Wall of text

If you're looking for a well-thought-out, well-structured blog entry, this isn't it. I'm just going to type out whatever comes to mind, and that will be that. Warning: This may turn into a giant wall of text.

Books: Borders is going out of business. This is probably not news to anyone, but it has been both a happy and a sad time for me. I always liked going in to browse through the books, almost never buying anything, not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't have the extra money. Now, with the going out of business sale, and starting with when I won a Borders gift card soon after they announced that they were going out of business, I have used their misfortune as an excuse to spend money on books. Sure, some of them are "fun" books, but those are usually for my wife. Most of the books that I've gotten have to do with my hobby of learning a new technology or programming language. One excursion that my wife made, though, ended up with her buying me a book from the Animorphs series, which was my favorite series in middle school. It's one of the several that I never got around to reading. I look forward to when I have a chance to read it.

Technology: The programming/technology books that I got lean heavily toward web technologies. The first one that I got was a tutorial book for Django, a web extension for Python. I got it because one of the most recent languages that I've been teaching myself is Python, and I wanted to see what I could do with it and the web. So far, it looks pretty powerful, though the book doesn't really go that in-depth. I can see myself using it in the future, though.

The second one is an intro to HTML5. I do know a bit about HTML, so I wanted to learn about the cool stuff that HTML5 can do, since there's been a big hype about it for a while. It, too, lacks a lot of depth, but it does a bit to wet my appetite, so I guess it's okay. I may use it to see if there's something that I want to do that HTML5 can do more smoothly than how I would do it with HTML4.

Book 3 is about XMPP, and it's my most recent purchase. It looks like it does go a bit more in-depth, and one of the more advanced chapters ties it in with Django, so that will be fun once I get to it. XMPP is used in things like multiplayer games, instant messaging programs and chats. I'm not sure how I'll use it, but I'd seen it on several trips to Borders, and it seemed to be calling to me.

What I was really looking for each of those 3 times was an intro to Android programming. I got a book from the library about Android programming from the library not too long ago, so I wanted to get one for myself. Alas, it was not to be. I found plenty of books on iPhone development and plenty of user guides/manuals for Android devices, but nothing about Android development. Fortunately, though, just today I found what looks like it will probably be a promising tutorial online.

Library: Today, I went to the library, because my wife had several books to turn in, a hold to pick up, and she had an activity to go to that would last until after the library was closed. So I went by myself to turn in her books, pick up her hold, and maybe find a book or two for myself. First, I lightened my load by turning in her books. Then, I set about finding some books for myself. The Android book was checked out. I decided to put a hold on a different Android book. I also got several books by an author that my wife really likes, but that I haven't read yet (Piers Anthony). I had noticed that my wife hadn't given me her library card like she was going to (It's easy to forget when you're rushing off somewhere), but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I got the attention of a librarian, told her that my wife had sent me to turn in her books and pick up her hold, but that she had forgotten to give me her card. She understood perfectly, and given that we (my wife and I, not the librarian and I) have the same last name and live at the same address, the librarian was willing to make it possible for me to check out the book. I'm sure glad I asked!

Certificate: Today, I got a message from my folks that an envelope came from my grad school. They thought it might be my diploma, but I had already picked that up from the school. I called them and told them to go ahead and open it, thinking it was something from the photographer at graduation or something. It turns out that it was a certificate for a translation exam that I took near the end of the year. Since I passed the exam, I get a certificate... saying that I passed the exam. So now I have my diploma, as well as a certificate proclaiming that I'm recognized as a competent Spanish-to-English translator.

Plant: Near the end of July, my grandfather passed away. He was my last living grandparent, and since we share a birthday, there was no way that I was going to miss his funeral. When I got back from the funeral, I'd found that the company that I work for had gotten my a small potted plant (A fittonia, or nerve plant). This last three-day weekend left its soil pretty dry, and it was really limp--it almost looked dead. I watered it, and by the early afternoon, it was as happy and perky as ever!

