December 2000 Archives

Reexamining my tickets, I've discovered that we have to leave at 6:45for our trip to Europe - followed by a 6 hour layover in Newark! What was I thinking when I was booking this thing? I should have coughed up a little more money for the extra sleep.

However, it looks like there is a plethora of connections between EWR and Manhattan, se we might do a little side trip to the Big Apple.

While I was gone my books from bookpool.com arrived, so over the holidays I shall become versed in the arts of mySQL and PHP.

My dad's PowerShot S20 digital camera arrived as well, so I'm pretty much set for my trip to Europe. Less than a week now...

I'm back from PalmSource 2000. It was quite interesting and I brought back a gazillion goodies from the trade show. It's good to be back home, though.

Well, winter seems to have arrived. The pretty leaves are gone and it's going to be freezing tonight and in the next couple of days. So our caroling which starts in an hour is probably going to be pretty short-lived and very authentic.

I'm off to Santa Clara, CA for three days to PalmSource. Go geeks!

I ordered a couple of books from bookpool.com. They have great prices and a good selection on technical books.

Speaking of playing with PHP, I've written my first (public) script! It allows you to sign up for the Madrigal Dinner Email News.

Actually, I've only written the code to add/update/remove info in a home brewn database (one of the reasons for my search for a new host). I'll have to write some more code to actually be able to mail out stuff to the members of the lists.

Let's hope there aren't any important news coming soon...

Wow, phpMyAdmin is so totally kewl! And I was afraid that I'd have to manage my database from within a telnet session!

I think I'm going to use some of the other scripts from the phpWizard.net site. I'm sure that phpPolls would be quite popular.

I registered an account at digitalinet.com and redirected name servers to point in that direction (I'm holding my fingers). The main reason for the move is that I want an affordable host with php and mySQL.

The setup has been a breeze, but digitalinet.com feels a bit slower than my previous host, omnis.com. However, for $6 a month with no setup fees, I won't mind if I decide to move to some other place in a month or so.

I'm actually looking for a PHP/mySQL account for MadrigalDinner.org, but I want to find one I like first, before moving a site which gets quite a bit of traffic.

Today is my 1 year aniversary with @hand and since I've reach this cliff date, 25% of my options are now vested! Yay!

It's St. Nicholas day but nobody around me knows or cares. When I was little and living in Prague, I was always looking forward to this day with anticipation and trepidation.

Anticipation because St. Nicolas (dressed as a Bishop and accompanied by an angel and a devil) would always bring nuts, clementines, peanuts, chocolates and other good stuff.

Trepidation because the devil was scary and supposedly would carry bad children away in his sack.

The closest I'll probably come this year is to be accosted by a ringing Salvation Army Santa.

I was looking forward to go caroling with fellow Madrigalians at the Zilker Christmas Tree and Trail of Lights. Alas, I'll be in Dallas/Ft. Worth (yes, both of them) this weekend and will miss out on the fun :-(

Still, I'll be getting people together to sing at the 37th Street Christmas Lights next Monday.

Another potential host php4hosting.com?

I'm still recovering from the pre-holiday party weekend. We had our Madrigal shows last week and they were a wonderful experience. The Audience seemed to have liked them, too. Here's an obligatory link, this one to the Brobdingnagian Bards, who entertained us in the dressing room, on stage, in the audience and at the cast party (I'm too old to stay up later than 4am with no consequences...)

There were also a couple of Christmas parties on top of that - one at work and one at some friends'. This stuff just wears you out - but I'm not complaining.

I've been terribly busy since thanksgiving. First, there was Thanksgiving Dinner itself, for which Jfer and I ended up cooking for 6 adults and 3 small kids. Everything turned out pretty well, too.

Then I spent most of the Thanksgiving weekend working on a priest costume for Madrigal. Finding the (discontinued) pattern was difficult. Then I had to scale it from 38" to 42" (I'm sure people at Kinko's thought I was strange). And then all the cutting and sewing, covering 27 buttons and making 27 button holes, coming up with a pattern for the roman colar, etc., etc. It turned out pretty awesome, if anachronistic.

So this week it's been Madrigal every night. Monday and Tuesday were dress rehearsals and it's been performances ever since. The show is going great and we sound phat, if I may say so myself.

The show is sold out, but there is still serfing available.