While it’s always advantageous to understand more about a client and spend some time with them to get a proper feel for their industry, doing a project for one’s own brand involves taking a step back. We live and breathe what we do everyday, how do we abstract ourselves so that others can understand us. I admit that these are the same challenges that I felt over the years as rosemarylong.com (nee rosemarysanchez.com) constantly felt like an unfinished project.

Luckily, having driven team members with strong vision and a diverse array of talents helped devise our company’s online expression, constructively asking the question “why are we doing it this way?”.

And yes, spending time on *that* site made me feel a bit guilty enough to post new content on *this* site. Plus I can point out that my name is in the news section for the Big Rock snow that I did, whee!

I personally keep all of my project files in a “Projects” folder right under my home directory. Subsequently, each project (and subversion checkout) get their own folders. I also have Flash output being symbolically linked to the HTML site, but that could be another article.

Download, install, and pay for MAMP Pro. It’s great. It will do a bunch of setup stuff that I can’t remember since it’s been months since doing it, but it’s a relatively straightforward process.

If it didn’t do so automatically, start up your MAMP server. Switch to the Hosts view and then on the + sign at the bottom left to start a new project.

I always choose a Server Name to be something short and without spaces. When I run my localhost I will run it as mynewproject:8888 so I try to keep it short and self-explanatory.

Now under Disk Location, click on “Choose” and select the directory containing your project files. Click on “Apply” and you will be asked to restart the server.

Once everything is done restarting, you can either go to mynewproject:8888 (port 8888 is the MAMP default — I haven’t had a need to change this) or go to the Hosts view in MAMP again and click on the house icon next to your project’s name.

You’re done! If you need to create a local database, click on the WebStart button in the top right and you’ll see a link to your locally running phpMyAdmin. There’s a lot of help available online, and at least one friend here willing to lend a hand if needed.

If you want to want to see your site in a simulated Windows environment, you may want to read on how to configure your VMWare Fusion to view your MAMP server.

This reinforces the feeling I had in first year Computer Science: the joy of making computers do my bidding. Mwahaha!

For me, this was the case when I wanted to test sites I was developing in MAMP in Windows browsers. I tried the whole dyndns thing that the user manual outlines, but it didn’t work as I have a shared external IP. I reverted back to my old ways and set up websites on a subdomain of this one for testing. It was a huge pain when changes had to be done and tested quickly since I was constantly FTPing files and importing and exporting databases.

Today I listened to my inner diva (she often complains about doing tedious work) and figured it out, after over three months of doing it the hard way.

1. Check your System Preferences > Sharing settings and ensure that Web Sharing is off. You might also want to check your Firewall settings and allow connections for MAMP.
2. In VMWare Fusion, set your Network settings to Bridged. This will make it as if your VM and your Mac are peers but won’t restrict your access to external sites on your VM.
3. Check your MAMP ports. I went with the MAMP ports 8888 and 8889. You will need this for when you access your site from your VM.
4. Edit your hosts file on your Windows VM. Your hosts file is typically here: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and contains mappings. I entered my IP followed by the local name of my website, i.e. if I access my site through http://intactgrowth:8888 on my Mac, “intactgrowth” follows my IP in the hosts file.

That should be it. Much simpler and better than my other idea, which was to download Wamp on my VMs and share my code between two computers (this would’ve meant lots of DB work as well).

Your programmer personality type is:

PHTC

You’re a Planner.
You may be slow, but you’ll usually find the best solution. If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it’s parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

I used to be one of those developers that thought that in order to really call oneself a programmer, one must be able to program something from line 0. My training in University involved learning some low-level programming languages that taught us the importance of processing speed and memory allocation. In my mind it followed, then, that in order to make something good one must put all one’s discipline starting from low-level knowledge up to software engineering theory to code a product properly. This might have been good in said institutional days when every hour spent was willfully given in the name of education, but as I’m older and have more things to tend to surrounding my regular work hours, I’ve slowly emerged from this way of thinking.

It would be an exercise of modularity and reusability if I made something from scratch and then repurposed it for different projects.

Then for freelance projects I considered setting up a simple CMS like WordPress for clients with a nice template that they could edit their own pages.

I took this further and saved time in design by starting with one of those free-to-$50 predesigned templates.

In the past two weeks at work, I had been terrorized by the knowledge that we would have to quickly turnaround a multi-user custom-content website, and I racked my brain for a shortcut that would let us deliver the site in a month and a half as required. My first instincts included using Drupal, but the learning curve might be too steep to climb in such a short period of time. Next, WordPress MU which I am already familiar with. Sure it handles the multi-user bit, but how do I wrangle the idea of submitting posts to a blog into something actually usable for this particular project.

