From the “Damn, it is Hot Outside!” Dept.

My brother and I went for a 5 km run this evening. Even though it was 10:30 at night, it was still 26°C. However, when you included humidity, it felt like 31°C (88°F for those of you state-side). It made for a really muggy run today.

Overall, it was a positive run. I recently checked my weight during a physical and it has ballooned to 170 lbs! I hide it well, but I am shocked.

I shudder to think of what i must have weighed back in Jan 2002; when I actually felt fat.

Carrying an extra 30 lbs of weight has made running really difficult. It’s a struggle really, you expend a lot more energy with each step.

I’ve been struggling with my weight ever since I came back from Europe in June 2001. Granted, I’m not obese, but I want to have a long and active lifestyle, something that sitting in front of a computer does not afford.

From the “Eureka” Dept.

So last week I presented a new XML-based language for the Mazda.ca website. I think they will use the language for the backend content storage for the entire domain. I’m very happy, as the language that I wrote is the culmination of what I’ve been reading. I’ve been talking with Owen about extending the language a bit as well.

Damn, I do a lot of stuff at work.

I started working on a spreadsheet for work last night at 11:30 pm. I was up until 2 AM in the morning working on it. I was trying to use the INDIRECT Excel function to lock cell reference values in an excel spreadsheet. The problem was the quantity of edits:

• There were over 2560 cells in the Excel worksheet that needed to be added.
• Each cell had 14 individual cell references which needed to wrapped by the INDIRECT function and double quotes, and
• Once you use the INDIRECT function you can no longer do vertical fills or hit F4 to change the relative cell references to absolute cell references.

So I was sitting in front of my computer for about an hour freaking out.

It then occured to me that I could a script out a small application to pump out the cell formulas by text. Fifteen minutes later I was was finished the PHP application (in one line of code too!) and by 2:00 am, I had fixed the spreadsheet.

I am quite proud of myself.

From the “Times are a Changin’” Dept.

So I finally broke down and started replying to eVites. For the longest time, I refused to use the system because the privacy policy was draconian. Back in Late 2001, the eVite privacy policy stated that it could take “guest list” data and sell it to 3rd-party marketing firms. It also withheld the right to mail “guests” marketing material.

I actually commented on this to a few friends in a “short-lived” email string. I don’t think anyone really reads the privacy policy but me. I actually emailed eVite with some feedback, as well as asking them to take me off their marketing lists and the lists of their 3rd Party marketing vendors. Their response was that they could not control the 3rd Parties and that I should email them separately.

So began a brutal cycle of non-replies and guest list removals from eVite.

Now that it’s 2003, I’m glad to say that eVite has revised their Privacy and Terms of Use statement—all in positive ways. Granted, what they’ve done isn’t groundbreaking. It was best practices back in 2001.

I’d like to think that my complaints were one of the reasons for this positive change.

-T