Tired but happy

Waiting for the milk to warm up, for my hot chocolate.

The database is progressing nicely. I've packed up an initial demo of the Hobbyist project for a few selected and sworn-to-secrecy friends to try out; if I say so myself it looks pretty good. Too good, in fact, the full version is showing its age and really needs a facelift.

Trainblogging tomorrow, hooray! I'm off to Hamburg, four-and-a-half hours each way, to install a small (2 clients) system at a new customer's offices. Actually we have two new customers in Hamburg, but the second crew couldn't get their arses in gear for me to have done both installations on one trip, so I shall have to return next week sometime. Ah well, 'tis an imperfect life.

I solved a stupid problem (fire the programmer) in the downloadable updates, which will allow a colleague to keep another customer happy tomorrow morning.

"A soft answer turneth away wrath." Proven true yesterday, when I got back from an evening walk to find an angry mail from an about-to-be-ex customer: "nothings works, updates are months overdue, you never reply to e-mail, what a load of crap." I considered telling them to take a hike, then reconsidered and wrote an optimistic and confident reply to the facts of their mail, ignoring the tone and their choice of words. They replied this morning, much mollified and glad to continue working together.

We have sold four systems this month, which will more than double my income. In six years of work, this is the first month ever in which I've earned more from the database than from architecture. I'd love to think that this means that we have reached the watershed, but recognize that it's probably just a statistically insignificant burp in the universe (© Berke Breathed).

And so to bed.