Then one night I found what could be the perfect solution: PhpMembers is a pre-built user management system that allows me to pile on as many custom-built pages as I want. It sounds like a happy medium as I don’t have to do the boring crap of doing user authentication and management and “oh boo hoo hoo I forgot my password” stuff, and instead I can focus on the cool parts.

In my head I was thinking of a way to express how the tedious stuff being eliminated allows more time for finesse of execution of the more important parts of the project. “Why reinvent the wheel when you can just find one and sex it up?” No, that doesn’t work, especially since I picture a stone torus with a prominent hole shape. For now, in my head I’m imagining that I’m just taking a pre-existing wheel and throwing glitter on it to pretty it up. I wonder if there’s a product or tool out there that can help me with my analogies.

You’d think that with the hot weather and living conditions (average of 29°C both at home and at work last week) that it would be too hot to eat, and naturally the pounds would be dropping off. The opposite was happening actually. It’s been so hot that instead of being satisfied with a glass of water, instead I cool down with a bubble tea or an icy blended drink from Starbucks. There was also double damage in that I stopped doing my morning exercise for an entire week because I’d already wake up sweating.

Today it’s a cooler morning, and I feel so much better after doing some cardio, yoga and pushups. Self, remember this feeling and keep doing it to yourself, and for yourself.

The rest of the week featured more eating and less excursions (except for places to eat) but it was still pretty memorable.

Wednesday, June 10:

• Ash had to go back to work, so Tom and wandered the city together. We had to try the McDonald’s here, and I opted for the Sweet Chili Chicken wrap. Observations:
  • Patrons have the ability to order while in line and are given a reference number to retrieve their order
  • Meals come in small, medium and large. I’m pretty sure this refers to the size of the accompanying drink and fries and not the sandwich itself. I wonder if it means that sandwiches cannot be ordered individually?
  • Most places we went to called ketchup “tomato sauce”. Here I asked for tomato sauce and was returned with “Oh, tomato ketchup?”
• Visited Koko Black and had a few chocolates. While the offering here was larger (and a bit more expensive), I still prefer Bernard Callebaut.
• I had a craving for pho or ramen (it was chilly and I wanted to warm up) but was incredibly pleased with Grill’d. The decor and variety of gourmet burgers brought me to a level of contentedness and forgot about my desire for soup.
• After a satisfying meal, our inner child urged us to visit Max Brenner afterwards.  No chocolate was left uneaten.
• Walking home we saw more possums in the park, this time with a baby on a parent’s back which looked like something else at first.

Thursday, June 11:

• Tom and I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens. Highlights include seeing black swan cygnets, discovering a plant that smelled like Kellogg’s Froot Loops, and having the joys of our usual outdoor excursions in new surroundings.
• Dinner that night was Indian with some new and familiar faces from ThoughtWorks. This was probably the only meal this week where I didn’t eat more than I was capable of, just because someone else ordered for the entire table and we shared everything.
• Afterwards, we saw a local band playing, and indie rock group called The Weekend People. I’m waiting to see more of their stuff on their site and/or iTunes. I liked what I heard, but it was sometimes difficult to hear because of the sound mixing quality.

Friday, June 12:

• Our last day in Australia was made sad with Tom’s observation and reminder that we wouldn’t be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year with Ash. Then Ash mentioned he might be home for Christmas and I felt a bit better.
• Today I also discovered that the almond croissants from my favorite stall in the Queen Victoria Market are not only topped with almonds and icing sugar, but have a delicious filling inside. Do I regret those other chocolate croissants that I chose over the almond? Not at all.
• One of the things we had to do in Australia was eat kangaroo. We picked up a roast from the local supermarket and Tom cooked it up with garlic mashed potatoes with proscuitto and Aussie parm from the market. Tom also tried to recreate the jalapeño sauce from Nobu but the result was a close but chunkier version, as we didn’t have a food mill.
• I didn’t want to go to bed that night, I wanted to stay up and keep talking or watching tv or something, just because it was our last day and I didn’t want to go home yet.

