html and beyond ~ xml

phase 2 has come and gone. the integration project ~ done. not quit exactly as set out in specs … but i produced a functioning application with a back end connection to sql server. i eliminated the class library in favour of coding the user interface. to ensure meeting the tight deadline for the project. and then i moved onto HTML. cool ~ me loves HTML. i had a blast making a website ~ for marks! haha. it felt like playing and getting credit for it. i could do this for a living. and now … now i’m into XML. it should have been scripting, but, a matter of book availability meant i had to take the XML course first. whatever. i had the example of blogger in my head wrt to xml. its amazing how much one learns simply from curious exposure to something.

the design stage never ends

not really. in a way. i mean, don’t we forge ahead with a view to how we could enhance or improve any little thing along the way? the art of design lies in working out for oneself the details that one requires in order to begin a project. i mean, some details, once worked out and implemented, we cannot change. and so, we should consider carefully.

its sort of an iterative process. its sort of a process that involves all phases engaged in the brain at once. it cannot distill itself into phase components. not in my brain, anyhow. it all just ferments in there all at once. iteratively.

whew. well, it looks like i have just about survived another quarter of this programming/web development course of study. now its onto the fun stuff. yeehaw! now i think i wanna slow down. and enjoy the ride. more about the project for my next post.

i’m mantissa …. & i’m a GEEK

um … yeah. i dunno, really, what this blog’s all about. it looks like its gonna be an expression of my nerdy side. yes, well, now i let the cat outta the bag – i am a self professed nerd-geek. among other things i am addicted to CSS and HTML/XHTML.

its, sadly, not uncommon for me to sit in front of my ibook for 3, 4, 5 hours even, tinkering with this or that in a blogger template. i have always thought the blogger-provided templates hopelessly inadequate. fortunately blogger has always made it easy to customize … making … the sky the limit. and fueling yet another addiction. uh-huh – as if any of us needed anything more addictions in our lives.

so this blogs sort of an expression of the GEEK in me. (~a GEEK? who knew?) all the shit i’ve learned about the internet … html … css, blah blah i’ve learned just by blogging here for long enough. i suppose this blog allows me to indulge that insatiable urge i have to tinker with CSS and (X)HTML. i suppose, in the end, blogging really equals narcissism, doesn’t it? well, i hope this blog will not just be me playing ‘narcisse’ … i hope that someone, somewhere will stumble upon this little rag and find it entertaining, or helpful, or something like that. or maybe just the designing and writing it, for me, raises my learning curve, if no one f inds this place.

so, meet your hostess: me: a former nurse, a former speech writer, a programmer/web developer student, an amateur graphic artist, a functioning junkie of sorts (don’t we all have so many addictions?), and a blogger. i have immersed myself in the world of computers and software since DOS 3.x was the current OS. (that makes me feel old …. harumphhfff!) note – this is BEFORE the era of the GUI! yikes – all those command prompts to remember! well, back then i could not imagine the beauty of MAC …. OSX … GUI has taken over the planet – yeaay!

and so here am i, making sense of it all. my current fascinations? presently learning C# programming language in my studies. me HATES C#!!! lemme just say ‘C is for cookie and that’s good enough for me ….’ C#~grrrrrrrr. i spend my spare time learning the CSS/(X)HTML stuff and combing through, picking about blogger templates to see hacking and customization possibilities. these days, trying to get more daring and creative with my templates – we’ll see. also i love surfing the web for kewl website and then viewing their source codes to see how they did it.

as i step further and further into the world of IT professionals, it amuses me, the uncanny similarity between the pedagogy of nursing and IT. assimilate some basic concepts in class; and then its all kinesthetic from there. learn to do by doing – its the only way. and … that’s what i should be doing right now.