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There. Wall of text. Enjoy.

Update on "A thought on localization"

The original post is here.

An employee at Adobe suggested that I copy my rant (which I had originally posted on G+, which is where he saw it) onto an post on Adobe's blog, so I did. That post was one of the things that "inspired" my rant in the first place, so it seemed fitting.

Just this last week, a representative from SDL (makers of Trados, the leading translation tool in the industry) posted a reply. It said basically what I expected it might, that a lot of people might not understand the filters well enough, that generic XML filters might not give the segments to the translators in an "optimal way," and that other information relevant to the document (formatting, etc.) might be difficult or impossible to obtain with a generic filter.

They do admit, though, that "a generic filter could have some value where no specific filter exists." And a major producer of translation tools responded to my comment. Which is awesome.


I still think that variations on a zipped XML filter would be valuable. One could create specific filters for Docx, Xlsx, Idml, etc. and translate those files directly in the original format instead of a middle format, which is what virtually every translation tool that isn't a Word macro does. Trados, Wordfast, Lingotek, Idiom WorldServer, OmegaT... All of them convert your original document into some middle format, usually XML-based itself. Why not create a tool that would take out the middle man? It might be something to look into some time in the future, but it might not be enough of a selling point if the other tools' middle formats can be satisfactorily converted back to the original formats. But then I think of those Word files that we translated in class, not too complex, whose formatting got mangled by the various translation tools that we subjected them to...


Ok. This rant is over. The moral of this post: People listen to you in unexpected ways sometimes.

A thought on localization

Here's a l10n thought I had the other day, and I'm sorry if it gets too technical:

Why is it so hard to add a supported file format to translation tools? A lot of formats, including the current Microsoft Office formats (PPTX, XLSX and DOCX) and IDML, the current export format for InDesign, are simply ZIP files renamed. What's inside of those ZIP files? XML files. That's right: plain text.

It's relatively easy to set up a filter for any sort of plain text file, be it XML, HTML, TXT or whatever, as long as you know a few things: Where is the translatable text? Are there patterns to find the translatable text? What do I do with the non-translatable text? (For example, is it interior formatting information, etc.) What's the encoding?

Most translation tools have filters set up for HTML already, and for TXT as long as everything's translatable. Most will even have some sort of customizable XML filter. It wouldn't be that hard to set up an interface that would let you define a compressed (ZIP) file extension, define which folders and/or files the translatable text would be found in, and define where in those XML files the translatable text is. So why has nobody done this? Sure, there are filters for the MS Office files, but most tools that I'm familiar with, if they support InDesign at all, are stuck back at only supporting INX files, which are the previous export file type, and they're XML to begin with!

What I want is a generic "compressed file" filter that will allow you to find the content. Java JAR files with translatable content are compressed files that (if they're done right) contain PROPERTIES files, which are a type of plain text. The above mentioned file formats are all compressed files that contain XML files. Who knows what files in the future will simply be compressed files that contain plain text information? If there were a generic way in some tool to define where and what is translatable, it would make our lives easier.

While we're at it, we need a better plain text filter. Some image formats contain translatable text information, but as far as I know there are no tools that support those file types.

Maybe I'll work on this stuff eventually, at least in pseudo code. Maybe someone in the right place will come to the same conclusion and make this widely available. Maybe.

Ok, I'm done ranting now.

