Okay, my website’ll be going down again. I’m not entirely sure for how long, though.
Just bought webhosting with DreamHost to expand horisons and do some work with a friend of mine, which I’ll no doubt be blogging about. Thought I might as well keep everything together, so I’ll move this over to my DreamHost account.
Hopefully everything will go smoothly.
… Batch files aren’t.
I have been working on a batch file at work recently. Its job is to take a named .csv file and either rename it and upload it, or upload and rename it. The main body of the file looks like this:
for /f “tokens=1-4 delims=/ ” %%a in (’date /t’) do (set weekday=%%a& set day=%%b& set month=%%c& set year=%%d)
set jdate=%day%%month%%year%
ren two.csv PLU_%jdate%.csv
However, there is a little more that is being pulled from a couple of files.
All of that code, with practically illegible characters, is simply to rename a file to the current date. However, my problem lies with the fact that if I rename the file locally then I can’t use the batch file to select the renamed file and upload it via FTP, and if I use the batch file to upload the file via FTP first, renaming it just renames the file to %jdate%.csv.
Hopefully I’ll get this figured out sooner or later. This is definitely the most ugly bit of programming I’ve seen and partaken in working on for a long, long time.
I’ve seen the word “passport” so many times now that it is beginning to look stupid.
After countless visits to the Post Office, 3 check-throughs (only one of which they charged me for), my passport application has now been completed and sent off. Hopefully to return in 3-6 weeks. The person who checked through it this time was quite a laid-back man in his 50s. He spoke as if he’d done too many drugs in the past, and he had an odd twinkle in his eyes. He was smiling, too. He spoke to me when he was checking everything, and was a really nice guy. Quite the opposite to the snotty, tight-fisted, stuck up, pessamistic bitch that looked through it last time, who was negative about everything: “It will take 6 weeks”.
So, once the guy checked it through and confirmed that everything was okay. He asked me if I wanted to insure the additional documents (the passport and birth certificates) for an extra £3, so I agreed. We spoke about how crazily expensive it is to get a passport, how much work goes into it and how poorly documented it is. He then told me that everything looks fine, and whilst you can’t fast-track it (contrary to what the website says) it will return in 3 to 6 weeks, and if they need any extra information they will contact me. So the worst that can happen is that they telephone/email for some additional information.
I was so happy when I handed over the £80 and got £4 change that I nearly kissed him. I grinned, said “Excellent. Thanks a lot” and left the Post Office like some giggling freak. I doubt anyone has ever seen someone look so ecstatic after leaving the Post Office.
THANK YOU MR. POST OFFICE MAN!
I’ve always been fascinated by language. I love vocabulary and the way that correctly-used words scintillate when you’re reading. I love it when justified text aligns properly in neat blocks. I love paragraphs filled with words that roll off of the tongue and give the sense that the writer has such an in-depth image of something, and they can describe it with words that you somehow never manage to get into your own writing.
What really gets to me is recently I’ve realised that my writing ability isn’t anywhere near as good as I thought it was, or it used to be. My spelling has gotten a lot worse, and I constantly find myself making spelling errors (not just typos). I think my use of punctuation in the right places is to standards, although I often get confused with apostrophes. However, I simply just don’t have that ability that some people have where they can just fill a page with text which causes the reader to become consumed in fascination. I’m wondering if that’s a talent, or just something you learn.
Recently I’ve been reading through some of Meeka’s school work, because she has a lot of exams coming up that she needs to revise, and some of the things she has written are truly amazing (almost as amazing as she is). I just read through an essay she wrote which analysed the novel “How Many Miles to Babylon”, and some of the sentence syntax is awesome. I’m actually quite jealous.
“Set in the First World War, this tragedy has consistently melancholic and reflective tones, and concludes with an appropriate pessimistic, morose ending.”
“The story is particularly engaging, as it is written in the first person. We are allowed an insight into the central protagonist Alec’s thoughts, which more often than not are quite distant and unfeeling…”
Those two sentences just radiate that sort of linguistical orgasm feeling you get when you read a sentence that comprises of words that flow perfectly.
The only thing I’ve written recently that I can read over and be impressed with was in a review. Annoyingly the majority of people who have read it just find it confusing, but I like it.
“A lot of games now boast 8x anisotropic filtering, along with various other effects with complicated names; however, how many games can handle those graphical superfluities which constitute the pleasing aesthetics that shimmer across the screen in vast quantities?”
Oh teach me wise leaders of the eloquent art.
No, not, as you might think, the back pocket on your jeans. A huge back pocket.
I was heading into town today, and I had the forms for my passport (in their envelope). It was really nice and sunny today, so I wasn’t wearing a coat or anything, however it occured to me that if it rained, the forms could easily get wet. I then had this idea, which isn’t very summer-friendly, but I liked it.
I always find bags really annoying to carry when I just want to carry a book or two, or a few letters, when I can’t fit them in my pockets, but I don’t want to hold them in my hands. So how about having a jumper/coat with a big zip up pocket across the back, which is waterproof for obvious reasons. You could put a book or two in it, or generally anything that wasn’t too fat, but could be carried around in that fashion. Of course carrying something like an A4 folder would be unfomfortable if you were to sit down, but it could easily be taken off or taken out.
I thought t’was a good idea!