9:35a

Well, I didn’t win the lottery (obviously), so I’m in class again.

9:47a

I’m finding that, since there are only two of us in class, it’s difficult to type things up during the lesson because if I’m typing and the other guy in class (who always has this look like he has no clue what’s going on around him) is doing… whatever he’s doing… then the teacher starts thinking no one is paying attention. Having been in that situation, I know where he’s coming from.

I’m almost done with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 765 pages in the book (I’ve got the UK edition) and I’ve only got like 30 pages left. This is going much faster than my last book, and I hope the next book I read is this interesting.

That said, I’m glad to be getting through this because I really need to start focusing on test preparation and it’s difficult when I just want to sit and read my book rather than buckling down and doing what I need to do. I should have the book done today sometime and tonight I’ll maybe work on some of the labwork from the Programming Windows class I took a while back.

I ordered, for $3.75 shipping, the BMWFilms DVD. Good stuff there. If you haven’t seen the films, check them out.

I got my Zaino car polish products in the mail yesterday so now I’m anxious to try them out, but I’m going to have to find some good time to do that. I’m thinking if I can get out of here early tomorrow, I can go straight over to my parents’ house to wash the car down and maybe get the first coat of polish on. I will probably be able to do a second coat, then, in the morning on Saturday, which would be good because my class reunion’s that night and I’d like to have a spiffy car for the occasion. Not that my car’s not already spiffy, but a nice coat of polish would do it well.

My parents went to Mamma Mia! last night and they liked it a lot, though they agreed that a couple of the actors were a little wooden. I did have a good time with it, it just wasn’t quite what I expected. Anyway, Mom took the shirt Jenn bought at the show on Tuesday back to the show when she went on Wednesday and the concessions guy traded it in for a different model shirt that would fit. That’s cool, so Jenn will get her Mamma Mia! shirt. It’s not the one she wanted, but it’s a shirt. Sucks that the one she wanted didn’t fit. (The other girls’ shirts there also only came in “fitted large” size, which I think is crazy - in today’s society, “one size fits all” is not a valid way to fly. Jenn ended up getting the “generic t-shirt” style shirt, which is not nearly as cute as the one she wanted.)

10:43a

The teacher has said that if he lets us go to fast and we get out too early, he’ll be in trouble, so I guess we’re taking more breaks to fill the time. That’s okay. During the downtimes I’m catching bits of Harry Potter. Getting closer to done…

11:25a

Lunchtime! I’d best go to the store and get me another book; I’m really close to done here!

12:22p

I finished Harry Potter at lunch and I think this is the best one yet. I liked how you get to see more of his internal feelings of growing up, becoming interested in girls, etc. It makes him a much richer character. Not to mention a darn good story and a lot more of the workings of the wizarding society - more information on the Ministry of Magic and so forth. I think this will make a spectacular movie when the time comes.

Of course, if you haven’t read the first four books, I don’t know that this fifth book is the place to start. Newbies aren’t going to get all the references to the previous books and will miss several subtle yet significant points. That doesn’t mean “go see the movies and skip the books” - you need to read the books to get all the subtle stuff and then read this latest. It’ll be worth your effort.

1:15p

We’re already done with the stuff for today, but the teacher’s going to get in trouble if we get out too early, so we’re going to look at some other advanced topics that aren’t really covered in the class (like some of the XML stuff that SQL Server can do).

I’m all for leaving right now, since I could go over to my parents’ house and start cleaning up my car or maybe go home and do some of the labs for the Programming Windows Apps class. But I don’t want the guy to get into trouble, so I’ll hang out.

2:27p

Well, class is done, but I’m in the process of reformatting my blog to use CSS (why not, right?) so I’ll be here for a little longer.

You may notice a few changes and potentially errors in the formatting of the site. That’s because I’ve started converting the layout and color scheme over to use Cascading Style Sheets instead of tables. To the uninitiated, what that means is that I’ll be able to more easily change the colors, look, and feel of my site at a later time. What it also means is that I’m starting to save a little more space on my server, which prolongs the inevitable move to a hosted environment. I’m not even done with the reformat on the templates and I’ve already saved about 2MB

• just from removing some static HTML that didn’t need to be there.

Anyway, I’m going to continue reformatting this thing, but it’ll be a bit before it’s totally complete (maybe several days) so bear with me. I’ve gotten the majority of the stuff worked out all right.

Oh, and check out your Print Preview - if your browser supports CSS properly, you should see the page reformatted to work better on your printer!

Mamma Mia! is a musical production that tells the story of a girl getting married who has never met her father. She finds out that there are three men who potentially could be her father, so she invites them all to her wedding and proceeds to try to figure out which one is going to walk her down the aisle.

The thing about Mamma Mia!, though, is that the music is all ABBA music - so when you go in, you already know the words to the songs, and you can’t help but tap your toe.