A Series of Pleasant Events

1. This last week, I found all sorts of nerdy stuff to occupy my time, such as Google Labs's App Inventor, which allows you to create your own Android apps without a great amount of programming knowledge. It's kind of limited, but it's kind of fun, too! (I also found, or re-found, a development environment for making games called Game Maker and some apps that will hopefully allow me to use scripting languages on my Android tablet, but I haven't really had a chance to play around with those yet.)
2. Today started without an alarm clock. It was still kind of early, but I woke up on my own schedule, and not on that of incessant beeps that usually go off at the same time each morning.
3. I made breakfast for my wife, and got to serve it to her in bed. I also pulled some bread dough out of the freezer so that it could thaw and rise.
4. Then I got breakfast for myself and ate it in bed with my wife.
5. A bit after breakfast, we walked to McDonald's and each got a Happy Meal with a Pokémon toy.
6. From McDonald's, we walked to the aquarium, where we were amazed by an updated exhibit and got to wonder all over again at the marvels that live in and around the sea.
7. We rode most of the way home on a free trolley service that runs during the summer.
8. After resting up for a bit, we drove to the shopping center to do some window shopping.
9. We weren't going to buy anything, but we noticed that Patricia Briggs's Masques, which has been out of print forever, has been re-released with some edits, along with its sequel, written after 20 or more years more of experience as an author. We had to get both.
10. We also took note of a couple of other books that we are going to request from the library.
11. I got a gumball from a gumball machine.
12. At the game store, we noticed that a used copy of a game that we had kind of wanted to get for a while was only $10, so we got that, too.
13. The rest of the day will include a homemade dinner, a relaxing evening, and probably some reading.
14. Edit: After the original posting of this, I decided to make peach cobbler, which is currently in the oven. And we're going to get ice cream to go with it.

The past few days have been good, especially today.

A shock and a revelation

Today I found out that my grandpa could not be awakened. He was still alive, still breathing, but they just couldn't wake him up.

This news would likely come as a huge shock to most people. However, Grandpa has been fighting cancer for some time now, and has long since gone through all viable options of treatment. For him, it's a matter of time. In fact, it's been a lot longer than anyone has really realistically expected.

Still, although the shock wasn't as big as it otherwise would have been, there was still a shock, and I started preparing myself for a trip that may come at any time, to Grandpa's funeral.

It turns out that it wasn't the cancer at all. There was some mixing of medications that multiplied the effect of his Tylenol PM. They couldn't wake him up because he was sleeping it off.

I don't know whether to be relieved that Grandpa's alright or upset at the apparent lack of information that led to this medical mix-up. I think that I'll go with "relieved," though.

Edit: Grandpa has woken up and is doing a lot better.

Note: Abrupt change of topic, one blog post. I'm still working on transitions.

On Sunday, we were reminded about Christ's parable of the talents, and how by using our talents, we can multiply our blessings. How many of us hide our talents, or let them decay like an abandoned building... I play the violin, and could be good at it if I tried. I have a knack for languages, and at a time was at a near-native level in Spanish. I can think through problems a step at a time, and can sometimes transform those steps into computer code. I'm not a horrid writer. I like to doodle, but can only really do stick figures. What do I do with these talents?

My violin's case is a great dust collector. I still speak Spanish on occasion, but my Spanish language books are in about the same condition as my violin case, and though I've thought about trying to pick up another language, it ends there. I do still occasionally write some code if it will save me some time, but I know that there are some things that are still beyond me when it comes to programming. My writing is usually limited to short responses to emails and the occasional Facebook update. A couple of years ago I bought a drawing pad and some pencils, but since then, they're in my closet. Remember the violin case? My art supplies are even better at collecting dust.

Instead I fill my time with nonsense. Sometimes I find myself switching between Facebook, my email, and the one forum that I visit, hoping that one of them has updated. Sometimes I'm playing games, leveling up my characters, deleting them and creating new ones. Sometimes I sit, wondering what to do...

I tell myself that I don't have time for my talents, that there's no time to practice my violin, no time to study another language, no time to really get serious about programming, writing or drawing. But the truth? While still getting a full 8 hours of sleep, I have about two and a half hours between when I wake up and when I go to work. Sure, some of that is spent getting ready for work, so to give myself plenty of time to get ready at a nice, relaxed pace, we'll say that I have one and a half hours. After work, there are about four hours between when I get home and when I go to bed. There is dinner to consider, and getting  ready for bed. There is also helping to get dinner ready, helping with housework, etc. Let's give me two hours. That's three hours per weekday that I could be doing something productive to better myself. Add in all day on Saturday, and even a few hours on Sunday, as long as it's something spiritually uplifting, and that's quite a few hours a week.

