Jay McGavren's Journal

Once, long ago, I attempted writing a brief treatise while drunk. I’m sure the file is long lost, and I have a substantial buzz going (one tequila shot and one beer. Sad, huh?) and so here’s another attempt.

Shit, I started this with no idea what I was going to write about. Well, I’ve got a glowering baby on my lap (no risk of dropping him, we’re on a couch buried in cushions and blankets), so I guess I’ll write about him.

This guy is a little shit. He’s spent substantial portions of the afternoon and evening shrieking his head off for no apparent reason. I suppose it’s gas or some such, but it’s very frustrating.

Well, he’s being angelic right now, at least. The worst thing he’s doing is flopping his head onto my typing hand, and as light as his head is, that barely disrupts me. In fact he even just cast me one of those grimaces that can be mistaken for a smile. (There are a couple points I’m certain he’s actually smiled, and no, that’s not just a proud parent talking. Regardless, it’s the most magical moment in existence; this creature that has done nothing but distress and annoy you smiles at you, and suddenly it’s all OK.

Meh, that’s all I have for now. Somehow I doubt this post will seem at all out of the ordinary, except for a total lack of narrative flow. Oh, well.

From baby to kid...

Lenny had a karate “recital” today, where they basically get up on stage and show off for a room full of parents why they’ve been paying $40 a month. It was basically the same routine I’ve caught glimpses of week after week when dropping him off, but getting 15 four-year-olds all doing the same moves at the same time was a pretty impressive feat.

He’d stayed over with his friend Madison the night before, and afterward both families went to lunch at Denny’s. It was kind of a preview of what we were in for the next few years… “No, you two are going to sit on opposite sides of the table.” “There, you have the exact same crayons, now you have nothing to complain about.” Considering their lack of sleep, though, they were cute and well-behaved.

Very mundane, middle-class-family stuff, but of course it’s all novel to me. It was kinda fun, a reminder of my own childhood.

Yeah. something like that.

> From: [my boss] > Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 > To: [me] > Subject: FW: question > > Jay, the award program question has arisen again. I know > you are busy with [project x] and [project y] work. Do you > have time to look this over and come by to discuss it? > > > From: Liz > > Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 > > To: [A lot of people, including my boss] > > Subject: RE: question > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > We’ll need to get some input from our technical team on > > this one, since it was my understanding that the system > is > > set up so that 2005 awards automatically expire on > December > > 31, 2006 unless the property is a repeat winner in 2006. > > Could someone please look into why the 2005 award winners > > are still displaying award logos on [our].com? > > > > Thanks, > > Liz

I fished through my e-mail archive, and dug this out…

> From: Liz > Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 > To: [my boss] > Cc: [me]; [somebody else] > Subject: RE: [xxx] Awards Mystery > > Hi Mike, > > [snip] > > If we were to update the business rule for these > properties, what would the timeline look like for making > the change (see below)? [snip] I realize this isn’t > ideal, but it is urgent that we address the issue because > properties are noticing every time their award logo > disappears from the site. > > The business rules for the 2006 program are: > [xxx] winners with 2005 dates expire on 12/31/07 > [xxx] winners with 2006 dates expire on 12/31/07 > [yyy] winners with 2005 dates expire on 12/31/07 > [yyy] winners with 2006 dates expire on 12/31/07 > Please let me know how you think it would be best to > proceed. > > Thanks, > Liz

By the way, I do not want the prior post to cast any sort of negative light on my boss, who is awesome and whose hair is not remotely pointy. (Indeed, he has no hair at all.) And no, I’m not saying that because I have to.

Released my first Ruby app last night…

http://code.google.com/p/itunes-control/

…it’s just a simple command line controller for Windows iTunes, but the groundwork is laid for much cooler stuff. After jumping through some hoops I was able to make it a standalone app (no Ruby installation required), in addition to an ordinary Ruby gem. Future releases will likely have installers for Mac, Linux, and Windows alike, with no additional switch-flipping on my part.