Today was a good day at work; I really did a little of all the things I love doing. I tweaked the RewriteRules for our Apache server, I fixed some bugs in legacy code, I wrote a form with javascript validation, and I FTP’ed a hellafied amount of stuff.
That’s right, I said ‘hellafied’.
The bugs were really fun. My predecessor used a bunch of echo statements instead of includes. I found out that you could not actually include a resource that is only buffered into memory; PHP is happiest when you include an actual file. So, I had to rewrite a bunch of stuff to get rid of the echo and to write stuff to a file instead and then bring it in as an include. Simple and effective.
We have eliminated all our dedicated server products that use AMD processors. I don’t know what this means in the larger scope of things, really, except that there just wasn’t much demand for them.
I’m really excited about the guys I knew from school that are going on to get “real” jobs. I don’t exactly know why I feel this way except that last year it felt kind of lonely to be leaving to go work when everyone else was staying. The cool/weird thing is that all of them have jobs from employers that traditionally attend the Engineering Career Fair. This is why so many MU grads end up at Cerner and Black & Veatch. And all the while, it’s like…here I am working for a company nobody has heard of. I guess it’s better this way; if I had to go to work and see the same people I went to school with, that would just be kind of weird.
I am really glad I ended up where I am. I’m on my 3rd month of employment with Aplus.Net now and it’s amusing to think back and remember I was looking for another job after only 3 weeks at Belton. I come home every day with my brain feeling thoroughly worked out. I can honestly say my job is not easy by any measure, but the choice between complacence and challenge is hardly even a choice for me at all! 
I’ve decided to take the Zend Certified Engineer test in October. This is not because it will be hard (it won’t be, it’s basic PHP) but because my schedule seems pretty full. The whole test seems like a sham, really. Seriously, if you skim through PHP for Dummies, you could pass this test. But sadly there’s just not many Web Developer certifications so I don’t have much choice. I’ll get back to taking all the Oracle exams after I finish this.
Of course, as Jamila already knows, I’m convincing myself already that I can kick back and take it easy after all this is done. A while ago I discovered somehow that I was subconsciously motivating myself to do things through this system of a reward that never materializes. I don’t know where it comes from, but I’m serious. I have myself convinced that if I just do this or that, then I can slack off and rest on my laurels. Unfortunately, I always find more things to do. It’s kind of cool when you think about it!
