I'm a Centenarian

Well, at least in blogging years.

This marks the 100th post on my blog. I didn't know if this blog would last this long, but it has. I'm glad it did.

You might have noticed that I have been slacking a bit on my posting recently. I have been frantically trying to find a job, and I think I have landed one. It is only part time, and I don't know if it will ever turn into a full-time gig, but for now, it will probably pay more than unemployment which happens to pay less than $9.00 an hour. Not the best wage to support a child and a pregnant wife. But, I can now say that I am employed. I am going in to finalize the paperwork on Wednesday and receive my first assignment. Hopefully many more will follow.

The funny thing is, I was introduced casually to my boss about six months ago. She is the niece of one of my co-workers, and happens to have her own business. I met her one day, and didn't think twice about it. When my co-worker told me that she was looking for someone last week, I jumped at the chance, and the timing just happened to work out perfectly. It must be all about who you know.

In other good news, I have decided to learn more about programming and web design. My dad has been volunteering during his retirement for our church over the past five plus years, and his volunteering time will be up in November of this year. Because he knows that my mother will be painting once they finish up, he is trying to find new hobbies.

He has been interested in the iPhone and Apple products for quite some time. He has an iPhone, and once had the audacity to ask me if it was an iPod as well. It just goes to show you how much he really understands the device. He is a smart guy, but doesn't realize how far technology has come in the past ten years.

With that being said, he heard about some boy who wrote the most downloaded iPhone app, and how he taught himself to program it by reading a book from the library. Dad bought the book, which is causing him to probably get the Internet. He has been begrudgingly avoiding it at the risk of getting viruses (plus he doesn't want to pay for it), but I think he is beginning to see the light. He actually asked me to give him a quote from a few different ISPs, and what it might run him. Mom is a bit astounded, but she will run with it.

My parents have been out of town for a few days, so Dad suggested (read strongly recommended) that I take a look at the book. While the book doesn't read like a novel, it isn't too bad for a technical book. It describes most of the basics of the program, but leaves out the background on the coding, which makes it accessible to the masses. Not being part of the masses, I could use a bit more explanation regarding some of the code snippets. I'm not asking for a thorough discussion, but I could use a bit more meat. I'll just have to find it elsewhere, as the author considered it out of scope for this book (and thankfully warned me, else I would have been one angry book borrower).

I am about a third through the book, and have yet to do any programming/app creation. I'll get started on it shortly though.

After Kathy from Well Placed Words stopped by and left me a comment asking who Munchkin was, I decided that I had better create a page with a cheat sheet defining the who's who of Journeys in Journaling. With that being said, I think I'll put that information here in a separate page for future readers/newcomers, but I think it might be a good introduction to creating apps on the iPhone/iPad. I have a few other ideas I would like to include, but I don't want to give away all my secrets in case I figure out that I am terrible at creating apps and end up creating something that kills your iPhone.

And because I will have to be creating lovely graphics to go along with this app, I'll probably be giving this page a refresh as well with my own personalized graphics. As much as I love my jaundiced blog, I think some better graphics could help spice it up a bit.

I'll make sure to let you know when I get it done. In fact, I'll probably have a link here to go get the app (which will be free. I hope no one is dying to buy an app that is all about me and my life, and if they are, I would be interested to see if they want to create a new position for me in their business).

In short, if you see some new things popping up on the blog in the next few months, please don't be alarmed. It is probably intentional. But then again, since I am a beginner, parts of it will be unintentional. If something looks awry, please let me know.

Happy hundred to me!