Note of the Living Deb

I did a very rough draft of a quiz with an eentsy-weentsy amount of JavaScript in it for work today, here.

As of my posting, I still have a few technical things to fix, and probably a lot of re-writing in general, but I had great fun making this quiz interactive. No matter which answer you choose, I have a smart-alec, ahem, educational remark for you.

First, I remembered that although a document has to be saved as text to work in browsers, it needs an .html (or .htm) extension rather than a .txt extension. Duh. Now TextWrangler works fine for me.

Second, I think I've found the book I've been looking for: Beginning JavaScript by Paul Wilton. Amazon reviewers give it 4.5 stars. I found the first edition (2000) in the library, and the 44 pages I've read so far (out of almost 1000) look good. There is a newer edition (2004), but it doesn't look that much better for my needs--the first edition doesn't have some of the outdated things I've been seeing everywhere else, but even the newer edition still has some of them. I may get the next version when it comes out.

Meanwhile, since I'll have to do extra research anyway to make sure I'm following the latest standards, I've decided to use the first edition of this book (which I also just bought online for $1.66 plus shipping). Then I will also use the up-to-date JavaScript Tutorial and try out all my code on various modern browsers.

The book I have been writing is up to 17 pages now, but I don't think I need it. Wilton doesn't explain some of the (few) things I have explained quite as well, but it looks like anything I write would be mostly redundant.

Today's party was a luau thrown by the Academic Counselor's Association. It was held in the student union in the area with the bowling lanes, fooseball tables, and video games.

There were several activites available. We could bring donations for a couple of local charity organizations. We could play bingo. We could bowl. We could pay $2 to do karaoke. We could eat cake.

We all got a drink ticket, a door prize ticket, and a plastic lei.

I dropped off my donation, broke off some ear cilia getting some cake that was next to the LOUDspeakers for the karaoke, and went back to the bingo area. All the tables were full so I stood and observed while eating my delicious white cake with jam and white frosting in the middle and chocolate frosting on top. One guy waved at me and said hi.

Then I tossed my plate and gave my drink ticket and door prize ticket to the guy who'd said hi to me, simply because he was the only one who had. (Not that I initiated anything myself.) Then he insisted on hugging me. People said I could get a drink and take it with me. I did take the lei with me to give to one of my future neices.

Last year I played a lot of bingo and had some fun. This year it felt more like Instant Headache City.

Tonight is a Christmas dinner with Robin and his family; his brother is visiting from out of the country. More on that tomorrow.

JavaScript Update

We had our final class today, which again seemed good until the exercise at the end, which I couldn't even fully understand (looking at the answer) let alone create myself given my current level of understanding.

I enjoyed filling out my evaluation sheet; there were lots of great things to say and a few sad things to say.

I was reminded a little of the time I took a class on creating forms for the web. After several hours of instruction, we learn that none of our forms can actually work without any scripting behind them, which was beyond the scope of the class.

So now I know some scripting, but it turns out that lots of people disable JavaScript on their browsers because some people use JavaScript for evil. If people are taking your online class, you can require them to enable JavaScript, but in the stuff I'm working on now, I can't.

On the other hand, remember how in the olden days you used to sometimes be able to go directly to what you selected on a pull-down menu, and now you almost always have to click on a submit button as well? Now I know why that happened. And it's not even because of evil people for once! It's because blind people have to select the item by tabbing down, one item at a time, until they get to the item they want. But as soon as they got to the first item, the computer assumed they had made their selection and flung them off to that place!

I've been looking at JavaScript for Dummies again, and now I realize why I stopped in the middle of chapter four last time. It's because the author explains things in the wrong order. She spends a great deal of time explaining how it's okay if you don't understand everything yet and how she's about to explain some more in a later chapter.

This is particularly offensive because JavaScript is not a compiled language which means that you have to write the code in the order in which you want the computer to use it. In other words, the author is an expert at putting things in order so that everything makes sense knowing only what has gone before. She'll do it for a computer, but she won't do it for her readers.

Also, she makes you claw your way through a summary of everything (six chapters) before she lets you try anything. That's no fun.

What is fun (warning: my teachers in high school said I was bad at transitioning) is sliding down stairs. At least my sister said that her new kids enjoyed sliding down the carpeted stairs at their new house. On their bellies, I think she said. You can do that? I don't quite understand, but I definitely want to try this next time I am over there.

