(no subject)

So far today has been a big improvement over yesterday. And I appreciate
that ;-)

It occurs to me that part of what has been stressing me out a little is
just that both of the large projects I'm looking at aren't things I've
done before, or even that much like things I've done before. I'm pretty
sure I can do them, but there will be a learning curve, and (at least for
the DB project) I don't really know what that curve will look like.

However, it's worth keeping in mind that not only am I doing this to
myself, I'm doing it on purpose. I tend to be happier, and certainly get
more out of circumstances wherein I'm being stretched. (Having reviewed
my transcripts recently, I am reminded what a pattern this is -- my whole
philosophy used to be to talk my way into upper level courses, without the
prereqs, whenever possible. If you do this right, it's a really efficient
way of learning. But you have to learn to damp down the panic reaction.
Or, um, enjoy it. I hope MS didn't break that in me.)

Anyhow, some of the software arrived today, so I have at least the
illusion of getting something done on the database project, and I think I
figured out what my final KR project is going to be. The current concept,
anyway, is to write a decision support system for mushroom poisonings.
The advantages of this should be obvious ;-)

(no subject)

The good news: From here on out, we will be reading really amazingly cynical and nasty political commentary in classical chinese.

The bad news: between the nth generation xeroxes and the dictionary work, I may go blind. *blink*

Oh, and more good news: I starting playing with my new dev box today (this is part of the MS hardware grant). It's a 3.5ish something MH with two gigs of RAM and a half a terabyte harddrive. And the same mucking big hi rez digital flatscreen on a swivel that Craig just got for himself. Sweet...

(Get out of the industry, come back, and the machines seem ungodly fast...)