mlr

1) A month ago at work, the boss called me in for a brief meeting with two other programmers. He warned of an upcoming provisioning product that will have to be written fast - pending the signed contract of a new client. He knew I had looked at web-client(ish) technologies in the fall, and he wanted me to try one out. I would write the client GUI that would link to an API exposed through Web Services, which one of the other guys was to do.

This was just a heads-up. But I had a little time, so I went ahead and wrote a prototype in GWT (I included server calls, though I didn't implement WS, I just hooked up to existing methods via JNDI.) It took about a week. I hosted the app on my mini, and sent the URL to the boss. He was amazed & very pleased. He quietly came to my office and said 'What's next?'. I said I thought I could do the same thing with our main product (it currently has a Java Swing thick client).

So off I set - solo. Wheee! Within two weeks, I had a large enough section to show again. And again, he was very happy and said to proceed. Yesterday I finished another chunk. I will clean it up & test this morning, then probably send him another URL after lunch.

This is the 5th time in my programming career that I've been given the lead in developing a product with a new technology. It's very exciting & intense. Most days my mind moves faster than my fingers can type.

2) Saturday, I picked up Scott and we drove out to a goat farm that had a small native plant nursery. They had a nice selection. I bought some things. Last night I put 1/3 of them in the ground and cleaned up part of the garden. The conversation with Scott was wonderful as always. At one point he shocked me by claiming that I was his dearest friend now. This was humbling. In his early NYC years when he was a photographer for Condé Nast, he lived with Allen Forte six or so years who he had known in H.S. in Portland OR; he also was very close to Bob Dorough, the jazz pianist and composer of the Schoolhouse Rock songs; and countless photographers - big & small. I guess we are growing closer. It's curious having a close friend who is 30 years my senior (now 85). Curious because there is really nothing different. Fortunately his amazing mind & his body are in splendid shape.