I wrote to a friend yesterday: “i’m sequestered/chained to the computer watching deadlines fly by me at light speed….” It seems that there is 25 hours worth of work to do a day. This is when I wish I had insomnia instead of TMJ.
The book has been pushed back to 2005. I worked on it from 4pm-7am Tuesday night and realized a few things: it wasn’t going to get done, squeezed in between the other priority work; it was going to take a bit more effort than I first estimated (this can be said about all of my endeavors); it was an emotional strain that needed to be spread out…
You can get a sneek peek at comments in SWIM over at halsamples.com. SWIM’s official release date continues to be pushed back, for many reasons, but will hopefully still be within 2004 here. Threaded comments were not part of the original spec, no. I had a very functional prototype working within a few hours over Thanksgiving. But in the name of SWIM’s template system and the separation of data and design, I had to break it and put it back together again, which took two 14 hour days. I finally finished and installed it last night at 1:30 and ran across the street to celebrate before last call. Turns out the owner was bartending so last call wasn’t such a hard-and-fast deadline after all. You know, the local business owners have to stick together. And/or drink together.
Say what you will about Hal, but his goal is to raise awareness concerning the homeless issue in Dallas, and he’s succeeding at that. He was the subject of a Fox News piece about meth this week (8.6M .mov). Same night ABC ran a story on the sweep outside of the Day Resource Center (4.5M .mov) etc. Let me paraphrase our dear mayor:
If I hadn't warned you that I was going to shoot you in the face with this .45, I would say I was at fault; but I told you I was about to shoot you in the face with this .45 and you didn't move!
Next morning Hal calls me at 10:20 to tell me he’s going to be on the radio at 10:30. Now I don’t have a TV or a functional radio, but turns out 990mainstreet.com has an excellent online audio feed, which was crystal clear for the entire hour and a half. I got the whole thing on wav, which I have edited down to three manageable mp3’s: Kevin McCarthy Show–Hal Samples–interview (6.4M mp3), Kevin McCarthy Show–Hal Samples–callers–1 (9.1M mp3), Kevin McCarthy Show–Hal Samples–callers 2 (10.4M mp3). Good stuff. The beginning (first 1:35) of that last one there is awesome.
Yesterday was a manic-depressed code day, one bug after another, the joy of fixing one and the bummer of the next one immediately popping up. During one of the more Monster-induced manic periods, I danced my happy ass right off to The Waiting–I Want You Back (3.4M mp3) (a Jackson 5 cover, FYI, in case you’re culturally challenged). That song makes me happy.
Said ass was later re-attached.