Author: Tim Jarrett

Adjusting patterns

I think my blogging habits will be changing this semester. Last semester classes were 1 to 4 every day, leaving plenty of time to wake up, blog, do reading, and eat lunch before classes. This semester my classes cluster from 10 to 2:30, so it’s a very different dynamic. I think I’ll be blogging mostly in the afternoon.

Good news from PA

I just got off the phone with my sister. Fortunately, the previous story turns out to be only partly true. My grandfather was suffering from low blood sugar, but not from another stroke. Apparently he had just forgotten to eat–not good if one is on insulin shots. He’s already on his way home.

Now all we have to do is find my mom. She hopped in the car to drive from western NC to pick up my sister in Richmond, then go to PA. They’ll have to call the highway patrol — she doesn’t have a cell phone. It’s probably time for them to change that. 🙂

First day of classes

… for the last semester of classes. It’s interesting and scary–I’ve gotten very accustomed to being in a learning and growing mode over the last couple of semesters. It’ll be quite a transition getting out into the real world.

Palm Desktop ate my data

My Mac went into a kernel panic this morning as soon as I tried to hot-sync my Palm via infrared this morning. My data file got corrupted. I lost my class schedule, my to do list, everything. Call me unhappy…

Back before the parade

Okay, so little did I realize when I made plans to fly to Brussels and return to Boston today that we’d be just a few jumps ahead of the Boston Patriots as they pull into town. I had to deduce that they won the Superbowl yesterday (since the Monday European editions of the US papers didn’t report it). As the bus pulled away from the terminal en route to the train, the driver pointed out the helicopters that were hovering to cover the return at Logan, and we walked through the place where the parade was to end at Government Center on our way home. We may have been in Brussels for a few days, but we’re definitely in Boston now. 🙂

Belgium calling

I take off for a quick trip to Belgium later today. I wish I had a really good reason for going, but mostly it’s the cheap airfare. And moules frites and good Belgian beer. Lisa and I have never been to Belgium, but it’s been on our list of European trips for a long time (this is the list organized thusly: wine, beer, wine, beer, wine, beer, vodka, otherwise known as Italy, England and Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Russia. We’re currently rethinking the last one). So no blogging unless I find free Internet cafés over there.

Some progress

I got the first part of the Blogger API working in Manila Envelope. I’m starting with the prefs–there will have to be a major overhaul of the whole app to make this work, including restructuring the preferences file. But hey–I got the blogger.getusersblogs call working. Baby steps…

One problem: If you have a regular Blogger site, the API calls go to the Blogger server. If you have a Moveable Type or Radio site, do you send the API calls to the Blogger server or somewhere else?

¿Quiere Ser Presidente de Argentina?

From Fortune Magazine: “Are You Management Material? Large South American country looking for dynamic leader… No previous experience required. Understanding of Spanish, global credit system a plus.”

My favorite: “Do you have any experiences that might prepare you for the turmoil, upheaval, subterfuge, and stress of being president of Argentina? A: (a) I was briefly a member of Destiny’s Child. (b) No.”
more…

Slow news day

I’ll be in and out today–I have a lot of errands to run before we head to Belgium for the weekend. I’m working on my own version of a Pictures tool for Manila Envelope. I’m really feeling the curve here… I thought about using AppleScript to hook into the Manila pictures API months ago but had difficulty making it work right.

I think I’m going to have to ask for some feedback from the users of Manila Envelope about how to proceed with incorporating the Blogger API. Look for a “survey” with some linked proposed screen shots in the next week or so.