Saturday, June 13:

• I’m glad I actually got a bit of sleep the night before, because 5:00 came with a fierce earliness that hurt my tired eyes and barraged my sleepy limbs. “Who wakes up at 5am?” I would ask, to be replied with, “Rose, you wake up at 5:15 to go for a run at home.” I guess that’s an indication that I was able to get into vacation mode.
• We got to Southern Cross and the shuttle was already ready to go, meaning our goodbyes had to be brief. I had no problem staying awake at this point, but to be sure I picked up a savoury muffin and my last strong flat white at the airport. I grabbed an apricot danish for a snack, and as it went through a few x-rays in Sydney I wondered if eating it afterwards would give me super powers.
• Maybe my only superpower was not getting motion sickness on the flights back, but I was glad for it anyways. Qantas dinner was beef bourguignon with polenta, and while I fell asleep when they were handing out ice cream, I asked politely and got one when I woke up.
• The toughest part was waiting in LAX for our last flight going home. We were there between 11am -3pm local time, which was something like being awake for a long time at 4am in Melbourne time. It was brutal, and all the while I was looking forward to the 3 hours flying where I could finally get back to sleep.

I had no problems waking up after our trip, so jet lag didn’t affect me that way at all. It’s just that I would get extremely sleepy as early as 4pm at work, and I don’t think I was able to stay up past 9pm last week at all. Luckily, it meant that waking up at 5 for my exercise routine wasn’t difficult at all, but it meant that I couldn’t do anything in the evenings, such as finishing up this last blog post.

While I miss a few things in Melbourne, I’m glad to be home.

• Went to the Melbourne Aquarium. Freaking penguins in the first exhibit! Sharks, rays, lots of fun stuff. Have pics coming soon.
• Tom’s birthday. Saw a freaking platypus! Walked to Melbourne zoo, had samosa and fried rice for breakfast with coffee, saw as much wildlife begging for food near the eateries as behind bars. Saw wild parrots in the trees, beautiful!
• Tom’s birthday dinner at Nobu at Crown casino and entertainment complex. Delicious drinks, friendly bartender. First drink had ume shu and a rare spiny mountain peach as garnish. Second drink had an apple liqueur and cinnamon with lime. Dinner was amazing, don’t know if I can eat sushi anywhere else ever again. Okay, that’s a lie, I’ll continue to eat sushi but this place is definitely a favorite. Other highlights: jalapeno sauce on roasted cauliflower, flaky and melty cod, soft shell crab tempura rolls. Dessert: sampler platter including sake sorbet, green tea parfait type thing, Japanese doughnut, chocolate bento box with green tea ice cream.
• Day after Tom’s birthday, found out that Gordon Ramsay is in town and is going to eat at Nobu as well, to be joined by Robert DeNiro, part owner of the place.
• Went out for drinks with some ThoughtWorkers at Double Happiness. Liquid vice: “Great leap forward” – lychee vodka with ginger, lime and muddled mint leaves. Crazy and fun night.
• Hangover day. Slept in, so did Ash (even though it was Friday and he had to go to work). Tom and I had breakfast/lunch at Nando’s (there’s one in Calgary we haven’t been to before). Delicious. Took it easy that night, watched How I Met Your Mother and probably almost peed myself laughing.
• Saturday. Packed and the guys picked up the rental car for our trip to Great Ocean Road. Beautiful scenery, windy roads made me wish I had my motion sickness medication too. Saw two groups of wild kangaroo. Saw a flock of wild sulfur-crested cockatoos. Internet booking went wonky and got upgraded to an apartment. Had an amazing calamari meal at Room Six. Watched a game of footy. Kept waking up in the middle of the night because I was switching the heating pad from 0 to maxiumum when I thought I was just setting it to 1.
• Woke up before sunrise, went to see the Twelve Apostles. Beautiful sky, chilly air. Went to other places (pictures will better describe their beauty) then had a fantastic breakfast at Room Six. Started to rain, so headed back to Melbourne. Ordered pizza, my favorite was one with anchovies and olives. Salty deliciousness. Tried to make plans for the rest of the long weekend, finding that lots of places were close due to snow or wildfire earlier this year.
• Slept in, went to the mall. I ate a ton again, proclaiming my love for passionfruit yogurt and tiramisu and salad and coffee all while eating. Bought a couple of things, including burgundy hair extensions and some souveniers for my brothers. Went to the grocery store, where I found a custard apple. (When I was younger I planted some seeds for this plant, anticipating the creamy apple taste of the rainforest fruit. I killed the plants, and haven’t found a custard apple since.) Ash made lamb curry, super delicious. Also, I am beginning to run out of adjectives for food. Watched more How I Met Your Mother followed by Stardust.
• Returned the rental car, and had a double adventure looking for a gas station and having the GPS system take us to an adjacent town instead of back to the Budget car rental place. Starving. Went to Stalactites for greek food, again ate a ton. Pigged out on a lamb and chicken giro plate with fries and salad, for dessert had baklava with ice cream and some creme caramel. Went next door (oh yes) for more dessert. Sparrows snuck in and were eating off some of the plates. Went to the Metropolitan hotel for a drink (but wait, there’s more) and had a good ginger ale + vanilla vodka + lime drink. A new favorite. On the way walking home, saw a possum in the dark. It approached me, but Ash said it was looking for food. Tom snapped a few photos of it. Also saw a rat in the park, ew.

