Happy Leap Year

Well, it’s not very often when I have to manually change the dates on my watches…but this is one of those times. Happy Leap Year everyone!

One-Act Miscellany

I finished binding (actually doing the binding) the scrapbooks tonight — it took about an hour. Strangely enough it went a lot faster than in years previous, although I have no idea as to why it would be that way.

Of course, part of finishing the books (after binding) is to write the ‘personal notes’ for everyone in. It’s essentially my big thank you card for them all, of course encouraging them to continue in the art which is theatre.

And finally, I prepared and printed the ‘Letterman’s Certificate’ for the cast/crew as appropriate (not everyone gets that). So, now I’m just waiting to hear back from the shirt place, get them, and deliver everything to the cast/crew as soon after as possible. Then it’s really done.

More Web Stuff

Well, it’s not my own web stuff (of which there is much to do in my eyes), but I’ve been tinkering with the Enestvedt Seeds Website again. Originally it just got some dummy pages to keep the googlebot and anyone else interested in the domain name happy…but as time goes on it’s necessary to start using it as an informational/marketing tool.

So far I’ve got most of the look taken care of (with one major change left), and a good chunk of content formatted and in place. The priority of this project is somewhat low (as I’ve been told) but on the plate nonetheless; it can’t be ignored, but the database and other issues come first.

Speaking of Databases…

…I’ve been tinkering with the third release of the Enestvedt Seeds system. The first release outlined customer and product information, the second pertaining to ordering and payment processing, and the third now relating to bugfixes for the previous two, expanded reporting/’data mining’ features, and the delivery/inventory system.

Many of the bugfixes have already been addressed in minor updates I’ve sent them (or been there in person to fix)…but there are some other minor things I notice as I go along as well. But deliveries are more or less taken care of…with some minor adjustments and testing to be done yet. Essentially the delivery process is entering physical inventory changes and tracking the dates products left the premises.

Beth’s Old Machine

I finally took some time to tinker with Beth’s old Dell machine tonight. After her upgrade, I took an older hard drive and put it in her old case. in the upgrade, I also swiped the CD-ROM drive from it and put it in her new machine…so essentially it’s the same machine she originally had, minus a CD-ROM and currently sporting a smaller hard drive.

After completely reinstalling the Operating System (just Win98SE), I was planning (and still am, for that matter) on using it as a temporary machine to turn records into CD’s. A bare-bones system with just the basic audio capture software (and therefore lots of HDD space, even on a smaller drive) is all I need to do the first part. Of course, since the machine lacks a CD-ROM drive now, network connectivity is a must. And that was the problem…

For some reason, I couldn’t find the right NIC driver on the resource CD which came with the machine. After letting it sit for a month collecting dust, I’ve finally managed to try it again and got it working perfectly. Well, at least DHCP does its thing on the localnet, so I know the network card is working…and that the OS is seeing it.

So, now to hook it up to the turntable and do the magic. I’ve done this in the past, but not for a few years now.

The current project is an interesting one, which may or may not (we’ll have to see) work. There’s a couple who will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this May. Originally they had their wedding service recorded on user-recordable 78RPM records (at least I think they’re 78’s). Now, they don’t even have a turntable which will play them anymore, and for their anniversary would like to have the medium changed — to Compact Disc.

As I’ve done this before, I was volunteered to do it again. The only trick…I don’t have a turntable for 78’s either. I’ve only ever done 33’s and 45’s. What’s sad and pathetic is that there are probably some people who will eventually read this and have no idea what I’m referring to.

Anyway, after some brief looking around, I found that my grandparents have the capability to play 78’s on their old stereo console system. And the kicker — it’s even got a headphone jack (which means it’s been pre-amped and can easily be recorded without a microphone)! So, once I get the appropriate audio software set up on the old machine and get some time to spend there, I’ll drag it along and do some recording.

New Job…Old Job…

Well, the Sunrise Software thing is going pretty well — I’ve really come to enjoy employment in a place where I can actually take a break…be it for lunch, chat, or whatever. That, and I get to do stuff that I really enjoy — like web, network, and so forth.

Anyway, I finally broke it to ‘the boss’ this last week at Subway — after UMM’s spring break (which is March 8-12), I will be cutting way back on my hours there. I’m not quitting completely, but essentially. As it looks right now, I’ll no longer be doing weekends, and only two days during the week…shifts on the order of 5-8 or so (on the order of 6 hours in a week). This allows me to continue to be the ‘computer man’ there and also still keep a little bit of spending cash on the side.

I’m really looking forward to this change, because it really frees up the time I have available for other things and projects…some of which have been put off for far too long. It’s also nice to not always have to work on a weekend…which is how it’s been for the last three-and-a-half years (unless I’ve been gone or had something else going on).

But anyway, I’ve rambled for long enough now…until next time!

This post was upgraded to the MZ Online Blog on 8/25/07