Andy Chase

I spent the last bit of my work day following Apple's Java/Cocoa tutorial, which uses the same "CurrencyConverter" example as their introductory Cocoa/Objective-C tutorial. I did that one a few months ago, and suffered from being overwhelmed by both Objective-C and the seemingly convoluted way of doing things in Interface Builder with the MVC pattern.

I'm familiar enough with Java that I probably could code my way out of a paper bag with it (but maybe not a heavy-duty cardboard box, yet) so my comprehension of what was going on with Interface Builder was immediately ratcheted up several notches... by the time I got to the end of the tutorial it was time to pack up and go home, but my mind was abuzz, eager to play with Cocoa and Java now that I have a glimmer of comprehension and a real professional need to immerse my self in as much Java as I can in the coming months. I packed up quickly, and being last out of the office did my obsessive-compulsive triple checks of the coffee maker (off) the office door (locked) the other office door (locked) and the outer door (locked).

Kim headed out to get some groceries as soon as I got home, so I quickly unpacked my computer and put it on the table, and then went to take out my...

power adapter that I left sitting under my desk at work.

So much for full-steam-ahead, bedtime be damned Cocoa/Java hacking this weekend. As I type this the only thing I have running is Safari, my screen is at two notches of brightness, and I'm looking at 2 hours and 24 minutes of battery power to last me for the whole weekend. Dammit.

Do I really want to make the 70+minute round trip to Northampton to get my power adapter tomorrow? I kind of do... but to do so would make me painfully aware of how much of my weekend I'd be frittering away at the computer. (It's barely 8:00 on Friday night, and here I am already, burning precious battery minutes by the word!)

Not that there's anything wrong with that... but there's plenty of other stuff I could/should do with my free time too, and I hate to be reminded of it this way.