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back before Germany was made great again
Sunday, March 18 2018
I spent an embarrassingly-large part of the day building out a generic system for editing data in a MySQL table. I've built such systems before, the most useful and long-lasting being TableForm, which grew out of a generic admin tool for a file-based pseudoSQL database in early 2006. The experience building that tool (using a much more primitive-to-nonexistent code framework) was surprisingly helpful in getting today's code built out in minimal time with maximal flexibility. I knew all the pitfalls to avoid, from namespace issues with field names to dealing with compound primary keys. Though having yet another generic data editing system might seem superfluous, I think there are hidden benefits, particularly with one so well-integrated into this newer system I've been building out. There's always a need for new generic data editing approaches, particularly when there's no time to build individual editors.
This evening, Gretchen returned from the bookstore with Neville and proceeded to assemble Nancy's birthday cake, which was some sort of swirl involving strawberries, vanilla, and lots of hydrogenated vegetable oil. When that was done, we loaded up the dogs and drove the short distance to Nancy and Ray's house down in Old Hurley. After briefly meeting a neighbor's dogs, our dogs charged into the house with all the usual yarfy canine fanfare, delighting Jack the Dog, who never knows when his friends are going to visit. Already there were Jeff and Alana and some woman I've been told I'd met before, and soon we were joined by Rich the pottery guy and Sarah the Vegan. Ray was making one of his usual pan-Asian fusion dishes, though the influences were mostly Indian. It was a chana aloo with basmati rice, oily flatbread, arugula salad, and baked broccoli and was so delicious that I ate way more of it than I should've.
During dinner, most of my conversation was with Rich. He told me all about his grandfather, whom Rich had seen smoke a cigarette on his 100th birthday at his rambling house in the Catskills. 80 years before that, he'd fought on the Italian side in World War I, been captured by the Germans, and experienced a not-terrible imprisonment in a German POW camp back in the days before Hitler made Germany great again (and treating POWs humanely was determined to be a mark of weakness). Supposedly the Germans were anything but harsh to their Italian captives, even allowing them leave from the camp to go do things in the adjacent villages. Rich said that the twinkle in his grandfather's eye when he spoke of those days suggested that perhaps he'd had German girlfriend.
At some point the subject of what exactly I do came up, and when I tried to explain, Rich asked if I knew anything about Search Engine Optimization. I said that I didn't, at least not any more. He then proceeded to tell me how crappier pottery studios that charge more for classes and firing are appearing above his studio in Google search results. I had a few ideas for fixing this problem: press releases to get more linking articles in the media and discounts for students who hype his studio on Facebook and Twitter.
Later we all went into the living room and Ray brought out a tray with three brown liquors and shot glasses, and we did that thing where we sip from shot glasses containing liquor and a single cube of ice. With the exception of Amargo de Chile, a sweet and bitter liqueur spiced with hot chilis (which isn't my thing), it was all very pleasant and civilized.
After Nancy opened the gift containing my painting of Frances, it was added to an existing micro gallery of just the paintings I've given to Ray & Nancy. As of tonight, it looked like this:
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