So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to give up Facebook or games, but they are going to take a backseat to other things. I'm going to read in Spanish every day, at least a little bit. I'm going to at least get my violin out on Saturdays and Sundays. I may even find a time in the evening that's not too late to annoy neighbors. I'm going to write more consistently in this blog, but I'm also going to write short stories and try to expand their length, little by little. I can do that in any short period of time. And, on weekends, I'm going to find some scenic place to sit, and I'm going to try to draw it. It's going to be ugly at first, and it may stay that way, but I am going to work on drawing. I'm not sure how I'm going to work on language acquisition or programming skills, but I'll find a place to fit those in.

Hopefully I can spend a little less time regretting the neglect that I've shown regarding my talents and more time developing them so that I can become a better me.

A New Start

I had a thought the other day. That thought was that I should start blogging again. That I should really be keeping some record of my life, and it's easier to do that here. If I do it in a physical journal, it takes up space and I run the risk of not being able to read my own handwriting. If I do it in a conventional word processor, my computer may explode or something, and then I'd be out of luck. So I choose to write here, where I can share my life with the people who choose to read about it.

It's almost the start of a new era for my little family. I'm about to get a masters degree and start my first real career. I've been at this company for a while now as an intern, and I've recently decided to accept their offer to hire me full time once I graduate. Things are looking up.

Endings and beginnings can be tough sometimes, but that's what leaps of faith are for, right?

Vacation Time!

My school has what they call "J Term," which is this: During January, there are hardly any classes for "regular" students. Instead, they hold a bunch of seminars and certificate classes. Most students, including myself, take this opportunity to have an extra long winter break.

Between January 4 and 19, my wife and I took advantage of the extra time off to visit our families in Utah. I had to also take the time off from my internship, but sometimes the sacrifices are worth it. :)

It was great. We visited both my family and hers, and we also had a chance to visit some friends. It was pretty low key other than that.

I did take the chance to send my resume out to a few companies, and even got an offer for when I graduate in May! And, as of today, another place that I sent my resume out to called to express some interest.

So, as always, life is good.

My Awesome Day

It's been a while since I've posted!

Today was a really good day! It started out much like a typical Saturday: I woke up slightly later than usual, watched some cartoons (Yes, I still do that), checked FaceBook, etc.

But then, my wife and I went on a walk to the nearby mall. There's a Whole Foods market on the premises, so we got what has become one of my favorite things there: freshly ground peanut butter. It's really good. It's just peanuts, and maybe a little salt, and the best part is that it doesn't have much of a difference in cost compared to "regular" peanut butter! After we got home, we split a peanut butter and jam sandwich (homemade strawberry jam, to be precise).

On our way home, we saw another grocery store, Trader Joe's, that has great pizza crust. We decided that we would be having pizza for dinner. I didn't know it until we had decided that, but I was really craving pizza.

Later, we went to get one of the toppings that we needed for dinner (pepperoni). While we were there, we noticed that clementines were on sale for about half their usual price. We got some. Clementines are delicious.

As we left to do this shopping and other errands, we noticed that California's oldest theater, which isn't usually open to the public, had its doors wide open as part of Monterey's "Christmas at the Adobes" thing that they do each year. We mentally crossed our fingers, hoping that it would still be open when we got home. It was. Apparently, you're supposed to sign up for a tour or something, but we explained to the volunteer that was there that we always pass by, and we've always wanted to see the inside, and he said something along the lines of "Just walk in like you belong there. No one will know the difference." It was pretty awesome. Apparently, they did plays there as recently as 10 years ago. They allowed people into the lobby area, but the theater part itself is currently too dangerous to allow anyone to enter. Apparently, it would cost around $4 million to repair, according to the volunteer that told us, and the state just doesn't have that kind of money. It was still a great experience.

