Back in the NY Groove

The Yog and I have plotted out our road trip to NY in May. Yes, yes, I know I haven't kept you in the loop on this...but we didn't have the set dates yet. Do you forgive me?

We're set to leave May 5th, arriving in NY the morning of May 7th. We're going to stay until May 16th...two whole weekend there, and we got lots planned. :-)

On the list...we plan on going to Action Park (a water park some friends I love to frequent, quite a trip away), a Met game, take a mini-road trip to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, go downtown, and more. Action-packed! Michele will get to spend more time with her new family and I'll get to catch up with my old one. ;-)

In Resolution news (I'm sticking to these, so deal with it), I've already finished reading all 600+ pages of "Head First Design Patterns"! I soaked it up really well, and over the course of the next 11 months I hope to improve, harness, and prove my ability in pattern designs and design in general. I highly recommend the book: 5 Blancos!!!

My next venture on the road to software development mastery is UML. My next read will be "UML: A Beginner's Guide" and I've already started. Over the next few weeks, I hope to digest the entire workbook and begin using UML more consistently here at work and even at home. I've had trouble truly understanding it because I've avoided using it, but now I will force myself into it. Just like reading a language. No choices. It will improve me greatly and I need to do it. The time has come.

And I'm very excited about it. :-) I already feel like an improved developer, and I want more!

Saw some of the extras from Napolean Dynamite last night, including the original short movie. Crazy! His name was Seth, and Pedro was split in two characters. Bizarre. Also, he fancies a fanny pack at the thrift shop instead of the "amazing" suit. Very cool stuff, though.

Awesome news yesterday...we're getting new machines here at work! Finally! Work has been so frusterating since our Flash environment passed the "threshold" of RAM required to build it. It's nearly impossible now. Not sure if my ranting and raving here at work could have continued any longer...but, the voices were heard! (Including 2 of my own)

Michele has surpassed me in MapleStory. I've really slacked. :-) I had to spend over an hour last night racing to obtain the "cool Chinese-looking hat" because she got it first. She's doing very well in the game, simply beaming past me! :-)

But, that's not so bad, because I'm working on Counterpart as well. I'm still in the refactor phase, but once I'm done, progress will EXPLODE! The problem I ran into is the overzealouty (new word) that led me to writing some hideously misplaced code...refactoring is the act of reorganizing it into a better OOP design. The refactor is essentially complete, but I'm currently retesting and fixing the bugs. One more sitting is all I'll need I think.

Tonight, exercise and Counterpart. Have a good day, y'all.