Block Begone!

I was having writers block on a presentation I have to give in a couple days, so I thought I'd try and free it up by writing in here. I'm going to be in Vancouver at the end of June at an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Power Quality Applications (PQA) conference. I volunteered to present at this conference, so I figured I should practice presenting as much as I can prior to the conference. As a result, I volunteered to present at multiple toastmaster meetings between now and the end of June. (Multiple means two...) Well, the first presentation is in two days. I haven't even come up with a topic I like. Maybe I should give a presentation on my personal web site and how it helps me keep my family members up to date on what's going on in my life. Of course, maybe I shouldn't give people at work such a vivid view of my personal life. I don't think I've said anything incriminating on here, but you can never be too paranoid, right? Anyway, I guess I need a bit more brainstorming of ideas. Heather recently decided that she would like to turn her hobby into a small business. She has been making beaded jewelry and selling it to her co-workers and friends, as well as making some for gifts. She has a good eye for jewelry design, and most of the pieces she makes are very impressive looking. I suggested that we should put a website together so that she can sell her jewelry online and I offered my services as a web site designer. I think the site is coming together nicely, and I have been learning more advanced coding as a result of working on it. I decided to make her website very dynamic and enable her to control what is viewed on the site through user interfaces that don't require any knowledge of html or web programming. I am using a MYSQL database to store here inventory, and I am using Perl scripts to program the user interfaces and links to the database. We have decided to use Paypal to handle payments, and I am currently working out the bugs with the payment system. Once that is done, the primary functions of the website will be completed and the rest will be putting together information pages (light on coding and heavy on content). I will be providing a link here once the site goes live, and I will be adding it to my Links page. I purchased a new CD yesterday: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance. I'm really digging the tunes, especially Helena and I'm Not Okay (I Promise) both of which I've been hearing on the radio a lot lately. That's all for now, hopefully I can think of some better topics for my presentation, now...