OK, that’s not entirely true. What is true is that I sold the photograph I had up at this month’s Vox show!  (Man, I love saying that!)

Yep, that’s Chris, the reluctant model for one of the Utata Iron Photographer projects. And speaking of Utata, guess who is part of their new Code Ninja Strike Force? That’s right – me! And that is their title, not mine - these are my people! I’m told I’ll be paid in cake. That’s cool.

In other big news, in the paying gig world, I am the new Code Artist for Sweet Blog Design! I am so happy to be working with some of my favorite bloggers.

I sold a photo. I am a Code Ninja/Code Artist/geek. I think that covers it.

Wha? Oh no, she’s speaking in tongues again!

According to the Geek-to-English translator, that means: My semester finished the week of Christmas and I received an A in my PHP and MySQL Programming class!

Woot!

That means I am “quite pleased”.

And my gift to my family this Christmas was my decision to not take a Computer Science class next semester. Not because this was a hard class, in fact it was surprisingly easy compared to that evil JavaScript, but I’ve got a couple projects in the hopper that I need to be working on. And yes, those projects will involve PHP and MySQL. It’s all about the if/else statements people!

Chris would say that I’ve finally come over to the dark side. I would tell him to “byte me!”

Next up: Why I think they switched babies on me at the hospital…

Hmm. Remember last year when I declared I was never going to take another programming class ever again?! Yeah. Well, last month when I said I was starting my Programming with PHP class, why didn’t you gently remind me of this? Hell, why didn’t you just start hitting me over the head with a toaster?!!

At first I thought things were going to be ok. PHP seemed to make a lot more sense than JavaScript ever did. But that optimism was short lived and PHP done went and broke my brain this past weekend! I spent most of Saturday trying to get my little program to work. As my head was starting to ache, I finally gave up and went to bed completely frustrated. So it was no surprise when I woke up Sunday morning with a wicked bad migraine. Fun. Of course my assignment was due Sunday at 11pm. At 8pm, after another nap, I turned on the computer. As if that wasn’t painful enough, I gave my program another couple attempts – nope, wasn’t happening. I just could not figure it out. Had to turn it in anyways. Double ouch.

Yesterday I started the next assignment, which includes having to read 5 chapters! I read 2 and called Chris. I was not getting it. He ordered me to go the bookstore to get another book on the subject. And I’m pretty sure that’s going to help. Seriously. What didn’t help was taking Kyle with me. Damn, that boy would not shut up! So I bought him ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. “No, I will not buy you the whole series tonight!”  – jeez. And then Kyle fell in love with the dude working the cash register. Ok, maybe not “in love” but he certainly seemed to like him. The guy – who kind of had a shorn Seth Rogan thing going on – commented that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a classic and one of his favorite books! He then agreed with Kyle that I must have spent my childhood living under a rock because I’ve never read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. sorry. And then (and I missed this) the dude put his hands together and gave us a little bow! And Kyle thought that was the coolest thing ever. I heard about it the whole way home. We also discussed when and how the Buddha gained enlightenment. Kyle kills me. What a kook.

And because I know you are as worried about my grade as I am, I am happy to report that the teacher email me back saying that I was really close. Gave me a couple pointers and voila! I got the program to work. I am ashamed to admit how happy this made me.