When we got home, I helped make the pizza. I sliced the mushrooms and shredded the cheese. It was so delicious that, even though we were both not hungry anymore after two pieces, it was hard to stop eating it.

I also got to spend the entire day with my wife, which is always a good thing.

Thank You, Day 7

Today is not my last day to be thankful, but it is the last day, for now, that I'm going to explicitly mention my thanks here on my blog.

Today, I'm thankful for everything. Yep, that's right. Everything. I'm mostly thankful for the good, but the bad has its place in life, too, if only to help us appreciate the good and help us grow.

I am thankful for, among other things: Dad, Mom, older brother and his family, younger brother #1, younger brother #2, younger brother #3, baby sister and her hubby, my wife, my in-laws (mom-in-law, cousin-in-law, great-aunt-in-law, you name it), my ancestors, my future progeny, puppies, everything I've mentioned so far this week, hamsters, bats, cats, rats, cockroaches, brooms, grooms, mushrooms, peppers, salt, trees, fish, jellyfish, seals, modern medicine, death, life, love, sorrow, joy, pain, healing, Jupiter, the sun, Chile, Russia, Japan, board games, video games, card games, chairs, music, musical chairs, noise, silence, whispers, laughter, tears, cheers, birthdays, anniversaries, art, clocks, time, Eternity, pi, water, dihydrogen monoxide, the past, the present, the future, the possible, the impossible, the improbable, the world, calculus, statistics, computer programming, computers, you, me, him, her, them, pronouns, adjectives, demonstratives, phonetics, semantics, spell check, language, the five senses, the sixth sense, religion, truth, error so that we can learn from it, wood, metal, earth, wind, fire, knives, chopsticks, and having a place in your life.

Thank You, Day 6

Today, I'm thankful for food.

Anyone who knows me well at all knows that I love food. It's necessary for survival, and that in itself makes food something to be thankful for, but food is also good! Taste is a very fascinating sense, and it's only through nourishment that we get to fully explore it.

That being said, I am even more grateful for healthy food that tastes good. If all you eat is meaty, greasy, cholesterol-ridden stuff, it may taste great, but it defeats the main purpose of food. Instead of nourishing, it kills slowly. I'm trying to make sure that I don't ignore that food is to help you, and that tasting good is a bonus.

Now I'm hungry...

Thank You, Day 5

I could say that today, I'm thankful for the feature that lets me mark posts as happening on different days.

While I am thankful for that, it's not what I'm going to feature. Today, I'm thankful for fantasy.

Imagination lets you put a new perspective on life by escaping it to a degree every once in a while. A big homework assignment is nothing compared to evil wizards trying to take over the world, for example.

Besides, would we have any of the wonderful things that we enjoy if it weren't for imagination? Internet? Computers? Television? Electricity? Cotton candy? Cars? Worcestershire sauce? Running water?

So, yeah, I'm thankful for being able to imagine things.

Thank You, Day 4

Today, I'm thankful for my wife.

We've been through a lot together since we got married 5 1/2 years ago. My little brother died just 5 months after we got married, and that was a defining point in our marriage. My wife was always there to strengthen and support me, and she still is.

Now, she's strengthening and supporting me as I finish up my Master's degree. After that, I imagine she'll be supporting me as I transition into the life of a non-student.

Years from now, whatever I'm doing, I know that my wife will be there, helping me through it as I try to help her through whatever she's doing.

Thanks, honey.

Thank You, Day 3

Today, I'm thankful for a positive attitude.

Almost every day, one of the managers at my internship asks me, "How are you?" My answer is habitually, "Awesome."

