Week 4: June 16th - June 22nd
Sunday:
This week, we went to a PCA church in North Raleigh. Incidentally, the gas is about 7 cents cheaper there than it is in Cary, where we live. It was a good church service; it reminded me a lot of Redeemer PCA in Athens, for those of you who are familiar with that church. We had lunch at Los Tres Magueyes, and I got fajitas because I can always live off of the leftovers for days. Oh, and I finally got some film developed at CVS, and they put them online too, so I have added some to my Pictures page.
Monday:
What I learned today: you have to eat your entire fortune cookie before you read the fortune, or else it won't come true. I did not know this, so that could explain why I've never made a million dollars. I played around with my web page again today, and I also read the book No Bugs! Delivering Error-Free Code in C and C++. It was a small book, and I skimmed alot of it. Nachi found it at the library and thought it would be useful for me to read. It had some useful information about file I/O, but other than that, it was pretty old. He kept talking about how C++ was going to be the language of the future, but that C was the language of today. Annie brought us candy necklaces and pixie sticks from Atlanta (not that they're unobtainable or taste different from other places). I haven't had a candy necklace in years, so it was quite enjoyable. That afternoon, Annie brought the hermit crabs out to run around and get some exercise. They're quick little guys when they want to be; they were running all over the office like it was their job. Two of them knocked into each other for a second, and I kept trying to get the others to fight. But they proved unprovokable. (Pictures are up)
Tuesday:
In the morning, Nachi and I met for the security discussion and read "Attacking Malicious Code: A report to the Infosec Research Council". Mainly, it presented the different types of malicious code, the reasons it is becoming a more common problem, and some suggestions of defenses. Then Nachi and I went to the library so I could find some books on PHP. Amazingly enough, they were all checked out, so I grabbed a book from Laurie's office and started playing around with some basic examples. We had planned on doing the survey in PHP because Annie's group did their privacy survey in PHP. So I get to learn. :-)
That night, I played volleyball with the grad students (and some professors). It was much cooler than last Thursday, and I really had a good time (though my team did lose all 6 times we played, which didn't really bring a smile to Brent's face).Wednesday:
Wo-hoo! My computer crashed. Rather, it refused to boot up. That made for some fun and excitement. I had multiple copies of everything, except, of course, the survey. I had a printed copy though, so Nachi let me use his computer for awhile, and I just retyped it all up, and then played some more with PHP a bit. In the afternoon, Boby came over (it used to be his computer) and managed to get it to the command prompt so I could get my files. It ended up not being too big of a deal because I had almost everything saved other places; I only needed a few files, and those I got. Then the little guy got reformatted and Windows 2000 reinstalled. The computer in general has had a much better attitude about everything I've asked it to do since we wiped it clean. After Boby got it running (it's always nice to see the Desktop again), I had to reinstall everything (Dreamweaver, Adobe, EndNotes, etc.). At which point, I of course realized that I hadn't gotten the bibliography information I had put into EndNotes. It isn't too big of a deal, but it is a little tedious to have to enter the stuff again. I posted some of the publications I have read on the web page. As most of the stuff I have read has been books, I haven't put a lot of notes up yet because I'm not yet finished with the book.
After lunch, Laura and I ran up the street to Cup a Joe to get some coffee. We wanted mochas, and we accidentally got drinks with three shots of espresso. For starters, that's a lot of caffeine for anyone, but it's waaaay too much for someone who has pretty much cut out all caffeine. (That wasn't necessarily by plan, I just haven't had much Coke or tea or chocolate, so it just happens). I was so ridiculously jittery the whole day. I will not be doing that again anytime soon. Hopefully ever.Thursday:
In the morning, Nachi, Lily and I got together for the security discussion group again and talked about another chapter in the Building Secure Software book. William brought me the PHP book that he had used, so I started looking through that. It is a helpful book. Gives good abstract explanations and whatnot. So I played with that and tried to get the survey working, and then you'll NEVER guess what happened. My computer crashed again. Basically, it ran for 24 hours and then died again. I think I may have found my calling in life... I'll be a professional computer crasher! I'm very good at it apparently. Boby wasn't exactly thrilled about it when I told him; I can't imagine why. While we were messing with the computer, Nachi came in and brought me a list of words in American English vs. Indian English. They were all pretty standard, except for this one which I cannot handle. They call "okra" "lady's fingers". Which is clearly absurd! Lady's Fingers are a dessert food, not a vegetable! But Prashant and Boby told me that it was true, so I'm pretty sure they all aren't just pulling my leg, but I still can't understand it. :-)
Laura was playing with her webpage all day because she couldn't get the drop down menus working correctly for IE and Netscape (not to mention windows vs. mac). She was very enthusiastic about the whole thing, so I don't ever want to hear her mocking me for being a nerd again. Don't let her fool you, she is every bit as much of a nerd as I am. She has her web pages, and I have my buffer overflows.Friday:
I took the day off from work today and went back down to Atlanta. I abandoned Laura for the weekend. Poor thing, I hope she survives ;-). For some reason, a whole slew of my friends have decided to get married this summer, and it's all happening in Atlanta. I basically flitted about North Georgia all day running errands and picking up things. I would be more than willing to provide you with a detailed account of my day, but it seems even to me to be a bit outside of the purview of this journal, so I'll refrain. Suffice it to say, I finally got to sit down and watch a Braves game which was wonderful and which we won (though for a bit there it looked for all the world like the bullpen was going to give up the game in the 8th inning).
Saturday:
It was a busy, but enjoyable day. I went to a bridal shower in the morning and then a wedding that night (I wasn't kidding about the all-my-friends-are-getting-married thing). Both were really wonderful, and I got to see some people I haven't seen in years. And I even got to watch more baseball that night (but we were slaughtering the White Sox, and I always start to feel bad for the other team when we're really pummeling them - I'm too emotionally involved, I know).