Local Couple Arrested on Human Smuggling Charges

It’s a good thing that A- and I are good at our chosen careers because we would make terrible,terrible agents or talent managers.

A woman approached us at the garden show this weekend and asked to take our picture for something. We immediately said yes and asked for details afterward. And even though we did ask for details,neither of us is still sure what it was for. We’re either going to be in the Insider (whatever that is),the Weekend section of the paper,or The City Newspaper. We’re not sure which.

I half expect to see our smiling faces gracing an article under a phony headline like the one above.

More like The Weeklies

Great site,lotsa’ good info but what happened to the “dailies”? From Feb 23 to March 1 is hardly every day. Give us more!!

That’s a comment recently left here by a visitor. It’s true that I’m averaging a post about once a week lately.

It seems like suddenly I’ve become insanely busy. My recent recognition means more and more people at work work (my day job) are asking me to participate on their projects. I think there may be a queue (sorry,but I love that word).

I’ve also started picking up more freelance work. Most recently working for a musician in Syracuse on a site for his CD release party. I hope to complete that in the next few weeks or so. I also have a number of other projects in mind and various stages of completion. Stay tuned!

Lastly,I keep writing that I want to learn C#. Every few months I talk about it. Unfortunately I still haven’t managed to get past half way through the first chapter of the book I bought.

It’s even more unfortunate because for some reason I now get a phone call or email about every other day from somebody looking for a .NET developer. That tells me that learning C# will pay off like crazy (learning for the sake of learning aside) but I just can’t seem to find the time to focus on it. There’s just too much opportunity for paying work.

The point of all this is: I know I’ve been slacking on posts lately. It’s not because I’ve gotten lazy. Keep coming back and I’ll keep writing. Okay,nevermind,I’ll keep writing regardless.

We just give it to you

I’m no security zealot but I was definitely shocked today when I created an online learning account for work and received a confirmation email that contained my username,password,and detailed instructions on logging in (including the URL of the application). But my recognition application was required to be locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Heaven forbid some some Citibank emblazoned prizes fall into the wrong hands.

Internet Explorer 7 (beta)

The beta version of Internet Explorer 7 is now available for download. I downloaded it moments ago and am actually writing this post using it.

The first thing I did was check out this site which surprisingly looks almost the same in IE 7 as it does in Firefox. That makes me happy. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised since this is a relatively simple layout that doesn’t use a lot of the hacks older versions of IE required that now supposedly render funky in IE 7.

My first impression is that they copied things people like about Firefox,like tabbed browsing. Next they made some necessary changes such as better support of standards and security features.

I haven’t used it for more than a few fleeting moments but I just can’t see myself switching from my beloved Firefox with it’s variety of themes and indispensable extensions. Plus,there’s a lot of bad blood between myself and IE after countless hours troubleshooting problem layouts that render perfectly in other browsers. On the other hand,Internet Explorer still dominates the market share and as a developer,there’s no way around it so this is a certainly a step in the right direction.

Staking my claim

Although I haven’t really used it,Technorati generates a lot of referrals for this site so I decided to go poke around over there. When I did,I found that by ‘claiming my blog’,I can include additional information about me or this site when my URLs are returned in a query. Supposedly there are other features available to those that claim there blogs as well. This post is part of the registration process so I’ll let you all know how it works out when I’m finished.

In the meantime,here is the Technocati profile for letsgomurphys.com.

Phew…the great weight

Implementation Day!

We finally went live with the application I’ve been writing at Citigroup. The project had been delayed after some production issues over the weekend. People seemed slightly disappointed as expectation has been building since before I came onboard. There was a lot of fanfare today with balloons and posters and little freebie gifts for everybody. Much more hoopla than I’m used to or prefer.

All in all the program was well received and people seemed to enjoy using it. A minor bug surfaced but out of roughly 200 or so users today only 3 trouble tickets were issued and they were all related to the same defect. 1.5% isn’t too shabby for the ‘fng’.

The project sponsor has been talking this application up to the whole company since I started so the pressure has really been on to deliver. It also didn’t help that I’m new to the team so my performance here would really make or break my reputation. Like I said,things went well and we got tons of positive feedback. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep tonight…for a change.

One stop reading

So my last ‘woe is me’ post doesn’t hang out on my home page too long,here’s a quick blurb about a site I discovered recently. don’t meet your heroes compiles CSS and web standards related blogs,hence the description compiles. While it includes a lot of the sites on my regular reading list,a few don’t make the cut. It’s still a worthwhile visit for me because it quickly enables me to determine if 6 or 7 of my favorite authors have any new content without having to visit their sites individually. It also helped put me in contact with Andrew Faulkner at fad.tastic for whom I think I’m going to start writing.

When will it be February?

I don’t want to make a habit out of moaning and complaining here but holy cow has 2006 sucked so far! I know I started off the new year trying to pump positivity but we’ve really been knocked on our asses this month.

In the last four weeks,someone has been assaulted,a long friendship has ended,someone has died,someone has been hospitalized,someone started a new job,someone is sick,and someone’s application has had production issues.

I think we all need a long nap.

‘Rosie’ Redesign

It’s been a little over a week since I posted last. As you can see,tonight I emplemented the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ Redesign. That’s part of the reason it’s taken me so long to write here,the other is that I’m also getting close to the implementation date of the recognition program at work that I talk about all the time lately.

Anyhow,just like with the last design,I tried to pick something that really stood out to me and for some reason,Rosie does that. In this case I kept it pretty simple and was able to use most of my existing work so it didn’t take too long to get put together. I find I get bored with the design of my site rather quickly so time allowing,stay tuned for something else. For now though,this has cured my jones.

Web Development Certification

I just completed my Web Development Concepts certification from Brainbench at the Master Level,scoring a 4.08 to land in the 97% percentile. The certification covers a general overview of HTML,programming,Internet,XML,and object oriented design. You can view my Brainbench transcript online or download my resume.