perldiver

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html

Warning:  Do not read without a box of tissues to hand.  They are useful for wiping up tears of laughter.

Obviously, I blew it on NaNoWriMo.  I kept going for less than a week before I let work and NRE crowd me out of the race.  I did do a small bit more writing after I stopped updating my counts, but nothing really worth mentioning and I haven't touched it now in three weeks.

Although I regret not sticking with it, I don't regret trying it.  It gives me more of an understanding of what it takes to be a full-time writer, which is cool on its own.  More importantly, it got me started.  I can now go back to that story fragment any time I want. 

I have a house guest for the next two weeks, so I will give myself permission not to work on the story for that time.  Once it's just me again, though, I'd like to go back to  it.

Hey everyone out there with MySQL chops, can you help me out?
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Does anyone have suggestions for a workaround?  I'm almost ready to do all of this in code and call it a day, but would really prefer not to -- that way lies madness and corrupted datastores.

Note to self self:  if you can't figure out why you are only getting 7 rows of test data back instead of the 10 you expected...please verify that you actually inserted 10 (i.e. not 7) before wasting two hours worrying about it.

*headdesk*

I am posting this from a subway train currently under 50 feet of rock.

Ok, there are certain parts of the San Francisco transport system that are damned impressive.

This is a note for my professional memory. If you aren't a Catalyst programmer, feel free to skip it, but it's public so that Google can make it available to anyone who needs it.

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You can tell that I'm not terribly musical (or, at least, musically discriminating)  by looking at the current choices coming up on my iTunes DJ:

• "The Lark Ascending (Opening)"  by the New Philharmonia Orchestra
• "Lucky Star" by Madonna
• a French pop song (the name and artist were not on the mix CD I got it from)
• "And They Say I've Got Talent" by Tom Smith [filk]
• "Cello Concerto in E Minor" by the London Symphony Orchestra
• "These Cold Fingers" by Bill Morrissey
• "Saggy Diaper Blues" by Da Vinci's Notebook
• "Dinny's Farewell" by Draoicht [Celtic...folk / soft rock / ??]

Today I went to the Bay Area Maker Fair.  The rest of this blog entry will be in the comments to the pictures that I took.

A week ago, there was a domestic violence incident two doors down from me. The woman was (non-sexually) assaulted by her boyfriend; he pushed her down, twisted her arm, wrenched her neck, broke her necklace, then pushed her out the door of the apartment and locked her out. I invited her into my apartment and gave her my phone so she could call 911. They came, arrested the boyfriend, and took him for a psych eval.

The next day, an SFPD Inspector (which is what San Francisco calls Police Detectives) called me and took my statement over the phone. An hour ago, the public defender's rep came by and took it again.


Here are some realizations I've had, which come out as bits of advice if anything similar ever happens near you:

1. Get involved.
2. Stay involved.
3. Keep a timelog of events as they happen. 
   
   1. Use video if you have it.  If not, use Voice Memos.  Lacking that, write it down.
   2. Your smartphone probably has video and/or Voice Memos.
      
4. Volunteer your name and contact information to one of the responding officers and state that you will testify.
5. Consider carefully what you say to officials: be factual, and do not answer leading questions.

( That advice expanded... )

Obviously, this advice doesn't apply just to domestic violence calls -- you could do the same for a fender bender or any other situation where there are going to be legal issues involved later. 

One final thing I note -- the police took my statement the next day, while my recollections were fresh; they did it over the phone and recorded it.  The Public Defender's office did not get to me for a week when some details had gone fuzzy; they sent someone to my home to take my statement in person and the rep took everything down in the form of written notes.  Most likely, these differences are due to different staffing levels, different workloads, the time it takes for the case to get through processing and passed from the SFPD to the PubDef office, etc.  The effect, however, is that it makes it easier for the Public Defender to cast doubt in witness's minds about exactly what happened, when, and how.  Keep this in mind while giving your statement.

Apparently, I am not allowed to deeplink to pictures from a free account, despite there being an "insert image" link in the editor.  Ok, no worries.  Here's the original:

http://blog.herbietown.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/blasphemy.jpg