Now, I’ve seen several Broadway-style productions including Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom of the Opera. I’ve seen almost every Cirque du Soleil show out there. So going into Mamma Mia!, I had a certain level of expectation for the showmanship that they were going to present to me.

And… eh. See, I love the music, but I expected to see huge singing and dancing numbers, right? Choreography and lights and music and action! But what I got was more like… four people or thereabouts, max, on stage during any given song (with a couple exceptions), and several of the songs delivered in a “soliloquy” format, where the stage goes dark except for one spotlight on the singer, who stands stock-still (no arm or head movement), delivers the song over the audience’s head, then returns to position and the action continues. A lot of the time I felt like whispering, “Psst! Pssssst! ACT!”

That said, there were some great laughs and it was a nice story they told, so I wasn’t disappointed, it just wasn’t what I expected. Jenn, on the other hand, came out totally wowed and loved every second. Expectations can definitely influence your view of a thing.

9:24a

I’m glad I don’t have to do anything tonight, because after last night’s Mamma Mia! outing and the Jet Lag outing the night before, to be honest, I’m beat and would just like to stay home and read my book.

The class continues to go well, and I think we’re back on easy street after yesterday’s lesson. I still feel pretty good about all this, so I’m kind of pumped to start working with the practice tests and see how I do. I hope the practice tests are accurate representations of the real thing.

I’ve informed my instructor that if I’m not here tomorrow it’s because I won the Powerball jackpot. I’ve got my ticket and now it’s time for them to draw my numbers. Can’t win if you don’t play, right?

10:00a

I’ve figured out how to get the web server log from the web server I’m hosted on, but it seems they only record errors (i.e., file not found) in their log, not successes. So I can see that some folks still try to hit images and things that don’t reside on my site, but I can’t see what my traffic level is.

Which just fucking figures.

So. I guess I have the option of putting stupid page counters on my pages or… Or I don’t know what else.

1:27p

Breaktime.

I’m feeling pretty confident the further we go into this stuff. It’s really feeling like a bit of review, which I hope is a good sign come test-time. Not having taken any of the Microsoft tests yet, I’m still a little wary that there will be a multiple choice question with a wrong answer, a right answer, and a Microsoft answer. I feel good that I could probably pick the right answer, but no promises that it’ll be the Microsoft answer.

Jenn got a shirt at Mamma Mia! last night that, unfortunately, is not the right size (they only had one size, so we figured we’d give it a go), but luckily my mom is going to see the show tonight and is going to pick up a different shirt (if they have a better size) so Jenn does not go shirtless.

Not that I complain when Jenn goes shirtless, but… well, you get the point. Heh.

It’s looking like I’m going to have to go with something like eXTeMe Tracking to get site stats. Blarg.

2:03p

Aw, shucks. We’re getting out early. Well, I guess that’s it for me!

I forgot to post yesterday’s class log, but there wasn’t much, so I’ll just throw it up here and call it good.

9:40a

I went to see Jet Lag last night as my first assignment as a movie reviewer for YouBored.com. All in all, I thought it was pretty good, but you’ll have to wait for the formal review to show up on YouBored. If it never shows, well, I’ll post ‘er here so the effort’s not lost. One thing I will say: Juliette Binoche… MMMMMMM…..

Something I need to bring out in the open, here, since it’s bothering me…

How come fat and/or old men have to breathe very, very loudly out of their mouths while they’re taking a leak? I mean, these guys could be doing a 500 pound clean-and-jerk for all the huffing and puffing they’re doing. Does pissing really require that much noise? Get that shit under control. I was just in the bathroom with this guy who walks about three feet an hour, probably a good hundred pounds overweight, and this guy sounds like he’s running a marathon while he’s doing his business. I couldn’t pee fast enough and get out of there.

11:41a

Class is heavy, sort of like the last class, but I’m not feeling as swamped because we’re getting the time to do the labs. Plus, since a lot of this is feeling familiar (which I think is a Good Thing), it’s a lot easier than the last class.

I got my self testing software yesterday so I can start to take practice tests and quiz myself in getting ready for the actual tests. I think after this class is over, I’ll spend next week prepping myself for the test (in the evenings) and get that scheduled. I’d like to get these things behind me so my nerves aren’t piqued.

1:17p

Two-person class + No questions = Short days, which is just fine with me.

I’ve continued working on and off with the revised CSS layout of the site and I think it’s pretty much done, but I’m too much of a chicken to put it up. Because that means going through and doing these major changes, and if it doesn’t fix everything then it’s going to be a big pain in the ass. Of course, if I don’t put the stupid thing up, I’m never going to figure out what I’ve left out, so maybe I should just do it.

I think I’ll back up the site first, though. At least the templates.