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+ raelity bytes
+ paul e. [LJ]
+ Rain Graves
+ gnat [use Perl;]

Syndication feeds:
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My other sites:
- Silicon Valley Scale Modelers
- Book page for Programming Web Services With Perl

Other journals I read:
= DJ Adams
= rebecca blood
= Tim Bray
= Margaret Cho
= Warren Ellis
= Neil Gaiman
= Rafael Garcia-Suarez
= John Gorenfeld
= Lawrence Lessig
= Michael McCracken
= Jeff Vogel
= Norm Walsh
= Wil Wheaton

My journal at use.perl.org:
· Restless
· RPC-XML-0.57.tar.gz uploaded to PAUSE
· RPC-XML-0.56.tar.gz uploaded to PAUSE
· RPC-XML-0.55.tar.gz uploaded to PAUSE
· Forgive Me, Bretheren Monks
· Extry Extry: Winer Leaves the RSS Advisory Board
· RPC::XML 0.54 Uploaded
· The Books of Perl
· Good Intentions Don't Equal Good Results
· Errata Tracking Page for PWSWP
· Image::Size 2.992 Uploaded
· Props to Portland PM
· Lightning Talks
· OSCON, Tuesday
· OSCON Plans Now Set



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We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others. — Will Rogers

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today 2006.01.29.00:07

My senior year of high school, I was taking a course in physics. The teacher arranged for us to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger live, on one of the TVs in the library. All 20 or so of us were seated there, watching as the first school teacher launched into space. Our teacher was really excited– had he been 10 years younger (and, perhaps, 50 pounds lighter) he would have applied for the teacher-in-space program.

We watched as Challenger exploded and disintegrated, 73 seconds after lift-off. That image is as burned into my consciousness as the footage of the second plane hitting the south tower on September 11. Seven people gave their all in the effort to explore space and advance science. If I sound a little flowery in my language, it's only because I feel they deserve nothing less.

We still remember you.

# [/tech/space]

Tellme... No. 2006.01.25.00:00

I've been laid off. This comes at a strange time for me, as I've been toying with either returning to Denver, or trying to get a work permit for the UK and moving there. Right now I'm still too frazzled to draw any sound conclusions.

More detail to follow.

# [/misc]

Break Update (no. 2) 2006.01.24.04:51

Went for a follow-up last Wednesday. The break isn't healing like the doctor wants it to. There's a gap at one side of the break itself, which is keeping the little healing-cells from mending the two parts of bone back together. He gave me another 4 weeks of hobbling around in the Franken-foot before he looks at it again. If it isn't doing better, I get surgically screwed, I mean, I get a screw surgically implanted in the bone.

# [/thoughts/health]

Get APOD On Your Google Homepage 2006.01.24.04:47

[apod] I've written a small Google Homepage plug-in to display the current Astronomy Picture of the Day, along with the photo credits. It scales it using percentages, so the image doesn't screw up browser-window-width like the APOD feed in LiveJournal does. I'd recently switched my news-homepage setup from Excite to Google, and since they provide such a handy API, I couldn't resist.

It links the image thumbnail to the full-resolution version at APOD. It links the section-title to the APOD page itself (handy if you want to read the detailed background of the image). Lastly, it reproduces the complete photo credits section, links and all. It also produces XHTML instead of using HTML <center> tags. (But since I don't know if GH actually emits strict XHTML, this part might not matter.)

I've submitted it to Google for their directory, but until then you can add it to your homepage via this link.

# [/tech/space]

Google Earth Find a Lanc 2006.01.10.01:53

See this article at The Register.

# [/hobby/modeling]

Break Update 2006.01.08.11:16

I was able to get in to see a podiatrist Friday, no mean feat on such short notice. Turns out only one bone is broken, not two. He re-dressed the area and gave me an Aircast, which looks like it should be part of something bigger, like skiis, a snowboard, or a Frankenstinian monster. This will be 4-6 weeks to heal, depending on my body. I see the doctor again in a little less than two weeks.

I can walk, drive, dress myself, etc. But none of the above are especially easy for the time being.

# [/thoughts/health]

It Took Me 37 Years to Get My First Big Break 2006.01.06.11:05

I have broken two bones in my left foot. This is problematic for many reasons, not the least of which being that I live on the second floor and I drive a manual transmission.

The ER guys were very cool, we joked and chatted about things from the truly lame-ass way in which I broke it to the prospects of an upcoming Scary Movie 4 (yes, there is apparently going to be a fourth one). I have a "half-cast" right now, a high-tech bundling of carbon-fiber, wetted down with water and molding itself to my foot and heel. I have to do a lot tomorrow: I have to fill a prescription for painkillers (oh yes, I do), I have to contact a podiatrist to get the actual setting of bones and real cast taken care of, and I have to get some sweats to wear for the next 6 weeks, since I won't be cutting down any of my jeans to get them over the cast.

Oh yeah, and I have to go back and get my car. Yes, I drove myself to the ER with a broken foot working the clutch. I had to cab it home tonight, though, since they gave me some Vicodin for the pain. They said I wouldn't be able to drive my clutch with the half-cast. I think I can, but I had already taken the V's. Tomorrow, I'll get a friend (with an automatic) to drive me back, and if I can't work the clutch we can swap long-enough to get me home.

I really didn't need this.

# [/thoughts/health]

Hero for the Day: Jan 5, 2006 2006.01.05.22:14
# [/politics/religion]


Who Am I:
Randy J. Ray
Software Engineer

www·rjray·org
<rjray@rjray.org>

Buy my book!

cover
Programming Web Services with Perl


I've also contributed three chapters to:

cover
Computer Science & Perl Programming

Category quick-links:

Archive:

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2008
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Reading and Re-reading
Current
cover
· The Annotated Thursday: G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Would Be Thursday, G.K. Chesterton, Martin Gardner
· The Feeling Good Handbook, David D. Burns
· Organizing From the Inside Out, Julie Morgenstern
· XML Schema, Eric Van Der Vlist
· BEEP: The Definitive Guide, Marshall T. Rose

High in the queue
· Silk, Caitlin R. Kiernan
· Coldheart Canyon, Clive Barker
· Idoru, William Gibson
· Shared Source CLI Essentials, David Stutz, Ted Neward, Geoff Shilling

Recently finished
· Planetary Vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century, Warren Ellis, et al

Recommended favorites
· The Cowboy Wally Show, Kyle Baker
· Lost Souls, Poppy Z. Brite
· The Alienist, Caleb Carr
· Quarantine, Greg Egan
· The Authority: Relentless, Warren Ellis et al.
· Planetary: All Over the World and Other..., Warren Ellis et al.
· American Gods, Neil Gaiman
· Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
· Neuromancer, William Gibson
· A Philosophical Investigation, Philip Kerr
· Say You Want a Revolution (The Invisibles, Book 1), Grant Morrison et al
· You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of..., Oswald T. Pratt and Scott Dickers
· Cryptonomicon, Neil Stephenson
· Rising Stars : Born In Fire (Vol. 1), J. Michael Straczynski

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