuances of parts of CSS2 which I’ve never really visited.  Since it isn’t a tutorial, though, it meant that I could just concentrate on explaining properties and values and not worrying about stuff like illustrations.  I suspect they’ll both hit shelves within a month of each other.  And, of course, there’s the start of my HWG-sponsored CSS2 class this coming Monday.  Is this too much Eric all at once?  You decide.

• Wednesday, 14 February 2001 was published on Wednesday, February 14th, 2001.
• It was assigned to the Books and CSS categories.
• There have been no replies.

Jeez, have I ever fallen behind.  Things are flying every which way, metaphorically speaking, and trying to duck the swooping events while also being productive has consumed a lot of time and energy.  All of which is my lame way of saying, “Sorry I’ve been so silent.”  I’m not going to really do penance right now, either, because I don’t have time to make up for it.  Maybe tomorrow, we’ll see.  So why am I writing?  I have two recommendations to make.  The first one is for Clevelanders who want some great Japanese food: go straight to Matsu and don’t come back until you have.  If you’d like to meet Kat and I there, then let me know and we’ll schedule something.  Second is for anyone buying technical books: Bookpool.  They have great prices on stuff like O’Reilly books, so if you aren’t going to use a local merchant to get your tech references, go to Bookpool instead.  I get absolutely no money from them for saying this, nor have I ever ordered from them; I just noticed that their prices are outstandingly low, and wanted to give everyone else a heads-up.

• Tuesday, 13 February 2001 was published on Tuesday, February 13th, 2001.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

…aaaand we’re back.  So Kat and I made a snap decision to go to Disney World.  Okay, Kat made a snap decision, did a whole ton of research on prices and availability, laid all the groundwork, and then convinced Eric that a vacation was needed.  As usual, she was right.  Florida was sunny but cold, although since their low temperature was higher than Cleveland’s high temperatures, I wasn’t complaining too much.  The only real drawback was the difficulty in swimming in the pool.  The water was warm enough, but since it was off-season the pool had limited hours and we were always off doing stuff.  Lord knows, there’s more than enough stuff to do at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and so forth.  Being there in the off-season meant basically no lines at all, which was wonderful.  So was the food.  What is it about our vacations and food?  Maybe I should become a culinary critic, which would be some sort of über-dream job for me, now that I think about it:  eat great food, write about it, get paid.  Where do I sign up?

• Wednesday, 24 January 2001 was published on Wednesday, January 24th, 2001.
• It was assigned to the Travel category.
• There have been no replies.

Although things may seem quiet, life certainly hasn’t lacked for Stuff To Do.  The companion pocket reference to CSS:TDG is getting perilously close to a printer, which means it might be available for purchase sometime soon.  It already has an Amazon.com sales rank of 1,667,067 (although that number may have already changed), so obviously the New York Times bestseller list is just days away.  In other ink-on-dead-trees news, my next book is nearing the end of the writing cycle, with just a few more things to be done, and technical review to be undertaken.  As we get closer to having that book go to a printer, I’ll share more details.  Then there’s the dead-electrons-on-monitors news, which is that I should (he said hopefully) have an article published on the O’Reilly Network tomorrow.  Update: looks like it will be published this coming Friday, not tomorrow.  I’m anticipating a bit of controversy, frankly, but you can’t push at a way of thinking without honking off someone.

• Monday, 15 January 2001 was published on Monday, January 15th, 2001.
• It was assigned to the Books category.
• There have been no replies.

Wow.  We all made it.  Now where’s my Pam Am shuttle flight, two-week holiday at the HoJo’s in low Earth orbit, and neurotic AI?

I don’t really have that much to write about, but of course I had to make sure that I wrote an entry for today.  The date alone made it worth it for me.  Kat and I did have a really great time at last night’s party (at someone else’s place for once!) and are looking forward to the New Year with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation—the same mix as usual, I admit, but this year it runs a bit more deeply.  If nothing else, we should have a very interesting year… and if you’ll recall, the Chinese had a curse along those lines.

May your year-to-come be healthy, happy, and wholly wonderful!

• Monday, 1 January 2001 was published on Monday, January 1st, 2001.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Ever tried to count your blessings and then realized you didn’t have the energy to bother?  Just wondering.

Christmas at the folks’ house was nice as always, and this year we had the super-special added bonus of clear skies over north central Ohio.  That meant that we could enjoy the sunlight glinting off of (and refracting through) the hoarfrost and the snow, both of which dazzled throughout the morning.  It also meant that we could observe the partial solar eclipse around noontime, using a pinhole camera I constructed out of some gift boxes that happened to be lying around.  Pretty nifty.

• Tuesday, 26 December 2000 was published on Tuesday, December 26th, 2000.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Thanks to the addition of another negative review on Amazon.com, my book’s approval rating effectively dropped to 90%.  If I were a politician, I’d no doubt be wetting myself, but as it is I’m feeling downcast.  This morning’s radio show, which was plagued by technical problems and good-old-fashioned boneheaded mistakes on my part, didn’t much help.  In the grand tradition of my countrymen, I’m going to assign blame for my glum mood on external factors:  the approaching holiday, which almost never fails to depress me; and last week’s long-awaited resolution to the electoral situation.  It’s not for me to judge to the outcome, but my reaction to the players and tactics used in the whole long process were almost uniformly negative (I grumbled about this at the beginning, and things only went downhill from there).  Lord knows, I wanted to find someone to respect in the whole thing.  Only at the end did I get it, and that was while watching Gore’s concession speech.  So in other words, the only thing which gave me any hope was the loser’s exit speech.  Oh, that’s just great.

• Wednesday, 20 December 2000 was published on Wednesday, December 20th, 2000.
• It was assigned to the Books and Politics categories.
• There have been no replies.

Not much has been going on in life recently.  I mean, sure, we got a Christmas tree and decorated it, and we put up lights all over our front porch and got light-sensitive electric candles to put in our windows, and we’ve been having friends over for impromptu (and not-so-impromptu) gatherings in front of our fireplace.  But beyond that, nothing.  Except for the hilariously flaming play we went to see over the weekend, which was not only thoroughly enjoyable, but filled with killer outfits to boot.  So except for that, really, nothing.  Wait, did I mention the emergency plane landing on our street?  Just kidding.

Actually, I wanted to draw your attention to two things.  The first is a Web site which will allow you to get more closely in touch with the realm just beyond this world: Heavens-Above.  It’s not a cult, it’s a way cool predictor program.  Trust me, give it a whirl, because it’s too cool for words.  The second thing is the conclusion to a review of a video game, if you can believe that.  I’d played the demo, and I fully identify with the reviewer’s emotional reactions to the game.  While clicking a mouse and staring at little colored dots on a monitor, I was suddenly given insight—sharp, deep, and painful—into what fighting a war demands of the men who must do so, and of what it means to be a soldier.  Just playing this game brought that home to me in a way nothing ever could—and yes, I’ve seen Saving Private Ryan.

• Monday, 11 December 2000 was published on Monday, December 11th, 2000.
• It was assigned to the Tech category.
• There have been no replies.