A Christmas to Remember...

Well they are all special. But this one was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. My boyfriend became my fiance. Yes, we are now engaged! He proposed on 12/25 at 12:25am. I was very surprised. He even tricked me and put it in a larger box so I'd have no clue. I was so excited I almost forgot to say 'Yes!' lol! John made me the happiest girl in the entire world. I literally couldn't ask for a more perfect man, not even if I had to think of one up myself.

Well I think just about everyone knows now. I've made more calls on my phone to people in the last few days than I have for the past 2 years I think! Anyhow... Yaay!! :)

TSO

So the boy was really bummed we missed the tickets for TSO this year. He loves to go (as well as I do), but they sold out quickly, and - well, that was that. Yesterday was the last day they were in Pittsburgh for the year.
So at work yesterday he sends me a message out of the blue around 2 o'clock "If i could get tix for tonight's TSO would you wants to go? I know it would be kind of spontaneous.." At first I was like "yeah right".. The show was at 8:15 and a little late on a "school night". Although I knew he *really* wanted to go. Just for kicks, I searched around to see what other dates they may have had that might be close enough we could drive to like in OH or something. I didn't find much. At all. However, I did see that they had a 4pm show too. I (half) jokingly said we should go to that one (which BTW would mean we'd have to leave work like NOW.) He replied "OK!" He was serious.. I was a little worried at first because we both still have quite a bit of work to get done by the end of the year. But I thought to myself, we need to live a little sometimes. So what we have things to do. Being spontaneous is FUN!
By the time I walked down he had the tickets printed out, and we were out of there like a bat out of hell. The show was great. We had a blast. And the seats.. were phenomenal. Even better than last time. Thanks sweetheart for a great night at TSO!! :-*

Here are some pictures from the show.. and that's with my (very) crappy phone.. They don't even begin to capture the show, but here they are anyway :)

 

Guitar Hero World Tour

..has got to be one of the best games ever! Definitely worth the money. And if you're like me and already have GH3, you can still use that with it in addition to your new one - so it's not even going to waste! The drums are so cool to play too. I like them even better than Rock Band's drums with the little symbols up on top. And at work this Friday, we be rockin' all out. It's Christmas season so we thought to treat ourselves: I'm bringing in the band set (along with Wii Fit too!) and someone else on the team is bringing their Wii. It'll be a blast!

I just know it.. all night tonight I'm going to be dreaming of little green, red, yellow, blue, and orange ovals exploding.

Crap results...

Well, now I know why they call it a "bag of crap" :)

In all honesty, I can't really complain though. And the fact that I was actually *able* to get one makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside..

Contents:
3 iPod combination security locks (2 of which I've successfully gotten rid of already)
4 clear sansa MP3 cases
1 camer bag (that I think just about everyone got)
1 8 inch Grandpa Munster doll

Hail to the Woot Gods!

Crap!

"Woot to me
show details 5:07 PM (9 minutes ago)


Thank you for your purchase.

Your order number for 3 Random Crap has been received by Woot on 11/20/2008 and your credit card has been charged $8.00.
Your order will typically ship within 5 business days. To check your order status, go to the Your Account tab at www.woot.com, log in and check your order history."

Such a very glorious day this is..

People and Politics

I've just about had it with people forwarding emails of this huge list of things that "Obama says" versus "McCain says", etc, etc. Depending on which senator the email is targeted for, it inflates the stances of the one senator and right out lies about the others'. Now, I'm not going to get into whom I'm voting for. That is not what this is about. What it is about is a skewed perception people have: people believe what they read in stupid emails written by some biased uninformed individual that likes to start chain letters who just happens to agree with their political standpoint. Give me a break. If you want to actually learn about the opposing candidate, for God's sake don't learn it from the political party you're for - let alone some horribly inaccurate email. Learn it from the source. I've read "forwards" with right out lies about where a candidate stands - both about McCain and Obama. If you want to have solid, accurate information about a candidate and where a person stands, start with going to their website; research the bills they've voted both for and against; watch the debates. Don't just believe what your little spam buddy put in an email - look it up; research it. It just ticks me off that people so naive are passing around all these emails with blatant lies in them. It almost makes me scared that we don't have some type of IQ test to pass before you may vote.

By the way, I'm not affiliated with a certain party. I try to accurately and fairly access candidates with every election. (And with no help from petty emails) :)

Friends

A dancer friend, Becca, died on Tuesday. She was my age (28) and the cause of her death is not exactly known. She was sick, and she had diabetes, but that shouldn't be so much to cause someone a death. I will continue to keep her in my prayers, as she was a wonderful person.

This is strange for me..

Well, I lost Brandi about 3 years ago. She was 22. However, she had been murdered - by her husband, none the less. Brandi was a beautiful person all around. I'm not sure if I could ever forgive Scott. (Ever...)

Stephen is a friend I also lost a while ago. He was a friend of Jeffy's and mine. He overdosed. I never knew his problem was as bad as it was. Actually, he informed me he didn't have a problem.

I miss my friends. And this all seems so surreal to me.

I don't want anyone else to die, but I know I cannot prevent that. I know that is not my decision. My saving grace is that God has them.. and He is taking care of them.

