jimsjournal
Hands Project -- 09/20/02


Bonnie has had some kind of ISP problem and has had to take down her HandsProject page.


Bonnie has created a HandsProject page featuring pictures of people's hands -- May I suggest that you check it out (and perhaps contribute a picture of your hands?) Among the contributers thus far are people whose journals I enjoy reading and I find it fascinating to see pictures of their hands.

I didn't think I had any hand pictures (although it did occur to me to crop down that picture taken at a lunch celebration for a colleague who is getting married in a few days so it would just be a picture of my hands) and then I got the idea to use my scanner, not to scan a photograph of hands, but to scan hands directly... after more than two decades together my wife has apparently grown accustomed to me because she didn't raise an eyebrow when I asked her to come into the den and put her hand on the scanner... so last night I sent Bonnie a scanned image of our hands... and then as I was typing this entry today I suddenly remembered that there was a photograph of our hands in our wedding album (photography by Nancy's sister Karen)... and in between is a wedding ring closeup.

I'd started off this month so well -- six entries in the first eight days -- and then I go almost two weeks without an entry. Sorry 'bout that, but I was just plain too busy. As I've probably mentioned a few times during the past couple of months, I'm writing a new course (for a new software product) and my deadline was September 20th. Please note the personal possessive pronoun in there... this was my deadline, set by me. Oh, of course I didn't have much choice in it at the time I set it, no more than a week or two of leeway, but, nevertheless, it was a target date I had picked and to which I had committed. (My deadline was not as personal as that of my co-worker who is writing another course dealing with the same product; yeah, the one getting married on the 28th.)

Today was my target date to finish the writing process (that is, coming up with graphics to be projected, explanatory text to go into the student books, notes for the instructor, etc. plus the hands-on lab exercises). Now, as it turns out, it will probably be November before this class is presented, even in a "beta" version (we were writing this course based on an anticipated Sept. 30th release of a new version of this product, but now that release date has been moved out by one month); however, I have tons of other stuff to do in the meanwhile, so in late August and again two weeks ago, I re-committed to Sept 20th. This means that I have been very busy most of the summer on this project, and have been working quite intently (and intensely) since Labor Day in an effort to meet my deadline. Now that it is written (well, there's one unit that has lots of blank pages because -- due to the changed release date -- I have yet to get my hands on the updated version of the code so I can't get any screen shots; so I'll have to revisit those pages in a few weeks), I'll be spending quite a few hours over the weekend running spell checks and proofreading the material so I can have it ready next week to send around for QA. (Quality Assurance -- that is, have other people read it so they can spot the mistakes that I've missed, etc.)

It's been difficult not writing entries -- there have been just so many things to discuss. Rhode Island politics is always fascinating and this month has brought a number of fierce primary election battles plus a complicated scandal surrrounding John Harwood (Speaker of the House and probably the most powerful man in Rhode Island... or, at least, the most powerful until this month) and now the beginning of the campaign season leading up to this November's elections for everything from town officials to governor of the state. And there's so much happening nationally and internationally.

I did boycott the media wallowing in the anniversary of 9-11 -- watched some morning television news to find out how the Democratic primary turned out (it was too close to call when I'd gone to bed... but Myrth York managed to win a hard-fought three-way race) and to catch the morning weather forecast and traffic report -- but I didn't learn about the September 11th Media Fast project until that afternoon; organized by a seminary student who had the thought that "this day needs to be a remembrance that hasn't been sensationalized."



Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the invention of the emoticon!
:-) is now twenty years old!



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