The second day of work proved to not keep up the same frantic pace as the first. There weren't any forms for me to fill out, for example, which is fine since I put down what's really a non-ideal choice for emergency contact information (the home number rather than either parent's cell phone number, on the grounds that I actually know the land-line number and have never known either cell phone number), and who knows what I would get wrong given a fresh try. I did get introduced to the basic database software which -- they think -- it'll be my job to write a web-based front-end for, and to see a web site that -- they think -- has the rough shape of the desired front-end, but nobody's at all sure since the owner still hasn't communicated just what exactly my project is. I'm to come in again tomorrow, in the hopes that the owner will be able to call and give a real specification, and if not, I can at least get more settled.
The database software shows its legacy through subtle things like being run in a DOS window and having a different key meaning ``exit'' or ``back'' depending on which page you're on, like we mysteriously put up with before it was discovered that the slightest bit of predictability was a good thing in a user interface and the main source of software was $2.95 magazines from Capital Cities/ABC. But I also got to meet some professional web design tools, at least long enough to install them and putter around accomplishing useless miniature tasks that I hope will shake the object-oriented cobwebs out of my brain, so that if I actually do have to do something with a web technology dating to after 1996.
On the way home I had rolled down the power window, and discovered on the highway that it wouldn't roll back up. Driver's side front, of course, so that it was good for the little tap card needed to get access to my parents' community, but a real mess if it's going to be cold or rainy. No humming static on the radio when I pushed the button, either, indicating the motor was either burned out or the switch had lost its connectivity, as the other three windows worked just fine. Happily, on going out for pizza, I gave it another try and the window worked again. Maybe it just wanted to sulk.
Trivia: For the 1958 (planned) explosion of an underwater mountaintop at Seymour Narrows, British Columbia, some 1,375 tons of nitrate were detonated, moving about 690,000 tons of rock and sea water. Source: Life Science Library: Matter, Ralph E Lapp.
Currently Reading: Notes From A Small Island, Bill Bryson.