Becca, Brandi, Stephen... I love you all.. and I miss you...

It hurts to think about them, and I wish they still were here. But I know that God works in mysterious ways. I know that God does what is best, and sometimes we cannot understand it. Keeping that in mind is the most important thing..

Poodle Skirt

Well I didn't end up finding a Marilyn Monroe dress that I liked. And the wigs.. the ones I came across were just hideous. So I decided last minute that I'd opt for the good old poodle skirt. Picture - as requested ;) - below:

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g60/jenjerstar/poodle.jpg

(I don't quite look like that anymore though. My hair got chopped - the real deal. 12 inches - gone!)

And of course as of yesterday I'm officially 28! I had a lot of fun on my birthday. Got to spend it with the boy, and (we both) took today off. It was simply a great birthday!!!

Tomorrow, back to the chopping block...

Jury Duty, Pirates, Marilyn Monroe

Well, I ended up giving the "Beer For My Horses" tickets to my cousin. John wasn't too crazy about going, and neither was I, so I offered them to Mark, and he took them. So instead, we ended up going up to Buzzard Swamp in the Allegheny National Forest to do some fishing. We biked out to the ever-so-famous pond 6, and fished for quite a while, but for some reason we did terrible. If we had a boat of some sort, I think we could have done much better. They were certainly in there, but just not interested in our lines. We haven't given up hope though. The boy and I have another trip planned some time. This time possibly porting a boat up some how :)

This week I'm on jury duty and it's pretty boring. They don't have their act together at all! We just sit in a room and are occasionally told to go to another room, and occasionally told to just leave because they can't start doing things just yet. Very bizarre and not what I had expected at all!

Tonight John got tickets for us to go to the Pirates game. It's supposed to be pretty cool afterwards because they are going to have Zambelli fireworks and I think REO Speedwagon is playing. Pirates are playing the Reds. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I am really looking forward to the game tonight!

Then, this weekend is John's family reunion - 50's theme (they always do some sort of theme each year). And I've decided to work it Marilyn Monroe style. That's right, I'm going as her. I'm wearing the "7 Year Itch" dress and a blond wig. I think it will be a lot of fun! (I'll post a pic later =D)

Fast summer!

I cannot believe it is August already! The summer has gone by so fast! The boy and I went to Atlantic City/Wildwood, and we stayed in a hotel attached to a casino (something I've ALWAYS wanted to do for some reason.. lol). We also had our annual Canada trip. It was fun - the weather was not so great, but I had fun because I was with John, which is always good. I think the largest fish I caught was a 17 inch large mouth. I didn't catch any small mouth though, which kind of sucked.

The next few weeks are booked as well. This coming weekend I won tickets to the premiere "Beer For My Horses" from Y108, the weekend after that is John's family reunion (50's style!!), the weekend after that is my high school's 10 year reunion.

I can hardly keep up with all of the events, let alone blog about them ;)

Senior Dev

So it is official. As of June 8th I am a senior software engineer. Yeah, I know that's a Sunday, but that's when it officially started. (Mckesson's just weird I guess.) I've known it was in process for a while, but now I'm allowed to "talk" about it. Anyway.. Yay.

PS If anyone would like to buy me a drink in celebration, you're certainly welcome :)

WiiFit & Indiana Jones

So the boy and I stood in line for the opening of WiiFit which was the 22nd at 12:01 am. Then the next night we went to see the new Indiana Jones, again at 12:01 am. Our sleep schedule was messed up for a little bit there but both were worth it!

WiiFit is really neat. It's not like 'exercise' - or should I say, it doesn't *feel* like exercise. The balancing games are so fun, and I think right now hula hooping is my favorite, but I still have quite a few games to unlock. I was skeptical about the yoga, but I did finally try it out, and it's actually pretty neat. The running is pretty realistic, and ask John, it can make you work up a sweat ;)

As far as Indiana, I'd definitely recommend it. If you're a fan at all, it's a good watch. They went out of their way to make the movie look like something you'd expect from an Indiana Jones movie, and I think they did a really good job. It's not my favorite one of course, but I'd definitely watch it again sometime.

Now what's left to do is to watch the Pens WIN tomorrow night :)

Weekend

Friday the boy and I left work early and headed down to the arena to watch the Pens outside! It was so cool to see that. The game was awesome. A quick re-cap of it: Pens were down 3 to 0 and it wasn't looking too great. In about 30 seconds the Pens got 2 goals... about 10 minutes later, they got 2 MORE goals back to back. The Rangers scored 1 a little later making it a tie.. and then it was close to the end, with about a minute left, and we scored the winning point. It was really cool to watch and a great game!

I also saw "Walk The Line" this weekend. John had seen it before, but I never have so we watched it together. If anyone is even the slightest Johnny Cash fan, you need to watch this movie. It was so good. It inspired me to do a lot of research on JC's life, and a crazy life it was. Now I'm after the "At Folsom Prison" album. The album his record label demanded him not to do, he insisted on it, and ended up outselling the Beatles.

Oh yes, the Pens!

