Animation Started

I added the first bit of animation to my new site. When "Presence" is clicked, all the navigation links flicker, then they slide away to the left. Eventually, the effect will be triggered by any of the links. Also, only the clicked link will flicker. Ideally, the clicked link will then slide up to the top of the page, a "back" link will appear, and page content will be loaded. I think it will look really cool.

Personal Site Reboot

I've started working on my personal website. It's at www.neobergeron.com. I got a neat design in my head, and it encouraged me to get back to work on the site. I've got a lot going on, so I think it'll be nice to have a place to gather all my info for myself and others. Hopefully, I can use the site to motivate me into getting more of my projects done.

I'll post updates about the site here. Today, I put up the new home page. It doesn't do anything yet, but it shows the design I'm working with. I plan on plugging in the Scriptaculous framework and using it to do some basic animation when links are clicked. Right now, it's just using Javascript for hover effects.

The site will grow. I'll probably use it as a test bed for new ideas or code I want to try out.

That's More Like It

We finally got back on track with our diet, and the results show it!  I lost 3.8 pounds last week.  That's more than I expected and the WeightWatchers website says that a bit too much, but I'm happy with it.  It means that I can get back on the diet when I fall off.  Sweet success.

Kay reached an important milestone, last week.  She can now sit up unsupported.  There'll be pictures of that online, soon, of course.  She can't pull herself up into a sitting position, but if we put her there, she stays there.  Now that she's discovered it, she seems to prefer that position, too.  I took her on a walk in her stroller that day, and she sat bolt-upright the entire time.  It's super-cute.  It also means, though, that some of her furniture is going to have to go very soon.  We're looking for a good crib... well, Misty is.

I'm working on my CCG Console program again, because I've spent more time with my cards lately.  I've already got a basic user interface with card searching and sorting capabilities.  Now, I have to get together a system to import and export card lists and game profiles.  I want to design that part our pretty thoroughly before I start coding, because it could get pretty complicated.

Current weight: 320.8 lbs
Total weight lost: 7.2 lbs

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.

-- Confucius

Riding the Rollercoaster

Getting back on the diet is proving harder than I anticipated.  I gained again this week, if only 0.4 pounds.  I'm not surprised, though, since I ate poorly too often last week.  WeightWatcher's plan allows for a certain amount of flexibility, but I took it too far.  Once again, I'll just have to try again.  I will definitely lose weight this week.

Misty got to attend the Tampa Bay Anime meeting this week for a couple hours.  She hadn't attend for months, because of Kay, so she'd never seen our new projector setup in action or seen the majority of the membership in a while.  She had fun, and Kay was well-behaved.  It was fun having her, and I'm glad she was able to get out of the house for a bit.

Speaking of TBA, I updated the meeting archive on time this week.  That shouldn't be news, but my horrendous record in that regard makes it momentous.  I'm using emacs to edit the web site while simultaneously getting better at PHP, and those things introduce a learning curve and make the whole task take longer, for now.   Emacs is supposed to be a very flexible editor, but it takes a lot of getting used to, because it differs in many important ways from the editors I'm used to: Notepad, Visual Studio, etc.  It doesn't even behave like a normal Windows program, because it was originally created to work on a terminal, with no mouse or GUI.  It is very useful, though.  I can see the potential power in there - I just have to work to get in tune with the program.

Kay is trying her best to crawl now.  The only thing she can manage right now is scooting around in a circle.  She can roll, though.  If you leave her on her back for any amount of time, she's roll right over to her stomach.  She can even get up on all fours for a few seconds, but she hasn't quite coordinated everything into movement.  Soon, though.  If you're so inclined, you can see new pictures of her on my Picasa page.  There's also some pictures of Misty when she was a baby.  Marvel at the similarity!

Current weight: 324.6 lbs
Total weight lost: 3.4 lbs

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
-- Wendell Phillips

Full Steam

The diet is off to a great start -- I dropped three pounds this week. I was a little concerned that WeightWatchers' new point formulation for men might mean I'd have a harder time losing weight, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so far. I'll be wearing XXL clothes in no time!

Kay had another physical this morning. She's growing well, with no problems other than some mild acid reflux. We're keeping that under control, though. The doctor gave her the go-ahead for eating her first solids this week, and Misty was just thrilled about that. It's just rice cereal for now, but it'll be Stage 1 veggies in a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll manage to get some pics & vids of her eating solids soon.

I've been getting very productive lately. Because Misty and I have started on our diet again, I have a few more reasons to get back to programming. I'm working on "Pantry", a program for organizing and building recipes, meals, and menus. I started on it long ago, making it one of my most-delayed projects. Now, though, I've been working on its design in Google Documents. I expect to be working on code on it soon. Before I release it, I'll want to get my personal web site back in order.

I'm trying to get more proactive about Tampa Bay Anime again, too. I put up a new news post about our current raffle, and I've started a thread asking for comments on our latest meeting. I want to make that thread a recurring thing, to keep our members active on the forum. Also, I'm gonna try to gather anime ahead of time, throughout the week, so that I can be thoroughly prepared for the meeting. My eventual goal is to have all news and threads ready to go on the day of the meeting, so I only have to publish them. I also want to put together little synopses of the shows we're going to see -- stuff I can show before the show to give a little info and context.

Anyway, that's all for now. If I get inspired, I'll post again this week.

Current weight: 322.8 lbs
Total weight lost: 5.2 lbs

The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.
-- Barbara Hall

Triumphant Return

Wow. My last blog post was November 21, 2006. It's really easy to forget this thing once you've stopped for a bit. Lots of things have happened since then, so I'll give a quick summary, not necessarily in chronological order.

Most importantly of all, my daughter, Kay Lily Robinson, was born on February 9, 2007, at 4:07 PM. She was a big baby, weighing in at an impressive 9 lbs, 8oz. Misty had a couple complications due to Kay's size, but all went well, and they were both released on time. Right now, mother and daughter are visiting family in Louisiana. Gaze upon the fruit of my loins here.

In the meantime, I'm at a new job. I've moved from Chase to Home Shopping Network. The attitude and atmosphere are much more casual here, although the work seems no less challenging. It looks like they have much more of an "instructions-under-the-door" approach, which I like. The people seem cool and competent, too. I've been here for one week, so far. We'll see how it goes.

Misty and I spent the holiday's at her family's house, mostly because of her Dad's terminal illness. The trip was difficult for her because she was in the final trimester, and generally dull for me, but we felt it was for the best. As expected, all of our gifts were for Kay. ^_^ I don't expect to get any presents for myself for years.

I turned 30 this year. Meh. Doesn't feel any different. I took Misty's pregnancy as an excuse to not diet, but I haven't ballooned or anything. I last weighed myself yesterday, and the scale read 318. That's not too bad. I still want to get back to a good diet and exercise, especially since Misty will be able to share it with me.

I've been programming more lately. My latest project, CCG Console, is a program that will allow users to manage their collections and decks for any existing and future collectible card game, like Magic: The Gathering, VS, or Universal Fighting System. It's going well. I'm gonna try to get more organized about it this week. I'm also looking to get back to my guitar practice this week.

Whew. Looks like I have a lot to do this week. Next time, I'll talk about how Kay is changing my life. This is a whole new era for me. Come along for the ride! Wheee!

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children.
-- Clarence Darrow