Add one to my [long] list of pet peeves:

I cannot stand it when people clip their nails at work.

I’ll accept it if you have to fix a hangnail or something, but if you feel the need to deal with your nails at your desk, step back and take a long toke off the reality reefer: No one wants to hear your stupid nails being clipped, nor do they want to step in/sit in/touch the clippings that are no doubt flying all over your cubicle.

We have restrooms for personal grooming. Better still, try dealing with things like that at home. That clip-clip-clip sound coming over the wall is worse than scraping on a chalkboard. Do something about it.

I have this feeling that I’m not going to get anything done today. I have meetings booked solid on my calendar from 9:00a until noon, then they start again at 1:00p. I might be able to work for a couple of hours this afternoon. Maybe.

Plus, today should be the last day of this way-too-long project I’ve been working on. I’m anxious to get off of it because the next project I’m going to be on looks like I’ll get some really good stuff done. (Rather than working on a hacked-together prototype, I actually get to put effort in to make production code - a much more satisfying endeavor.)

I got a copy of VisualMake 3.0 from the Xtras.Net Developer Network (which is cool - you should join) and played around with it.

Hmmm.

Right now I use NAnt to automate my build processes. It’s a pretty flexible tool, and while it does require you script (rather than having some GUI to drag and drop tasks or organize the thing - hey, there’s a cool product idea… a real GUI editor for NAnt scripts, but something easier - and cheaper - than NAntpad), it’s also pretty accommodating and flexible.

I was hoping VisualMake might be a good, GUI alternative. If not for corporate/work projects, at least for my home stuff.

No dice.

I posted a review on it at Xtras.Net, but the long and the short of it is that VisualMake would be great for some straightforward builds, but it doesn’t seem to know Visual C++ projects (.vcproj), nor does it know setup projects (.vdproj). It also can’t open web projects via a URL, so you have to manually find those and add them.

In VisualMake’s defense, NAnt doesn’t do web projects, either, so it’s not like it’s missing functionality; I just figure when you’re graphically adding a solution (drag and drop) that includes web projects, a good GUI should automatically add them for you… at a minimum, it should determine if the project is on your local machine and start looking in the IIS metabase for the physical location. VisualMake doesn’t do that.

It does have some nice features, and I think for large Windows or console applications, this would be cool. Solutions that have a lot of dependencies and all generate .DLL files. I, unfortunately for VisualMake, don’t work in that world. All of my solutions have one or more web projects, a setup project… none of which works well with VisualMake.

Guess I’ll be sticking with NAnt.

Looks like I’m getting quoted over at Hanselman’s site. Go check out this article on the Laws of Prototypes at Tim Weaver’s site and tell me I’m wrong when I say the guy hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I went in today to get this tiny mole removed (maybe 6mm diameter) from my right side. I’ve had moles removed before - from my back, from the side of my head, etc., so I kind of knew what to expect.

Let me interject here that I am the biggest pain pussy ever. I don’t fear death, I fear pain. I fear any little kind of pain there could possibly be. Even if something isn’t hurting, I anticipate pain, and that hurts almost as much. I can’t watch medical shows on TV, and any needle bigger than the tiny ones I get my allergy shots with make me a little queasy.

Keeping that in mind, I got numbed (which hurt a lot, ironically - and the needle was a little larger than I’m comfortable with) and then the doctor started the operation. I was awake, but lying on my side not watching.

About halfway through, I started to feel the pressure of him pulling on the skin on my side and cutting and whatnot… and I started sweating profusely. I mean, like, sweat rolling off my forehead, soaked down, “I’ve been working on the railroad all the livelong day” sort of sweat.

Then he started cutting outside the area a little to make sure he got it all and I started feeling it a little, so he had to numb some more, which meant they brought a needle out and it made it all worse.

By the end of the thing they had to bring me an ice pack and a cup of cranberry juice because they were all worried about my distinct lack of color. I wasn’t at “pass out” level yet, but I was definitely headed there.

I have to go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed. I’m sitting here typing this and I feel the tightness in my side (probably due to the gigantic bandage attached to me) and I don’t know how long I’m gonna be able to stand that.

I think I should eat something.