• 6 : 23 A.M. PST
  Hats on heads

Java java java. Brett and I got together at Top Pot ("pop tot") to program, unlikely as that may seem. Stranger than that, we actually made progress, creating a working class which makes simple graphic surfaces in "Swing" without all the typical java bullshit. (By that I mean, the need to implement five interfaces that I've never dealt with before, thus necessitating that I read all about every single one of their methods, the methods of the classes that use them, and the methods of every class up the chain from those. Right, so, reading half the java api manual just to make a bunch of red squares that change color). I can already make reasonably fast graphics in java, but the way I do it is all messy and retro. I really made an effort today to THINK IN JAVA and be all objecty (instead of procedure-y). Well, with considerable help from Brett I now have a buffer thing I can draw in that's derived from JFrame, making it a potential Swing component. I'm not exactly sure what all the ramifications of that are, but I know it means I can use the pretty Swing toolkit to make user interfaces for my graphic things.

The first thing I did this morning was get to practicing programming content management stuff. This is what will prevent me from starving and being homeless. It's going pretty smoothly, but all the structuring-things-in-my-head makes me get tired very quickly. I wound up taking a nap in the middle of the day, which is why I am now awake at 7 AM. It's not such a bad time to be awake, if you're not going to be employed the next day. It's even going to be Friday; I could pretend that I work somewhere where people come in late and leave early on Fridays. Yeah. Or I'm going to phone in sick and create a 3-day weekend.

I plan on being accustomed to a traditional 9-5 workday by the time I start work at wherever decides they want to hire me first. I don't think that will happen before next year, but I do have a very exciting interview next Thursday, (probably the last day of work before Christmas for my interviewers). I mean, EXTREMELY exciting, to an upsetting degree. Although, I'm not feeling so bad right now. Maybe I'll be okay there. I have to spend 3 to 6 hours interviewing. That's a lot of interviews. That's enough time to watch the entire thing of GANDHI twice. Ooh, maybe that's what they do for an interview. That would push the limits of anyone's attention span. If you can pay attention to two GANDHIs in a row, you're probably a super-hero, with the mutant ability to pay attention for freakishly long periods of time. Not such a great power to have, as you'd probably wind up on security camera duty at the halls of justice or whichever super-organization hired you.

After my nap I did that programming thing with Brett, Helen showed up a little later, we all went home, and now I'm free-writing music and fixing little program bugs. And sleepy.