Instead of picking up the long neglected Stephen King novel I’ve been meaning to finish for 6 months now, my bedtime reading consists of PHP and MySQL manuals.
Instead of asking for diamonds or emeralds for my birthday, I asked for nifty gadgets & books…on…wait for it…PHP, MySQL, CSS, XHTML, Advertising & Marketing.
A friend had an extra book on Visual Basic Design Patterns and I got excited when he said I could have it. I got jealous because he did not get an extra book on Windows Scripting (I really am seriously wanting to learn a programming language, other than PHP…but where to find the time).
I now dream in CSS/XHTML on a regular basis and more recently, in PHP:
if(empty($fridge)) {echo ‘<p>Make grocery list</p>’;} else {echo ‘<p>Make dinner, call Diana</p>’;}
See, back in my normal life — many years ago — I enjoyed reading books that didn’t feature variables and if/else statements as their main plot points. I dreamt of sexy men and fast cars.
I fear I am no longer only a semi-geek, but I am strong in faith that I will be able to think about something other than coding/design/computer this weekend (heaven help me).
And I am strong in faith that this is only a phase and I will once again begin to speak English — you know, the English without any terms such as meta, tag, selector, attribute, syntax error, “damn computer”, “IE you f’in’ piece of shhhh…”, etc. <sigh>
This theme has already been
June 11th, 2005 at 2:36 am
Yep. Yep. You’re covering all the bases — design, programming, marketing. So why should you be different? <grin>
June 11th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
Teli,
I know you from WD and BE has sent me to your site too…small web huh? I don’t dream in code but I know what you mean about speaking a normal english. I have a client now that has me cussing this damn computer right now.
June 12th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
Okay, Teli. This is too too funny. Guess what I just wrote about? And yep: you’re it. Tag
June 16th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Diane: You’re right, I am covering all the bases (or at least trying to) - guess I should just accept it huh
Trisha: small blogoshpere indeed, welcome to my humble online living room, I hope you enjoy your stay and of course, you’re welcome to stick around as long as you’d like
BJ: I like tag…but um…I tagged you first, but I’ll let it slide
June 20th, 2005 at 8:09 am
You’re not the only one consuming marketing and tech books
I cracked open a new design patterns book today named “Head First Design Patterns”. It covers all the most commonly used design patterns, and is just a great read.
The great thing about it is that the authors are well versed in the art of learning theory. For instance, did you know that if someone speaks to you in a conversational style, you are 40% more likely to retain what they say to you? Yet why are so many tech books written in a boring, lecturing style? The same style that sends a message to your brain “It’s OK to nod off now. Nobody will notice”.
So, if you get tired of the VB design patterns book, take a look at Head First Design Patterns.
Remember that nomatter how geeky you think you are, there is always someone else who exceeds your geekiness by an order of magnitude.
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Dude, you remind me of my dad, he always used to say “no matter how good you think you are, there is always someone who is better” (he didn’t mean it as a put down, he just knew it would drive me to work that much harder)
It’s definitely nice to know I’m not the uber-geek it seemed when I was taking “self-inventory”
and thank you for the book recommendations.