As suspected, I don’t fly very well. After the first flight from YYC to LAX I felt ill (complete with chills and nausea) and needed to get motion sickness medication. I popped a few and waited to board our flight to Sydney. 11:50 local time, past my bed time at home time.

Tom and I couldn’t sit together for the 14 hour flight, and instead I sat between two friendly Aussies, one of which was a military surgeon who specialized in the bowel and was very nice to talk to. Dr. John Payne and I talked about the flight, yogurt, things to see in Australia, human physiology, our respective theories about sleep, and he told stories about his work and what he had done with his life. We had an extended opportunity to chat as our plane had to land in Brisbane for an hour to refuel, extending travel and requiring a reschedule of our last flight from Sydney to Melbourne. The other gentleman I sat beside had arrived from Calgary and the Rockies and mentioned some observances about taxes and service in the hospitality industry. It was interesting that some of the things I had taken for granted (added hospitality taxes, slight inconveniences when booking a hotel) were foreign to him, and when we were able to effortlessly and cheerfully rebook our flight to Melbourne I understood why he felt this way.

We flew for one hour more via Virgin Blue, landing in Melbourne, taking a shuttle to Southern Cross, and then we were home. Temporary home, but when you stay with a good friend it feels like home already.

Dinner that night was poached eggs on toasted turkish bread and proscuitto, garnished with roquette and balsamic from The Poppy Café. That meal featured an introduction to my current favorite, “strong flat white” which is a latté with less milk and more coffee. The evening was finished off with a refreshing shower, a few episodes of Buffy and a couple of movies and glasses of gin.

—

Day 2: May 31, 2009

As I was first to wake up, I quietly did some yoga stretches by the morning light to start, then curled up on the couch to read more of Choke. Six chimes from the nearby church was a pleasant mark for my Sunday morning. Thirty minutes of continuous chiming from the same church in short intervals started to get annoying and I retreated back into the bedroom.

We had breakfast and coffee at The Poppy Café again (strong flat white and Europa for me: two poached eggs, tomato topped with fresh pesto, toasted turkish bread, some kind of lamb or beef patties and a saucy salad whose name evades me currently.

After that we were off to the Queen Victoria Market which Ash is very fortunate to be living near. The energy of the market and the fresh produce, meats and seafood were inspiring, and we returned home with a few bags of each. Oysters for $9.50/dozen? Yes please!

I devoured my fresh pain du chocolat for a snack, layed around for a bit, then ventured off to St. Kilda beach. Stepping off the tram I was greeted with the fresh smell of the ocean, and walked along the promenade with Ash and Tom. There was a rocky section where I was fortunate enough to see a couple of little penguins (charming) and Australia’s endangered water rat (alarming, but I was honored to see it). On the walk back we were fortunate to also see a seal swimming away. A stop at a local pub for beer for the boys and local wine for me was in order before heading home again. Dinner that night was all of the delights of the market: fresh raw oysters with a chili lime sauce, broiled herbed lamb chops, and roasted vegetables.

—

Day 3: June 1, 2009

Ash was off to work and Tom and I spent the day wandering around the neighborhood. We are so fortunate to be near Flagstaff park and the downtown area. We meandered through the commercial areas and visited the grocery store to purchase more items for dinner. It’s strange, we were looking for whipping cream for butter chicken but could only find thickened cream of the same milk fat percentage, but thickened with gelatine. Tomato sauce is usually a key ingredient, but we opted for diced tomatoes as we thought their version of tomato sauce was more like ketchup. Eggs are sold on shelves and not refrigerated (some things are backwards down under) but plastic bags are very rare to see as everyone carries resuable bags (un-backwards; forward thinking in fact).

The evening ended with garlic butter chicken on penne and marscapone stuffed figs and apricots for dessert. With more gin. Delicious.