Jay McGavren's Journal

Financing this wedding is really difficult...

I made the foolish mistake of looking for wedding venues first, figuring we’d get a loan “somehow”. After a week of running all over town on her vacation, Diana chose a beautiful but still somewhat reasonably-priced hotel, but she was reduced to tears tonight when I actually looked at loan options and determined we could only get half what we needed.

Tomorrow she’ll start her venue search again, while I look for more financing options, both of us with lowered expectations and a more somber mood.

I find I’m making a lot of typos and grammatical errors the last week or so. I never even used to have to proofread my work. Yesterday I did almost nothing useful, because I couldn’t concentrate enough to plan my new project.

Nothing is so worrying as not being able to trust your own mind anymore. I hope this is temporary.

There is no feeling on Earth like knowing you’ve had a really productive day. I really gotta quit reading news sites and checking my e-mail every five minutes, so I can have more days like this.

Road map? What road map?

I just got informed that later stages of my current project will be scrapped, and I have to come up with a way for my system to talk to a third-party company’s database (a company who has consistently failed to deliver usable solutions in my experience).

If this succeeds, we’ll have stopped multiple customers from leaving us due to unfulfilled contractual obligations, and I’ll be a hero. If this fails, it could end my fledgling career. No pressure.

I don't normally get involved in chain letters...

But I make an exception for those where you share a few things about yourself. Josh Pang sent this one to me, and since I took the time to fill it out, I may as well share it here…

>> Seven things you like: -Programming. -Video games. -Anime. -Manga. -Electronic music. -Pixar movies. -Whose Line is it Anyway.

>> Seven things you hate: -Rude drivers. -Badly designed Web sites. -Starcraft (love/hate, actually). -Babysitting. -Liars. -Management who doesn’t know their job as well as I do. -Long commutes.

>> Seven things in your room: -Game Boy Advance. -Aging PC. -Baby monitor. -Real estate guidebooks. -A Christmas card from the breeder we bought our dog from. -Portrait of me with my two brothers. -Books on Java.

>> Seven random facts about you: -I’ve been in two auto accidents with moving vehicles that were not my fault. -I’ve also been in two accidents with stationary objects that WERE my fault. -I have gained 30 pounds in the last year. -I am currently subscribed to 30 different RSS newsfeeds. -I am a college dropout employed in a position normally reserved for those with a 4-year degree. -I own three Swiss Army knives, and almost never use any of them. -I have over 17,000 image files saved on my PC.

>> Seven things you plan to do before you die: -Write an application that I hope will transform the way the world discovers, shares, and buys music, movies, and images. -Marry my fiance. -See Alaska. -Pay for my stepson’s college in its entirety. -Return to Japan. -Go into business for myself. -Design a fully-automated home.

>> Seven things you can do: -Beat Halo on the highest difficulty setting (still working on Halo 2). -Retouch photos to near-professional quality. -Read Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Socks beginning to end faster than anyone I know. -Reverse-engineer a network protocol. -Fold a shirt like on howtofoldashirt.net. -Read first-grade-level Japanese. -Page my cell phone from my PC command prompt.

>> Seven Things You Can’t Do: -Do a cookie with my car. -50 pushups in a row (gotta work on that). -Read (most) Chinese characters. -Gymnastics of any kind. -Remember things without a notepad. -Touch my toes. -Read a novel cover to cover (can’t make the time).

>> Seven songs people should listen to: -Barenaked Ladies - Call and Answer -Aphex Twin - Boy/Girl Song -Arovane - Cry Osaka Cry -U.N.K.L.E. - What Are You to Me -Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song -Boards of Canada - Music is Math -Royksopp - Remind Me

>> Seven things that attract you to someone: -Smile -Cleavage -Wide eyes -Intellect -Sensitivity -Legs -Fashion sense

>> Seven things you say the most: -“roight.” (Did I steal this from Josh, or he from me?) -“…stuff.” (Just by itself. Indicates a brain fart in progress.) -“Dagnabbit!” -“Shoot.” (I have a kid and a job, and I try to avoid swearing. You wouldn’t know it if you ever played XBox Live with me, though.) -“Hoo-ah!” -“This will generate buy-in from them.” (Work phrase.) -“We’re looking at X hours’ effort here.” (Another work phrase.)