C++ and Career Choice

So, will my skill at programming eventually make up for my enthusiasm at programming?

I've been working on my Validate program all morning. For those of you not in Ron's C++ class, this is a tasty chunk of reusable code that makes sure that the user enters a valid integer. It can be modified to suit your needs.

I think I just came up with an application of it to keep people from writing in 133tspeak, too.

But when I'm working on this, and I keep discovering that yes, I can damn well do this, and as I get each piece of code working, I keep jumping up and down with general enthusiasm and running to Adam to tell him the good news.

Hopefully I will settle down a bit about routine coding successes before going into the workplace, or I'll be a bit odd to work with.

Ranting. (cross-post from a comment in the journal of ras_sinister)

My math teacher refuses to use the English language correctly. I left that class in tears the day when he could not see that what he was doing with his word problem was an inappropriate use of the English language.

Statistically, he was asking a different question than he was verbally, and he was trying to explain how he was correct. He would not listen; he was the instructor and I was the student.

I used to get flaming mad and stomp out after saying "This class sucks." That was what I did two semesters ago with a different instructor.

This time I sat at my desk and tears of frustration emerged. Bogus. Wrong. Evil.


My beloved roommate grew up financially, culturally, and educationally disadvantaged, and frequently uses perfectly good English words in contexts that they were not intended for, using these words with a meaning different than the dictionary meaning.

Fortunately, she understands about the necessity of a common reference point, and is working to correct her usage to the standard.

Our worst arguments have been when we've been talking about different things using the same words. My worst assumption has been that she's read in their entirety the same reference materials that I have; I take for granted information she's never seen. She owned the volumes before I was even aware they'd been written. She was violently opposed to some technique of magic I'd researched and had personal experience with; she thought I was talking about something else entirely.

Her flaw lies in assuming she knows what I'm talking about, and also assuming that I don't know what I'm talking about; she thinks she's already done it all, and guesses at what I've been trying, without making certain that she knows the exact mechanics of what I actually have just tried, or am making inquiries toward.

When she thinks she knows something, even if she learns otherwise later, that thought that she had in the beginning stays with her to forever poison her new knowledge.

the song

http://www.gundamwing.org/other/whitereflection.html

I feel your love reflection
A far away, never ending story is painted in your eyes as you gaze back at me

The wings (courage) you gave me, I spread open in my heart;
Their fluttering seems to shake off the sadness (despair) and pain (scars).

Aa, I want to feel the pain of the pulsing (shining) of irreplacable love

I feel your love reflection.
Pile up the dreams (ideals) thickly
Young ones who desire each other, fearless of mistakes.
I feel your love reflection
A far away, never ending story is painted in your eyes as you gaze back at me.

I want to softly communicate to your bare skin
the feelings that are spilling over
As if hugging close the strength (purity) to become gentle

Aa I want to nobly, lithely, overcome this unstable age (these unstable days).

I feel your love reflection
The truth of our acceptance of each other
Kiss me, and there is nothing else I need!!
I feel your love reflection
Believe in the passion that will not give up
Our piercing-through (fighting) "never ending story."

I feel your love reflection
pile up the dreams (ideals) thickly
Young ones who desire each other, fearless of mistakes
I feel your love reflection
A far away, never ending story is painted in your eyes as you gaze back at me

---

Lyrics: Nagano Shiina
Compose: Takayama Minami
Arrange: Takayama Minami, Nagano Shiina
Singer: Takayama Minami

Translation: Katherine

Thanksgiving (at last)

I started out the morning of Thanksgiving day by showing Nephew Star Trek: The Motion Picture. We did laundry. I gathered a few things together to take with me, including a plastic flask in which I put 60 proof peppermint schnapps, my afghan, and an extra cellphone battery.

The trip to pick up Nephew's Great-Grandma was largely uneventful.

Family was all gathered when we got there, and it was a matter of settling everyone into chairs in appropriate places around the table. I sat between That Woman and Votania. Somehow, no one questioned my right to sit next to my roommate and sister.