Today is computer training. It’s virtually identical to the training we recieved last year, so things are going a little slow. It’s all good though. Things are moving along, the people in my group seem cool, and I like my office-mate.

I’m starting work tomorrow!

Here are some random pictures from Key West.

Another HDR from the Key West Cemetary

An angel from the cemetary in Key West, Florida.

Yet another HDR from the Key West Cemetary

A picture of sunset from Mallory Square.

And Again…

Well, I suppose I should mention the flurry of announcements that Apple made at WWDC.

First, I’m very pleased with the new hardware. When you apply the ADC Hardware Discount, the prices on the Mac Pro are actually very reasonable. I’m definitely interested in one of the Mac Pros, but only if I get much more into the rails development. I’m really liking the way they do things BTO now. It’s nice that they don’t have multiple configurations. I think the stock one is good enough for most people, and you can go from there!

Second, Leopard rocks. I’m definitely looking forward to playing with it. There were a number of innovations steve mentioned, but what everyone seems to be abuzz about is what he didn’t mention. What were the “Supar Sekrat Features” that he said we couldn’t see? Who knows. I am a little annoyed that they bumped the release date until spring ‘07, however. I think they should be gunning for Vista for real, and vista will have a head start on them when it comes out (unless steve knows something we don’t know).

Finally, I’m pleased to see Apple picking up where OpenDarwin left off. I know they closed their doors, and I know why. Still, its good to see that the code is out there. Certainly the “Open Source” aspect of Apple development is minor when compared to a full project like the Linux kernel. Still, I feel like it was important for the xnu Kernel to be out there. Apple (recently) has been making headway in the super-computing field, and this will only better their foray into that (lucrative) area of computing.

I hadn’t had a chance to blog about it yet, but I was so happy to see Bruce Sutter inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I love Bruce. He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. His induction speech indicated that; reading the transcript was like a who’s who for good guys in baseball.

I’m at a time in my life where I don’t miss playing baseball any more, but I do miss going to the ball park every day. I miss seeing all the special people that do the jobs off the field, the people that make a baseball player’s job easier as you go through the long season. So to traveling secretaries Bill Acree and CJ Cherre, clubhouse guys Yosh Kawano, Butch Yakeman, Buddy Bates, Casey Stephensen, trainers Tony Garofalo, Gene Geiselman, Dave Pursley, Jeff Porter, Doctors Stan London and Joe Chandler, and to all the visiting clubbies, I’m truly grateful for all that you’ve done. You guys were more important to my career than anyone will ever know. I’d like to say thank you to all my Major League coaches and managers. Without you, all this wouldn’t have been possible.

Its nice to see my dad got a shout out, but also Bill Acree (one of the most dependable guys I know – throughout the years he’s done a lot for us), Jeff Porter, and of course Dave Pursley. I grew up around these guys, and they devoted large portions of their lives to the Braves. Good to know that their (largely unseen) efforts are appreciated.

I’ve been absolutely going nuts on Rails. Very Soon Now™ I’m going to be be posting a bunch of Articles on Rails.

I think the HABTM/has_many :through association (which was given a good treatment here) is first. I’m not going to be comparing them, but I’m going to be talking about exactly how you use them.

Well that’s out of the way. Now I just have to hope I passed. Anyway, find out in November I guess

Day 1 was not that bad I didn’t think. The first half of the day I felt like I did alright. I did the multiple choice first, and then the essays. Timed it exactly right too. 1 hour for the multiple choice, 2 hours for the essays. That gave me 15 minutes to go back and check some stuff in my essays. New York multiple choice was pretty hard, but I felt like I did alright on it. I mean, a lot of the New York distinctions were tested (obviously), and things just got a little confusing some times. The New York essays for the first part of the exam were pretty straight forward too. I definitely know that I missed some stuff I needed to get, but I hope it doesn’t hurt me that bad.

The New York essays in the second session weren’t that bad either. My timing was close to perfect though, I spent exactly 40 minutes on the essays, and started on the MPT. The MPT is sort of a just turn-your-brain-off memo, but I think I was running into fatigue at that point. My eyes were absolutely killing me after having spent so much time staring so intently at the case file and the computer. They just wouldn’t stop watering. I definitely felt myself start to space out a couple of times while I was sitting there digesting the file. I definitely didn’t do as well as I would have liked. My formatting was definitely a little screwed up at the end, and I barely got my conclusion section written.

Day 2 was definitely brutal. The MBE is just ridiculous. Every question has at least two correct answers. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. I honestly don’t have anything else to say about it. It was just impossible. The fatigue at the end of 200 multiple choice questions that complicated is pretty amazing. I feel absolutely brain-dead right now.

Hell Yes. I’m _so_ glad to be done with the first day of the bar. 60% of my work is finished here. Now I just need to bang out 200 multiple choice questions in 6 hours, then I’m going back to the city, and then to Atlanta!