victory!

yes, i know, i should be setting up my bedroom.

instead i'm at a coffee shop near my house, getting some work done on my blogging script for the first time since i took the bar almost a month ago. [!] i had almost forgotten how nice it was to just sit, puzzle through a computer programming problem, and eventually solve it. i guess that's one nice thing about being such a novice programmer...every new little bit of code i add to my program feels like a major victory. this morning's little victory? getting the program to check to see whether the computer is connected to the internet. if it is, then the program allows the user to start blogging. if not, it informs the user that they are not connected to the internet, and tells them to connect before trying to run the program again.

it's such a simple task...but it feels so good that i figured out the proper syntax for telling my computer to do it.

i'm in over my head...

i'm doing research into the blogger API...and it's looking like the blogger section of my blogging script is going to have to create and send an XML file. this is a little daunting, as i've neither used nor even really learned about XML before.

study time!

walking

i realised today that i'm finally back in some semblance of city shape.

when i lived in chicago from 2000-2005, i walked all the time. half-mile walks were nothing. walks of a mile or two, even, were old hat. they didn't faze me...they were just a normal part of everyday life. i took my ability to just walk and walk and walk for granted.

when i moved to st. louis, things changed. i didn't really stop and realise it, but i stopped walking nearly so much. i would occasionally walk places, such as out to the loop. but, usually, i was in vehicles. my walk to the bus stop was only half a block from either of the two places i lived. often friends would drive me around to places, especially when they were inconvenient to public transit, or if we were going to be out too late for public transit. [given st. louis' pathetic excuse for public transit, this happened often.] as a result, i walked less...and less...and less.

i didn't realise it until i moved back to chicago in may. but, being in st. louis killed my ability to walk even short distances. my poor legs were out of practice. anytime i had to walk more than a couple of blocks, my feet, calves, or both would start to hurt a lot. when i was alone, it hurt. when i was with others, not only did it hurt, but it was embarrassing when i had to ask people to slow down because my legs hurt so much. this plagued me during my first month or two back in town, but i kept walking, hoping that my legs would eventually be able to take it again.

i just had a realisation today: at least over the last couple of weeks, they're back to what i always conceived as normal.

i took so many long walks around manhattan and long island last week, and my legs never bothered me. today i walked around a ton...all the way out to lincoln square and back. my legs still feel great; i could do it again. i always knew that being in a big city led to me being in better shape than i'm in when i'm not in a big city...and it's really nice to feel some progress in that regard.

Lloyds is pants!

sometimes, customer dissatisfaction leads to hilarity. let me count the ways:

1. guy is dissatisfied with how Lloyds Bank deals with a travel insurance issue.
2. guy changes his account password to "Lloyds is pants."
3. member of Lloyds staff notices guy's password.
4. staff member changes it to "no it's not."
5. guy tries to change password back to "Lloyds is pants."
6. guy is not allowed to change his password back.
7. guy tries to change password to "Barclays is better."
8. this attempt to change his password is rejected as well.

in other news, i really need to start calling things that suck "pants." i had never been exposed to that colloquialism before reading this article, but it's fantastic.