Adobe MAX

Going to industry conferences is really inspiring... I should definitely try to go more. I guess I had gotten into kind of a funk about learning new stuff on my own. I'm probably going to sign up for lynda.com. I really want to learn more about user interface, interaction design, and graphic design too. Right now I don't have enough confidence in those areas to really push my point of view.

Inner Turmoil

Coding causes so many conflicting feelings.  I hate it when I've got two lines of nearly identical code, yet one works and the other one doesn't.  There must be a logical reason though, and I love following the logical trail to figure out the possibilities.  It's almost euphoric to finally figure out what was wrong.  A missed "+ 1" here, a forgotten cast from string to int there...and it's inevitably something stupid that makes you wonder at your own intelligence.  Am I smart for finding the problem, or stupid for letting it happen in the first place?!  :O  Slowly but surely, I will conquer this app!

Developer rant + other news

Have I already complained about how much JavaScript frustrates me?  AJAX + ASP.NET = headdesk.  I guess it's because I'm really not that familiar with AJAX, its integration with .NET, or the gritty .NET stuff involving authentication/access/webservices/etc.

I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough.  I mean, functionally it's pretty basic.  The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it.  I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.

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Grr.  It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night.  I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday.  Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio.  It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily.  The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.

So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut.  Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!

Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down.  We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo.  We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer.  Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall.  We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar.  After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad.  We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong.  I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours.  We didn't leave until close to 4am.

Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood.  Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively.  I got the grilled chicken caesar salad.  We all agreed it was yummy! :)  I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!

I think...PHP is not for me?

I've had thoughts, but I always pushed them down because I felt like I was *supposed to* like it, use it, breathe it, learn it, and put it on my resume because "OMG duh, who doesn't know PHP?" I've tried to use it a few times but I never got super far. It took reading a post on SitePoint today for me to realize that maybe it's not just me. Apparently PHP does have its very real problems since it has grown in inconsistent ways. I've also never been forced to use it in a professional setting. Nonetheless, I can't help but feel guilty for preferring C# & Java.