My brawl with C# string manipulation and updates on my work

I spent most of the day building an EEG signal simulator.  Instead of reading voltages from an amp, the engine reads pre-recorded data from a text file.  This will provide a playback of previous sessions and allow us to test our program without having to have an amp always available.  More days working at home maybe?

I ran into a bit of a snag while working with the StreamReader.  I pulled in the data using ReadLine() and placed it into a string.  I discovered quickly that each line had tabs in it.  (seen as \t)  I tried replacing the tags using string.Replace(), string.Trim(), and some remove char method using Regular Expressions.  None of these worked and when I looked for answers on the Internet, everyone assumed I was not placing the results of the manipulation into a new string.  Apparently that’s a common mistake.  After blood, sweat, and tears, I created a new string and placed the original ReadLine() string into that one. That solved the problem.  I’m not sure why because the original string was still a string, but it worked and I’m content.  Perhaps the original string is still tied to the ReadLine() function and therefore cannot be manipulated.  So, fellow coders, if you are to stumble into that problem and everything appears to be working, make sure anything coming from a StreamReader function is placed into an independent string before manipulation.

I’ve also started playing with Flickr.  I may be working with it extensively in my internship, so I’m learning the gist of it before I make my recommendations.  So far, I like it.  I’ve made a private and public set of stock photos.  It will come in handy when I have designers working with me and they need to access my stock photos.  I’ve also linked the public set to my wordpress page so check it out while you’re here!

Moving forward

Today’s been a long day.  I think I might have had 3 hours where I was not working.  (and that consisted of bathing, eating, bills, and coffee)

Most days aren’t this bad.  I do work at least 10 hours a day, but I usually work in a relaxed fashion.  Sometimes, I watch some Family Guy or listen to calming music.  Today was a bit more hectic, but I’m getting back on track and that’s worth the extra hours.

I’m now working with Corinne Pschierer to create a marketing plan for my business.  She is a “get your ass in gear” type of girl and she’s already set a list of deadlines and priorities for me.  She enjoys it and that’s what makes her great to work with.  I am very excited to see what her and I will accomplish together.

I also directly work with a designer, Rebecca and Master Web Service to deliver the highest quality websites to my clients.

With such talented people working with me, I believe the business can really soar!

I’m also in the process of changing my focus.  Due to the rise of mobile use, I have studied up on creating mobile ready websites.  I believe within the next few years, it will be crucial to have a mobile friendly website.

I’m still working hard on my neurofeedback program.  We’re very close to finishing and I’ve started up a website that will be used for technical documentation and versions of the program.  View an overview of the program here.

Finally, I’ve started my internship for my last year of school.  I’m working as an SEO consultant.  It’s my job to increase the company’s numbers using a variety of social media sites.  This is going to take a lot of problem solving, research, and presentation skills.  I think it’s a great opportunity because all to often I get lost in the code and there’s so much more to creating a successful website than that.

So much to do, so little time..and school starts up again in less than a month.

But I’m moving forward and I know I’ll make it work.

Mid-start Crisis

Sometimes I feel so stagnant, like I’m working all hours and just not moving.  Sometimes I feel like such a failure, like I haven’t done anything substantial at all.  Sometimes I feel like everything I’ve worked for is just going to waste.

And when I talk about it, I’m told that’s pretty normal.

So I remind myself of what I’m accomplishing.  If  thinking it isn’t enough, I make a list.  I re-look at my goals and if they need tweaking, I change course.

It’s important to do this every so often: to remind myself that I can build a basic webpage from scratch in under 4 hours; that I play the role of software developer, tech support, and tech manual writer for my long-term contract; that every month I work a little bit faster than the month before; that I can work in several languages; that I am building an organizational system for my business that is effective!

I have to remind myself of these accomplishments because far too often I question my abilities and it’s never a good idea to stay in that state for very long.

I have most of what I need and several options of moving forward.  Now to choose…

Handling the upset customer

I received a letter yesterday from my car insurance that delicately told me I was being dropped.  By law, they had to state the reasons and one of the reasons was because my sister received a moving violation ticket.  She’s not on my policy nor was she driving my car.  How Asinine.

Today, I called my insurance agent up to talk about the charges.  I knew going into it that I wouldn’t be able to change the outcome as I’ve been in a couple accidents, but I needed to do this because I know that I shy away from conflict.  That needs to change.

After a 5 minute conversation, I hung up the phone with a big smile on my face and thinking that I couldn’t wait for 3 years to clear up so that I could go back to them.  Two minutes later, I was internally screaming because I had called them to complain!  What happened?