One day, this manager asked my why I was awesome. I told him, "Because I have no reason not to be awesome," and that's the truth. When nothing's really going wrong in life, though the stress is still there, and things can be hard sometimes, why not be awesome? Even the little bumps in the road of life smooth out eventually.

Next time, I think I'll answer, "Amazing!"

Thank You, Day 2

I'm dedicating today's post to the women in my life:

• My mom, who raised me, taught me how to cook, and showed me how to treat others.
• My little sister, who loves to live, lives to love, and is all-around awesome.
• My wife, who supports me, loves me, and has helped me through a lot. I may even devote an entire day to her.
• My mother-in-law, who considers me one of her kids and treats me like one of the family.
• My wife's sister, who's like another little sister to me. She totally rocks!
• My brother's wife, who takes good care of my big brother. For that, I am very grateful.
• My niece, the newest little woman in my life! She's too cute for words!

I didn't grow up with a lot of women in my life. Now I have plenty! They have taught me a lot, and they are awesome!

Thanks guysgirls!

Thank You, Day 1

My sister-in-law decided that during the week of Thanksgiving, she would post something that she's thankful for each day on her blog. I may not be as eloquent as she is, but I've decided to do the same because, like everyone, I have a lot of things to be thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for friendship. About a year and a half ago, my wife and I moved away from everything either of us knew so that I could get my master's degree. Her great aunt and uncle and the family of one of their kids live out here, but other than that, it was all foreign.

That didn't last long, however. We soon became friends with other students who, like me, had moved away from the familiar in the quest for more knowledge. We also made friends in Church, and, thanks to technology, we've been able to keep in contact with our friends from before we moved.

Surrounded by all of these friends, the unfamiliar became not just familiar, but pleasant. So thank you, friends, for being so friendly!

Change of Purpose

"Throughout history games have been used to simulate and/or exaggerate real-life situations. This blog attempts to map my real-life situations to certain game/gaming characteristics."

That is what the top of my blog used to say. It's true that there are many real-life-to-game parallels, and I might still mention them from time to time, but I don't know that I'll be focusing on them anymore.


When I first created this blog, I wanted to make it a blog about my life. That's not because my life is particularly interesting, or that the information will be of any real use to anyone. It's more because, I don't know, because I want it as an outlet for my rantings, I guess. I'm finding it difficult to really verbalize it. Oh well.


So anyway, from now on, my blog is about Dale's life, just like the title says, and has always said.

Low HP

Last night, as my wife and I were out buying some armor, potions and other things, I must have run into an enemy using stealth or something, because out of the blue, I got debuffed. My HP got lowered, and I got a big headache and chills.

When I woke up this morning, some of the debuff seemed to have worn off. The chills were gone, but the headache was still there. I stayed home resting, so that I wouldn't get the rest of the Church congregation sick.

Hopefully by tomorrow my HP will be where it's supposed to be. Anyone have any buffs to counteract my debuffs?

Blah

I don't know what to post today, and I'm a bit sick. Not only that, but it's not really "today." It's "tomorrow," but because I forgot to post today, I told the blog to say that it was today.

Time travel.

HP recovery

In Mario games, you "eat" a mushroom to grow bigger and stronger, so that it takes one more hit to take down a life. In Zelda games, you drink potions to restore health (In one, you can eat apples, too). In RPGs of several varieties, there are potions, foods, etc. that you can use to recover your health.

Ah, food. Apparently when I was a n00b (when I was a baby), I would associate food with pain. I've since gotten over that. Now I enjoy my HP recovery time. Tonight we had a small potluck with some friends. There were chicken wings, guacamole, pizza, curry, wraps... It was great.

:)

There's an app for that.

Today in my software localization class, we had "iPhone app localization part 1." For those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology, localization = translation of software and websites.

And the app in question? A simple game that tests reaction time. I got 142 milliseconds on one run through (It's called "luck").

Next week is part 2. And then I can say that I officially know how to localize iPhone apps. Nifty.