In my search for a new job, I have discovered that most web developer positions have requirements for knowing C#. I have never done anything with C# … up ’til now, that is.

I had received a copy of Visual C# .net after attending a seminar (on Microsoft SQL Server 2005) last year through work. It’s been sitting along the side of my computer desk collecting dust … until now. I installed it this morning. Took forever. It’s still downloading the service pack. It came with a book … Getting Started with Microsoft Visual C# .NET. My plan is to start going through that book this afternoon to learn some of the basics. Then I’ll look for online tutorials and just play around with things until I get the hang of it.

Of course, this won’t mean that I can apply for a job looking strictly for C# skills. But I can add it to my resume, and maybe it will give me an edge. That’s what I’m hoping. I’ll post updates on my progress. And who knows … maybe I’ll end up creating something cool.

Mood: working   Y&R

If you know of anyone who is looking to hire a web developer/programmer, can you let me know.

I just (about 30-45 min ago) became unemployed. It’s not because of my performance. In fact … I just had a very favorable review last week. It is because of the situation of the company. They just found out (this morning in fact) that their biggest client (the one who’s projects I worked on) is pulling the plug. Because of that, they let at least 3 of us go … not sure about one other person. The remaining people will be there at least through the end of next week. After that, the outlook is uncertain. If things change, they said they would ask us back before hiring anyone else. No one is happy about the situation.

So … that being said … I’m lookin’ for a job. I already stopped at Job Service on my way home to see what I needed to apply for unemployment. I can apply online, so I’ll be doing that tonite or in the morning, depending on my mood. I grabbed a JobDig from there and got a Forum at CashWise. Time to update my resume and start scouring again. I’m NOT looking forward to this. But then again, who enjoys being unemployed?

I’ve finally finalized the design I want to use with my site. I’ve put it up on my main site already tonite. I still need to add it to the ShoutOuts page and the Photo Gallery as well as this blog. The photo gallery will be more involved since I’m now using version 2 of Gallery. And the changes to this blog will be a bit as well. I plan on upgrading to the newest version of WP. I’m not gonna bother getting this version to use the new design and then turn around and replace it with the new version. This design will stay ’til I get around to getting the new version up here.

Mood: working

Tonite I’m working on upgrading my photo gallery. I use the Gallery software package. My site uses version 1.4 and the AvalancheCountry site uses version 1.5. I’m going to upgrade it to version 2. Hopefully that will get rid of the issues I’m having with the random photo script. My web host sure isn’t very helpful in figuring out the problem. They’ve completely ignored my email about it … and I sent that a week ago. I made no changes, but it just suddenly stopped working.

After I get those changes all up and running, I’m going to upgrade my WordPress install too. I wanna have the latest and greatest stuff for my site. My design will be going through an overhaul too. I’ve already got that figure out … just have to implement it.

Well … I’d better get to it. Gallery won’t upgrade itself … LOL.

Mood: working

I finally got around to completely archiving my old MT blog. I changed all of the templates to contain only html … no more php. I rebuilt everything. Then I deleted the blog and my entire MT installation. The rebuilt archive files are still there. But that’s it. Every other ounce of anything relating to MT is now GONE! I even deleted the database that I had created for it. It opened up some web space too (not that I’m running out or anything though).

There really was no sense in keeping that around. I don’t use it anymore. I’m strictly a WordPress girl now. I do want to keep the archive though. I’ve already downloaded it on to my computer in case anything happens to the archive online. So I’ve got a record of my pathetic life …

Now that that’s done … I can get back to the other project that I’m working on. I almost have “Phase 2″ complete. That’s the phase that I forsee taking the longest. I’d like to get this done this week since I’m on vacation. But there’s other stuff I should really do around my apartment. Well … we’ll see.

Mood: accomplished

That’s right. “Phase 1″ of my PLAN is now complete.

More details to come as I complete each successive phase.

Mood: silly

In my last post, I said that I was working on a class to parse the XML feed from the NWS. Well … that is done. It’s not very fancy, but it works.

Tonite, I’ve created my own database connection class. I still want to work on it some more and maybe create a recordset class as well, but for now, the connection class is working great. I’m very proud of myself for that. I did find a little help online, but I modified what I found to work the way I want it to.