So the Pens kicked all ass last night. It was awesome. It was 1992 the last time they were 4-0 in the playoffs which was really cool to find that out. I *almost* wouldn't have minded if they would have lost last night, only because it would be really neat to watch the game outside on the lawn of the Civic Arena (yes, it's still the CIVIC Arena to me :p) on the big screen this Saturday, but I'm still not complaining. John and I definitely plan on doing that one of these weekends though. Actually, make that the NEXT weekend game! I think it'd be so cool! Go Pens!!! :)

Flordia and a bit of Country!

Florida was fun. I didn't want to come back. I have the pictures, but I need to get them put somewhere, so maybe tomorrow I'll be able to post a location. I met some interesting people and it was nice to finally just get away from this crazy place. Although I did spend more money than I had planned. I guess I just offer to pay way too often. But.. now I'm back and back to the chopping block - or whatever they say.

So anyway, for those of you who know me, you know that country is not my most favorite music in the entire world. However, the other day I heard a song, and actually I sort of liked it! It is called "Shiftwork". That's all I knew for a while, but since I don't listen to country, I figured I'd possibly never hear it again - so I googled a few of the lyrics I remembered and it was none other than Kenny Chesney *waits until the laughter calms down* But seriously, I liked it because it sort of reminds me of a reggae or Jamaican style song - which I absolutely LOVE. John has me liking Johnny Cash, and now this... ! I feel like I'm slowly converting or something ;)

Super Sexy Toy and Flordia

So the N810 FINALLY arrived after FexEx decided to put my nokia on the "wrong route" (and test my patience), but nonetheless it finally arrived. And wow is it ever sweet. I was a bit worried after playing with the touch for a while that I had grown too attached to it, but that all subsided when I opened the N810 for the first time. It has a Linux based OS with a Mozilla browser. What is super cool is you can access the shell, although I need to take it to a hotspot to get some things for breaking into it as "root". Still though, it is way geeky and cool. Although it costs about $200 more than the touch, it is well worth it.

Ok, enough about my nokia :) I decided in the midst of my entirely overworked schedule (putting it mildly), that I am going to have a vacation. My one friend Kate lives in FL, and she sent me a message the other day to invite me down. At first I thought it was a nice gesture. But then I started actually considering it. A few days in FL might be a really nice thing and getting away from work sounds quite nice about now. So I searched for tickets last Friday and voila.. I'll be leaving Saturday March 29, and returning Tuesday April 1. I'm super excited. Technically, I'm not sure I believe I should have to request the time off with the hours I've been working, but whatever..

Toys

I've been going crazy trying to decide on which toy I want. There is the iPod Touch http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html and the Nokia N810 http://www.nokiahowto.com/A4626059. The touch caught my eye because of the full fledged browser and wifi capability. That's just cool. But then I found out about the N810 and it's really awesome too. It has the same bells and whistles, plus extra. Linux based OS, Mozilla as it's browser, and no iTunes! Plus it has a real GPS, not the jerry rigged one like the Touch. However, the Touch's UI is simply sexy, to say the least. Also it is a bit smaller, and size is up there on my check list. Then again the N810 is thicker by only 10ths of an inch, and has a full qwerty keyboard :-/

So after pulling my hair out for a few days over the matter, I finally decided what I was going to do. Try out both :) I placed an order for my N810 earlier today, and then left work and picked up a Touch. I have 15 days to play with each before I'll have to make a decision and return one. Hopefully THIS will help me make a decision already :)

TDD (cont)

Well I was going to come back to my last post, to clarify that I was talking about test driven development (because I hadn't exactly done that), but it looks like Alan already figured that out. :)

I don't believe a lot of "test" code is required to start. It seems like moreso you writhe a simple test of what you would like to accomplish (ie: I want a class Monkey() to take 1 parameter of type Tail() - to start.) So you write a test for it. Then write just enough code to get that test to pass. Add more details to your test, and repeat.

As far as the test cases being completely independent of each other, I always under the impression they should be. Hence our friends SetUp() and TearDown() for each class :) TDD is certainly attainable for large projects, I just don't know if I see a huge advantage for it.

All in all I"m still up in the air about it. I have heard though that once you DO have the mindset and once you are a test driven developer, it's impossible to go back...

TDD

I've very recently taken an interest, but can't say my mindset is just there. I'm looking for more articles defending their explanations of it, or reasons in certain projects for doing so, (or anything else that may related). I'm just not sold yet. But I am still open to opinions.. :)

Today's Big Event

My boss got fired. The one that I never thought too highly of. I'm still in shock because I never thought it would happen - McKesson doesn't fire anyone. Although this should have been done a long time ago, I'm still surprised (but quite content about it :-) ). I do feel a bit bad for the guy since he just adopted a baby, but by the same token, he was not management material, which is something I thought from the beginning... And I feel I can post stuff like that, now that he is gone :)

Speaking of work, we just hired a new guy, Tad, on our team, not too long ago. And I'm so happy that we did. This guy really knows his stuff, seems super intelligent, and super nice. (Good thing too, because with an un-named, not-so-bright person on this small team, it's good to know that there is some hope for meeting our deadline.)