I wonder if it will by like the "dune surfing" at Monahans Sandhills State Park in west Texas. You get this little saucer-shaped sled and slide down the sand dunes (this is currently pictured on the above link, on the third picture from the top). Except that it doesn't work for grown-ups. Or at least I couldn't get it to work. Not even with a running jump. (Yes, that hurt.)

Will I just be lying on the stairs making grunting noises? I'll let you know.

The weather this morning was beautiful. I'm not normally a fan of cold, grey weather, but this morning it wasn't that cold, and the autumn leaves were in full force, such as they are, and it smelled just lovely. There was just the tiniest drizzle.

At work I got to go to the first of three three-hour training sessions on JavaScript, the last skill I need for the next job I want. Of the twenty people, only two of us had no experience with JavaScript before. The others had at least been copying snippets of code; many had been modifying it to do their bidding. The other ignoramus was my co-worker who was sitting next to me. Fortunately, we both have the right brains to absorb this kind of information.

There were two hours of presentation, which went very well, even the part he said would hurt our brains. Then one hour of practice. I could have used two hours. Neither my co-worker nor I could figure out one part of the assignment (setting up arrays within arrays). It seems like we're supposed to be overly redundant, but he says not to worry about that until he teaches us more about objects.

Back in my office, we got the news that because freezing rain was expected this evening and overnight, my employer would be closing at 2:00 p.m. and would not re-open until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. I had heard the forecast and been fantasizing about having all day tomorrow off, but four hours is good, too. Mine is not the only employer that does this. I love that on the rare occasion when we get a bad winter storm, I get paid time off from work!

Since this happens only about once a year here, we don't have a fleet of salt trucks or whatever. We do eventually end up with sand thrown out on the overpasses to help with traction.

At home, I tried to work on my JavaScript assignment some more, but I couldn't get my browser to see it. I should just save the document as text with title ending in ".html" and the browser should be able to see it, but I couldn't make it happen.

During my fantasies about being home in the cold I thought I would try making matzoh ball soup, crushing the whole wheat matzoh I found into matzoh meal, but the recipe I use is on the back of the matzoh meal box (which I don't have), and I couldn't find anything familiar looking on the web.

So then I tried to watch a movie Robin's not interested in, and we've got all these systems for looking at movies and I couldn't make a single one of them work. The DVD player is unplugged; I knew not to try that one. I just did the easy one--put the disk in the computer and click on the main drive icon and click on the movie. This didn't work for Robin either when he came in. The other methods require switching channels on the monitor and on the receiver. Bleh. I am the one in charge of re-setting clocks when the electricity goes out in our house, but I haven't mastered these.

So then I tried looking up arrays in my JavaScript books, but none of them introduce arrays as early as our instructor did, so I couldn't get through all the other stuff that makes no sense enough to figure out how to set up my arrays.

Then I tried to solve a sudoku, but when I got to that stage where I think, "Oh, brother, I have to write every possible digit in every blank square," I just didn't have it in me.

Meanwhile, I couldn't get warm.

The heater was spewing out cold air, so I looked at the furnace. I've seen it in action before--when you take the cover off, you can see huge, scary whirls of flame. But this time, nothing. I changed the setting from fan/automatic to on, and then there were disturbing clicking noises, and then it started working.

Not that it was actually cold in the house. It was 64 degrees (F), with the thermostat set at 67. But I was cold. I switched from my canvas shoes to my lined slippers. Then from my slacks to my flannel-lined jeans. Then I put my coat on. I also danced.

Finally I just curled up under a wool blanket on the couch (the fan is on in the bedroom so the clothes on the rack will dry) and listened to pretty music and snoozed.

Oh, poor me!

Pathetic, anyway.

I think it was a combination of still being more acclimated to heat and of having been so frustrated--cold inside. I don't like to think so, but I've noticed at least once that how I feel physically is connected to how I feel emotionally.

Hot chocolate helps. And hot soup.

When Robin got home we watched the movie he did want to watch. If anyone ever wants to know why I don't want kids, I can tell them that one of the answers is in the movie "Heavenly Creatures." It's about two teenagers who become best friends and love each other and have a great time, but who worry their parents. So, the parents obviously don't understand anything and are nothing more than obstacles. I've felt this way (like the kids) myself, and think it's common in western culture, and terribly tragic.

Now I'm writing this with the lights occasionally blinking off. It's still just below freezing outside, with a light drizzle. It will warm up to the upper 30's tomorrow and the ice will melt away before noon. We really have it wonderfully easy here in the winter.