Had an excrutiating phone call with the postal inspector. I told this woman the details. She then says, “AHA! You have a signature delivery confirmation number! You said you never got it! Ergot, if you have confirmation then it was delivered!” and I’m like, ”Hello? Are you even listening? It was never delivered, and yet the confirmation says it was. *THAT* is my problem. I have video that shows it was never delivered — and that nobody ever signed a thing.” She reduced her glee when she realized she hadn’t been Paying Attention to the Story. I am now supposed to gather information about how the package was shipped, but she informed me that the post office will not be able to provide restitution for the missing item. This sucks, of course. After the seller gives me the details for my Form 1015, I will probably have to sue him for 1) sending the item without telling me he had shipped it and 2) for being stupid enough to send a $200 watch in the mail without insurance.


I just found out that the new Hardiplank siding on my house is going to result in a $200 savings on my homeowner’s insurance. Hmmm. That evens out my loss of the watch. I still want the watch.


I want to go to the movies this weekend and maybe revamp this site and maybe take Chew Chew to Petsmart for The Treatment and maybe get my hair trimmed up a bit. I will most likely be working the next weekend because we are deploying the massive application we’ve spent the last two years building. I don’t talk much about it, mostly because there is a lot to it. I’ll try to summarize as best as I can. I’ve been in charge of developing the user interface standards, building navigation models, ensuring intuitive usability, customizing the reporting system front-end (this uses third-party software for both back-end and front-end), programmed the front-end java code for IBM Access Manager security in the Jakarta Struts tags, developed the letter writing system (this uses third-party software on the back-end) — and this is the most cool part — letter writing seamlessly integrates your browser with any version of Microsoft Word (even Word 97) on any modern Windows platform (even Windows 95) and allows you to transmit and receive the Word document within a normal HTML form thanks to clever BASE64 encoding and decoding via kick-ass ActiveX controls. In addition to writing all the scripting that drives that stuff, I wrote a hell of a lot of javascript code to improve usability… and enhance overall coolness. Toss in some PhotoShop graphic work (both vector based and traditional RGB graphics) and you’ve got the last two years of my life in a nutshell. Oh, yeah, I also made prototypes of everything and came up with a cool training module system that uses real system HTML. Oh and I wrote a batch deployment script using my favorite deployment application ROBOCOPY. It’s not a full-rounded project until you’ve somehow incorporated ROBOCOPY into it.


The sun isn’t setting on the project, however. There is lots of work to be done. Not to mention my other goals in life. Getting to be a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live. Lofty goal? Exactly.