Here’s how she handled it:

When I told her I had been dropped, she immediately apologized.  I pointed out the ridiculous charge and she agreed with me.  In fact, she told me she had called them herself because she didn’t agree it and they had told her it was the accidents that were the main problem.  Understandable.  I told I was unhappy, but I understood.  She told me that I needed a clear a record for three years to come back and that they wanted me back because they liked me.

Seriously, I hung up the phone smiling and it took me a minute to remember that I was being dropped.

What a wonderful way to deal with an upset customer!.  It negates negative interaction right off the bat.  She apologized, listened to what I needed to say, did what she could (or told me she did), and then made me feel important.

I’m still upset that I lost my car insurance, but I couldn’t ignore the lesson from this interaction. It’s a wonderful way to handle an upset client and keep them coming back!  Sometimes all we really need is to be heard.

Reflection and Solution

94 degrees today!  It was a perfect day to enjoy the air conditioning at the movies.   Bob and I saw “Bridesmaids” and it was pretty hilarious.  There was one quote, however, that caught my interest.

“You are your biggest problem, but you are also your solution.”  It probably didn’t go exactly like that, but that’s the gist.  I’ve heard the the first part of the quote so many times, but this is the first time I heard the latter with it.  I like it a lot.  The first part is, of course, usually true and it’s good to to recognize your part in situations, but the latter offers hope with it.  It’s upbeat and encouraging.

Reflection and solutions are so essential when running a business, but they are also beneficial in just everyday experiences.  Surprisingly to me, most of my reflection and solutions happen when I’m relaxing, not when I’m working.  The breaks allow my mind to breathe and catch up.  The solutions tend to just pop up and I can’t believe I wasn’t able to think of it before!

I try to take breaks often.  It saves me wasted time of frustration.

I’d also like to take an hour a week to truly reflect on the week before.  I’ve read that this works wonders for businesses.

Master of few

It’s been a wonderful week.  Summer has finally kicked in and I’ve spent it with people I love and mostly outside on the water.  God, I love the water.

I shared a beer with my Uncle today and while we were talking, he and his wife got into one of those harmless, fun spats.  He lost and I said to him, “Well, you can’t win them all.”   He laughed and responded, “I don’t even try.  I only win the ones I want.”   I payed special attention to this statement because I feel like I’ve been all over the place trying to build websites that are still out of my skill level.

There are so many ways to build a website and so many languages to learn.  I’ve had potential clients call me up wanting websites that would need such a vast array of languages and platforms and I’ve been rushing to learn them all and get them done.  It’s time to slow it down and get used to just a few.  Becoming a master at the few will be much more beneficial than knowing just a little of everything.  I’m sure I’ll pick up the little bits on the way.

The tiny positives make all the difference

About a month ago, I obtained a gym membership and I’m proud to say I’ve been consistently keeping up with my workouts.  Weight training has always been my exercise of choice and adding that back has been fantastic!  I do put some focus on cardio, however, as I also value endurance.  The elliptical isn’t the most thrilling machine, but it’s my favorite out of all of them.  Today, though, was a drag.  I couldn’t stand it!  It was like every second felt like an hour and I couldn’t figure out why.  Then it hit me:

The timer was counting down.

Anytime I work out, I have the timer count up towards my goal.  As the moments tick by, my thoughts are on the lines of “Yay! Only 2 more minutes!”  But when the timer is counting down to zero, my thoughts run “Ughh, two more minutes.”  This lead my thoughts to how powerful just a small positive event/thought can be.  Something so simple that I almost didn’t even notice had a major effect on my exercise routine.

While attending a meeting, I overheard several people talking about the power of words on plants.  Apparently writing a positive or negative word on the container of the plant can greatly affect the health of the plant.  Positive words help it to flourish while negative words cause it to wilt and die.  Kind of cool, isn’t it?  I have yet to try it, but I would like to.  Here’s a blog entry on it for those who are interested:  http://eslinger.net/blog/?p=81 The blog mentions other resources in which to find more information as well.  While we’re discussing it, if you haven’t seen What In The Bleep…Do We Know, it will blow your mind.

I recently had a meeting with someone and we discussed quality traits I look for in other people.  We were creating my ideal friend/lover, per say.  As we looked through this list of traits, my first thought was “Why would someone like that ever want to love someone like me?”  I have a few esteem issues, but that’s for another blog.  Later on, I was pondering this question that had so freely popped into my head and I wanted to explore it.  My first approach was that defiant “Well, what’s wrong with me?”  My mind quickly started to answer that question and I realized that I was seriously going in the wrong direction.  Shouldn’t I be asking “What’s right with me?”  Wouldn’t that put me on a much more positive train of thought?  Such a simple question, but vastly different results than the first.  (And when I started answering that question, I saw that I had much to be proud of)

Just for food for thought.

In other news, I’ve signed up for a Reiki Healing session.  I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile, so I’m very excited!  I’ll be sure to write a bit about it.