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!

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.

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…

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.

“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.

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 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.

Picture this:  A repairman has always used a hammer for his repairs.  He has a decent business with his hammer.  One day, he decides to pick up a book that enlightens him to many tools that exist for repair.  (chainsaws, drills, measurement tape, levels)  After reading this incredible book, he decides that his hammer has worked for him in the past and stays with this method.  Has this man gained any more power with knowledge?  In my own opinion, this man is no more powerful than a man who has never read the book.  The book provides options and knowledge on what is out there but it is up to the reader to actually do something with this knowledge.  Therefore, the power comes with the action that is taken with this knowledge.  Knowledge provides opportunity.  Action creates power.

Thoughts?

Awhile ago, I read an article that stated something along the lines of “In this day and age, everyone has answers.  The folks who aim to be successful ought to focus on asking questions.”  I wish I remember where I read this article as this writer deserves to be quoted.  The reason I am writing about this now and not then is because it’s finally clicked.

I have a library full of books…educational and inspirational.  I’ve heard most successful people own libraries.  Any thoughts on this?

What you see here is a very small portion of books I’ve accumulated and read.  These are skill building books and don’t even touch the business/self building books that I own.  I could read and read for years, but not actually go anywhere with this knowledge.  Do I have answers?  Oh, I have a lot of them available.  But I learn best by asking questions.  And then I research the answers. If the answers check out, I implement them.  Books are an amazing source of answers and when that fails, the Internet provides an infinite source of knowledge.  My favorite knowledge site is dreamincode.net.  This is THE source for coders and I’ve asked many questions in the forums provided.

So is having all the answers enough?  We can all find the answers today.  Asking questions is what allows us to grow.

My current project is working with a DLL system.  I have never worked with DLLs in my life.  What’s worse is that DLLs are written in C++.  I don’t know this language.  But guess what?  It has to get done.

My basic attack plan has included going through the DLL wizard step by step. (this was used to create the header and pointers for the DLL)   I don’t have the answers for this as I don’t know the language, but I have the questions.  And if I can ask the questions correctly, the answers are available.  Readily.

I’ll understand the language of C++ within a week by just asking the right questions.

I use this in everyday life too.  How long before an egg spoils?  What is the freezer life of seafood?  How long should a cough linger before I consider going to the Doctor?  What are the side effects of this particular drug?

The answers are waiting.  The questions lead to knowledge.  Knowledge leads to answers.  Answers lead to informed decisions. Power is within the action based on decisions.

So I applied my life rule: When I don’t know where to go, I take a step forward anyways.  Any step.  Any direction.

Taking steps open up new possibilities and in my opinion, any possibility is better than no possibilities.  Even if it may not be the ideal possibility, I still have more possibilities to consider that may lead me to the correct possibility.  And regardless of where I end up, it’s almost always further ahead than where I started.  At the very least, I’ve learned something I didn’t know before.

So after deciding to apply my rule, I immediately started typing in some for loops.  I just picked variables that I thought would be best at the time and ran the program.  Instant feedback.  I had the entire problem finished within 7 minutes.  Intimidating multi dimensional arrays be gone!

I am currently coding a PHP script with the help of Dreamweaver.  I realize Dreamweaver offers much more “template help” than what I use, but I still like to keep the coding skill strong.  While in school, I coded PHP in notepad.  That’s about as raw as you can get.  Now, after coding in Dreamweaver, I’m not sure I can go back to notepad.

Though I fully believe that when first learning code, all programs should be written by hand (and I truly mean by hand.  It should be written out before you even touch a computer), now that I work for clients, time becomes highly important.  I must say, Dreamweaver saves me a lot of time.

For one, every single line is numbered.  When PHP throws up its errors, it saves me a lot of time by being able to head directly the line in question instead of having to search for the line first.  Two, Dreamweaver color codes its lines.  If I miss a quote or semicolon, I’m more likely to see it ahead of time and fix it rather than having to debug later.  Three, there are lots of little debugging options to toggle on and off, such as underlining broken code.   These are all little things, but little things go a long way.

In the working environment, having extra help and a bit of pre-written c0de goes a long way.  Being able to code by hand is absolutely necessary  in case you have to manually debug or customize, but if you have a more sufficient way to get it done, why not use it?