I really hate when a simple task, something that I think should take an hour tops, not only takes me longer than that hour, but takes me longer than that hour because I want to do it correctly. Sometimes I wonder if my level of "Good enough" is too high. Eh, probably.

Today's example: yesterday a post came through on the Drupal support mailing list:

Does anybody know of an existing module which will extract tags from
the body of a post (i.e. a line like "Tags: tag1 tag2 tag3") and pass
them to the taxonomy system to tag that node?

I've had a skim through the Taxonomy related module list on drupal.org
and didn't spot anything...

Looking at this request, writing such a module should have taken an hour, maybe, right? Well, as I started working on the module, there were features I wanted, details that, well, would bug the crap out of me if they didn't work right. They were small things (is the trigger word "tags" or "tag" or "tagaroo", or is the tag line removed from the post after processing), but ones that, well, if someone gave me the module, I'd want.

So, in they went.

And my hour "give back to the community" turned into a retarded 4 hour project.

Four hours.

Four hours not spent on client work. Four hours not spent on my big projects. Four hours that I really could have used better elsewhere.

Gah.

I'm so annoyed at myself.

At least I managed two posts from it. :\

For a project I've been working on, the one I've been obsessing over actually for a little over a month, working on it during my "copious down time," I looked online for a particular tutorial with the Flickr API. I managed to do one search, and found a post from an author recommending his book.

Now, being on the austerity program, I've been resisting purchasing any books, much less nominally unneeded books (such as ones that duplicate content I can find on the Intarweb™). Just because I purchase the book, and have added it to my stack of unread books, doesn't mean that I've absorbed the knowledge or have become a better person. In reality, until I've read the book and actually learned from it, it's just an extra bit of clutter, an extra bit of paper weights, an extra bit of unread book pile building in my livingroom.

Having the book, on the other hand, could make the particular project I'm working on easier.

I tormented myself about the book, and eventually asked Doyle what he thought. Should I buy the book? He asked how many positive reviews the book received on Amazon. When I looked up the book, I found out it had two good reviews.

Now, normally, the price of the book is $30. On Amazon, you know, where they pay me in books, I also found out the price was only $6.

Six dollars.

Six.

Dollars.

"You know, if you spent the time you've wasted asking me if you should buy this book, and actually bought them book, then worked the remaining time, you would have earned enough for the book already," Doyle piped up.

With my free Amazon Prime shipping, I couldn't really argue against this wiley logic. Austerity program be damned, I bought the book.

And now the price is up to $20. $6 is fine. $20? No more damning the austerity program!

Last night, Brynne, Steffi and I met at the Foothill track to run in our own mini track workout. Our workout was short(ish):

1. 2 x 400 m at quick, but not painful pace (which meant 1:40 laps)
2. 4 x 200 m at accelerated pace (start striding, end sprinting)
3. 2 x 100 m at fastest pace possible
4. 5 x 5-10-5 shuttles, working on form, break down steps before turning
5. plyo mixup: stars, rockets, tucks followed by 5-10-15 or 10-20-30 shuttles
6. Abs

Having spent Tuesday morning in my pilates class, last night at the track was hard for me. This morning at Velocity Sports, however, wasn't so bad. I was actually able to sprint this morning, including pushing a weight sled. I had problems pulling the sled running backwards, but that happened at the end of the workout, in the last two minutes actually, so I was still pleased with the workout.

Usually soreness takes a couple days to settle into my muscles. With the continual workouts, I have constant soreness instead. When is my body going to adjust to these extra workouts? I'm ready already.

Took Bella for a walk today after my pilates/yoga class this morning. When I arrived home after class, she was jumping and barking and generally excited, so a walk was in order. Clearly.

We walked up to the school, where she ran once and walked around the perimeter, cataloging each and every smell on each and every tree and ivy leaf from the corner to the street before I stopped her. I leashed her up and off we ran for a while, the wind blowing back her ears, and breathless smile on her face.

Instead of heading back home immediately, we walked a few blocks away from the school before heading back around home. We walked along a new street, to give Bella a chance to catalog some new smells.

As we turned the corner to head back home, Bella crouched, and entered her slinky, I'm-sneaking-up-on-prey pose, moving slowly towards a parked truck.

My first reaction was, "Come on, leave it alone!" I tugged on her leash for a bit, dragging her away from the truck, before I thought, "Eh, why not?" If she wants the cat under the truck so much, let her have it. She'll get a swipe on the nose and be less likely to attack the next cat. Yes, I like this idea. I let up on the leach and unlatched the lock.

Bella immediately crouched back down and started slinking towards the cat again. She stepped closer and closer. Closer... Closer...

The cat didn't move. When Bella was about two feet from it, it turned to her and meowed.

It didn't hiss. It didn't arch. It didn't even stand up. It lay there and meowed a "hey, how about scratching behind my ear, will ya?" meow.

Bella jumped and rushed away, stopping behind a truck tire and peering back around at the cat. I chuckled, unwrapped the leash from the various truck underbody parts and started to pull Bella away, to continue on our walk.

Bella wasn't quite done, however. She resisted, and, when the cat stood up and started walking towards us, pulled her way back to the cat.

Holding Bella back, I reached down and started petting the cat. After a few moments, I stopped holding Bella back, and let her sniff the cat while I petted it. True to dog form, she went straight for the butt, sniffing it for a moment, then jumping back, sniffing it for a moment, then jumping back. It was almost as if she knew she was supposed to attack this smell, but the smell wasn't threatening, or even interesting (which sounds wrong, given Bella's a dog and ALL smells are interesting to a dog. Except alcohol. Yeah).

After freaking out at the cat for a few minutes, Bella stopped and just stood there as I continued to pet the cat. It was a great cat, very friendly.

Kris thinks Annie would have eaten it.

And, speaking of Annie, Kris sent me a note this morning about Annie's new adventure today on her weekly off-leash, all-day hike.

There is a new girl walking Annie today. It's her first day. She is with an experienced person, who is her trainer, but I have a feeling that having to walk Annie is going to be trial by fire. If she comes through this, she'll do great. If she breaks down into tears by the end of the day, well, so be it. Maybe they want to see what she's got by giving her Annie! If only she knew what she was in for. The funny part is, though, that I handed the leash to the new girl and the trainer said "Go ahead and load her into a crate." Before the new girl could do anything, Annie jumped into the van then jumped into her crate and scarfed the treat. Amber was used to this behavior, and closed the crate door before Annie could continue the hunt for more treats, but new girl wasn't. Annie jumped out of the crate and went sniffing at another crate trying to get at the treat inside. I just smiled and walked away. Trial by fire...

Should have interesting stories tonight.

This morning, as I was brushing my teeth, and Kris was standing in the living room, waiting for me to finish, I listened to the sounds of construction from across the street. Even though city ordinances say construction noises can't begin until 8 am, the workers all arrive at 7 am, and do all the thudding and moving of materials until 8 am, so we're awakened by the noise early regardless.

Promptly at 8 am, they started in with the powertools, today's specialty being the nail gun. The construction is coming along nicely, with a large part of the house mostly complete. The nail gun was being used to put up the interior pieces.

As I brushed my teeth, I listened to the construction noises...

fffft-thunk!

fffft-thunk!

fffft-thunk!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The last followed by a slew of hurried, concerned voices.

After a few moments, these voices were followed by a gale of laughter. Aw, those construction guys, pulling pranks on each other. No one lost an eye or a finger today.