I’ve also managed to successfully set up a cron job that takes my xml parsing class and parses the weather XML feed and stores it to my database. Woohoo … That’s the first time I’ve ever created a cron job. It wasn’t too hard to do in cPanel.

Now I’m working on the weather class. I’m going to use it to grab the data from the database and display it how I want to. The feed from the NWS only has the current conditions, not the forecast. I’m going to dig around to see if I can find a forecast one. Hopefully I can. If not, I might try to see if I can find something elsewhere … like weather.com or somewhere else. Don’t know yet. I’d rather use the data from the NWS … I trust them. It’s their job. (I should know … I was trying to get a job with them before I fell into web design.)

Well … I’m going to get back to my weather class. I’d like to get at least a little something done before I go to bed tonite. I should get off the computer at 9pm and watch CSI: NY (I’m going to watch it whether I’m on the computer or not … I’m hooked on those CSI shows) … I think being on the computer all day at work and then all nite at home is preventing me from getting a good nite’s sleep. I just haven’t been sleeping very good lately. But when I get started on a project, it’s hard to put it away.

:: EDIT (9:34pm) :: I’ve got my weather class working. Woohoo!!! Here’s a sample of what it’s doing so far. Just displaying the data … nothing fancy. I need to work in the icons for the weather conditions. I already know how I want to do that … I just need to actually do it. But I’ll save that for another nite.

Mood: working

I’ve finally started a project that I’ve been meaning to start for a while now. I’m redoing how the weather is handled on my websites. I didn’t like the fact that I was parsing an entire page from the NWS. I found that the NWS now has XML feeds of it’s weather data. So … I’m working on parsing the XML and storing it in my database for use later.

I’ve worked with XML stuff at work. But the class was already created to parse the XML. So … I’ve been trying to find a way to do it here at home. I did find a simple class to parse the XML. It works for now, since the XML is simple. But I’ll probably expand on it more later. I’m not sure that I’ll have any need to parse something more complex, but ya never know.

So far … I’ve got this working to parse the XML string and store it in the database. I’ve got more stuff to do … like grab the correct weather icon based on the weather conditions. I also need to see if I can find an XML feed for the forecast. I think I ran across one, but I don’t remember. I’ll just have to do more searching.

Back to the class. I want to get as much done as I can before I go to bed tonite. Once I get started on something like this, I can’t stop … or at least I don’t like to. But I need sleep too.

Mood: working

I’ve been looking for a new HTML editor this weekend. I’ve been using HTML-Kit for quite a while now. I’ve also tried PSPad and most recently HAPedit. They all have good features, but none have exactly what I want.

I use PHPEd at work, and I really like it. It has all the features that I’m looking for. The only problem … it’s $300. I can’t afford that at home. So I’d like to find something similar that I can use.

I’d prefer freeware (’cuz I’m cheap), but I am willing to shell out some money if it’s a product that I like and will use. I’d like to keep it under $50 (closer to $25 would be even better). It has to have syntax highlighting that is customizable (I like to have my code colored a certain way). I’d also like to find something that has a project management feature to it.

I’ve asked this question on a couple message boards, and have gotten some recommendations. So far, haven’t found anything that screams “Use me!”. So … I’m hoping maybe one of my readers can give me some recommendations. I don’t want any WYSIWYG editors … I’m beyond that stage. I don’t want anything too bloated (like Dreamweaver … I already have it anyways) either. Just a good, solid code editor.

Mood: lazy

I FINALLY got my Dale Jr and Chance 2 fan sites updated for the 2005 season. I mean … the Bud Shootout is tonite!! I just haven’t felt like working on my own sites at nite after working on other people’s websites all day at work. I almost decided to shut down both sites completely. But I can’t do that.

I did realize one thing … I am SO GLAD that I converted this blog to WordPress. The race reports section of my Dale Jr site is powered by MovableType. Well … that will be changing this weekend. I went to update the templates for the new season and rebuild. Well … it didn’t work. I get ’server misconfiguration’ errors. The error log say “error: file is writable by others”. WTF?!? All I did was a minor change and then hit rebuild. That rebuild thing always pissed me off anyways. Well … it’s time I whipped up that editor that I planned quite a while ago for the race reports. Then I’ll get rid of MT altogether. Guess that’ll push back my plans to play with WP 1.5. Oh well.

Mood: working