I was talking with Topher about code repositories a while back and it made me realize that I didn’t quite understand their worth. I decided that I had a small web server of my own to play with and I might as well use it to familiarize myself with these processes that professional coders and developers use.

I set up Subversion that night. I configured it and got it working the next day.

Soon thereafter I was talking with a web developer my employer had recently brought in to work with us. He seemed lost in our world of little redundancy and no test environment. It made me realize how necessary and practical a test environment is. I thought, “do I have a server, or do I have a server?”

Then I reconfigured that server to provide me a test environment for all my various web development projects.

I first tackled setting up a test environment for WishCraze. It wasn’t easy. I had to rewrite a few things so they would work on multiple domains. I got it working though, and I was quite please with myself.

But rather than move on to another project and set up a new test environment, I decided to keep moving in the direction I was going. I had just gotten through refreshing myself on the structure of all my old code and decided to put it to use. I tweaked functions, trimmed excess code, and even rewrote functions in newly-learned efficient ways. Then I updated my live server, and it just worked.

I love my test environment.

I can ignore new error messages when there are more important things to do. I can try out new things without worrying about how it will be received. I can pretty much break everything apart, and build it up again. I can do all this without it ever effecting the real users on the live site.

This is a wonderful thing. Pretty soon I might try and get some actual users.

People slowly drifted off to their respective homes and beds until Topher, Geordan and I were left confirming our beliefs that Across the Universe is not a movie worth staying up ’til 2:00 over. As Topher and I drove home in the wee hours of the morning, I had a nagging craving in the pit of my stomach for some sort of deceptively unhealthy nourishment. You can imagine the relief and gratitude I felt when I came across this gift as Topher lovingly walked me to my door.

Hot Dog Monster

Believe me. As I got ready for bed I took great comfort in a full stomach.

For a month or two, the infamous printer has been out of commission. The white ink clogged in the print head and there seemed to be no way I could remedy the situation. I decided to empty the printer of white ink completely and operate with only the four color channels. I haven’t had time to make sure it’s working, but I hope to push out a few more orders anytime now.

WishCraze

After resorting to getting a job, I had to put WishCraze on hold. I play with it every now and then, but I haven’t made an serious updates for quite some time. After some dicussion with The Topher I’m contemplating building it again from the ground up in a Ruby on Rails environment or perhaps a some sort of PHP Framework. It likely won’t be ready for Christmas.

Guitar

After the smash hit “Hug a Redhead” stormed the BYU 167th Ward, SPF took an extended hiatus. Band members are on excellent terms with one another and frequently discuss the possibility of returning to the stage once again.

Shuffle

I’ve been thinking about my screen play a great deal lately. I don’t have much time to work on it, but I am developing a much better understanding of what I want from it. One day it will be a complete work.